When Moses went before Pharaoh and demanded, “Let my people go!” Pharaoh was not about to let them go. The promise from God was sure, but Pharaoh fought to the death to keep his dominion over what he thought was his divinely mandated right.

Because of his intransigence, conditions for the people of God got worse, and from their perspective there was little prospect that life would get better.

When Jesus was nearing his end, the last words to come from his lips were these: “It is finished.” We can excuse the probable despair of those who heard these words and had previously put their trust in him. “It’s finished. It’s over. It’s the end.” It seemed like all their hope had vanished. Things had gotten worse, and it did not appear that things would get better.

But just as it was with Pharaoh and Moses, God had already declared the end from the beginning. The Pharaoh was going to fight God.  Things did look hopeless for a while.  But it is well to remember that the English sentence “It is finished” is translated from the Greek wordtetelestai, which means completed. It was a word commonly used as an accounting termmeaning “paid in full”.  The die had been cast. The forces of evil had lost. But those forces were not about to let go without one last fight. 

Don’t be discouraged when the Devil puts up a fight. Drain the swamp and the gators will wail.What else would you expect from someone who is “finished”?