Tuesday 11th February 2025

EXODUS 9, 10, and 11
After the destruction of the livestock and the plague of boils, we have the hailstorms – the seventh wave of judgment. Many of the government officials of Egypt by now had realised that Moses and God meant what they had threatened; therefore many cattle and slaves were brought indoors and were rescued. Pharaoh stubbornly refused to comply until the judgment occurred, when he then actually admitted that he had sinned against the Lord and that he, Pharaoh, was in the wrong. However, once Moses had prayed for the hail and thunder to stop, Pharaoh sinned again by breaking his promise yet again.

Notice how many times these chapters refer to Pharaoh’s ‘hardening of heart’. In Exodus 4:21, 7:3, 14:4, 14:17, God speaks of doing this to Pharaoh in advance. In 7:13, 7:14, 7:22, 8:19, 9:7, 9:35 it simply states that Pharaoh’s heart ‘was hard’. In 8:15, 8:32, 9:34, it speaks of Pharaoh hardening his own heart. In 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8, it says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It becomes evident that, even though the Lord began this process, Pharaoh himself was compliant too!

And so we come to the locusts! A locust is a terrible pest when in the company of its fellows! A large swarm that might cover a square kilometre would devour 100,000 tons of vegetation in a single night! Unsurprisingly they were seen as a sign of divine judgment. When Moses conveyed God’s threat, Pharaoh’s officials advised playing safe and giving in to the Hebrews’ demands. To save face, Pharaoh agreed to let only the men go walkabout, leaving the women and children as hostages. This was not acceptable to Moses or to God – so on and on came the locusts!

As predicted, Pharaoh only repented for as long as the plague remained, so a further demonstration of power was needed: thick darkness over Egypt for three whole days. This was a direct insult to Ra (or Re) the sun god. Israel, of course, experienced blue skies and sunny intervals (see Isaiah 60:2-3). Negotiations started to swing in Moses’ favour and the women and children were now also allowed to attend – but not the valuable animals. A hardened Pharaoh would budge no further.

Three sets of three plagues were now complete; the final and most terrible of all was to come: the death of every firstborn human and animal in Egypt!