Exodus 9
Exodus 9
We may know this along with everything up to Israel crossing the Red Sea from Sunday School or any narrative overview of the bible’s most integral moments leading up to Jesus. Here we find ourselves in the build-up, the rising action. Before we check out though and look forward to the coming liberation, let's take a close look at the heart of Pharoh.
Plagues 5, 6, and 7 pursue God’s liberation of His covenant people. As terrible and devastating as each plague is, God is still displaying His wrath intentionally and with great mercy to undeserving people. Each plague not only gradually increases in severity, eventually leading to the death of Egyptians while the Israelites remain untouched, but it is also directly exposing their false gods. As Enduring Word best explains, these plagues were not so much as just random, apocalyptic natural disasters but with the intention to prove each false idol to be imaginary and entirely powerless. The 5th plague kills livestock, including cattle which were regarded as sacred, symbolizing their god of fertility. The 6th brings about boils attacking even the magicians, widely believed to be the closest to their god of healing and medicine. Finally, the 7th plague combined hail and lightning so severe as to reveal the absolute weakness of a variety of Egyptian gods, including the sky goddess (Guzik, 2018). So when we think of when God makes His purpose clear in these plagues, “so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth” (v.14b), we can know He is not only going after their pride but even their idolatrous belief system.
Given the opportunity for those who have begun to fear Him to escape some consequences of the 7th plague, God knows Pharoh’s heart will remain hard. But Pharoh actually repents for a moment. While the plague is still in full effect, and the unimaginable damage of the storm sinks in, Pharoh confesses God is right, and he is wrong… for a moment. The hardened heart feels the consequences of sin, reaching desperately for any relief, yet fails to repent truly and make any lasting commitment to change. When the hail stops, Pharoh immediately returns to his ways of sin and rebellion against God, showing this insincerity.
I think about how often Jesus shows us His mercy. Psalms tell us every morning; we are met with new mercies supplied to us, sufficient for the day. Or even when we do recognize and feel slight conviction from sin and repent subtly, wanting relief from the consequence but refusing to embrace the true reconciliation back to life in Jesus. We must remember our salvation was that of being rescued from a heart like that of Pharaoh’s, hardened to the ways of grace and life that is truly life in Christ. We loved our slavery and refused God’s liberating hand to free us until He gave us the faith to understand.
Though this isn’t a 1-to-1 comparison, the concept of Jesus talking to the Pharisees in John 8 strikes me as we contemplate our understanding and ability to recognize God’s mercy for us. To the believing Jews, he is having a debate about who they belong to and if they are slaves or not. To this, “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin… I know you are Abrahams's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me because you have no room for my word” (John 8:34, 37).
Questions to consider:
Are there times throughout your day or week you find your heart most hardened, refusing to give in to truth or embrace His mercy?
Have you falsely repented in the midst of God showing you mercy while facing upsetting consequences because of your sin?
Ask God to ‘make room’ for His word and eyes to recognize His mercy when your heart is hard; that it might be softened. Spend time meditating on God’s mercy and patience with you, that while you were still sinning, He sent Christ to die for us.
