Exodus 9:10 So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on people and animals.
Commentary talks about the fact that every appeal before each plague had been designed by God to soften Pharaoh’s heart, yet each time–prior to today’s verses–Pharaoh hardened his heart. This time, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, commentary posits, because that has been Pharaoh’s natural inclination.
Exodus 9:11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians.
What strikes me as I read this scripture is the constant back and forth. I am struck with the image of a saw blade on a tree trunk, back and forth, back and forth. One cut does little, but the continual sawing will eventually cut through the entire trunk. I think that’s what God’s doing here, wearing Pharaoh down in spite of himself.
Exodus 9:12 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.
Precious Savior, Thank You for the insight You give as I earnestly try to make sense of Your word. Help me to seek, to ask, to know, to listen and to draw closer to You. Always. Amen.
Exodus 9:13-14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
Have a blessed day.