My favorite verse from today!  16 "But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to [be]remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth."   AMEN, AMEN!

The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; but he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field (Exodus 9:20-21).

What is amazing to me is not that there were some among the servants of Pharaoh that feared the word of the Lord but that there still remained any that did not fear. After the amazing and terrible plagues that preceded this announcement of unprecedented hail, who would even risk it?

Perhaps there were some who went around giving naturalistic explanations for all the plagues that came upon them. This is all good and fine, but the credibility and authority of the one that predicted the future with complete accuracy is quite different from the one that talks about things after the fact. Moses spoke and it happened, whether to start or to stop a calamity. He was even accurate as to the exact nature and time. He was a true prophet of God.

In fact, through Moses God established the rule for the evaluation of all propets:

(1) What they prophecy must come true!

You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed... But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22, 20).

(2) What they prophecy must agree with what God has already revealed about Himself!

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer... That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 5).

In both cases, if someone declared themself a prophet of God, yet their prophecies either did not come true or did not line up with Scripture, they were to be put to death. Clearly this would have discouraged anyone from presumptuously declaring themselves a prophet or saying that they had a word from the LORD.

Yet today, friends, there are any number of charlatans going around masqerading as prophets of God. Even though their prophecies are about as accurate as a coin toss, they continue to play upon the gullible heartstrings of people that yearn for special signs and ecstastic experiences. They violate both rules regarding the test of a true prophet of God and even shamelessly change the rules to suit themselves. 

What is most needful today is discernment! And perhaps after that, discipline. The trouble today is that there is such a blurring of the lines of truth and morality. I imagine this has happened because Christians know their Bibles less than ever. As a result, they make judgments not on the basis of a clear perception of truth but based on their feelings or a certain leader's popularity. 

Friends, stay daily in God's Word and pray for discernment, so that you will not be caught up in the deceptive winds that plague our generation. 

For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth (Exodus 9:15-16).

Here is the answer to the question of why God did not immediately wipe out the Egyptians, of why He extended their judgment with numerous plagues. He did this to show His power. This also gives sense to what might seem like a perplexing explanation from Paul:

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:22-24).

In other words, even though God is willing and ready to judge "the objects of His wrath", He sometimes delays this judgment on them so that He might "make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy." The righteous suffer more so that they might appreciate their deliverance more. The wicked endure for longer so that God might show more of His power through them.

Isn't this exactly what He did in Egypt? God delayed His judgment on the pagan Egyptians so that He might show the greatness of His deliverance to the Jews, as well as His power to the Egyptians, Pharoah and the rest of the world.

In the first passage cited above, God says that He could have wiped out the Egyptians, but He "allowed them to remain" alive so that He might show them His power and in order that He might give witness to His mighty Name before an onlooking world.

Is there a lesson here? God wanted His power to be known. God wanted His Name to be proclaimed. This was true in the OT and it will be true in the NT. One of the primary reasons Jesus came was to make the Father known:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (John 1:18).

Jesus also told His disciples, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). This commission to Jesus' disciples extends to us today, as we continue to declare God's Name and His great salvation to our generation.

Do you ever realize that sometimes the things that happen in your daily life if you are ignoring God are destined to turn your eyes back to Him? In Egyptian religion, Pharoah was god. He was the divinely appointed god by virtue of his birthright. But Pharoah comes up against THE ONE GOD here, and he will not win.

First, the plagues are harmless enough. They don't do much to impact the economy, morale, and ego of the Egyptian people at first, but they strike at the needs of the people of Egypt at first... Example: when the waters of the Nile turned to blood. The Nile was their main water source for drinking and for irrigation. The plague of frogs seems to be a strike at the Egyptian household. The next plagues of boils, flies, and lice strike at the sanitation and health of the Egyptians. When the livestock become diseased in the next plague, it cuts at the Egyptian way of life. The Egyptians were farmers, their livestock and their agriculture was their livelihood. Also, the Lord began to prove that he was protecting the Hebrews, and that his hand was over them as in v. 4.  The seventh plague of Hail (and fire in v. 24)struck at their economy mainly their barley and flax, and their fruits and vegetables. And all this happens so that God reveals a little more of himself to Pharoah directly, and that the Land of Egypt was NOT Pharoah's, but GOD's.

God makes it clear to Pharoah that the only reason he was in power was so that God could show how much more powerful He was than Pharoah in v. 16. By not letting them go, or by negotiating the conditions by which the Hebrews could leave, Pharoah was trying to show God his power. And the more Pharoah negotiated, the worse it got for he and his people.

After the plague of hail, and the economic wreck that Pharoah had to deal with, you would think he would let the Israelites go. But Moses as much as told Pharoah that he didn't have the proper fear of God. And every time Pharoah saw that the plague was ended, his heart would harden again.

Friends,

What a foreboding passage of Scripture this is. Like Judas Iscariot, who was born into the world to become the "son of perdition" and betray the Lord Jesus (cf. John 17:12; Acts 4:27-28), so also Pharaoh was born into the world to harden his heart and be destroyed in order to demonstrate the greatness of God's deliverance. As we learn from Proverbs 21:1, "The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes." We see this very principle exemplified in Pharaoh, about whom God says, "But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth" (Exodus 9:16). Could God have ordered things differently and not used Pharaoh and Egypt in the way He chose? Certainly, but He did not.  Was God wrong to harden Pharoah's heart and use him to glorify Himself in the eyes of the world? If you would say so, how about if God put the eternal judgment of an entire world of people on the shoulders of the most innocent person of all? Is that just in your eyes? Before you judge with human judgment, consider what Paul says.

Paul would cite this very text to teach on the sovereign will of God: "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens" (Romans 9:18). Now, as Paul perceived, some may cry "Foul! This is unfair!" (cf. Romans 9:19), but as Paul would explain, you cannot apply the same standard of fairness to God as you do to people, for He is the Creator and we are His creation. As His creation, the Creator can do whatever He chooses, and it is only people's audacious pride that would deny Him this right. He has the right to save and the right to destroy. This is also why God can justly kill babies (e.g. the babies of Canaan, like those in Jericho or Ai or the Amalekite babies in the time of Saul), but you and I cannot. It is a distinction between the Creator and the created, between the Lawgiver and  the law doers (cf. James 4:12).

The Scriptures teach that He subjected everyone to unrighteousness, so that in the course of time, He might not be called unjust in saving some and destroying others (cf. Romans 11:32; 3:9, 19, 23, 26). In other words, since everyone deserves judgment, there would be no injustice when some or even most are judged. But God would be magnanimous to the few He chooses to save by grace (cf. Matthew 20:1-20, consider the lesson of this parable). Furthermore, it is to accomplish His purposes that in the present world He does not immediately destroy some, who were born to be destroyed (cf. Romans 9:22-23; Exodus 9:16). God is glorified by both the righteous and the wicked, by those saved, as well as by those destroyed. This is also the reason that God did not wipe out all the Egyptians with a single plague (cf. Exodus 9:15-17). He would demonstrate His power to those being destroyed, those being delivered, and the watching world through a series of "great and mighty" judgments.

What then is a proper response for us? It is not to join hands with the ignorant and perishing in declaring God unfair but rather to serve Him with "fear and trembling," always acknowledging that we too stand among the saved not because of anything good in us, whether of action ("works") or even intent ("faith"), but only and completely because of the grace of God. As for the basis of God choosing to save one and not another, it is a mystery beyond our finding out, and we can only declare with Paul,

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
“For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:33-36).