The seventh plague came and went and Pharaoh still could not
bring himself to let us leave Egypt. Imagine the exasperation! God said that there would be a redemption with signs and wonders and
yet, we were still in Egypt. Pharaoh was
being obstinate. Where was the promised
redemption?
The first Midrash[1] on the parasha explains that
we did not deserve to be redeemed. God had made us His own and instead of
embracing God we angered Him by not renouncing idol worship. For this we deserved to be destroyed.[2] God redeemed us so that Pharaoh would not say
that God destroyed them because he was unable to redeem them. In order to redeem us in spite of ourselves,
God caused Pharaoh to be obstinate. As a
result of Pharaoh’s obstinacy we were redeemed.
With this Midrash we can understand a pasuk in Mishlei (27:3),
“ כֹּבֶד־אֶבֶן וְנֵטֶל הַחוֹל וְכַעַס
אֱוִיל כָבֵד מִשְּׁנֵיהֶם/A stone
has weight and sand has mass, but the anger of a fool is heavier than
both.” The beginning of this
pasuk refers to the nation of Israel.
The Hebrew word for weight – כּוֹבֶד – has the same root as the word for honor – כָּבוֹד. God honored the nation of Israel. We angered God, though. The end of the pasuk – the anger of a fool –
refers to Pharaoh. We could not be
redeemed immediately on our own merit.
So, God orchestrated a series of events whereby Pharaoh’s obstinacy
would be his undoing.
God explains this to Moshe Rabbeinu at the beginning of our
parsha, “... בֹּא אֶל־פַּרְעֹה
כִּי־אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת־לִבּוֹ .../Go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his
heart …” (Shmos 10:1) The
situation in Egypt did not seem promising for the nation of
Israel. Pharaoh was showing no sign of
weakening his resolve to keep the Jews even after seven terrible plagues. God tells Moshe not to despair and not to be
concerned for it was He who had hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to be able to
redeem the unworthy nation. What
appeared to be a cause for concern was actually the very thing that permitted
the nation to be redeemed.
This is an important lesson for each of us when we find
ourselves in a predicament and wonder where God is. Why isn’t He helping me? The lesson of Egypt teaches us not to despair in
these situations. We can remember that
Pharaoh’s stubbornness was really a blessing in disguise. It was the very thing that brought about the
redemption.
God is always helping us.
In every situation He has our best interests in mind. Even if we do not understand how, we can
understand that God arranges everything that happens to us for our own benefit.
No comments:
Post a Comment