Exiting Egypt Chapter 10 P1

Exiting Egypt

Eighth Plague – Swarms of Locust

Exodus 10:1-20

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 10 P1

Read Exodus 10:1-20

In the eighth plague Gods wants of believers to teach about the judgment of God. The judgment of God needs to be taught just as well as God’s wonderful grace and mercy, because one without the others doesn’t do justice to God’s holiness.

God is just, and therefore God must execute justice and as such He judges the world in righteousness. This is what the Bible teaches here in this eighth plague.

That you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord (Ex. 10:2 NKJV)

And while people may deny this fact, such denial doesn’t stop the truth of its reality. God is going to judge this world and sin. This is brought out quite forcefully by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman church where he said,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18 NKJV)

And so, this was one of the very reasons why God sent forth His plagues upon the nation of Egypt, and the day is coming when God will judge the world by His righteousness, and knowing this, God wants to make sure that we teach the next generation to come of His coming judgment upon sin and evil, because one day it is coming, and God’s wants all to escape His coming wrath.

Moses told Israel that God had given to them the law and that God’s statues and righteous judgments are contained within the law, and that no other nation has been given such an honor, therefore he called Israel a great nation, but with it he then warns them,

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren (Deut. 4:9 NKJV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9B P5

Exiting Egypt

“Seventh Plaque – Fire and Hail”

Exodus 9:13-35

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9B P5

Now, we see Pharaoh actually break down and confess His sinfulness. But we also see that it wasn’t sincere. Not everyone who confesses their sin is sincere. The telling sign is repentance, that is, turning away from the sin and towards God, which isn’t what Pharaoh did.

You see, the truth is that not everyone who makes promises to God in times of crisis is sincere. For it to be sincere there must be follow through. Even Jesus said that not everyone who calls Him Lord or who did work in His name is saved.

Look at what the Lord said the prophet Ezekiel

So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain (Ezek. 33:31 NKJV)

But if we repent, turn from our sins and wicked ways then God will hear and what we know is this, that God is merciful and full of grace, and will deliver us. I like how the prophet Jeremiah puts it, and also the Apostle Peter.

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not (Lam. 3:22 NKJV)

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9 NKJV)

Now what we see is that Pharaoh once again reneged on his promise, and Moses knows it. He said, “I know that you and the people will not fear God, but I’m going to pray for you anyway.”

Whoa, that’s a show stopper. Moses knows that Pharaoh isn’t serious, but he still is going to prayfor him and for Egypt.

In the same way God has called for us to be intercessors, even for those who hate us. We are to pray for them, not like David prayed when he asked God to break their teeth and dry up their bones, but pray for God’s mercy.

This is what we see in the story when God met up with Abraham and told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham interceded to the last, and got God down to at least ten righteous people. The only problem is that God only found four, or one, Lot, and his family of four.

But we should not only pray for those who hate us, but also for those who ask us to pray and we know full well that they aren’t sincere about wanting to change. They just want God to get them out of their problem, not change their lives. But we should be like Moses and intercede for them with God.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to repent, and so God is now going to bring a more severe judgment. A hard heart is a terrible thing and God warns against are developing one.

So, through whatever you are going through, turn to the Lord, listen to his instructions, and follow them. Do not harden your heart by doing things your own way, but soften your heart through repentance, and God will shelter you and pour out His mercies upon you, and the good thing about God’s mercies, they are new every morning for us.

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9B P4

Exiting Egypt

“Seventh Plaque – Fire and Hail”

Exodus 9:13-35

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9B P4

Now, the judgment was to be life threatening, against both animal and human. Yet, still, God reveals His tremendous mercy in that He tells Pharaoh to get both animal and man out of the fields before the judgment comes; that they were to seek shelter so as not to be destroyed.

Now, the idea of it being both a fire and hail storm is quite the judgment. No way to think that this is just another natural phenomenon. It states in the Hebrew that there was hail joined by thunder and balls of fire. Why balls, because it seems that according to the language that the fire ran along the ground. It would seem that the lighting came down and ran along the ground, zigzagging back and forth.

God was going to judge them, but in the midst of the judgment, God makes a way of escape, and all they had to do was to believe God’s word.

God in the same way provides a way of escape for us, that in the times of trials and temptations will provide a way or a means of escaping it, or giving us that ability to go through it.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. 10:13 NKJV)

This verse has a whole lot of people confused, because they have not only been tempted but continue to be so, or continue to have the same trial over and over again and they question the truthfulness of these words.

But let me just give you a quick rejoinder. God is indeed faithful, and He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to take without making also a way of escape. He always has. Our problem is that we are either not listening or paying attention to what God is saying and the way He is pointing us to, or we don’t want God’s way of escape, we want our own.

Kind of like the guy who was drowning and when a couple of boats came over to save him he declined their help saying that God would save him. He did the same when a Coast Guard helicopter tried to drop him a lifeline.

Well, he ended up drowning and now is in heaven. He confronts Jesus saying, “You let me down, I was drowning and you didn’t save me.” To which Jesus replied, “Why didn’t you except the offer of help that I sent through the two boats and the helicopter?”

You see, God always provides a way, not only a way to escape, but to be able to bear it. This is a part of that verse we absolutely hate to see. God sometimes doesn’t get us out of our problems, or away from the temptations, but gives us the strength to endure them. But the key is that God is always faithful to provide a way. We just have to take the way He provides.

Something else about God’s message to Pharaoh is that He makes sure that Pharaoh knows that judgment is coming, and that He has provided a shelter for those who will listen. God provides us a shelter as well, and that shelter is no one less than the Lord Himself.

For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings (Psm. 61:3-4 NKJV)

Speaking of the coming judgment at the End of Days, the prophet Joel says,

The heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel (Joel 3:16 NKJV)

As we can see then that God’s judgment is going to fall, and that God provides shelter to those who are His, as He did to the Jews in the land of Goshen. And the same will also take place for those who are His today.

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment (2 Pet. 2:9 NKJV)

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Th. 5:9 NKJV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9B P 3

Exiting Egypt

“Seventh Plaque – Fire and Hail”

Exodus 9:13-35

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9B P3

And so it was with Pharaoh. God had raised him up and set him on Egypt’s throne for this specific purpose and for this specific time, and that is to demonstrate the Lord’s power and to declare God’s name throughout the earth. And let me just say that if not for this purpose, God would have eighty-sixth this guy some time ago.

This idea of Pharaoh’s purpose is what the Apostle Paul declares in his letter to the Roman church.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth (Rom. 9:17 NKJV)

And God’s sovereignty extends to our hearts, as Paul goes on to say,

Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens (Rom. 9:18 NKJV)

And so we can clearly say that God has no equal; that there is no one like the Lord in all the earth. He and He alone is sovereign and omnipotent within the universe, and that the Lord alone has all power over nations, governments, rulers and the peoples of the world. Look at what the Bible says,

That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth (Psm. 83:18 NKJV)

Now, the cause of God’s judgment against Egypt is found in the hearts of Pharaoh and of the Egyptian people. Notice the wording, “I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people” (Ex. 14a NKJV).

The heart, the Bible says, is a desperately wicked thing, and not only does good comes from it, but also evil (Jer. 19:9; Lk. 6:45).

But specifically, what the Lord is saying here is that from now on, these last plagues will go directly to the heart of Pharaoh and the people. They will no longer be able to slough them off as if they were nothing or some natural phenomenon.

Also take a moment and look at what God tells Pharaoh, that Pharaoh set his heart against God’s people, and the Lord says it just that way, He calls the Jews, “My people.” And so, anyone who exalts themselves against God’s people is exalting themselves against the Lord God. Or maybe to say this another way, “Hey, you mess with My family, I mess with you.”

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9B P2

Exiting Egypt

“Seventh Plaque – Fire and Hail”

Exodus 9:13-35

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9B P2

Read Ex. 9:13-35

Again we note that God is long-suffering towards the Egyptians, wishing for Pharaoh and the people to repent from serving false gods and enslaving the Jewish people, God’s people. We see this as once again God tells Moses to go out and declare God’s word to Him.

Now, there is a message here for us. Sometimes, after weeks and years of dealing with abusive situations we just want to have God wipe out the other person or those people who are being abusive, but here we see that God wants us to be just as long-suffering towards them as He is long-suffering, continually extending His hand of grace for them to turn back to Him and to quit their abuse.

Now, I am not advocating doing nothing if you are in abusive situation or know of such abusive situations, but with caring for the situation, we need to be extending to them God’s hand of forgiveness if they repent and turn.

Now, this time God tells Moses to add a second point, a terrifying point, and that is that if Pharaoh doesn’t repent and turn, he and Egypt was going to be marked for terrible destruction. And the full force of God’s judgments was going to fall upon him and his people.

Now, the Lord here declares that He has no equals, that there is none like Him in all the earth, and again we go back to our original statement, that God is the only God, and that all the other gods are false.

Up to this point God has launched plague after plague, and each were against a particular god or set of gods that the Egyptians served. And this seventh one is no different. The gods that were defeated by this plague were Iris, the Egyptian god of the water, Siris, the Egyptian god of fire and lighting, and Shu, the Egyptian god of the atmosphere. None of these guys or gals could provide the Egyptians with protection, but the Lord God of the Hebrews provided protection for the Jews in the land of Goshen.

What this revels is that the Lord is sovereign and omnipotent and is in control, not only over the heavens and the earth, but of animal and human life and death. God controls the nations, governments, rulers and people of the earth. The prophet Daniel said,

He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding (Dan. 2:21 NKJV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9B P1

Exiting Egypt

“Seventh Plaque – Fire and Hail”

Exodus 9:13-35

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9B P1

The Scriptures declare that there is only one true and living God, and He is the Lord over the whole of creation, the heavens and the earth. Often He is referred to as the Creator or Maker of Heaven and Earth. The Lord through the prophet Isaiah said,

Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool (Isa. 66:1 NKJV)

Further, the Bible declares that there is no other God but the Lord God.

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things (Isa. 45: 6-7 NKJV)

And so all the gods that are worshiped by men, like the gods of the Egyptians, are nothing but idols made from the creative and warped minds of humanity. And humanity itself, even though some have claimed divinity, like Pharaoh, are nothing more than very flawed individuals, and as we have seen, are not even gods unto themselves and cannot deliver themselves.

And so this seventh plague of hail and fire is proof that the earth is the Lords. This is clearly the message that God wanted Moses, the children of Israel, the Egyptians, and Pharaoh, not to mention us, to know.

That you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth (Ex. 9:14b NKJV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 9 P5

Exiting Egypt

“The Fifth Plague – Death of Livestock”

Exodus 9:1-7

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9 P5

Now, finding so many of his own cattle and those of his subjects slain in this plague, Pharaoh sent to see whether the cattle of the Jews were affected. Why would he have done this?

Simple, to check it out! To see if the God of the Hebrews truly was behind this plague, or was this just a general plague that happens from time to time. He may have even thought of the idea of replacing the cattle that they had lost with the cattle of the Hebrews. This was not illegal for him to do, because he was king, they were slaves.

But the idea here is one of checking it out. I believe the world today is doing what Pharaoh was doing back then, checking to see if what we say is really true, and they are doing so by our lives. Are our lives matching what it is that we say we believe?

Further, they are checking out the claims of Christianity. This is something we saw in Lee Strobel’s Case for Christ. He searched out the claims of Christianity. It is such that is driving the seeker sensitive or the seeker friendly movements in today’s churches. People are realizing more than ever and in greater numbers that the world doesn’t have the answers to what’s ailing them, or for that matter, what’s ailing the world. So they are checking out what the church is saying.

But in like manner, many are checking out of the church as well, because the church, instead of giving them the truth of God’s word is giving them more of the religion and traditions.

And this idea of checking it out is something that we all as Christians need to be doing as well. We need to be like the Bereans that the Apostle Paul talks about in Acts 17, and how they were of more noble character, how they were of a more noble mind than those Christians of Thessalonica, because they checked everything that was being told to them by the Scriptures.

This is one of the banes of Christianity today. Some have said that we are a mile wide but only an inch deep. We have accepted as truth what others have said about the Bible or about anything and we don’t take the time to check it out.

And the Internet is fueling this lack of good scholarship on our part. We just accept what we see, or what has been written. Here’s a good rule, the reason why it isn’t found in print form but on the Internet might well be because publishers have turned it down because it lacked credibility or scholarship. Not always, but most of the time, this have proven out to be true.

And lastly, what we see is that once again a distinction has been made between the Israelites and the Egyptians. And so, God makes the same distinction with us, and those who trust in the Lord, who makes the Lord their refuge, that they, like the Israelites back in Egypt need not fear the pestilence that walks by night.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday (Psm. 91:5-6 NIT)