Who’s in charge here? Well, Pharaoh didn’t think there was any question about it – of course he himself was. He was the most powerful man in the richest, most powerful country in the world. No one could tell him what to do, and he certainly didn’t have to pay the least bit of attention to the representatives of a people who were nothing more than his slaves.

But that was before the Nile River turned to blood. That was before the frogs and gnats and flies overran the country. That was before all the livestock died, and boils covered all the people and hail flattened everything living in the fields. Time after time, Pharaoh would beg the God of his slaves to give him some relief. But every time the relief came, Pharoah went right back to his proud, self-sufficient ways.

And don’t we all prefer to think we are in charge, at least of our own lives? Oh, sure, when we are scared or in big trouble we tend to pray, and we might even make promises to serve God more consistently. But how well do we keep those promises once things improve? And when things are going the way we think they should, it’s so easy for us to imagine that we are in control. It’s so easy for us to turn our backs on God and live according to our own reason or experience.

That’s why the plagues on Egypt should be so shocking. For God didn’t just tell Moses exactly when He would send His great acts of judgment on the Egyptians (see 9:5). And God didn’t just decide what parts of the country would be devastated, afflicting the Egyptians while protecting His own people (9:4,6). No, God also controlled Pharaoh’s stubborn reaction to the plagues: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (9:12). No, regardless of what we might want to think, none of us are by any means in charge. Of anything. Not even of ourselves.

But why did God say He sent all those plagues, and kept the Egyptians alive so that they could see them? “In order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth” (9:16). And that’s actually good news for us today: for God is always working out the circumstances of our lives to reveal His glory to us and to others, to bring us to the point of surrender to Him so that He might save us from our pride and our arrogance and our rebellion against Him.

So today, let’s not harden our hearts against God. Let’s give up the delusion that we are in charge, and surrender to Him, living in the light and truth of His sovereign grace.

Exodus 9:1-17 (NASB)

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and speak to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
2 “For if you refuse to let them go, and continue to hold them,
3 behold, the hand of the LORD will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks.
4 “But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.”‘”
5 And the LORD set a definite time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”
6 So the LORD did this thing on the morrow, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died.
7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not even one of the livestock of Israel dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
8 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh.
9 “And it will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.”
10 So they took soot from a kiln, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast.
11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.
12 And the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
13 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
14 “For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
15 “For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth.
16 “But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.
17 “Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.