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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter 9 ch. 9:1-7 ch. 9:8-12 ch. 9:13-35 The
Plague Of Livestock (ch. 9:1 - 7) Again,
as before, God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go so they
can worship me. God clearly
wants His people to worship Him. He
wants them out of
The
plague this time is seen in verses 2 through 4.
This time God will strike every livestock that is in Egypt, but He will distinguish between Egyptian cattle and Israeli cattle.
He will not strike the Jews livestock
Notice
in verse 5 the "Lord sets a time" for the next plague to take
place. I've said it many
times, God has a time table. He
does things on time, and He does them based on a predetermined time.
We see that clearly in this verse as we do in many other
passages. I see this
whole event of the plagues as symbolic of the Great Tribulation that
takes place at the end of this age.
In the book of Revelation, you will see many numbers and
combination of numbers that suggest too that God has a timetable.
Each plague that takes place in the Great Tribulation will occur
on time, and on God's predetermine time. In
verses 5 through 8 God does what He said He would do.
All Egyptian livestock were killed. All of the Jews livestock
were not killed. Still,
Pharaoh did not let Israel
go free. The
Plague Of Boils (ch. 9:9 - 12) In
this section we see the plague of boils.
Moses tossed some soot from a furnace into the air which became
fine dust all over the country, producing boils on all people and
animals. Still Pharaoh's
heart was hard. Notice
in verse 12 that the text says that "God hardened Pharaoh's
heart." So far after
each plague the text says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
Here it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
There's no difference here. It
is the same as before. Pharaoh
hardened his own heart in response to what the Lord had done to him and
his nation. God provided the
opportunity for Pharaoh to harden his own heart. The
Plague Of Hail (ch. 9:13 - 35) In
verses 13 and 14 God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh again and confront
him. Moses was to tell
Pharaoh to let God's people go or else the "full force" of
these plagues will come on Pharaoh and all his people.
The words "full force" clearly state that these plagues
are getting more and more severe as time goes on, which is clearly seen
by a simple reading of these events. Note
the reason for this plague, and really, for all the plagues.
It is so that Pharaoh will know that "there is no one
like" the God of the Jews. For
the same reason, at the end of this age, in the Great Tribulation, God
will be seen for who He really is. There
is no one just like the God of the Jews.
Yet, as with Pharaoh, many in
the Great Tribulation will not admit to who God really is.
They will be stubborn until it's all over, stubborn to the bitter
end. Verses
15 and 16 are very important. God
said that He could have wiped Egypt
off the face of the earth, and of course He could have, but He didn't.
He didn't so that God could show His power to all those on the
earth. Note that it was God
who raised Pharaoh to be the supreme leader as he was.
Pharaoh would not have been who he was, except for God.
And, the only reason why Pharaoh was so great, was so that He
could refuse to let Again,
the same will take place at the end of this age.
God Himself will raise up the anti-christ.
The anti-christ will only come to power because God Himself puts
him there. He has no power
in himself. God will raise
up the anti-christ for the same reason He raised up Pharaoh.
He will show His mighty power to all the nations of the world
through His divine judgments of terror that He brings about on the
earth. The result will be
the judgment of the nations and the salvation of Israel, as it was in Moses' day. In
verses 17 to 19 God speaks of the hail stones that He will have fall on Egypt. This was the most severe
hail storm that had ever come to Egypt. In
verse 18 we see when the storm would come.
It would come "at this time tomorrow".
Once again, you see God has a timetable of events.
He has a predetermined time for all things, especially for His
will to be worked out on earth. If
you read the gospel accounts of Jesus, especially in the book of John,
you will see that Jesus did things at special predetermined times.
The phrase "His hour had not yet come" is often used in
the gospels. This phrase
clearly shows that Jesus did things when it was God's time. God does
have a timetable. He does
nothing on a whim. In
verse 20 the text states that those of Pharaoh's officials who
"feared the Lord" got prepared for the storm. It is clear that
by this time, some in the land were getting the hint of who the God of
the Jews was, and they were now beginning to fear Him.
Fear in this sense of the word is literal fear.
It's more than reverence. Yet,
as we see in verse 21, not all officials feared the God of the Jews.
Many officials didn't do anything. So
in verses 22 to 26 God did as He said He would do after Moses waved his
staff into the air. The hail
flattened all the crops. Along
with the hail came thunder and lightning. In
verse 27 we note that Pharaoh admits that he had sinned, and that the
Lord was in the right and he and all those in Egypt
were in the wrong. So in
verse 28 he asks Moses to pray to the Lord to end the hail storm.
The
question is asked, "was Pharaoh really repentant here, or was this
a temporary admission on his part to end the hail storm?"
I can't be sure, because we will see that he once again hardens
his heart. There
is a possibility of one of two things going on here.
One thing is that Pharaoh wasn't really sorry for his hard heart.
He simply wanted the storm to end.
The other thing is that God is progressively wearing Pharaoh
down. Maybe this was a true
admission, but with many, it takes more than one time of repentance to
really change the heart of a person.
All that being said, verse 30 tells us that Moses didn't totally
believe Pharaoh. So if I had
to make a choice, I'd say these so-called words of repentance were
simply spoken to get out of the present plague. In
verse 29 Moses agrees to stop the storm once he left the city, and that
is what he does. He tells
Pharaoh that he will do this so that Pharaoh would know that the earth
belongs to the Lord. This is
a new thought that has been interjected into the situation.
To date we've seen the reasons for these plagues was to show
Pharaoh and all of Egypt, that there is only one God, and He is the God of Israel.
Now we see another reason for the plagues, and that is to show
Pharaoh and Egypt
that all the earth belongs to the God of Israel and not their gods, as
it certainly does. Even
though Pharaoh appears to have repented, in verse 30, Moses saw through
things. He told Pharaoh that
he knew that the words of repentant word totally real.
He told Pharaoh that he knew that he did not fear God. In
verses 31 and 32 we note that some crops were totally destroyed because
they were in bloom, yet others weren't because they were not yet in
bloom. In
verse 33 Moses stops the storm. In
verses 34 and 35 we see that once the storm was over, Pharaoh
"sinned again." He
and his officials hardened their hearts and would not let |