Why doesn’t God make himself clearer? Sometimes people ask that sort of question. I’d believe if God showed me some sign…
Well Pharaoh has a fair few signs and yet still refuses to acknowledge that the LORD is God! The problem isn’t so much a lack of evidence as it is a lack of desire to have God ruling over us. When we ask “who has the right to tell you how to live?” we find ourselves answering “no one! I decide!” That was Pharaoh’s view, “who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” (5:2)
Well in today’s chapters, he’s going to start to find out. It wasn’t that Pharaoh was an atheist, he believed in lots of gods, but they were the sorts of gods he thought he could control and manipulate, they certainly weren’t a personal God.
With the plagues, the LORD was showing that He is the true God, so for example, the Egyptians worshipped Hapi, the god of the Nile, and so the LORD shows his power over this pretend god by turning the Nile river into blood. Perhaps the LORD was also showing his judgment over the way Pharaoh had ordered the Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into the river.
As we read through these chapters we see time and again the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Why didn’t God soften Pharaoh’s heart? We are told the reason in 9:16 – so that people in all the earth might know Him. Our Psalm 105 tells us the same thing God wants nations to know Him. God is not hiding! He has revealed himself, and if you’re a Christian, you have a responsibility to help others to know this true God. But as we see with Pharaoh, sadly sometimes people do not want to know, even in the face of awful plagues, Pharaoh keeps on turning away, for example after the hail stops, he sins again and hardens his heart (9:34)
Don’t we see a similar thing today? When the Lord sent the devastating plague of covid, we thought and prayed that people would turn to the LORD, and some did, and some seemed to, but then once we got the vaccine, well people forgot about Him again.
And then there was war, and prices raising, cost of living crisis, but people still didn’t want God to rule over them. And then there were the storms, and maybe in the midst of the storm people cried out to God to save them, but when the storm was passed, forgot all about Him.
People are still asking Pharaoh’s question “who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” The apostle Paul gives us a wonderful answer to that question in our reading from Ephesians 1, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he blesses us with every spiritual blessing. Why wouldn’t you want him to rule over you?
Light and Momentary Troubles 
Leave a comment