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Exodus 9:13-10:20, Aaaand Two More Plagues

Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today

You are still exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go.
— Exodus 9:17

NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, October 3, 2019

by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff


Pharaoh was generally a stubborn dude. But here, God calls him out specifically for his lack of humility. His enslavement of an entire people came down to the belief that he was better than them, that they were somehow less human than his own people. And God says, resoundingly, “Not so!” and proves it with plague after plague after plague.

Pharaoh is alive and well today in institutionalized racism, unjust systems, hateful rhetoric, and everyday micro-aggressions toward people of color, immigrants, anyone those with privilege deem to be “other” and therefore “lesser.” God proclaims, “Not so!” and challenges every one of us to recognize our own lack of humility, which leads us to complicity in the dehumanization of God’s beloved people, created in God’s own image.

God of Justice, teach me humility, that I might embrace each and every beautiful person you have created in love. Amen.