This year I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”. I have now done this long enough to say that I am glad I made the change. I am firmly convinced that the One Year Bible Online is a great way to read through the Bible in a year. It breaks the parts of the Bible which can be a struggle to read into manageable portions. However, I think that the Daily Bible Reading Schedule I am using now is a better format for doing a daily Bible study.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 7-9.

    Despite Moses’ reluctance, Aaron and Moses returned to Pharaoh at God’s direction. First, Moses made the demands of Pharaoh and Aaron cast his staff on the ground where it became a snake. Pharaoh’s advisers duplicated Aaron’s action causing Pharaoh to disregard God’s power…even after the snake from Aaron’s staff swallowed up the serpents from his advisers’ staves. Step by step the situation escalated from there. God would send Moses before Pharaoh to demand that he let the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship God. Pharaoh would refuse. God would send a plague. Pharaoh would agree to let the people go, if only Moses would lift the plague. Moses would lift the plague and Pharaoh would have a change of heart.

    Reading between the lines, I am convinced that Pharaoh believed that what Moses was doing were tricks of some kind. When the trouble departed, Pharaoh was sure that Moses could not bring it, or something worse, back. Time and again Pharaoh claimed to be convinced, claimed to believe in the power of God, only to renege on his agreement. The final plague in today’s passage is the hail storm. When Moses warned Pharaoh and his court that a hailstorm which would kill any exposed people or livestock was coming, only a few believed him and took action. So when Pharaoh told Moses that this time he would finally let the Israelites go, Moses told him outright that he knew neither Pharaoh nor his court feared God. They were still convinced that this was all some trick on the part of Moses. They were convinced that, sooner or later, he would run out of tricks.