I admit it. I love the various ironies of life especially when it comes to our tendency to think we have charge over our destiny. Consider Pharaoh’s bravado as he issued genocidal orders to destroy a race of people. His command? “Every son this born the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live” (Exodus 1:22). His concern was that there were to be too many Jews and these “immigrant slaves” would take over the land. (Got to watch those immigrants very carefully.)
His solution was to destroy the Hebrews by killing off all the boys. At first he wanted to kill them at birth (Can you say, “Kermit Gosnell” ?) Then his solution was simply to cast them into the Nile. Fast forward just a few verses to Exodus 2:3 and we see Moses’ mother building a small, water-proof, floating basket and ‘into the Nile it goes. The man who would be used of God to free the Hebrew slaves and bring down the power system of the pagan religious system of Egypt was ‘cast’ into the Nile.
All the human bravado and hubris in the world cannot stand up against God’s plan. And with some frequency God simply moves by taking our words, our fears, and even our deeds and moving through them to accomplish His plans and purposes. Be careful what you say, God may well use your words to discipline you while raising up a more obedient person/people to further the cause of His Kingdom.
I once heard Russell Moore comment about how God was probably saying “You want blood in the Nile…. I’ll give you blood in the Nile” and the first plague came to pass