Day 18 – The Ten Plagues - Exodus
Yul Brynner versus Charlton Heston. Not really! But if you are above a certain age, it may be hard to not picture them as you read this.
We see a battle of sovereignty play out here between the imperial power, Egypt Egypt
This is a long reading, so I won’t say too much. Just an amazing set of events.
Oddly enough, watching the events in Egypt
In Christ,
Randy
I am confused as to why God kept hardening Pharaoh's heart. Was it just to prove that he is God and in control? And how were the magicians able to perform some of the same acts? And I don't understand the significance of the unleavened bread (oophs! jumping ahead).
ReplyDeleteHi Donna,
ReplyDeleteThere is always the great question of who is repsonsible for our actions, particualrly bad ones. God does say he will harden Pharaoh's heart (Ex 7:3) The rest of that verse through verse 5 give a reason: so that the Egyptians know who is in charge. But as you read through the events, I sense that God did not have to work much on hardening Pharaoh's heart. He seems to put a whole new level to the word stubborn.
With regard to Pharaoh's magicians: We don't think about magic much but there are forces not of God which are able to perform what we would call supernatural manipulations. I've talked to several Haitians who have seen the power of voodoo. Notice that their power is unable to match God's. After the first few plagues, they can not do what God has done. Once again, God shows the powerful Egyptians who is really in charge.
And I'll answer the unleavened bread: It is a sign of quick departure. One must be ready to go.
I think we are often like Moses, in denying that we are able to do what God asks us to do. We also often harden our hearts to doing the harder things in life, like pharaoh. Humans can reason away almost any difficult challange. We need to understand the totality of work this huge group of people performed for pharaoh and if he let them go...who would do this slave labor? Maybe if we were in his shoes we would think we didn't have a choice and needed those people to serve as no one would be able to replace them and the bricks wouldn't get made.
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