NOTES for Exo 9:1-35
Today's reading goes a long way towards answering the question of why God could not, or would not, soften Pharaoh's heart. The answer lies in the statement that God permits the plagues of Egypt not simply to wipe Egypt and Pharaoh himself off the face of the earth and remove him from the path as an irritating obstacle to His plans. If that were the only purpose, it would have cost God nothing to accomplish it far more quickly (vv. 14–16). But it is important to Him that, in the confrontation with the obstinate Pharaoh, God's power should become evident to all (v. 16). It might seem that the best proof of that power would be the complete disappearance of Egypt and Pharaoh himself from the face of the earth. But apparently God's power manifests itself differently. If, for example, Egypt really had been destroyed by some monstrous natural cataclysm, God's power would have manifested itself only as an ordinary force of nature, and the God of the Bible would then have differed little from any pagan thunder god, except perhaps in the greater scale of His power. But this is not what God wants. He needs not corpses and ruins, but witnesses. God can have relationships only with living people, and only living people can tell others about their relationship with God. Evidently, God's ability to crush cities and countries with a single blow is not something fundamental to His relationship with us. In any event, when He addresses a human being, He does not emphasise it. Recognition of Him as Lord of the universe, however, is extremely important to Him, and from Pharaoh He expects at least such recognition, the minimum without which no human relationship with Him is possible. That is why Pharaoh's voluntary consent matters so much to Him. It might seem that this consent would not be voluntary in any case, for at first glance all the plagues of Egypt were precisely a display of force. Yet this display was, first, selective, so that many natural disasters passed the people of God by, an example of which we find in today's reading (vv. 25–26); and second, it was controlled, ceasing at Moses' request, as today's passage also shows (v. 33). All this was meant to help Pharaoh understand that the God of the Jews, whom he despises, can indeed do everything, yet does not seek merely to demonstrate His superiority. He desires the establishment of a relationship of trust, which is entirely possible if Pharaoh resolves to acknowledge Him as Lord of the world and consequently to do what God requires of him. First comes the voluntary and free acknowledgement of God's authority, and only then obedience to His will. But if a person's heart persists in its obstinacy, such a relationship becomes impossible, and the person begins to see before him another face of God, one far less favourable to him.