“This is the finger of God!” the magicians exclaimed to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. [Exodus 8:19 (NLT)]

The Book of Exodus tells of the many times Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh with the Lord’s message that he should let the Israelites leave Egypt. Unwilling to see his slave labor depart, Pharaoh demanded a miracle to prove that the Israelites’ God sent them. Aaron threw down his staff and it became a serpent but Egypt’s magicians managed to do the same thing. Even though Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs, Pharaoh was unimpressed.

Over a period of time, Moses repeated his request, Pharaoh refused, and a series of plagues or judgments followed. First, Aaron fouled the waters of the Nile with blood but, when his magicians managed to turn clear water dark, Pharaoh remained unmoved. When Aaron brought frogs out of the Nile that covered the fields and invaded the houses, Pharaoh’s magicians also made frogs appear. Unlike Aaron, however, they couldn’t rid the land of the frogs. Nevertheless, Pharaoh remained steadfast in his refusal. When Aaron turned dust into an infestation of lice or gnats, Pharoah’s magicians couldn’t produce a gnat of their own. They admitted defeat saying, “This is the finger of God!” Nevertheless, the headstrong ruler refused to believe the marvels before him, even after witnessing the fourth plague—swarms of flies throughout Egypt but none in Goshen where the Hebrews lived!

The plagues intensified with each of Pharaoh’s refusals. The real damage and destruction began with the next plague when a deadly disease struck Egypt’s livestock. The plagues continued with boils on people and animals followed by a devastating hail storm. Ruining all the flax and barley, it killed anything or anyone not sheltered. Used mainly for clothing and drink, the loss of flax and barley made people’s lives difficult but not unbearable. Because the wheat hadn’t sprouted, it remained safe until swarms of locusts appeared and they ate any remaining vegetation. Famine was on the horizon in Egypt. Even though Goshen remained unaffected by these calamities and Moses could both start and stop every plague, Pharaoh remained intractable and unconvinced by the wonders he was witnessing.

The ninth plague, three days of darkness, should have been enough to convince anyone to let Israel go. Nevertheless, even though Egypt was facing famine, economic disaster, and social collapse, Pharaoh stood his ground. It was not until the final plague, the death of every first-born creature (including his son), that Pharaoh relented and allowed Israel to depart. Even then, he recklessly sent his soldiers after the fleeing Israelites only to have his entire army destroyed.

If the God of Moses could stop and start these plagues at will, why didn’t Pharaoh understand he was up against someone more powerful than he and a God more powerful than all of Egypt’s gods combined? The disasters rained upon Egypt clearly demonstrated that Jehovah, not Pharaoh, was in charge! Before lives were taken, Pharaoh had nine opportunities to change his mind, repent, and turn to Jehovah. The man should have been humiliated by the wonders that he’d seen at the hand of Israel’s God but he remained unwilling to submit to the Lord’s demands.

As horrible as those plagues were, they demonstrated God’s incredible patience. They began with temporary minor inconvenience and discomfort before escalating into destruction of livestock and crops, attacks on people, disaster, and death! Pharaoh was warned and he had opportunity after opportunity to recognize the God of Israel and let His people go. The court magicians ceded defeat after the third plague and, by the eighth, the people, facing famine and death, knew Egypt was ruined and begged Pharaoh to let Israel leave. Foiling the God of the Israelites, however, took precedence over the welfare of his own nation. Disregarding God’s warnings and the suffering of his land, Pharaoh remained unwilling to admit his helplessness against Israel’s God. Perhaps, believing his own press, he thought himself divine and able to win in his battle against the one true God! Pharaoh’s hardened heart resulted in Egypt enduring terrible affliction and loss. What distorted sense of pride kept Pharaoh from consenting to Israel’s request until no house in Egypt remained untouched by death?

Even though the fate of a nation does not rest on us, I can’t help but wonder if we’re a bit like Pharaoh sometimes. Do we ever insist on having things our way while ignoring the consequences? Are there times we are more concerned with winning than being right or with claiming victory rather than doing the right thing? Like Pharaoh, are we ever so arrogant and uncompromising that we’re unwilling to accept the possibility that we could be wrong? Are we ever so committed to a position that we’re unwilling to admit defeat? Do we ever harden our hearts to the truth? Do we ever harden our hearts to God?

A lowly person is a teachable person, easily entreated and open to explanation. Many of our spirits are too arrogant: they can teach others but can never themselves be taught. Many possess a stubborn spirit: they stick to their opinions even if they realize they are wrong.[Watchman Nee]

Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. [Zechariah 7:11-12 (NLT)]

For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. [Matthew 13:15 (NLT)]

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