#24. Exodus 7-9 | For This Very Purpose I Raised You Up

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Welcome to The Dwelling Place

from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Cock.

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Today we're looking at Exodus

chapter seven through nine.

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In chapter six, God issued a sevenfold

promise of things that he would do.

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He's definitive, he's clear, and

he will be faithful to his word.

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In chapter seven, God begins to send

the plagues upon Egypt, the phrase

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that they may know that I am the Lord

appears many times throughout Exodus.

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God is revealing his power and

might to the Egyptians, to Pharaoh,

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and also to the Israelites.

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He's showing them that he will rescue them

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and with it there will be a systematic

dismantling of the Egyptian Gods.

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God reveals he is the one true God.

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We see a curious tension as we're

told that God will harden Pharaoh's

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heart, but we're also told that Pharaoh

hardens his own heart my MacArthur

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commentary says that 10 times God

hardened the king's heart and 10

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times the king hardened his own heart.

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In Romans nine, Paul

talks more about this.

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Romans nine 14 begins,

what shall we say then?

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Is there injustice on God's part?

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By no means for, he says to Moses,

I will have mercy on whom I have

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mercy, and I will have compassion

on whom I have compassion.

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So then it depends, not on human will

or exertion, but on God who has mercy

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for the scripture says to Pharaoh for

this very purpose, I have raised you

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up that I might show my power in you.

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and that my name might be

proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on whomever he

wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

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You will say to me, then,

why does he still find fault

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or who can resist his will?

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But who are you O man

to answer back to God.

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Will, what has been

molded say to its molder?

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Why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the

clay to make out of the same lump

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one vessel for honorable use and

another for dishonorable use.

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What if God desiring to show his

wrath and to make known his power?

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Has endured with much patience, vessels

of wrath, prepared for destruction

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in order to make known the riches

of his glory for vessels of mercy,

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John Piper claims that Romans nine

is the chapter of scripture he has

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received the most questions about in the

history of his ask Pastor John podcast.

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It feels complicated to

reconcile this tension of.

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How was Pharaoh's heart hardened?

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Was it God or was it Pharaoh?

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But I learned a new word

studying my moody commentary.

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It says, this is a classic case of

compatible, not cannibalism compatible,

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which simply means that the determined

plan, purpose, or action of God.

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Is compatible with the

free act of an agent.

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Meaning God knew Pharaoh's heart

was hard, and as Pharaoh hardened

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his heart, God continued to harden

it and in this act of hardening one

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man's heart, the Lord was able to

rescue and redeem an entire nation.

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I want you to think about this as

though it were someone like Hitler.

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Someone who was already so evil and was

oppressing an entire nation, and then

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what if the Lord allowed the destruction

of that man for the saving of many?

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What's unfair is not that Pharaoh

was devoted to destruction, but that

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we get to receive the righteousness

of Christ and that we get his mercy.

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if we look at the whole of scripture, it

overwhelmingly points to the fact that God

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softens hearts and draws people to him.

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One of my favorite of these

verses is in Ezekiel 36, verse 26.

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God says, I will give you a new heart

and a new spirit I will put within you,

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and I will remove the heart of stone from

your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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And I will put my spirit within you

and cause you to walk in the statutes

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and be careful to obey my rules.

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This is a prayer I often pray both

for non-believers, but even in my

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own heart, when I'm struggling to

love or forgive as God would have me.

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With that understanding, let's

look more at today's reading.

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In the first of the 10 PLAs, God

turns the Nile River to blood.

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This isn't red dye.

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This is actual blood.

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It's their source of water and it's a

direct attack on hoppy who they believed

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was the spirit of the Nile and on Osiris.

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And it was said that the

Nile was his bloodstream.

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The magicians were able to duplicate this.

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If we look at other verses in scripture,

we realize this would probably be rooted

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in demonic activity the second plague,

the plague of frogs, would've also

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been an attack against hapi and hacked,

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One of them even had a frog head.

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this was a revered symbol, in their

culture, and Pharaoh is pretty

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fed up with the frogs everywhere.

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In chapter eight, verse eight we're

told, then Pharaoh called Moses and

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Aaron and said, plead with the Lord

to take away the frogs from me and

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from my people, and I will let the

people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

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Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to

command me when I am to plead for you

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and for your servants and for your people

that the frogs may be cut off from you and

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your houses and be left only in the Nile.

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And he said, tomorrow.

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Moses said, be it as you say so

that you may know that there is

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no one like the Lord our God.

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The frogs shall go away from you and your

houses and your servants and your people.

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They shall be left only in the Nile.

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So Moses and Aaron went out from

Pharaoh and Moses cried to the Lord

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about the frogs as he had agreed

with Pharaoh, and the Lord did.

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According to the word of Moses, the frogs

died out in the houses, the courtyards

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and the fields, and they gathered them

together in heaps and the land stank.

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But when Pharaoh saw

that there was a respite.

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He hardened his heart and would not

listen to them as the Lord had said.

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Then the Lord brings the third plague of

the lice or the nats, this was an attack

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against Seb, the Earth, God of Egypt.

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Fascinatingly, the magicians

could not produce this.

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And I can't help but laugh in verse 19,

when the magicians say to Pharaoh, this

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is the finger of God, makes me think about

whenever I've been attacked by mosquitoes

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or had fruit flies or flies in my house.

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It's amazing how obnoxious

such a tiny thing can be.

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And in that same verse we're told, but

Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would

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not listen to them as the Lord had said.

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And then the fourth plague

comes with the flies.

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And in verse 28.

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So Pharaoh said, I will let

you go to sacrifice to the Lord

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your God in the wilderness only.

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You must not go very far away.

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Plead for me.

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Then Moses said, behold,

I'm going out from you.

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And I will plead with the Lord that the

swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh,

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from his servants and from his people.

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Tomorrow only let not Pharaoh

cheat again by not letting the

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people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

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And the Lord did.

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As Moses asked and removed the

swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from

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his servants and from his people.

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Not one remained, but Pharaoh

hardened his heart this time also.

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And did not let the people go.

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God is thorough.

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Not one fly remains.

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That's incredible evidence

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of his power, but Pharaoh doesn't listen.

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I'm amazed at the continued

intercession that God allows.

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God had allowed Job to intercede

on behalf of his friends.

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Abraham to intercede on behalf

of Sodom and Gomorrah and

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for Pharaoh over and over.

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He allows intercession on behalf of

people that do not follow him, and I

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love the specificity of the prayers.

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When do you want this to happen, Pharaoh?

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These are not random acts.

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They're happening exactly as God said.

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In most of the plagues, God warns fear

in advance with only a few exceptions.

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He is a God of clarity, and that's one

of the things that I've learned most from

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Scripture about how to parent my kids.

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God sets clear boundaries

and clear guidelines.

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He says, this is a line you may not cross,

and if you do, this is what will happen.

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We're not called to be wishy-washy

or to confuse our kids.

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They should know these are

righteous choices and these are not.

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And when you do this, this

is how I will respond.

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That's loving and it's helping guide them.

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In nine five, we read and the Lord

set a time saying tomorrow the Lord

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will do this thing in the land.

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And the next day, the Lord did this thing.

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All the livestock of the Egyptians

died, but not one of the livestock

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of the people of Israel died.

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And Pharaoh sent and behold, not one

of the livestock of Israel was dead.

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But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened

and he did not let the people go

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in the fourth plague.

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God had began to make a distinction

between his people and the Egyptians.

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It's a dramatic separation

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the Egyptians revered

bulls and cows as holy.

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The male god of fertility was

often represented as a bull

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and hathor, the goddess of the

sky was represented as a cow.

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God is continuing to bring down

their polytheistic beliefs.

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In 13 then the Lord said to Moses, rise up

early in the morning and present yourself

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before Pharaoh and say to him, thus,

says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews.

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Let my people go that they may serve me.

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For this time, I will send all my plagues

on you yourself, and on your servants and

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your people, so that you may know that

there is none like me in all the Earth.

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For by now, I could have put out

my hand and struck you and your

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people with pestilence, and you

would've been cut off from the earth.

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But for this purpose, I have raised you

up to show you my power so that my name

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may be proclaimed in all the earth.

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You are still exalting yourself against

my people and will not let them go.

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Behold, about this time tomorrow I

will cause very heavy hail to fall,

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such as has never been in Egypt from

the day it was founded until now.

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Now therefore, send, get your

livestock and all that you have in

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the field in a safe shelter for every

man and beast that is in the field

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and is not brought home will die.

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when the hail falls on them, then whoever

feared the word of the Lord among the

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servants of Pharaoh, hurried his slaves

and his livestock into the houses.

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But whoever did not pay attention

to the word of the Lord left his

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slaves and his livestock in the field

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on the Lord does what he says he will do.

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There was hail and fire flashing

continually, and in verse 27, then Pharaoh

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sent and called Moses and Aaron and

said to them, this time I have sinned.

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The Lord is in the right.

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I and my people are in the

wrong plead with the Lord.

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For there has been enough

of God's thunder and hail.

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And when Pharaoh sees that the rain

and the hail and the thunder have

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ceased, we're told he sinned yet again

and hardened his heart, let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we are truly grateful

that you have softened our hearts

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to the gospel, and we ask that you

would continue to soften them where

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there is bitterness, unforgiveness,

apathy, or indifference, transform

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us into the likeness of your son.

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We pray also for our kids

where they haven't been

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softened yet, to your goodness.

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Oh Lord, draw them to yourself.

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Guide us to be clear and consistently

follow through with discipline,

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but also to be gracious knowing

we have needed your mercy.

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Many times we thank you for your power

over creation, and we think of Jesus, that

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even the wind and the waves obeyed him.

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Lord, may we trust in your power

to move in our lives and be aware.

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Of where you already are.

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We pray you would use us

so that all around us would

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know that you are the Lord.

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In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.