The God of the Whole Earth

When God announces a judgment, He gives an opportunity for those involved to respond to His mercy and forgiveness. Sodom would have been spared if ten righteous (believers) would have been found in the city. Nineveh was spared when “they turned from their evil way.”

During the process of delivering His people from Egypt, God’s mercy for the Egyptians seems to have been extended to them. “He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:” (Exodus 9:20). Some of Pharaoh’s servants had more discernment than he. They “feared the word of the LORD.” Feared speaks of faith or belief. They had come to the point that they believed what God was saying through Moses.

God had announced to Pharaoh that the plagues would come “that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14b). He said also to Pharaoh, “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exodus 9:16).

Because of what I usually heard from the pulpits when I was a young boy and because of what I perceived from Biblical films, I always reasoned that Pharaoh was one cruel dictator who would destroy anyone who stood in his way or disobeyed him. Yet, I was amazed (as I have been several times) when a scripture leaped out at me concerning this. After putting up with all the bodies of water turning into blood; frogs; dust/lice; flies; murrain that killed horses, asses, camels, oxen and sheep; boils and hail, these servants rebuked this hardened monarch.

This rebuke came after Moses announced that the next plague would be the coming of locusts. They indicated that they had had enough. “And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?” (Exodus 10:7) I would probably have said: “Oh Most Royal Dumb One…do you not yet have a clue?”

God desired that they should know that there was none like Him in all the earth and that the Egyptians would know that He was the Lord. “And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people” (Exodus 11:3).

None of us know if any of the Egyptians were declared righteous through all this. I personally believe there could have been some if they “believed” God as Abraham did.

You missionaries serve in countries where the government is usually not favorable to your ministry for the gospel. However, the citizens (servants) of the land are individual souls who can believe and reject the false religion of the state. God wants the earth to know of His provision for the soul through His Dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s our job...to tell the whole earth of our Great God and Saviour. When Christ comes to rule and reign then Israel shall be restored as the wife of Jehovah and her “seed shall inherit the Gentiles” (Vs. 3 of Isaiah 54:1-3). Verse 5 of the same passage states: “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”