Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go. (Exodus 9:15-17)

God Uses Evil Men For His Purpose

The Hebrews had been in Egypt for more than four hundred years. They had grown into a nation within a nation that brought fear to the leadership of the most powerful nation on earth. A Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph, nor did he care about the plight of the Hebrews. He did worry they might become so mighty they would join a rebellion against Egypt. Pharaoh appointed taskmasters over the Hebrews to afflict them with extensive building campaigns, harsh bondage, and all manner of service in the field. The persecution was so hard that the people cried to the Lord for deliverance.

Moses was born a Hebrew but raised in the house of Pharaoh. At the age of forty, Moses killed a man and fled to Midian, where he remained for forty years. God called Moses to return to Egypt to demand that Pharaoh let His people go. Moses warned Pharaoh that God would bring severe destruction to the land if he refused. The heart of Pharaoh grew hard, refusing to listen to Moses. God began to bring terrible plagues upon the people of Egypt. First, the water was turned to blood, killing all the fish. Then frogs covered the land of Egypt. Moses struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. Thick swarms of flies filled every corner where the Egyptians lived. The Hebrews were not plagued. God struck the livestock of the Egyptians. He caused boils to cover man and beasts of the Egyptians. Then the Lord brought the pestilence of heavy hail and fire mingled with the hail.

It was before the seventy plague that Moses warned Pharaoh why the Egyptians were being afflicted. More plagues were to come, and the worst was reserved for the final plague. In all the plagues wrought upon the nation of Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He relented at first, but when the plague was gone, he refused to let God’s people go. Moses warned Pharaoh that the plagues would grow more destructive and would reach the heart of Pharaoh and the people. God could have destroyed the Egyptians with one plague, but He chose to use Pharaoh as an example of God’s power.

The nation of Egypt was one of the most powerful in world history. God raised up Pharaoh to show the power of the Divine, that the name of the Lord may be declared in all the earth. Four more plagues afflicted the Egyptians with boils, locusts, darkness, and the death of all the firstborn of man and beast of the Egyptians. In all of this, the Hebrews were spared the destruction of the Lord. God delivered His people with a mighty hand and showed the world who is greater than all the gods of man. Pharaoh exalted himself against the people of God by refusing to bow to the will of God. The Lord destroyed Pharaoh and his nation.

Pharaoh was an evil man who led his nation with cruelty, murder, and ungodliness. He exalted himself as a god, inflicting his people with great burdens. What he failed to understand was that he would die and face the one, true God. There are evil and wicked leaders in the world, and often God uses them to show His glory, power, and might. Despots revolt against the will of the Lord, and God brings them low with His mighty hand. History is filled with the blackened bones of those who exalted themselves above the people with cruelty and hatred; only to face the one true God in death. God used the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and the great Roman Empire to show His power. Jesus was born during the Pax Romana of Rome and conquered the world with the gospel of peace.

The kingdom of Christ has reigned upon the earth for two thousand years and has never been destroyed. Religious despots created the apostate church that became the harlot of all her illegitimate children that abound in the world today in the name of Jesus. They will all become of no avail to the glory of God. Evil men will never prosper. God will use them to show His glory; and He still does.