FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Exodus 8:20-10:29

3. Deceiving

Please read Exodus 9:13-35 for the background to this section.

It didn’t look like Moses was achieving his purpose, for each new plague only made the situation worse. But God was in control and He knew what He was doing. The Lord always has a new word for His servants; all they have to do is listen, believe, and obey.

A fifth warning (verses 13-21). This is the longest warning so far, perhaps because it introduced the most destructive plague God had sent thus far. Moses again gave God’s command that Pharaoh allow the Jewish people to leave the country for a special meeting with the Lord, but this time the Lord added a special warning: the God of the Hebrews was about to release “the full force” (NIV) of His plagues on Pharaoh, the people, and the land. Pharaoh’s heart had become harder, so God’s disciplines had to become more severe.

Moses reminded the king of the Lord’s mercy: “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.” Simply by speaking the word, God could have wiped out the entire Egyptian nation, but God in His mercy doesn’t give sinners all that they deserve. How grateful Pharaoh should have been, and yet he continued to resist the Lord.

Moses also reminded Pharaoh of God’s sovereign grace, a lesson more than one dictator has had to learn the hard way (Daniel 4:28-33; Acts 12:20-24). Apart from the sovereign will of God, Pharaoh would not have been the ruler of Egypt. Each time Pharaoh resisted God, the Lord used the situation to reveal His power and glorify His name. If Pharaoh exalted himself against God, then God was certainly exalting Himself through Pharaoh. Paul quoted Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17 as part of his explanation of the justice and mercy of God with reference to Israel.

The next day, God would send “the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt” (NIV), so Moses advised the people to gather into a safe place all the cattle that had not been in the fields and had survived the fifth plague. Even some of Pharaoh’s servants now believed God’s Word and obeyed it, but the king continued to harden his heart.

The seventh plague (verses 22-26). The next day, Moses stretched his rod toward heaven, and God sent thunder, rain, hail, and lightning that ran along the ground. Any person or animal that wasn’t under cover was killed, and the plants and trees in the fields were destroyed. Since the flax and barley were ready for harvest, the plague must have come in January or February. Once again, the Lord protected His people in the land of Goshen and the plague didn’t touch them.

Another royal lie (verses 27-35). Seeing the devastation of his land, Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron, something he had done time and again and would eventually do again. However, this time the proud king acknowledged the justice of God and admitted that he had sinned! (He would also do that again.) However, his confession was insincere because it didn’t lead to obedience. Moses knew that the king didn’t really fear the Lord. All he and his officials wanted to do was stop the terrible hailstorm.

God in His grace answered Moses’ prayer and stopped the plague. Pharaoh in his duplicity reneged on his promise and wouldn’t let Israel go. When would he ever learn that you can’t fight against God and win?

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Delivered, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Exodus 8:20-10:29

2. Resisting

Please read Exodus 9:1-12 for the background to this section.

As you study the account of the plagues of Egypt, keep in mind the purposes God was fulfilling through these momentous events. First of all, He was manifesting His power to Pharaoh and his officials and proving to them that He alone is the true and living God. At the same time, the Lord was exposing the futility of the Egyptian religion and the vanity of the many gods they worshiped, including Pharaoh himself. All that God did to Egypt was a reminder to His people that their God was fighting for them and they didn’t have to worry or be afraid.

The fifth plague (verses 1-7). Moses announced to Pharaoh that unless he released the Israelites within twenty-four hours, all the livestock in the Egyptian fields would be the next target for the demonstration of Jehovah’s power. God would send a terrible pestilence upon the horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats in the fields, and they would die. We don’t know what this pestilence was and it’s useless to speculate. One thing is sure: God sent the plague and the livestock in the fields perished. Since some of the gods of Egypt were identified with bulls, cows, rams, and other livestock, this judgment was another successful attack on the Egyptian religion.

But God also kept His promise and protected the livestock that belonged to the Jews living in the land of Goshen. When Jacob and his family came to Egypt during the time of Joseph, they brought their flocks and herds with them (Genesis 45:10; 47:1; 50:8). During their time of bondage, the Jews were allowed to keep livestock, for at the Exodus, they took their flocks and herds with them (Exodus 12:37-38).

How did Pharaoh respond to this terrible plague? He hardened his heart and resisted the authority of the Lord. “Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (Proverbs 28:14). The opposite of a hard heart is a heart that fears God, and that reverential fear motivates us to obey the Lord’s commands. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), but the hardhearted person is ignorant of God and His truth (Ephesians 4:18).

The sixth plague (verses 8-12). There was no warning given this time. Moses and Aaron simply went to one of the lime-kilns, filled their hands with soot, threw the soot into the air, and trusted God to do the rest. God kept His promise, for wherever the soot landed on the Egyptians and their cattle, it produced painful festering ulcers and boils. Once again, the Jews in Goshen were protected.

Pharaoh summoned his court magicians, but they weren’t able to go to the palace. The boils had caught up with them and they could do nothing about it! The experience was not only painful but also embarrassing, because the Egyptians were obsessed with physical cleanliness. They took frequent baths, but the festering sores would make that difficult.

The nation of Egypt was being devastated and the people were in great pain, but Pharaoh would not yield. He continued resisting the Lord and His servants, and each act of disobedience only hardened his heart more. “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing” (Proverbs 29:1). For Pharaoh, the worst was yet to come.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Delivered, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Exodus 8:20-10:29

1. Bargaining – Continued

Please read Exodus 8:20-32 for the background to this section.

God’s wrath (verse 24). Just as God promised, the next day great swarms of flies invaded the land, entering the homes of the people and even the palace of the king. But the flies were more than just an immediate nuisance to the people, for their coming caused some long-range problems as well. The swarms of insects no doubt carried disease germs that affected the people, and it’s possible the insects deposited their eggs on the vegetation and the larva that came out ate the plants and thus ruined the land. Some students think that the fly was especially sacred to the Egyptian god Uatchit, so the plague was also God’s way of dishonoring another one of the false gods of Egypt.

Pharaoh’s offers (verses 25-32). During the time of the plagues, Pharaoh offered four compromises to Moses and Aaron. The first two are recorded here, during the plague of the flies; the third came during the locust plague (Exodus 10:7-11); and the fourth occurred during the three days of darkness. The fact that Pharaoh even thought he could bargain with God is another evidence of his pride. What is mortal man, even the king of a great nation, that he should dare to negotiate the will of God? These offers were all part of Pharaoh’s hypocritical scheme to outwit Moses and Aaron, for his heart was still stubborn and unyielding. He wasn’t interested in either the will of God or the welfare of the Jews; all he wanted was to stop the plagues.

God’s people face similar “Egyptian compromises” today as we seek to serve the Lord. The enemy tells us we don’t have to be separated from sin because we can serve God “in the land.” God’s reply is found in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. “Don’t go too far away,” the enemy whispers, “or people will call you a fanatic.” James 1:27 and James 4:4 demolish that proposal. True service to God means giving Him authority over all our possessions and all the people in our family for whom we’re responsible. Not to do so is to disobey Mark 10:13-16; Ephesians 6:4; and Deuteronomy 6:6-13. Once we start to negotiate the will of God and see how close we can get to the world, we have already disobeyed Him in our hearts.

In his first proposal, Pharaoh offered to let the Jews hold their worship feast in the land of Egypt, an offer Moses and Aaron rejected. They knew that some of the animals the Jews would sacrifice were sacred to the Egyptians, and what began as a meeting for solemn worship would quickly turn into a riot. The Jews were a separate people, living in Goshen, a land that had been set apart by God, and they had to separate themselves a three days’ journey from Egypt in order to please the Lord.

Pharaoh’s second offer was that Israel leave the land but not go too far away. The appendix to his offer (“Plead for me.”) shows that his real concern was to get rid of the swarms of flies. On the surface, it looks like Moses and Aaron accepted this second offer, because Moses promised to get rid of the flies. Perhaps they thought they could travel farther once they got out of the land, but surely they both knew that Pharaoh wouldn’t keep his word. Pharaoh had a habit of begging for help when he needed it and then changing his mind once the plague was removed. God answered Moses’ prayer and removed the flies, but Pharaoh only hardened his heart even more.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Delivered, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Exodus 8:20-10:29

God is gracious and long-suffering, but there comes a time when He will no longer tolerate the disobedience and arrogance of defiant sinners. “To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless, to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd” (Psalm 18:25-26, NIV). If we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us (Leviticus 26:23-24).

“God shows Himself to each individual according to his character,” wrote Charles Spurgeon, and no individual in Scripture illustrates this truth better than the king of Egypt. For months, Moses and Aaron had dealt with Pharaoh, but the king was unwilling to obey God’s command or even acknowledge God’s authority. The water courses in Egypt had been turned into blood, slimy frogs had invaded the land, and swarms of pesky gnats had irritated the people, but Pharaoh had refused to bend.

What did God do? He declared all-out war on both the ruler of Egypt and the gods of Egypt. The Lord sent six painful and destructive plagues to the land, and then a seventh plague which brought the death of every firstborn son. As you study Pharaoh’s responses to these plagues, you see the moral and spiritual deterioration of a man who wouldn’t submit to God and paid a terrible price for his rebellion.

Let’s consider Pharaoh’s responses to the judgments of God but, at the same time, let’s examine our own hearts to learn whether or not we are responding positively to the will of God.

1. Bargaining

Please read Exodus 8:20-32 for the background to this section.

At certain times of the year, Pharaoh would go to the sacred Nile River to participate in special religious rites, and it certainly must have irritated him on that particular holy occasion to see Moses and Aaron waiting for him. In Pharaoh’s eyes, these two men were national nuisances. Actually, Pharaoh was the cause of the nation’s troubles, but he would not admit it. God was dealing with Pharaoh in mercy, wanting to bring him into submission; for it’s only when we obey God that we can truly enjoy His blessings. With one blow, God could have wiped out Pharaoh and the nation (Exodus 9:15), but He chose to give them opportunity to repent.

God’s warning (verses 20-21). We’ve already noted that before sending seven of the ten plagues, God warned Pharaoh what was coming but, of course, he refused to believe the Word of God and persisted in his disobedience. The fact that each plague occurred just as God described it, at the time announced, should have convinced Pharaoh and his officers that the God of Israel was in control of these spectacular events. They weren’t caused by Pharaoh’s magicians, who could neither prevent them nor reverse them, nor were they mere coincidences. The hand of the Lord was against the land of Egypt.

God’s grace (verse 22). The Lord added a new feature to this plague by announcing that the Jews in the land of Goshen would escape the plague completely. Only the great God of Israel could control the flight pattern of tiny flies and keep them from entering the land of Goshen. But God’s providential care of Israel was evident in all these seven last plagues, because the Jews escaped each and every one of them.

Often in Scripture, the land of Egypt symbolizes the world system with its pride and bondage, while the Exodus of Israel from Egypt pictures the deliverance of God’s people through the blood of the lamb (John 1:29; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18-19). During the time when Joseph was in Egypt, Pharaoh had given the land of Goshen to the Jews, and now God set it apart for His people. In this way God made a “division” between His people and the Egyptians. The word translated “division” in Exodus 8:23 means “a redemption, a ransom, a deliverance.” Because they belonged to God in a special way, the Jews were “different” from the Egyptians, but Pharaoh wouldn’t acknowledge this fact.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Delivered, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved