Exodus 9

God is gracious and longsuffering, 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” (Ps. 18:25–26 niv). If we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us (Lev. 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.

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 worshipped, 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 (vv. 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 (Gen. 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 (Ex. 12:37–38).

How did Pharaoh respond to this terrible plague? He hardened his heart and resisted the authority of the Lord. “How blessed is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (Prov. 28: nasb). 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” (Prov. 9:10), but the hardhearted person is ignorant of God and His truth (Eph. 4:18).

The sixth plague (vv. 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 (v. 11).

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 and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov. 29: nkjv). For Pharaoh, the worst was yet to come.

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 (vv. 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” of His plagues on Pharaoh, the people, and the land (v. 14 niv). 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 if by now I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth” (v. 15 nasb). 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 (v. 16), a lesson more than one dictator has had to learn the hard way (Dan. 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 exalted Himself through Pharaoh (Ex. 9:17). Paul quoted verse 16 in Romans 9: 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” (Ex. 9: 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 (vv. 22–26). The next day, Moses stretched his rod toward heaven, and God sent thunder, rain (v. 33), 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 (v. 31), 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 (vv. 27–35). Seeing the devastation of his land, Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron, something he had done before (8:8) and would do again (10:16). However, this time the proud king acknowledged the justice of God and admitted that he had sinned! (He would do that again. See 10:17.) 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?