Exodus 9

Exodus 9:16

But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.

One of the hardest questions to answer a nonbeliever is "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" While I realize that Pharaoh doesn't exactly fall into the category of "good," I think this verse still shows a glimmer of an answer.

I have to be careful how I state this, due to the sovereignty-vs-freewill issue, but I'll put it like so: God will sometimes allow bad things to happen, or even lead us to bad things, so that he can show His power in delivering us from those circumstances. I'm not saying this is always the case, or that bad things are always from God. However, God sometimes will lead us through the valley to show that he is in control, and that he can bring us out again.

Also, he will sometimes cause bad things to happen to nonbelievers in an attempt to show them the error of their ways, and bring them to Him at long last. Many people have to hit rock bottom, and exhaust their own strength and abilities, before they are willing to consider that they are not the center of the universe, and need help from Him.

Also, consider that God could very well have annihilated the Egyptians at any time, leaving the Hebrews free to do what they wanted. But God did not do this. He specifically left them alive, though suffering, as a testament to His power and the care He had for His people.

Exodus 8

Exodus 8:18

The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast.

The plague of gnats is considered one of the more minor plagues. Though it was highly annoying since the gnats covered everything, it didn't do any real damage. However, this verse signifies something that can often go overlooked in a casual read-through.

This is the point where God proved Himself sovereign. All the signs God had given so far to Pharaoh had been seemingly duplicated by the magicians. From this point, God shows Himself to be in a league of his own. He is not just another god forgotten from the pantheon, with powers roughly equivalent to the rest. He now is known to do things that no other can do, and that is when Pharaoh's resolve starts to shake.

Exodus 7

Exodus 7:20

So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

The plagues begin.

The vitality of water makes this, to me, one of the worst of the plagues. According to the text, every drop of water in any container was turned to blood, and it remained this way for seven days. A person can survive without water for three days under normal circumstances. Given the heat of Egypt, even in the Delta area, I would suspect this rule of thumb holds true. So suddenly you're looking at four days with the risk of dying of thirst. Most of the other plagues are more towards annoying than truly dangerous to the civilization, but the risks involved in losing your water supply are huge.

So, while you are going into the early stages of dehydration and possibly heat stroke, you and your neighbors have to go out and dig emergency wells, just to survive. I don't know what level the water table is in that area (probably pretty shallow, given the proximity to the river), but making a usable well takes careful work, to avoid contaminating your water with the surrounding soil. Not something you want to be doing when you're suffering from possible muscle weakness or dementia. I wonder how many died from this plague because, to quote an old poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "water, water every where, nor any drop to drink."

Exodus 6

Exodus 6:3

and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.

I read this, and my mental voice went "huh?" This may be one where a more thorough language study is needed to really understand what's being talked about, but since I don't have those resources immediately available, I'll have to take a logical inference.

God made His covenant with Abraham and family, and He communicated with them, but He never gave them his name. That is of significance because at this time, names had great power. Names identified a person's traits, their characteristics, even their personalities. This is evidenced in how some people's names could change (e.g. Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel). As the person changed, so could what they were known as. The closest we come to that today are titles and honorifics.

God identified Himself to Abraham's children as the God of their fathers, something that they would know him, but never gave His proper name. Not to put too fine a point on it, but how God identified himself is the same as we often think of "the janitor" or "the cashier" -- it was an identifier of what He did, not who He is, and that left a separation between Him and them.

However, now God gives His name to Moses and the people, and that signifies a change in the connection, in the relationship between them. These are the people who would know God for what He is and who He is, not just for what He did to help them. God is going to be personal with them, in a way that He never had before. That was the big deal in this passage, as Moses is doubting and the people are dismissive. God is going to reveal Himself in a way that will leave no doubt as to how much He cares about them and their future.

Exodus 5

Exodus 5:17

But he said, "You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.'

This would seem like an excuse by Pharaoh to justify punishing the Israelites. However, as I read this, I realize it could very easily be a true statement under different circumstances. I know that I've been guilty of trying to get out of work by using statements like this.

It's very easy for many people to get out of doing something they don't want to, by going and doing something else that is "better", or more noble, or nicer. I was very good at that in middle and high school. I used to get bored sitting back in the sound booth with my family, listening to the pastor's sermon about something that didn't have anything to do with me, so I would go and find out if the 3-yr-old class was short a helper, and that would almost always get me out of there. What I was doing was good, but I was doing it for all the wrong reasons. So as crazy as this might sound as an excuse Pharaoh thought up, it's not as far-fetched as we would like it to seem.

Exodus 4

Exodus 4:21

The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

This is one of those verses that really bothers me, and challenges how I perceive God. In modern Christianity, it's taken as a given that salvation is available to any who will receive it. Not all will accept, but all can. It is up to the person to decide freely if he will accept Christ or not.

However, here is a point in time where God specifically says he is causing someone to deny God. It seems that he is dooming Pharaoh to eternal hell because He wants to. That there is no hope for this person, because God has taken that free will away from him. It says later that He is doing this to allow the Israelites to leave, but what would have happened if God hadn't blocked Pharaoh? If Pharaoh had been allowed to make the choice himself, would he have allowed them to leave when asked, or at least to leave before all ten of the plagues had occurred? Would Pharaoh's son still be alive if God had allowed him that choice?

Some people say that to follow God is to be nothing but living machines, without any free will. They're wrong, but here is an example where it seems that God is making a person into that machine we're accused of being, though this time to his doom instead of salvation. That image deeply troubles me.