WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27
Scripture: Deuteronomy 7:17-21, 26:7,8, 34:10-12

Deuteronomy 7:17-21 says, “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’—you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.” Not only did God do signs and wonders in Egypt, but He promises that He will perform them against all the enemies that we face. Verse 19b says, “So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.” Politicians beware! It is obvious that signs and wonders had a purpose – they would display the greatness of Who God was in the midst of the covenant people. Deuteronomy 26:7,8 states, “Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.” Verses 7,8 make it plain – we cried out to God to bring us out of the affliction of Egypt and His answer was signs and wonders. It certainly seems like that fits today. And again, in Deuteronomy 34:10-12 we find, “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.” Verses 10-12 make it clear that no one had risen to do all the signs and wonders like Moses had. Now we can certainly say that is true. However, it is prophesied in the book of Revelation that Jesus will do more than that and certainly, through His witnesses in Revelation 11:5,6. But so far, it is obvious what the early church was asking for. When they asked for signs and wonders, they were asking for the judicial manifestations that Israel saw in Egypt. Is there any doubt that that is the case? Certainly not in Deuteronomy. But what about the rest of Scripture?