Big Buts of the Bible

By the time we reach Exodus 10, Moses has obeyed God again and again.

He has spoken God’s words. He has witnessed miraculous signs. He has watched plague after plague unfold just as the Lord said.

Yet Pharaoh still refuses to let Israel go.

From a human perspective, it must have felt like hitting the same brick wall over and over.

Then comes the pivot.

“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart…”

At first glance, those words can be unsettling. Yet within the larger story of Exodus, they reveal something profoundly comforting:

Nothing was happening outside of God’s sovereign purpose.

Pharaoh’s resistance wasn’t derailing God’s plan.

It was revealing it.

Each delay displayed God’s power more clearly. Each refusal exposed the emptiness of Egypt’s false gods. Each plague moved God’s people one step closer to a freedom that only He could provide.

Sometimes we mistake resistance for failure.

We assume that if doors aren’t opening, if people won’t listen, or if circumstances refuse to change, then God must not be at work.

Exodus reminds us otherwise.

God is often accomplishing His deepest work behind the very obstacles we wish He would remove.

When you find yourself facing stubborn resistance—a closed door, a hardened heart, an unanswered prayer—don’t assume God has stopped writing the story.

He may be preparing a deliverance far greater than you can yet imagine.

The brick wall you’re staring at today may become tomorrow’s testimony that God’s purposes cannot be resisted forever.