Exodus 9 – “I Have Sinned This Time.”

The Fifth Plague – Diseased Livestock – Once again, God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him that the Lord God of the Hebrews said, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” He was also to tell Pharaoh that if he refused to let them go and continued to hold them, that the Lord would have a very strong pestilence to come upon their cattle in the field, the donkeys, camels, oxen and the sheep. The Lord would differentiate between the livestock of Israel and the Egyptian livestock, so that none of the Israelites’ livestock would die from the diseases. Then He set the appointed time of “tomorrow” to bring this plague on the land. Obviously, Pharaoh didn’t let them go, because the next day all of the Egyptian livestock died, but none of the livestock of the Israelites died. Pharaoh sent (men to check), and just as God said it would happen, Egyptian livestock was dead and the livestock for the Israelites was still alive. As usual, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he didn’t let the people go.

The Sixth Plague – Boils – The Lord told Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and Moses was to scatter the ashes toward heaven in front of Pharaoh. The ashes would become fine dust in all of Egypt and would cause boils to break out in sores on man and beast throughout Egypt. They did just as God had instructed them and the boils broke out just as God said. God is always true to His Word. Since all of the livestock died of disease earlier, I’m guessing the beasts were other animals in Egypt, perhaps wildlife. Verse 11 states that the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, since they were on them and all of the Egyptians. We learned in Exodus 8:18, that the magicians couldn’t bring forth lice. Since they are now mentioned in Verse 11 of Chapter 9, I wonder if they still tried to copy the plagues in between the lice and the boils, but were unsuccessful. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and of course, he didn’t listen to them, just as God said.

Sidetrack – Since Moses could throw up ashes in front of Pharaoh and all of Egypt broke out in boils, I wondered about the size of Egypt. So, I googled. Egypt is 1.5 times bigger than Texas. I don’t know if it’s always been that big from Biblical times or not. However, this also shows God’s mighty power. Also, as I think about the Covid pandemic, the world was in a tailspin with all of the mass media coverage. I wonder how the Egyptians felt throughout the land with plague after plague coming upon them. They didn’t have mass communications then, so those throughout the land, especially those in remote areas, probably were clueless about the reason they were suffering from all of the plagues.

The Seventh Plague – Hail – God told Moses again to rise early the next morning and go tell Pharaoh that the Lord God of the Hebrews said, “Let My People go, that they may serve Me.” God’s message remains the same. Is there a message that God’s been sending to you and you haven’t been obedient yet? This time God said that He would send all His plagues to Pharaoh’s very heart, on his servants and on his people so that he would know that there is none like Him in all the earth. God also said that if He had stretched out His hand and struck Pharaoh and his people with pestilence, they would have been cut off from the earth, but He spared them so that He may show His power and that His name may be declared in all the earth. Since Pharaoh had exalted himself against God’s people and wouldn’t let them go, God said that tomorrow about that same time Moses was there with Pharaoh, He would cause very heavy hail to rain down on Egypt in such a manner never seen before since its founding. God (in His great mercy) sent them a warning that they should gather their livestock and all that was in the field and bring them home because the hail was going to fall on every man and animal. Any out in the field were going to die. So, now I wonder how much time passed from the diseased livestock (plague 5) and this 7th plague (new livestock?). Those who feared God among Pharaoh’s servants, had their servants and livestock flee to the houses. Those who did not regard the word of the Lord, left their servants and livestock in the fields. In almost every walk of life, there will be some obedient people and some disobedient people despite the warnings. The Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven so that the hail would fall in Egypt on man, beast, and every herb of the field. So Moses stretched his rod toward heaven and God sent thunder, hail and fire darted to the ground in Egypt. The hail mingled with fire was so severe that nothing like it had ever been seen in Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck throughout the land on all out in the fields – man, beasts, herbs and broke every tree. Only in Goshen, where the Israelites lived, there wasn’t any hail. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time.” So, Pharaoh thinks that this is the only time he has sinned? This is the 7th plague and only now he thinks he has sinned. Anytime, we’re disobedient to God, we have sinned. Even partial obedience is still disobedience. Pharaoh also said, “The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.” Finally, Pharaoh made a true statement! He asked Moses to entreat the Lord to make the thunder and the hail stop. He said that it was enough and that he would let the people go. Moses told him that as soon as he leaves the city, that he would spread out his hands to the Lord and the thunder and hail would stop. Then he would know that the earth belongs to the Lord. Moses told Pharaoh that he knew that he and his servants still would not fear the Lord God. The flax and barley crops were struck by the hail because the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud, but the wheat and the spelt (a species of the wheat family, Google, of course) were not struck because they are late crops. Moses did what he said he would do when he was outside the city and the thunder and hail stopped. When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail and thunder stopped, he sinned even more and hardened his heart – not only him, but his servants too. Of course, he didn’t let the children of Israel go, just as the Lord told Moses.

To God Be The Glory!

The next stop is Exodus 10.