When purchasing a house, you need to go to the basement and look at the foundation. This is especially true when houses are old. I have seen more than one basement which was crumbling. Such a house should probably not be purchased.

The absence of wisdom in our life is like those crumbling basements.

“I promise . . . ” “Take my word for it . . . ” Famous last words from people who make promises only to break them. We take someone at their word to discover their word didn’t amount to much. Marriage vows are no longer taken seriously. Relationships are full of heartache and disappointment, misuse and abuse. Trust is nowhere to be found.

Such was the case with the children of Israel.

Pharaoh asks the question, “Who is this LORD and why should I obey him . . . ?” (Exodus 5:2), and Moses is God’s mouthpiece to answer him. Moses has been specially preserved and prepared by God for eighty years to be Israel’s deliverer. Now God will prepare Pharaoh and the Egyptians to fulfill his plan of redemption. Pharaoh’s unwillingness to acknowledge the all-powerful God unleashes a series of plagues that show God’s power over all the gods of Egypt

“Let my people go” (8:2). This is the focus of God’s Story in Exodus. The book opens in slavery and closes with Israel in freedom to worship God. It is tempting to look at the plagues God brought to Egypt simply as agents of destruction but their purpose was to save his people. God is in the business of redemption. Why frogs? They were considered sacred, a symbol of fertility, by the Egyptians.

A pattern emerges as the fourth plague is released by God. We see a symmetrical, unfolding scheme. The first nine plagues are a series of three plagues each. The first is announced by Moses at the Nile, the second by Moses at the palace and the third without warning. The final one is the climax of all that came before, “I am the Lord, and I will punish the gods of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12b). As the swarms of flies are released into Egypt, God makes a distinction between his people and the Egyptians.

Through every blow on Egypt, every warning from Moses, every suffering of his people, the Pharaoh remained recalcitrant and defiant. Even when he tried to negotiate with God, or made promises he didn’t keep, Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding (v7). It can be distracting to focus on the phrase, “he made the king too stubborn to listen” (v12) and claim that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Pharaoh’s path was chosen and his hard heart was a consequence and culmination of all his decisions up to that point.

Study the history of the children of Israel and you will see a pattern emerge. The psalmist sees a pattern in the story of the children of Isreal.

He begins with a long distance view and sees the hand of God in the past. God blessed His people with favour. Crops grew. The economy was strong. Peace reigned in the land. But in experiencing plenty, the Israelites forgot God. They slowly drifted away from his righteous ways and fell into sin – often heinous sin.