Year of the Bible: Part Two of Twelve Sample

Let My People Go!

God tells Moses and Aaron to go before Pharaoh to demand that he let God's people go. Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let them go and make sacrifices to God. Before they go, God tells Moses and Aaron that Pharaoh will refuse, and God will harden Pharaoh's heart [read, allow it to harden or set] to bring about His purposes.

Pharaoh's heart was already hard. He was prideful and rebellious and thought he was a god. In his Bible Commentary, Tony Evans tells us, "when Pharaoh repeatedly refused to listen, God told him, in a sense, 'Have it your way.'" Dr. Evans further states, "Since Pharaoh refused to listen, God stretched out His hand against Egypt in judgment and put His hand into Egypt to deliver his people. This is a reminder that all people will experience the hand of God one way or another---either its hardness or its mercy."

God gave Moses and Aaron a miracle to perform. Aaron threw his staff down, and it became a snake. Pharaoh's sorcerers do the same thing through their occult practices, but God was not to be outdone, and Aaron's staff swallowed up all the sorcerers' staffs.

Pharaoh, however, would not be moved, so God brought on the plagues. Please pay attention to the succession in their severity. They start out bad, but not too bad, and progressively worsen. They also create a sort of contest against the Egyptians' gods.

In "Unlocking the Bible," David Pawson tells us about this contest against the gods of Egypt. The first plague turned the water of the Nile river into blood, aiming squarely at their god, Osiris, because the Nile was thought to be the bloodstream of this god. The sorcerers could do a similar thing by occult practices, but Tony Evans notes in his commentary that "Even if they could mimic God's miracle, they were unable to reverse it."

The Nile was blood, and one of their gods mocked, yet Pharaoh further hardened his heart and walked away from the evidence of God's power. Tony Evans says, "Pharaoh suffered from the greatest of all sins; pride. He refused to submit to divine authority."

Question: Where does pride get in your way as you walk with God and love others?

Prayer Focus: Ask God to teach you how to respond with humility, the opposite spirit of pride. Pray also for your nation's leaders to humbly follow and submit to God's desires.