Faith and trust

The Discipline of Faith: When God Permits Hardness to Continue

Exodus 10 reveals the essence of trust—it rests not on whether circumstances have changed, but on whether God still sits enthroned as King.

BibleVibe Editorial5 min read
Translation：ESV
Exodus 10:1-20
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Then GOD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am GOD.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the ETERNAL, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me. For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field. Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians—something that neither your fathers nor fathers’ fathers have seen from the day they appeared on earth to this day.’” With that he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence. Pharaoh’s courtiers said to him, “How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let those involved go to worship the ETERNAL their God! Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?” So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, “Go, worship the ETERNAL your God! Who are the ones to go?” Moses replied, “We will all go—regardless of our station—we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe GOD’s festival.” But he said to them, “GOD be with you—the same as I mean to let your dependents go with you! Clearly, you are bent on mischief. No! You gentlemen go and worship GOD, since that is what you want.” And they were expelled from Pharaoh’s presence. Then GOD said to Moses, “Hold out your arm over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat up all the grasses in the land, whatever the hail has left.” So Moses held out his rod over the land of Egypt, and GOD drove an east wind over the land all that day and all night; and when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. Locusts invaded all the land of Egypt and settled within all the territory of Egypt in a thick mass; never before had there been so many, nor will there ever be so many again. They hid all the land from view, and the land was darkened; and they ate up all the grasses of the field and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, so that nothing green was left, of tree or grass of the field, in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh hurriedly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I stand guilty before the ETERNAL your God and before you. Forgive my offense just this once, and plead with the ETERNAL your God that this death but be removed from me.” So he left Pharaoh’s presence and pleaded with GOD. GOD caused a shift to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. But GOD stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. Then GOD said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days no one could move about; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings. Pharaoh then summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship GOD! Only your flocks and your herds shall be left behind; even your dependents may go with you.” But Moses said, “You yourself must provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer up to the ETERNAL our God; our own livestock, too, shall go along with us—not a hoof shall remain behind: for we must select from it for the worship of the ETERNAL our God; and we shall not know with what we are to worship GOD until we arrive there.” But GOD stiffened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not agree to let them go. Pharaoh said to him, “Be gone from me! Take care not to see me again, for the moment you look upon my face you shall die.” And Moses replied, “You have spoken rightly. I shall not see your face again!”

Exodus 10:1–20 records the eighth plague (locusts) and Pharaoh's partial, negotiating 'repentance.' The court officials finally break ranks: 'How long shall this one be a snare to us?' Yet Pharaoh still will not release the whole people—only the men. Faith here is tested in the gap between partial surrender and full obedience.

📖 Exodus
🕰️ Exodus & Settlement Period📍 Mount Sinai / Egypt
Narration

Setting the Scene

Exodus 10 sits at the climax of the ten plagues narrative. Seven plagues have already fallen on Egypt (blood, frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils, hail). Pharaoh has repeatedly promised to release Israel and then reneged. Now God announces to Moses: 'I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them' (Exod 10:1). The purpose stated is twofold—to display God's signs before Egypt and to create a testimony that will be told 'in the hearing of your child and of your child's child' (v. 2). The plague of locusts is unique in its scope: nothing like it has been seen 'from the day they appeared on earth to this day' (v. 6). For the first time, Pharaoh's own courtiers openly rebel against his obstinacy: 'How long shall this one be a snare to us?… Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?' (v. 7). Pharaoh offers a compromise—let the men go but keep the families. Moses refuses. The negotiation breaks down. Pharaoh expels Moses and Aaron from his presence (v. 11). Then God commands Moses to stretch out his rod to bring the locusts. The chapter ends with the locust invasion devouring everything the hail had left. Geographically, the events unfold in the Nile delta region of Egypt, with Moses repeatedly approaching Pharaoh's palace. Historically, this episode belongs to the late Bronze Age setting of the Exodus, conventionally dated to the second millennium BC. Theologically, the passage frames the hardening of Pharaoh's heart not as arbitrary cruelty but as the stage on which God will publicly establish His identity: 'that you may know that I am GOD' (v. 2). This verse echoes the covenant name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14 and the confession later echoed in Deuteronomy 6:4. Josephus, writing in the first century AD, treats this plague as a deliberate escalation: 'the locusts were sent to demonstrate that neither the fruit of the earth nor any other good thing comes from any other source than the will of God' (Josephus, Antiquities 2.14). The court officials' protest prefigures a recurring biblical pattern: pagan powers eventually perceive the cost of resisting God before His covenant people do. In this passage, faith and trust (信心与信靠) are not abstract virtues—they are forged in the furnace of an unrepentant heart that controls everyone except those who have already decided to follow the LORD.

The Scene in Space and Time

Set during the First Temple era at Mount Sinai, where Israel's covenant faith was forged amid wilderness wandering and divine encounter.

What the Text Means

The text unfolds a layered theology of faith and trust. (1) Faith is not naïve optimism. Moses does not pretend that Pharaoh is softening; he announces an even worse plague if there is no repentance (vv. 4–6). Trust in God does not require denying reality; it requires telling the truth about reality while resting in God's sovereignty over it. (2) God's purpose in delayed judgment is testimony. Verse 1–2 reveals the hidden 'why' behind Pharaoh's hardness: so that the signs will be displayed and so that the story will be told to future generations. What looks like God's inaction is actually His long-term catechism. The children of Israel—and later their children—will learn who Yahweh is by recounting what He did. Faith trusts that God's timeline is pedagogical, not just punitive. (3) Partial surrender is not surrender. Pharaoh's offer in verse 8 ('Go, worship the LORD your God!') sounds like breakthrough, but verse 11 exposes it: he will only let the men go, not the families, not the flocks. Moses refuses the compromise: 'We will all go—regardless of our station' (v. 9). Faith refuses to negotiate the terms of obedience. You cannot worship the LORD in pieces. (4) Surrounding voices often see truth before we do. Pharaoh's own courtiers become an unexpected testimony: 'Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?' (v. 7). Sometimes the people outside the church, outside the family, see the cost of unbelief more clearly than the one caught in it. Faith sometimes means listening to the warning of those who have nothing to gain from your repentance but who love you enough to name your ruin. (5) Hardness can be contagious—but so can faithfulness. Pharaoh hardens his court; Moses and Aaron stand together; the courtiers begin to crack. Faith is the quiet discipline of staying soft before God when everyone around you is negotiating, compromising, or breaking. (6) God's name is the goal. The chapter opens and closes with the refrain 'that you may know that I am GOD' (vv. 1–2). Faith is not ultimately about outcomes we can measure; it is about knowing the One who holds all outcomes. Trust is the willingness to act on that knowledge even when the locusts have not yet come—or even when, as here, they are coming precisely because trust has not yet arrived.

Living It Out Today

How do we practice faith and trust when the situation looks exactly like Exodus 10? First, name what you see honestly. Moses did not minimize Pharaoh's obstinacy. Bring your real situation—your diagnosis, your financial report, your strained relationship—before God without dressing it up. Faith begins with truthful speech to the One who already knows. Second, refuse the negotiated version of obedience. The temptation in our culture is to slice obedience into manageable religious pieces—'I'll believe, but I'll keep my escape plan; I'll worship, but I'll hold onto my idol.' Moses answered Pharaoh's compromise with a clean 'we will all go.' Where is the Spirit asking you to stop negotiating partial obedience? Third, listen to the chorus around you. Sometimes the people who love you best—the spouse, the friend, the counselor—see the snare you cannot see. Pharaoh's courtiers named it; Pharaoh refused to hear. Be quicker to hear than Pharaoh was. Fourth, remember that delay is not abandonment. God told Moses the hardening would continue until the signs were fully displayed and the testimony was complete. The locusts had to come. The Passover night had to come. The Red Sea had to come. Your 'not yet' is part of a story being written for generations you will never meet. Fifth, ask God to keep you soft. Hardening is real, and it is contagious. Daily confession, weekly worship, persistent prayer—these are not mere duties; they are the means by which the Spirit keeps the heart pliable. Pharaoh's courtiers finally cracked; Pharaoh himself, in this chapter, only bends a little. The difference is whether we let the pressure of delayed grace push us toward God or push us deeper into self-reliance. Faith and trust, then, are the practices that keep us standing in Pharaoh's doorway one more day—not because the situation has improved, but because we have decided, again, that the Lord is worthy to be worshiped in full.

Reflection

Lord of the locusts and Lord of the softening, we confess that we are often more like Pharaoh than like Moses. We negotiate. We offer partial obedience. We watch the fields of our lives being stripped and we bargain: just let me keep the family, just let me keep the flocks, just let me keep one corner of my heart for myself. Forgive us. By Your Spirit, give us the faith of Moses—who stood in the doorway and said 'we will all go.' Give us the courage of the unnamed courtier who finally asked, 'How long?' And give us the patience of Moses, who trusted that Your purposes for our children and our children's children are worth the locusts we must now endure. We worship You, not in pieces, but in full. In the name of Jesus, who refused every compromise on the way to the cross, we pray. Amen.

FAQ

If God had already hardened Pharaoh's heart, why did He still send Moses to plead with him?

Exodus 10:1–2 supplies the answer: God permitted the hardness to continue so that His signs would be displayed among Egypt and so that the story could be recounted to future generations. The pleading itself is one of the means God uses—never wasted, always purposeful.

What does Pharaoh's compromise (let only the men go) versus Moses' insistence (we will all go) reveal?

It exposes that obedience cannot be sliced. Worship of God is not a religious activity where we pick the participants; it is whole-family, whole-life surrender. Moses refused the compromise because faith rejects negotiated obedience.

How are faith and trust distinguished in this chapter?

Faith is the conviction about who God is—that He is the LORD and will accomplish His word. Trust is the act of placing one's life upon that conviction—stepping into Pharaoh's presence to declare God's message even before the locusts arrive.

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