The Plagues (Exodus 7:14-10:29)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This morning and we are not going to have it on the screen because I think it would break our computer. So there is a Bible in the little rack down in front of you. If you're on the front row and you need the Bible, just hold your hand behind your head like this and see if someone will hand you one from behind you. But grab a Bible, go to page 29 or Exodus chapter 7. Second book of the Bible, chapter 7, it's a big seven and then we're going to start in verse 14. And we are going to look at, we've been walking through the book of Exodus and we have made it to the plagues, what we often refer to as the ten plagues.
And it's what God has called his signs and wonders. And so to Egypt they're plagues, but to the world they're signs and wonders, a sign meant to point to something. So as we walk through this morning, we're going to talk about what is happening, but we're going to pay careful attention to why. Why is it playing out the way that it is? Because God is going out of his way to display something, to point to something. That's what the sign does, to display wondrously who he is.
And that's what he's doing. He is going to execute judgment on the false gods of Egypt. Pharaoh who was considered a God and there are 42 gods in their pantheon. He's going to execute judgment on the false gods of Egypt to display his glory so that the world might know him. He's going to execute judgment on the false gods of Israel to display his glory to the end that the world might know him. And so we're going to walk through, and we're going to walk through from chapter 7, back half of 7, all of 8, all of 9, all of chapter 10.
And you may be saying, it sounds like it's going to take a while. And it will only, I've timed it out, it'll only take about two hours and then we'll have a brief intermission. And if it's your first Sunday and you're laughing like, ha, this is really a joke, right? All right, let's pray. God, we pray that you would bless our time this morning as we study your word, that you would help us to see your glory reflected in your work. And we pray that you would help us to see the glory of Christ reflected in your work to redeem your people out of Egypt.
Lord, we ask for your help and your blessing this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. We're in Exodus 7, verse 14. In Exodus 5, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? Well, he's about to find out. Chapter 7, verse 14.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile. The Nile was this massive river that is basically why Egypt exists is because of the Nile. It is their life.
As he's going out, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, the Lord, the God of Hebrews sent me to you saying, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. And we're going to hear this repeated over and over again. That word serve, that they may serve me. That word serve is the same word that is used when Pharaoh says, you've taken the people away from their burdens, tell them to get back to their work. It's that same word, that word for work or serve.
And so what God is doing is he's saying, they're not going to belong to you anymore. They're going to belong to me. They're not going to serve you anymore. They're going to serve me. And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago, how that's a wonderful thing that God is not just setting them free to be free, but he's setting them free to himself. And so we're going to hear that repeated as we go through this.
May serve me in the wilderness, but so far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, by this, you shall know that I am the Lord. So this is why he's doing it, that you shall know that I am the Lord behold with the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water that is in the Nile and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die and the Nile will stink and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, their ponds and all the pools of water so that they may become blood.
And there should be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile and all the water in the Nile turned into blood and the fish in the Nile died and the Nile stink so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. The Nile represents life to the Egyptians. It floods every year and it makes it possible for them to grow crops. It is where life comes from.
It's where their economy comes from. And they understood it to be a God. They understood it to be the blood flow, life flow of their gods. And they had gods that were gods of the Nile. Their system for how their gods worked, like I said, there's 42 of them. It's all over the place.
So the Nile is a God, but there's a God over the Nile and the Nile is the blood of the gods. And they were fine with that. But they didn't have it real orderly. But there's gods all over the place that are, there's like five gods of the air and a bunch of gods of the earth. It's, it's just, it's a bit all over the place, but they understood it to be deity. And it was a place of life for them.
But it's a place of death for the Israelites. For who knows how many years they were having to throw their sons into the Nile. And God strikes the Nile and it turns to blood. And all the canals and all the ponds and all the pools and all the basins that people had used filled with blood. So at this moment, there are people bathing in the Nile, using water from the Nile to clean clothes, to clean their hands, and it turns to blood.
This is the stuff of nightmares. They are marked by death. And God shows his imminent authority. Do you want me to tell you how they did that? Can't, it's a secret. We said, uh, about, uh, last week Spencer was talking through this and we said that we don't understand exactly how they are able to copy some of these signs that it could possibly be that they are illusionists.
It could also possibly be that there is some demonic authority in their pantheon, some evil spiritual power that allows them to do some of this. And the Bible doesn't go into it, but we do see that they're able to mimic this. So it says the magicians were able to mimic this. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened and he would not listen to them. As the Lord had said, Pharaoh turned and went into his house and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. So they have to start scrambling to try to just find water. Some people would have scrambled to try to get themselves cleaned off, trying to find some water, but they spend the rest of this time. And for a week, the Nile is blood and it stinks. I don't know if you've ever been in an area of a city where it stinks, but it is oppressive and it wears on you and it stinks. Chapter eight, the second plague.
The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, go behold, I will plague you. That word plague can also be used. It can be translated strike or smite you, or it's like a blow that's given. I will plague all your country with frogs. Frogs.
What? That's the immediate first response you have. At least I have. It's like frogs. Like if you were little kids and you're like, we're all going to be superheroes. It's like, all right, well, I have super strength and I'm super fast.
And one kid was like, I'm frog boy. Be like, good for you. Seems a little odd, but there's an Egyptian God known as Heket that had a frog's head or was represented by a frog. And it was the God of reproduction of fertility because frogs would mate and have all these eggs all in the, the Egyptian, in the Nile. And so it was this understanding that, that this God blesses and multiplies and God's saying, no, I'm the God that's in charge of that. I bless and I multiply.
And you're about to watch me multiply frogs. And y'all, this gets bad. Verse three, the Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. My wife couldn't cook a meal if we brought one frog into the kitchen. They're everywhere. Do you know how loud frogs are?
They're on your bed, in your bedroom. This is torment. And it is a display of the greatness of God. The frog shall come upon you and on your people and on all your servants. So it's verse four.
It's a verse five. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So they're able to mimic this one as well.
But you'll notice something about the magicians. They're not able to stop God. They don't have the ability or the authority to send the frogs back. They just make more frogs. They took some good water that apparently hadn't come from the Nile and turned that into blood. Great.
Very helpful. Thank you. That'd be like if you and I were walking along and a bully came along. I mean like a bully and slapped me in the face. And then you said, don't be afraid of him. That's nothing.
Anyone can slap you in the face. And then you slapped me in the face. It would be not helpful. So they're like, look, we made more frogs. Thanks. So proud of you guys.
Verse eight. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, this is how you know this one is terrible. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, plead with the Lord to take away the frogs for me and my people. And I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. It was a full week of the Nile being blood and he doesn't crack. He says, get these frogs out of here.
Plead. I'll let you go. This is what we want. He's going to get, he's going to let them go. So Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you, for your servants, for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.
And he said, tomorrow, Moses said, be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord, our God. If you said to someone who's playing baseball, you said, hit a home run for me. And they said, pick the inning, pick the pitcher and point which part of the wall you want me to hit it over. And then they did it. You'd be pretty well confident. They knew how to play some baseball.
He says, pray that these frogs will be taken away. And he says, pick a time so that you'll know he's in charge. He says, tomorrow, he says, tomorrow. Verse 11. Moses, uh, verse 10. He said, tomorrow, Moses said, be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord, our God, the frog shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people.
They should be left only in the Nile. So Moses and Aaron, went out from Pharaoh and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs as he had agreed with Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, the frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards and the fields, and they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Verse 16, the third plague. Then the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.
And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. That's a lot of gnats. You ever get a gnat in your eye or your ear or your nose?
It's torment. And you look like a crazy person. You're talking to people and suddenly you're like, well, they're everywhere. And he strikes the dust to do this. He's showing that I'm the God of the earth. Y'all have gods that are supposed to be the land.
Boom. Gnats. It's a massive display of God's power and greatness. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats. They were like, we can make it worse. Watch.
But they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said earlier. They mimicked it. And then it said, so his heart was hardened.
This time they were, they come to him and say, we, this, this is God's doing. And it says, but his heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. The fourth plague, verse 20. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me or else. If you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand.
But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Again, this is, he has a missionary purpose. I'm doing this to display who I am that you might know that I'm the Lord. So he says, I'm going to send flies, but there's a new wrinkle. They're going to stop around the land of Goshen flies, swarms of them on the ground in your houses, everywhere. You go to Goshen, no flies so that you'll know that I'm the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Thus, I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this shine, this sign shall happen. And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants houses throughout all the land of Egypt. The land was ruined by the swarms of flies. And I'm impressed over, as I read through this, how hungry my wife would have been because she can't eat of flies or all around her either.
She'd have really been struggling through this. You guys are 25. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, go sacrifice to your God within the land. So he says, okay, you can go, but do it within the land. Don't go anywhere. You can go, but don't go.
But Moses said it would not be right to do so for the offerings. We shall sacrifice the Lord. Our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he tells us. So Pharaoh said, I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord, your God in the wilderness.
Only you must not go very far away. Plead for me. Then Moses said, behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people tomorrow. only let not Pharaoh cheat again, but not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. We've done this before. And Pharaoh did not hold up his end. Verse 30.
So Moses went out from the Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord and the Lord did as Moses asked and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people, not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go. So this is dragging out. They keep having these moments where Pharaoh says, okay, and then they wait and he doesn't. And God strikes them again. Chapter nine, the fifth plague.
Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time saying tomorrow, the Lord will do this thing in the land.
And the next day, the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, you're thinking, sent the people out of the land? No, sent and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel is dead. He just went and said, see if that actually happened. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go.
Okay. So God is drawing these distinctions. He already had it to where swarms of flies, which, you know, swarms of flies wouldn't work like this, but they ran to an arbitrary border and saw a sign that said, welcome to the land of Goshen. And they said, oh, not for us. We're not allowed to go. And now he's got a pestilence that knows the ownership of animals.
This is not how this works, but it is if God's in charge and a wasting disease comes along and takes out the livestock of the Egyptians. And God displays his greatness. And he says, I'm going to do this so that you might know. The sixth plague boils. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take hands of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. Pharaoh, it shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.
So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh and Moses threw it in the air and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians, the magicians who would have been able to supposed to be able to heal and protect. They can't even, they're not even, we can't even be there. They're so covered in boils, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. This one, Moses doesn't even say anything.
At least we're not told that he says anything. God says, go get soot from the kiln. Now these kilns were most likely the kilns they were using to make bricks as slaves. He goes and gets handfuls of soot, walks into where Pharaoh is, which is never a fun time for Pharaoh. Throws it in the air. Now you would think it would make kind of a cloud, be a little bit dramatic, I guess, and fall.
And then he might say something like thus is assigned to whatever, but he does it. He throws it in the air and it becomes a fine dust that just takes off. And then Moses doesn't say anything. He throws it in the air. And he just leaves and it becomes a fine dust that goes everywhere and covers them all with boils that turn into sores. So much so that the magicians can't even show up.
It's not like some boils and sores. It's like incapacitating. And God is showing his greatness and his sovereignty that he rules over the land of Egypt because they had gods that were over the air. They had gods that were over pestilence and disease. They had gods that could heal. No.
False gods. None are like the Lord God. Verse 13, the seventh plague. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me for this time. I will send all my plagues on yourself and on your servants and on your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. So what he's saying is Pharaoh, your gods aren't gods.
There's none like me. In some ways, this is an invitation to the people of Egypt to recognize, humble themselves and worship. He keeps going. Verse 15 for by now, I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth. In some ways, he's saying, have I proved my point yet? You're well aware I could have killed you if I wanted to kill you.
Killing you is simple for me. I could have just smudged Egypt off the map. If I can cover you in boils, if I can kill all your livestock, if I'm in charge of frogs, if I can make blood come up in the Nile, like, you know, I could just kill you if I wanted to kill you. But he's going to describe his purpose. There's a reason here. Verse 16, but for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
God said, I'm going out of my way to declare my glory so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. I want the world to recognize there is no God like me. I want humility and worship to run rampant so that I might be acknowledged as the one true God. He says, but you are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. I said that in some ways, this is an invitation and it is. And I want you to see this in your own life.
Pause for just one second. There are times where God in his goodness to you does not let your idols, does not let you have your idols, doesn't let them work out. You've got something that you say you worship, you serve it like they serve Pharaoh, that your time and your energy goes into that. If I could just have this thing, then I'd be happy. If I could just make this work, if I just get this amount of money, if I could just have this promotion, if I could just dress like this, if I could just look like this, if I could just date this person, then I'd be fine. Some of you are very frustrated with God because he will not let your other small G God work.
And it's graciousness that you might know there's no God like him, that you might know where true satisfaction and joy is, and that you might stop exalting yourself in your own wisdom, but humble yourself and come to him. It's good. It's a goodness to you that some of the Egyptians might actually surrender and believe rather than to follow false gods that seem to work for them unto the ultimate destruction. Verse 18. Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall such as has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now, therefore, send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.
This is meant to be for crops. Get your livestock and your people and get them back in. The reason the fact that they have livestock is one of the things that makes me think this takes time. I used to think the 10 plagues were like 10 days, like the worst 10 days ever. But I don't think that's what that is at all.
I think it slowly is a crippling, debilitating thing over a nation that takes place over time so that they've actually replaced some of their livestock. They've traded, maybe confiscated some of the Israelite livestock, but they have some livestock now. And a little while we'll see again that there's a difference between when something happens in like a harvest time. And so that this took place over time. I just go get it in because it's going to die. Verse 20.
Then I love this part. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Some of the people around Pharaoh are starting to get this. Moses is leaving. Servant goes to another servant says, Hey, well, what did he just say?
Same thing. He always says, let my people go. Okay. We're going to do that. No. Okay.
Then what did he say is going to happen? Oh, a hell storm is going to come tomorrow. He said, get your stuff inside. Help. Get, get it inside right now. All of you, everybody inside, put them in the house.
I don't care. We don't have that many cows left. Just wherever. Just put them up. Some of them believed. And it says, but whoever did not pay attention, left it all out.
Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt. All right. I want to point out something to us. The magicians seem to have some power on their own something that they're doing. So in some ways they're more powerful than Moses and Aaron, because Moses and Aaron don't really have anything that they're actually doing.
Moses and Aaron are serving the Lord and the Lord does everything. The reason I find this really helpful is that God keeps telling Moses and Aaron to do things. He says, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt. So that now I know us and I know how many of us would respond. God, I don't know how to make hail. I told you to stretch your hand out towards heaven.
I'm not in charge of the weather, God. Something I can't do. We'd have been doing this the whole time. Strike the Nile and turn the dust into gnats. I'm not in charge of gnats. I don't know how to do this.
I struck the earth. Did I say Nile? Yeah, just be fine. But we'd have been arguing the whole time. And what they have is faith and obedience and a very powerful God who does what he says he's going to do. And some of us need to walk into our offices and our neighborhoods with some faith and obedience.
Trusting that God is the one who redeems. God is the one who saves. And we actually get to step out saying, I don't have the authority or the power to see people repent and follow Jesus. I don't have the authority and power to make this conversation work. But that's not what I've been asked to do.
I just get to do the thing he told me to do, which is take this step in faith and obedience and watch him do what he's going to do. And understanding that, yes, Moses is not in charge of hailstorms. This isn't something God didn't look around and go, who's really good at hailstorms? Let me go find Moses. That's not how this worked at all. God said, obey with faith.
And he does. And then God moves. And we need to notice that. All right. We were in verse 22. So that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant in the field in the land of Egypt.
Then Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire ran down to the earth. And that's most likely lightning because they refer to it as thunders later. The Lord rained hell upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of Egypt. Oh, so in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. So basketball sized hail, I mean, like destructive murder hail, which by the way, later he's going to say that he's going to send something that never before and never after this one just says never before.
It's bad news for Egypt potentially in the future. All the land of Egypt since it became a nation, the hail struck down everything that was in the field and all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. So they just got to stand and watch this massive destructive storm that follows arbitrary map lines. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I have sinned.
The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go and shall stay no longer. Wonderful. He says, I've sinned. Plead with him.
Y'all can go. Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hand to the Lord. The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so that there that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. Moses is summoned to Pharaoh. He says, I'm going to walk out of the city.
When I get out of the city, then I'm going to pray. It'll stop. And you'll know that he's the Lord, which makes me think, and the Bible doesn't say this. Y'all can ponder it on your own, but it makes me think that the hail swerved around Moses while he walked. I think Moses potentially walked in and stood before Pharaoh dry, walked out as the storm just curves around him, goes on the opposite end of the storm, walks out of the city, raises his staff. The storm stops.
He makes eye contact with Pharaoh in his castle or whatever he has, Pharaoh's house. Go past a palace. How about that? No, he didn't sound medieval. Turns around and walks off so that Pharaoh might know that there is no God like the Lord God. It says, when I get out of the city, I'll raise up my hand.
Verse 31, we get a little aside. It says, the flax and the barley were struck down for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud, but the wheat and the emmer were not struck down for they are late in coming. About half their crops are gone. Half are yet to come. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, stretched out his hands to the Lord and the thunder and hail ceased and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.
But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants, so that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go, people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. That's a whole sermon. I've sinned when things are bad. I've sinned. Help me, Lord, please take this away. It goes away and we sin yet again.
Eighth plague, chapter 10. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of mine among them and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that y'all, that you is plural, that you may know that I am the Lord. So he's been telling Pharaoh, this is so that you'll know. He says it's so that the ends of the earth will know. And then he tells Moses, it's so that the Israelites will know. So that you and your son and your grandson will know that you will repeat this and you'll know that I am the Lord.
It's meant to bring about humility and worship. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail. And they shall eat every tree, a tree of yours that grows in the field. So I'm assuming this is the emmer and the wheat that have now come up.
So there's been some time here. He said, they're going to eat all of that. They shall fill your houses and the houses of your servants and all the Egyptians as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day they came on earth to this day. Then he turned and he went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh's servant said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to to us?
Let the men go that they may serve the Lord, their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? His servants are saying, please, please let them go. So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, go serve the Lord, your God, but which ones are to go? And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old. We would go with our sons and our daughters and with our fox and our herds for we must hold a feast to the Lord.
But he said to them, the Lord be with you. If ever I let you and your little ones go, look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No, go the men amongst you and serve the Lord for that is what you were asking. And they were driven out from the, from Pharaoh's presence. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.
So Moses stretched out his hand over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locust. The locust came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt. Such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord, your God and against you. Now, therefore, forgive my sin, please only this once and plead with the Lord, your God only to remove this death from me. So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord and the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the people go. Then the Lord said to Moses, this is the ninth plague, last one we're going to look at today, stretch out your hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. The chief God amongst the people of Egypt was raw and they believed wrongly that he would put the sun in a chariot, ride it into the sky every day, take it back home and do it again the next day. And God says, no, I'm in charge of the sun. And he makes a darkness that you can feel. And they did not see each other for three days, which makes me think it was a darkness that actually conquered light, that if they tried to light something, the darkness swallowed it.
And so they just sit for three days. Now, I don't know about your mental state, but sitting in pitch darkness for three days is tough. Pitch overwhelming darkness, the thought process of what has happened to the sun and what does that mean? Three days. But all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
Verse 24. So then it ends and says, then Pharaoh called Moses and said, go serve the Lord. So it's not even going on anymore. It's over. It's already been relented of, but Pharaoh at this point says, we got to, y'all got to go, go serve the Lord. Your little ones also may go with you.
Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind. So Pharaoh still hasn't fully surrendered. He wants to have some reason they have to come back. You got to leave your flocks and your herds behind. But Moses said, you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord.
Our God, our livestock also must go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind for we must take of them to serve the Lord, our God. And we do not know what we must serve the Lord, how we must serve with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there. Verse 27. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go.
Then Pharaoh said to him, get away from me, take care, take care, never to see my face again. For on the day you see my face, you shall die. And Moses said, as you say, I will not see your face again. Moses says, have it how you like it. If Pharaoh is going to have any hope, any chance, he needs Moses. He needs Moses because Moses is the only one through whom that he can get to God.
And he's going to have any hope, any chance. If this is going to get turned around, he needs Moses and he utterly rejects Moses. He utterly rejects God. He says, I better not see your face again because if I see your face again, I'm going to kill you. And God has purposed to put on display his glory. So that the Egyptians, the ends of the earth, the Israelites and all who hear of this might humble themselves and worship.
So if you said, what do we do with the 10 plagues of Egypt? What am I supposed to do with this? You're supposed to humble yourself and worship. You're supposed to be thankful for a God who does not allow idols to stand before him. And we're supposed to see in this, the reflected glory of Christ who also performs signs so that we may know that he is the Lord God. He doesn't strike the water.
He blesses it and turns it into wine where, where God is undoing Egypt, judging Egypt. Jesus comes, he says, not to condemn the world, but that through me, the world might be saved. He's coming to show a rebirth or re life. Life. He's bringing hope, not death. He's bringing life to the earth.
So Jesus comes. He doesn't curse the water. He blesses the water. He turns it into wine. He doesn't curse the crops, the food. He blesses it and he multiplies it.
There's more loaves and more fish with Jesus. He doesn't bring the storm. He calms the storm. He doesn't bring sickness and disease. He heals sickness and disease and he does not cause death and darkness upon us, but he takes death and darkness upon himself. So that we may know that he is the Lord in the earth, that he has come in the purpose, person of Jesus for the purpose of rescuing a people so that when he dies, we might understand that when he says that it's to pay for sin, that it is when he rises, we might understand that he has risen, conquering sin and death and hell so that we might humble ourselves and worship.
And Moses stood before Pharaoh that he might humble himself and worship and through the person of Moses come to know this Lord. And Jesus stands before you that you might humble yourself and worship and through the person of Jesus come to know the Lord God of all creation. And you have the option to utterly reject Jesus, to continue to exalt yourself or to look into the scriptures, see his signs and wonders and repent and humble yourselves and worship to the glory of God. Let's pray. Lord, there is no Lord like you, Lord. There is no God who rules over every aspect of creation.
There is no God who bends all of creation to your will that raises and lowers kingdom. And there is no God like you that humbles yourself to redeem sinners through your own blood. Lord, there is no God. And God, may you receive glory and worship and honor from us all of our days. Amen. The band is going to come back up and we're going to sing.
And I would invite you to accept the invitation that Pharaoh rejected. To know that he is the Lord God. To repent, humble yourselves and trust in this God who rules over all things.