And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth."
Exodus 9:13-14
This is part of the story of Moses getting the Israelites out of Egypt, which we don't often personalize to ourselves. Some stories we relate to one side or another, but in this one I think we usually relate to Moses and the "good guys" trying to do what God wanted, and it boggles our minds that Pharoah could be quite that stubborn.
I mean, me too... but then I was thinking about the phrasing here "plagues upon thine heart," and that reminded me of the scripture in 1 Kings 8:38 and knowing "every man the plague of his own heart," and I started to think about being in Pharoah's position. ... Maybe we can't relate much to Pharoah in terms of the plagues of his heart in this context, but we all have our own, and perhaps we all know what it is to be just as stubborn about our own plagues as he was about his.
Today, let's think about where in our lives we are resisting God... holding something back. Maybe it isn't Israelites, but it is surely something. And then let's let down our walls a little, and talk to God about it. Let's tell him how we feel and what we think, and why we feel we need to resist. God will listen, and he will understand. And maybe it won't be solved today or anytime soon, but if we are willing to "reason together" (Isaiah 1:18) with the Lord, some day it will be, and we won't have to lose everything that Pharoah lost in the process of his resistance. With God's help, let's work on curing the plagues of our hearts before they destroy us.
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