Eighth Action to Dismantle a Mindset
Exodus 10: 8 So Moses and Aaron were
brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve
the Lord your God. Who are the ones that are going?”
9 And Moses said, “We will go with
our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our
herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”
10 Then he said to them,
“The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones
go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you. 11 Not so! Go
now, you who are men, and serve the Lord, for that is
what you desired.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 Then the Lord said to
Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that
they may come upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land—all
that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out
his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind on
the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning,
the east wind brought the locusts. 14 And the
locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of
Egypt. They were very severe; previously there had been
no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them. 15 For
they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened;
and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which
the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the
plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.
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When Pharaoh’s servants asked him to do something about the
pending situation, Pharaoh went into negotiation mode. He asked Moses, who
would go. Moses said, “Everyone and their livestock.” Pharaoh countered the
statement with “Men only.” GOD waited on Moses to hold up his rod, then HE
caused locusts to come in and eat anything that was salvageable from the
broken, burnt trees.
My Observations:
- GOD
was addressing the unhealthy pride of Pharaoh and those who followed him.
- GOD
wanted them to surrender their cruelty, slavery and superiority way of
thinking.
- GOD
took away their source of food that they were known for when Joseph stored
up grain to save the Egyptians decades prior to this plague.
Dismantling the mindset versus killing the people seems to
be what GOD was doing. HE saw the pride in the Egyptians who took Joseph’s
direction by storing up grain in mass warehouses. When the famine ended after
Joseph’s time, the Egyptians may have kept going with producing large amounts
of food and selling it to surrounding areas.
GOD sent locusts to eat every little crumb and every morsel
that was green. There would be nothing left to be proud of. Pride is one of
GOD’s things HE despises. HE gave Pharaoh many chances to do the opposite of
pride, namely surrender. HE does the same with you and me. When we dig our
heels in versus surrendering to GOD’s will, we act like Pharaoh. GOD was
dismantling pride for everyone.
Challenge
- Why
does GOD remind Moses about Pharaoh’s refusal to let the people go?
- What
thing are you refusing to surrender, despite the warnings you have
received?
- Are
you open to asking GOD about what you need to surrender to HIM that is
blocking your success?
