Year 7, Day 59: Exodus 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I don’t mean to beat the same drum over-and-over again, but I love how chapter 10 opens.  God says to Moses, “I am doing these things so that you may know I am God and may proclaim what I do here to others.”  The plagues are still about God’s greatness more than anything else.

In fact, can you feel the progression of God’s greatness as it grows throughout the plagues?  At first, Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “I want my people to go and worship God.  Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and began to lose ground.  By the time this chapter starts, we hear Pharaoh willing to let the men go, but not the women and children.  By the time this chapter ends, Moses finds himself in a position to tell Pharaoh that the women and children aren’t enough anymore.  Now it has to be the men, women, children, and livestock.  Pharaoh is losing ground with every hardening of his heart.

This truly is what the exodus story is all about.  God is so great that the people will leave, pushed out under Pharaoh’s own command, and take not only their own possessions but a good bit of Egypt’s wealth, too.  When we dig in our heels in rebellion against God, things don’t usually go well for us.  We may feel like we are winning in the time being, but we eventually lose.  We lose more as we dig our heels in more.  Our fall is greater the longer our rebellion lasts.

On the other hand, the longer our rebellion lasts the greater God seems.  Our fall might be great, but if we are willing to consider it our rebellion can lead us to a more convince perspective of God.  This is why God keeps coming back to Moses to tell him that these plagues are all about the greatness of God.

I have one more topic to discuss before I conclude.  Look at how Moses and Pharaoh part company as the chapter ends.  Pharaoh warns Moses to not come before him again.  Moses obliges the request.  What does this mean?  There will be no warning against the greatest and last plague.  In his fury, Pharaoh really shoots himself and his people in the foot this time.  Keep this in mind as we read through the next chapter.  Pharaoh’s stubborn anger is truly to blame for the great fall of Egypt at the hand of God.

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