Scripture Reference: Exodus 8:20-10:29
God is gracious and long-suffering, but there comes a time when He will no longer tolerate the disobedience and arrogance of defiant sinners. “To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless, to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd” (Psalm 18:25-26, NIV). If we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us (Leviticus 26:23-24).
“God shows Himself to each individual according to his character,” wrote Charles Spurgeon, and no individual in Scripture illustrates this truth better than the king of Egypt. For months, Moses and Aaron had dealt with Pharaoh, but the king was unwilling to obey God’s command or even acknowledge God’s authority. The water courses in Egypt had been turned into blood, slimy frogs had invaded the land, and swarms of pesky gnats had irritated the people, but Pharaoh had refused to bend.
What did God do? He declared all-out war on both the ruler of Egypt and the gods of Egypt. The Lord sent six painful and destructive plagues to the land, and then a seventh plague which brought the death of every firstborn son. As you study Pharaoh’s responses to these plagues, you see the moral and spiritual deterioration of a man who wouldn’t submit to God and paid a terrible price for his rebellion.
Let’s consider Pharaoh’s responses to the judgments of God but, at the same time, let’s examine our own hearts to learn whether or not we are responding positively to the will of God.
1. Bargaining
Please read Exodus 8:20-32 for the background to this section.
At certain times of the year, Pharaoh would go to the sacred Nile River to participate in special religious rites, and it certainly must have irritated him on that particular holy occasion to see Moses and Aaron waiting for him. In Pharaoh’s eyes, these two men were national nuisances. Actually, Pharaoh was the cause of the nation’s troubles, but he would not admit it. God was dealing with Pharaoh in mercy, wanting to bring him into submission; for it’s only when we obey God that we can truly enjoy His blessings. With one blow, God could have wiped out Pharaoh and the nation (Exodus 9:15), but He chose to give them opportunity to repent.
God’s warning (verses 20-21). We’ve already noted that before sending seven of the ten plagues, God warned Pharaoh what was coming but, of course, he refused to believe the Word of God and persisted in his disobedience. The fact that each plague occurred just as God described it, at the time announced, should have convinced Pharaoh and his officers that the God of Israel was in control of these spectacular events. They weren’t caused by Pharaoh’s magicians, who could neither prevent them nor reverse them, nor were they mere coincidences. The hand of the Lord was against the land of Egypt.
God’s grace (verse 22). The Lord added a new feature to this plague by announcing that the Jews in the land of Goshen would escape the plague completely. Only the great God of Israel could control the flight pattern of tiny flies and keep them from entering the land of Goshen. But God’s providential care of Israel was evident in all these seven last plagues, because the Jews escaped each and every one of them.
Often in Scripture, the land of Egypt symbolizes the world system with its pride and bondage, while the Exodus of Israel from Egypt pictures the deliverance of God’s people through the blood of the lamb (John 1:29; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18-19). During the time when Joseph was in Egypt, Pharaoh had given the land of Goshen to the Jews, and now God set it apart for His people. In this way God made a “division” between His people and the Egyptians. The word translated “division” in Exodus 8:23 means “a redemption, a ransom, a deliverance.” Because they belonged to God in a special way, the Jews were “different” from the Egyptians, but Pharaoh wouldn’t acknowledge this fact.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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