January 21, 2024 Bible Study — We Don’t Get to Set the Terms of Our Obedience to God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

I have been struggling with how to write the thoughts I am having about today’s passage.  When Moses threatened Pharaoh with the plague of locusts, his advisors begged him to let the Israelites go to worship God.  However, Pharaoh insisted on knowing who would go.  When Moses replied that all of the people and all of their livestock would god, Pharaoh was unwilling to let them go.  When this resulted in the plague of locusts descending on Egypt, Pharaoh admitted that he had sinned by refusing to let them go, and implied that if Moses lifted the plague he would let the Israelites go.  When darkness then settled on the Egyptians, Pharaoh agreed to the women and children going, but insisted that they leave their livestock behind.  When Moses insisted that they needed to take their livestock with them, Pharaoh refused to let them go and told Moses that he, Moses, would die if he ever saw Pharaoh’s face again.  Pharaoh insisted on putting conditions on doing as God commanded.  Even after the suffering his people had endured before today’s passage, Pharaoh was only willing to obey God on his terms.  As I mentioned yesterday, the experience of Pharaoh and the Egyptians only shows us the downside of disobeying God’s commands, not the upside of obeying them.  Obeying God on “our terms” is not obeying God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.