As harsh as it may seem, God’s main purpose for the plagues was to establish His Lordship and authority to the Israelites and the world. We often forget about Sodom and Gamora, God simply wiped the cities out due to their complete disregard for life and God. The Ark is known in every culture as God’s cleansing of the world to begin a fresh.
God is in charge and in control of men and their destiny. So, as the Lord was taking Israel out of Egypt, He could have easily done so under cover of darkness. He could have transposed them as he did Philip to meet the Damascene Official. He could have caused a great sleep to come over the Egyptians and Israel could have simply left unobstructed.
God’s plan was simply so much larger than that. God was determined to make Pharaoh understand that Pharaoh’s selfish disregard for the lives of Israel was to come with a HUGE price tag. God was also determined to make sure that anyone who was considering attacking and enslaving Israel in the future knew it would cost them any and everything they held valuable…People, possessions, power, and life.
Simply put, God was not fooling around. Pharaoh had been deplorable to Israel and continued to be awful to God and Moses. For that, God would make Egypt a broken, decimated and grieving nation. They would pay a great price for enslaving the very people that saved their lives 400 years before.
We can never underestimate God’s desire for equity. The Father will set the scales even and will make actions so severe that no one would dare challenge Him. As His children, we can know that this same Lord, loves us and is determined to transform us into His image. Adonai will protect and restore us; just as He did israel.
We, as His chosen, can rest in the arms of the God that released and restored Israel. We can rest assured that God spares no expense (His Son Jesus), to assure our salvation. He will, in fact, walk with us through any and all circumstances to assure we are prepared for eternity with Him. We can rely on God to do and finish the work He started; just as He was doing in the lives of the children of Israel.
God Bless You
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10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them 2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”
3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 4 If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. 5 They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 6 They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your parents nor your ancestors have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.
7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
8 Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be going.”
9 Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.”
10 Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.[a] 11 No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence.
12 And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.”
Walking With God 