Moses was in a showdown with Egypt’s powerful king. Though the king despised Moses, the people of Egypt had come to live in fear and awe of him: “The man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people” (Exodus 11:3).

As plague followed plague, Moses’ reputation among the people grew quickly, and soon Egyptian magicians could no longer mimic those plagues.

Moses became “very great” in Egypt when the plagues stopped affecting Goshen at all and after their intensity increased. While the people could not ignore that Moses was the agent of a God much different than any of their own, with a hard heart Pharaoh remained unmoved.A Deliverance for the Ages