#LENT2019 Day 7: Exodus 7-8

(For our lent devotional, we’ll be going through the book of Exodus with the rest of our church and be looking at the hand of God carrying the Israelites through their captivity and oppression as well as their sin and unbelief. Keep up with us as we look at how much God loves His people and never leaves us alone.)

First, read: Exodus 7-8

“There can never be two suns in one sky.”

This is the direct translation of a Korean proverb I grew up hearing, if not from my family, from Korean television. Right when I would forget that it existed, it would come up, and easily is one of the most common Korean proverbs I know. It means that there can only be one real leader of the pack, or one power figure, one victor, one party in power.

This proverb is what I think of when I read the plague narrative, which starts in the middle of Chapter seven— right after Moses finishes hearing from the Lord all that the Lord is planning for Israel. The Lord says to him that He will make Moses be “like God” to Pharaoh and that although Moses performs all these superior signs and wonders as a messenger of the Lord, the Lord will harden Pharaoh’s heart initially. Nevertheless, the Israelites will be free, according to God.

And with that, the plague narrative begins.

In today’s passage, there are a few wondrous signs that occur in succession. The signs and wonders of God starts with Moses’ staff turning into a snake before Pharaoh and swallowing up two other snakes that were conjured up by Pharaoh’s magicians in response to Moses’ and Aaron’s initial sign of God’s power

After this critical turning point of God’s foretelling turning into reality, the rest of the two chapters goes into different plagues that happen as a result of the hardened decision of Pharaoh to keep Israel in captivity despite God’s threats to plague Egypt, delivered by Moses and Aaron. God uses signs and wonders that are seeped in the natural world to hit Pharaoh after he refuses to let Israel go. After the whole episode with Pharaoh, he hits Egypt with four plagues: The first is when the Nile turns from water to blood, the second is when the frogs in the Nile invade the land, the third is when the dust of Israel is turned into gnats, and the fourth is when Egypt becomes overwhelmed with flies that latch on to every man and beast in the land — except for Goshen, where the Israelites live.

The first thing to keep note of is the nature of the plagues. These plagues are not of disease or the heart, but of the natural world. In His might, God strikes the land of Egypt with circumstances that are hard for the Egyptians to bear. God hits the Egyptians with unnatural, terrible situations as a result of their chokehold on Israel and refusal to free Israel to serve God. God’s intentions show in the fact that His plagues are a natural reaction to the Egyptians’ unnatural oppression that thwarts Israel from living and growing into all that God has naturally created them to be.

However, the bigger point to focus on is Moses’ and Pharaoh.’s fight of power. After every plague hits the land of Egypt, Pharaoh turns to his magicians for an explanation. Now, when you look back on Pharaoh’s magicians, two things stick out. The first is that Pharaoh’s magicians never make the first move. Through Moses and Aaron, God performs a creative, awe-striking sign. And the magicians scramble to re-create the sign that God had initially done. The magicians here don’t make any moves of their own, but only can mimic the miracles of God.

Pharaoh’s magicians hit a critical roadblock when, in the third plague, God orders Aaron to strike the dust and the dust of the earth turn into gnats. The Egyptians were able to mimic most things, but when it came to creating life, there was no way for the magicians to keep up. Now, for the first couple of plagues, the magicians of Egypt are able to bring out the same sign and miracle that Moses did, and because of this, Pharaoh pays them no mind. But when the Plague of Gnats and Flies hits the land and the magicians are not able to produce the same result, Pharaoh and the magicians come to a loss.

At this point, the magicians tell Pharaoh,

“This is the finger of God.”

But Pharaoh doesn’t listen, even to his own magicians that are advising him to stand down. And after pleading with Moses and Aaron to lift the plague, when the plague is finally lifted, Pharaoh goes back on his word and does not let the people of Israel go. So the plagues continue.

It is important to remember the reason why these plagues are even happening. God states in the beginning of chapter 7 to Moses that “he will harden Pharaoh's heart.” God is behind it all— even behind Pharoah’s stubborn stronghold on Israel. And God states clearly that at the end, through the multiplication of signs and wonders, along with God’s heavy hand of judgment on Egypt, Israel will be driven from the land. At this point, one may ask, why? Why is God allowing this to continue? As the reader, we all understand that there is only one real God. So why does God allow this to drag on? Couldn’t he end this fight in an instant?

God uses Israel’s suffering and persecution to free Israel from the suffering and persecution of sin. He uses this situation of hardship and bondage to free Israel from the bondage of their hearts. God is not a cookie-cutter unicorn-genie that makes the hard things go away; rather, He is the one that uses our suffering to free us from the greater depravity within ourselves. And while he takes the long road to free Israel from their physical bondage to Egypt, He is working at Israel’s spiritual slavery to sin and idolatry. He uses these wonders not just for Egypt, but for Israel to know that there is only one God. This is a story where God not only frees his beloved, but also shows them that He and He alone is God.

How many of us pray to God, asking for him to relieve us of our hardship and our pain? How many of us see our situations simply as struggling through life and expect God to come free us? And yet God is always at work in our hearts to free us from ourselves. He constantly knocks at our door and is willing to do the most just for us to truly know that He and He alone is our Lord and Savior. He uses our suffering and our hardships to free us from the hardship and suffering of slavery to sin— something that we have a hard time catching within ourselves.

There’s a famous prayer of a Confederate soldier in the Civil War nearing his death. it goes like this:

“I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. 

I asked for health, that I might do great things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. 

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise. 

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. 

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. 

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. 

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

In our struggles today, let’s remember the God of Wonders, the God of miracles, the God of faith and grace and love that blesses us richly even in our hardship and even in our wrestling. When we feel lost, let’s remember that our stories are not yet done, and that God is actively doing things in our lives to bring us to completion that are far deeper than what we can see. And let’s hold fast to faith that He not only is gracious enough, but is powerful enough, GOD-enough to see us through.

All my love,

janedo