Exodus 9:27-35 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage: Exodus 9:27-35. Let’s go!
Exodus 9:27-30 (NIV)
27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
28 Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”
29 Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God.”
On verses 27-30: Though in verses 27-28 Pharaoh says all the right words, confessing that he has sinned and admitting that the Lord is right and he was wrong, we will see that Pharaoh evidently was still playing games with the Lord. Pharaoh wasn’t really sorry for his sin. If anything, perhaps, he was sorry that he was in the situation he was now in and was doing everything he can to get out of it. It goes to show that anyone can say that they have sinned and speak the right-sounding words, but what counts is what is in the heart.
Exodus 9:31-32 (NIV)
31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom.
32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
On verses 31-32: The fact that the wheat and spelt were not destroyed along with the flax and barley is evidence once again of God’s mercy on Egypt. God wouldn’t destroy Egypt completely. He would leave things in Egypt to provide for the Egyptians’ needs.
Exodus 9:33-35 (NIV)
33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.
34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts.
35 So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.
On verse 33-35: When verse 34 says “he sinned again: he and his officials hardened their hearts” it shows that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was not simply the Lord’s doing, but it was Pharaoh’s choice. In choosing to harden his heart toward God, he sinned against God. It goes to show that God never hardens our heart without us hardening it first. We get to choose what kind of heart we will have toward God, whether we will have a soft, humble, open heart toward God or a hard, prideful, closed heart. The worst thing we can do is to harden our heart toward God, because in so doing we cut ourselves off from life itself and the very Person who is able to save us.
Heavenly Father, since the condition of my heart is very much my choice, I choose today to have a soft, humble and open heart toward You. More than just saying the right-sounding words, I pray that the condition of my heart would truly please You and be conducive to Your working in and through it. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
