"This is the finger of God"

Yesterday's Lent reading brought us to the beginning of the plagues. There were a few things that stood out to me as I read a story that I was very familiar with from the book of Exodus. But there was one in particular that I had not seen before. Before we get to that verse we need a little context. With the first two plagues (Nile turns to blood and invasion of frogs) Pharaoh's magicians and sorceress were able to replicate the plague (at least enough for Pharaoh to believe that his gods could combat this assault by the Hebrews God). But then we read this in Exodus 8:18–19:

[18] The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. [19] Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. (ESV) 

Again with this plague the Egyptian magicians tried, like with the first two, to replicate it. But they couldn't. With all their earthly knowledge and dark arts, they had no answer. The only thing that they could tell their ruler was that it was "the finger of God." This exact term is used later in Exodus when God carves the ten commandments into stone and again in Luke when Jesus cast out demons by "the finger of God". In other places in scripture various author refer to God's hand in reference to both his power and protection. But getting back to the text, there was no explanation and we see the command of the Lord starting to take hold of Pharaoh. Of course, his heart would be hardened because God was not finished with his judgement of Egypt (for their treatment of His people) or showing His power and deliverance to his people (so they would know that He was their God and they were His people, Exodus 6:7).

The world still operates like this today, they have an explanation for everything. We can show the power and beauty of God in nature, the moving of God in history, even the work of the Lord in our own life and often through one way or another people will try and explain it away. Often, we want to stand up and argue, to "prove God right" (as if He needed our help). There is a time and place for us to use persuasive arguments on moral, historical, and scientific issues. But sometimes I think when it comes to sharing Jesus with some people (especially those that we have a relationship with and can continue to share) that we need to simply love, continue to share the gospel, and there will come a time when they run out of explanations and we will be there to lead them to the one who is the answer.

-JD