December 16, 2024

Passage Read: Exodus 7-10
Meditation Verse: 8:19

Thought

Up until this point, the magicians could replicate God's miracles. God did this on purpose, so that Pharaoh would have confidence to resist the Lord, to harden his heart against fearing the Lord. But now Pharaoh had sufficient hardness that the Lord could go beyond the small miracles and start to show up the magicians. For their part, the magicians recognized that the gnats were merely the finger of God. But it was too late for Pharaoh; he was now in the habit of resisting the Lord and couldn't turn back. This was by design. The Lord wanted Pharaoh to harden his heart so that the Lord could show His power and might.

Application

God has chosen some people to be saved, and the rest to be left to their own devices. He brings circumstances and people into our lives to reveal whether our hearts are hard or whether He has chosen us. If He starts small and we repent, we can have hope that we are chosen. But if He starts small and we resist, we should be afraid, because He may turn up the heat to break our spirit, or He may leave us in our hard-heartedness. The more opportunities we are given to repent but resist, the harder our hearts become and the more likely that we will be destroyed rather than spared. How someone responds to truth, even the first time, gives a sense of where their destination lies, so the disciples had confidence to move on or ignore those who resisted and focus on those who were responsive. I can have the same confidence.