Welcome to Part 2 of this week's podcast.

It's the power of pride, right?

The power of, I will not back down.

Even if I know I'm wrong, even if I've been shown I'm wrong.

I don't even want to see that I'm wrong.

I will not back down off of this.

And so Pharaoh chooses these plagues.

It's not the Lord.

That's what I think the point that we're trying to make is that it's not the Lord.

The Lord always gives Pharaoh a choice.

And it's Pharaoh who chooses that which brings about the Lord's promise.

His signs and wonders that if he doesn't let the Israelites go, then he and his people

will suffer the consequences.

And even in the Passover celebration among the Jewish people, there's this sense that Jehovah

is sorrowed over the fact that lives are being lost because of the hardness or the heaviness

of Pharaoh's heart.

He doesn't wish any of his children to have to suffer these kinds of things.

But they've been warned.

As you pointed out, it's God remembering his covenant.

And he would prefer to have all people join the covenant.

But because of Pharaoh's hardened heart or heavy heart, that won't happen.

So I just wanted to kind of make a general comment about the nature of the plagues.

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