PLAGUES OF PLENTY

BOOK OF EXODUS

CHAPTER 9

            Daily Bread welcomes you back to our study of the book of Exodus.  Our last couple of stories have been about the plagues that God has brought on Pharaoh and Egypt because Pharaoh would not free the children of Israel from slavery. 

            Moses, although his confidence was a little shaky at first, has gained faith with God’s hand helping him.  Egypt has had their water turned to blood, frogs, lice and swarms of flies to deal with, and Pharaoh still refused to let the people go. 

            The Lord told Moses, Go talk to Pharaoh and tell him, The Lord God of the Hebrews says, Let my people go so they can serve me.  If you don’t let them go, tomorrow I will strike your cattle, your horses, your mules, camels, oxen and sheep.  There will be a very terrible disease that kills them, but the cattle of my people will not suffer.  Not a one of their animals will die.  Notice that God set appointed times for the plagues so there was no doubt as to who was causing them.

            The next day, all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel, not a single one died.  Pharaoh still wouldn’t let them go.

            The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Take handfuls of ashes from the furnace and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven so that Pharaoh can see you.  It will become small dust in all the land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out with blisters on man and beast in all the land of Egypt.

            When Moses did this, Pharaoh’s magicians couldn’t even try their magic in front of Moses because they were covered with boils.  The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he didn’t listen, just as He had said to Moses.

            Then the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and go to Pharaoh and tell him, The Lord God of the Hebrews says, Let my people go so that they may serve me.  This time I will send all my plagues on your heart and on your servants and on your people so you will know that there is none like me in all the earth.  This time I will strike you and your people with plagues and you will be cut off from the earth.  This is the reason you are here, so that I can show my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.  And you still think you’re better than my people and won’t let them go?  Tomorrow at about this time I will make it rain a terrible hail, like Egypt has never seen from the beginning until now. 

            Pharaoh’s people who feared the word of the Lord brought their servants into their houses and whoever didn’t regard the Lord’s warning left their servants in the fields.

            The Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven to bring hail to all the land of Egypt.  Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire ran along on the ground in the land of Egypt unlike Egypt had ever seen since it became a nation.  The hail was so heavy that the plants and trees were all broken and the only thing that remained was the wheat and the rye that had not grown up yet.  Only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were, there was no hail or fire.

            This gave Pharaoh a little bit of a scare and he called for Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned this time.  The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked.  Pray to the Lord that there be no more thunder and hail and I’ll let you go.  Well, Moses had heard that song before and he said to Pharaoh, As soon as I’m outside the city, I’ll open my hands to the Lord and the thunder and hail will stop so that you’ll know that the earth belongs to God.  But as for you and your servants, I know you don’t fear the Lord yet.  You can well imagine that Moses wasn’t slow of speech when he said that!

            When Pharaoh saw that the thunder and hail and fire had stopped, he sinned even more and he and his people still wouldn’t let God’s people go, just as the Lord had told Moses.

            Pharaoh certainly is obstinate.  Moses has has his number though and is even bold enough to call him a liar to his face.  The plagues are getting worse with each one, and so far there have been seven plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt.  In our next story, we’ll find out about more and we’ll see if Pharaoh changes his tune at all.  Come back and join us again for more Daily Bread as we learn more about Moses in the book of Exodus.

CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY