The Plague Of Hail Series

The Plague of Hail

Exodus 9:22-26 (NIV)

INTRODUCTION

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; 24hail fell, and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25Throughout Egypt h IV. PHARAOH'S CAPITULATION (vers. 27, 28). The supernatural concomitants of this appalling visitation so unnerved the king that he was induced again to send for Moses. He did not yield till the plague was on the land, only then because he could not help it. The terms in which he makes his submission show,

1. His undisguised terror.

2. His thorough conviction that he was in the hands of the God of the whole earth. Pharaoh had by this time had a course of instruction in the "evidence," which left no room for further doubt. The most striking feature in his submission, however, is,

3. His confession of sin. "I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked" (ver. 27). It was good that Pharaoh should be brought to see that it was a righteous demand he was resisting and that he was inexcusable in resisting it. At least the plagues had forced him to acknowledge this much, and it gave his hardening a graver character when he retracted his word. Nevertheless, the superficiality of repentance is very obvious. "I have sinned this time;" there is no good sense of the sin he had been guilty of here. False repentances have their root in superficial views of sin. They may be produced by terror, under compulsion, but no real change of heart accompanies them; renewed hardening is their only possible outcome. "As for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God"(ver. 30).

JUDGMENT TEMPERED WITH MERCY.

1. God's mercy in connection with this plague is conspicuous.

2. Sparing the wheat and rye (vers. 31, 32).

3. In removing the plague at the request of Pharaoh, presented through Moses (vers. 28, 29). The hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. 26The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were. What woeful havoc this hail made! It killed both men and cattle; the corn above ground was destroyed, and only the seed below ground was preserved; however, the land of Goshen was spared. God causes rain or hail on one city, not another, in mercy or judgment.

Pharaoh humbled himself before Moses. No man could have spoken better: he admits he is wrong and confesses that the Lord is righteous and that God must be right when He speaks, though he speaks in thunder and lightning. However, his heart was hardened all this while. Moses pleads with God: though he had reason to think Pharaoh would repent of his repentance and told him so, he promises to be his friend. Moses went out of the city, notwithstanding the hail and lightning which kept Pharaoh and his servants within doors. Peace with God makes men thunder-proof. Pharaoh was frightened by the tremendous judgment, but his promises were forgotten when that was over. Those that are not bettered by judgments and mercies commonly become worse.

COMMENTARY

22. 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."

Which as yet had not come upon people and animals —upon those men presumed to continue in the field after this admonition. The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt [23] — This was more extraordinary because rain seldom falls in Egypt and some parts of the country. Furthermore, snow and hail are rare, the climate not being so cold as to produce them. Sometimes, however, they do fall, as is implied in the next verse and is attested by eye-witnesses.

Moses stretched forth his rod. In the last set of three plagues, the earthly agent was Moses (Exodus 9:10; Exodus 10:13, 22), whose timidity seems to have worn off as time went on, and he became accustomed to putting himself forward.

Thunder and hail. Thunder had not been predicted, but it is a common accompaniment of a hailstorm, the change of temperature produced by the discharge of electricity was no doubt conducive to the formation of hailstones. Some very peculiar electrical display seems to be intended - something corresponding to the phenomena called "fireballs," where the electric fluid does not merely flash momentarily but remains for several seconds or even minutes before it disappears. The lightning (here called fire) ran along upon the ground.