The Danger of Skepticism

The goal in all of Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh was for Pharaoh to release God’s people and send them away, letting them go for good. In Exodus 9:7 Pharaoh finally does some sending, but it is not the kind of sending he was supposed to be doing. The sending in this verse is not of God’s people out of Egypt, but rather it is the sending of a team of investigators to see if it is indeed true that Israel’s livestock have not been killed like the livestock of the Egyptians. In doing this Pharaoh continues to reveal his hardness of heart, this time in a way that is skeptical in refusing to believe that the Lord could bring about a plague that would kill the Egyptians’ livestock while sparing the livestock of the Israelites.

Though there is certainly an appropriate time for someone exploring the Christian faith to ask questions, and though there are many times that even veteran followers of Christ have questions of the Lord, we do need to exercise caution that our questions do not turn into an ever-present skeptical posture toward the Lord. When this happens we are putting ourselves in the position of God, and putting him in the position of us, as though he is answerable to us for anything we feel we are entitled to know. To settle into skepticism as our over-arching posture toward the Lord is to ultimately not trust in his goodness. May we continually ask the Lord for ever-deepening faith that protects us against skepticism toward him.