By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov:
In this week’s parsha, three more makot befell Egypt: locust, darkness and first borns dying. Moshe again goes and pleads to Pharoah to free the Jewish nation and let them go out of the land. Moshe tells him, “You already got seven strikes and if you don’t listen more strikes will fall upon you.”
So why didn’t Pharaoh listen? He was a wise person. What caused him to lose everything? Egypt was devastated; all first borns died, all Egypt’s gold and silver was taken and eventually the Jews left.
The answer is in the pasuk, “Moshe and Aharon came to Pharaoh and said to him: so said the God of the Hebrews, ‘Until when will you refuse to be humbled before me?'”
The Torah is teaching us arrogance is the cause of all sorrows. If someone is humble, he can apologize and a go on in life. But someone who is arrogant never can say sorry and always has to prove he is right. He might end up hiring a lawyer and spend $5000 to win a $2000 case. Pharaoh couldn’t see that he was a loser because of this mentality, and that is what caused Egypt’s destruction.
Let’s learn this lesson and try to be humble in our lives.