The Story of Moses : Exodus 9
The Plagues Continue (Part 3)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
05-18–2025
9-11
A few years ago, I was subbing at the junior high with seventh grade students on September 11th. Part of the day’s lesson was to go over the events of 9-11 with the students. One of the students asked me what my memories were of that day and it occurred to me that they hadn’t even been born.
I sat on a stool and told them the day from my perspective and then took questions. One of the students asked, “Why did they fly the planes into those buildings? Why those buildings?”
I told them that the hijackers wanted to hit the power centers of America so they hit our economic power, the Word Trade Centers, our military power at the Pentagon, and our political power at the Capital, which is where Flight 93 was headed before the passengers rebelled and Todd Beemer said, “Let’s roll!”
The students were fascinated. It had never occurred to them that the attacks were not random, but designed to send a message - we can, and will, destroy your power that you so deeply trust.
That is, in fact, what is happening in our story of the Yahweh versus Pharaoh throw down.
God is pounding Egypt, like a blacksmith hammering an anvil. Again and again, God will attack the economic and religious power structures of Egypt.
Pharaoh is given multiple opportunities to send the Israelites away with Moses and Aaron. And each time, Pharaoh refuses and his heart grows a little harder.
The plagues were God’s answer to Pharaoh’s taunting question:
“Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:1-2)
Pharaoh is about to find out who the Lord is and the wheels are set in motion for the Israelites to leave Egypt for good.
Review
Last week, we studied the second plague, frogs, the third plague, gnats, and the fourth plague, flies.
The Egyptians have endured their precious Nile turning to blood, piles and piles of dead frogs, gnats that stung, and flies that tormented animals and humans.
But the fourth plague was different. God made a distinction between Egypt and the Israelites in the land of Goshen. There would be no flies in Goshen.
“‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.’” (Exodus 8:22-23)
The Hebrews dug wells by the river for drinking water. The Israelites dealt with the frogs and the gnats right alongside the Egyptians.
There would be flies throughout the land but not in Goshen, where His people, the Hebrews lived. God is going to make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites when it came to the flies.
Pharaoh tried to negotiate with Moses but, in the end, he refused to let the people go.
David Guzik writes:
"Despite God’s kindness to him and to Egypt, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart. This is a demonstration of how deep and severe the gradual hardening of a heart may become.”
Again, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, his gods```` useless, and his people growing anxious about what could come next.
What would come next would be worse than the first four combined!
Please turn with me to Exodus 9.
Prayer.
Plague 5: Pestilence!
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats.
Notice that all the fear and hesitation that Moses and Aaron felt at the beginning of the plagues are gone.
Again, God is gracious to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. He is given another advanced warning and He is sending a very clear message - I am God and you are not. These are my people not your people. If you do not open your hand and let them go, I will open my hand and continue to bring plagues against you.
And this time, God will attack the Pharaoh’s wealth and worship by bringing death upon the livestock.
Just like in Yellowstone and the Dutton’s, wealth in Egypt was measured by your livestock.
I was fishing at a little pond in North Carolina, and there was a group of cows on the other side of the water. Slowly, they came around the pond, never taking their eyes off of me.
Soon they were about 25 feet from me and I freaked out. I took off running and they took off after me. I didn’t even try for the gate and climbed over the fence, the barbed wire fence, cutting my leg. (Yes, I was a coward that day. It was udderly embarrassing).
We stared at each other and then they turned and ambled back to the pond. I told this story to a farmer friend and he started laughing and said that cows were just messing with me.
These animals provided food, clothing, and jobs. Horses and camels were fairly new in Egypt, but their cattle, sheep and goats were the backbone of the Egyptian economy.
And the cow and the bull were at the center of their religious devotion. [God had beef with the Pharaoh!]
In Memphis, at the second largest temple in Egypt, a live bull was worshipped as the god, Apis. Apis was born when a sunbeam came down from heaven and impregnated a cow. This god represented power and fertility.
When the bull died, a new bull would replace it. The dead bull would be embalmed and buried. In 1856, archeologists discovered sixty-four burial chambers with these embalmed bulls in them.
Hathor was a cow goddess that represented beauty and motherhood. She was said to be the Pharaoh’s mother and he drank milk from her.
They considered cows sacred. Enemy armies figured out that if you put cows in front of your men, the Egyptians wouldn’t fire because they were terrified of hitting one of the cows.
If this actually happened, it would be devastating to Egypt economically and religiously.
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”
Again, the Lord makes a distinction, (redeems), between his people and Pharaoh’s people. He would protect them and their animals from the plague and not one of their livestock would die.
Remember that they came into Egypt, into the land of Goshen, because they were shepherds.
The Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” And the next day the Lord did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.
Moses even told Pharaoh when the plague would start. Again, God is the true God and Pharaoh is completely powerless.
Tens of thousands of cows, sheep, goats, horses, camels became sick and died that day. There were dead animals as far as the eye could see. These are huge animals and it would take a long time to dispose of the bodies. The flies would return and the smell would be overwhelming.
Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.
Pharaoh and the people cried out to Apis. They burned incense to Hathor. But their gods were silent.
Pharaoh sent several servants to check out the herds and Goshen. They came over a ridge and the land was filled with healthy livestock. They returned to Pharaoh with the news.
This plague is not reversed. The Nile turned back into water. ?The frogs died. The gnats and flies disappeared. But the livestock was dead and they would not be resurrected.
The water obeys, the frogs, gnats, flies, and germs all obeyed God. The only thing that doesn’t obey is Pharaoh.
Okay, this is it, right? The Egyptian economy is in shambles, the Egyptian gods were impotent, and the people are getting restless wondering what is going to happen next. Surely, Pharaoh would let these Hebrews go? Unfortunately, he would not and the plagues would continue.
Plague 6: Boils!
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on people and animals throughout the land. So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on people and animals. ”
This time, this is no warning, just judgment.
Moses and Aaron were to take soot from a furnace and toss it into the air. This was probably a kiln used to make…wait for it…bricks.
The emblem of suffering for the Hebrew people would became a symbol of pain for the Egyptians.
But there’s more to it. Egyptian priests would often throw ashes in the air to pronounce a blessing. Now their blessing would become a curse.
This soot would become fine dust and festering boils would break out on the people and the animals.
The boils broke out in infection on the skin.
I thought all the animals died. There were animals that didn’t die in the plague that were in shelters and this word for animals means every kind of animal, not just domesticated ones.
What were these boils? One theory is that it was something called “Nile pimples,” that was similar to scarlet fever. They were painful and caused terrible itching.
This word is also used as the beginning of leprosy. Or it could have been what’s called “skin anthrax.” Whatever it was, it covered their entire bodies.
The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians.
Egyptians were fastidiously clean, taking baths every day. If a priest of one of the thousands of temples had a skin disease, they could not minister before the altar.
Not only could the magicians not stand before Moses, with this plague, God shut down every temple to false gods in the whole land!
That didn’t stop the people from crying out to Amon Ra, or Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge. They probably burned incense in the homes to Imhotep, the god of the healing sciences, and Sekmet, the goddess with power over disease.
But their temples were closed, their gods silent, their skins irritated and infected, and their emotions shot.
They probably looked toward the palace and wondered why Pharaoh didn’t just let these people go. How much more could they take?
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.
This plague is also a foreshadowing of what would happen when the first bowl of judgement is poured out in Revelation 16:
“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.” (Revelation 16:1-2)
Plague 7: Hail!
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
Just as Moses did with plague one and four, he confronts Pharaoh while he is worshipping at the Nile early in the morning.
Moses again says, “Let my people go!” Why? “So they may worship me.” He not only had to get the Hebrews out of Egypt but God needed to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
If Pharaoh will not let the people go, God will send the “full force of my plagues against you and your officials.” The Hebrew actually says, “against your heart.”
Wait? What? This means God has been holding back so far! Why? Because He is giving Pharaoh and the Egyptians opportunities to repent and acknowledge that “there is no one like God in all the earth.”
For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.
God makes it crystal clear that He is in total control of this situation. With a word, He could have destroyed Egypt in an instant.
He could have struck Pharaoh down but, in mercy and grace, He had chosen another way.
But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
Wow! Listen to what God says to Pharaoh.
“I know you Rameses. I knew you before you were born. I placed you in this time and this place upon this earth. I raised you up to be king. You are no god. You have a purpose and I have a plan and it isn’t about you it’s about Me and my glory.
You still have a choice. Let my people go. Stop hardening your heart. Join with the Hebrews and proclaim My name throughout the earth.”
You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.
But Pharaoh wouldn’t budge. He would not let them go. So, again, God gives him a warning that even includes the exact time this plague would happen. And it would be a day unlike any day in Egypt ever. It would be a hailstorm of historic proportions.
Egypt is a desert. Very little rain falls and, in some places, no rain falls at all. They don’t have thunderstorms and many would have lived their whole lives without seeing hail.
Thursday night, I was set up outside of Lexington, monitoring the supercell thunderstorm heading into our area. My phone started blaring that this storm could produce baseball sized hail.
It started hailing and I was able to make it to the gas station in Lexington and hid under the awning. That hail was about the size of grapes. But Chenoa was hit with hail the size of golf balls, breaking our kitchen window and causing holes in the south side of many structures.
But that was a small hail core. In 1995, Thomasville, Georgia was hit with softball sized hail, destroying everything it hit.
My favorite storm chaser, a fellow Christian, Brandon Copic was caught in a gorilla hail core that destroyed his car.
Hail can be deadly.
Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’”
What amazing grace! God even dictates a memo for him to the people telling them to move their animals into shelters to avoid the hail.
Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.
This is significant! There are people in Egypt now saying quietly,
“Pharaoh is being stubborn and he is going to go until the Hebrew God destroyed everything. If Moses says to bring the animals in, then we should do what he says.”
But there were others who scoffed at this warning and left the slaves and animals in the field, like sitting ducks.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.”
When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
Can you imagine the terror? Lightning flashing. Thunder crashing. And huge hailstones falling from the angry sky.
David proclaimed:
“Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding…” (Psalm 48:7-8)
There had never been a storm like this.
Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.
Several years ago, I went on a hiking expedition in the mountains of Wyoming. As we were coming back to the trailhead, we entered an absolutely beautiful huge meadow.
We had been watching dark clouds on the horizon getting closer and closer. We could see what we thought was a rain shaft moving toward us.
Suddenly, my friend yelled, it’s not rain, it’s hail! There was nowhere to hide. Not even a bush to provide shelter. He told us to get on our knees with our packs still on our backs and cover our heads. The hail only lasted 45 seconds but it was terrible. Each of us had bruises from the icy missiles.
The size of the hail in this storm in Egypt didn’t cause bruises, it caused death. Everywhere except Goshen.
The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
The livestock were fine in the land of the Hebrews. Not one had been touched.
This plague foreshadows the seventh bowl of judgment in Revelation, except those hailstones will be 100 pounds!
“From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.” (Rev 16:21)
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”
Isn’t that great? Finally! Pharaoh gets it. Or does he?
“This time I have sinned.” Actually, Pharaoh has sinned each time not just this time.
He does admit that God is in the right and they are wrong.
He asks for prayer to stop the thunder and hail. He’s had enough. He even promises to let them go. Just stop the hail!
Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.
Moses prays and God stops the hail. The message? The earth is the Lord’s!
But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.”
Moses didn’t buy what Pharaoh was selling. His remorse wasn’t real repentance.
(The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
This is an interesting parenthetical statement. In mercy, God didn’t destroy all the crops. There would be some food left.
Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.
The rain, hail, and thunder stopped and the sky cleared. The sun came out and the sky was blue.
What happened to “I have sinned?” What happened to “God is right and I am wrong?”
His “repentance” was an inch deep and a mile wide. It wasn’t real.
There is a Line
At face value, Pharaoh seems like he is genuinely sorry for his “sins.” He admits he sinned and that God was right. But it wasn’t real. How do we know that? Because his fruit was still rotten to the core.
Real repentance brings transformation. Real repentance is shown in humility and gratitude for amazing grace.
In our church culture, if we can get people to repeat a prayer then we tell them they are saved. There are a lot of people who claim that they are Christians because they repeated someone else’s prayer when they were younger. But the Bible doesn’t say that.
The Bible is clear that we have to repent. James wrote:
“Wash your hands you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double minded.” (James 4:8)
Remember that James is writing to Jewish Christians in the 40 AD. The idea of ritual washing was deeply ingrained in their hearts.
Washing of the hands was part of being ritually pure before God.
James calls sinners to wash their hands of their sinful actions.
He then calls us to purify our hearts of our sinful attitudes.
James invented the word, “double-minded” (lit double souled) and in this context represents an attempt to be a friend of the world and of God.
This is a call to repent of our sins.
His readers would have known David’s words well:
“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place. The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” (Psalm 24:3-4)
As we submit and draw near to God, we recognize how sinful we really are.
Isaiah saw a vision of God “high and lifted up, seated on a throne, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” (Is 6:1)
Isaiah is completely overwhelmed and cries out:
“Woe to me!”… “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Is 6:5)
When fishing with Jesus and after a huge haul of fish, Peter was overcome in the presence of Jesus:
“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)
Put simply, repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of direction.
We were returning to the church after our day of missions in New York. The church was on 101st street. I was driving and deep in conversation with a student riding shot gun when a voice came from the back.
She said, “Isn’t the church on 102nd street?”
When I said yes, she said, “Well, we just passed 108, 110, and 112 street. I think we are going the wrong way.”
She was right. We were going the wrong way.
I had to stop. Then I had to turn around, no easy feat in Queens. But then I was on the right path.
In the very first Gospel sermon, Peter proclaimed,
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
Paul wrote:
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Cor 7:10)
There is a difference between remorse and repentance. Repentance leads to action.
A man wrote a letter to the IRS and said that he had cheated on his income taxes. He felt guilty and was scared they would come after him. He included $75 dollars and said, “If I can’t sleep tonight, I’ll send the rest.”
Remorse is being sorry you got caught. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of heart that leads to a change of your direction.
I had a client who stole a bunch of pornography VHS when he was younger. He didn’t know how to return them, and really didn’t want to return them, so he made a donation to a pornography blocking website ministry.
I had an old boss that called me and invited me to breakfast. He started the breakfast like this, “Jeff, I believed I sinned against you when you worked for me. I want to listen to you today and make amends for anything I did to hurt you.” I would be telling him a story and he would stop me and say, “That was wrong of me. Will you forgive me for that?”
When I was younger, I treated girls terribly but I really didn’t feel guilty about it. I wasn’t a Christian and I just didn’t care how much pain I caused them. I couldn’t help it. I was broken and damaged. It was their fault for dating me.
Then I became a Christian and I started to feel bad about the way I had treated girls in my past.
But then I became a youth pastor. And I sat with these little girls in my office weeping hysterically about how some stupid boy had lied and broke their heart.
I was destroyed, in a good way. My conscience hit me with a shovel over and over again until I admitted that I caused pain just like that.
It was about that time that all us old people found FaceBook and I took a deep breath and wrote a private message to my college girlfriend, who I had treated terribly.
I admitted that I was wrong, apologized for specific instances, and sincerely asked for her forgiveness.
I hadn’t talked to her in 20 years and had no idea how she would respond. A couple of days later, she sent a message back that said, “I forgave you a long time ago. My husband and I moved to Arizona and were invited to church. We both are now born again believers. Thank you for your message. We were kids but your repentance means a lot. “
Pharaoh’s heart had not been changed. In fact, it was as hard as ever.
And God makes it clear that there is a line that can be crossed that you can no longer repent. After rejecting the call of the Holy Spirit again and again, your heart hardens into solid rock.
Joseph A. Alexander wrote a hymn that is probably the scariest in the hymn book:
1 There is a line by us unseen,
That crosses ev'ry path,
The hidden boundary between,
The hidden boundary between
God's patience and his wrath.
2 O! where is this mysterious bourne
By which our path is crossed,
Beyond which God himself hath sworn,
Beyond which God himself hath sworn
That he who goes is lost?
3 How far may we go on in sin?
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end? And where begin,
Where does hope end? And where begin
The confines of despair?
4 An answer from the skies is sent:
"Ye that from God depart,
While it is called today, repent,
While it is called today, repent,
And harden not your heart."
