For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exodus 9:14
But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.
Exodus 9:16
God wants his name to be proclaimed throughout the earth. He created it. He is the designer of our whole existence and has rightful ownership over this earth. He designed this to be our dwelling place and to learn to walk in fellowship with him.
God wants his name to be proclaimed because His name is the only hope for humanity. The more I consider that the creature has rebelled against his creator seems a little like nonsense. If I had created a piece of art, designing it for a specific purpose, and that which I created decided to rebel and say that it was not interested in what I wanted but wanted to do its own thing, sounds insane. Humanity needs to learn to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, but sin has made that impossible on our own.
God wants his name to be proclaimed even among those who harden their hearts to him. Part of this, in the most basic framework, relates back to the concept that no one will be without excuse (Rom.1:20). God will not be unjust to condemn those who are “innocent,” but we have to remember that no one will be able to stand before God and say they are innocent. Remember – “those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten of the Father” (John 3:18).
God wants his name proclaimed because He is unique. There is no one that is like God. There are no other gods because He is the one and only God of all creation and humanity. That does not mean that man has not created all kinds of things to worship other than God. Mankind has exchanged the glory of God for an image from what God himself created (Rom.1:23). Mankind has exchanged the truth of God for a lie (Rom. 1:25).
God wants his name proclaimed because He is worthy of our praise. The issue here is not comparative religious systems nor is the issue which theological system has more merit. The singular reality-check is that there is only one God and we owe everything to him.
God wants his name proclaimed because there is salvation in no one else. If I extrapolate the context of Passover where God delivers the Jews from their enslavement to Egypt, we have a wonderful picture of the gospel. Man is enslaved to the dominion of darkness (Satan) and we are just as enslaved to him as Israel was to Pharaoh. The burden is excessive and deliverance was a testing of faith for the Jews. It was also difficult for Moses because he caught the oppressive attitude of Pharaoh.
All that to say that God still wants his name proclaimed through the earth. God repeats several times to Pharaoh, “let my people go that they may serve Me.” (8:1, 20; 9:1, 13). God’s people are not delivered so they can create their own nation. God called them out of Egypt to be a nation that would serve Him and his purpose in the world. Christ commanded his men to go make disciples (of Christ), to proclaim the gospel, and to be ambassadors for Him. For us, that kingdom work centers on the gospel and the person of Christ.
In His grace,
Pastor Brad
