"BUT I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH'S HEART THAT I MAY MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND MY WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. WHEN PHARAOH WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOU, THEN I WILL LAY MY HAND ON EGYPT AND BRING OUT MY HOSTS, MY PEOPLE THE SONS OF ISRAEL, FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT BY GREAT JUDGMENTS." EXODUS 7:4-5
We are linear people. We see things one-sided, believing that if only good things happen to us, goodness will be derived. God is multi-faceted, a glorious prism arrayed with splendor and color and majesty, where the same events can produce drastically different results side by side, heart by heart.
Ten plagues are about to be cast upon the nation of Egypt. In the same verses God calls them signs and wonders but also calls them judgments and plagues. God says that He is performing these signs to harden Pharaoh's heart but He is perfoming these signs so Moses can tell his sons and grandsons to "know that I am Lord." (Exodus 10:1-22. Same God. Same events. Different results.
Here is how it is played out: Over and over, when God speaks, Moses and Aaron listen and are obedient to do as the Lord commanded. Over and over, when Moses and Aaron present themselves before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to ask that he let the Israelites go, Pharoah will not let the people of Israel go. So the Nile River turns to blood, frogs jump into beds and bowls, locust eat the crops, darkness covers the land. Pharoah begins to bend, but he will not break. A total of 10 signs. His heart is hardened with each event until the last: when God strikes down the firstborn in every Egyptian household.
At the same time, with each encounter, you can see Moses' faith and confidence growing in this mysterious God, whose name is "I AM WHO I AM". (Exodus 3:14) When Moses first encounters God at the burning bush, Moses "hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God." (Exodus 3:6) By the time the Ten Commandments are written on the stone tablets, however, Moses is meeting with God face to face and asking to behold His glory!
Then again, when God asks Moses to go back to Egypt and speak to Pharaoh, Moses objects and says he is "slow of speech and slow of tongue." (Exodus 4:10) The Lord's anger burns against Moses. The Lord brings alongside Moses' brother, Aaron, as the spokesperson before Pharoah...well, at least in the beginning. By the end of the ten judgments, it appears that Moses has stolen the show and is doing all the speaking! His faith is growing at the same time that Pharoah's heart is turning cold towards God.
How about you? When darkness comes into your life, through disease or destruction or death, have you become embittered and closed your heart to God, or have you worshiped Him as Job did, despite the circumstances?
"NAKED I CAME FROM MY MOTHER'S WOMB, AND NAKED I SHALL RETURN TO THERE. THE LORD GAVE AND THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY. BLESSED BY THE NAME OF THE LORD." JOB 1:21
Which way will you chose? To turn away? Or to believe that He is at work through the circumstances? God is for you and not against you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Worship Him and fall at His feet in the good and the bad, in the laughter and the tears. Cry in His everlasting arms. Know with all your heart that, when darkness settles in, God is still at work in your life, no matter what the outcome, no matter what the suffering, and He will bring comfort and peace and that you may come to know Him as He truly is!
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