Last week in the story of Exodus, we transitioned from God’s preparation to the plagues, in moving from Exodus ch. 6 to 7-8:19, as we looked at the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart versus our need to keep a soft and repentant heart toward God.
As we continue this week to look again at the plagues — these acts of mercy sent to soften and pry people’s hearts away from worshipping false gods — we now cover plagues #4-9. The key verse in our text for this week is ch. 9:16 where God says regarding Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” God was not only using the plagues to pry people’s hearts away from worshipping idols but in Pharaoh’s resistance to also show God’s power to the glory of His name.
In a sentence, what we see in this week’s text is that God has no rivals, and uses His power to demonstrate the greatness of His name over all. How are we to respond? To savour His unmatched greatness, to follow God unconditionally (unlike Pharaoh), and to unashamedly embrace God’s call to make the name of Jesus known..