BRAGADAYJAH 187

A heart set against God is not easily shaken unless the Lord himself shakes it. Sometimes, the Lord will have his way with us; but sometimes He simply lets us have our way without Him. Quite often having had our way, we realize too late that it has been the wrong way; but then we may find refuge and forgiveness in Him, as long as we are prepared to wear the scars of our errant ways. Even as the Lord prepared to rain down hail and fire from above, He showed a measure of mercy towards Egypt, perhaps because of the people who were being led astray and ruled by a hardened heart; so He cautioned them to take the cattle and livestock from out in the fields and put them indoors so that they too would not be consumed. So at the appointed time, Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven; and the Lord sent thunder, hail and fire down upon and over the land of Egypt. And the hall and fire burnt up everything that was in the field, man and beast and grass; everything was consumed by the hail and the fire throughout the land of Egypt, save that no harm fell upon the area of Goshen where God’s people dwelled. And so it came to pass that in the midst of that great and dreadful hail and firestorm, Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and confessed to them that He and his people had done wickedly. “We have sinned,” the Pharaoh confessed to Moses. “Therefore please go to the Lord for us and beg for mercy. I promise that this time I will let the people go; only let there be no more thundering and hail and fire. This time I mean it when I say I will let the people go”. This was Pharaoh’s third promise to let the people go. But Moses was told by the Lord before hand that Pharaoh would eventually let the people go. So that it’s not difficult to understand why Moses, who no doubt was getting somewhat frustrated with the yes, no antics of the Pharaoh, would want to listen to his promise to let the people go. Once again Moses went to the Lord with the Pharaoh’s request. His job was to lead the people out; not to wrestle with the Pharaoh; so he took him at his word even though the Pharaoh had deceived him twice before. More.