Julie
This begins that plagues that God brings down on the Egyptians. There are a couple of things that stand-out apart from the individual plagues themselves. The first is that at the beginning of chapter 7 God tell Moses that he is make him like God and Aaron will be his profit so that they can perform these acts that will bring upon the plague. I had read, I believe in the explanation of the book of Exodus within the version of the Bible that I am using, that Moses is basically the Jesus of the OT. The difference is that God gives Moses his "power" at a time of his choosing instead of bearing him as "son". Moses job is to help bring about the salvation of the Israelites and Jesus' is to bring out the salvation of us all. Looking at it from this prospective and how a lot of what is happening now gets repeated again in the NT, it goes to show that we tend to repeat or transgressions over time.
The second thing that stands out is when God says He will harden Pharaoh's heart. I think that this is a very significant statement, and can be placed in the context of the world at any given time. Our current situation in the world would be an example of this. While it does get mentioned (I believe in the NT) that God places those in charge that he deems necessary at the time and they are not always godly people, this statement shows us that some of the hardships that we go through at the hands of those that govern us are brought upon us by God. I know that sometimes people look at the hardships that we have to endure as punishment for doing something wrong, but that is not always God's motive and if we really examine that here it shows. There is no where is what God is doing in hardening Pharaoh's heart where he has said that he is doing it because the Israelites have done wrong. However, it does show their faith in God that they endure with the hope that something better will be coming out the other side. They are trusting in his promise and covenant that he made. I think it's important to remember that while we may be experiencing hardship at the time that there is always a purpose and a plan that we may not understand and that we have to trust that joy will emerge.
Today's Psalm could really correlate with today's Exodus reading as it could be the type of prayer that one might pray to God if they were experiencing what the Israelites were experiencing at this time. Asking God to save them from the atrocities brought upon them by those in charge. This could be a good Psalm to assist in prayer with our current situation.
Michelle
The devotional that pertains to this passage in my bible has a very powerful thought. And I can see how this could be the situation of today and the time of the bible. It may have been the same situation over time and it's not something I have thought about before. It states, "Yes, God wanted to free the Israelites from years of cruel bondage. But he wanted EVERYONE - Egyptians and Israelites - to experience his power as the one true God." In this devotional it discusses how he used the plagues to challenge the belief of the Egyptians in their pagan gods. Today God still wants everyone to know that he is the only true God and shows his power thru the events and circumstances of our lives. This is very thought provoking to me. But I can see how this makes sense. When you are in the moment we are only looking to how we are being affected by whatever is going on, but it may be that God is trying to show others, non believers, who he is and where their loyalty and faith should lie.
The psalm starts off sounding as if he is asking for his persecutors to be harmed. Then it goes on to ask God for help in his situation and praising him for what he does and will do.
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