April 24, 2018: Day 10 – Exodus 10

We are getting closer.  We now have two plagues here, plague 8 and 9.  Before the eighth plague comes we see the magicians and the wise men of Pharaoh’s court come to him and beseech him to let Moses and the people of Israel go.  The country is in tatters and he is only creating more and more problems for the people of Egypt.  It must have been a political nightmare.  So Pharaoh seems to try.  Okay, you can leave, but only your men can go and worship your God in the wilderness.  Leave behind the women and the children and the livestock.

Moses disagrees and Pharaoh goes ballistic.  As a result the locusts come and Pharaoh begs Moses for mercy.  It is interesting because at the beginning of this chapter we find that Moses reveled in the fact that history would remember this encounter as a time when the Israelites made the Egyptians look like fools.  This was to be passed on from generation to generation.  I can’t imagine that this reality helps the situation in the Middle East.

The final plague before the final plague is three days of darkness.  If there was ever a harbinger for the resurrection, this just might be it.  A deep darkness, like death, hung on the Egyptians and it lasted for three days.  That was too much for Pharaoh.  You can go, your children and women can go as well.  But, actually, if you could just leave behind your livestock that would be great.  Sorry, I need them for the sacrifices that we will be performing.  Pharaoh certainly was not someone who was used to being questioned, and this Moses had the audacity to talk back to him often.  As a result, again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he said no.

This is not the only time that we see a leader who is directly opposed to the will of God who has his heart hardened by God so that God’s purposes could be carried out and a historical happening could take place as a result of God’s people overcoming someone with a hardened heart.  He hardened the hearts of the religious leaders in John and as a result they were able to not hear or see that Jesus was the Messiah.  The fault is not in God, but it is entirely in a will and desire that leads us away from the presence of the Lord.