I was reminded of something that I have read many times over the past couple weeks when I read those words...
"For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~Romans 9:17
God could have used anybody to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Anybody could have been Pharaoh at that time. But God chose this Pharaoh to be ruler at that time, and he chose not to break his heart to the will of the Lord. Why? I know that that is what many of the Egyptians were asking as they watched first their land, then their possessions, and eventually even their families be destroyed. But the answer is given clearly in Romans. It was the best way to show God's power. The story would be so supernatural, so full of the works of the Lord, that it would be shared all over the world. God would be able to save many, even while showing his power over Pharaoh. Did you know that every plague the Lord used was connected with one of Egypt's "gods"? The darkness, the frogs, the deaths, were all to show how powerless all Egypt's gods were. From "Mathematics: Is God Silent", in one of the footnotes:
"The ten plagues were (along with the Egyptian god judged:)
1 Nile turned to blood (the Nile was the sacred giver of life.)
2 Swarm of frogs (Egyptians saw the frog as sacred.)
3 Plague of lice (no Egyptian could approach a sacred altar with lice.)
4 Plague of flies (Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, was worshiped to remove flies.)
5 Diseased cattle (Egyptians worshiped the whole animal creation.)
6 Plague of boils (started with ashes from the furnace of the Egyptian god Typhon- this furnace was a place of human sacrifice.)
7 Thunder and hail (Egyptians worshiped all the forces of nature.)
8 Plague of locust brought with the wind (wind was another force of nature worshiped.)
9 The sign of darkness (the Egyptian god, Ra, is shown to be powerless.)
10 Death of the firstborn (this included the firstborn of Pharaoh who was worshiped as a god.)"
I love reading two sections of scripture at a time just for this reason; there are so many correlations between them, that actually give you more insights into each individual passage :)!
Another part that really stood out to me was Exodus 10:10... "But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go!" I find it interesting that Pharaoh himself said that if he let them go, it was an act of God! I wonder what his thoughts were when he eventually let them go? Obviously it wasn't repentance to the Lord. We are given the account that the Egyptian army ended up at the bottom of the red sea, after they chased the Israelites down. But did he realize the irony of that sentence that came from his own lips? "If I let you leave, it proves that your God really does exist, and is the only true God." I wonder if it was the remembrance of this statement that made him change his mind that final deadly time? Just a thought, but I wouldn't be surprised. Remember, the Egyptians viewed Pharaoh as a god. Being under the true God could have pushed him out of power.
The final thought was less important, but verse 14, "The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again." made me think of the "Little House on the Prairie" books, where Laura Ingalls Wilder reccounts the story of that summer when the grasshoppers came and destroyed everything. Most of us have read that book, and we have read how the grasshoppers covered "every blade of grass", and thought about how awful that must have been. But the Egyptian plague was so big it was "never seen before, nor ever will be again". That just helped me to see a little bit more just how plagued they were by grasshoppers!
It is amazing what we will bring on ourselves in an attempt to defy the Lord. But I think it is even more amazing to see God's grace to us. We all disobey, just as the Egyptians did then. But in His great mercy, he holds out to us grace and forgiveness. How blessed we are!
It is amazing what we will bring on ourselves in an attempt to defy the Lord. But I think it is even more amazing to see God's grace to us. We all disobey, just as the Egyptians did then. But in His great mercy, he holds out to us grace and forgiveness. How blessed we are!
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