Day 33, February 2 Bible Reading

Day 33,  February 2

Ex. 7:8 – (chap)8  Aaron’s staff / The plagues of blood, frogs, gnats and flies

Ex. 9 The plague on livestock / The plagues of boils and hail

In today’s reading, we are going to analyze how God actually hardened Pharaoh's heart? How was that done?

We are also given great insight into the areas of God’s Sovereignty, man’s free will and divine justice. God is the one who unequivocally hardens Pharaoh's heart (vs. 3; Ex 4:21). This is so He can have a legal cause in judging Egypt as He promised Abraham (Gen. 15:14), after several generations of enslavement. It is interesting to see how God dealt with Pharaoh according to the Law. Pharaoh made Israel labor under compulsion to make bricks without providing straw; so God judged Pharaoh by putting him too "under compulsion." (The KJV renders this Hebrew idiom more literally, "with a strong hand.") (Ex. 6:1)

Here are the cliff notes:

1. In spite of this, it’s as if God gave Pharaoh time to reflect and a way out by giving him 10 plagues to think it through. This shows that divine justice does allow for mercy and grace and the sentence could have been lessened with repentance.
   
   

2. Yet God allowed his magicians to also turn their rods to serpents, to turn the Nile into blood and to conjure up frogs, as if to intentionally blur the fact that He is behind it. After all there must be a natural explanation. Sounds familiar today?
   
   

3. Pharaoh was an interesting case where God did not let Him change his mind. Moses pulls back the curtain to display this exercise of divine sovereignty. Yet though it sounds very unjust--and indeed it would be unjust, except for the fact that this is the process through which not only Israel will be redeemed but that Egypt would also be named as His people (Isa. 19:23-25) in the end. There must be correction with judgments, but at the end, every knee will bow and God will be All in All.
   
   

4. Therefore the issue is never God’s Sovereignty vs. man’s free will. Free will exists only as far as God allows it. He reserves Eminent Domain. The Big Picture and the Big Purpose is what is important.
   
   

5. In the long term though, God’s Sovereignty is the only sure mechanism available that will ensure that when all is said and done, justice will be done, and everything that needs to be corrected, judged and restored will be.

6. God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and will harden whom He will harden, He will also cause Israel to be blind if needed (Roms. 11:7-8), but at the end of the day He is about having a people to call His own (Roms. 9:25) and to ensure that the process of “all things coming out from Him, through Him and back to Him” (Roms. 11:35) is not short circuited or denied.

Ex. 7:8 - (chap) 8

• 7:1-5 Ok so the initial sales pitch where we told Pharaoh that we wanted to just hold a feast in the wilderness for 3 days did not work.  Honestly we can’t expect to close the deal with that obvious misdirection.
  
  God said, it is time for me to flex.  I have been waiting to demonstrate my powers since Sodom and Gomorrah.  Moses, you would be like God, the business executive sponsor to Pharaoh.  Don’t talk to him/ Let Aaron do it. Can you imagine the optics with Moses not even addressing Pharaoh and this time his underlining will speak?  Pharaoh would be wondering what is the deal.
  
  God said he will harden Pharaoh’s heart. How? By a series of escalations; I will start small, lull Pharaoh in, have a low barrier of entry and then multiply and escalate the judgements until he has NO CHOICE.  This is how God harden’s Pharaoh’s heart.  He orchestrates the environment where He limits your choices.  Let’s g into the story to see what I mean.
  
  

• 7:6-13 First miracle: Remember Moses had the superpower from the burning bush experience?  Well now it was given to Aaron. Aaron took the rod, transformed it to a snake.  Impressive. Well to Pharaoh it wasn't.  His magicians could do the same.  Are you surprised at that?  There are people who can do actual miracles and magic besides God? Hmmm. Why didn’t God just do a miracle the others could not duplicate.  If I was Pharaoh of course this would not convince me to do anything.  Even when Aaron’s snake ate the other snakes,  Pharaoh said no.. his heart became hard just as God said.
  
  

• 7:14-25 Skip the second super power of leprous hand. We don’t need it. God went straight to the Plague of Blood. Blood everywhere in all the rivers, streams even ponds and reservoirs. Fish Dead. Place Stank. Nastiness. So Aaron did that when Pharaoh went to take a shat at the river Nile.  However the magicians did the same thing with their secret arts. Once again, God either allowed the magicians to do that or He purposely did something that He knew they can do. But He purposely did that so that Pharaoh would say no. He again is playing chess, orchestrating purposely the environment.I don’t blame Pharaoh for not being impressed and saying no, and hardening his heart.
  
  

• 8:1-1-14 Time to escalate this thing.  Second Plague: Frogs. Same result.  Magicians can do the same. If I was Moses I would be frustrated.  But something has changed now. These frogs were disgusting to Pharoah.  Finally a crack in his armour. Pharaoh had a deal.  The magicians cannot stop the plague.  Moses stop the frogs and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices.  Moses must have said, finally this is over. When? Pharaoh said Tomorrow.  Now what didn;t he say right now? Lose the deal right now. That’s a yellow flag. But when the frogs died and Pharaoh saw there was relief he changed his mind, and hardened his heart.  God again played 4d chess behind the scenes.
  
  

• 8:16-19 Third Plague: Gnats. Everywhere. Like dust.  Ahah.. Something different. This time God escalated it, where the magicians could not even duplicate it.  They had to conclude this is the Finger of God. Pharaoh hardened his own heart again.
  
  

• 8:20-24 Fourth Plague: Files.  God escalated it again as He said He would. This time a big difference.  This was the first plague that did not affect the Israelites, to make a distinction between both peoples.
  
  

• 8:25-32 Pharaoh has a new proposal. Go sacrifice to God but do it in Egypt. Moses, like a great sales person said, no dawg, our sacrifices would be detestable to you and Egyptians will stone us.  We need three days of vacation. Pharaoh said he will let them go and like any good wanna be Christian who only asks for help when they are in trouble, asked for prayer.  Moses wisely said I ill pray tomorrow. Enjoy these flies for one more night, because last time you deceived us and did not let us go.  Well Pharaoh did not disappoint. He reneged against his word and hardened his own heart.  Pharaoh chose this, but God orchestrated the circumstances to elicit a response.   

Ex. 9

• 9:1-7 Fifth Plague: Livestock. This time all the livestock died: horses, donkeys. Camels, cattle, sheep, and goats.  The Bible said all the livestock of the Egyptians died but not one of the animals belonging to the Israelites died.  Pharaoh officially investigated and still hardened his heart even after finding out all the Israelite livestock were still alive.  Now Pharaoh was being wrong and strong.
  
  

• 9:8-12 Sixth Plague: Boils.  Now it really escalated.  It is getting personal. You are touching people’s skiing and bringing in the hurt. Magicians did not even bother to come, because of the boils.  Pharaoh wrong and strong again.  
  
  

• 9:13-26. Seventh Plague: Hail.  Notice there is NO record that God let up the boils before he sent the Hail. This time God showed mercy.  He gave them pre-warning to not be outside or leave your livestock outside when the hail fell.  [Wait!! I thought all the livestock died previously in the fifth plague?. Where did they get livestock from?]. This was genius by God to allow Egyptians to really believe this was from God. Those who believed acted, others ignored it to their detriment.

• 9:27-35.  This time Pharaoh repented, or fake repented.  He said “This time I have sinned.  The Lord is right and I and my people are wrong”  Now we seem to be getting somewhere. Moses said I will pray when I leave the city and when it is stopped you would know the earth is the Lord’s, but I know you and your officials really don;t far the Lord.  So said so done.  This time the Bible recorded that BOTH Pharaoh and his officials hardened their hearts. Java you have shown mercy to someone, they fake repented, and they went back to their previous disruptive behavior?  Like Moses be wise to that. Forgiveness doesn't mean they are free to continue abuse.