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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter 10 The
Plague Of Locust (ch. 10:1 - 20) Once again, in verse 1
God tells Moses to return to Pharaoh.
And again, God tells Moses that He has hardened Pharaoh's heart.
There is something else mentioned in the verse that gives us yet
another reason why God was hardening Pharaoh's heart through these acts
of judgment. The reason
given here is that Pharaoh's heart would get even harder, so God could
do even more terrible things to Pharaoh and Egypt. That's amazing.
God would actually harden someone's heart through devastating
plagues so He could perform even more devastating plagues.
Verse 2 gives us yet
another reason for these mighty acts.
It was so In verse 3 Moses and
Aaron head off to see Pharaoh again.
This time, besides asking him to let Israel
go free, they ask him how long will he refuse to be humble.
Humility on the behalf of man is important to God.
Pharaoh wasn't being humble.
He was exerting himself as if he were God, and actually, Egypt
saw their Pharaoh's as gods. So
in one sense of the word, Pharaoh was playing the part that any Pharaoh
would do. It is interesting
to note that the anti-christ in the Great Tribulation will do the same
as Pharaoh. He exerts
himself as a god. From verses 4 through 6
Moses and Aaron explain to Pharaoh about the plague of locust that will
come on the In verse 7 we see that
Pharaoh's officials have now been convinced.
They try to convince Pharaoh to let Israel
go to worship their God. They
ask Pharaoh, "can't you see that our land is ruined?"
Pharaoh is the last one in the land to come to his senses, but of
course that is because this is really a spiritual battle between God and
satan. Satan does not care
about the land. He only
cares about destroying Israel. You can now see the extent
to God's judgment in In verse 8 we see that
Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh.
That seems to suggest that they were called to Pharaoh.
They did not come on their own account. In verse 9 Pharaoh asks
who would be going to worship. Moses
basically says, everyone, including their cattle. In verses 10 and 11
Pharaoh appears to show concern for the Jews.
He says that they are bent on evil.
That's the way the NIV puts it.
The alternate rendering would be that trouble seems to follow the
Jews. With this in mind,
Pharaoh tells Moses that only the men can go.
Obviously he is saying that so the men would return to their
families. As a result of what
Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron, God had Moses initiate the plague of
locust. The locust came from
and easterly wind and filled the whole land
of Verses 16 and 17 state
that Pharaoh had another burst of so-called repentance. He asks Moses
and Aaron to forgive him for his sin against their God.
Then he asks that the plague of locust be taken away.
Such repentance of convenience is not true repentance, and God
knows it, and He will act accordingly.
You can't fool God. In verses 18 through 20
Moses prays to God. God
takes away the locust and hardens Pharaoh's heart even harder.
The
Plague Of Darkness (ch. 10:21 - 26)
In verses 21 to 23 God
had Moses stretch forth his hand to make darkness cover the whole The text states that the
darkness was so dark that they could feel it.
There's a couple of ways that Bible teachers have seen this.
Some say that in real dark darkness, as in an underground cave,
you can "almost" feel the darkness.
Others have said that this darkness may have some spiritual
significance, as in evil spiritual darkness, especially when things are
dark for three days. Some
suggest that there might be some correlation to Jesus being dead for
three days. Whatever
the case, the land was dark, so dark that people could go no
where, that is, everyone except for the Jews.
They had light in their homes. In verse 24 Pharaoh
summoned Moses in to see him. Note
that there is no mention of Aaron this time.
Pharaoh told Moses that all Israel
could go, only that they were to leave their cattle.
Well, that would mean the Jews would have to leave the way in
which they made a living and that they would have to return to Egypt. Pharaoh still wanted In verses 25 and 26 Moses
refuses. They need some of
their livestock to offer in sacrifice.
Moses is just as stubborn as Pharaoh.
So it is good to be stubborn at times.
God can use any character trait that someone might have.
Every character trait has its good side and its not so good side.
At this, Pharaoh was very
upset. In verses 27 and 28
Pharaoh tells Moses to leave his presence immediately and never come
back. He told Moses that if
he ever saw him again, he would kill him.
Anger is now filling the heart of Pharaoh.
I wonder what Moses thought.
Did he trust God sufficiently not to be bothered by Pharaoh's
threat? By now you would
think that Moses would have full trust in his God. In verse 29 Moses agrees
with Pharaoh. He told
Pharaoh that he would never see his face again, and that probably
pleased Moses. By now he
would have been tired of all of this.
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