Originally posted: 02/25/2019
“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst,” (7:5).
His time, His way, His will… all when and how He decrees.
“You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst,” (7:2-5).
Do questions jockey through your mind when reading this account? Does it just seem so… unnecessary? If the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, couldn’t He just as well as softened it? We cry out, desperate for understanding! But He is often misunderstood; we try to translate His ways with the language of our finite and sin-corrupted minds.
The LORD was preparing a people to be wholly set apart unto Him. Seeing His powerful might and His judgment of sin was part of this preparation, announcing Himself to His enslaved people as well as to a pagan nation. As He Stretched Out His Hand, He released His Renown, distinguishing Himself as the Great I Am Who Stretches Out His Hand.
Consider Him Who Stretches Out His Hand
He Stretches Out His Hand and hardens hearts to multiply His signs and wonders.
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt,” (7:3).
He Stretches Out His Hand on the rebellious hardened hearts by great judgments.
“When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments,” (7:4).
He stretches out His Hand so that all will know He is the LORD.
“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst,” (7:5).
How do we respond to Him Who Stretches Out His Hand?
The sad truth is many respond like Pharaoh.
“Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this,” (7:23); just “as the LORD had said,” (7:13, 22).
When we don’t experience an immediate consequence, the enemy lulls us into believing the lie that we can actually get away with our disobedience and rebellion.
Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile, (7:25).
- We must remember He Stretches Out His Hand to reveal Himself that we would know and experience Him as LORD. As His children, we can cry out with confidence for His Hand to save, but we must also be quick to confess sin; for the LORD is holy. Sin impedes, and even cuts off our fellowship and worship of Holy God.
- Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear, (Isaiah 59:1-2). - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, (1 John 1:9).
- Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
- Let us intentionally examine ourselves and ask, “If my story was written today, would the words ascribed to Moses and Aaron apply to me?”
- So Moses and Aaron did even as the LORD had commanded, (7:6, 10, 20).
- Let us daily pray and offer our wills, surrendered to Him Who Stretches Out His Hand, that we too would do even as the LORD commands.
- Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, (Romans 12:1).