30. Exodus 13-15
The entire story of Moses and Pharoah is crazy to me. Here is an entire nation, living within another nation. They are described in the reading as 600,000 men plus women and children. So more than a million people, roughly the same number of people that live in all of Hampton Roads, are wanting to leave their company and move on to another job in another state. Not only that but they worked for nothing, literally. I see why it was so hard for Pharoah to let them go, I mean the temp agency just wouldn't have a million brick makers hanging around their office waiting for a job. Talk about losing your competitive edge. God knows this so He sets up this scenerio where Pharoah would get so sick of the sight of Moses, Aaron and the entire nation of Isreal that he finially tells them to go. I mean it takes blood, frogs, gnats, flies, dead animals, boils, hail, locust, darkness and the death of everyone's firstborn sons, but Pharoah is ready to flip his lid. "OK, OK, Please Just LEAVE!"
So they do, and then he gets cold feet. Ever get buyer's remorse? Just about everytime I buy something, even if it is something I really wanted, like a 42" plasma, I get it home and think, "Did I really need this?" Then I feel a little guilty and eventually I get over it but for awhile, remorse. Pharoah gets freedom remorse. He had to be thinking, "This was such a bad idea, why did I let them go?" So he gathers his army and chases them into the Red Sea. You would think that he might have thought about what God had just done in Egypt that led to the release of the Isrealites, but he follows them right into a trap. I wonder what kind of remorse he was experiencing when he and his army looked up and saw that the walls of water on each side of them were collapsing. I'll bet he would have settled for the boils, instead he just bought the entire Red Sea.
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3 comments:
Pharoah's hardened heart always surprised me. Having a million people work for free is a pretty good deal, but I'm not sure I'd have followed the Israelites when a column of fire was guarding them or follow them through a 400-500 foot wall of water on both sides. With buyer's remorse, you have to know when to cut your losses and chalk it up as a lesson learned.
If you look through the passage it is God who harden's Pharoah's heart. I always wondered about that, but this time I understand (I think) that God wanted to be sure that not only would Pharoah let them go for good, but also pursue them so that He could deal with them at the Red Sea. Is that how you read it?
Oh certainly. God wanted the whole world to know that He is the one true God. I know God was hardening Pharoah's heart, but it was hardened to the point of lunacy in my opinion. His people must have thought he was crazy pursuing the Israelites like he was.
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