Let’s just say it…’cause we’re all thinking it…these plagues are cray-cray. Right? I mean, hail that killed any beast or servant left in the field?! And let’s not forget about the locusts. So many locusts that “they will cover the land so that you won’t be able to see the ground. They will devour what little is left of your crops after the hailstorm, including all the trees growing in the fields.” (Exodus 10:5 NLT). Ummmm…you know what gives me the heebie-jeebies? ONE locust. Just one. 

I would like to think that if I were Pharaoh it would have only taken one drop of hail or one locust to change my mind, to give up my control. But let’s just be honest. We love control. We love to think we’re in control, don’t we? Because in our heart of hearts we are all Pharaohs. We struggle to give up control because we think we know what’s best. Spoiler alert: we don’t. God has been and always will be the One in control. And God, in His mercy, gives us chance after chance to lay down our pride and give up the “control” we never really had in the first place. 

What are the areas of your life where you need to give up control? Who or what have you hardened your heart towards?

This story does not end well for Pharaoh. But it does end well for God’s people. Because God had a rescue plan. Because our God is in the heart-rescuing business. The tenth and final plague took the firstborn son of every family in Egypt. UNLESS! (Insert rescue plan!) Unless they took their best lamb, sacrificed it and put some of its blood on their doors. “But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:13 NLT)

Crazy, right?! Jews still celebrate this incredible rescue plan that happened thousands of years ago. But what’s even more incredible is that this rescue plan is a reminder of the ultimate rescue plan that would come through Jesus. Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb that would die instead of us. His blood would cover our sin-stained hearts. And that is the best rescue plan of all.