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Good morning friends who are walking through the summer with me, reading one chapter of God’s Word each day. Today we’re in Exodus 10.
It’s important we remember WHY these plagues of Egypt?
God first states His purpose in Exodus 6:6,7 “…say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians… I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. THEN you will know that I am the LORD your God.” God’s purpose for the Exodus deliverance miracles began with the Hebrew slaves, the ‘children of Israel’, whom God loved, but they had long forgotten who they were. God wanted to set them free from their bondage, and draw them to Himself. He wanted them to see themselves as a people of God, loved and led by God Himself!
Secondly, God wanted the Egyptians to know they worshiped nothing but man-made idols which were not gods at all. In Ex. 7:5 God said “…the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” So first the Hebrew slaves, next all the people of Egypt, would come to recognize the power and majesty of the one, true, Almighty God, and worship Him.
Third, God wanted the Pharaoh himself, to change from his self-exalting arrogance, and his elevating of himself as a human god, to bowing down before the Omnipotent, Majestic God, who had created, and was sustaining the whole Universe. God said to Pharaoh, through Moses “This is what the LORD says, by this YOU will know that I am “YHWH” the LORD.” (Ex. 7:17). Moses repeated that, with various words, with each plague.
God so much wanted the Pharaoh, and all his royal palace people, to recognize the supremacy of the Almighty God that Moses had met at the burning bush. God wanted the Pharaoh to personally submit, and then lead his people in submitting themselves, to God’s superiority as the only, true God. Years later we see this happen so powerfully with another world leader named King Nebuchadnezzar and God’s man Daniel, remember?
And I see one more reason for the plagues. Listen to how Exodus 10 begins: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials SO THAT I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them, that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians…that YOU may know that I am the LORD.”
Whatever God does, He does on purpose, by intention, with a larger plan in His mind, than what we could imagine. These powerful plagues coming on Egypt were in response to Pharaoh’s heard hearted refusal, to allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt, and gather together in the desert, as a people of God, in worship of God. But it was much bigger than that. This remarkable experience would be recorded and read, told and retold, by millions, nay billions of people.
God is always working outside the limitations of time, my friends. What He is doing today, is built on what took place yesterday, and has great significance for the future. May I urge you to link Psalm 78:1-8 with Exodus 10 today? “What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide these things from the children. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power and the wonders He has done, so the next generation will know them. Even the children yet to be born, and they in turn will tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds, but would keep His commands. They would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God.” Do you see God’s larger plan and purpose, my friends?
The Hebrew slaves were learning first hand who God is, and what His power can do. The Egyptians, their Pharaoh, and his royal court were learning the same, very painful lessons. These experiences with God, would be their stories to tell their children and grandchildren, and as each generation passed on the accounts of the greatness of God, generation after generation would be drawn to consider, contemplate, and hopefully choose to know and worship God, as the only, true, eternal and living God, the Creator of the Universe. This God would be known as the God of the Hebrews. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses…the God of Israel!
So in chapter 10 Moses twice more returns to Pharaoh, to announce the price of refusing God has increased. The plague of locusts would be unlike anything they had yet seen. While the frogs were a smelly hassle; and the gnats and flies drove the people & animals crazy; the boils were incredibly painful suffering; and the hailstorm was terrifying and left corpses of people and animals scattered in the fields, and crops severely damaged… there was coming a plague of locusts, advancing like an army, that would devour every living plant, crop, bush, even the bark and leaves off the trees. The end result was going to look like nuclear devastation. It would leave Egypt in a state of ruin, unable to supply the food needed for its own population. Moses said it will be “…something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.” (10:6)
Do you see Pharaoh’s officials urged the Pharaoh to sanity and to let the people go. Pharaoh considered it, even entered into some negotiations with Moses, but in the end refusal was his final decision. . .again.
After the locusts’ invasion, the analysis was: “Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.” (10:15) We then see what appears to be Pharaoh’s genuine remorse in vs. 16 “Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said ‘I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more, and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.” But with the locusts gone, his heart was hardened again by God, and he returned to refusal.
Darkness can be paralyzing and even terrifying, right? That’s why we put a nightlight in the bathroom or bedroom, even at our age? Three days of pitch black, permeating darkness came over Egypt. Only where the Israelites lived, was there light. Now think for a moment… remember what happened during the crucifixion of Jesus? Matthew 27:45 says “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ – which means, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Darkness covered that area for three hours while Jesus hung on the cross, separated from His Father, as Jesus bore the sins of the world. It was a sign. A sign of the absolute hopelessness, despair of a world without God’s love, God’s grace, God’s forgiving mercy…a world without God.
Do you also remember how long Jesus was buried, dead in the tomb, after His crucifixion? He had said “I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness.” (John 8:12) During those days while Jesus’ body was in the tomb, deep spiritual darkness, and fear, the absence of any spiritual hope, covered the world, as everyone wondered what life would be like with no possible Savior.
During these three days of darkness in Egypt, can you imagine the fear, the terror, that God may never again bring the sunrise? But it was more than that. I believe the people cried out to their Egyptian gods and priests. They likely did everything they knew to do to awaken a response from their man-fabricated idols.
Their Pharaoh was, I believe, equally terrified. His magicians could do nothing to help him. In the darkness, his human power was meaningless. Everything in Egypt stopped, everything. But Moses had said it would last three days… and I imagine the Pharaoh did nothing but plan his next encounter with Moses. Pharaoh’s anger was boiling over when Moses came back to the palace and he shouted… “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The next time you see my face, you will die.” Pharaoh went to the only place his stubborn mind and hard heart could imagine…death to his enemies. I’m sure that had been his solution to problems many times in the past, and he fully expected that would put an end to all this.
You’ll notice chapter 10 does not end with Moses walking out of Pharaoh’s presence. No, Moses had one last message for Pharaoh. There would be one final, decisive plague which would break Pharaoh’s stubborn heart and cause him to free the Hebrews. That is the message of chapter 11 and we’ll see that tomorrow.
For today, may I leave you with two questions to consider??
1. When your back is against the wall, and you are frustrated to the point of anger, what’s your solution to the problem? Would you consider God may in fact be orchestrating events, to draw you to Himself, and teach you some remarkable lessons, that you can then teach your children and grandchildren, just like Exodus 10:2?
2. Second question… What has been God’s overall plan and purpose for your life up to this point? None of us lives in isolation. We all live in community, our lives inter-twined with others…our families, co-workers, friends, neighbors etc. So what has God been seeking to accomplish through your life in our world? Have you been a willing participant, or reluctant skeptic? A courageous partner with God, or stubborn, argumentative, strong-willed, self-focused mule? And how’s your heart today, my friends?
O God…please speak into each of our hearts today…
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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