Inside Out Living

In sending the plagues, God demonstrated His great power over all creation. In spite of all these demonstrations of power, I think there is something that reveals God’s power even more in this story. After every plague that takes place, we read that Pharaoh hardened his heart. That is, until you come to the plague of boils. If you notice, following the plague of boils, it says that the “Lord made Pharaoh even more stubborn.” (9:12).

Now wait a minute, you may be thinking, if God’s goal was to deliver Israel why would He make Pharaoh’s heart more hard or stubborn? While deliverance was God’s goal, it was not all that He was working to accomplish through the plagues. In 9:16 God reveals the greater purpose of revealing His power and seeing His fame, “spread throughout the earth.” So not only is God in control of all creation, but He is working on multiple levels at the same time.

I think that sometimes we lose sight of God’s ability to work in this way. We can become short-sighted and focus only on what we want God to accomplish in the here and now, instead of looking for the bigger picture that God might be doing.