Tonight’s passage is filled with disagreement between Pharaoh and Moses when it comes to him letting the people of Israel go. Moses wants his people to be able to leave Egypt with no questions asked and Pharaoh wants to bargain and negotiate their demands. So we see an interesting struggle between God’s will and compromise. But we’re also going to see that along with God’s uncompromising will comes God’s wonderful grace!
Pharaoh tries to get Moses, (and God), to compromise in how and when the people are let go to worship. Its as if Pharaoh thinks he’s negotiating with a fellow god since he believes that he’s a god himself.
But Moses, (and God), reject the idea of compromise and instead offer grace to Pharaoh and to the people of Egypt. There’s no negotiating with God over His will. But He does offer grace even to those who oppose Him – if they’ll stop their opposition and follow Him in faith.
So through the ten plagues brought upon stubborn Pharaoh and Egypt, we see the struggle between compromise and grace.
Last week we looked at the first four plagues that were the bothersome plagues upon the land. The water to blood transformation, the frog mass invasion, the gnat multiplication and the fly infestation made life miserable for the Egyptians.
But Pharaoh continues to harden his own heart even though it was evident to him that it was the Hebrew God that was bringing this wrath upon his land. Now as we discussed before, Pharaoh did have a chance to repent and turn his heart towards the Lord. But over and over again he chose to harden his own heart even when the reality of Jehovah God was right in his face. Pharaoh continues this behavior through the final five plagues as well. He simply will not let the Jews, his slaves, go and he will simply not loose face as the defeated god of Egypt.
[Read Exodus 8:32.]
[Saddam Hussein example.]
So let’s look at the next five plagues which are ironically an extension of the grace of God towards people who stand against Him.
5th Plague: Livestock die
[Read Exodus 9:1-7.]
God gave Pharaoh the warning that if he continued to hold God’s people hostage all the livestock of the Egyptians would die of disease. Up to this point the plagues have made life unpleasant for the Egyptians – but the following plagues would now start to really cost them. The economic impact of losing all the land’s livestock would be devastating! But Pharaoh’s heart is so hard that the Lord needs to up the anty to get his attention and the attention of the people. Remember, these signs showed everyone that the Hebrew God was real!
But even in God’s ultimatum there’s much grace. In verse three God gives Pharaoh a warning that this would happen which is a chance for him to let the people go.
Also in verse three it also says that, “the livestock which are in the field will die”. Meaning, if your livestock are in the barns, or you move them to cover, they will be spared.
And in verse five God gives Pharaoh a countdown, He gives him a day to get things right.
But Pharaoh refuses and all the Egyptian cattle left in the field died. I think it’s interesting that it says Pharaoh went to the land of Goshen to see for himself if the Hebrew cattle were not affected by the pestilence that had taken his cattle. Of course, God had protected them just like He said he would.
So Pharaoh’s got to wonder, where were his gods Apis or Hathor who should have been watching over their sacred animals? Did the Hebrew God overpower them or did they even exist? Another chance for Pharaoh to come to the Truth. But instead he hardened his heart.
6th Plague: Skin disease
[Read Exodus 9:8-12.]
Moses and Aaron took soot from the kilns that were used to make bricks for the Egyptian buildings – bricks that were a symbol of the Jew’s harsh life of oppression and slavery. They threw the soot in the air and all the Egyptians contracted this horrible skin disease. It was obviously an embarrassing disease since the magicians who also had the disease wouldn’t even stand in the courts alongside Pharaoh.
They might have also been embarrassed because their powers and their Egyptian god’s powers couldn’t stop what the Hebrew God was doing. The Egyptians had Selchmet the sun goddess of disease and Isis the goddess of healing to appeal to in their time of trouble. But nothing worked. They became diseased while the Jews stayed healthy.
But even in this very personal plague there was grace.
[Read Exodus 9:13-17.]
When I read this I don’t get the impression that God just wants to prove a point that He’s God. You know, a “I’ll show you who’s boss!” kind of thing.
But He is proving to them that He alone is God and that if they’ll just turn to Him then they can be His people too. The universal call for salvation is here as shown when He says, “to proclaim My name through all the earth.” The grace that He showed by not wiping the Egyptians right off the map is truly remarkable. But Pharaoh’s heart was still hard.
7th Plague: Hail storm
[Read Exodus 9:18-35.]
Now we know that the Lord knew all along that Pharaoh’s heart would continue to be hard towards the Lord. But He still extends His hand of wrath and His hand of relief in order for everyone there to know that He is the Lord. These things would have surely built the faith of the Jews who watched the reality of God right before them. And some of the Egyptians started to believe as well as indicated by the mention of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the Word of the Lord and who heeded His warnings.
But you know, all of the Egyptians should have been fearing the Lord by now. I mean, where was their sky goddess Nut when the hail fell from the sky? And where was their god of the crops Osiris when most of their food sources were destroyed? Again, they were either overpowered by the Hebrew God or they simply didn’t exist.
But the thing that should have gotten their attention the most was the grace of God through this plague. In verse nineteen the Lord warned them to take cover from the coming storm and thus be able to save whatever livestock they had left. And then look at verses 31-32:
[Read Exodus 9:31-32.]
God allowed their wheat and spelt crops to survive the storms. They would still have food to eat. That is, as long as they repented before more plagues came their way. But you know the story. Pharaoh would not let the people go.
8th Plague: Locust swarm
[Read Exodus 10:1-20.]
Again, the sky goddess Nut and their god of the crops Osiris would be of no help to the Egyptians. If they did not comply a great swarm of locust would eat the rest of their crops in the field.
But again, there was grace! In verse four Moses gives Pharaoh a day to either reconsider or to prepare his land for what’s coming. There was grace for the Egyptians.
There was also grace for future generations of Jews as found in verse two.
[Read Exodus 10:2.]
Because God did these things and had Moses write them down in book form, every generation to come would know of the reality, the power and the grace of God Almighty.
Isn’t that great? Isn’t it great that we can read of these stories and see our God for who He is? Any time we’re in doubt or in fear or discouraged, we can go to God’s Word and see for ourselves the all-powerful, loving God of grace.
Pharaoh refused to see that. He only saw another deity that he could maybe bargain with or appease for a few days of peace. He’s starting to get desperate and it shows in another one of his theatrical apologies to the Lord – yet his heart was hardened.
So we now come to the ninth plague, the plague of darkness. And this is probably the most mysterious plagues that the Lord brought upon Egypt. But one that carried a strong message with it. And one that not even their sun gods Re and Horus could prevent.
9th Plague: Darkness warns
[Read Exodus 10:21-29.]
Very interesting description of what kind of darkness would cover the land of Egypt. It said it would be a darkness that could be felt, a thick darkness that kept the Egyptians in doors for three days. No one went to work, to visit, to market, to anywhere. But the Jews again were unaffected by this plague.
So it wasn’t some kind of solar eclipse because that would have left light for no one, including the Jews. Maybe it was a localized sand storm upon the Egyptians. Maybe it was a dense fog that covered their land. Or maybe it was even something different that can’t be described, only felt by those who were there. But whatever it was, I’m sure it scared the people greatly. Darkness is scary! To not be able to see, to not be able to function, and to know it was coming from the angry God of the people they were oppressing, must have made people think.
You know when we here in Florida see a black wall of clouds rolling our way we get inside! We know a bad storm’s coming and we take cover. They had to know something dreadful was coming as that sat in darkness for three days.
But look at the grace in verse twenty three.
[Read Exodus 10:23.]
They would look out their windows and see the land of Goshen all lit up. They sat in the darkness while the people of God sat in the light! What a message they would have gotten by seeing the Lord watch over His people like He did. What grace He showed them by making His grace upon His own people visible to those who were not.
And not much has changed has it? People in darkness can see God’s people walking in the light. They can see the grace of God upon us if we’ll just live out loud.
You see, God has a plan for the world. God has a definite will for all of humanity. We can’t negotiate with Him the terms of salvation or how we should live or what will happen throughout history. His will is His will. But when He allows us to be a part of what He’s doing, when He allows us to be His children, when He answers our prayers and shows us mercy, that’s His grace! We don’t deserve to be His kids and He doesn’t need us to accomplish His will. But His love and grace compels Him to bring us into His will.
Pharaoh never really gets it. He never faces the fact that he’s fighting a losing battle. Throughout these nine plagues he often faked repentance to buy more time for his people. Throughout these plagues he also tried to bargain with God the terms of the release of the Jews.
8:24 yall an worship here
8:25 don’t go so far away
10:11 leave behind women and children
10:24 leave behind your livestock
He knew that once the Jews got their freedom they’d never come back and he’d lose his work force. So he continued to attempt to trick and bargain a deal with God.
But God always answered him with a “My will is My will. But there is grace!”
May we never try to buy time or bargain with God. His will is His will. We should submit to it and find the grace that He always offers.
