Ex. 9-11
I noticed an interesting thing in chapter 9 that I had never noticed before. After the sixth plague – the boils – is the first time the text specifies that the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Previously it was “Pharaoh hardened his heart”, or “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened”. What I noticed this morning is that before the seventh plague – the hail, which is likely the first plague that actually threatened human life – God instructed the Egyptians to “get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.” (Ex 9:19) Perhaps God gave them escape instructions for this particular plague because of the threat to human life, but I found the timing in relation to the shift in who was hardening Pharaoh’s heart to be interesting.
Mat. 25:31-46
Back to motives and attitudes…this passage seems to me to be stressing the importance of serving, in whatever capacity, as unto the LORD. That is, whatever you do for another, you do for God, as if that other was Jesus. It isn’t the things that you do to be noticed or to receive accolades, or the things you do for the person specifically – because that person means something to you, -that matter. It is the things you do for God, to love and to honor Him, no matter who it is directed toward, that matter. This is where “love your enemies” comes into play – when you love the unlovable, when you act out love to someone you do not necessarily feel love for, when you give love to those who don’t deserve it, it is then that you are being most like Christ.