It’s an intriguing fact that the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites due to the fear that, if Egypt were ever attacked, they might side with Egypt’s enemies and help overthrow the Egyptians. They dealt with Israel shrewdly. In fact, the king then said, “Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." (Exo 1:10 NIV)
The word translated, “deal shrewdly,” literally means, “show ourselves to be wise.” They thought they were being wise by enslaving Israel. Little could they know that this very decision would lead to their destruction 440 years later! Yet in Exodus 10 that is exactly where the Egyptians were.
In the last chapters we’ve read of the Nile being turned to blood, ruining their fishing. Frogs have multiplied and gotten into everything. Gnats have bit both people and livestock. Flies have spoiled food and brought disease. A mysterious illness struck the livestock, killing animals throughout the land. Boils broke out on people putting them in great pain. Hail and lightning destroyed the flax and barley. Locusts came and ate the wheat and emmer – along with any other green plant they could find. Then the Lord set a deep and uncanny darkness over the whole land, stopping commerce, blinding the nation. (The tenth plague was yet to come, and it will break Egypt completely.)
Being wise in our own eyes is dangerous – especially when we are dealing with God. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Pro 12:15 NIV) Paul also urges us, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Rom 12:3 ESV)
It is easy to see that Pharaoh’s earthly wisdom had failed him. He even tried to form a compromise with God. “Just take the men.” Yet he never truly repents.
What about us? Do we ever try to deal with God from the stance of our earthly wisdom? Sure we do! We rationalize our faults. We explain away our sins. We try to show ourselves wise in a wide variety of ways. We decide, “God would not allow something like that to happen.” We proclaim, “This or that was not God’s will.” We are even so bold as to declare, “That person was so good and did so many good things that God would not allow him to go to Hell.”
But our wisdom falls short. God is God, and we are not. Our human understanding cannot contain him. And that’s a good thing! Pause for a moment and think of God’s mercy and grace. Why should He have mercy on us? What right do we have to experience love from God? How can we be worth dying for? Why would Jesus be willing to die for us?
I don’t understand it. But He is God. I am not. And I am so thankful that he loved me so much that Jesus would die to pay for my sins! Thanks be to God, He’s done the same for you!
Father, help me to be humble in my wisdom, and let me trust you. Burn onto my mind the amazingness of you mercy and grace, and let your mercy and grace flow through my life to others. Amen.
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