I reread my last post and I feel like I could have been clearer with what I think scripture is telling us. My focus last time was on pharaoh's heart, how in our own lives we harden our hearts in response to many of God's actions because it is in our sinful nature rebel against what God wants and deserves. Hardening our hearts in respect to God, can take the form of ungratefulness, ignorance, or indebtedness. Today, I want to focus on Exodus 9 and more so on the plagues themselves and reasons why these plagues went on as they did.
Why did God enact so many different plagues when He could have just skipped to the last one? I read a commentary on this and it seems to be true in our lives and in the Bible as well. God's intent wasn't just to merely let the Israelites escape Egypt. I think that God demonstrated His power and His glory in a way that is specifically designed to destroy any doubt that any one Egyptian deity is greater than He is. Why livestock? Because the cow is a sacred animal to the Egyptians. The Egyptian deity of fertility manifested herself in the form of a cow and the destruction of their sacred symbol is God's way of demonstrating His power over them. Why boils? Because Imhotep, the Egyptian deity of medicine, is rendered powerless before His actions. Why hail? Because the several gods of the sky and weather are shown to be false next to the God of the Israelites. Why did God harden pharaoh's heart? So that His glory can be manifested in the destruction of all that the Egyptians value and all that they worship.
Why did God spare the Israelites? Along with being directed towards the Egyptian deities, God also demonstrated His power to the Israelites. He spared them from most of the plagues that He poured out on the Egyptians. In doing so, God demonstrates His mercy through these plagues. It's also important to note that God had Moses go to pharaoh before some of the plagues offering him a chance to let the Israelites go. But in every instance God hardens pharaoh's heart so that His attributes can be demonstrated through the plagues of Egypt.
Why did God go through the trouble of having Moses talk to pharaoh and to demand that he let the Israelites go before and after the plagues? Why did God want pharaoh to let the Israelites go? It's so that we can be reminded why God wants to liberate the Israelites. He wanted them free from pharaoh and Egypt so that they can praise and worship Him. In other words, God wanted to free the Israelites for the Lord's sake, not theirs. Their liberation is for His plan and for His glory, not for the glory and freedom of the Israelites.
This is why we can only have a God-centered Gospel, not a self-centered one. We can't say God enacted the plagues AND hardened pharaoh's heart just so that the Israelites can be freed. Neither are we in a position to say He pours out mercy primarily for our sake, so that we can be preserved to live a longer life. If you want to know if you have a self-centered Gospel, look at the cross. If the primary reason why God went through that whole ordeal is so that we can be saved then that's a pretty self-centered and limited view of God's act on the cross in my opinion. But if you look at the cross and you tell yourself that the primary reason God went through the pain and agony is to show us His love for us and His grace and His mercy so that He may be glorified through our salvation, then that is the Gospel that Jesus was trying to show us. John 3:16 starts out with the reason why Jesus was given and why we are promised eternal life through Jesus: God's love.
No comments:
Post a Comment