God most times likes to reaffirm His position in our lives this is because a lot of times we forget who we are dealing with. Exodus 7:1 says ”I am the Lord, speak to Pharoah King of Egypt all that I say to you, God reaffirmed his position to Moses again.
God has spoken to Moses and Aaron and gave them instructions to Pharoah but God knew that Pharaoh was going to harden his heart, God even multiplied His signs and wonders in the land of Egypt so the Egyptians would know that He is God. First Water becomes blood, then infestations of frogs, at that moment pharaoh begs for relief and promises freedom, the bibles say Moses and Aaron cried to the Lord and the frogs died out of the houses and fields of the Egyptians, but the heart of the pharaoh was still hardened. God sent Lice and then flies, I love what God says in vs 22-23 of Chapter 8”And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen in which my people dwell that no swarm of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the Land. I will make a difference between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” We see in scripture that God was speaking but Pharoah was not listening.
God then affected the livestock of the Egyptians with a disease, pharaoh’s heart was still hardened. God instructed Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and let Moses scatter it towards the heavens in the sight of Pharoah which will cause boils to break out in Man and on the beast in the house of the Egyptians. Okay… I want to believe that these are not regular sores, remember when God sent frogs and the pharaoh pleaded with Moses to pray to God to kill the frogs, the bible says they gathered dead frogs in heaps and it made the land stink. God then sent a terrific hailstorm, the bible records that there’s never been a hailstorm like this in Egypt from the day of its founding until now. Some of the pharaoh’s servants who had respect for God’s word got their workers and animals under cover as fast as they could but those who did not take God’s word seriously left their workers and animals out in the field.
God sent Locust and Darkness to the Egyptians. Even before God had sent locusts into the territory of the Egyptians, wisdom came to the pharaoh through one of his servants, Ex.10:7”Then pharaoh servant said to him how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let these people go and worship their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed? but No pharaoh did not listen because however, God wanted it that way. The darkening of the sun was a direct frontal attack on Pharoah himself since he was considered to be the incarnation of the Sun God. The plague that broke the camel’s back was the death of the firstborn. By the grace of God, we will see the mind of God towards the plague of the death of the firstborn in a later blog.
Conclusively, I want to point out something, if you study the plagues you will see that Pharoah had an experience with God because of the kind of person the pharaoh is and God hardened his mind so He could prove to the pharaoh that He is the LORD. I think that there’s every possibility that maybe it would not have gotten to the point of the firstborn being killed because it was not only the son of the pharaoh that God was going to attack, the angel of death was going to overshadow every firstborn in the house of Egypt, but Pharoah never listened. Before every plague, he dared God he wanted to see if Moses was just trying to threaten him or maybe just blabbing and this brings me to a statement that a lot of people say,” Experience is the best teacher”. I don’t totally agree with that statement, ”Experience is NOT the best teacher the WORD OF GOD IS!!!. It may be possible for you to learn a few things from your experiences in life but the best teacher in life is God’s word.
Pharoah refused to listen to the word of God that came to him multiple times through Moses and Aaron. He needed to pass through all that which is okay but he did not have to experience a very difficult and painful moment before he released the Israelites. Experience is never the best teacher, a lot of people do not come out of it, some people get trapped in their experience over a thing or life generally. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,” All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto good works”. God’s word is the instruction for manual living.
Culled by Eseosa.