Plagues to Save Israel
In Exodus 9, we’re well into the record of God’s plagues against Egypt. Their water had been turned to blood. They’d had nasty wildlife invade their homes. They’d had boils come upon them personally. To be sure, Egypt has suffered greatly for ignoring God’s command to release the people of Israel.
In the midst of the warning of the next plague which God was about to unleash (massive hail that would kill both man and livestock), we get a peek at God’s reasoning for doing things exactly as he did. While these judgements were certainly not comfortable, why did he not simply destroy the people of Egypt entirely, in an instant, and his people could walk free without any permission from Pharaoh? After all, he was certainly capable.
For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
Exodus 9:15
Hardened Hearts
It will be an instinct for those who wish to view creation as man-centered, despite how miserable the plagues were, to suggest God was showing restraint for the sake of Egypt by not simply destroying them all. Sure they were stubborn, and it took a lot, but ultimately God got them to come around instead of destroying them completely!
However, that fails to deal with the reality that God sovereignly ensured that Pharaoh would not release his people until after his judgements were fulfilled. We are told repeatedly that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 9:12,10:1,20,27,11:10,14:8).
This isn’t some scenario where Pharaoh desired to obey God and God forced him against his will to disobey instead. The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart didn’t make what was in his heart different. Actually, it was the exact opposite. His hardened heart was one which was set resolutely upon the path he already walked.
Still, if the purpose of the plagues was simply to convince Pharaoh to release Israel, why does God not take action to change his heart instead?!
Plagues to Glorify God
But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Exodus 9:16
If Pharaoh had been convinced by Moses’s staff transforming, the people of Israel would have been free to go and the people of Egypt spared all sorts of suffering. If God destroyed Egypt, the people of Israel would also have been free and the people of Egypt judged.
Yet God did neither of these things, because his plans are not ultimately about man! It is our sinful nature that desires to make life all about ourselves. In reality, all of creation has been made to bring glory to its creator.
When God saves, it is to demonstrate his mercy. When he punishes, it is to demonstrate his wrath. In salvation and judgement, creation bears witness to the perfection of its creator. It is the very purpose of all that has been made to give glory to the one who made it all.
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9:21-24
We see the goodness of God in his mercy, when he saves us from our own very nature and is patient despite our wretchedness. We also see his goodness in his grace, where he gives blessings beyond what any of us deserve (Matthew 5:45). In his wrath, he demonstrates the perfection of his justice.
God’s plan is not simply that he redeems for himself a people. It is that his people will come to know and worship him for his perfect excellence in all virtues. We can know that God is good, because he has revealed this to us. Is our perception clear enough to see it?
