Bible Readings
Reading 42: God’s judgments on Egypt begins
Read Exodus 7:1–8:19.
We pick up right where we left off, with Moses concerned that he wouldn’t be able to speak boldly to Pharaoh. But Yahweh responded by saying that Moses, as God’s representative, and Aaron, as Moses’ representative, would do their jobs well because it was Him who was actually doing the work through them.
God highlights the helplessness of Israel and the frailty of His chosen leaders (Moses was 80 and Aaron was 83!). He contrasted Israel’s weakness with the power of Egypt and the might of its king. Egypt was the superpower at that time. God was demonstrating how He could achieve His goals even with the weakest of people. All He required was humble, obedient hearts.
Another point is the interplay between God’s sovereignty and Pharaoh’s free will, as seen in the phrase: “harden Pharaoh’s heart”. In Exodus chapters 7 to 14, this phrase is used 17 times! Nine times Pharaoh hardened his own heart and eight times Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Who was actually hardening Pharaoh’s heart? Was Yahweh doing the hardening? Yes. Was Pharaoh hardening his own heart? Yes! How could this be?
God was intervening in a situation that was already evil. Yahweh didn’t make “good” Pharaoh turn “bad”. Pharaoh was a proud, unrepentant sinner who refused to listen to Yahweh and who refused to keep the promises he made to Israel. Every time Yahweh presented Pharaoh with more revelation about Himself and offered him the opportunity to make a choice, Pharaoh could freely obey or disobey. Over the course of months, Yahweh would give him more than enough evidence to show He was the true Creator-God of the universe and that the gods of Egypt were all false. But Pharaoh rejected God every time and when he did, he made his own heart harder against Yahweh. Pharaoh had trained himself to rebel against the Creator-God.
Mankind has human responsibility over their free-will decisions while at the same time, God exercises divine sovereignty over history. God respects the free will He has given mankind and can still guide history towards the goal He has in mind. We can see that mankind’s choices are real because the consequences are real.
In today’s reading, we read how God performed three miraculous plague judgments against Egypt:
First: Turning all the waters of Egypt, particularly the Nile, into blood.
Second: Sending frogs over all the land.
Third: Sending gnats (or lice) over the land.
God was demonstrating He is the true God with these judgments. Each plague was a specific blow to Egypt and its false gods. For example, the Egyptians had several gods of the Nile like Khnum, Hapi and Osiris. None of these idols could stop God from turning the Nile into blood.
The Egyptians also worshipped gods who supposedly had power over frogs but these false gods could not stop Yahweh from covering the land with frogs. The Egyptians, especially their priests, were very particular about cleanliness, so God overwhelmed them with filthy gnats or lice. Their gods couldn’t stop Yahweh.
Pharaoh’s magicians were priests who practised satanic powers. They could mimic some of these miraculous signs. We see that Satan opposes God’s work by imitating it. In this way, Satan minimises the power and glory of Yahweh. But if the magicians were truly powerful, they would have reversed the plagues rather than just mimicked them. The truth was they were limited in their satanic powers and were not like Yahweh at all.
With these first three plague judgments, the effects caused distress but not much more. As we read on, we will see that because Pharaoh and Egypt didn’t respond positively to Yahweh, subsequent plagues would be more painful, costly, dangerous and then destructive. The longer sinners resist God and refuse to hear His Word, the “louder” He has to speak to them through His judgments.
Thinking of our own lives, what does it mean to harden our hearts? It means to see the evidence of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will. It means to resist God by being ungrateful and disobedient and not having any fear of Yahweh’s judgment. Hardhearted people echo Pharaoh’s words: “Who is Yahweh that I should obey Him?” (Exodus 5:2.)
We need to understand that while God directs our lives, we are responsible for the choices that we make. God does not treat us like robots. Rather, He interacts with the choices we make. We reap the benefits of good choices and suffer the consequences of bad ones.
So let us as believers in Yahweh, choose not to harden our hearts against Him. Let us pray that God will help us always have soft, humble and teachable hearts before Him.