“So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews. How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me.'”
– Exodus 10:3
Exodus 10:3, much like we have seen already in Pharaoh’s life, are a clear reminder that we need, everyone of us in our lives, a posture of humility before God. We need to pray for this.
This Verse Reminds Us Pride Is the Root Of Sin
Pride is on display when we sin against God. We think we know what is best. The antidote to sin is humility, so let us ask God for this.
You think about it, every time we sin it is, at its root, a picture of pride. Sin is really, at its root, pride, because it’s us saying, every time we sin, “God, I know what is better for me than you do. I desire this, and even if you say it’s not good, I’m going to move forward with this desire in my heart. I say this, even though it is against your word, but I do it because I think it’s going to work out better for me.” Every sinful thought, every sinful desire, every single sinful word, decision, deed, it’s all pride.
Exodus 10:3 Reminds Us We Need Humility
The antidote to sin is what? It’s humility. It’s, “God, I trust you, I have a desire for this, but I’m going to not pursue that desire, because I trust you. Lord, I want to make this decision over here, but I’m not going to do that because I know that goes against your word, and I trust you.” What Exodus 10:3 just drives us to pray for, and to pray for it continually, is humility, a humble trust in God’s word, a humble trust in God’s ways that his ways and his word are always best.
Exodus 10:3 Leads Us to Pray For Humility
We pray, God, together right now, we pray. Give us humility. We pray for humility. We pray that you would deliver us from all pride. Help us to be humble before you, to trust in your ways, to trust in your word, to follow your word by your grace, to trust in your grace, to enable us to obey your word. God, we pray for an ever constant posture of humility before you, and then humility before others. We think about your commands and your word to in humility, Philippians 2, “To consider others better than ourselves.”
Help us not to look out for ourselves over others. Help us to look out for others over ourselves. Lord, how that would transform our interactions all throughout the day, how that would transform our marriages, our parenting, our life as kids, how that would transform our family relationships, work relationships, relationships with the neighborhood, how that would compel us to share the Gospel. We would be looking out for others over our own interests. That would be compelling them to share the Gospel with those who’d never heard it.
God, we pray for humility. We pray that you would deliver us from pride. Purify us from pride. Remove pride from us more and more and more and more we pray. Give us humble hearts before you, and humble hearts before others. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
