June 24, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Exodus and Romans? Here’s today’s reading:
Exodus 7 (NIV)
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,……Continue Reading
God keeps reminding Moses that Pharoah`s heart will be hardened. This was to show the power and glory of the only True God. Not the false gods that Egypt worshipped. The people of Egypt worshiped many gods and some of them were directly against by the 10 plagues. After Moses and Aaron demonstrate with Aaron`s rod becoming a serpent and the magicians do the same with their rods. And Aaron`s rod swallows theirs; the first plague occurs just as God said it would. And the Nile is turned into blood. Not only the Nile but all the other water sources. This first plague was against HAPI. He was the god not only of water; but the symbol of fertility and prosperity. Some of these false gods overlapped each other. Of course Pharoah still hardens his heart and won`t let Israel go. We`ll see 10 plagues before it is all ended and Israel is finally set free. Remember earlier that God has already told Moses that after the first born are killed by the angel; then Israel would be set free. That is only those that didn`t heed God`s command to cover their door posts with blood. Not in the same detail that we find latter in Exodus chapters 11 and 12. The earlier reference is in Exodus 4: 22,23. Pharoah and Egypt are in for a rude awakening. God will never share His Glory with another. God bless.
What God says God does.
It is interesting that the magicians do similar miracles. Now this is no doubt demonic, but it actually works to harden Pharoh.
Is it wrong to say that God is using acts of demons to do his will?
Certainly God allows them to succeed in what they do, but it is their choice to engage with the demonic. So it is more fitting to say that God is letting human choice unfold and using it to His ends as opposed to somehow needing them to do a certain thing to accomplish His will.
Exodus 7 God knew how Pharaoh would respond to Moses requests to release the Israelites, he knew no matter all the miraculous signs Moses did that Pharaoh’s heart would continue to be hard and he wouldn’t believe that Moses was there speaking for God, Pharaoh used magicians to counteract the miracles Moses had done. Pharaoh was focused on the miracle instead of the message. That’s why it’s so important for us to be in the word, so we are focused on what is true.
Exodus 7
Exodus 7
Everything that the Lord said would happen, did happen – his word is truth. And Moses and Aaron worked together to do everything that the Lord had commanded them. They were obedient to his word. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He did not heed the warnings that were given to him so he suffered the consequences. Let us reflect upon these things so we can live our lives wisely, as God intended for us.
Exodus 7
And so the miracles and the plagues begin and Pharaoh is unmoved. The Egyptian magicians can mimic what God is doing but they cannot overcome. Much like every work of the kingdom of darkness, it tries to get as close to what God is as possible, but will never be the same and it will never prevail against Him or His people. Pharaoh is a good reference point for those who say, well if God provided a miracle for me, then I would believe. Here we have the first of 10 and Pharaoh will not humble himself before a God who is more powerful. But in the end he and all Egypt will know the glory of the Lord! And yet God is compassionate in allowing water around the Nile to not turn to blood so the people could dig and stay alive.
God uses Moses and Aaron to deliver His message to Pharaoh, “let my people go.” It is interesting that the magicians can also perform some of these miracles. Sometimes I think it is good that we are a people of logic and reason and science, but other times I think our ignorance of the power of the spiritual is a detriment to our faith. When Antichrist comes, he will do signs and wonders, that’s why the Jews will be duped.
”The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,“
II Thessalonians 2:9 NKJV
These are no simple signs that God uses to say He is who He says He is and will/can do what He says He can! Even what the magicians accomplish is overtaken by what God did! Imagine not just the river but every container that had water from the Nile also turned to blood. It is amazing how hard the heart of Pharoah must have been that this didn’t make him listen and in turn his hard heart makes these people go through still so much more.
Exodus 7