Exodus 10:1-20
How many times have you started a project with a clear vision of it’s outcome? Maybe you were building a deck on your house, and could almost picture yourself lounging on it, on a warm summer afternoon, with the sun shining brightly. Or maybe you were baking a birthday cake for a friend, and could picture the look on her face when you brought it out with all of the candles gleaming. In either case, you started the project with a clear vision of the outcome. Maybe the end result turned out slightly different than what you had planned; maybe you had to modify your approach along the way, but chances are, your goal was still reached. This analogy is exactly what comes to mind when I read today’s Scripture passage.
So what is this clear vision that I saw in this Scripture? It is the vision that God has when He reveals to Moses in the first verse of Exodus, Chapter 10, “Now the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” When we first look at this Scripture, we may think that God is being cruel when He starts out by hardening Pharaoh’s heart right from the start, but he had a bigger picture in mind. He wanted to show His strength and power to the nation of Egypt, a nation who prided themselves on their innovation, advancement, and ability to provide for themselves. They even had their own god dedicated to protecting and growing the crops; a god they called Seth. The Egyptians probably thought that surely Seth could protect their crops—after all, it was his only job… right? WRONG. God sends a swarm of locusts… yes, INSECTS… to completely destroy all of the vegetation in the land of Egypt. And what was the purpose of all of this destruction? God had a vision from the start, to show the Egyptians that He is the one true God, despite what their history and their intellect might tell them.
How many times in our lives have we hit a roadblock that may hinder us from reaching the goals that we had envisioned for our lives? Did we wonder why it seems to be so difficult? These are the times that we need to step back, and think about what God is showing us, and stop insisting on our own way. God wants us to surrender to Him so He can show us the vision that He has for our lives.
~ Eric Frantz
