Exodus 7:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.
I struggle with this section, primarily because Pharaoh’s heart is hardened because God hardened it in Exodus 7:3. Though as I type this, I have been digging online and found that through the ten plagues, sometimes God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, sometimes Pharaoh hardens it himself.
Exodus 7:15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.
One commentary posits that “Pharaoh is what happens when an entire nation redefines good and evil apart from God’s wisdom.” And this sentence gives me great pause because I have seen the Bible used by different sides to argue opposite things, using the exact same Biblical support, which seems to suggest we can’t even be trusted to interpret the Bible apart from our own will and leanings.
Exodus 7:16 Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.
Precious Savior, Help us to love You and love each other. Help us NOT to use Your word to tear each other down, supposedly in Your name. Help us to humble ourselves, to put aside our own agendas, and to be Your hands and feet and heart in this troubled world. Help us, Jesus. Amen.
Exodus 7:17-18 This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”
Have a blessed day.