But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord? ... I do not know the Lord ..."
And their labors increased.
7:13 Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened."
And the Nile and all fresh water became blood--polluted.
Pharaoh is hardening his own heart against letting his labor force go. God said that He would harden his heart (4:23), but He's letting Pharaoh harden his own heart first.
By his own choice against Israel, repeated several times, he is going into what we today call addiction, when its no longer a choice; that's when God will be further hardening his heart.
Whatever we give ourselves to, our own choice, becomes a master over us as its slave; addiction, compulsion. Slaves have no means of freeing themselves--it must be some "third party" entering the picture to break that hold.
Both the addict today and the Israelites in slavery back then need that outside force to break the chains.
God is that outside influence Who reaches in and frees the slave. He freed me from my relationship addiction when He let me know that Jesus took my place in death, and gave me His own Holy Spirit to live in my spirit, making it alive with that New Life. That's why Jesus called it being "born again."
And He freed His people from slavery to the Egyptians.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
