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.
By this point, Pharaoh has already watched plague after plague hit his country and has hardened himself against every one of them. This verse, spoken through Moses, is unusually direct about why Pharaoh is even still around: "for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."
That's an uncomfortable claim, if you sit with it. Pharaoh isn't just a villain who happens to be resisting God — his continued existence in the story is, somehow, part of what makes God's power visible on a wider stage than it otherwise would have been. Even someone actively opposing what's happening ends up serving a larger purpose he never intended or agreed to.
You don't have to fully resolve what that means about human freedom and resistance to notice the bigger point: this verse insists that nothing — not even outright defiance — actually derails what God is doing. If that's true even for a king actively fighting against it, it says something about whatever situation currently feels like it's spinning out of anyone's control, including yours.
What's the situation that currently feels completely out of control, and would it change anything to consider that it might not be?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.