In my past I have hardened my heart pretty significantly towards God, but Pharaoh’s heart is on a different level. All Moses and Aaron asked for was 3 days to go sacrifice and worship God. Pharaoh was so consumed in himself and his own selfish pride that he would not let the Israelites go. God has now turned all of the waters to blood and consumed all of Pharaoh’s people in frogs, gnats, and flies. 4 times he has seen a plague take over his people and 4 times he has hardened his heart and not obeyed God. In the end, the will of God is going to prevail. Judgement always eventually comes. Time and time again in the Bible we see God allow people to consume themselves with their own power, desires, and greed. No one knows God’s timing but God. When is he going to judge this world once and for all? Nobody knows. What we do know is that it is inevitable. God allows us to ignore him and pursue our wants and our own selfish desires for a certain time, but judgement always comes and it is going to come again. The only way to avoid his inevitable judgement is by giving all of our hope and trust to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. God has provided a way for us to become his people and it is not by works. It is only through his grace and mercy that we can be saved and covered in his righteousness. There is no way to earn it. One day we will all be in the presence of God and 1 of 2 things will happen. God will see us in our sinful state and cast us away or he will see us clothed in righteousness that only comes from the perfect blood sacrifice of Jesus. We will never be good enough without him and that is worthy of our worship. Love y’all! Have a great day!
Exodus 8:1-32
Read scripture…
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him: This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. But if you refuse to let them go, then I will plague all your territory with frogs. The Nile will swarm with frogs; they will come up and go into your palace, into your bedroom and on your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your ovens and kneading bowls. The frogs will come up on you, your people, and all your officials.” The Lord then said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, canals, and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.” When Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same thing by their occult practices and brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Appeal to the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people. Then I will let the people go and they can sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor of choosing. When should I appeal on behalf of you, your officials, and your people, that the frogs be taken away from you and your houses, and remain only in the Nile? ” “Tomorrow,” he answered. Moses replied, “As you have said, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God, the frogs will go away from you, your houses, your officials, and your people. The frogs will remain only in the Nile.” After Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord for help concerning the frogs that he had brought against Pharaoh. The Lord did as Moses had said: the frogs in the houses, courtyards, and fields died. They piled them in countless heaps, and there was a terrible odor in the land. But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the land, and it will become gnats throughout the land of Egypt.” And they did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and when he struck the dust of the land, gnats were on people and animals. All the dust of the land became gnats throughout the land of Egypt. The magicians tried to produce gnats using their occult practices, but they could not. The gnats remained on people and animals. “This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. The Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh when you see him going out to the water. Tell him: This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. But if you will not let my people go, then I will send swarms of flies against you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The Egyptians’ houses will swarm with flies, and so will the land where they live. But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where my people are living; no flies will be there. This way you will know that I, the Lord, am in the land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.” And the Lord did this. Thick swarms of flies went into Pharaoh’s palace and his officials’ houses. Throughout Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies. Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go sacrifice to your God within the country.” But Moses said, “It would not be right to do that, because what we will sacrifice to the Lord our God is detestable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what the Egyptians detest in front of them, won’t they stone us? We must go a distance of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he instructs us.” Pharaoh responded, “I will let you go and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but don’t go very far. Make an appeal for me.” “As soon as I leave you,” Moses said, “I will appeal to the Lord, and tomorrow the swarms of flies will depart from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. But Pharaoh must not act deceptively again by refusing to let the people go and sacrifice to the Lord.” Then Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord. The Lord did as Moses had said: He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people; not one was left. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go.”
Leave a Reply