Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 9:1
Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
1. Then ] Heb. simply And. 1 4. The announcement to the Pharaoh, worded analogously to those of the second and fourth plagues (Exo 8:1-4; Exo 8:20-23, both J).
1 7. The fifth plague. The murrain on cattle. Entirely J.
Chapters Exo 7:14 to Exo 11:5
The first nine Plagues
The narrative of the Plagues, like that of the preceding chapters, is composite. The details of the analysis depend partly upon literary criteria, partly upon differences in the representation, which are not isolated, but recurrent, and which moreover accompany the literary differences and support the conclusions based upon them, the differences referred to often also agreeing remarkably with corresponding differences in the parts of the preceding narrative, especially in Exo 3:1 to Exo 7:13, which have already, upon independent grounds, been assigned to P, J, and E, respectively. No one source, however, it should be premised, in the parts of it that have been preserved, gives all the plagues.
The parts belonging to P are most readily distinguished, viz. (after Exo 7:8-13) Exo 7:19-20 a, 21b 22, Exo 8:5-7; Exo 8:15 b 19, Exo 9:8-12, Exo 11:9-10: the rest of the narrative belongs in the main to J, the hand of E being hardly traceable beyond Exo 7:15; Exo 7:17 b, 20 b, Exo 9:22-23 a, 31 32 (perhaps), 35a, Exo 10:12-13 a, 14 a, 15 b, 20, 21 23, 27, Exo 11:1-3.
Putting aside for the present purely literary differences, we have thus a threefold representation of the plagues, corresponding to the three literary sources, P, J, and E, of which the narrative is composed. The differences relate to not less than five or six distinct points, the terms of the command addressed to Moses, the part taken by Aaron, the demand made of the Pharaoh, the use made of the rod, the description of the plague, and the formulae used to express the Pharaoh’s obstinacy. Thus in P Aaron co-operates with Moses, and the command is Say unto Aaron (Exo 7:19, Exo 8:5; Exo 8:16; so before in Exo 7:9: even in Exo 9:8, where Moses alone is to act, both are expressly addressed); there is no interview with the Pharaoh, so that no demand is ever made for Israel’s release; the descriptions are brief; except in Exo 9:10, Aaron is the wonder-worker, bringing about the result by stretching out his rod at Moses’ direction (Exo 7:19, Exo 8:5 f., 16 f.; cf. Exo 7:9); the wonders wrought (‘signs and portents,’ Exo 7:3: P does not speak of them as ‘plagues’) are intended less to break down the Pharaoh’s resistance than to accredit Moses as Jehovah’s representative; they thus take substantially the form of a contest with the native magicians, who are mentioned only in this narrative (Exo 7:11 f., 22, Exo 8:7; Exo 8:18 f., Exo 9:11), and who at first do the same things by their arts, but in the end are completely defeated; the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is expressed by za izz ( was strong, made strong), Exo 7:22, Exo 8:19, Exo 9:12, Exo 11:10 (Son 7:13), and the closing formula is, and he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken, Exo 7:22, Exo 8:15 b, 19, Exo 9:12 (Son 7:13). In J, on the contrary, Moses one (without Aaron) is told to go in before the Pharaoh, and he addresses the Pharaoh himself (in agreement with Exo 4:10-16, where Aaron is appointed to be Moses’ spokesman not with Pharaoh, as in P, but with the people), Exo 7:14-16, Exo 8:1; Exo 8:9-10; Exo 8:20; Exo 8:26; Exo 8:29, Exo 9:1; Exo 9:13; Exo 9:29, Exo 10:1; Exo 10:9; Exo 10:25, Exo 11:4-10 [116] ; a formal demand is regularly made, Let my people go, that they may serve me, Exo 7:16, Exo 8:1; Exo 8:20, Exo 9:1; Exo 9:13, Exo 10:3 (comp. before, Exo 4:23); the interview with the Pharaoh is prolonged, and described in some detail; Jehovah Himself brings the plague, after it has been announced by Moses, usually on the morrow, Exo 8:23, Exo 9:5 f., 18, Exo 10:4, without any mention of Aaron or his rod; sometimes the king sends for Moses and Aaron to crave their intercession, Exo 8:8; Exo 8:25, Exo 9:27, Exo 10:16; the plague is removed, as it is brought, without any human intervention; the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is expressed by kbd, hikbd ( was heavy, made heavy), Exo 7:14, Exo 8:15; Exo 8:32, Exo 9:7; Exo 9:34, Exo 10:1; and there is no closing formula: J also, unlike both P and E, represents the Israelites as living apart from the Egyptians, in the land of Goshen, Exo 8:22, Exo 9:26 (so before, Gen 45:10; Gen 46:28 f., &c.). The narrative generally is written (just as it is in Genesis, for instance) in a more picturesque and varied style than that of P; there are frequent descriptive touches, and the dialogue is abundant.
[116] Aaron, if he appears at all, is only Moses’ silent companion, Exo 8:8; Exo 8:12 (see vv. 9, 10), 25 (see vv. 26, 29), Exo 9:27 (see v. 29), Exo 10:8 (see v. 9). In Exo 10:3 it is doubtful if the plural, ‘and they said,’ is original: notice in v. 6b ‘and he turned.’
Some other, chiefly literary, characteristics of J may also be here noticed: refuseth ( ), esp. followed by to let the people go, Exo 7:14, Exo 8:2, Exo 9:2, Exo 10:3-4 (so before Exo 4:23); the God of the Heb 7:16 ; Heb 9:1 ; Heb 9:13 ; Heb 10:3 (so Exo 3:18; Exo 5:3); Thus saith Jehovah, said regularly to Pharaoh, Exo 7:17, Exo 8:1; Exo 8:20, Exo 9:1; Exo 9:13, Exo 10:3, Exo 11:4 (so Exo 4:22); behold with the participle (in the Heb.) in the announcement of the plague Exo 7:17, Exo 8:2; Exo 8:21, Exo 9:3; Exo 9:18, Exo 10:4 (so Exo 4:23); border, Exo 8:2, Exo 10:4; Exo 10:14; Exo 10:19; thou, thy people, and thy servants, Exo 8:3, Exodus 4, 9, 11, 21, 29, Exo 9:14 (see the note), cf. Exo 10:6; to intreat, Exo 8:8-9; Exo 8:28-29, Exo 9:28, Exo 10:17; such as hath not been, &c. Exo 9:18 b, 24 b, Exo 11:6 b, cf. Exo 10:6 b, 14 b; to sever, Exo 8:22, Exo 9:4, Exo 11:7; the didactic aim or object of the plague (or circumstance attending it) stated, Exo 7:17 a, Exo 8:10 b, 22 b, Exo 9:14 b, 16 b, 29 c, Exo 10:2 b, Exo 11:7 b.
The narrative of E has been only very partially preserved; so it is not possible to characterize it as fully as those of P or J. Its most distinctive feature is that Moses is the wonder-worker, bringing about the plague by his rod (in agreement with Exo 4:17; Exo 4:20 b, where it is said to have been specially given to him by God), Exo 7:15 b, 17 b, 20 b, Exo 9:23 a, Exo 10:13 a (cf. afterwards, Exo 14:16, Exo 17:5; Exo 17:9); only in the case of the darkness (Exo 10:21 f.) does he use his hand for the purpose. This feature differentiates E from both P (with whom the wonder-working rod is in Aaron’s hand), and J (who mentions no rod, and represents the plague as brought about directly, after Moses’ previous announcement of it, by Jehovah Himself). E uses the same word be or make strong, for ‘harden,’ that P does, but he follows the clause describing the hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart by the words, and he did not let the children of Israel (or them) go, Exo 9:35 (contrast J’s phrase, v. 34b), Exo 10:20; Exo 10:27 (cf. Exo 4:21 E). He also pictures the Israelites, not, as J does, as living apart in Goshen, but as having every one an Egyptian ‘neighbour’ (Exo 3:2, Exo 11:2, Exo 12:35 f.), and consequently as settled promiscuously among the Egyptians.
The scheme, or framework, of the plagues, as described by P, J, and E, is thus suggestively exhibited by Bntsch:
In P we have
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod , and there shall be. And they did so: and Aaron stretched out his rod, and there was. And the magicians did so ( or could not do so) with their secret arts. And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened; and he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken.
J’s formula is quite different
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold I will. And Jehovah did so; and there came ( or and he sent, &c.). And Pharaoh called for Moses, and said unto him, Entreat for me, that. And Jehovah did so , and removed. But Pharaoh made his heart heavy, and he did not let the people go.
The formula of E is again different
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch forth thy hand (with thy rod) toward , that there may be. And Moses stretched forth his hand ( or his rod) toward , and there was. But Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
It has long since been remarked by commentators that the plagues stand in close connexion with the actual conditions of Egypt; and were in fact just miraculously intensified forms of the diseases or other natural occurrences to which Egypt is more or less liable (see particulars in the notes on the different plagues). They were of unexampled severity; they came, and in some cases went, at the announcement, or signal, given by one of the Hebrew leaders; one followed another with unprecedented swiftness; in other respects also they are represented as having an evidently miraculous character.
What judgement, however, are we to form with regard to their historical character? The narratives, there are strong reasons for believing, were written long after the time of Moses, and do not do more than acquaint us with the traditions current among the Hebrews at the time when they were written: we consequently have no guarantee that they preserve exact recollections of the actual facts. That there is no basis of fact for the traditions which the narratives incorporate is in the highest degree improbable: we may feel very sure of this, and yet not feel sure that they describe the events exactly as they happened. ‘As the original nucleus of fact,’ writes Dillm. (p. 66 f., ed. 2, p. 77), ‘we may suppose that at the time of Israel’s deliverance Egypt was visited by various adverse natural occurrences, which the Israelites ascribed to the operation of their God, and by which their leaders, Moses and Aaron, sought to prove to the Egyptian court the superiority of their God above the king and gods of Egypt; it must however be admitted that in the Israelitish story ( Sage) these occurrences had for long been invested with a purely miraculous character. And if all had once been lifted up into the sphere of God’s unlimited power, the compiler could feel no scruple in combining the different plagues mentioned in his sources into a series of ten, in such a manner as to depict, in a picture drawn with unfading colours, not only the abundance of resources which God has at His disposal for helping His own people, and humiliating those who resist His will, but also the slow and patient yet sure steps with which He proceeds against His foes, and the growth of evil in men till it becomes at last obstinate and confirmed.’ The real value of the narratives, according to Dillmann, is thus not historical, but moral and religious. And from these points of view their typical and didactic significance cannot be overrated. The traditional story of the contest between Moses and the Pharaoh is applied so as to depict, to use Dillmann’s expression, ‘in unfading colours,’ the impotence of man’s strongest determination when it essays to contend with God, and the fruitlessness of all human efforts to frustrate His purposes.
Dr Sanday, whose historical bias, if he has one, always leads him to conservative conclusions, has expressed himself recently on the subject, in an essay on the Symbolism of the Bible, in words which are well worth quoting: ‘The early chapters of Genesis are not the only portion of the Pentateuchal history to which I think that we may rightly apply the epithet “symbolical.” Indeed I suspect that the greater part of the Pentateuch would be rightly so described in greater or less degree. The narrative of the Pentateuch culminates in two great events, the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law from Mount Sinai. What are we to say of these? Are they historical in the sense in which the Second Book of Samuel is historical? I think we may say that they are not. If we accept as I at least feel constrained to accept at least in broad outline the critical theory now so widely held as to the composition of the Pentateuch, then there is a long interval, an interval of some four centuries or more, between the events and the main portions of the record as we now have it. In such a case we should expect to happen just what we find has happened. There is an element of folk-lore, of oral tradition insufficiently checked by writing. The imagination has been at work.
‘If we compare, for instance, the narrative of the Ten Plagues with the narrative of the Revolt of Absalom, we shall feel the difference. The one is nature itself, with all the flexibility and easy sequence that we associate with nature. The other is constructed upon a scheme which is so symmetrical that we cannot help seeing that it is really artificial. I do not mean artificial in the sense that the writer, with no materials before him, sat down consciously and deliberately to invent them in the form they now have; but I mean that, as the story passed from mouth to mouth, it gradually and almost imperceptibly assumed its present shape’ ( The Life of Christ in recent Research, 1907, p. 18f.).
The ‘Plagues’ are denoted by the following terms:
(1) maggphh, properly a severe blow, Exo 9:14 J (see the note).
(2) nga‘, a heavy touch or stroke, Exo 11:1 E (see the note).
(3) ngeph (cognate with No. 1), a severe blow, Exo 12:13 P (by implication, of the tenth plague only).
Nos 2 and 3 of these are rendered in LXX. , and Nos. 1, 2, 3 in the Vulg. plaga: hence the Engl. plague.
They are also spoken of as:
(4) ’thth, signs, LXX. (proofs of God’s power), Exo 8:23 J, Exo 10:1-2 J or the compiler of JE, Exo 7:3 P; probably also in Exo 4:17; Exo 4:28 E. Cf. Num 14:11; Num 14:22 (JE); also in the NT.
In Exo 4:8-9; Exo 4:30 (all J) the same word is used, not of the ‘plagues,’ but of ‘signs’ to be wrought, or, in v. 30, actually wrought, before the Pharaoh, to accredit Moses, as Jehovah’s representative. In Exo 4:17; Exo 4:28, the reference might be similarly, not to the ‘plagues,’ but to the antecedent credentials, to be given by Moses.
(5) mphthim, portents, LXX. (unusual phaenomena, arresting attention, and calling for explanation: see on Exo 4:21; and cf. Act 2:43, &c.), Exo 7:3, Exo 11:9-10 (all P); also, probably, Exo 4:21 E.
In Exo 7:9 P the same word is used, not of one of the ‘plagues,’ but of the preliminary portent of Aaron’s rod becoming a serpent, wrought before Pharaoh.
(6) niphl’th, wonders or marvels (extraordinary phaenomena), Exo 3:20 J.
N.B. In EVV., No. 5 is in Ex. confused with No. 6; elsewhere in the OT. it is confused with both No. 4 and No. 6 (cf. on Exo 4:21).
Exo 9:1-7
The hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle.
The suffering that comes upon the brute creation in consequence of the sin of man
1. That the retribution of sin does not end with those who occasion it.
2. That the brute world is affected by the conduct of man.
3. That men should endeavour to banish pain from the universe by attention to the commands of heaven. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Another blow at Egyptian idolatry
By the former plagues their religious ceremonies had been interrupted and their sacred abominations defiled: but now their chief deities are attacked. In Goshen, where the cattle are but cattle, they remain untouched: Of the cattle of the children of Israel there died not one (Exo 9:6); but in all other parts of the country, where they are reverenced as gods, the plague is upon them, and they die. Osiris, the saviour, cannot save even the brute in which his own soul is supposed to dwell; Apis and Mnevis, the ram of Ammon, the sheep of Sais, and the goat of Mendes, perish together. Hence Moses reminds the Israelites afterwards, Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments (Num 33:4); and Jethro, when he had heard from Moses the history of all that God had done in Egypt, confessed, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them (Exo 18:11). (T. S. Millington.)
Calf-worship in modern times
There are some traces of this calfworship to be observed even in our own days. The Hindus still pay reverence to the ox as a sacred animal. One particular kind of cattle, having a hump upon the shoulders, is consecrated to Siva, as the Egyptian bull was to Osiris; they are caressed and pampered by the people; they roam at large, and may destroy the most valuable crops with impunity; none dare lay hands upon them; they are everywhere treated with respect. (T. S. Millington.)
CHAPTER IX The Lord sends Moses to Pharaoh to inform him that, if he did not let the Israelites depart, a destructive pestilence should be sent among his cattle, 1-3; while the cattle of the Israelites should be preserved, 4. The next day this pestilence, which was the fifth plague, is sent, and all the cattle of the Egyptians die, 5, 6. Though Pharaoh finds that not one of the cattle of the Israelites had died, yet, through hardness of heart, he refuses to let the people go, 7. Moses and Aaron are commanded to sprinkle handfuls of ashes from the furnace, that the sixth plague, that of boils and blains, might come on man and beast, 5, 9; which having done, the plague takes place, 10. The magicians cannot stand before this plague, which they can neither imitate nor remove, 11. Pharaoh’s heart is again hardened, 12. God’s awful message to Pharaoh, with the threat of more severe plagues than before, 13-17. The seventh plague of rain, hail, and fire threatened, 18. The Egyptians commanded to house their cattle that they might not be destroyed, 19. These who feared the word of the Lord brought home their servants and cattle, and those who did not regard that word left their cattle and servants in the fields, 20. 21. The storm of hail, thunder, and lightning takes place, 22-24. It nearly desolates the whole land of Egypt, 25, while the land of Goshen escapes, 26. Pharaoh confesses his sin, and begs an interest in the prayers of Moses and Aaron, 27, 28. Moses promises to intercede for him, and while he promises that the storm shall cease, he foretells the continuing obstinacy of both himself and his servants, 29. 30. The flax and barley, being in a state of maturity, are destroyed by the tempest, 31; while the wheat and the rye, not being grown up, are preserved, 32. Moses obtains a cessation of the storm, 33. Pharaoh and his servants, seeing this, harden their hearts, and refuse to let the people go, 34, 35. NOTES ON CHAP. IX Verse 1. The LORD God of the Hebrews] It is very likely that the term Lord, Yehovah, is used here to point out particularly his eternal power and Godhead; and that the term God, Elohey, is intended to be understood in the sense of Supporter, Defender, Protector, &c. Thus saith the self-existent, omnipotent, and eternal Being, the Supporter and Defender of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may worship me.” Then the Lord said unto Moses,…. The same day the plague of the flies was removed:
go in unto Pharaoh boldly, without any fear of him or his court:
and tell him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: speak in the name of Jehovah, the God whom the Hebrews worship, and who owns them for his people, and has a special love for them, and takes a special care of them, and is not ashamed to be called their God, as poor and as oppressed as they be:
let my people go, that they may serve me; this demand had been often made, and, though so reasonable, was refused.
The fifth plague consisted of a severe Murrain, which carried off the cattle ( , the living property) of the Egyptians, that were in the field. To show how Pharaoh was accumulating guilt by his obstinate resistance, in the announcement of this plague the expression, “ If thou refuse to let them go ” (cf. Exo 8:2), is followed by the words, “ and wilt hold them (the Israelites) still ” ( still further, even after Jehovah has so emphatically declared His will).
The Plagues of Egypt. B. C. 1491. 1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. Here is, I. Warning given of another plague, namely, the murrain of beasts. When Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, after he had seemed to relent under the former plague, then Moses is sent to tell him there is another coming, to try what that would do towards reviving the impressions of the former plagues. Thus is the wrath of God revealed from heaven, both in his word and in his works, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. 1. Moses puts Pharaoh in a very fair way to prevent it: Let my people go, v. 1. This was still the demand. God will have Israel released; Pharaoh opposes it, and the trial is, whose word shall stand. See how jealous God is for his people. When the year of his redeemed has come, he will give Egypt for their ransom; that kingdom shall be ruined, rather than Israel shall not be delivered. See how reasonable God’s demands are. Whatever he calls for, it is but his own: They are my people, therefore let them go. 2. He describes the plague that should come, if he refused, Exo 9:2; Exo 9:3. The hand of the Lord immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron’s hand, is upon the cattle, many of which, some of all kinds, should die by a sort of pestilence. This was greatly to the loss of the owners: they had made Israel poor, and now God would make them poor. Note, The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father. 3. As an evidence of the special hand of God in it, and of his particular favour to his own people, he foretels that none of their cattle should die, though they breathed in the same air and drank of the same water with the Egyptians’ cattle: The Lord shall sever, v. 4. Note, When God’s judgments are abroad, though they may fall both on the righteous and the wicked, yet God makes such a distinction that they are not the same to the one that they are to the other. See Isa. xxvii. 7. The providence of God is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Ps. xxxvi. 6. 4. To make the warning the more remarkable, the time is fixed (v. 5): To-morrow it shall be done. We know not what any day will bring forth, and therefore we cannot say what we will do to-morrow, but it is not so with God. II. The plague itself inflicted. The cattle died, v. 6. Note, The creature is made subject to vanity by the sin of man, being liable, according to its capacity, both to serve his wickedness and to share in his punishment, as in the universal deluge. Rom 8:20; Rom 8:22. Pharaoh and the Egyptians sinned; but the sheep, what had they done? Yet they are plagued. See Jer. xii. 4, For the wickedness of the land, the beasts are consumed. The Egyptians afterwards, and (some think) now, worshipped their cattle; it was among them that the Israelites learned to make a god of a calf: in this therefore the plague here spoken of meets with them. Note, What we make an idol of it is just with God to remove from us, or embitter to us. See Isa. xix. 1. III. The distinction put between the cattle of the Egyptians and the Israelites’ cattle, according to the word of God: Not one of the cattle of the Israelites died,Exo 9:6; Exo 9:7. Does God take care of oxen? Yes, he does; his providence extends itself to the meanest of his creatures. But it is written also for our sakes, that, trusting in God, and making him our refuge, we may not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, no, not though thousands fall at our side,Psa 91:6; Psa 91:7. Pharaoh sent to see if the cattle of the Israelites were infected, not to satisfy his conscience, but only to gratify his curiosity, or with design, by way of reprisal, to repair his own losses out of their stocks; and, having no good design in the enquiry, the report brought to him made no impression upon him, but, on the contrary, his heart was hardened. Note, To those that are wilfully blind, even those methods of conviction which are ordained to life prove a savour of death unto death. EXODUS – CHAPTER NINE
Verses 1-7:
This is the first time Jehovah identifies Himself as “Jehovah Elohe of the Hebrews.”
The fifth “stroke” was upon the property of the Egyptians. The first four plagues were annoyances, primarily upon the persons, though there was some property damage. But Plague Five was upon the “cattle,” a generic term denoting domesticated animals in general.
Horses were unknown in Egypt prior to the Hyksos invasion. They became common during the 18th Dynasty, chiefly for use in warfare.
Asses, donkeys, were used in great numbers. Women and children commonly rode upon them. They were used as burden-bearers, and were often saddled with very large loads.
Camels were used primarily to carry loads for great distances, primarily in commerce with other countries.
Oxen were commonly used in agriculture, to pull implements used in farming.
Sheep were considered unclean by the Egyptians, but there were large numbers of them in the country, tended by foreign labor.
The domesticated animals “in the field,” were smitten with an epidemic which was fatal in great numbers.
“Murrain” deber, “pestilence, or plague.” The Septuagint translates this as thanatos megas sphodra, “exceeding great death.” Some suggest this was the disease known today as “anthrax,” a highly contagious disease of animals, especially cattle and sheep, characterized by fever and swelling of tissue. This disease in animals may be transmitted to humans, resulting in a disease like smallpox.
The domestic animals were “in the field.” During the time of the Nile’s flooding, they were housed. When the waters abated, they were returned to the fields to graze. It is at this time that the danger of epidemics is highest.
The “cattle” of the Egyptians began dying en masse. But not one animal of Israel’s herds died. Pharaoh saw this, but he still did not repent of his rejection of Jehovah and permit Israel to leave. He’ was not moved by the great financial loss of his people.
1. Then the Lord said. No complaint or expostulation of Moses is here recounted; and it is possible that he was quiet and silent, whilst God foresaw what it was necessary to do, and even commanded what He would have done. But since he only gives a brief summary of occurrences, we may probably conjecture that, as the evil grew worse, he had recourse from time to time to the remedy. In the denunciation, “the Lord God of the Hebrews” is no unmeaning repetition, that Pharaoh may learn that he, whom he thought to have repelled in the abundance of his pride, was still in the field against him. For God insults his ferocity, and by setting forth his name contemptuously defies his wrath. We have already said that Pharaoh is convicted of sacrilege, both in his oppression of God’s people and in defrauding God Himself of His due honor; therefore those words, “Let my people go, that they may serve me,” have the force of aggravating his sin.
ISRAELS BONDAGE. MOSES AND THE EXODUS
Exo 1:1 to Exo 15:21.
DR. J. M. Grays five rules for Bible reading: Read the Book, Read the Book Continuously, Read the Book Repeatedly, Read the Book Independently, Read the Book Prayerfully, are all excellent; but the one upon which I would lay emphasis in this study of Exodus is the second of those rules, or, Read the Book Continuously. It is doubtful if there is any Book in the Bible which comes so nearly containing an outline, at least, of all revelation, as does the Book of Exodus. There is scarcely a doctrine in the New Testament, or a truth in the Old, which may not be traced in fair delineation in these forty chapters.
God speaks in this Book out of the burning bush. Sin, with its baneful effects, has a prominent place in its pages; and Salvation, for all them that trust in Him, with judgment for their opposers, is a conspicuous doctrine in this Old Testament document. God, Sin, Salvation, and Judgmentthese are great words! The Book that reveals each of them in fair outline is a great Book indeed, and its study will well repay the man of serious mind.
Exodus is a Book of bold outlines also! Its author, like a certain school of modern painters, draws his picture quickly and with but few strokes, and yet the product of his work approaches perfection. How much of time and history is put into these three verses:
And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them (Exo 1:5-7).
These three verses contain 215 years of time, and all the events that crowded into that period would, if they were recorded, fill volumes without end. And, while there are instances of delineation in detail in the Book of Exodus, the greater part of the volume is given to the bolder outlines which sweep much history into single sentences.
In looking into these fifteen chapters, I have been engaged with the question of such arrangement as would best meet the demands of memory, and thereby make the lesson of this hour a permanent article in our mental furniture. Possibly, to do that, we must seize upon a few of the greater subjects that characterize these chapters, and so phrase them as to provide mental promontories from which to survey the field of our present study. Surely, The Bondage of Israel, The Rise of Moses, and the Exodus from Egypt, are such fundamentals.
THE BONDAGE OF ISRAEL.
The bondage of Israel, like her growth, requires but a few sentences for its expression.
Now, there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the Children of Israel are more and mightier than we; Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pit horn and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the Children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the Children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour (Exo 1:8-22).
There are several features in Egypts conduct in effecting the bondage of Israel which characterize the conduct of all imperial nations.
The bondage began with injustice. Israel was in Egypt by invitation. When they came, Pharaoh welcomed them, and set apart for their use the fat of the land. The record is,
Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Raamses, as Pharaoh had commanded (Gen 47:11).
There they flourished until a king arose which knew not Joseph. Then a tax was laid upon them; eventually taskmasters were set over them, and those who came in response to Pharaohs invitation, Come unto me and I will give you the good of the, land of Egypt, and ye shall eat of the fat of the land, were compelled by his successors to take the place of slaves. It seems as difficult for a nation as it is for an individual to refrain from the abuse of power. A writer says, Revolution is caused by seeking to substitute expediency for justice, and that is exactly what the King of Egypt and his confederates attempted in the instance of these Israelites. It would seem that the result of that endeavor ought to be a lesson to the times in which we live, and to the nations entrusted with power. Injustice toward a supposedly weaker people is one of those offences against God which do not go unpunished, and its very practice always provokes a rebellion which converts a profitable people into powerful enemies.
It ought never to be forgotten either that injustice easily leads to oppression. We may suppose the tax at first imposed upon this people was comparatively slight, and honorable Egyptians found for it a satisfactory excuse, hardly expecting that the time would ever come when the Israelites should be regarded chattel-slaves. But he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. It is doubtful if there is any wrong in mans moral relations which blinds him so quickly and so effectually as the exercise of power against weakness.
Joseph Parker, in speaking of the combat between Moses and the Egyptian, says, Every honorable-minded man is a trustee of social justice and common fair play. We have nothing to do with the petty quarrels that fret society, but we certainly have to do with every controversysocial, imperial, or internationalwhich violates human right and impairs the claims of Divine honor. We must all fight for the right. We feel safer by so much if we know there are amongst us men who will not be silent in the presence of wrong, and will lift up a testimony in the name of righteousness, though there be none to cheer them with one word of encouragement.
It is only a step from enslaving to slaughter. That step was speedily taken, for Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river (Exo 1:22). Unquestionably there is a two-fold thought in this fact. Primarily this, whom the tyrant cannot control to his profit, he will slay to his pleasure; and then, in its deeper and more spiritual significance, it is Satans effort to bring an end to the people of God. The same serpent that effected the downfall of Adam and Eve whispered into Cains ear, Murder Abel; and into the ears of the Patriarchs, Put Joseph out of the way; and to Herod, Throttle all the male children of the land; and to the Pharisee and Roman soldier, Crucify Jesus of Nazareth. It remains for us of more modern times to learn that the slaughter of the weak may be accomplished in other ways than by the knife, the Nile, or the Cross. It was no worse to send a sword against a feeble people, than, for the sake of filthy lucre, to plant among them the accursed saloon. Benjamin Harrison, in a notable address before the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in the City of New York years ago, said, The men who, like Paul, have gone to heathen lands with the message, We seek not yours but you, have been hindered by those who, coming after, have reversed the message. Rum and other corrupting agencies come in with our boasted civilization, and the feeble races wither before the breath of the white mans vices.
Egypt sought to take away from Israel the physical life which Egypt feared; but God has forewarned us against a greater enemy when He said, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. * * Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him. If in this hour of almost universal disturbance the sword cannot be sheathed, let us praise God that our Congress and Senate have removed the saloona slaughter-house from the midst of our soldiers, and our amended Constitution has swept it from the land.
THE RISE OF MOSES.
I do not know whether you have ever been impressed in studying this Book of Exodus with what is so evidently a Divine ordering of events. It is when the slaughter is on that we expect the Saviour to come. And that God who sits beside the dying sparrow never overlooks the affliction of His people. When an edict goes forth against them, then it is that He brings their deliverer to the birth; hence we read, And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of the house of Levi, and the woman conceived and bare a son (Exo 2:1-2),
That is Moses; that is Gods man! It is no chance element that brings him to the kingdom at such a time as this. It is no mere happening that he is bred in Pharaohs house, and instructed by Jochebed. It is no accident that he is taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It is all in perfect consequence of the fact that God is looking upon the Children of Israel, and is having respect unto them.
Against Pharaohs injustice He sets Moses keen sense of right. When Moses sees an Egyptian slay an oppressed Israelite, he cannot withhold his hand. And, when after forty years in the wilderness he comes back to behold afresh the affliction of his people, he chooses to suffer with them rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. God never does a better thing for a nation than when He raises up in it such a man. We have heard a great deal of Socrates wisdom, but it is not in the science of philosophy alone that that ancient shines; for when Athens was governed by thirty tyrants, who one day summoned him to the Senate House, and ordered him to go with others named to seize Leon, a man of rank and fortune, whose life was to be sacrificed that these rulers might enjoy his estate, the great philosopher flatly refused, saying, I will not willingly assist in an unjust act. Thereupon Chericles sharply asked, Dost thou think, Socrates, to talk in this high tone and not to suffer? Far from it, replied the philosopher, I expect to suffer a thousand ills, but none so great as to do unjustly. That day Socrates was a statesman of the very sort that would have saved Athens had his ideas of righteousness obtained.
Against Pharaohs oppression He sets Moses Divine appointment. There were many times when Moses was tempted to falter, but Gods commission constrained his service. When Moses said, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? God answered, Surely I will be with thee. When Moses feared his own people who would not believe in his commission, God answered, Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent you. When Moses feared that the Israelites would doubt his Divine appointment, God turned the rod in his hand into a worker of wonders. And, when Moses excused himself on the ground of no eloquence, God replied, Go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. With any man, a conviction of Divine appointment is a power, but for him who would be a saviour of his fellows, it is an absolute essential.
Pastor Stalker, speaking to the subject of a Divine call to the service of soul-winning, said, Enthusiasm for humanity is a noble passion and sheds a beautiful glow over the first efforts of an unselfish life, but it is hardly stern enough for the uses of the world. There come hours of despair when men seem hardly worth our devotion. * * Worse still is the sickening consciousness that we have but little to give; perhaps we have mistaken our vocation; it is a world out of joint, but were we born to put it right? This is where a sterner motive is needed than love for men. Our retreating zeal requires to be rallied by the command of God. It is His work; these souls are His; He has committed them to our care, and at the judgment-seat He will demand an account of them. All Prophets and Apostles who have dealt with men for God have been driven on by this impulse which has recovered them in hours of weakness and enabled them to face the opposition of the world. * * This command came to Moses in the wilderness and drove him into public life in spite of strong resistance; and it bore him through the unparalleled trials of his subsequent career. How many times he would have surrendered the battle and left his fellows to suffer under Pharaohs heels, but for the sound of that voice which Joan of Arc heard, saying to him as it said to her, Go on! Go on!
Against Pharaohs slaughter God set up Moses as a Saviour. History has recorded the salvation of his people to many a man, who, either by his counsels in the time of peace or his valor in the time of war, has brought abiding victory. But where in annals, secular or sacred, can you find a philosopher who had such grave difficulties to deal with as Moses met in lifting his people from chattel slaves to a ruling nation? And where so many enemies to be fought as Moses faced in his journey from the place of the Pyramids to Pisgahs Heights?
Titus Flaminius freed the Grecians from the bondage with which they had long been oppressed. When the herald proclaimed the Articles of Peace, and the Greeks understood perfectly what Flaminius had accomplished for them, they cried out for joy, A Saviour! a Saviour! till the Heavens rang with their acclamations.
But Moses was worthy of greater honor because his was a more difficult deed. I dont know, but I suppose one reason why Moses name is coupled with that of the Lamb in the Oratorio of the Heavens, is because he saved Israel out of a bondage which was a mighty symbol of Satans power, and led them by a journey, which is the best type of the pilgrims wanderings in this world, and brought them at last to the borders of Canaan, which has always been regarded as representative of the rest that remaineth for the people of God.
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT
involves some items of the deepest interest.
The ten plagues prepare for it. The river is turned into blood; frogs literally cover the land; the dust is changed to lice; flies swarm until all the houses are filled; the beasts are smitten with murrain; boils and blains, hail, locusts and darkness do their worst, and the death of the first-born furnishes the climax of Egyptian affliction, and compels the haughty Pharaoh to bow in humility and grief before the will of the Most High God (chaps. 7-12).
There is one feature of these plagues that ought never to be forgotten. Without exception, they spake in thunder tones against Egyptian idolatry. The Nile River had long been an object of their adoration. In a long poem dedicated to the Nile, these lines are found:
Oh, Nile, hymns are sung to thee on the harp,
Offerings are made to thee: oxen are slain to thee;
Great festivals are kept for thee;
Fowls are sacrificed to thee.
But when the waters of that river were turned to blood, the Egyptians supposed Typhon, the God of Evil, with whom blood had always been associated, had conquered over their bountiful and beautiful Osiristhe name under which the Nile was worshiped.
The second plague was no less a stroke at their hope of a resurrection, for a frog had long symbolized to them the subject of life coming out of death. The soil also they had worshiped, and now to see the dust of it turned suddenly into living pests, was to suffer under the very power from which they had hoped to receive greatest success. The flies that came in clouds were not all of one kind, but their countless myriads, according to the Hebrew word used, included winged pests of every sort, even the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle. Heretofore, it had been to them the emblem of the creative principle; but now God makes it the instrument of destruction instead. When the murrain came upon the beasts, the sacred cow and the sacred ox-Apis were humbled. And ~when the ashes from the furnace smote the skin of the Egyptians, they could not forget that they had often sprinkled ashes toward Heaven, believing that thus to throw the ashes of their sacrifices into the wind would be to avert evil from every part of the land whither they were blown. Geikie says that the seventh plague brought these devout worshipers of false gods to see that the waters, the earth and the air, the growth of the fields, the cattle, and even their own persons, all under the care of a host of divinities, were yet in succession smitten by a power against which these protectors were impotent. When the clouds of locusts had devoured the land, there remained another stroke to their idolatry more severe still, and that was to see the Sun, the supreme god of Egypt, veil his face and leave his worshipers in total darkness. It is no wonder that Pharaoh then called to Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; but it is an amazing thing that even yet his greed of gain goads him on to claim their flocks and their herds as an indemnity against the exodus of the people. There remained nothing, therefore, for God to do but lift His hand again, and lo, death succeeded darkness, and Pharaoh himself became the subject of suffering, and the greatest idol of the nation was humbled to the dust, for the king was the supreme object of worship.
He is a foolish man who sets himself up to oppose the Almighty God. And that is a foolish people who think to afflict Gods faithful ones without feeling the mighty hand of that Father who never forgets His own.
One day I was talking with a woman whose husband formerly followed the habit of gambling. By this means he had amassed considerable wealth, and when she was converted and desired to unite with the church, he employed every power to prevent it, and even denied her the privilege of church attendance. One morning he awoke to find that he was a defeated man; his money had fled in the night, and in the humiliation of his losses, he begged his wifes pardon for ever having opposed her spirit of devotion. Since that time, though living in comparative poverty, she has been privileged to serve God as she pleased; and, as she said to me, finds in that service a daily joy such as she at one time feared she would never feel again. Gods plagues are always preparing the way for an exodus on the part of Gods oppressed.
The Passover interpreted this exodus. That greatest of all Jewish feasts stands as a memorial of Israels flight from Egypt as a symbol of Gods salvation for His own, and as an illustration of the saving power of the Blood of the Lamb.
The opponents of the exodus perished. Our study concludes with Israels Song of Deliverance, beginning, The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation, and concluding in the words of Miriam, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. See Exo 15:1-21. Such will ever be the end of those who oppress Gods people and oppose the Divine will.
When one studies the symbolism in all of this, and sees how Israel typifies Gods present-day people, and Moses, their deliverer, Jesus our Saviour, and defeated Pharaoh, the enemy of our souls, destined to be overthrown, he feels like joining in the same song of deliverance, changing the words only so far as to ascribe the greater praise to Him who gave His life a deliverance for all men; and with James Montgomery sing:
Hail to the Lords Anointed
Great Davids greater Son
Who, in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun.
He comes to break oppression,
To set the captive free,
To take away transgression,
And rule in equity.
He comes, with succor speedy,
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong;
To give them songs for sighing,
Their darkness turn to light,
Whose souls, condemned and dying.
Were precious in His sight.
CRITICAL NOTES.
Exo. 9:3. Murrain.] Lit. destruction.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 9:1-7
THE MURRAIN OF BEASTS; OR, THE SUFFERING THAT COMES UPON THE BRUTE CREATION IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SIN OF MAN
This plague was upon the cattle of Egypt. They were smitten with a grievous murrain, which was a consumptive disease. Our English word murrain is derived from the Greek , which means to wither and fade away; or it may be derived from the French word mourirto die or perish. The Egyptians venerated a great variety of animals; but oxen were among their chief deities. Hence the grievous murrain which now fell upon all the cattle of the Egyptians was another and more direct blow aimed at the monstrous idolatries of that benighted people. In modern times murrain is a not unfrequent visitation in Egypt; but the disease in Pharaohs day was different from every other manifestation of it, as well in the extent as in the suddenness and swiftness of its effects. In one day all the cattle in the field died. This disease was not confined, as murrain usually is, to one species of animal; it destroyed alike the oxen and the sheep, the asses, and the camels. Thus their beasts of burden, and the only animals they had for locomotion, were cut off. It has no parallel. It was a mark of the special displeasure of God.
I. That wicked men often act in reference to the claims of God in such a manner as to provoke His judgments. In this plague the rod of Moses was not used. It was accomplished without human intervention. This would show Pharaoh and his magicians that these calamities were not produced by magic, or by human ingenuity. God can flash His judgments direct from heaven upon the wicked. This plague upon the cattle would be a just punishment for the over-loading of the Hebrews with burdens and tasks. Thus we see how wicked men provoke the judgments of God.
1. That men are disobedient to the claims of God. This is seen in the case of Pharaoh. He would not obey the Divine command. And disobedience to the law of God is common amongst men, and always invites the retribution of heaven. God has claims upon the race. He is Creator. He is Preserver. He is Moral Ruler. He is merciful. He has revealed His will. But men regard it not. Hence they invite Divine retribution.
2. That men are obstinate in their rejection of the claims of God. This is evident in the case of Pharaoh. He did not merely manifest a temporary disobedience to the Divine command, but a continued and wilful rejection of them. And in this respect he is typical of men in our own age. They are morally hardened. Their souls are in determined opposition to God. They invite the retribution of heaven.
3. That men are hypocritical in their rejection of the claims of God. Pharaoh was so. He pretended to Moses that if he would entreat the Lord to remove the plagues by which he was afflicted, that he would yield to the Divine commands. But this was only a pretence. The promise was not redeemed. And so men in our own age, in moments of retributive pain, deceive the servants of God with the pretence of amendment. They cannot thus deceive God. He sees their subterfuge.
4. That men are presumptuous in their rejection of the claims of God. It is impossible to find words in which to express the presumption of Pharaoh in his opposition to Jehovah. Kings have not the weapons wherewith to resist the great God. Heaven could have smitten Egypt with a stroke, and have prevented continued opposition; but the methods of the Divine government are patient and merciful. Hence we see that the way in which men treat the claims of God provoke His judgments.
II. That men who thus reject the claims of God often involve the brute creation in pain and woe. Man has in his keeping the welfare of the entire universe, with all contained therein. The world was made for man, and it depends for its welfare upon his rule. It is affected by his moral conduct. It is unseparably connected with him. God has ordained it so. When man was driven out of Paradise, the brute creation followed him. If man sins he involves all those below him in disorder and pain. Here is a mystery. The infidel regards it with scorn. Scripture proves its certainty. The sin of Pharaoh and the Egyptians wa3 visited upon the brute creation. Here we see that these retributions were coming nearer and nearer to those who had invited them. They have passed from the river and the land to the animals. And thus the sin of man affects all nature, animate and inanimate. This is clearly shown by the history of these plagues, the pain in which the brute creation is involved by the sin of man:
1. It is Divinely inflicted. Behold the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle. Thus the brute creation is not directly stricken by the hand of man, but its pain is the consequence of his sin. The hand of God is potent both to afflict and to heal the cattle. The beasts of the field are under a Divine providence.
2. It is grievously effective.
3. It is sadly comprehensive.
4. It is proudly certified. And Pharaoh sent and behold there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. He was anxious to disprove the word of Moses.
III. That the men who thus involve the brute creation in pain and suffering, are often unmoved by the devastation they occasion. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. He knew the suffering and loss his conduct had wrought amongst the cattle, yet he was not moved to pity or regret. Some men are never influenced by the pain they observe in the brute world. They regard not the suffering of animals as worthy of momentary thought. Pharaoh did not ask Moses to remove this plague, because it did not affect himself as the former ones had done. Tyrants are only moved by personal inconvenience, and then only for a time. Wicked men little know the elements of pain they introduce into the universe, and perhaps if they did they would be but little affected by the knowledge. LESSONS:
1. That the retribution of sin does not end with those who occasion it.
2. That the brute world is affected by the conduct of man.
3. That men should endeavour to banish pain from the universe by attention to the commands of heaven.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo. 9:1. God follows the proudest sinners with new messages when they break faith with Him.
Gods powerful work gives entrance unto kings. Exo. 9:2-3. Gods goodness abounds in letting obstinate sinners know the danger of keeping sin.
Gods severity is great, threatening such as refuse His word and hold their sin. Exo. 9:4. Signal judgments of God to the wicked are set with discrimination to the good.
God works wonderfully sometimes to secure the good from the plagues of the wicked. Exo. 9:5-6. The patient God at last sets a time for sinners, when He will bear no longer with them.
The morrow has been Gods time of reckoning with sinners and may be now. Exo. 9:7. Providence orders wicked men to inquire whether Gods word be true in judgment and mercy.
Providence answers the inquiry of men that the Divine word shall stand in life or death. ILLUSTRATIONS
BY Sacred Bulls! Exo. 9:1. The Hindus still pay reverence to the ox as a sacred animal. One particular kind of cattle, having a hump upon the shoulders, is consecrated to Siva. They are allowed to roam at large, and may destroy the most valuable crops with impunity. One day an English gentleman entered one of their market places, and saw a fat bull busily employed eating up the rice, fruit and sweetmeats, which the poor women had been trying to sell. None of them durst touch the sacred animal; but the Englishman at once drove him away with a stick. The men, who crowded the market, looked fiercely at the insulter of their Bull-god, and enquired of him what he meant. A Brahmin priest came up, saying, Do you know that you struck a god? To this the missionary replied that he had understood from their own Hindu books that God was honest and just; Was it honest for that bull to take the property of these poor women without payment? The Brahmin was silenced; whereupon the servant of Christ addressed the people about the only God:
The effluence of whose light Divine
Pervading earth from Englands shores shines where Animal Worship! Exo. 9:3. The priests of Egypt held bulls in great veneration, and renewed their mourning for Osiris over the graves of those beasts. When Cambyses the Great was at Memphis, Herodotus tells us that the god Apis (bull) was conducted to his presence with much ceremony by the priests, the Egyptians following him, clothed in their richest apparel, and making great rejoicings. Cambyses, indignant at their folly, inflicted a mortal wound upon the beast with his dagger. Then turning to the priests, he exclaimed, Wretches, think ye that gods are formed of flesh and blood, and thus susceptible of wounds. This murrain was, therefore, another and more direct blow at the monstrous idolatries of Pharaohs benighted people; and a foreshadowing of the hour when all the idol-gods of earth should be cast down, and
No more at Delos or at Delphi now,
Or een at mighty Ammons Lybian shrine,
The white-robed priests before the altar bow.
Bethune.
Humaneness! Exo. 9:4. The regard which we pay to the brute creation must always be considered a test of disposition and character. The wise man says that a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. No individual can be trusted for his humane feelings to his own species, who is Lot humane in his feelings towards the brute tribes. It is recorded that, when an ancient senate of the Areopagites were assembled in the open air, a small birdto escape a larger one of preytook refuge in the bosom of one of the senators, who being of a cruel disposition hurled it from him so rudely that he killed it. The senate instantly banished him from their presence, declaring that he, who was destitute of humanity to a helpless and confiding bird, was unworthy the honour of a seat in their body.
Oh! do not lightly take away Gisborne
Cruelty! Exo. 9:6. An indulged propensity o cruelty to insects or larger animalsas Hogarth has finely illustratedhas often ended in the perpetration of crimes of the deepest dye. Those who have wantonly sported with life in inferior creatures have come to sport with life in beings of a higher and nobler order. There was a lad strolling through the fields with his sister when they found a nest of rabbits. The brother, in spite of his sisters entreaties and tears, flung them one by one into the air, laughing as each fell dead upon the stones. Ten years after, that sister was again weeping by the brothers side, not in the open fields with the golden sunshine making balmy the spring air, but in a dungeon. He was in chains, sentenced to be hung for shooting a farmer while poaching on his preserves. As they were waiting for the awful procession to knock at the cell-door, he confessed to her that, ever since the wanton destruction of the helpless rabbits God had forsaken him, and left him to follow his own inclinations.
Yea, all the pity upon earth shall call down
a curse upon the cruel;
Yea, the burning malice of the wicked is their
own exceeding punishment.
Tupper.
THE TEXT OF EXODUS 9 Then Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Go in unto Pha-raoh, and tell him, Thus saith Je-ho-vah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (2) For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, (3) behold, the hand of Je-ho-vah is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks: there shall be a very grievous murrain. (4) And Je-ho-vah shall make a distinction between the cattle of Is-ra-el and the cattle of E-gypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children of Is-ra-el. (5) And Je-ho-vah appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow Je-ho-vah shall do this thing in the land. (6) And Je-ho-vah did that thing on the morrow; and all the cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Is-ra-el died not one. (7) And Pha-raoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Is-ra-el-ites dead. But the heart of Pha-raoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go.
(8) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses and unto Aar-on, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Mo-ses sprinkle it toward heaven in the sight of Pha-raoh. (9) And it shall become small dust over all the land of E-gypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of E-gypt. (10) And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pha-raoh; and Mo-ses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. (11) And the magicians could not stand before Mo-ses because of the boils; for the boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the E-gyp-tians. (12) And Je-ho-vah hardened the heart of Pha-raoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as Je-ho-vah had spoken unto Mo-ses. (22) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of E-gypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of E-gypt. (23) And Mo-ses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and Je-ho-vah sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down unto the earth; and Je-ho-vah rained hail upon the land of E-gypt. (24) So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of E-gypt since it became a nation. (25) And the hail smote throughout all the land of E-gypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. (26) Only in the land of Go-shen, where the children of Is-ra-el were, was there no hail. EXPLORING EXODUS: CHAPTER NINE 1.
After reading the chapter, propose a brief theme or topic for it.
2.
Before which plagues in chapter nine did Moses come in unto Pharaoh with demands? (Exo. 9:1; etc.)
3.
What did the LORD intend for his people to do after they were released? (Exo. 9:1; Exo. 9:13)
4.
What is murrain? (Exo. 9:3)
5.
What animals would be affected by the murrain? (Exo. 9:3)
6.
How would the murrain affect the cattle of Israel? (Exo. 9:4)
7.
What time was set for the murrain to begin? (Exo. 9:5)
8.
Who investigated the effects of the murrain on Israels cattle? (Exo. 9:7)
9.
What does Pharaohs reaction to the murrain reveal about him? (Exo. 9:7)
10.
What was to be sprinkled toward heaven? By whom? In the sight of whom? (Exo. 9:8)
11.
What effect would the ashes produce? (Exo. 9:9)
12.
What are blains? (Exo. 9:9)
13.
Why could not the magicians stand before Moses? (Exo. 9:11) What does stand before mean?
14.
What happened to Pharaohs heart after the plague of boils? (Exo. 9:12)
15.
When was Moses to stand again before Pharaoh? (Exo. 9:13)
16.
What lesson was Pharaoh to learn from the plagues? (Exo. 9:14)
17.
What possible plague did God threaten Pharaoh with in Exo. 9:15? What would have been the effect of this plague?
18.
Why had God not smitten Pharaoh with pestilence, but rather let him live? (Exo. 9:16)
19.
Where would Gods name be declared? (Exo. 9:16)
20.
What question did God ask of Pharaoh? (Exo. 9:17) Why ask this question?
21.
How much advance warning was given about the hail? (Exo. 9:18)
22.
How severe would the hail be? (Exo. 9:18-19; Exo. 9:24)
23.
What precaution was Pharaoh urged to take before the hail? (Exo. 9:19) Why should God give Pharaoh such a forewarning?
24.
Did Pharaohs servants take heed to the warning about the hail? (Exo. 9:20-21) What determined whether they heeded or not?
25.
What act did Moses perform at the start of the hail? (Exo. 9:22)
26.
What was mixed with the hail? (Exo. 9:23)
27.
What effect did the hail have upon the trees? (Exo. 9:25)
28.
Where was there no hail? (Exo. 9:26)
29.
What confession about himself did Pharaoh make after the hail? (Exo. 9:27) What did Pharaoh confess about the LORD?
30.
What (lying!) promise did Pharaoh make to Moses?
31.
When did Moses promise to call off the thunder? (Exo. 9:29; Exo. 9:33) How does this promise show faith on the part of Moses?
32.
What was Pharaoh to learn by the LORDS stopping the thunder? (Exo. 9:29)
33.
What did Moses foreknow about Pharaohs conduct after the hail? (Exo. 9:30)
34.
What two crops were smitten by the hail? (Exo. 9:31)
35.
What two crops were not smitten by the hail? Why not? (Exo. 9:32)
36.
Was Moses able to get the thunder stopped as he promised? (Exo. 9:33)
37.
Who hardened Pharaohs heart after the hail stopped? (Exo. 9:34)
38.
How did Pharaoh sin yet more by hardening his heart? (Exo. 9:34)
39.
Was Pharaohs breaking his promise a surprise? (Exo. 9:35)
EXODUS NINE: WEALTH AND HEALTH DESTROYED BY DISOBEDIENCE
1.
Plague of death of livestock; Exo. 9:1-7.
2.
Plague of boils; Exo. 9:8-12.
3.
Plague of hail; Exo. 9:13-35
EXODUS NINE: SUFFERINGS CAUSED BY SIN
1.
Brute creation suffers; Exo. 9:1-7; Exo. 9:9; Exo. 9:19; Exo. 9:25; Rom. 8:20.
2.
Physical bodies suffer; Exo. 9:8-11; Exo. 9:19; Exo. 9:25.
3.
NATIONAL WEALTH SUFFERS; Exo. 9:6; Exo. 9:24-25.
EXODUS NINE: MAN POWERLESS BEFORE GODS PUNISHMENTS
1.
Powerless to prevent them; (Exo. 9:3; Exo. 9:18)
2.
Powerless to endure them; (Exo. 9:10-11; Exo. 9:27-28)
3.
SOMETIMES POWERLESS TO LEARN FROM THEM; (Exo. 9:7; Exo. 9:12; Exo. 9:30; Exo. 9:35).
EXODUS NINE: GODS MERCIES DURING GODS JUDGMENTS
1.
The mercy of advance warning; Exo. 9:2-3; Exo. 9:18-19.
2.
The mercy of deferred punishment; Exo. 9:15-16; 2Pe. 3:9.
3.
The mercy of praying ministers; Exo. 9:28-29.
4.
The mercy of removed plagues; Exo. 9:33.
HEART PLAGUES! (Exo. 9:14)
(The Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Passover)
1.
Cause agony of spirit; Exo. 9:27; Exo. 10:4-7; Exo. 12:30.
2.
Sent when lesser corrections fail; Exo. 9:15-17.
3.
Cause men to confess God; Exo. 9:27; Exo. 10:16.
FEAR OF THE WORD OF GOD (Exo. 9:20-21)
1.
Based on Gods past acts.
2.
Brings action; Exo. 9:20; Mat. 7:21.
3.
BRINGS DELIVERANCE; Exo. 9:25.
REPENTANCE BASED ON FEAR (Exo. 9:27)
1.
Felt by the mightiest of men; Exo. 9:27.
2.
Causes us to acknowledge sin; Exo. 9:27.
3.
Causes us to seek Gods servants; Exo. 9:27-28.
4.
Often concerned with removal of penalty rather than removal of sin.
5.
OFTEN VERY TEMPORARY; Exo. 9:34-35.
THE WORK OF GODS MINISTER WITH A STUBBORN SINNER (Exo. 9:27-33)
1.
Be available to help him; Exo. 9:27.
2.
Pray for him; Exo. 9:28; Exo. 9:33.
3.
Proclaim Gods deliverance; Exo. 9:29.
4.
Present Gods demands; Exo. 9:29.
5.
Tell him the truth; Exo. 9:30.
EXPLORING EXODUS: NOTES ON CHAPTER NINE
1.
What instruction did God give Moses after the plague of flies? (Exo. 9:1)
He sent him back to Pharaoh, presumably at Pharaohs house, as in Exo. 8:1. There he was to make the same demand as before: Let my people go that they may serve me. This was the fourth or fifth time this demand was made to Pharaoh (Exo. 5:1; Exo. 7:2; Exo. 7:7; Exo. 7:16; Exo. 8:1; Exo. 8:20).
2.
What threat was to be made to Pharaoh? (Exo. 9:2-3)
If he refused there would be a grievous (heavy) murrain on all the livestock of Egypt. A murrain (Heb. deber) is a destruction, pestilence, or plague. The English word murrain is an archaic term from the same root at the word murder and the Latin mors (meaning death). We do not know exactly the nature of this plague, whether it was like anthrax or rinderpest, or some other disease. But it was deadly!
This murrain may have been a unique pestilence, because it was not confined to one species of animal, as most diseases are. This murrain is said to be the HAND of the Lord.
First God destroyed Egypts cattle, then its crops (by hail and locusts). This really cut off its food supply. The change from plagues affecting peoples personal comfort to economic disasters represents a worsening of the plagues.
3.
What animals would be affected by the murrain? (Exo. 9:3)
The disease was to affect cattle in the field, horses, donkeys, camels, herds and flocks. Cattle and domestic animals were very common in Egypt, and very precious to the Egyptians, as witnessed by their paintings and literature. Pharaoh himself kept a large number of cattle (Gen. 47:6; Gen. 47:17). The disease appears to have been limited to cattle in the fields; those that were sheltered indoors escaped. This partly explains why some cattle survived the plague (Exo. 9:10; Exo. 9:21).
Horses were affected. Horses were common in Egypt in the XVIII dynasty (15701345 B.C.), which was the time of Moses. They were primarily used for war, and their introduction has been attributed to the Hyksos (16701570 B.C.). Note that the animals presented to Abraham at an earlier date do not include horses (Gen. 12:16).
The reference to camels has been thought by some to be an anachronism, something out of its true historical position, because supposedly camels were not domesticated in Moses time.[181] However, numerous evidences have been brought forth showing that camels were in limited used during the times of the patriarchs and Moses. The Egyptologist K. A. Kitchen mentions the Mesopotamian lexical lists that originated in the Old Babylonian Period [which] show a knowledge of the camel about 2000/1700 B.C., including its domestication. Also from the city of Byblos comes an incomplete camel figurine of the nineteenth/eighteenth centuries B.C.[182]
[181] For example, see G. E. Wright, Biblical Archaeology (Philadelphia: Westminister, 1957), pp. 40, 46.
[182] K. A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and the Old Testament, (Chicago: Inter-Varsity, 1966), p. 79.
4.
What animals were not affected by the murrain? (Exo. 9:4)
It did not kill the Israelites cattle. Regarding the distinction which God made between Egyptians and Israelites, see Exo. 8:22. The fact of this distinction certainly shows that the death of the cattle had miraculous features. Also the setting of a specific time for its coming makes it miraculous.
5.
When would the murrain strike? (Exo. 9:5)
God said, Tomorrow. And true to the prediction on the next day all the cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Israel, not one died. 6.
What portion of the cattle of Egypt died? (Exo. 9:6)
All the cattle of Egypt died. This all is restricted in Exo. 9:3 to those which are in the field. It would seem that the term all in Exo. 9:6 (as in Exo. 8:17) is not to be taken in an absolute sense, but as referring to such a large portion that what remained was as nothing in comparison.[183] Thus, we find that there were some cattle still remaining in Exo. 9:19 and Exo. 12:29.
[183] Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 487.
7.
How did the Egyptians regard cattle?
While the Egyptians did sacrifice cattle and eat them, the cow had sacred associations to the Egyptians. The goddess Hathor is pictured in the form of a cow. She was the goddess of love, beauty, and joy. She helped the departed soul on its perilous journey after death. This goddess is often pictured as a cow suckling one of the kings, giving him divine nourishment.
The Apis bull was regarded as the incarnation of the Egyptians creator-god Ptah of the capital city of Memphis. After their deaths these bulls were mummified. During their lifetimes the bulls were fed choice food, bathed, brushed, and pampered daily. On their birthdays they were brought out for the peoples adoration. When one died, another was chosen on the basis of various markings such as a black color, with a square or triangular spot on his forehead. Mummification for these animals is estimated to have cost $50,000 to $100,000 each. In A.D. 1856 the excavator Auguste Mariette found a long underground avenue where these bulls had been buried in black granite sarcophagi. The burial tunnels extended 1120 feet; and sixty-four large burial chambers lay along the avenue. Remains of drink-offerings dedicated by visitors were still lying near some of the sarcophagi.[184]
[184] G. Frederick Owen, Archaeology and the Bible (Westwood, N. J.: Revell, 1961), pp. 181183.
8.
Who checked on the survival of the Israelites cattle? (Exo. 9:7)
Pharaoh himself sent investigators, who found that not even one Israelite cow had died in the plague. The possibility that such a thing might have happened in an ordinary plague is almost nonexistent. 9.
What was used at the start of the plague of boils? (Exo. 9:8)
Moses and Aaron both took full handfuls of ashes (or soot, or dust) from a furnace (or oven). Then apparently Aaron passed his handfuls to Moses, who scattered (or sprinkled) the ashes toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Some authors (Pink, for example) have suggested that the ashes came off an altar for human sacrifice. This does not seem to be true, as we have no evidence the Egyptians burned human bodies. More probably the ashes came from a brick kiln or smelting furnace.[185]
[185] Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 488.
If these ashes did come from a brick kiln, there is a sardonic twist of vengeance revealed. The Israelites had been enslaved at brick-making, and now the ashes that made the lives of the oppressed bitter smite the oppressor with boils.
10.
What effect did the ashes produce? (Exo. 9:9-10)
They spread like a dust cloud over all the land of Egypt, settling upon men and beasts. This caused an inflammation to break out in boils (blains), which became blisters, or running sores (Lat. pustulae). Such boils were sometimes regarded as leprous (Lev. 13:12; Lev. 13:18-20; Lev. 14:43). This disaster struck both man and beast. The previous plague had caused the deaths of domestic animals in the fields, but spared others to be afflicted by the boils and hail. This time the boils affected every beast and man in Egypt.
What irresistible power lay in those ashes! We do not assume that there was a biological connection between the ashes and the boils. God caused the boils; but the scattering of the ashes was a visual aid linking Moses to the boils, and doing it right under Pharaohs nose. In Deu. 28:27; Deu. 28:35 God threatened to smite the Israelites with the botch of Egypt, if they disobeyed Him. The botch is the boil referred to here in Exo. 9:9.
The plague of boils may have been an attack on Imhotep, the Egyptian god of medicine. Imhotep had been a sage, architect, and chief ritualist in the Old Kingdom of Egypt; but had become regarded as a demigod after his death, and later was canonized to become their god of medicine. The inability of their gods to save Egypt must have shaken the Egyptians profoundly.
11.
How did the magicians fare with the boils? (Exo. 9:11)
Very poorly! Just after being loused-up (Exo. 8:18-19), now they find themselves boiled. Gods judgment comes on high and low alike. So great was their pain that they could not stand before Moses. They were probably in such misery they could not endure to remain in one position for more than a few seconds. To stand up face to face with Moses in a confrontation was utterly beyond their power.
12.
Why did not Pharaoh let Israel go after the plague of boils? (Exo. 9:12)
He did not let them go because Jehovah hardened his heart. This is the FIRST time that the text specifically says that God himself hardened Pharaohs heart. Of course, God had predicted that He would do this (Exo. 4:21).
We wonder if Pharaoh sensed that he was being driven by some irresistible force outside of himself. Perhaps after this plague he wondered within himself how he could have been so stubborn. We have the opinion that he WAS in some manner conscious that matters had gotten beyond his control. If this were not so, then it would seem that God was dealing with him solely for the purpose of punishment. That stage did come to pass, but it was not there yet. In the very next plague God gave Pharaoh the choice; and he hardened his own heart. Apparently then during this plague of boils and during the next plague, God was still dealing with Pharaoh for the purpose of persuasion and not just punishment. It is Gods right as God to deal with sinners any way He chooses. Any good that God does to a sinner is an act of pure grace. What all sinners really deserve is death.[186] Gods dealings with men never remove from man the responsibility for his own actions.
[186] Davis, op. cit., p. 116.
13.
How and where did Moses announce the plague of hail? (Exo. 9:13) (Exo. 9:13)
Moses met Pharaoh again at an early hour (compare Exo. 8:20), possibly again at the waters edge (Exo. 7:15; Exo. 8:20). There Moses spoke Gods demand that Pharaoh let Israel go so they could serve Him. See notes on Exo. 9:1.
14.
Upon what would God send the plague of hail and the following plagues? (Exo. 9:14)
He would send them upon the heart of Pharaoh, and upon his servants. These last three plagues were of greater severity than the previous ones, and pointed toward the final decisive blow. These plagues attacked his innermost nature and feelings. These plagues would break his will or destroy him. Each of the three plagues before the passover produced a real, though temporary, change in Pharaohs feelings.
These heart-plagues were to teach Pharaoh that there was none like Jehovah in all the earth. This lesson had been the assignment to learn in Exo. 8:10; but Pharaoh seemed to need a second lesson. (Compare Exo. 8:10; Exo. 18:11.)
The word plagues (plural, referring to the next three plagues) in Exo. 9:14 is a different word than is used with reference to the other plagues. This word means a blow (sometimes a fatal blow, as in Num. 14:37; Eze. 24:16; 1Sa. 4:17), or slaughter, or stroke, or striking.
15.
What had God considered doing to Pharaoh and the Egyptians? (Exo. 9:15)
He had considered smiting them with a pestilence that would have killed them all. The word for pestilence is the same word translated murrain in Exo. 9:2. The people would have died, as the cattle had died. Pharaoh could justifiably have been slain. So could we all for our sins! But, bless the Lord, He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner (Eze. 33:11), but only desires that the sinner may turn from his wicked way and live.
16.
Why had God spared Pharaoh? (Exo. 9:16)
He spared him to show Pharaoh His power, and that Gods name might be declared throughout all the earth. WE must now declare Moses deeds and Gods wonders in Egypt, so that His name may be honored throughout all the earth.
The King James Vers. of Exo. 9:16 says, For this cause I have raised thee up. . . . This is very similar to the wording used by Paul in Rom. 9:17. What does raised thee up mean? It seems to mean two things: (1) I have raised you up to be king in Egypt; and (2) I have enabled you to stand firm in your kingship against all the punishments that have come upon you in the plagues. The Hebrew Bible simply reads (as given in the A.S.V.) I have made thee to stand.
The Greek O.T. says, On account of this I have preserved thee. The R.S.V. gives a similar reading: I have let you live. This seems to us to limit the meaning too much. God had not only preserved Pharaoh through the plague-disasters, but even before that had raised him up to be king. Pharaoh had already made of himself a vessel fitted for destruction (Rom. 9:22). Nonetheless, God had raised him up to become king, and preserved him as king, so that Pharaoh could see Gods power (and therefore be without excuse), and that Gods power might be declared in all the earth.
17.
Is Exo. 9:17 a question?
We feel that it is a question. It is given as a question in the KJV, the A.S.V., the Berkeley Bible, the New American Bible, and the Living Bible. The R.S.V., the Jerusalem Bible, and the New English Bible render it as a statement. On the basis of grammar alone, it can be read either as a question or as a statement.
As a statement it would either state a completely obvious fact, or it would express amazement on the part of God. God was certainly not amazed at Pharaohs response; He had predicted it exactly.
As a question, it functions not as a request for information, but to bring about conviction. Like Gods questions to Cain and to Adam (Gen. 3:11; Gen. 4:10), this one was directed at the conscience: Are you still exalting yourself against my people?
The verb translated exalting yourself may have the idea of fortifying yourself by heaping up mounds and ramparts. Pharaoh was digging in for a fight against God.
18.
When was the hail to begin? (Exo. 9:18)
Tomorrow! Moses announced before four of the plagues that they would start tomorrow. (Flies, Exo. 8:23; murrain, Exo. 9:5; hail; locusts, Exo. 10:4) Hailstorms are rare in Egypt. This hailstorm was to be the worst in all the history of Egypt. It was to be very grievous. The word grievous (Heb. kabed) is the word used to describe Pharaohs heavy stubborn heart (Exo. 9:7). Heavy hail for a heavy heart!
19.
What opportunity to escape the hail was announced? (Exo. 9:19)
Moses announced that men and beasts who came in from the fields and took shelter in houses would be saved from the hail. Those that remained outdoors would be killed by hailstones. This warning was an act of pure divine mercy.
20.
Was the warning about taking shelter from the hail heeded? (Exo. 9:20-21)
Those of the servants of Pharaoh who feared (respected) Gods word as uttered by Moses caused their servants and cattle to flee into the houses. But he who did not take the word of Jehovah to heart left his servants and his cattle in the field.
The expression regarded not the word of Jehovah is literally set not his heart. . . . This is a similar expression to Exo. 7:23, where Pharaoh did not set his heart on the matter after the water was turned to blood.
This is the first plague where we see indication that the warnings were taken seriously by the Egyptians. This is definite progress toward victory. We imagine that Pharaoh was displeased to see his subjects obeying the word of Moses and Aaron.
In Egypt cattle are usually kept out-of-doors from January to April. After that they are kept indoors for protection from the heat. Note that the livestock were kept in peoples houses, a custom in many lands. See note 17 in Ex. ch. 8.
Giving attention to the word of God is the condition for deliverance from the coming judgments of God. God has promised to keep us from the hour of trial coming upon the whole world (Rev. 3:10). But we must heed His word to receive deliverance.
21.
How was the plague of hail started? (Exo. 9:22-23)
Moses stretched forth his hand with his rod toward heaven. In the three plagues just before the Passover, Moses stretched forth his hand and/or rod toward heaven (Exo. 10:12-13; Exo. 10:21-22). Regarding the rod, see Exo. 4:17.
22.
What was the plague of hail like? (Exo. 9:23-25)
There was thunder[187] and hail, and fire (presumably lightning) going to the land. Jehovah rained upon all the land of Egypt. Psa. 78:47-48 : He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones. He delivered up to the hail their cattle, and their flocks to the lightning-flashes. Psa. 105:32-33 says, He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees, and broke the trees of their borders. This fire was mingled together, perhaps into balls of fire.
[187] Thunder in Hebrew is voices of God. Thunder is often used as a representation of Gods voice. See Exo. 19:19; Joh. 12:29; Job. 37:2-5; Psa. 77:18.
Assuming that the hailstorm covered just the habitable area of Egypt, it would be a ribbon-shaped hailstorm, about ten miles wide and four hundred miles long, with a fan-shaped end. The extent of the hail disaster was indicated by the Egyptians themselves. In Exo. 10:7 they begged Pharaoh to release Israel before any more plagues came. The economy of the country had been ruined.
Gods judgments in all ages have often been accompanied by dreadful hail. See Isa. 30:30; Psa. 18:13; Rev. 16:21.
23.
How did the Israelites fare in the hail storm? (Exo. 9:26)
There was no hail in Goshen where they were. Also the Israelites had no flies (Exo. 8:22), no murrain of cattle (Exo. 9:4; Exo. 9:6), and no darkness (Exo. 10:23). Compare Exo. 11:7 and Exo. 12:13.
24.
How did Pharaoh respond to the plague of hail? (Exo. 9:27-28)
He summoned Moses and Aaron, and confessed his sin, and asked for prayer that the hail stop. He promised to let Israel go. The terribleness of the plague really seized him. Pharaoh had given up calling upon his magicians. The solution was obviously only in Moses and Aaron.
The wicked often seek the prayers of the righteous when the wicked find themselves defeated. Note the cases of King Jeroboam I (1Ki. 13:6) and Simon the sorcerer (Act. 8:24).
Pharaohs confession that he had sinned this time sounds as if his guilt were not very deeply felt. He certainly had sinned before this (see Exo. 8:29).
Pharaohs confession that Jehovah was righteous, and he and his people were wicked, is progress. He had once said he did not even know Jehovah (Exo. 5:2). For similar confessions, see 2Ch. 12:6 and Lam. 1:18. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of righteousness, that is, of Gods righteousness and Christs righteousness (Joh. 16:10). Pharaoh repeated his confession about sinning in Exo. 10:16, during the plague of locusts.
This was the third time Pharaoh begged for a removal of a plague. Compare Exo. 8:8; Exo. 8:28.
Pharaoh made an unconditional promise to let Israel go if the thundering and hail stopped.
25.
Where did Moses go to pray about the hail? (Exo. 9:29; Exo. 9:33)
He went out of the city. See notes on Exo. 8:12.
Moses was utterly confident that his prayers would stop the hail. And they did!
Moses indicated that Pharaoh was to learn from the plagues that the earth (or the land) was the LORDS! Compare Exo. 8:10; Exo. 8:22; Exo. 9:14. Pharaoh had already learned that Jehovah was a God, and that there was no one like him. He is now to learn that Jehovah owned and controlled all the land. Compare Psa. 24:1. When this assertion is read against the background of divine kingship in Egypt and the Egyptian view of different deities controlling different areas and different activities of life and nature, the assertion takes on a tone of triumph, exultation, and victory. It is not Pharaoh who controlled and owned the earth. It was not even the gods of Egypt, but YAHWEH, God of Israel!
26.
Did Moses trust Pharaohs promise to release Israel? (Exo. 9:30)
Moses knew he would not keep it. Moses knew this by Gods revelation, rather than by his own natural understanding of human nature. (See Exo. 4:21; Exo. 9:35)
Let favor be showed unto the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness (Isa. 26:10).
Note the full name Jehovah God in Exo. 4:30. It appears that Moses relished speaking this name in all its fulness in Pharaohs hearing.
27.
What crops were smitten by the hail? (Exo. 9:31-32)
The flax and barley were smitten. These ripen about the same time, in the month of March. The hail hit when the barley heads had appeared and the flax was in bloom, that is, with immature heads blooming with pollen. This would be near the end of January. Regarding the importance of flax as the source for linen cloth, see note 17 in ch. 8. The desperate Egyptians were in sorrow and fright. Their sky-goddess Nut could not protect them from hail from the sky. (She is often pictured as a lanky nude female arching from horizon to horizon across the sky, touching the ground with finger tips and toes.) The goddess Isis and the god Seth also were thought to have care over agricultural production. But the gods were silent.
28.
Did Pharaoh keep his promise to let Israel go? (Exo. 9:34-35)
No. He hardened his heart, and his Egyptian servants did also. Observe that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God had hardened his heart after the plague of boils (Exo. 9:12). This time God let Pharaoh make the decision, and Pharaoh proved himself to be a hard-hearted liar. He also revealed (unintentionally!) that Gods treatment of him was completely just. (See notes on Exo. 4:21 concerning the hardening of Pharaohs heart.) In refusing to let Israel go, Pharaoh sinned yet more. (See Exo. 9:27.)
IX. (1-3) The nature of the fifth plague is manifest, and admits of no dispute. It was a rinderpest, or murrain upon cattle; which, however, unlike most similar disorders, attacked the greater number of the domesticated animalshorses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep. Thus it was very grievous (Exo. 9:3). Horses were highly prized by the Egyptians, and were a comparatively recent importation, having been unknown before the time of the seventeenth, or Shepherd Dynasty. They were at first used only in war; then by rich men, in peace, to draw their chariots. They had now, however, it would seem, come to be employed also in agriculture. (Note the words in the field.) Asses were the ordinary beasts of burthen, and abounded in Egypt anciently as indeed they do at the present day. The Egyptian monuments mention cases where a single landowner owned as many as seven or eight hundred of them. Camels are not represented by the Egyptian sculptors, but are mentioned in the inscriptions (Chabas, Etudes sur l Antiquit Historique, pp. 400-413), and must have been employed in the trade between Egypt and the Sinaitic peninsula. Both oxen and sheep were numerous, and constituted a great part of the wealth of individuals. The plague fell upon such animals as were in the field at the timei.e., in the open air, and not confined in stables or sheds. It was the Egyptian practice to house a considerable portion of their cattle; but at the probable season of this plagueDecember or Januarythe majority would be in the pastures. Thus the Egyptian losses were very heavy, and the king, no doubt, suffered with the rest, for the Egyptian monarchs were large cattle-owners (Gen. 47:6; Gen. 47:17), The Pharaoh was, however, less impressed by this plague than by the fourth, and made no sign of submission.
THE TEN PLAGUES, Exo 7:8 to Exo 12:30.
Moses and Aaron now stand before Pharaoh as ministers of judgment, and the conflict opens between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt. The first contest between the messengers of Jehovah and the magicians, or enchanters, who are regarded as the servants of the false gods, given in Exo 7:8-13, is properly the opening scene of the struggle, and is therefore here included in the section with it. Several general observations on the whole subject are most conveniently introduced here for future reference.
(1.) The great and worthy object of these “signs and wonders” is throughout to be carefully held before the mind. There were several secondary purposes met, but the chief aim was, not to inflict retribution upon Egypt, although they did this as judgments, nor to give Israel independence, though they effected this by crushing the oppressor, but to teach the world the nature of God. It was a series of most solemn lessons in the fundamental truths of religion in God’s attributes and government. With perfect distinctness and reiterated emphasis is this declared from the very beginning: “ I am JEHOVAH Ye shall know the Egyptians shall know that I am JEHOVAH.” Events were to burn into the national consciousness of Israel, and into the memory of the world, the great truths revealed in the Memorial Name; and the faith of Israel, the sin of Pharaoh, and the might and splendour of Egyptian heathenism, were the divinely chosen instruments to accomplish this work. The rich Nile-land teemed with gods, and was the mother country of the idolatries that, centuries afterward, covered the Mediterranean islands and peninsulas, and filled the classic literature with such manifold forms of beauty. The gods of Greece were born in Egypt, and the Sibyls of Delphos and Cumaea descended from the sorcerers who contended with Moses. In no other land has idolatry ever reared such grand and massive structures as in Egypt. The immense ram-headed Ammun and hawk-headed Ra, the placid monumental Osiris, the colossal Rameses, sitting in granite “with his vast hands resting upon his elephantine knees,” these, and their brother gods of the age of the Pharaohs, have looked down upon the rising and falling Nile through all the centuries of European civilization. In no other land were the manifold forms and productions of nature so deified. In their pantheistic idolatry they offered worship not only to the sun, and moon, and earth, but to bulls, crocodiles, cats, hawks, asps, scorpions, and beetles. They seem to have made to themselves likenesses of almost every thing in “heaven above, in earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth.” The Apis and Mnevis bulls were stalled in magnificent palaces at Memphis and Heliopolis, and were embalmed in massive marble and granite sarcophagi, grander than enclosed the Theban kings. The sepulchres of Egyptian bulls have outlasted the sepulchres of Roman emperors. Nowhere else were kings so deified as here. Pharaoh incarnated in himself the national idolatry, and to crush the king was to crush the gods. The king made his palace a temple, and enthroned himself among the Egyptian deities. He sculptured himself colossal so vast that the Arabs to-day quarry millstones from his cheeks sitting hand in hand and arm in arm with his gods. To-day Rameses sits in the temple of Ipsambul between Ra and Ammun, his tall crown rising between the hawk head of the one and the tiara of the other, looking out from his rock-hewn shrine upon the desert, as he has sat since the Pharaohs. From Cambyses to Napoleon invasion after invasion has swept the Nile valley wave on wave yet here have sat these massive forms, the Nile coming to bathe their feet year by year, as if brothers to the mountains. They mark the graves of Egypt’s vanished gods, while the name of Him who smote these gods to death with Moses’s rod liveth forever.
(2.) But Egypt was the mother-land of philosophies as well as idolatries. Long ages after Moses, Herodotus, Pythagoras, and Plato followed the Hebrew lawgiver to the oldest university in the world. The Egyptian philosophy was inextricably entangled with its religion, and deciphered papyri show that magic and sorcery were esteemed as highly at the court of Pharaoh, as, long after, in the time of Daniel, at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The dreamy mysticism of Plato and of Philo reveals how hopelessly most precious truths were entangled in priestly juggleries, and how deeply this black art, or illusion, or demonism, left its mark on the ancient world. The heathen idolatry had no more potent allies in the old civilizations than the soothsayers, sorcerers, and magicians, and it was needful that they too should be signally vanquished by the prophet of the true God. Hence Moses in Egypt as, a thousand years later, Daniel in Babylon, and a half thousand years later still, Paul at Salamis and Philippi discomfited the false prophets who aped God’s mighty works with their lying wonders. The sooth-saying and necromancy found in Christian lands to-day belong to the same kingdom of darkness, and can be exorcised only in that “Name which is above every name.” Moses, then, smites for mankind; Israel brings the Sacred Name through the wilderness for the world.
(3.) The weapons and tactics of this warfare were not such as to inflame the pride of the people of Israel, or to awaken in after generations a thirst for military glory, but such as to turn the tides of their faith and hope wholly away from themselves to their God. Hence the Hebrew national anthems glory in Jehovah rather than in Israel. Not the baptism of a war of national independence, but that of the Red Sea redemption, was their great national remembrance. Enthusiasm for Jehovah thus became the national passion. How appropriate was this in the training of a nation which was to teach the world true religion!
The real character of these plagues, or judgment strokes, will, as a general thing, appear from an attentive study of the Egyptian geography and natural history. They arise, as can usually be seen on the face of the narrative, from natural causes supernaturally intensified and directed. In the first and ninth plagues the natural causation is less distinct. They cannot, however, be explained away as natural events; for, if the record is to be believed at all, they were supernatural (1) in their definiteness, the time of their occurrence and discontinuance being distinctly predicted; (2) in their succession; and (3) in their intensity. They were, in their power and direction, threefold: (1) against the Egyptian faith in the diviners, enchanters, and sorcerers, the prophets of a false religion. (2) Against their faith in their deities, their gods of earth, and water, and air powers of nature; and beasts, and birds, and creeping things. Thus Jehovah’s supremacy over idolatry appeared. But (3) they were also punishments for disobedience to God. There is from the beginning a gradually increasing intensity in these supernatural manifestations till the magicians are utterly discomfited, all the gods of Egypt put to shame, and Pharaoh compelled to yield reluctant obedience. At first the magicians seem to display the same power as Moses, (Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22,) then come signs beyond their power . (Exo 8:18😉 soon the prophet of Jehovah so smites them that they cannot appear at all, (Exo 9:11😉 and then they vanish altogether . So the weight of the judgments increases as with increasing light the crime of disobedience rises in magnitude beginning with simple though sore annoyances, as blood, frogs, and flies; then advancing to the destruction of food and cattle smiting first their dwelling-place and surroundings, and then themselves; till the locusts swept the earth and the darkness filled the heaven, and only the death stroke was left to fall . Thus we are taught how the consequence of sin is sin, and judgments unheeded inevitably lead on to sorer judgments, till destruction comes .
(4.) Some commentators have found a special application in each plague to some particular idolatry or idolatrous rite, but this we do not find warranted by facts. Some, following Philo, the learned and devout but fanciful Alexandrian Jew, separate the plagues into two groups of nine and one, and then the nine into three groups of three, between which groups they trace what they deem instructive contrasts and correspondences. Origen, Augustine, and others, have traced parallels between these ten judgments and the ten commandments, the succession of the judgments and of the creative days, etc. Most of these interpretations not to dwell on the extravagant conceits of the Rabbies are amusing rather than instructive, and would be appropriate rather to a sacred romance or drama than to a sober history like this. The wild fables of the Talmud, the monstrosities of the Koran, and the often romantically embellished history of Josephus, present here an instructive contrast to the sacred narrative.
(5.) Thus far the Egyptian monuments give us no distinct mention of the plagues and of the exodus. We have, however, Egyptian records of the sojourn and exodus of Israel, although confused and fragmentary, and written more than a thousand years after the events. Chief and most valuable among these is the narrative of the priest Manetho, who wrote his Egyptian history during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 283-247, of which a few fragments remain. Josephus has preserved all that we have of this narrative in his work against Apion. It is, as might be expected, a very different history, being the relation of an Egyptian priest many centuries after the events; yet the points of agreement are very striking.
The Israelites appear in Manetho’s story as a nation of lepers, headed by Osarsiph, a priest of Osiris, who had been educated at Heliopolis, but abandoned his order and the Egyptian religion to take the lead of this people. He taught them to abjure idolatry, gave them laws, a constitution and ceremonial, and when he united his fortunes with theirs he changed his name to Moses. The war is described as a religious war, in which, for the time, the Egyptians were discomfited, and obliged, in compliance with prophetic warnings, to abandon the country for thirteen years, and to flee, with their king Amenophis, into Ethiopia, taking with them the bull Apis and other sacred animals, while this leprous nation, reinforced by shepherds from Jerusalem, fortified themselves in Avaris, (Zoan,) a city of Goshen, robbed the temples, insulted the gods, roasted and ate the sacred animals, and cast contempt in every way upon the Egyptian worship. Amenophis afterwards returned with a great army and chased the shepherds and lepers out of his dominions through a dry desert to Palestine. (From Ewald’s trans., Hist. of Israel, 2: 79.) Here, as Ewald shows, the great outlines of the story of the exodus are to be clearly seen; the Mosaic leadership, the war of religions, the uprising of the hostile religion in Egypt itself, the leprous affliction of the revolting people, so pointedly mentioned in the Pentateuch, the secret superstitious dread inspired by Moses, which seems to have shaken the foundations of the Egyptian religion, the confession of defeat in the struggle, and the transformation of the exodus into an expulsion from Egypt these are unmistakable traces of the same history coming down through Egyptian channels. The later Egyptian writers, Chaeremon and Lysimachus, echo the story of Manetho, mingling with it Hebrew traditions. ( Josephus Against Apion, bks. i, 2.)
(6.) The exotic of Israel from Egypt is a fact now universally admitted, whatever differences may exist in its explanation. Bunsen says, in his Egypt, that “History herself was born on that night when Moses led forth his countrymen from the land of Goshen.” That this event resulted from some heavy calamities which at that time befel the Egyptians, or, in other words, that the narrative of the plagues has a solid historical foundation, is also now maintained with unbroken unanimity by Hebrew and Egyptian scholars, even by those who decline to see in these events anything supernatural. Thus Ewald says, that this history, “on the whole, exhibits the essence of the event as it actually happened.” And Knobel says, that “in the time of Moses circumstances had transpired which made it possible for the Hebrews to go forth of themselves, and impossible for the Egyptians to hinder their undertaking or to force them to return.” In other words, they who refuse to recognise here miraculous influence do recognise miraculous coincidence. Without any war, which, had it happened, must, as Knobel says, have left some trace in the history without any invasion from abroad or insurrection from within to weaken the Egyptian power a nation, unified and vitalized by faith in the one Jehovah, went forth unhindered from the bosom of a strong and prosperous empire. This is the event to be explained. The Mosaic record alone gives an adequate cause.
The Fifth Plague – The Plague of a Deadly Cattle Sickness ( Exo 9:1-7 ).
Up to this point the inflictions had mainly been to do with people. Now the wealth of the Egyptians was to be attacked. The attacks were increasing in intensity. That would really hit at their hearts for their very existence was being threatened.
a Yahweh tells Moses to go and command Pharaoh that he let Yahweh’s people go (as he had promised) (Exo 9:1).
b If he refuses the hand of Yahweh will be on the cattle throughout the land and they will be severely diseased (Exo 9:2-3).
c Yahweh will make a difference between the cattle of Egypt and the cattle of Israel. None of Israel’s cattle will die (Exo 9:4).
d Yahweh appoints a set time for His action (Exo 9:5 a).
d On the morrow Yahweh will do this thing to the land (Exo 9:5 b).
c And on the morrow He did so. All the cattle of Egypt died (cattle of all types in all parts of Egypt, all who were outside and were smitten) but of Israel not one died (Exo 9:6).
b And Pharaoh sent and (while all Egypt’s cattle were diseased) not one of the cattle of Israel were dead (Exo 9:7 a).
a But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he did not let the children of Israel go (Exo 9:7 b).
The parallels give a continual contrast between Yahweh’s action on behalf of His people and as against Egypt.
Exo 9:1-4
‘Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me, for if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, the hand of Yahweh is on your cattle which are in the field, on the horses, on the asses, on the camels, on the herds and on the flocks. There will be a very grievous disease. And Yahweh will make a difference between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.”
The call came yet again for Pharaoh to let the children of Israel worship Yahweh in the wilderness, for if he refused this time the hand of Yahweh would bring grievous disease on the Egyptian cattle. The fact that the cattle of Israel would not be affected suggests that the disease would come from the swarms of flying insects and not directly from the diseased frogs, for the flying insects too were excluded from the territory of the children of Israel.
“The hand of Yahweh.” Compare Exo 7:4. The hand represents God working in power and in judgment (see Deu 2:15; Deu 7:8; Jdg 2:15; 1Sa 5:6).
“Horses.” Prior to the coming of the Hyksos horses had been rare in Egypt. They were now more plentiful and their main use was at first military, but they gradually began to be used in farming. Asses were commonplace and used widely.
“Camels”. Domesticated camels were comparatively rare in Egypt even at this time when they were well known elsewhere, but a camel-skull was discovered in the Fayum province dating to before 1400 BC and from the Memphis region comes a figure of a camel with two water jars datable by associated material to 13th Century BC. Thus domestic camels were known. Note the order, horses the most valuable, asses the most plentiful, camels third because rare and little used, and then the herds and flocks.
“A grievous disease.” Probably brought and passed on by the flying insects.
“The cattle of Israel.” Events and the contrast with Egypt were helping to make ‘the children of Israel’ be designated as a distinctive people. At this stage the word ‘Israel’ by itself (excluding ‘the children of’ or ‘the congregation of’ or ‘the elders of’ (Exo 3:16; Exo 3:18) which still linked the people directly to Jacob) was only used when addressing Pharaoh, or by Pharaoh (Exo 4:22; Exo 5:1-2; Exo 9:4), until Exo 14:30-31 when a national identity had been established (but see Exo 11:7. Yahweh already sees the distinction). Pharaoh does once speak of ‘the children of Israel’, but only once in a situation where he no longer feels contempt for them but recognises them as the favoured of Yahweh (Exo 12:31).
Exo 9:5-7 a
‘And Yahweh appointed a set time saying, “Tomorrow Yahweh will do this thing in the land.” And Yahweh did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died. But of the cattle of the children of Israel not one died. And Pharaoh sent and behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.’
“Yahweh appointed a set time.” This time the choice was not given to Pharaoh (compare Exo 8:9-10). Yahweh was sovereign over affairs. This, like all the other plagues, was to be seen as under the direct control of Yahweh. It was the first plague in which the property of Egyptians has been directly affected.
“All the cattle of Egypt.” All, that is, that were ‘in the field’ (Exo 9:3), in other words those being kept outside and more vulnerable to the swarms of flying insects. However here the word ‘all’ is probably a general word meaning ‘every kind of’ cattle ‘all over Egypt’ signifying the great majority (notice that it does not say ‘not one was left alive’ – compare verse 7a of the Israelite cattle). We can compare the use of ‘all’ in such verses as Gen 41:57; Gen 47:14-15; 2Sa 11:18 ; 1Ki 4:34. See also Gen 6:21; Gen 24:1; Gen 29:22; Gen 31:6; Gen 45:13; Exo 18:1; Exo 18:8; Exo 18:14; Exo 33:19; Num 14:2; Deu 2:32; 1Sa 8:20; 1Sa 25:1 ; 1Sa 30:16; 2Sa 5:17; 2Ki 19:11 and often.
Bulls and cows were sacred to the Egyptians, and on death were often embalmed. Great cemeteries of embalmed cattle have been discovered there. These multiplicities of deaths would therefore cause a huge embalming problem. Furthermore the god Apis was in the form of a bull and Hathor the goddess of love was often represented in the form of a cow. Yet they could do nothing about this disease. Thus this plague hit at the very heart of Egyptian religion.
“And Pharaoh sent –”. He was not unmoved and he checked to see whether what Moses had said was true, and found that it was.
“The Israelites.” This is the first use of the term in English versions. Yitsrael is here the shortened form of ‘children of Israel’ and therefore means Israelites, although it could equally be translated ‘Israel’. Note that it is used in regard to the intentions of Pharaoh who knows the people as ‘Israel’ (Exo 4:22; Exo 5:2). It thus reflects what his command would be.
Exo 9:7 b
‘But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn (heavy) and he did not let the people go.’
The whole thing had become a matter of pride and Pharaoh was very proud. Here he was, one among the gods of Egypt, destined (in his own eyes) to rule the underworld, subservient to no one, being told what to do by the God of the Hebrews, and he did not like it. And he had been used to always having his own way. This was an unusual situation for him. Once things had settled down his obstinacy resurfaced.
We are reminded by this plague that all that we have comes from God, and belongs to God. In the end these cattle were His own for He had created them. We should therefore learn to give thanks daily for all that we possess, for all we have is as a result of His graciousness. And in the end it is He Who determines whether we retain it or lose it.
The Fifth Plague (Disease of Livestock) – Exo 9:1-7 tells us about the fifth plague in which a plague of disease killed all of the domestic livestock in the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:3 Word Study on “murrain” Gesenius tells us the Hebrew word “murrain” ( ) (H1698) means properly, “destruction, death,” hence, “a plague.” Strong tells us the word means, “pestilence, plague, murrain.” Enhanced Strong says this word is used 49 times in the Old Testament being translated in the KJV as “pestilence 47, plagues 1, murrain 1.”
Exo 7:1 to Exo 12:30 The Ten Plagues Exo 7:1 to Exo 12:30 records the story of the ten plagues of Egypt. Here is a summary of the Ten Plagues:
Aaron turns rod to a serpent (Exo 7:10) Magicians copy (Exo 7:11) 1. Water turned to blood (throughout land) Magicians copy (Exo 7:22) 2. Frogs (covered land of Egypt) (Exo 7:6) Magicians copy (Exo 8:7) 3. Lice or flies (covered land) (Exo 8:17) Magicians could not (Exo 8:18) 4. Swarms (division of Goshen) (Exo 8:24; Exo 8:23) 5. Murrain (cattle disease) (Exo 9:3) 6. Boils (Exo 9:10) 7. Hail (division of Goshen) (Exo 9:23; Exo 9:26) 8. Locusts (Exo 10:13) 9. Darkness (division of Goshen) (Exo 10:22) 10.Death of first-born (Israel covered up blood) (Exo 12:29, Exo 11:7) The Ten Plagues upon Egypt were delivered by God in progressive intensity until it ended with the death of the firstborn. These plagues were a means of judgment upon the people of Egypt in order to bring them to repentance an to an acknowledgment of the God of Israel as the true and living God. This is why many of the plagues were orchestrated to demonstrate that the God of Israel was more powerful than particular gods of Egyptian mythology.
The wise men, sorcerers and magicians were able to copy the first three signs of the rod turning into a serpent (Exo 7:11), the water turning into blood (Exo 7:22), and the plague of frogs (Exo 8:7). After this, these enchanters began to see that God was working thru Moses and Aaron.
Exo 7:11, “Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
Exo 7:22, “And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.”
Exo 8:7, “And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.”
The Ten Plagues Exo 7:14 to Exo 11:10 records the story of the Ten Plagues that God brought upon the nation of Egypt. The swallowing of the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians by the serpent of Moses (Exo 7:11-12) foreshadows the fact that the Ten Plagues were a power struggle between the gods of Egypt and the God of Israel. These enchantments by Pharaoh’s sorcerers symbolized the strength of their gods. Yet, the Ten Plagues demonstrated that God’s power extended beyond their gods of enchantment unto all of the gods that were worshipped in the land of Egypt, deities that were designated for every area of their lives. The Egyptians served deities of heaven and deities of the earth, deities of the weather, over their crops and those for diseases. Each deity was believed to have power over a limited aspect of one’s life. The Egyptians knew that their gods were limited in scope of influence and power. With the Ten Plagues, God proved that His power encompassed over all creation and every aspect of human life.
Throughout the Ten Plagues God demonstrated that He was God Almighty. This was God’s way of using judgment to bring men to repentance. In fact, the Scriptures indicate that a number of Egyptians were converted and followed the Israelites out in the Exodus to serve their God.
Exo 12:38, “And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.”
Num 11:4, “And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?”
These converts declared that they would go with the children of Israel because God is with them, as the prophet Zechariah says would happen again later in Israel’s history (Zec 8:3); or, as Ruth clung to Naomi in order to serve her God.
Zec 8:23, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you .”
Rth 1:16, “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:”
When God judges a nation as He did Egypt during the time of Moses, He always begins by judging the object of a nation’s trust and confidence. For example, in 2001 to 2003, the Lord judged the United States in three areas. The destruction of the World Trade Center symbolized American’s trust in its wealth. The damage to the Pentagon on the same day represented American’s military might. The explosion of the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia represented American’s technology and ingenuity. None of these three are above God Almighty. In the same way, God judged the deities of Egypt so that these people would know the true and living God, the God of Israel.
The Significance of the Number “Ten” – The Hebrew phrase “ten times” ( ) is made up of two words, “ten” ( ) (H6235), and “times” ( ) (H6471). Although the literal translation is, “ten times,” John Gill understands the phrase “ten times” in Num 14:22 as an idiom to mean a rounded number, which is equivalent to “time after time,” thus “numerous times.” He says that although the Jews counted ten literal occasions when Israel tempted the Lord during the wilderness journeys, Aben Ezra gives this phrase a figurative meaning of “many times.” [34] T. E. Espin adds to the figurative meaning of Num 14:22 by saying that Israel had tempted the Lord to its fullness, so that the Lord would now pass judgment upon them, even denying them access into the Promised Land, which is clearly stated in the next verse. [35]
[34] Gill lists ten literal occasions, “twice at the sea, Exodus 14:11; twice concerning water, Exodus 15:23; twice about manna, Exodus 16:2; twice about quails, Exodus 16:12; once by the calf, Exodus 32:1; and once in the wilderness of Paran, Numbers 14:1, which last and tenth was the present temptation.” John Gill, Numbers, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Numbers 14:22.
[35] E. T. Espin and J. F. Thrupp, Numbers, in The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version (A.D. 1611), with an Explanation and Critical Commentary and a Revision of the Translation, by Bishops and Clergy of the Anglican Church, vol. 1, part 2, ed. F. C. Cook (London: John Murray, 1871), 702.
The phrase “ten times” is used as an idiom in several passages in the Scriptures to mean countless times (Gen 31:7, Num 14:22, Neh 4:12).
Gen 31:7, “And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.”
Num 14:22, “Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;”
Neh 4:12, “And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times , From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.”
The NAB translates this phrase in Gen 31:7 as “time after time.”
NAB, “yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time . God, however, did not let him do me any harm.”
The number ten represents a counting system that is based on ten units. Thus, the number ten can be interpreted literally to represent the numerical system, or it can be given a figurative meaning to reflect the concept of multiple occurrences.
The Plague of the Pestilence of Beasts
v. 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let My people go that they may serve Me. v. 2. For if thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still, v. 3. behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, v. 4. And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, v. 5. And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. v. 6. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died, v. 19. v. 7. And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. EXPOSITION
THE FIFTH PLAGUE.
Hitherto the plagues had been directed rather against the persons of the Egyptians than against their property. Property had perhaps suffered somewhat in the preceding plague, if it was really one of the Blatta orientalis; but otherwise the various afflictions had caused nothing but pain and annoyance to the person. Now this was to be changed. Property was to be made to suffer. It remained to be seen whether the Pharaoh would be impressed more deeply by calamities which impoverished his subjects than by those which merely caused them personal annoyance and suffering. The hand of God was first laid upon the carrie, or rather upon the domesticated animals in general (Exo 9:3). These were made to suffer from a “murrain” or epidemic pestilence, which carried off vast numbers. Such visitations are not uncommon in Egypt, and generally fall with especial force on the Delta, where the existing Pharaoh and the Hebrew people resided. The miraculous character of the visitation at this time was indicated,
1. By its announcement, and appearance on the day appointed (Exo 9:3-6);
2. By its severity (Exo 9:6); and
3. By its attacking the Egyptian cattle only (Exo 9:7). Pharaoh seems, however, to have been almost lees moved by this plague than by any other.
Exo 9:1
Excepting in the designation of Jehovah as “the Lord God of the Hebrews,” this verse is an almost exact repetition of the first verse of Exo 8:1-32. Such repetitious are very characteristic of the most ancient writings.
Exo 9:3
Thy cattle which is in the field. The word “cattle” here is to be taken generally, as including under it the various kinds particularised. The cattle are mentioned as being at this time “in the field,” because during the inundation all of them were brought in and housed, while, after the waters had retired, and the land had dried, most of them were turned out to graze. This is always the time at which epidemics break out. The horses, the asses, etc. Horses, which had been unknown prior to the Hyksos invasion, and which consequently do not appear in the list of animals presented to Abraham (Gen 12:16), first became common under the eighteenth dynasty, when they seem to have been employed exclusively in war. Their use for agricultural purposes, which is perhaps here indicated, was not till later. The ass was employed in great numbers at all times in Egypt. Women and children rode on them, men sometimes in a sort of litter between two of them. They were chiefly used for carrying burthens, which were sometimes of enormous size (Lepsius, Denkmaler, Part 2. pls. 42a, 47, 56, 80c, etc.). The camels. Camels are not represented on any Egyptian monument; but they are occasionally mentioned in the inscriptions. They are called kauri or kamaru. There is no doubt of their employment by the Egyptians as beasts of burthen in the traffic with Syria and with the Sinaitic peninsula.
Exo 9:4
The Lord shall sever. Compare Exo 8:22. There shall nothing die, etc The original is more emphatic, and might be rendered literally” There shall not die of all that is the children’s of Israel a thing.”
Exo 9:5
To-morrow. God may have interposed the interval in order that such as believed the announcement might save their animals by bringing them in out of the fields. All the cattle diedi.e, all that were “in the field” (Exo 9:3).
Exo 9:7
And Pharaoh sent. This time the king had the curiosity to send out and see whether the Israelites had been spared. Though he found the fact correspond to the announcement, he was not seriously impressed. Perhaps he thought the Israelites took better care of their cattle and were better cattle doctors than his own people. Or he may have attributed the escape of their animals to the more healthy air of Goshen. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. The plague affected him less than others had done, rather than more. He was so rich that an affliction which touched nothing but property seemed a trivial matter What cared he for the sufferings of the poor beasts, or the ruin of those who depended upon the breeding and feeding of cattle
HOMILETICS
Exo 9:1-7
The burthen of man’s sin presses on the brute creation, as well as on man himself.
“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom 8:22). Brutes are to a large extent co-partners with man in his sorrows and his wretchedness. But brute suffering is the product of man’s sin. Mostly it is directly caused by man. Man not only kills animals for his food, but he chases them for his diversion, mutilates them for his convenience, vivisects them for his supposed benefit. In chasing them, he wounds more than he kills; in mutilating them, he often removes parts necessary for their comfort; in vivisecting them, he knowingly makes them suffer excruciating pain. His use of them as beasts of draught and burden is a lighter form of evil than any of these; but in the aggregate it causes, perhaps, as much suffering. Again, man makes the horse his companion in war, and exposes him to the most hideous wounds, the most horrid deaths. Nor does the list of his misdoings as respects the animal world end here. To children the wanton torture of insects seems to be a chief delight. For the production of certain delicacies of the table, turkeys and other animals are made to undergo untold agonies. Slow death is inflicted on calves, to make the veal white. Finally, animals are often involved in the Divine judgments by which nations are visited for their sins. “Much cattle” would have perished miserably, if Nineveh had not repented at Jonah’s preaching. The beasts endure as much as the men when cities are blockaded. Occasionally, as in this plague, the beasts themselves are the direct sufferers, and God punishes man through them. No doubt there is a mystery in this. The suffering of innocent dumb animals is hard to reconcile with the goodness of God. His causing pain to them for man’s fault is even more strange. How persons who have a fixed belief that the brute creation enjoys no future life, overcome the difficulty, we knew not. But the solution of it may, we think, be found in the Scripture which tells of “the spirit of the beast which goeth downward” (Ecc 3:21). If the spirit of a beast survives, it may find compensation in another life for what it has suffered here. Man’s coldness and deadness with respect to animal suffering is as marvellous as anything in his nature and history. “Pharaoh’s heart” was utterly hard to it. He did not even ask that the plague should be removed. The sufferings and miserable death of thousands of beasts made not the slightest impression upon him. Probably he did not give their sufferings a thought. And even among Christians, is it not much the same? How few protest against even such enormities as promiscuous vivisection! How few, in grieving over the horrors of war, think of the pain which is borne by the animals engaged in it! How few give so much as a sigh to the labour, the weariness, the suffering of millions of poor dumb brute beasts engaged in ministering to their pleasures, amusements, convenience! We grieve bitterly for our own troubles. We have a tear of sympathy, perhaps, for the griefs of humanity generally. But for the rest of creation, “groaning and travailing in pain together until now,” we have scarcely a thought. How different from him who was led to spare Nineveh (Jon 4:11) because therein were “more than six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle!‘
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 9:1-8
The plague of murrain of beasts.
I. THE ALTERNATIVE AGAIN (Exo 9:1, Exo 9:2). Surely Pharaoh was well warned. The analogy of the third plague would have led us to expect that on this occasionafter a second and glaring breach of faiththere would have been no warning. Yet mercy waits upon him. Faithless though he had been, if even yet he will let the people go, all will be forgiven. If notthen judgments. Mark how sacredly, in all this, the freedom of Pharaoh is respected. “He was not put on the actual rack or held over a slow fire till his cruel hand relaxed, and let the Hebrew bondmen go. The appeal was loud, and each time it was repeated he and his people were shaken more severely than before; but after every demand there was a respite, a pause, an opportunity to ponder, and either yield the point or recall a past concession.” (Hamilton.)
II. A MURRAIN OF CATTLE (verses 3-7). This was the form assumed by the fifth plague. It is to be viewed,
1. As a new blow at Egyptian idolatry. The sacredness of the cow and ox are hinted at in Exo 8:26. It may well have been that the sacred beasts themselves, the bull Apis, the calf Mnevis, and the rest, were smitten by the pestilence.
2. As a fresh illustration of the manifold resources of Jehovah. The mortality which came upon the cattle was universal in its sweep, carrying off, not only sheep and oxen, but horses, asses, and camels; destructive in its effects, the greater proportion of the cattle of each class falling victims to it; yet carefully discriminative, attacking the cattle of the Egyptians, but leaving unharmed those of the Israelites (Exo 8:6).
3. As a plague of increased severity. The loss sustained by the Egyptians in this mowing down of their cattle was the greatest they had yet experienced. Cattle constitute a large part of the wealth of every nation. They are of importance for food, for burden, and for the produce of the dairy. What a loss it would be to our own nation were our sheep, cows, oxen, horses, and asses, all suddenly destroyed! In the East the oxen were employed for draught, and in the operations of agriculture. Yet the plague was but the intensification of a natural calamityone with the effects of which we are not wholly unfamiliar. It may seem “advanced“ to scoff at the agency of God in cattle-plague visitations, but the truer philosophy will reverently recognise the fact of such agency, and will not regard it as in the least incompatible with any secondary causes which may be shown to be involved in the production and spread of the disorder. God has this weapon equally with others at his command for chastening a disobedient people. Our wisdom, surely, is to be at peace with him.
4. As a forewarning of greater judgment. As yet the persons of the Egyptians had escaped. The plagues, however, were coming nearer and nearer them. Their cattle had been smitten, and what could the next stroke be, but an infliction upon themselves?
III. THIS PLAGUE ALSO INEFFECTUAL (Exo 8:7). Pharaoh sent to see if any of the cattle of the children of Israel had died. The connection seems to indicate that his hardening was partly the result of the news that they had all escaped. This, instead of softening, maddened and embittered him. Hitherto Pharaoh has been seen hardening himself in spite of the influences brought to bear on him. The fact is to be noted that the plagues here begin to produce a positively evil effect. That which ought to have softened and converted, now only enrages, and confirms in the bad resolution.J.O.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 9:1-7
The fifth plague-the murrain among the beasts.
I. THE USE WHICH GOD HERE MAKES OF THE LOWER CREATION. In the three plagues immediately preceding God made the lower creation his scourges. He took little creatures, the bare existence of which many, not perceiving the wisdom of God, think to be unnecessary; and these he increased into a vast and most vexatious multitude. The killing of a frog, a gnat, a fly, we are accustomed in our heedlessness to make nothing of; such killing is but sport to thoughtless lads. But we think very differently of such animals as are spoken of in this fifth plague; horses, oxen, asses, sheep, all animals comprehended here under the general term cattle. We should feel it hardly possible to have too many of them. This certainly was the view in ancient times in Scriptural countries, for we read of the wealth of men as being generally measured by the number of animals they possessed. Thus we are led to notice in the course of these plagues, how God, in his view of the lower creation, rises high above our view. We look at the lower animals according to their use to us, and thus classify them as helpful or hurtful; God looks at them according to their use to him, and in his hands they all become abundantly helpful to further his ends. He uses the frogs, gnats, and flies (or beetles) to inconvenience Pharaoh and his people, if thereby a change of mind may be wrought, and when this fails he takes the cattle and causes them to be destroyed in order to bring about, if possible, the same result. Thus creation serves Jehovah; whether living or dying, destroying or destroyed.
II. A MELANCHOLY ILLUSTRATION OF THE UNITY IN WHICH ALL CREATION IS BOUND. A question may be raised as to the goodness of God in thus destroying those creatures because of the wickedness of man. Why should they suffer because of Pharaoh’s obduracy? The answer is that the whole creation of God is bound up in a marvellous unity, from the lowest thing that has life, right up to man himself. It is for man himself to help in settling how far the lower creation shall suffer for his sake. It is no more possible for man to do wrong and the rest of sentient creatures to escape the consequences of his wrong-doing, than it is for man to live recklessly in his own person and expect the organs and limbs of his body to escape suffering. Animals are not to be looked at in themselves, but as being created for the comfort and service of man, and especially that in his use of them it may be shown what his own notions of a right use are. Let man do right, and all living creatures within the circle of his influence share in the blessed consequences; let him do wrong, and their lives must also be disarranged.
III. OBSERVE IN THIS PLAGUE HOW FORCIBLE THE ILLUSTRATION IS OF ISRAEL‘S EXEMPTION FROM THE MURRAIN. The wealth of Israel was peculiarly pastoral wealth; of the very kind, therefore, which was smitten in this plague. Hence all the more noticeable is the exemption of the Israelites and all the more impressive. If it had been a pestilence coming down upon the country generally, irrespective of territory and of special Divine control, it would have injured Israel a great deal more than Egypt.
IV. WHAT A CLEAR MANIFESTATION THERE IS IN THIS PLAGUE OF HOW REASONLESS AND INFATUATED THE OBDURACY OF PHARAOH IS BECOMING. He is inflexible, not only without reason, but against reason. Not content with dismissing the rumours that come to his ears concerning the exemption of Israel’s cattle from the pestilence, he sends to certify himself of the fact, which makes his continued obduracy all the more evidently unreasonable. What excuse was there for a man who asked in the way Pharaoh asked, even after it had been made clear to him that of the cattle of the children of Israel not one had died? It is sad when a man dismisses in this way even the appearance of having reason for what he does, when he says, “I will not, because I will not, and there is an end of it.”Y.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
Exo 9:1-7
GOD‘S MERCY IN TEMPORAL JUDGMENTS. Hitherto no great loss had been inflicted; now their cattle is taken. In God’s mercy the afflictions deepen that Egypt may forsake the path of death. When the Lord’s hand falls in heavier blows it is to save from something worse which lies beyond. Israel’s calamities preceded her captivity. God’s chastisements fall that we may not be condemned with the world (1Co 11:32).
II. CONVICTION DOES NOT ALWAYS COMPEL OBEDIENCE. Pharaoh had already two proofs that the murrain was from the hand of God. He had foretold it, and it came at the time he said it would come. He himself seeks a third proof; he sends to Goshen, and finds that there was “not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.” Yet he does not bow under the hand of God. Conviction may co-exist with impenitence and stubborn persistence in sin, but, when it does, it is the mark of a soul given over to destruction. The devils believe and tremble.U.
Exo 9:1. Then the Lord, &c. The Lord here, as usual, denounces the threat, appoints the exact time of its execution, and, fully to demonstrate his immediate power and distinguishing mercy, declares that Israel, his people, should be exempt from it, while Egypt should feel the stroke, though their cattle, &c. were intermixed, breathed the same air, and ate the same food; Exo 9:4-5. Owen observes here, that the air, as well as the water and the land, was another of the chief divinities of the Egyptians; to whom they attributed the salubrity of the climate, and the healthiness of their own constitutions; and whose benevolence, therefore, they studied to engage, by the offerings of daily incense. To convince them of the falsity of this notion; to shew them, “that God alone woundeth and healeth, killeth and maketh alive;” he changed the qualities of the air, and rendered it pestilential, exciting inflamed tumors, and virulent ulcers, in man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.
Then again: as they ascribed the exuberance, growth, and maturity of all vegetable productions, to the influences of this divinity, the air; so the Lord strengthened that element to reprove their error, and caused it to produce such dreadful storms of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning, as had never been known since the foundation of Egypt as a kingdom; whereby the greatest part of the herbage and fruit was blasted and destroyed. And afterwards the east-wind, which they likewise adored, conveyed a large flight of locusts to devour the remainder.
E.The pestilence of the beasts
Exo 9:1-7
1Then [And] Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell [speak unto] him, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still [and still hold them], 3Behold, the hand of Jehovah Isaiah 1 upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, 4and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain [pestilence]. And Jehovah shall sever [will make a distinction], between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the childrens of Israel. 5And Jehovah appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow Jehovah shall [will] do this 6thing in the land. And Jehovah did that [this] thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not [behold, not even] one of the cattle of the Israelites dead [was dead]. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened [hard], and he did not let the people go.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 9:3. . This is a solitary instance of the participial form of , though in Neh 6:6 and Ecc 2:22 the participle of the archaic and Aramaic form of the verb, , occurs. It might be rendered: Behold, the hand of Jehovah will come upon, etc.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Exo 9:1. Categorical demand of Jehovah as the God of the Hebrews.
Exo 9:2. A more definite assumption, in view of past experience, that Pharaoh may defiantly harden himself.
Exo 9:3. A very grievous pestilence.The more general term is used. The pestilence is to come upon cattle of all sorts found in the field.
Exo 9:4. The separation of Israel is more marked here than in Exo 8:18 [22].
Exo 9:5. Besides the foregoing sign, this fixing of the near time for the infliction of the plague is the most miraculous circumstance, since, as Keil says, pestilences among the cattle of Egypt are wont to occur from time to time (comp. Pruner, Die Krankheiten des Orients, pp. 108, 112 sq.).
Exo 9:6. All the cattle.The word all is not to be taken absolutely, but only in opposition to the cattle of the Israelites. Comp. vers 9 and 10.
Exo 9:7. It is another characteristic of the tyrant that he cares the least for this calamity, which affects chiefly his poor subject, though he has become convinced of the miraculous sparing of the Israelites.
Footnotes:
[1][Exo 9:3. . This is a solitary instance of the participial form of , though in Neh 6:6 and Ecc 2:22 the participle of the archaic and Aramaic form of the verb, , occurs. It might be rendered: Behold, the hand of Jehovah will come upon, etc.Tr.]
CONTENTS
The interesting record of the Egyptian punishments for the deliverance of Israel, is still pursued and carried on through the whole of this Chapter. To the three fore-mentioned plagues of the frogs, lice and flies, succeed three more. One of a murrain among the Egyptian cattle: another of boils breaking out both upon man and upon beast: and a third in that of a mighty storm of thunder, hail and rain, which destroys all that was in the field. But although during the continuance of those visitations Pharaoh seemed to relent: yet on their removal his former hardness of heart returns, and he refuses to let Israel go.
Exo 9:1
Lev 26:27Lev 26:27 . Reader! mark these scriptures, and observe how the Lord warns before he smites. And when you have paused over these verses observe what a gracious declaration follows Lev 26:40-42 , etc.
The Longsuffering of God (for Holy Week)
Exo 9:13
How solemn is the week the Holy Week upon which we have entered. The Church brings before our minds today some wonderful teaching concerning our own spiritual life. The record of God’s dealings with Pharaoh will afford us sufficient material for our meditation.
I. The Longsuffering of God towards Sinners. Pharaoh had been insolent and blasphemous, cruel and vindictive, pitiless and false. Yet God had spared him. So longsuffering was He, that He even now addressed to him fresh warnings and gave him fresh signs of His power, thus by His goodness leading men to repentance.
II. The Power of God to Break the Will of the most Determined Sinner. First He sends slight afflictions, then more serious ones; finally, if the stubborn will still refuses to bend, He visits the offender with ‘all His plagues’.
III. The Fact that all Resistance of God’s Will by Sinners Tends to Increase, and is Designed to Increase, His Glory. ‘The fierceness of man turns to God’s praise.’ Men see God’s hand in the overthrow of His enemies, and His glory is thereby increased. The message sent by God to Pharaoh adds that the result was designed.
References. IX. 13-19. Heber, ‘God’s Dealings with Pharaoh,’ Sermons Preached in England, p. 146. Simeon, Works, i. p. 352. Arthur Roberts, Sermons on the Histories of Scripture, p. 257. Isaac Williams, ‘Pharaoh,’ Characters of Old Testament. Kingsley, ‘The Plagues of Egypt,’ Gospel of the Pentateuch, Sermon x. Kingsley, ‘The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New,’ Gospel of the Pentateuch, Sermon xi. Stanley’s Jewish Church, i. p. 100, etc. Geikie, Hours with the Bible, ii. p. 147. Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, ii. p. 56, Biblical Things, etc., par. 745; and see Parker, People’s Bible, ii.; p. 312. Maurice, Patriarchs and Law-Givers, Sermon ix. Jacox, Secular Annotations, etc., i. p. 125. IX. 17. C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, p. 325. IX. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 113.
Exo 9:34
God hath no sooner done thundering, than he hath done fearing. All this while you never find him careful to prevent any one evil, but desirous still to shift it off, when he feels it; never holds constant to any good motion; never prays for himself, but carelessly wills Moses and Aaron to pray for him; never yields God, his whole demand but higgleth and dodgeth like some hard chapmen that would get a release with the cheapest.
Bishop Hall.
Pharaoh
Exo 9:35
I. The Lord Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart. This has been taken by some to mean that Pharaoh was not a free agent; so that the rejection of God’s demands was not really the act of Pharaoh’s free will, but was caused by God’s compulsion. But if this were the case, how could God punish Pharaoh for doing what he could not help doing?
1. Our moral sense of justice is implanted in us by God Himself. It is, therefore, impossible to conceive of God’s violating that sense.
2. In examining carefully the narrative we find that God is not said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart until after the sixth plague, when Pharaoh’s heart had become hardened by his own free action. In other words, the first six plagues were disciplinary, and only the last four were penal.
Disciplinary suffering is that which has for its end the good of the sufferer.
Penal suffering is that which has for its chief end the good of others.
II. In what Way did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart? Plainly, by the judgments and punishments which He inflicted on him. And in this there is no evidence that God treated Pharaoh otherwise than He treats all men who sin against Him.
If a man hardens his heart against God’s calls to repentance, whether sent by preaching or by trial and punishment into his own life, the result is that his heart becomes hardened; and since God sent those trials, He may be said to have hardened the man’s heart by sending them, although His purpose was to lead the sinner to penitence. And after such an one has become finally impenitent, God may still send judgments which will be entirely penal, and for the purpose of vindicating God’s justice when the man’s penitence is no longer possible.
A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part ii. p. 311.
References. IX. 35. ‘Plain Sermons’ by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. vi. p. 49. X. 1-20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2503. X. 3. Ibid., vol. xliii. No. 2503.
VI
THE TEN PLAGUES, OR THE GREAT DUEL
Exodus 5:18-13:36
The present chapter will be upon the great duel (as Dr. Sampey is pleased to call it) between Moses and Pharaoh, or in other words, the ten plagues. I have mapped out, as usual, some important questions.
What is the scope of the lesson? From Exo 5:15-12:37 . What is the theme of the lesson? The ten plagues, or God’s answer to Pharaoh’s question: “Who is the Lord?” What is the central text? Exo 12:12 : “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” What was the purpose of these plagues? Generally, as expressed in Exo 9:16 : “That my name may be declared throughout all the earth,” i.e., to show that Jehovah was the one and only God. The second object was to show to Israel that Jehovah was a covenant keeping God. The first object touched outsiders. As it touched Moses it was to show that God would fully accredit him as the leader. How was Moses accredited? By the power to work miracles. Let the reader understand, if you never knew it before, that Moses is the first man mentioned in the Bible who worked a miracle, though God had worked some miracles directly before this. But Moses was God’s first agent to work miracles, duly commissioned to bear a message to other men.
On the general subject of miracles, I wish to offer the remark, that there are three great groups of miracles, viz.: The Plagues of Egypt, the miracles wrought by Elijah and Elisha, and the miracles wrought by Christ and the apostles. And from the time of Moses, every now and then to the time of Christ, some prophet was enabled to work a miracle. These are the groups. But what is a miracle? When we come to the New Testament we find four words employed, all expressed in Greek. One word expresses the effect of the miracle on the beholder, a “wonder.” Another expresses the purpose, a “sign.” Another expresses the energy, or “power,” while still another expresses the “work”‘, i.e., “wonders, signs, powers, works.”
As we have come to miracles for the first time, it would be a good thing for every reader to read the introductory part of Trench, or some other author Trench is the best. We come back to our question, What is a miracle? Take this for a definition: (1) “An extraordinary event.” That is the first idea. If it is an ordinary event you cannot call it wonderful. It is not a miracle that the sun should rise in the east. It would be a miracle for it to be seen rising in the west. (2) This extraordinary event is discernible to the senses. (3) It apparently violates natural laws and probabilities. I say, “apparently,” because we do not know that it actually does. (4) It is inexplicable by natural laws alone. (5) It is produced by the agency of God, and is sometimes produced immediately. (6) For religious purposes; usually to accredit a messenger or attest God’s revelation to him.
I am going to call your attention to some definitions that are either imperfect or altogether wrong. Thomas Aquinas, a learned doctor of the Middle Ages, says that miracles are events wrought by divine power apart from the order generally observed in nature. That is simply an imperfect definition; good as far as it goes. Hume and Spinoza, a Jew, say, “A miracle is a violation of a natural law; therefore,” says Spinoza, “impossible”; “therefore,” says Hume, “incredible.” It is not necessarily a violation of natural laws: for instance, if I turn a knife loose, the law of gravitation would make it fall, but if a wind should come in between, stronger than the law, of gravitation, and this natural law should hold the knife up, it would not be a violation of the natural law; simply one
natural law overcoming another. Therefore, it is wrong to say that a miracle is a violation of natural law. Jean Paul, a noted critical skeptic, says, “Miracles of earth are the laws of heaven.” Renan says: “Miracles are the inexplicable.” Schleiermacher says, “Miracles are relative, that is, the worker of them only anticipates later knowledge.” Dr. Paulus says, “The account of miracles is historical, but the history must signify simply the natural means.” Wolsey says, “The text that tells us about miracles is authentic, but the miracles are allegories, not facts.” Now, I have given you what I conceive to be a correct definition of a miracle and some definitions that are either imperfect or altogether faulty.
When may miracles be naturally expected? When God makes new revelations; as, in the three epochs of miracles.
To what classes of people are miracles incredible? Atheists, pantheists, and deists. Deists recognize a God of physical order. Pantheists make no distinction between spirit and matter. Atheists deny God altogether.
What are counterfeit miracles? We are going to strike some soon, and we have to put an explanation on them. In 2Th 2 they are said to be “lying wonders,” or deeds. They are called “lying” not because they are lies, but because their object is to teach a lie, or accredit a lie. Unquestionably, Satan has the power to do supernatural things, so far as we understand the laws of nature, and when the antichrist comes he is to be endowed with power to work miracles that will deceive everybody in the world but the elect. It is not worth while, therefore, to take the position that the devil and his agents cannot, by permission of God, work miracles. When may we naturally expect counterfeit miracles? When the real miracles are produced the counterfeit will appear as an offset. Whenever a religious imposture of any kind is attempted, or any false doctrine is preached, they will claim that they can attest it. For example, on the streets of our cities are those, whatever you call them, who claim that Mar 16 is fulfilled in our midst today. What then, does the counterfeit miracle prove? The reality and necessity of the true. Thieves do not counterfeit the money of a “busted” bank. How may you usually detect counterfeit miracles? This is important: (1) By the immoral character of the producer. That is not altogether satisfactory, but it is presumptive evidence. (2) If the doctrine it supports or teaches is contradictory to truth already revealed and established. (3) The evil motive or the end in view. God would not work a lot of miracles just for show. When Herod said to Christ, “Work me a miracle,” Christ refused. Miracles are not to gratify curiosity. (4) Its eternal characteristic of emptiness or extravagance. (5) Its lack of substantial evidence. In the spirit-rapping miracles they need too many conditions put out the light, join hands, etc. It is one of the rules of composition as old as the classics, never to introduce a god unless there be a necessity for a god; and when one is introduced, let what he says and does correspond to the dignity and nature of a god. If that is a rule of composition in dealing with miracles it shows that God, as being wise, would not intervene foolishly.
Now, is a miracle a greater manifestation of God’s power than is ordinarily displayed by the Lord? No. He shows just as much power in producing an almond tree from a germ, and that almond tree in the course of nature producing buds and blossoms, by regulating the order of things, as he does to turn rods to serpents. But while the power is no greater, the impression is more vivid, and that is the object of a miracle.
There are, certainly, distinctions in miracles, and you will need to know the distinction when you discuss the miracles wrought by Moses more than any other set of miracles in the Bible. There are two kinds of miracles, the absolute and the providential, or circumstantial, e.g., the conversion of water into blood is an absolute miracle; the bringing of frogs out of the water is a providential or circumstantial miracle. Keep that distinction in your mind. The plague of darkness and the death of the firstborn are also absolute miracles. The providential or circumstantial miracles get their miraculous nature from their intensity, their connection with the word of Moses, the trial of Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods, with the deliverance of Israel, and their being so timely as to strengthen the faith of God’s people, and to overcome the skepticism of God’s enemies.
I will give a further idea about a providential miracle. Suppose I were to say that on a certain day at one o’clock the sun would be veiled. If that is the time for an eclipse there is nothing miraculous in it. But suppose a dense cloud should shut off the light of the sun, there is a miraculous element because there is no way of calculating clouds as you would calculate eclipses. Now, the orderly workings of nature, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork,” reveal the glory of God to a mind in harmony with God, and they hide the glory from the eyes of an alienated man who will not see God in the sun, moon, and stars. They will turn away from the glory of God in these regular events and worship the creature more than the creator.
Does a miracle considered by itself prove the truth of the doctrine or the divine mission’ of him who produces it? Not absolutely. The Egyptians imitated the first two miracles. Other things must be considered. The doctrine must commend itself to the conscience as being good. All revelation presupposes in a man power to recognize the truth, arising from the fact that man is made in the image of God, and has a conscience, and that “Jesus Christ lighteth every man coming into the world.” The powers of darkness are permitted to perform wonders of a startling nature. The character of the performer, the end in view, the doctrine to be attested in itself, BS related to previously revealed truth, must all be considered. In Deu 13:1-5 , the people are expressly warned against the acceptance of any sign or wonder, wrought by any prophet or dreamer, used to attest a falsehood. In Mat 24:24 , the Saviour expressly forewarns that antichrists and false prophets shall come with lying signs and wonders, and Paul says so in several passages.
How are miracles helpful, since the simple, unlearned are exposed to the danger of accepting the false and rejecting the true? This difficulty is more apparent than real. The unlearned and poor are exposed to no more danger than the intellectual. Those who love previously revealed truth and have no pleasure in unrighteousness are able to discriminate, whether they are wise folks or simple folks. The trouble of investigation is no greater here than in any other moral problem. Therefore, the apostle John says, “Beloved, try every spirit.” A man comes to you and says he is baptized of the Holy Spirit. John says, “Try him, because there are many false prophets,” and “Every spirit that refuses to confess that God was manifested in the flesh,” turn him down at once. Once Waco was swept away by the Spiritualists. I preached a series of sermons on Spiritualism. Once in making calls I came upon some strangers, and happened to meet a Spiritualist lady who came up to me and said, “I am so glad to meet you. We belong to the same crowd. We are both a spiritual people. Let me see your hand.” I held it out and she commenced talking on it. She says, “I believe the Bible as much as you do.” I said, “No, you don’t. I can make you abuse the Bible in two minutes.” “Well, I would like to see you try.” I read that passage in Isaiah where a woe is pronounced upon those who are necromancers and magicians. “Yes, and I despise any such statements,” she said. “Of course,” I replied; “that is what I expected you to say.”
The conflict in Egypt was between Jehovah on the one hand and the gods of Egypt, representing the powers of darkness, on the other. Note these scriptures: Exo 12:12 ; Exo 15:11 ; Num 33:4 . The devil is the author of idolatry in all its forms The battle was between God and the devil, the latter
working through Pharaoh and his hosts, and God working through Moses.
Water turned into blood. I want to look at the first miracle A question that every reader should note is: State in order the ten miracles. First, the conversion of the waters of the Nile into blood. Egypt is the child of the Nile. If you were up in a balloon and looked down upon that land you would see a long green ribbon, the Nile Valley and its fertile banks. Therefore they worship the Nile. There has been a great deal written to show that at certain seasons of the year the waters of the Nile are filled with insect life of the animalcule order, so infinitesimal in form as to be invisible, even with a microscope, yet so multitudinous in number that they make the water look like blood. It would be perfectly natural if it only came that way. I will tell you why I do not think it came that way. This miracle applied to the water which had already been drawn up) and was in the water buckets in their homes. That makes it a genuine miracle.
The second miracle was the miracle of the frogs. I quote something about that miracle from the Epic of Moses , by Dr. W. G. Wilkinson:
Then Aaron, at his brother’s bidding, raised His rod and with it smote the river. Straight .Forth from the water at that pregnant stroke Innumerably teeming issued frogs, Prodigious progeny I in number such As if each vesicle of blood in all The volume of the flood that rolled between The banks of Nile and overfilled his bound And overflowed, had quickened to a frog, And the midsummer tide poured endless down, Not water and not blood, but now instead One mass of monstrous and colluctant life! The streams irriguous over all the realm, A vast reticulation of canals Drawn from the river like the river, these Also were smitten with that potent rod, And they were choked with tangled struggling frogs. Each several frog was full of lusty youth, And each, according to his nature, wished More room wherein to stretch himself, and leap, Amphibious, if he might not swim. So all Made for the shore and occupied the land. Rank following rank, in serried order, they Resistless by their multitude and urged, Each rank advancing, by each rank behind An insupportable invasion, fed With reinforcement inexhaustible From the great river rolling down in frogs I Spread everywhere and blotted out the earth. As when the shouldering billows of the sea, Drawn by the tide and by the tempest driven, Importunately press against the shore Intent to find each inlet to the land, So now this infestation foul explored The coasts of Egypt seeking place and space.
With impudent intrusion, leap by leap Advancing, those amphibious cohorts pushed Into the houses of the people, found Entrance into the chambers where they slept, And took possession of their very beds. The kneading-troughs wherein their bread was made, The subterranean ovens where were baked The loaves, the Egyptians with despair beheld Become the haunts of this loathed tenantry. The palace, nay, the person, of the king Was not exempt. His stately halls he saw Furnished to overflowing with strange guests Unbidden whose quaint manners lacked the grace Of well-instructed courtliness; who moved About the rooms with unconventional ease And freedom, in incalculable starts Of movement and direction that surprised. They leaped upon the couches and divans; They settled on the tops of statutes; pumped Their breathing organs on each jutting edge Of frieze or cornice round about the walls; In thronging councils on the tables sat; From unimaginable perches leered. The summit of procacity, they made The sacred person of the king himself, He sitting or reclining as might chance, The target of their saltatory aim, And place of poise and pause for purposed rest.
Nor yet has been set forth the worst; the plague Was also a dire plague of noise. The night Incessantly resounded with the croaks, In replication multitudinous, Of frogs on every side, whether in mass Crowded together in the open field, Or single and recluse within the house. The dismal ululation, every night And all night long, assaulted every ear; Nor did the blatant clamour so forsake The day, that from some unfrequented place Might not be heard a loud, lugubrious, Reiterant chorus from batrachian throats. Epic of Moses I think that is one of the finest descriptions I ever read. They worshiped frogs. Now they were surfeited with their gods. I have space only to refer to the next plague of lice. I give Dr. Wilkinson’s description of it: They were like immigrants and pioneers Looking for habitations in new lands; They camped and colonized upon a man And made him quarry for their meat and drink. They ranged about his person, still in search Of better, even better, settlement; Each man was to each insect parasite A new-found continent to be explored. Which was the closer torment, those small fangs Infixed, and steady suction from the blood, Or the continuous crawl of tiny feet Banging the conscious and resentful skin In choice of where to sink a shaft for food Which of these two distresses sorer was, Were question; save that evermore The one that moment pressing sorer seemed.
Epic of Moses
What was the power of that plague? The Egyptians more than any other people that ever lived upon the earth believed in ceremonial cleanliness, particularly for their priesthood. They were not only spotless white, but defilement by an unclean thing was to them like a dip into hell itself.
QUESTIONS
1. What the scope of the next great topic in Exodus?
2. The theme?
3. The central text?
4. Purpose of the plagues?
5. How was Moses accredited?
6. What three great groups of miracles in the Bible?
7. In the New Testament what four words describe miracles? Give both Greek and English words, showing signification of each.
8. What, then, is a miracle?
9. Cite some faulty definitions.
10 When may they be naturally expected?
11. What are counterfeit or lying miracles, and may they be real miracles in the sense of being wrought by superhuman power, and whose in such case is the power, and what the purpose of its exercise?
12. To what classes of people are miracles incredible, and why?
13. Cite Satan’s first miracle, its purpose and result. Answer: (1) Accrediting the serpent with the power of speech; (2) To get Eve to receive him as an angel of light; (3) That Eve did thus receive him, and was beguiled.
14. On this point what says the Mew Testament about the last manifestation of the antichrist?
15. When may counterfeit miracles be expected?
16. Admitting many impostures to be explained naturally, could such impostures as idolatries, Mohammedanism, Mormonism, Spiritualism, witchcraft, necromancy, etc., obtain permanent hold on the minds of many peoples without some superhuman power?
17. What do counterfeit miracles prove?
18. How may they be detected?
19. What says a great poet about the priority of introducing a god into a story, who was he and where may the classic be found? Answer: (1) See chapter; (2) Horace; (3) In Horace’s Ars Poetica .
20. Distinguish between the ordinary powers of God working in nature and a miracle, e.g., the budding of Aaron’s rod and the budding of an almond tree.
21. What two kinds of miracles? Cite one of each kind from the ten plagues.
22. Of which kind are most of the ten plagues?
23. Does a miracle in itself prove the truth of the doctrine it is wrought to attest? If not, what things are to be considered?
24. Cite both Old Testament and New Testament proof that some doctrines attested by miracles are to be rejected.
25. If Satan works some miracles, and if the doctrines attested by some miracles are to be rejected, how are miracles helpful, especially to the ignorant, without powers of discrimination?
26. Who were the real antagonists in this great Egyptian duel?
27. Give substance and result of the first interview between Pharaoh and Moses?
28. Name in their order of occurrence the ten plagues.
29. First Plague: State the significance of this plague.
30. How have some sought to account for it naturally, and your reasons for the inadequacy of this explanation?
31. Second Plague: Recite Dr. Wilkinson’s fine description of the plague in his Epic of Moses.
32. The significance of the plague?
33. Third Plague: His description of the third plague and its significance.
VII
THE TEN PLAGUES, OR THE GREAT DUEL (Continued)
Every plague was intended to strike in some way at some deity worship in Egypt. I begin this chapter by quoting from Dr. Wilkinson’s Epic of Moses language which he puts in the mouth of Pharaoh’s daughter, the reputed mother of Moses, who is trying to persuade the king to let the people go: We blindly worship as a god the Nile; The true God turns his water into blood. Therein the fishes and the crocodiles, Fondly held sacred, welter till they die. Then the god Heki is invoked in vain To save us from the frogs supposed his care. The fly-god is condemned to mockery, Unable to deliver us from flies. Epic of Moses
We have discussed three of the plagues, and in Exo 8:20-32 , we consider the plague of flies. Flies, or rather beetles, were also sacred. In multitudes of forms their images were worn as ornaments, amulets, and charms. But at a word from Moses these annoying pests swarmed by millions until every sacred image was made hateful by the living realities.
The plague of Murrain, Exo 9:1-7 . Cattle were sacred animals with the Egyptians. Cows were sacred to Isis. Their chief god, Apis, was a bull, stalled in a place, fed on perfumed oats, served on golden plates to the sound of music. But at a word from Moses the murrain seized the stock. Apis himself died. Think of a god dying with the murrain I
Boils, Exo 9:8-12 . Egyptian priests were physicians. Religious ceremonies were medicines. But when Moses sprinkled ashes toward heaven grievous and incurable boils broke out on
the bodies of the Egyptians. King, priests, and magicians were specially afflicted; could not even stand before Moses.
Hail, Exo 9:13-35 . The control of rain and hail was vested in feminine deities Isis, Sate, and Neith. But at Moses’ word rain and hail out of season and in horrible intensity swept over Egypt, beating down their barley and the miserable remnant of their stock, and beating down exposed men, women, and children. In vain they might cry, “O Isis, O Sate, O Neith, help us! We perish; call off this blinding, choking rain! Rebuke this hurtling, pitiless storm of hail I” But the Sphinx was not more deaf and silent than Egypt’s goddesses.
Locusts, Exo 10:1-20 . The Egyptians worshiped many deities whose charge was to mature and protect vegetables. But at Moses’ word locusts came in interminable clouds, with strident swishing wings and devouring teeth. Before them a garden, behind them a desert. See in prophetic imagery the description of their terrible power, Joe 2:2 ; Rev 9:2-11 .
Darkness, Exodus 10-11:3. Ra, the male correlative of Isis, was the Egyptian god of light. A triune god, Amun Ra, the father of divine life, Kheeper Ra, of animal life, Kneph Ra, of human life. But at Moses’ word came seventy-two consecutive hours of solid, palpable darkness. In that inky plutonian blackness where was Ra? He could not flush the horizon with dawn, nor silver the Sphinx with moonbeams, nor even twinkle as a little star. Even the pyramids were invisible. That ocean of supernatural darkness was peopled by but one inhabitant, one unspoken, one throbbing conviction: “Jehovah, he is God.”
Death of the First-born, Exo 11:4-8 ; Exo 12:29-35 . This crowning and convincing miracle struck down at one time every god in Egypt, as lightning gores a black cloud or rives an oak, or a cyclone prostrates a forest. See the effect of this last miracle. The victory was complete. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise up, and get you forth, from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And against the children of Israel not a dog moved his tongue against man or beast; so the Lord put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exo 11:7 ; Exo 12:31-35 ).
Give the names of the magicians who withstood Moses and Aaron and what New Testament lesson is derived from their resistance? Paul warns Timothy of perilous times in the last days, in which men having the form of godliness but denying the power thereof were ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and thus concludes, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.” That is the time which I have so frequently emphasized when Paul’s man of sin shall appear and be like Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses and Aaron.
Give in their order the methods of Pharaoh’s oppositions to God’s people: (1) Persecution; (2) Imitation of their miracles; (3) Propositions of compromise. State what miracles they imitated. They changed their rods to serpents and imitated to some extent the first two plagues. But the rod of Aaron swallowed up theirs and they could not remove any plague nor imitate the last eight. State the several propositions of compromise; show the danger of each, and give the reply of Moses. I am more anxious that you should remember these compromises than the plagues.
COMPROMISES PROPOSED “Sacrifice in the land of Egypt,” i.e., do not separate from us, Exo 8:25 . This stratagem was to place Jehovah on a mere level with the gods of Egypt, thus recognizing the equality of the two religions. Moses showed the impracticableness of this, since the Hebrews sacrificed to their God animals numbered among the Egyptian divinities, which would be to them an abomination.
“I will let you go only not very far away” (Exo 8:28 ), that is, if you will separate let it be only a little separation. If you will draw a line of demarcation, let it be a dim one. Or, if you will so put it that your religion is light and ours darkness, do not make the distinction so sharp and invidious; be content with twilight, neither night nor day. This compromise catches many simple ones today. Cf. 2Pe 2:18-22 .
“I will let you men go, but leave with us your wives and children” (Exo 10:11 ). This compromise when translated simply means, “You may separate from us, but leave your hearts behind.” It is an old dodge of the devil. Serve whom ye will, but let us educate your children. Before the flood the stratagem succeeded: “Be sons of God if you will, but let your wives be daughters of men.” The mothers will carry the children with them. In modern days it says, “Let grown people go to church if they must, but do not worry the children with Sunday schools.”
“Go ye, serve the Lord; let your little ones go with you; only let your flocks and herds be stayed”; i.e., acknowledge God’s authority over your persons; but not over your property. This compromise suits all the stingy, avaricious professors who try to serve both God and mammon; their proverb is: “Religion is religion, but business is business.” Which means that God shall not rule over the maxims and methods of trade, nor in their counting houses, nor over their purses, nor over the six workdays, but simply be their God on Sunday at church. Well did Moses reply, “Our cattle shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind.”
These compromises mean anything in the world rather than a man should put himself and his wife and his children and his property, his everything on earth, on the altar of God. Was it proper for the representatives of the Christian religion to unite in the Chicago World’s Fair Parliament of Religions, including this very Egyptian religion rebuked by the ten plagues? All these religions came together and published a book setting forth the world’s religions comparatively.
My answer is that it was a disgraceful and treasonable surrender of all the advantages gained by Moses, Elijah, Jesus Christ, and Paul. “If Baal be God, follow him; but if Jehovah be God, follow him.” If neither be God, follow neither. Jesus Christ refused a welcome among the gods of Greece and Rome. The Romans would have been very glad to make Jesus a deity. But he would have no niche in the Pantheon. That Chicago meeting was also a Pantheon. The doctrine of Christ expresses: “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2Co 6:14-18 ). “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have communion with demons. We cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” (1Co 10:20-22 ).
The supreme fight made in Egypt was to show that Jehovah alone is God. He was not fighting for a place among the deities of the world, but he was claiming absolute supremacy. When we come to the giving of the law we find: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and “you shall make no graven image, even of me, to bow down to worship it.” It took from the days of Moses to the days of the Babylonian captivity to establish in the Jewish mind the unity of God. All the time they were lapsing into idolatry. The prophets fought over the same battles that Moses fought. But when God was through with those people they were forever settled in this conviction, viz.: There is no other God but Jehovah. From that day till this no man has been able to find a Jewish idolater. Now then it takes from the birth of Christ to the beginning of the millennium to establish in the Jewish mind that Jesus of Nazareth is that Jehovah. Some Jews accept it of course, but the majority of them do not. When the Jews are converted that introduces the millennium, as Peter said to those who had crucified the Lord of glory, “Repent ye: in order that he may send back Jesus whom the heavens must retain until the time of the restitution of all things.”
One matter has been deferred for separate discussion until this time. I will be sure to call for twenty passages on the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Paul has an explanation of them in Rom 9:17-23 , and our good Methodist commentator, Adam Clarke, devotes a great deal of space in his commentary to weakening what Paul said. There are two kinds of hardening: (1) According to a natural law when a good influence is not acted upon, it has less force next time, and ultimately no force. A certain lady wanted to get up each morning at exactly six o’clock, so she bought an alarm clock, and the first morning when the alarm turned loose it nearly made her jump out of bed. So she got up and dressed on time. But after awhile when she heard the alarm she would not go to sleep, but she just lay there a little while. (Sometimes you see a boy stop still in putting on his left sock and sit there before the fire). The next time this lady heard the alarm clock the result was that it did not sound so horrible, and she kept lingering until finally she went to sleep. Later the alarm would no longer awaken her. There is a very tender, susceptible hardening of a young person under religious impressions that brings a tear to the eye. How easy it is to follow that first impression, but you put it off and say no, and after awhile the sound of warning becomes to you like the beat of the little drummer’s drumstick when Napoleon was crossing the Alps. The little fellow slipped and fell into a crevasse filled with snow, but the brave boy kept beating his drum and they could hear it fainter and fainter, until it was an echo and then it died away.
(2) The other kind of hardening is what is called judicial hardening, where God deals with a man and he resists, adopting this or that substitute until God says, “Now you have shut your eyes to the truth; I will make you judicially blind and send you a delusion that you may believe a lie and be damned.” Paul says, “Blindness in part hath happened unto Israel because they turned away from Jesus; because they would not hear his voice, nor the voice of their own prophets; because they persecuted those who believed in Jesus. There is a veil over their eyes when they read the scripture which cannot be taken away until they turn to the Lord and say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Now the last thought: When the first three plagues were sent they fell on all Egypt alike. After that, in order to intensify the miracle and make it more evidently a miracle, in the rest of the plagues God put a difference between Egypt and Goshen, where the Israelites lived. The line of demarcation was drawn in the fourth plague. In the fifth plague it fell on Egypt, not Goshen; the most stupendous distinction was when the darkness came, just as if an ocean of palpable blackness had in it an oasis of the most brilliant light, and that darkness stood up like a wall at the border line between Egypt and Goshen, bringing out that sharp difference that God put between Egypt and Israel.
I will close with the last reference to the difference in the night of that darkness, a difference of blood sprinkled upon the portals of every Jewish house. The houses might be just alike, but no Egyptian house had the blood upon its portals. Wherever the angel of death saw the blood he passed over the house and the mother held her babe safe in her arms. But in Egypt all the first-born died.
When I was a young preacher and a little fervid, I was preaching a sermon to sinners on the necessity of having the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, and in my fancy I drew this picture: A father, gathering all his family around him, says: “The angel of death is going to pass over tonight. Wife and Children, death is coming tonight; death is coming tonight.” “Well, Husband,” says the wife, “is there no way of escaping death?” “There is this: if we take a lamb and sprinkle its blood on the portals, the angel will see that blood and we will escape.” Then the children said, “Oh, Father, go and get the lamb; and be sure to get the right kind. Don’t make a mistake. Carry out every detail; let it be without blemish; kill exactly at the time God said; catch the blood in a basin, dip the bush in the blood and sprinkle the blood on the door that the angel of death may not enter our house.” Then I applied that to the unconverted, showing the necessity of getting under the shadow of the blood of the Lamb. I was a young preacher then, but I do not know that, being old, I have improved on the thought.
QUESTIONS
1. Name the ten plagues in the order of their occurrence.
2. Show in each case the blow against some one or more gods of Egypt.
3. What is the most plausible explanation of the first six in their relation to each other?
4. How explain the hail and locusts?
5. What modern poet in matchless English and in true interpretation gives an account of these plagues?
6. How does he state the natural explanation?
7. How does he express the several strokes at Egypt’s gods?
8. What of the differentiating circumstances of these plagues?
9. State the progress of the case as it affected the magicians.
10. State the progress of the case as it affected the people.
11. State the progress of the case as it affected Pharaoh himself.
12. Give in order Pharaoh’s methods of opposition.
13. State in order Pharaoh’s proposed compromises and the replies of Moses.
14. State some of the evils of religious compromise.
15. What about the World’s Fair Parliament of Religions?
l6. What about the Inter-Denominational Laymen’s Movement? And the money of the rich for colleges?
17. Show how each miracle after the third was intensified by putting a difference between Egypt and Israel, as in the case of the last plague, and illustrate.
18. Explain the two kinds of hardening, and cite the twenty uses of the word in Pharaoh’s case.
19. How does Paul use Exo 9:16 , in Rom 9 and how do you reply to Adam Clarke’s explanation of it?
Exo 9:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Ver. 1. Let my people go. ] The very same message to a word, as before often. Austin persuades God’s messengers so long to insist upon the same point, beating and repeating of it in the same words, till they perceive by the gesture and countenance of the hearers that they understand and embrace it. a Chrysostom at Antioch preached many sermons against swearing; and told the people, that seemed to be weary of that subject, that till they stopped their swearing, he would never stop preaching against that sin; , said Socrates.
a De Doctrina Christiana.
the LORD (Hebrew. Jehovah. said. See note on Exo 3:7, and compare note on Exo 6:10.
Thus saith the LORD God (Hebrew. Jehovah.Elohim) of the, Hebrews. Occurs only three times, Exo 9:1, Exo 9:13 and Exo 10:3.
Chapter 9
Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, [Now we have the sixth demand.] and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go, and will hold them still, Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon your cattle which are in the field, and upon the horses, upon the asses, the camels, upon the oxen, and upon all your sheep: there will be a grievous murrain. [or a boil-kind of a disease coming upon the animals.] And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die that is the children of Israel’s. And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all [Now that word, all there is in a generic kind of a sense.] the cattle of Egypt died: but the cattle of the children of Israel died not one ( Exo 9:1-6 ).
That is all of the cattle that died were the Egyptians. It doesn’t mean that all the Egyptian’s cattle died. But all that died were the Egyptians, not any of the children of Israel’s cattle died. You see what I’m trying to tell you? Because later on we’re gonna find the cattle of the Egyptians hurt by the hail that God sends. So in the all, that is all of the cattle that died were Egyptian cattle. So it doesn’t mean that the cattle were totally wiped out, all of the Egyptian cattle were wiped out.
Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of the Pharoah was hardened, and he did not let the people go. The Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, [Now this time they don’t, this is one of those again that just comes on the Pharaoh unannounced.] Take your handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it towards heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. [So germ warfare, nothing new.] And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before the Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward the heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because they were covered with boils; and the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not to them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, [So another demand, a seventh demand actually.] that they may serve me. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon your heart, and upon your servants, and upon your people; that you may know that there is none like me in all the eaRuth ( Exo 9:7-14 ).
Again back to Exo 5:2 ,”Who is the Lord? I don’t know the Lord.” You’re finding out.
For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. For in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; that my name may be declared throughout all the eaRuth ( Exo 9:15-16 ).
So this verse sixteen is one of those verses that speaks of the sovereignty of God. “For this very reason I have raised thee up that I might wipe thee out” really “with tremendous power so that all the earth will know.” Paul refers to this in the ninth chapter of the book of Romans, as he is talking there of the sovereignty of God. Paul doesn’t seek to explain the sovereignty of God, he just declares it.
Now I don’t have to explain the sovereignty of God. I can just declare to you that God is sovereign. I can’t fully understand God’s sovereignty and how that works out with human responsibility, but I know it does. Because even though God is sovereign, we are also responsible for our actions.
In other words, I cannot blame my actions against God. Paul said that there are some here because God hardened the heart of the Pharaoh, or made stiff his heart. And because God said, “Hey look, I’ve raised thee up for this purpose that I might just actually show My power, that My name may be declared throughout all the earth.” So that “If God made me this way than how can I resist the will of God?” You see? If God raised me up for this purpose, then who am I to resist the will of God?
But yet Paul says you cannot take that argument and you can’t really reach that conclusion from the sovereignty of God. Yet people do; they say, “Well God is sovereign then who am I? Doesn’t make any difference what I do”, et cetera, and they use that as an excuse for inactivity, et cetera.
And yet you exalt yourself against my people, and you’ll not let them go? Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such has never been in Egypt since the foundation thereof until now. Send therefore now, and gather your cattle, and all that you have in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, [You see there’s still some cattle out in the field.] that shall not be brought home, the hail will come down upon them, and they will die. And he that fears the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the barns: And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field ( Exo 9:17-21 ).
So Moses is now giving them a warning. “Tomorrow there’s gonna be a hail like you’ve never seen before and you’d better get your cattle in.” Well those who really feared the word of the Lord, obeyed, got their cattle into the barns and they were okay. But there were others who said, “Oh, coincidence”, and they left their cattle out in the field with their servants, and of course they got wiped out by the hail.
The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth your hand towards the heaven, that there may be a hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, upon beast, upon every vegetable of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So that there was hail, and fire mingled with hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; the hail smote every vegetable of the field, and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. And Pharaoh sent, and he called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: [What about the other times Pharaoh?] the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that you may know how that the earth is the Lord’s. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that you will not yet fear the Lord God ( Exo 9:22-30 ).
So it is interesting that we have now a confession of sin. “I have sinned. The Lord is righteous, I and the people are wicked.” But it was an insincere confession of sin. I’ve heard a lot of people say, “I’m a sinner.” Well, it wasn’t in any way a repentant kind of a thing. With a confession of sin there must be a real repentance, a turning away from sin in order that there be forgiveness. Confession in and of itself is not enough. There’s got to be that turning away from sin. So Pharaoh said, “Hey, I’m a sinner.” He’ll say it again, but it’s an insincere confession.
And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not yet grown. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to the Lord: and the thunders and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses ( Exo 9:31-35 ).999999999 “
The patient method of God is manifest in that, notwithstanding the fact that Pharaoh had again broken faith, God again warned him. There being no evidence of repentance, the fifth plague fell upon the nation. The fact of the struggle going on in the heart of Pharaoh is seen in that he investigated the condition of Israel and found that they were exempt from the visitation. Nevertheless, he still maintained the attitude of stubborn resistance.
Now the divine method changed. Without warning came the plague of boils, and here it is said that Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh. It is important to notice the word made use of. And “Jehovah made strong the heart of Pharaoh.” This is a significant statement, revealing that God strengthened the courage of the man in order that now, when he had stubbornly resisted, he might persist in the conflict to bring the complete victory of Jehovah.
The third cycle of three plagues began with hail. The warning was more explicit than on any previous occasion and an opportunity to escape was given. Some of the Egyptians availed themselves it. Out of the midst of the desolation Pharaoh cried, “I have sinned.” The sequence shows that this was not a cry of genuine repentance, but an expression of desire to escape from the plague. The absolute justice and the patience of God are seen in that even though the cry was not a cry of genuine repentance, the plague was withdrawn. When it was withdrawn, we are again told that Pharaoh made heavy his heart, and his heart was made strong. The first word described his own act; the second the act of God, confirming his choice.
the Murrain of Cattle and the Plague of Boils
Exo 9:1-12
The plague on the cattle reminds us that the whole creation groans and travails from the effects of human sin. See Rom 8:20. But those groans are the cries of birth, not of death; and herald a happier day when the creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. There is a hint of this here, for the children of Israel lost not so much as one of their cattle from this pestilence. The Lord knoweth how to deliver his own, and our religion should make a difference for the living things of our firesides and farms.
How terribly does sin affect our physical health! These boils and blains on man and beast remind us of the inevitable brand with which sin marks its slaves. Let us read again Psa 91:1-16, in the light of this passage. The souls that shelter under Gods wing, from the charmed circle of his presence, look, unharmed and unfearful, on pestilence and plague.
Exo 9:13-19
The message illustrates:
I. The longsuffering of God towards sinners. Pharaoh had been insolent and blasphemous, cruel and vindictive, pitiless and false. Yet God had spared him. So longsuffering was He, that He even now addressed to him fresh warnings and gave Him fresh signs of His power, thus by His goodness leading men to repentance.
II. The power of God to break the will even of the most determined sinner. First He sends slight afflictions, then more serious ones; finally, if the stubborn will still refuses to bend, He visits the offender with “all His plagues.”
III. The fact that all resistance of God’s will by sinners tends to increase, and is designed to increase, His glory. “The fierceness of man turns to God’s praise.” Men see God’s hand in the overthrow of His enemies, and His glory is thereby increased. The message sent by God to Pharaoh adds that the result was designed (see ver. 16, and cf. Exo 14:17-18; Exo 15:14-16; Jos 2:9-11).
G. Rawlinson, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v., p. 223.
References: Exo 9:16.-R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England, p. 146. Exo 9:27.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 113. Exo 9:34, Exo 9:35.-W. Denton, The Sunday Magazine, 1875, p. 97.
Exo 9:35
This part of the Book of Exodus is, in figure and shadow, the history of God’s dealings with us all. Pharaoh is the type of the prince of this world, the devil, and of the wicked world itself. As he kept the children of Israel in slavery, so does the evil spirit keep all God’s people, so long as they are in their natural lost condition.
“The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” is a very remarkable and startling expression, and it is repeated in this history no fewer than ten times. It is startling, for it seems at first sight as if it ascribed the sin of that wicked man to Almighty God. But a little thought will show that it is very far from meaning this.
I. In other places the hardening is attributed to Pharaoh himself. God gives bad men a mysterious power, to change their hearts and minds continually for the worse, by their own wicked ways; so that in the end they cannot believe or repent.
It is their own doing, because they bring it on themselves by their sin, and it is God’s doing because it is the just punishment which His law has made the effect of their sin.
II. God knew beforehand that the heart of Pharaoh was such that not even miracles would overcome his obstinacy, and knowing this, He determined to deal with him in a manner which ought to have softened and amended him, but which, according to his perverse way of taking it, only hardened him more and more.
III. The taking off of God’s hand, after each successive plague, had the effect of hardening Pharaoh’s heart more completely. He repents of his own repentance, and wishes he had not given way so far to God’s messengers.
IV. Pharaoh, like other wicked kings, had no want of evil subjects to encourage him. He had magicians who counterfeited God’s miracles, and servants who, on every occasion, were ready to harden their hearts with him.
Such is Pharaoh’s case; beginning in heathenish ignorance, but forced by warning after warning to become aware of the truth. Every warning was a chance given him to soften his heart, but he went on hardening it, and so perished.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to the “Tracts for the Times,” vol. vi., p. 49.
References: Exo 10:3.-G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons, p. 280; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 143. Exo 10:8, Exo 10:24.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1830.
CHAPTER 9 The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Plagues
1. The fifth plague: the grievous murrain (Exo 9:1-7)
2. The sixth plague: boils (Exo 9:8-12)
3. The warning given (Exo 9:13-21)
4. The seventh plague: hail (Exo 9:22-35)
In the demand God calls Himself the Lord God of the Hebrews (see also Exo 9:13 and Exo 10:3). The fifth plague strikes animal creation. cattle, such as mentioned in the opening of this chapter, formed the most important part of the wealth of Egypt . Egypt s wealth is therefore stricken. But God waited and warned before He executed this judgment. Jehovahs power sheltered Israel in Goshen and not a beast suffered there. Notice Pharaohs curiosity. He sent to see if Israel had escaped and found that not one had died. What an evidence that the Lord God of the Hebrews is the Lord. Yet his heart was hardened.
The next plague came without warning, unannounced. Moses and Aaron sprinkled the ashes of the furnace, and it became a boil upon man and beast. The magicians may have attempted then another counterfeit move, but the boils broke out on them. If they were of the priestly class they had become defiled by the nasty sores. The priests were obliged to be scrupulously clean in everything. The ashes of the furnace have a double meaning. Egypt in its fiery persecution of Israel is called a furnace. Divine retribution now came upon them in the boils, which must have burned as fire. But the furnace may have been the altar in Egypt upon which sacrifices were offered to their god Typhon. Most likely the Egyptians brought such sacrifices to stay the plagues, and now the very thing in which they trusted is turned into a plague. This plague was the first which endangered human life, and therefore the forerunner of the death which Pharaoh would bring upon himself and his people by his wicked opposition.
The seventh plague is ushered in by a solemn warning and more lengthy address to Pharaoh. A very grievous hail is threatened to fall upon man and beast; the hail was to kill all found in the open field. Note Exo 9:16 and compare with Rom 9:17. God dealt with Pharaoh in this way that he might know Jehovah and His power and that through what Jehovah did His name might be made known throughout the earth. Jehovahs holiness, omnipotence, justice, as well as His patience and longsuffering are revealed in these judgments, foreshadowing all future judgments to come for this earth. The report of what Jehovah had done in Egypt spread soon to other nations, and inspired a holy awe (Exo 15:14-16). It was a loving and gracious advice God gave through Moses (Exo 9:19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered. Those of the Egyptians who believed the divine warning must have belonged to the mixed multitudes which went out with Israel (Exo 12:38).
The fearful hail was accompanied by fire (lightning) which ran along the ground, and thunderings. These are called in the Hebrew the voices of God. The tempest is the type of Gods wrath in judgment. Hail is mentioned repeatedly in Revelation and there it is called the plague of hail (Rev 8:7; Rev 11:19; Rev 16:21). The plagues of Egypt will be repeated on this earth during the great tribulation. Note Pharaohs confession, which shows that this plague had made a deep impression on him (Exo 9:27). Pharaoh used the name of Jehovah and the name of God (Elohim). Entreat Jehovah that there be no more voices of God (literal rendering). What a desperately wicked thing the human heart is. He sinned more after this than before.
Exo 9:13, Exo 3:18, Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23, Exo 5:1, Exo 8:1, Exo 8:20, Exo 10:3
Reciprocal: Exo 7:16 – The Lord 2Co 11:22 – Hebrews
Exo 9:6. All the cattle of Egypt died; that is, all were smitten with the murrain, whose unbelieving owners did not take care to house them: so we read in the twentieth verse concerning the hail. This plague was not only great in itself, but it seemed to be a stroke against their gods. Their Jupiter Ammon was fashioned like a ram, their Anubis like a dog, and their Apis like a bull or an ox. The Jupiter Ammon of Egypt was at first no other than a representative of Jehovah, but they had now likened the Godhead to fourfooted beasts, and birds, and creeping things. Romans 1.
Exo 9:9. A boil breaking forth with blains, or burning ulcers. This was Jobs affliction. Job 2:7-8.
Exo 9:16. For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power. The margin of our bible reads, have I made thee to stand, or to subsist. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint, according to Dr. Wall, readshast thou been kept alive. And referring to this text, St. Paul says, What if God, willing to show his wrath, and make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Rom 9:22. Hence Pharaoh having long violated every dictate of conscience, and suppressed every sentiment of humanity; and having hardened his neck against the first miracles of heaven, evidently passed into a state of reprobation, or became a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. But though God had raised him up to the throne, and preserved him from dying by the former plagues, when he might most justly have cut him off in his sins; yet he reserved him for the more exemplary punishment of overwhelming him in the sea; and thereby making him a fearful example of his vengeance to tyrannical princes, and the whole infidel world.
Exo 9:24. Fire mingled with hail. In the year of Christ 824, there was in France, and in some parts of Germany, a storm which much resembled this. Tirinus. Wis 16:16. The hail was accompanied with tremendous thunder. The predominance of the electric fluid would contribute much towards the formation of the huge stones of hail.
Exo 9:29. I will spread abroad my hands, in the usual form of earnest and supplicating prayer.
Exo 9:31. Bolled; that is, was shot, or in the ear.
Exo 9:32. The wheatnot grown. The barley is but four months in the ground. There the barley harvest is at Easter, and wheat six weeks later. The river Nile begins to rise in June: the lowest elevation Isaiah 16 feet, and the highest 24 feet. If the rise be high, a rich harvest follows the next year, because the country is enriched by a wider spread of the waters. As the waters retire, the sower wades in, and casts his wheat upon the water, to procure an early vegetation. See on Isaiah 19.
REFLECTIONS.
Pharaoh persists in hardening his heart, and God repeats his strokes of vengeance. The conflict still continues, and assumes a most awful aspect on the part of the sinner, and on the part of the Lord. Men who fight against God, we may be sure, are not far from destruction.
The hardness of heart so destructive to Pharaoh was not peculiar to him; it extended to most of his servants; for those who believed Moses, and housed their cattle, were exempt from the scourge. And oh, how tremendous were those calamities! The waters had scarcely resumed their colour; the plagues of the frogs, the insects, and the vermin were but just removed; the carcases of the cattle destroyed by the pestilence still infected the air; and now the heavens gather black; now the vivid lightnings roll along the ground, and the roaring of distant thunders proclaims the approach of Israels God. The hail or ice of heaven falls on all the land. The cattle and their keepers fall wounded and die together; the vineyards and gardens are all destroyed; the trees are stripped of their verdure and lopped of their branches, and the trunk suffered to remain solely to preach the terrors of the Lord to a future age. How great, how deplorable are the devastations of sin! And if they were so deplorable in the exterior world, how much more are they to be lamented when they strip the soul of all its beauty, and render it a desert in the eyes of God!
In the boils which afflicted the Egyptians, those who harden their hearts against Gods judgments may see the complaints which he is about to inflict on their bodies, and in the tempest of lightning and hail they may see the vengeance he is about to inflict on their souls. And who may abide the day of his coming? As is thy fear, so is thy wrath.
It was a very great mercy that the Egyptians were warned one day before the vengeance came: and oh how great is that mercy which still warns men by the ministry of the word. Surely it is the voice of longsuffering and grace; surely it is that they may hear the trumpet, and secure themselves from danger. Oh that our wicked age might see in Pharaoh and his people, the awful consequences of infidelity and crime. Oh that they might by a repentance correspondent to their sins, avert the anger of heaven, and secure to themselves refuge in the arms of Jesus Christ.
Exodus 7 – 11
These five chapters form one distinct section, the contents of which may be distributed into the three following divisions, namely, the ten judgements from the hand of Jehovah; the resistance of “Jannes and Jambres;” and the four objections of Pharaoh.
The whole land of Egypt was made to tremble beneath the successive strokes of the rod of God. All from the monarch on his throne to the menial at the mill, were made to feel the terrible weight of that rod. “He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. !heir land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines: also, and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and their locusts came, and the caterpillars, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. (Ps. 105: 26-36)
Here the inspired Psalmist has given a condensed view of those appalling afflictions which the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart brought upon his land and upon his people. This haughty monarch had set himself to resist the sovereign will and course of the Most High God; and, as a just consequence, he was given over to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. “And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh: and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name. may be declared throughout all the earth.” (Ex. 9: 12-16)
In contemplating Pharaoh and his actings, the mind is carried forward to the stirring scenes of the Book of Revelation, in which we find the last proud oppressor of the people of God bringing down upon his kingdom and upon himself the seven vials of the wrath of the Almighty. It is God’s purpose that Israel shall be pre-eminent in the earth; and, therefore, every one who presumes to stand in the way of that pre-eminence must be set aside. Divine grace must find its object; and every one who would act as a barrier in the way of that grace must be taken out of the way. Whether it be Egypt, Babylon, or “the beast that was, is not, and shall be present,” it matters not. Divine power will clear the channel for divine grace to flow, and eternal woe be to all who stand in the way. They shall taste, throughout the everlasting course of ages, the bitter fruit of having exalted themselves against “the Lord God of the Hebrews.” He has said to His people, “no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,” and His infallible faithfulness will assuredly make good what His infinite grace hath promised.
Thus, in Pharaoh’s case, when he persisted in holding, with an iron grasp, the Israel of God, the vials of divine wrath were poured forth upon him; and the land of Egypt was covered, throughout its entire length and breadth, with darkness, disease, and desolation. So will it be, by and by, when the last great oppressor shall emerge from the bottomless pit, armed with Satanic power, to crush beneath his “foot of pride” the favoured objects of Jehovah’s choice. His throne shall be overturned, his kingdom devastated by the seven last plagues, and, finally, he himself plunged, not in the Red Sea, but “in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.” (Comp. Rev. 17: 8; Rev. 20: 10)
Not one jot or one tittle of what God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, shall fail. He will accomplish all. Notwithstanding all that has been said and done to the contrary, God remembers His promises, and He will fulfil them. They are all “yea and amen in Christ Jesus.” Dynasties have risen and acted on the stage of this world; thrones have been erected on the apparent ruins of Jerusalem’s ancient glory; empires have flourished for a time, and then fallen to decay; ambitious potentates have contended for the possession of “the land of promise” – all these things have taken place; but Jehovah has said concerning Palestine,” the land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine.” (Lev. 25: 23) No one, therefore, shall ever finally possess that land but Jehovah Himself, and He will inherit it through the seed of Abraham. One plain passage of scripture is quite sufficient to establish the mind in reference to this or any other subject. The land of Canaan is for the seed of Abraham, and the seed of Abraham for the land of Canaan; nor can any power of earth or hell ever reverse this divine order. The eternal God has pledged His word, and the blood of the everlasting covenant has flowed to ratify that word. Who, then, shall make it void? “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but that word shall never pass away.” Truly, “there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms, and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.” (Deut. 33: 46-29)
We shall now consider, in the second place, the opposition of “Jannes and Jambres,” the magicians of Egypt. We should not have known the names of these ancient opposers of the truth of God, had they not been recorded by the Holy Ghost, in connection with “the perilous times” of which the Apostle Paul warns his son Timothy. It is important that the Christian reader should clearly understand the real nature of the opposition given to Moses by those magicians, and in order that he may have the subject fully before him, I shall quote the entire passage from St. Paul’s Epistle to Timothy. It is one of deep and awful solemnity.
“This know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all, as theirs also was.” (2 Tim. 3: 1-9)
Now, it is peculiarly solemn to mark the nature of this resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. We do not find that they attributed his actings to a false or evil energy, but rather that they sought to neutralise their power upon the conscience, by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so that, after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in; so where was the difference?
From all this we learn the solemn truth that the most Satanic resistance to God’s testimony, in the world, is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but “the form of godliness,” and “deny the power thereof.” Persons of this class can do the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same phraseology, profess the same opinions as others. If the true Christian, constrained by the love of Christ, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, circulates the scriptures, distributes tracts, supports the gospel, engages in prayer, sings praise, preaches the gospel, the formalist can do every one of these things; and this, be it observed, is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth ” in the last days” – this is the spirit of ” Jannes and Jambres.” How needful to understand this! How important to remember that, “as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do” those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors, “resist the truth!” They would not be without “a form of godliness;” but, while adopting “the form,” because it is customary, they hate “the power,” because it involves self-denial. “The power” of godliness involves the recognition of God’s claims, the implanting of His kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of this. “The power” of godliness could never comport with any one of those hideous features set forth in the foregoing quotation; but” the form,” while it covers them over, leaves them wholly unsubdued; and this the formalist likes. He does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him “to make the best of both worlds.” He knows nothing of giving up the world that is, because of having; found “the world to come.”
In marking the forms of Satan’s opposition to the truth of God, we find that his method has ever been, first, to oppose it by open violence; and then, if that did not succeed, to corrupt it by producing a counterfeit. Hence, he first sought to slay Moses, (Ex. 2: 15), and having failed to accomplish his purpose, he sought to imitate his works.
Thus, too, has it been in reference to the truth committed to the Church of God. Satan’s early efforts showed themselves in connection with the wrath of the chief priests and elders, the judgement-seat, the prison, and the sword. But, in the passage just quoted from 2 Timothy, we find no reference to any such agency. Often violence has made way for the far more wily and dangerous instrumentality of a powerless form, an empty profession, a human counterfeit. The enemy, instead of appearing with the sword of persecution in his hand, walks about with the cloak of profession on his shoulders. He professes and imitates that which he once opposed and persecuted; and, by so doing, gains most appalling advantages, for the time being. The fearful forms of moral evil which, from age to age, have stained the page of human history, instead of being found only where we might naturally look for them, amid the dens and caves of human darkness, are to be found carefully arranged beneath the drapery of a cold, powerless, uninfluential profession; and this is one of Satan’s grand masterpieces.
That man, as a fallen, corrupt creature, should love himself, be covetous, boastful, proud, and the like, is natural; but that he should be all these, beneath the fair covering of “a form of godliness,” marks the special energy of Satan in his resistance to the truth in “the last days.” That man should stand forth in the bold exhibition of those hideous vices, lusts, and passions, which are the necessary results of departure from the source of infinite holiness and purity, is only what might be expected, for man will be what he is to the end of the chapter. But on the other hand, when we find the holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ connected with man’s wickedness and deadly evil – when we find holy principles connected with unholy practices – when we find all the characteristics of Gentile corruption, referred to in the first chapter of Romans, associated with “a form of godliness,” then, truly, we may say, these are the terrible features of “the last days” – this is the resistance of “Jannes and Jambres.”
However, there were only three things in which the magicians of Egypt were able to imitate the servants of the true and living God, namely, in turning their rods into serpents, (Ex. 7: 12) turning the water into blood, (Ex. 7: 29) and bringing up the frogs; (Ex. 8: 7) but, in the fourth, which involved the exhibition of life, in connection with the display of nature’s humiliation, they were totally confounded, and obliged to own, ” this is the finger of God.” (Ex. 8: 16-19) Thus it is also with the latter-day resisters of the truth. All that they do is by the direct energy of Satan, and lies within the range of his power. Moreover, its specific object is to “resist the truth.”
The three things which “Jannes and Jambres” were able to accomplish were characterised by Satanic energy, death, and uncleanness; that is to say, the serpents, the blood, and the frogs. Thus it was they “withstood Moses;” and “so do these also resist the truth,” and hinder its moral weight and action upon the conscience. There is nothing which so tends to deaden the power of truth us the fact that persons who are not under its influence at all, do the self-same things as those who are. This is Satan’s agency just now. He seeks to have all regarded as Christians. He would fain make us believe ourselves surrounded by “a Christian world;” but it is counterfeit Christianity, which, so far from being a testimony to the truth, is designed by the enemy of the truth, to withstand its purifying and elevating influence.
In short, the servant of Christ and the witness for the truth is surrounded, on all sides, by the spirit of “Jannes and Jambres;” and it is well for him to remember this – to know thoroughly the evil with which he has to grapple – to bear in mind that it is Satan’s imitation of God’s reality, produced, not by the wand of an openly-wicked magician, but by the actings of false professors, who have “a form of godliness, hut deny the power thereof,” who do things apparently right and good, but who have neither the life of Christ in their souls, the love of God in their hearts, nor the power of the word in their consciences.
“But,” adds the inspired apostle, “they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifested unto all, as theirs also was.” Truly the “folly” of “Jannes and Jambres” was manifest unto all, when they not only failed to imitate the further actings of Moses and Aaron, but actually became involved in the judgements of God. This is a solemn point. The folly of all who are merely possessed of the form will, in like manner, be made manifest. They will not only be quite unable to imitate the full and proper effects of divine life and power, but they will themselves become the subjects of those judgements which will result from the rejection of that truth which they have resisted.
Will any one say that all this has no voice for a day of powerless profession? Assuredly, it has. It should speak to each conscience in living power; it should tell on each heart, in accents of impressive solemnity. It should lead each one to enquire seriously whether he is testifying for the truth, by walking in the power of godliness, or hindering it, and neutralising its action, by having only the form. The effect of the power of godliness will be seen by our” continuing in the things which we have learned.” None will continue, save those who are taught of God; those, by the power of the Spirit of God, have drunk in divine principle, at the pure fountain of inspiration.
Blessed be God, there are many such throughout the various sections of the professing Church. There are many, here and there, whose consciences have been bathed in the atoning blood of “the Lamb of God,” whose hearts beat high with genuine attachment to His Person, and whose spirits are cheered by “that blessed hope” of seeing Him as He is, and of being eternally conformed to His image. It is encouraging to think of such. It is an unspeakable mercy to have fellowship with those who can give a reason of the hope that is in them, and for the position which they occupy. May the Lord add to their number daily. May the power of godliness spread far and wide in these last days, so that a bright and well-sustained testimony may be raised to the name of Him who is worthy.
The third point in our section yet remains to be considered, namely, Pharaoh’s four subtle objections to the full deliverance and complete separation of God’s people from the land of Egypt. The first of these we have in Ex. 8: 25. “And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” It is needless to remark here, that whether the magicians withstood, or Pharaoh objected, it was in reality, Satan that stood behind the scenes; and his manifest object, in this proposal of Pharaoh, was to hinder the testimony to the Lord’s name – a testimony connected with the thorough separation of His people from Egypt. There could, evidently, be no such testimony had they remained in Egypt, even though they were to sacrifice to Him. They would have taken common ground with the uncircumcised Egyptians, and put Jehovah on a level with the gods of Egypt. In this case an Egyptian could have said to an Israelite, “I see no difference between us; you have your worship and we have ours; it is all alike.”
As a matter of course, men think it quite right for every one to have a religion, let it be what it may. Provided we are sincere, and do not interfere with our neighbour’s creed, it does not matter what shape our religion may happen to wear. Such are the thoughts of men in reference to what they call religion; but it is very obvious that the glory of the name of Jesus finds no place in all this. The demand for separation is that which the enemy will ever oppose, and which the heart of man cannot understand. The heart may crave religiousness because conscience testifies that all is not right; but it craves the world as well. It would like to “sacrifice to God in the land;” and Satan’s object is gained when people accept of a worldly religion, and refuse to “come out and be separate.” (2 Cor. 6) His unvarying purpose, from the beginning, has been to hinder the testimony to God’s name on the earth. Such was the dark tendency of the proposal, “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” What a complete damper to the testimony, had this proposal been acceded to! God’s people in Egypt and God Himself linked with the idols of Egypt! Terrible blasphemy!
Reader, we should deeply ponder this. The effort to induce Israel to worship God in Egypt reveals a far deeper principle than we might, at first sight, imagine. The enemy would rejoice, at any time, by any means, or under any circumstances, to get even the semblance of divine sanction for the world’s religion. He has no objection to such religion. He gains his end as effectually by what is termed “the religious world” as by any other agency; and, hence, when he can succeed in getting a true Christian to accredit the religion of the day, he gains a grand point. As a matter of actual fact, one knows that nothing elicits such intense indignation as the divine principle of separation from this present evil world. You may hold the same opinions, preach the same doctrines, do the same work; but if you only attempt, in ever so feeble a manner, to act upon the divine commands, ” from such turn away,” (2 Tim. 3: 5) and “come out from among them,” (2 Cor. 6: 17) you may reckon assuredly upon the most vigorous opposition. Now how is this to be accounted for? Mainly by the fact that Christians, in separation from this world’s hollow religiousness, bear a testimony for Christ which they never can bear while connected with it.
There is a very wide difference between human religion and Christ. A poor, benighted Hindu might talk to you of his religion, but he knows nothing of Christ. The apostle does not say, “if there be any consolation in religion;” though, doubtless, the votaries of each kind of religion find what they deem consolation therein. Paul, on the other hand, found his consolation in Christ, having fully proved the worthlessness of religion, and that too, in its fairest and most imposing form. (Comp. Gal. 1: 13, 14; Phil. 3: 4-11)
True, the Spirit of God speaks to us of “pure religion and undefiled;” but the unregenerate man cannot, by any means, participate therein; for how could he possibly take part in ought that is “pure and undefiled?” This religion is from heaven, the source of all that is pure and lovely; it is exclusively before the eye of “God and the Father:” it is for the exercise of the functions of that new name, with which all are endowed who believe on the name of the Son of God. (John 1: 12, 13; James 1: 18; 1 Peter 1: 23; 1 John 5: 1) Finally, it ranges itself under the two comprehensive heads of active benevolence and personal holiness; “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1: 27)
Now if you go through the entire catalogue of the genuine fruits of Christianity, you will find them all classed under these two heads; and it is deeply interesting to observe that, whether we turn to the eighth of Exodus or to the first of James, we find separation from the world put forward as an indispensable quality in the true service of God, Nothing could be acceptable before God – nothing could receive from His hand the stamp of “pure and undefiled,” which was polluted by contact with an “evil world.” “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6: 17, 18)
There was no meeting-place for Jehovah and His redeemed in Egypt; yes, with them, redemption and separation from Egypt were one and the same thing. God had said, “I am come down to deliver them,” and nothing short of this could either satisfy or glorify Him. A salvation which would have left them still in Egypt, could not possibly be God’s salvation. Moreover, we must bear in mind that Jehovah’s purpose, in the salvation of Israel, as well as in the destruction of Pharaoh, was, that “His name might be declared throughout all the earth;” and what declaration could there be of that name or character, were His people to attempt to worship Him in Egypt? Either none whatever or an utterly false one. Wherefore, it was essentially necessary, in order to the full and faithful declaration of God’s character, that His people should be wholly delivered and completely separated from Egypt, and it is as essentially necessary now, in order to a clear and unequivocal testimony for the Son of God, that all who are really His should be separated from this present world. Such is the will of God; and for this end Christ gave Himself. “Grace unto you, and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”(Gal. 1: 3-5)
The Galatians were beginning to accredit a carnal and worldly religion – a religion of ordinances – a religion of “days, and months, and times, and years;” and the apostle commences his epistle by telling them that the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for the purpose of delivering His people from that very thing. God’s people must be separate, not, by any means, on the ground of their superior personal sanctity, but because they are His people, and in order that they may rightly and intelligently answer His gracious end in taking them into connection with Himself, and attaching His name to them. A people, still amid the defilements and abominations of Egypt, could not have been a witness for the Holy One; nor can any one, now, while mixed up with the defilements of a corrupt worldly religion, possibly be a bright and steady witness for a crucified and risen Christ.
The answer given by Moses to Pharaoh’s first objection was a truly memorable one. “And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God; lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We mill go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us.” (Ex. 8: 26, 27) Here is true separation from Egypt – “three days journey.” Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the power of resurrection. The waters of the Red Sea must roll between God’s redeemed and Egypt, ere they can properly sacrifice to Jehovah. Had they remained in Egypt, they would have to sacrifice to the Lord the very objects of Egypt’s abominable worship.* This would never do. There could be no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, in Egypt. It had no site, throughout its entire limits, for ought of that kind. In point of fact, as we shall see further on, Israel never presented so much as a single note of praise, until the whole congregation stood, in the full power of an accomplished redemption, on Canaan’s side of the Red Sea. Exactly so is it now. The believer must know where the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have, for ever, set him, ere he can be an intelligent worshipper, an acceptable servant, or an effectual witness.
{*The word “abominations” has reference to that which the Egyptians worshipped.}
It is not a question of being a child of God, and, as such, a saved person. Many of the children of God are very far from knowing the full results, as regards themselves, of the death and resurrection of Christ. They do not apprehend the precious truth, that the death of Christ has made an end of their sins for ever, and that they are the happy partakers of His resurrection life, with which sin can have nothing whatever to do. Christ became a curse for us, not, as some would teach us, by being born under the curse of a broken law, but by hanging on a tree. (Compare attentively Deut. 21: 23; Gal. 3: 13) We were under the curse, because we had not kept the law; but Christ, the perfect Man, having magnified the law and made it honourable, by the very fact of His obeying it perfectly, became a curse for us, by hanging on the tree. Thus, in His life He magnified God’s law; and in His death He bore our curse. There is, therefore, now, no guilt, no curse, no wrath, no condemnation for the believer; and, albeit, he must be manifested before the judgement-seat of Christ, he will find that judgement-seat every hit as friendly by and by, as the mercy-seat is now. It will make manifest the truth of his condition, namely, that there is nothing against him; what he is, it is God “that hath wrought him.” He is God’s workmanship. He was taken up in a state of death and condemnation, and made just what God would have him to be. The Judge Himself has put away all his sins, and is his righteousness, so that the judgement-seat cannot but be friendly to him; yea, it will be the full, public, authoritative declaration to heaven, earth, and hell, that the one who is washed from his sins in the blood of the Lamb, is as clean as God can make him. (See John 5: 24; Rom. 8: 1; 2 Cor. 5: 5, 10, 11; Eph. 2: 10.) All that had to be done, God Himself has done it. He surely will not condemn His own work. The righteousness that was required, God Himself has provided it. He, surely, will not find any flaw therein. The light of the judgement seat will be bright enough to disperse every mist and cloud which might tend to obscure the matchless glories and eternal virtues which belong to the cross, and to show that the believer is “clean every whit.” (John 13: 10; John 15: 3; Eph. 5: 27)
It is because these foundation-truths are not laid hold of in the simplicity of faith that many of the children of God complain of their lack of settled peace – the constant variation in their spiritual condition – the continual ups and downs in their experience. Every doubt in the heart of a Christian is a dishonour done to the word of God and the sacrifice of Christ. It is because he does not, even now, bask in the light which shall shine from the judgement-seat, that he is ever afflicted with a doubt or a fear. And yet those things which so many have to deplore – those fluctuation’s and waverings are but trifling consequences, comparatively, inasmuch as they merely affect their experience. The effect produced upon their worship, their service, and their testimony, is far more serious, inasmuch as the Lord’s honour is concerned. But, alas ! this latter is but little thought of, generally speaking, simply because personal salvation is the grand object – the aim and end, with the majority of professing Christians. We are prone to look upon everything that affects ourselves as essential; whereas, all that merely affects the glory of Christ in and by us is counted non-essential.
However, it is well to see with distinctness, that the same truth which gives the soul settled peace, puts it also into the position of intelligent worship, acceptable service, and effectual testimony. In the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle sets forth the death and resurrection of Christ as the grand foundation of everything. “Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (Ver. 1-4) Here is the gospel, in one brief and comprehensive statement. A dead and risen Christ is the ground-work of salvation. “He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.” (Rom. 4: 25) To see Jesus, by the eye of faith, nailed to the cross, and seated on the throne, must give solid peace to the conscience and perfect liberty to the heart. We can look into the tomb and see it empty; we can look up to the throne, and see it occupied, and go on our way rejoicing. The Lord Jesus settled everything on the cross on behalf of His people; and the proof of this settlement is that He is now at the right hand of God. A risen Christ is the eternal proof of an accomplished redemption; and if redemption is an accomplished fact, the believer’s peace is a settled reality. We did not make peace and never could make it; indeed, any effort on our part to make peace could only tend more fully to manifest us as peace breakers. But Christ, having made peace by the blood of His cross, has taken His scat on high, triumphant over every enemy. By Him God preaches peace. The Lord of the gospel conveys this peace; and the soul that believes the gospel has peace – settled peace before God, for Christ is his peace. (See Acts 10: 36; Rom. 5: 1; Eph. 2: 14; Col. 1: 20.) In this way, God has not only satisfied His own claims, but, in so doing, He has found out a divinely-righteous vent through which His boundless affections may flow down to the guiltiest of Adam’s guilty progeny.
Then, as to the practical result of all this. The cross of Christ has not only put away the believer’s sins, but also dissolved for ever His connection with the world; and, on the ground of this, he is privileged to regard the world as a crucified thing, and to be regarded by it as a crucified one. Thus it stands with the believer and the world. It is crucified to him and he to it. This is the real, dignified position of every true Christian. The world’s judgement about Christ was expressed in the position in which it deliberately placed Him. It got its choice as to whether it would have a murderer or Christ. It allowed the murderer to go free, but nailed Christ to the cross, between two thieves. Now, if the believer walks in the footprints of Christ – if he drinks into, and manifests, His spirit, he will occupy the very same place in the world’s estimation; and, in this way, he will not merely know that, as to standing before God, he is crucified with Christ, but be led to realise it in his walk and experience every day.
But while the cross has thus effectually cut the connection between the believer and the world, the resurrection has brought him into the power of new ties and associations. If, in the cross, we see the world’s judgement about Christ, in resurrection we see God’s judgement. The world crucified Him; but “God hath highly exalted him.” Man gave Him the very lowest, God the very highest, place; and, inasmuch as the believer is called into full fellowship with God, in his thoughts about Christ, he is enabled to turn the tables upon the world, and look upon it as a crucified thing. If, therefore, the believer is on one cross and the world on another, the moral distance between the two is vast indeed. And if it is vast in principle, so should it be in practice. The world and the Christian should have absolutely nothing in common; nor will they, except so far as he denies his Lord and Master. The believer proves himself false to Christ, to the very same degree that he has fellowship with the world.
All this is plain enough; but, my beloved Christian reader, where does it put us as regards this world? Truly, it puts us outside and that completely. We are dead to the world and alive with Christ. We are at once partakers of His rejection by earth and His acceptance in heaven; and the joy of the latter makes us count as nothing the trial connected with the former. To be cast out of earth, without knowing that I have a place and a portion on high, would be intolerable; but when the glories of heaven fill the soul’s vision, a little of earth goes a great way.
But some may feel led to ask, “What is the world?” It would be difficult to find a term more inaccurately defined than “world,” or “worldliness;” for we are generally disposed to make worldliness begin a point or two above where we are ourselves. The Word of God, however, has, with perfect precision, defined what” the world” is, when it marks it as that which is “not of the Father.” Hence, the deeper my fellowship with the Father, the keener will be my sense of what is worldly. This is the divine way of teaching. The more you delight in the Father’s love, the more you reject the world. But who reveals the Father The Son. How? By the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, the more I am enabled, in the power of an ungrieved Spirit, to drink in the Son’s revelation of the Father, the more accurate does my judgement become as to what is of the world. It is as the limits of God’s kingdom expand in the heart, that the judgement as to worldliness becomes refined. You can hardly attempt to define worldliness. It is, as some one has said, “shaded off gradually from white to jet black.” This is most true. You cannot place a bound and say, “here is where worldliness begins;” but the keen and exquisite sensibilities of the divine nature recoil from it; and all we need is, to walk in the power of that nature, in order to keep aloof from every form of worldliness. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” Walk with God, and ye shall not walk with the world. Cold distinctions and rigid rules will avail nothing. The power of the divine life is what we want. We want to understand the meaning and spiritual application of the “three days’ journey into the wilderness” whereby we are separated for ever, not only from Egypt’s brick-kilns and taskmasters, but also from its temples and altars.
Pharaoh’s second objection partook very much of the character and tendency of the first. “And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away.” (Ex. 8: 28) If he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least seek to keep them near it, so that he might act upon them by its varied influences. In this way, they might be brought back again. and the testimony more effectually quashed than if they had never left Egypt at all. There is always much more serious damage done to the cause of Christ by persons seeming to give up the world and returning to it again, than if they had remained entirely of it; for they virtually confess that, having tried heavenly things, they have discovered that earthly things are better and more satisfying.
Nor is this all. The moral effect of truth upon the conscience of unconverted people is sadly interfered with, by the example of professors going back again into those things which they seemed to have left. Not that such cases afford the slightest warrant to any one for the rejection of God’s truth, inasmuch as each one is personally responsible and will have to give account of himself to God. Still, however, the effect in this, as well as in everything else, is bad. ” For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to hare known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.(2 Peter 2: 20, 21.)
Wherefore, if people do not “go very far away,” they had better not go at all. The enemy knew this well; and hence his second objection. The maintenance of a border position suits his purpose amazingly. Those who occupy this ground are neither one thing nor the other; and, in point of fact, whatever influence they possess, tells entirely in the wrong direction.
It is deeply important to see that Satan’s design, in all these objections, was to hinder that testimony to the name of the God of Israel, which could only be rendered by a “three days’ journey into the wilderness.” This was, in good truth, going “very far away.” It was much farther than Pharaoh could form any idea of, or than he could follow them. And oh! how happy it would be if all who profess to set out from Egypt would really, in the spirit of their minds and in the tone of their character, go thus far away from it I if they would intelligently recognise the cross and grave of Christ as forming the boundary between them and the world! No man, in the mere energy of nature, can take this ground. The Psalmist could say,” Enter not into judgement with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” (Ps. 143: 2) So also is it with regard to true and effectual separation from the world. “No man living” can enter into it. It is only as “dead with Christ,” and “risen again with him, through faith of the operation of God,” that any one can either be “justified” before God, or separated from the world This is what we may all going ” very far away. May all who profess and call themselves Christians go thus far! Then will their lamp yield a steady light. Then would their trumpet give a certain sound. Their path would be elevated; their experience deep and rich. Their peace would flow as a river; their affections would be heavenly and their garments unspotted. And, far above all, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be magnified in them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, according to the will of God their Father.
The third objection demands our most special attention. “And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, go, serve the Lord your God; but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds, will we go: for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so; go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.” (Ex. 10: 8-11) Here again we have the enemy aiming a deadly blow at the testimony to the name of the God of Israel. Parents in the wilderness and their children in Egypt! Terrible anomaly! This would only have been a half deliverance, at once useless to Israel and dishonouring to Israel’s God. This could not be. If the children remained in Egypt, the parents could not possibly be said to have left it, inasmuch as their children were part of themselves. The most that could be said in such a case was, that in part they were serving Jehovah, and in part Pharaoh. But Jehovah could have no part with Pharaoh. He should either have all or nothing. This is a weighty principle for Christian parents. May we lay it deeply to heart! It is our happy privilege to count on God for our children, and to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Eph. 6) We should not be satisfied with any other portion for” Our little ones” than that which we ourselves enjoy.
Pharaoh’s fourth and last objection had reference to the flocks and herds. “And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.” (Ex. 10: 24.) With what perseverance did Satan dispute every inch of Israel’s way out of the land of Egypt! He first sought to keep them in the land, then to keep them near the land, next to keep part of themselves in the land, and, finally, when he could not succeed in any of these three, he sought to send them forth without any ability to serve the Lord. If he could not keep the servants, he would seek to keep their ability to serve, which would answer much the same end. If he could not induce them to sacrifice in the land, he would send them out of the land without sacrifices.
In Moses’ reply to this last objection, we are furnished with a fine statement of the Lord’s paramount claim upon His people and all pertaining to them. “And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind: for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come. thither.” (Ver. 25, 26) It is only when the people of God take their stand, in simple Childlike faith, upon that elevated ground, on which death and resurrection set them, that they can have anything like an adequate sense of His claims upon them. “We know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.” That is, they had no knowledge of the divine claim or their responsibility, until they had gone “three days’ journey.” These things could not be known amid the dense and polluted atmosphere of Egypt. Redemption must be known as an accomplished fact, ere: there can be any just or full perception of responsibility. All this is perfect and beautiful. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” I must be up out of Egypt, in the power of death and resurrection, and then, but not until then, shall I know what the Lord’s service really is. It is when we take our stand, by faith, in that “large room,” that wealthy place into which the precious blood of Christ introduces us; when we look around us and survey the rich, rare, and manifold results of redeeming love; when we gaze upon the Person of Him who has brought us into this place, and endowed us with these riches, then we are constrained to say, in the language of one of our own poets,
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my heart, my life, my all.”
“There shall not an hoof be left behind.” Noble words! Egypt is not the place for ought that pertains to God’s redeemed. He is worthy of all, “body, soul, and spirit;” all we are and all we have belongs to Him. “We are not our own, we are bought with a price;” and it is our happy privilege to consecrate ourselves and all that we possess to Him whose we are, and whom we are called to serve. There is nought of a legal spirit in this. The words, “until we come thither,” furnish a divine guard against this horrible evil. We have travelled the “three days’ journey,” ere a word concerning sacrifice can be heard or understood. We are put in full and undisputed possession of resurrection life and eternal righteousness. We have left that land of death and darkness; we have been brought to God Himself, so that we may enjoy Him, in the energy of that life with which we are endowed, and in the sphere of righteousness in which we are placed: thus it is our joy to serve. There is not an affection in the heart of which He is not worthy; there is not a sacrifice in all the flock too costly for His altar. The more closely we walk with Him, the more we shall esteem it to be our meat and drink to do His blessed will. The believer counts it his highest privilege to serve the Lord. He delights in every exercise and every manifestation of the divine nature. He does not move up and down with a grievous yoke upon his neck, or an intolerable weight upon his shoulder. The yoke is broken “because of the anointing,” the burden has been for ever removed, by the blood of the cross, while he himself walks abroad, “redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled,” in pursuance of those soul-stirring words, “LET MY PEOPLE GO.”
NOTE. – We shall consider the contents of Ex. 11 in connection with the security of Israel, under the shelter of the blood of the paschal lamb.
Exo 7:14 to Exo 12:36. The Ten Plagues.How deeply this series of events imprinted itself on the mind and heart of the nation is shown by the fulness with which the three sources report them.
J124578910
E178910
P123610
1, river turned to blood; 2, frogs; 3, fice (gnats); 4, flies; 5, murrain; 6, boils; 7, hail; 8, locusts; 9, darkness; 10, death of firstborn.
A sound historical judgment will conclude, both from this fact and from the nature of the occurrences mentioned, as well as from the need for some such group of causes to account for the escape of the tribes, that the traditions have a firm foothold in real events. But since not less than four centuries intervened between the events and the earliest of our sources, it is not to be expected that the details of the narratives can all be equally correct. And there are not only literary distinctions between the sources, but differing, and in some points contradictory, representations of matters of fact. The Great European War illustrates the difficulty of weighing even contemporary testimony. But it is important to observe that even such a legend as that a force of Russians was brought through England, though it stated what was incorrect, yet would have conveyed to posterity a true reflection of two fundamental features in the European situation of 1914, viz. that Russia was allied with England, and that powerful reinforcements were needed to meet an enemy across the English Channel. So the general situation in Egypt in 1220 B.C., and the contrasted characters of Pharaoh and Moses, may reasonably be taken as rightly given, while the order, details, and precise nature of the events in which they were concerned may have been more or less distorted by tradition. One of the marks of the shaping power of the reporting process is that each source can still be seen to have had its own uniform skeleton of narration in this section. This phenomenon may be concisely exhibited. It should be contrasted with the form of narratives (such as those in 2 S.) which are more nearly contemporary with the events they relate.
a. JEP: and Yahweh said unto Moses,
b. J: Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold I will . . .
E: Stretch forth thy (i.e. Mosess) hand (with thy rod toward . . . that there may be . . .
P: Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and there shall be . . .
c. J: And Yahweh did so, and there came . . . (or and he sent)
E: And Moses stretched forth his hand (or his rod) toward . . . and there was . . .
P: And these did so: and Aaron stretched out his rod, and there was . . .
d. P: And the magicians did so (or, could not do so) with their secret arts . . .
e. J: And Pharaoh called for Moses, and said unto him, Entreat for me, that . . . And Yahweh did so, and removed . . .
f. J: But Pharaoh made his heart heavy.
E: But Yahweh made Pharaohs heart hard.
P: But Yahwehs heart was hardened.
g. J: And he did not let the people go.
E: And he did not let the children of Israel go.
P: and he hearkened not unto them as Yahweh had spoken.
The reader who will mark with letters in the margin of the text the parts assigned to J, E, and P will discern for himself, more fully by the help of the RV references, the points of contrast and resemblance, or he can consult the larger commentaries. In any case he should note that J is fullest and most graphic, and describes the plagues as natural events providentially ordered, Yahweh bringing them after the prophets mere announcement; that E is briefer, has not been so fully preserved by the editor, heightens the miraculous colouring, and makes Moses bring on the plagues with a motion of his wonder-working rod, or a gesture of his hand; and that P makes Aaron the spokesman and wielder of the rod, and introduces the magicians, the supernatural element transcending the historical throughout. Another feature is that in J the Israelites are apart in Goshen, but in E are mixed up with the Egyptians in Egypt. Each source has its own word for plague (Exo 9:14 J, Exo 11:1 E, Exo 12:13 P); and three other words (signs and wonderstwo Heb. words) are also employed. It will appear that the plagues were miraculously intensified forms of the diseases or other natural occurrences to which Egypt is more or less liable (Driver).
PLAGUE NO.5 — LIVESTOCK DISEASED
(vs.1-7)
Again the Lord requires Moses to repeat his demand to Pharaoh to let the people go. This time He warns that if Pharaoh refuses, He will send a very severe pestilence on all the livestock of Egypt, a disease that would issue in death, and that Israel would be immune from it. There is a pointed lesson in this that the selfish greed of man eventually destroys those things that are necessary to serve his interests. For instance, men resort to strikes, civil rights riots, etc. in demanding what they call their own rights, but they always become the losers.
Verse 6 tells us that “all the livestock of Egypt died.” Yet verse 19 indicates there were cattle in Egypt at the time of the seventh plague. The answer may be that the word “all” in verse 6 is not intended to be absolute, but used in general sense, or else other livestock could have been brought in after the fifth plague. Pharaoh sent an inquiry to find that none of the livestock of the Israelites were affected, but in spite of this he hardened his heart against the Lord.
PLAGUE NO.6 — BOILS
(vs.8-12)
In this case there was no previous warning. The Lord told Moses to take ashes from a furnace in his hands and in the sight of Pharaoh to scatter them toward the heavens, evidently tossing them upward so that the wind would disperse them every direction. As he did this, the ashes became out a fine dust, bringing with it such infection as to inflict boils on people and animals.
The magicians made no attempt to imitate this miracle because they were themselves stricken with boils, and likely were not anxious to have more of them! This plague is typical of the personal moral corruption that results from resistance to the truth of the Word of God. But even this did not persuade Pharaoh to repent of his state of stubbornness in refusing God’s Word to let His people go.
PLAGUE NO.7 — HAIL
(vs.13-35)
Once again the Lord commanded Moses to repeat the same message to Pharaoh (v.13), adding that He will continue to send plagues on Pharaoh, on his servants and on his people, until at last Pharaoh would be cut off from the earth (vs.13-15). More than this, Pharaoh is told that God Himself had raised Pharaoh up for the purpose of displaying in Pharaoh the superior power of God, and that through all this history God’s name would be declared through the entire earth (v.16). For matters like this would certainly be reported worldwide.
Since Pharaoh continued to exalt himself against God’s people, and therefore against God Himself, he is told that the next day God would sent an extremely heavy hail such as Egypt had never before experienced (v.18). But he is graciously warned that animals left outside would be killed. Some among Pharaoh’s servants feared the Word of the Lord and heeded the warning, and of course their animals were safe, but others had no respect for God’s Word and suffered the consequences. (vs.20-21).
When Moses acted on God’s Word, stretching forth his hand toward heaven, the hail was accompanied by thunder and lightning, the fire running along on the ground, an infliction that affected the land of Egypt more severely than anything previously known, damaging all vegetation and breaking trees as well as killing livestock and people who remained outside. Again the land of Goshen was spared, so that Israel did not suffer at all from the hail.
This awesome affliction was so alarming to Pharaoh that he called for Moses and Aaron (v.27), telling them, “I have sinned this time,” and admitting that the Lord is righteous and he and his people wicked. He need not have said this at all, though it was true, but he should certainly have meant it when he promised to let Israel go if the plague were stopped (v.28).
On the basis of his promise, however, Moses agreed to ask the Lord to remove the plague, and it would cease immediately Moses left the city, giving witness to the fact that the earth is the Lord’s (v.29). Yet Moses adds that he knew that Pharaoh and his servants would continue to prove rebellious (v.30). It is added here that only the early crops (flax and barley) were ruined, not the later crops (wheat and spelt).
As Moses had said, the Lord gave respite from the hail, and again Pharaoh fulfilled Moses prediction by hardening his heart in refusing to let Israel go.
Murrain (the fifth plague) 9:1-7
This plague, apparently some kind of disease like anthrax, was more severe than the preceding ones in that it affected the personal property of the Egyptians for the first time.
"The whole creation is bound together by invisible cords. None can sin or suffer alone. No man liveth or dieth to himself. Our sins send their vibrations through creation, and infect the very beasts." [Note: Meyer, p. 122.]
All the other plagues had caused the Egyptians irritation or pain to their bodies, but now God began to reduce their wealth.
"The religious implications of this plague are most interesting and instructive. A large number of bulls and cows were considered sacred in Egypt. In the central area of the Delta, four provinces chose as their emblems various types of bulls and cows. A necropolis of sacred bulls was discovered near Memphis which place was known for its worship of both Ptah and a sacred Apis bull. The Apis bull was considered the sacred animal of the God Ptah; therefore, the associated worship at the site of Memphis is readily understood. There was at any one time only one sacred Apis bull. As soon as it died another was chosen to take its place, an event that attracted a great deal of attention in the area of Memphis. [Note: Montet, p. 172.] The sacred bull was supposed to have been recognized by twenty-eight distinctive marks that identified him as deity and indicated that he was the object of worship. [Note: Author not identified, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 181, cited by Davis.]
"Another deity whose worship would have been affected by the impact of this plague was Hathor, the goddess of love, beauty and joy represented by the cow. The worship of this deity was centered mainly in the city of Denderah although its popularity is witnessed by representations both in upper and lower Egypt. This goddess is often depicted as a cow suckling the king giving him divine nourishment. In upper Egypt the goddess appears as a woman with the head of a cow. In another town-Hathor was a woman, but her head was adorned with two horns of a cow with a sun disc between them. Another deity associated with the effects of the plague would be Mnevis, a sacred bull venerated at Heliopolis and associated with the god Re." [Note: Davis, pp. 113-15.]
"Amenhotep II [the Pharaoh of the plagues] surpassed all his predecessors in his fanatical devotion to the worship of animals, and especially of the bull. In 1906 a statue made of sandstone was excavated representing a cow and Amenhotep II leaning his head under its head; he is also depicted kneeling under a cow, drinking its divine milk. He is thus seen as child and slave of the cow goddess. What a threat this must have been to him!" [Note: Gispen, p. 96.]
The expression "all the livestock" (Exo 9:6) evidently refers to all cattle in the fields (Exo 9:3). Some cattle survived this plague (cf. Exo 9:19-20; Exo 9:22).
The only new element in this fifth report is the notice that Pharaoh sent to Goshen to check on the predicted exclusion of the Israelites’ livestock from the epidemic (Exo 9:7).
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIFTH PLAGUE.
Exo 9:1-7.
Our Lord when on earth came not to destroy men’s lives. And yet it was necessary, for our highest instruction, that we should not think of Him as revealing a Divinity wholly devoid of sternness. Twice, therefore, a gleam of the fires of justice fell on the eyes which followed Him–through the destruction once of a barren tree, and once of a herd of swine, which property no Jew should have possessed. So now, when half the gloomy round of the plagues was being completed, it was necessary to prove that life itself was staked on this desperate hazard; and this was done first by the very same expedient–the destruction of life which was not human. There is something pathetic, if one thinks of it, in the extent to which domestic animals share our fortunes, and suffer through the brutality or the recklessness of their proprietors. If all men were humane, self-controlled, and (as a natural result) prosperous, what a weight would be uplifted from the lower levels also of created life, all of which groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now! The dumb animal world is partner with humanity, and shares its fate, as each animal is dependent on its individual owner.
We have already seen the whole life of Egypt stricken, but now the lower creatures are to perish, unless Pharaoh will repent. He is once more summoned in the name of “Jehovah, God of the Hebrews,” and warned that the hand of Jehovah, even a very grievous murrain (for so the verse appears to say), is “upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds and upon the flocks.” Here some particulars need observation. Herds and flocks were everywhere; but horses were a comparatively late introduction into Egypt, where they were as yet chiefly employed for war. Asses, still so familiar to the traveller, were the usual beasts of burden, and were owned in great numbers by the rich, although rash controversialists have pretended that, as being unclean, they were not tolerated in the land.
Camels, it is said, are not to be found on the monuments, but yet they were certainly known and possessed by Egypt, though there were many reasons why they should be held chiefly on the frontiers, and perhaps in connection with the Arabian mines and settlements. Upon all these “in the field” the plague should come.
The murrain still works havoc in the Delta, chiefly at the period, beginning with December, when the floods are down and the cattle are turned out into the pastures, which would this year have been signally unwholesome. It was not, then, the fact of a cattle plague which was miraculous, but its severity, its coming at an appointed time, its assailing beasts of every kind, and its exempting those of Israel. We are told that “all the cattle of Egypt died,” and yet that afterwards “the hail … smote both man and beast” (Exo 9:6, Exo 9:25). It is an inconsistency very serious in the eyes of people who are too stupid or too uncandid to observe that, just before, the mischief was limited to those cattle which were “in the field” (Exo 9:3). There were great stalls in suitable places, to give them shelter during the inundations; and all that had not yet been driven out to graze are expressly exempted from the plague.
Much of Pharaoh’s own property perished, but he was the last man in the country who would feel personal inconvenience by the loss, and therefore nothing was more natural than that his selfish “heart was heavy, and he did not let the people go.” Not even such an effort was needed as in the previous plague, when we read that he made his heart heavy, by a deliberate act.
There was nothing to indicate that he had now reached a crisis–that God Himself in His judgment would henceforth make bold and resolute against crushing adversities the heart which had been obdurate against humanity, against evidence, against honour and plighted faith. Nothing is easier than to step over the frontier between great nations. And in the moral world also the Rubicon is passed, the destiny of a soul is fixed, sometimes without a struggle, unawares.
Instead of spiritual conflict, there was intellectual curiosity. “Pharaoh sent, and behold there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was heavy, and he did not let the people go.” This inquiry into a phenomenon which was surprising indeed, but yet quite unable to affect his action, recalls the spiritual condition of Herod, who was conscience-stricken when first he heard of Christ, and said, “It is John whom I beheaded” (Mar 6:16), but afterwards felt merely vulgar curiosity and desire to behold a sign of Him. In the case of Pharaoh it was the next step to judicial infatuation. When Christ confronted Herod, He, Who had explained Himself to Pilate, was absolutely silent. And this warns us not to think that an interest in religious problems is itself of necessity religious. One may understand all mysteries, and yet it may profit him nothing. And many a reprobate soul is controversial, acute, and keenly orthodox.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I. That wicked men often act in reference to the claims of God in such a manner as to provoke his judgments.
II. That men who thus reject the claims of God often involve the brute creation in pain and woe.
III. That the men who thus involve the brute creation in pain and suffering are often unmoved by the devastation they occasion. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Lessons:
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
God still owns His despised Church.
God demands His right in His Church as often as persecutors deny it.
God declares to the wicked the evil they must expect if they persist in obstinacy.
Gods hand is immediately put forth in vengeance to terrify enemies.
Life and death of all creatures is in the hand of God.
Not the life of a beast is in danger when God takes the protection of it.
God faileth not to execute judgment as well as mercy as He hath spoken.
Aggravated rebellion follows such heart-hardening in wicked men.
REV. WM. ADAMSON
The mighty Indus rolls its tide of wealth.
The life thou canst not give.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TRANSLATION
(13) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pha-raoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Je-ho-vah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (14) For I will this time send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. (15) For now I had put forth my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth: (16) but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. (17) As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? (18) Behold, to-morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very greivous hail, such as hath not been in E-gypt since the day it was founded even until now. (19) Now therefore send, hasten in thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field; for every man and beast that shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. (20) He that feared the word of Je-ho-vah among the servants of Pha-raoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: (21) and he that regarded not the word of Je-ho-vah left his servants and his cattle in the field.
(27) And Pha-raoh sent, and called for Mo-ses and Aar-on, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: Je-ho-vah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. (28) Entreat Je-ho-vah; for there hath been enough of these mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. (29) And Mo-ses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto Je-ho-vah; the thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know that the earth is Je-ho-vahs. (30) But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear Je-ho-vah God. (31) And the flax and the barley were smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom. (32) But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten: for they were not grown up. (33) And Mo-ses went out of the city from Pha-raoh, and spread abroad his hands unto Je-ho-vah: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. (34) And when Pha-raoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. (35) And the heart of Pha-raoh was hardened, and he did not let the children of Is-ra-el go; as Je-ho-vah had spoken by Mo-ses.
QUESTIONS ANSWERABLE FROM THE BIBLE
This plague shows the absolute rulership of Jehovah. He completely controls every creature in the world. Disease strikes only when and where He decrees. The believer is safe in the hands of God.
Nonetheless, Pharaohs heart was stubborn, and he probably attributed the sparing of the Israelites cattle to natural causes; or, more probably, he just did not let himself think about it.
This plague is a further advance in the terribleness of the disasters. Previously the Egyptians had not been directly attacked in their persons (although admittedly the lice and flies were not pleasant).
Before we accuse Jehovah of being unjust for hardening Pharaohs heart, we need to consider how often Pharaoh had already hardened his own heart. (See Exo. 8:15; Exo. 8:32. See also notes on Exo. 4:21 and the special study on Hardening Pharaohs Heart.)
At the south end of the Nile delta, near Cairo, about two inches of rain falls each year. Hail sometimes accompanies the rain, but not with great severity. South of this area rain is a rare occurrence. The rains usually fall from January to April. This is the time when the cattle are likely to be outdoors.
The wheat and spelt mature in April, about a month after the barley. The hail fell at a time when it would not greatly harm the subsequent yield of wheat and spelt. Spelt (not rye, or rie) is a grain much like wheat, but inferior to it.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
THE FIFTH PLAGUE.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary