BACKGROUND
Plague 8: Locust
In this particular plague we hear an additional reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart. It was to show His power to Israel so that future generations would know that God is the LORD!
This time Pharaoh was willing to let just the men go, but God wanted them ALL. So, the locust came and destroyed everything. Not even Nut, the sky goddess, or Osiris, the god of crop fertility, could stop the destruction.
This time Pharaoh went farther than any other time:
"Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once,
and make supplication to the LORD your God,
that He would only remove this death from me." (10:16)
Yet, once the plague was removed, Pharaoh hardened his heart one more time.
Plague 9: Darkness
The darkness came without any prior warning from Moses to Pharaoh. This judgment was aimed at Ra, the Egyptian sun god. Pharaoh was a representative of this god.
Pharaoh was willing to let all the people go but not the livestock. Remember, that his livestock were destroyed in the fifth and seventh plague. The Israelites would need the livestock for sacrifices. So, Moses refused the compromise and Pharaoh sent him away. Moses stated this was the last time he would come to offer him the Word of the LORD.
The Scarlet Thread of Redemption
Someone else was in the darkness of a tomb for three days. I am not sure if this is significant, but this is the first time I have noticed this.
APPLICATION
In what ways are you hearing the Word of the LORD and hardening your heart toward Him? Dialogue with God about that today.
PRAYER
Lord, I love You. I want to have a soft heart toward You. Reveal the secret places where there is hardness of heart. I pray this in Jesus' name. AMEN.
4 comments:
Just want to say Amen to your prayer. I've been pondering Pharoah's hard heart. He already had a hard heart, it says, and it also says both that he hardened it and that God hardened it. You would think (at least I would!) that SEEING the hand of God at work so visibly and that recognizing His great power would soften it, but I think to a heart that is so tough and full of pride, often God's signs and miracles - the acts of God - only serve to harden it more.
Again I am hit, too, with how important God's NAME is to Him...
I really love hearing about how these plagues were directed at Egypt's "gods" -- I didn't know that and It really makes the narrative much more pwoerful to me.
I sometimes don't understand WHY God would harden someone's heart, but I guess it was already hard to begin with. Part of me think it isn't fair for God to keep hardening his heart, so I guess that's one of the things I'll want to find out about once I see Him face to face....
I was also pondering Pharaoh's hard heart. Pharaoh's servants and the Egyptian people in general did NOT harden their hearts toward God and Moses. Pharaoh's servants tried to get him to relent, but he wouldn't even listen to them. God made it so very clear to him who He was and how powerful He was, and it's hard to think that there wasn't even a tiny chink in Pharaoh's armor!
To me it serves as a warning that a little hardening of the heart can lead eventually to a completely hardened heart. I have learned that *I* can harden my heart very easily (surprise myself sometimes), but *God* can soften it. So I have to keep asking God to soften my heart toward Him (or not to allow my heart to get hard in the first place).
I am reading through these and commenting on every single one, and it is always great to see comments from friends.
I want to continue to pray for a SOFT heart toward God. I have seen some turn away over these last fifteen years, but I have seen more continue to have very soft hearts.
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