Read with Me
Exodus 7:8-13 (HCSB)
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent.’ ” So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent. But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers—the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices. Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs. However, Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Listen with Me
God had already told Moses a couple times that Pharaoh was hard-hearted, and that he would have to be forced to let God’s people go. They had already experienced the fact that he refused to acknowledge God’s authority, and merely doubled down on his own authority in the face of His demands. Now he would see that even the miracles that had persuaded the Israelite leaders would not move Pharaoh at all.
God’s first shot across Pharaoh’s bow would be the miracle of transforming Moses’ staff into a serpent. As before, Moses represented God’s presence, and Aaron spoke the words and threw down the staff onto the ground so that it could become a serpent.
But instead of being amazed and submissive, Pharaoh called in his court magicians. They quickly figured out how to replicate the effect through trickery, each man’s staff becoming a serpent, too. But even in this, God showed His supremacy by enabling God’s serpent to consume those “produced” by the Egyptian magicians.
But even this did nothing to soften Pharaoh’s heart, just as God had predicted. He still refused to accept Moses and Aaron as God’s messengers, and thus he rejected their message.
Pray with Me
Father, just as You indicate here in Your word, it is not greater intelligence that causes people to reject Your word, and even Your mighty miracles. Instead, it is a hard heart that tends to grow harder with each rejection of You and Your commandments. Help me, Lord, to always keep my heart soft before You. Help me as well to not try to win over the minds of those who are far from You, but to work with You, in Your power, to soften their hearts, so that they can surrender to You and to Your will. Amen.