This was the biggest test of his life, but he just wasn’t paying attention. His grade? An Ph
I’m eager to tell the thrilling details of the Passover in Exodus 12, but I want first to retrace Pharaoh’s journey from the day Moses entered his palace. Here are his opening recorded words: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (Ex 5:2). So what had he learned about Jehovah in the intervening weeks? First, that the God of the Hebrews was superior to his gods, as demonstrated when “Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods” (7:12). We know that because he immediately hardened his heart against this revelation (v 13), and also after his own magicians testified to the Lord’s superiority: “This is the finger of God” (8:19). But more, the plagues showed that the Egyptian gods were phoneys. The world was not controlled by a bunch of dysfunctional and petulant forces. Yahweh is a real and personal God whose power, wisdom, and love are infinite. Notice also that the frogs, lice, and flies weren’t removed by the intervention of Pharaoh’s gods—what could they do? In fact, “Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, ‘Entreat the Lord that He may take away the frogs’” (8:8). He now knew that the Lord could solve any problem, would answer prayer, and was ready to show mercy. Get this! Every time Pharaoh asked the Lord for help, He gave it—and every time Pharaoh promised to obey, he didn’t. The king not only saw how God cared for the Hebrews, but how He showed mercy to the Egyptians, and there were now some “who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh” (9:20). God had shown longsuffering grace to him and, in return, Pharaoh had nothing but disdain for the Lord. Hard. Harder. Hardest. In the face of overwhelming evidence, the king had chosen his own fate.