Exodus 9

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ² For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, ³ 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. ⁴ 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.”’” ⁵ And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” ⁶ 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. ⁷ And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. ⁹ 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.” ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. ¹² But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 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. 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. ¹⁷ You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. ¹⁸ Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹ 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.”’” ²⁰ Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, ²¹ but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. ²² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” ²³ Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. ²⁴ There was hail and fire flashing continually 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. ²⁵ The hail struck down everything that was in the field in 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. ²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” ²⁹ Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. ³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” ³¹ (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. ³² But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) ³³ So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

 

In 1962, Bob Dylan recorded the song, “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.”  It is a fascinating and enigmatic work, hailed by many as the quintessential protest song.  It is, in fact, a warning song couched in prophetic terms and images and symbols, cautioning America and the world about the evils of greed, unchecked militarism, racism, injustice, and other social ills.  In the song, a man’s “blue-eyed son” has been walking throughout the world observing what is happening.  In response to his father’s questions concerning what he has seen, he reports his alarming findings and repeats a haunting refrain about the judgment that is coming if the world doesn’t change.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?

And where have you been my darling young one ?

I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains

I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways

I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard

It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?

And what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard

It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’

I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’

I heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’

I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard

And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman whose body was burning

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow

I met one man who was wounded in love

I met another man who was wounded in hatred

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard

And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

And what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

And what’ll you do now my darling young one?

I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’

I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten

Where black is the color, where none is the number

And I’ll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’

But I’ll know my songs well before I start singin’

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard

It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

What a chilling refrain!  “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall.”  I cannot help but think of this song and that refrain when reading about the plagues of Egypt.  The Lord had warned Pharaoh time and again through the witness of Moses and Aaron.  And time and again Pharaoh rejected their warnings.  As a result, the hard rain of God’s judgment fell, with disastrous results for Pharaoh and Egypt, but with salvation for the people of God.

I. The Primary Reason for the Plagues:  The Glorification of God Throughout the Earth (v.1-17)

I have mentioned more than once that the primary impulse behind the events surrounding the Exodus was theological.  God was proclaiming His sovereignty and exclusive majesty, reminding Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, and the entire world that there is only one true King, and that His throne is eternal.  That is, God was revealing His majesty and His glory.  This is abundantly clear in our chapter this evening.

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ² For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, ³ 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.

It is worthy of note that the Hebrew word used for “severe” in the ESV, kabed, can also mean “hard” and is often used in Exodus to describe the condition of Pharaoh’s heart.[1]  The Lord proclaims that a hard rain is a-gonna’ fall, a hard plague is coming.  In saying this, He was likening the severity of the plague to the stony condition of Pharaoh’s heart.  In a strange way it reminds me of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, except that whereas the true condition of Dorian Grey’s heart manifested itself in his decaying portrait, the true condition of Pharaoh’s heart manifested itself throughout the plague-cursed land of Egypt.

⁴ 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.”’

Once again, we see God’s beautiful protection of His people.  There are two aspects to the introduction of this plague that mark it as more severe than all the preceding plagues.  First, it is the first time that God Himself speaks to Pharaoh of a plague coming by and through “the hand of the Lord.”  Second, it is the first time that God says something will die as a result of the plague.

⁵ And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” ⁶ 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.

Many see these verses as creating a problem.  They seem to say that literally all the livestock of the Egyptians died, yet, as we will see in the next plague, clearly some of the Egyptian livestock survived (v.9-10,19).  Stuart Murray offers a helpful explanation of an important translation note concerning the word “all.”

This apparent contradiction is not due to inconsistency among the plague accounts, multiple contradictory sources for them, or any similar cause.  It is due simply to the fact that the Hebrew word kol, usually translated “all,” can mean “all sorts of” or “from all over” or “all over the place.”  In this verse the better translation of the full expression would be “all sorts of Egyptian livestock died” or “Egyptian livestock died all over the place.”[2]

Philip Ryken notes that that the clue to this dilemma might also be found in the precise wording of verse 3.

One possible explanation is that the plague only affected animals out in the field, not animals kept back at the barn.  On a careful reading, verse 3 limits the plague to “livestock in the field.”  This explanation is confirmed by our knowledge of Egyptian agriculture.  Late in the year, as the floodwaters receded, farmers put their livestock out to pasture.  However, since the recession was gradual, during the month of January the animals were divided between field and stable.[3]

Regardless, it is clear that not all of the Egyptian livestock died.  Even so, this was a truly devastating plague with catastrophic results for the animals and people of Egypt.  There was, of course, the economic impact, but there was also a jarring spiritual lesson in this for the Egyptians as well.  As it turns out, cows and bulls held a sacred place in Egyptian spirituality.  Ryken lists many of these:

…Buchis, the sacred bull of Hermonthis, and Mnevis, who is worshiped at Heliopolis.  Sometimes bulls were considered to embody the gods Ptah and Ra.  But the chief bull was Apis.  At the temple in Memphis, priests maintained a sacred enclosure where they kept a live bull considered to be the incarnation of Apis.  When the venerable bull died, he was given an elaborate burial…Isis, the queen of the gods, was generally depicted with cow horns on her head…the goddess Hathor was represented with the head of a cow, sometimes with the sun between her two horns.  Hathor was a goddess of love and beauty, motherhood and fertility.  One of her sacred functions was to protect Pharaoh, and on occasion she was depicted as a cow suckling the king for nourishment.[4]

The significance of this frequent association of cows and bulls with deities rests in the fact that the slaughter of so much cattle undoubtedly presented the Egyptians with a tremendous psychological and spiritual blow.  The striking of the livestock made the statement that the sacred things of Egypt were likewise under the sovereign hand of God.  The gods of Egypt quaked and trembled before His wrath.  They quite simply could not compete.

⁷ And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. ⁹ 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.” ¹⁰ 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.

Here is a truly terrifying image.  Moses threw handfuls of soot into the air and it is transformed into a covering dust and then into boils as it settled on “man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”

¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.

You may be interested to know that this verse marks the last appearance of the Egyptian magicians.  They are ultimately defeated by the boils and we hear of them no more.

¹² But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 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. 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. ¹⁷ You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.

Here we see the primary purpose of the plagues stated plainly:  “…so that you man know that there is none like me in all the earth…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.”  The Lord desires that His glory and sovereignty and power and wonder be known by all in all the earth.  Why?  Is God vain?  No.  What is vanity in us is not vanity in the Lord.  We seek our glorification to our own demise.  We are not God!  But God seeks His glorification for our salvation, for our salvation rests in God being sovereign to deliver and to save.

It is interesting to see that Paul, in Romans 9, pointed to these verses to buttress his argument concerning God’s sovereign power.

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Our greatest desire should be defined by God’s greatest desire, and God’s greatest desire is that His name be known and worshiped throughout the earth.  That was the primary reason for the deliverance of Egypt.

II. The Grace of Divine Warning (v.18-26)

God’s sovereignty is clearly seen in the plagues, but here, in the plague of hail, we also see His grace.

¹⁸ Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹ 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.”’” ²⁰ Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, ²¹ but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. ²² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” ²³ Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. ²⁴ There was hail and fire flashing continually 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.

In the 4^th century, Ephrem the Syrian envisioned this hail and fire in terrifying terms.

“Hail and fire fell” together; neither did the hail extinguish the fire, nor did the fire melt the hail.  Rather, it burst into flames in the hail as in a thicket and turned [the hail] as red as iron in the fire, blazing in the hail, and careful of the trees.[5]

Yes, terrifying, and also destructive.

²⁵ The hail struck down everything that was in the field in 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. ²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

Let us note that the fury of God’s wrath goes hand in hand with the tenderness of His grace.  He warns the Egyptians to take shelter.  It is interesting to note that at least some of the Egyptians now feared God enough to listen to His warning.  This may not have been fear leading to true repentance and salvation, but, at the least, some of the Egyptians now recognized that the God to whom Moses and Aaron called was somehow greater and stronger than the many gods of Egypt.

This divine warning is an act of grace.  Many lives were spared as a result of it.  And it is no less an act of grace today.  Today, as in ancient Egypt, the Lord warns lost humanity of the wrath to come.  Primarily, He warns lost humanity through His disciples, the church.  As we proclaim the gospel, we warn people to flee from the wrath to come, to flee into the open arms of Jesus.  Indeed, the Lord is currently showing patience to the world so that we might have more time to call people to Jesus.  In 2 Peter 3, Peter put it like this:

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

III.  The Sheer, Audacious Stubbornness of Sin (v.27-35)

It is tragic that, given God’s mercy and grace, Pharaoh’ heart remained mired in stubborn sin.  Yes, the Lord hardened His heart, but Pharaoh’s sin was his own, not God’s.  We can see his sin in his continued, half-hearted repentance.

²⁷ 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.

It is important to note that the word for “sinned” used here can also mean “to miss,” “to err,” “to offend,” “to rebel,” “to abuse/mistreat,” or “to be unjust.”  In other words, it is extremely likely that Pharaoh is simply acknowledging, under the extreme discomfort of punishment, that he messed up.  But there is a big difference between, “I messed up,” and, “I sinned against a holy God!”  Moses’ words in verse 29 will reveal that he saw through this charade repentance.  Nonetheless, Pharaoh pretends to be contrite.

²⁸ Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” ²⁹ Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. ³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” ³¹ (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. ³² But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) ³³ So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.[6]

This is almost unbelievable!  When things get hard, Pharaoh is sorry.  When they get easier, he wants to be a god again.

Does that sound familiar?  The fact of the matter is that we see ourselves in Pharaoh.  We know what it is to run to God when things are difficult and to proclaim ourselves gods when things are easy.  We know what it is to vacillate between repentance and self-deification.  We know what it is to say, “Sorry,” with our fingers crossed behind our backs.

Let us marvel at the grace and majesty or our great God!  And let us reject the demonic suggestion that we should turn from Him, seeking to be gods ourselves.