E18 Exodus 6-11 – Humility or Humiliation: Its Our Choice

The struggle of Moses and Pharaoh is an epic confrontation in the Bible between humility vs. arrogance. Moses was the most humble man on the face earth (Numbers 12:3). And, his nemesis Pharaoh,  was the personification of arrogance.

Ten times Moses confronted Pharaoh, ten times Pharaoh "hardened" his heart; and suffered the consequences. Eventually, The most humble man, confronted the most arrogant man with one question from God: "This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? (Ex. 10:3)

That question cuts right to us. How long will we refuse to humble ourselves? From the story we deduct that Pharaoh's biggest problem was not sin or immorality; His biggest problem was arrogance.  God can work with a sinner, He cant work with the arrogant.

What if our biggest problem is not sin? We can become so focused in managing our sin that we neglect its root cause, arrogance. Ask yourself, do you spend more time in confession (and guilt) than on intentional humility?

The story is the ten plagues is not just a story of God leading out the Israelites out of Egypt; its also a story of God reaching out to an arrogant man.  Before the plagues began God declares their purpose: that "the Egyptians will know than I am the LORD (Ex 7:5, 9:16) God was reaching out to Pharaoh.

When we refuse to humble ourselves (1Pet 5:6), we force God to humble us. When we do it it's called humility; when God has to do it its called humiliation. Its our choice!