SUNDAY, AUGUST 20
Scripture: Exodus 9:15-23, Isaiah 26:9

Exodus 9:15-23 says, “‘Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now. Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.’ He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses. But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt—on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.’ And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.” Now we see God beginning to increase His manifestations of judgment. But He does it in such a way as to spare all those who have become believers through the previous six judgments. The seventh judgment was so severe that it came with mercy for all those who had begun to fear the Word of the Lord that was in Moses’s mouth. And because we know the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then we know judgments create wisdom and inspire fear leading to salvations. People got to know and revere God because of the judgments God performed. And that is what we see here. Verse 20 says, “He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses. But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.” By the seventh judgment, how many of Pharaoh’s servants feared the Lord? I suspect there were more than a few. By the seventh judgment, God was starting to win the hearts of the Egyptian people and even some of Pharaoh’s servants. God was not just setting His people free, He was making believers out of a number of those involved. Salvation was coming from God’s divine interventions as the Word said it would. In Isaiah 26:9 God declares, “With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”