Exodus 8-11;
Psalm 17
*Click here to read these passages:
So,
why the plagues? God even said,
“By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with
a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.” He kept giving them chances but also kept proving His
sovereignty. “But I have raised
you up (other translations say ‘have spared you’) for this very purpose, that I
might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the
earth.” God showed that the idols
and gods the Egyptians looked to, their magicians and their dark arts, were
nothing, and He was everything.
With
every plague Pharoah says he is giving in to get the plague to stop. But as soon as there is relief his
heart is hardened and he does not let the people go. Over and over…, “this time I have sinned,” “the Lord is in
the right, and I and my people are in the wrong,” “forgive my sin once more and
pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me,”… But then Pharoah’s stubbornness shows
up again and nothing changes.
How
often do people today go through this cycle, myself included? Things get dark and tough and we look
to the Lord for help, and maybe even
commit to changing things in our lives that need to be changed. But then when things are going well
again we forget about the Lord and our commitment and just go back to doing
things our own way.
Praying
for God to melt closed up calloused hearts today…that His voice and presence
and sovereignty would be so evident….that His name and power would be
proclaimed everywhere.
Just like many other days, my thoughts after reading the day's scriptures are mirrored in your reflections. The verse that I wrote down from Psalm this morning - "They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance." Individually and corporately as a nation, we are guilty of this. I pray we will heed God's warnings and turn back to Him.
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