"The Education of Egypt, III"
Exodus 9, 10

We have read this morning the 9th and 10th chapters of the book of Exodus. This is the continuing education of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should let the people go?” God is teaching them who He is.

The waters had been turned to blood, the frogs had come, followed by lice and flies. Now would come five more plagues.

These chapters record the plagues: upon the cattle, boils, hail, locusts, darkness..

Introduction: These are the lessons of the plagues:

A. Jehovah is greater than Pharaoh and all the gods of the land of Egypt and the servant of Jehovah is greater than all the sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, including the chief sorcerer, Pharaoh.

B. Jehovah is the Creator of all things: can change water to blood; bring huge amounts of frogs and flies and lice. There is no fixed quantity of anything on the earth. The amount of things depends only upon the will of God. We will not run out of anything that we need, if we serve Jehovah and not idols; we will never have enough of the basic things if we serve idols who can do neither good nor evil.

C. Jehovah has no trouble about violating the free will of man and forcing him to do what he doesn’t want to do. He did so with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. If he can force Pharaoh to change his mind, He certain is able by the sweet persuasion of the Holy Spirit to change the will of sinful man to embrace the Gospel and follow Christ.

But let us look at selected passages in these two chapters as we summarize the history that Moses recorded.

I. The plague upon the cattle. Number Five. 9:1-7

A. God is Lord of time and place. It was a set time and only in the place appointed of God. God is Lord of time, place, animals, people, places, and things. It is wisdom to know the times and the places. You will not be successful in anything if you do not discern the times and the places. God did not create man until He had created the dry land and put the sun, moon and stars in the sky; preparing the place for man, and giving him a way to measure and use his time well.

B. God is the source of a great many really bad things in the earth, and His judgments are terrible when they are seen on the earth.

C. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Societies would have been outraged at this terrible mistreatment of innocent animals, but God is Lord of His creatures also and can do what He will with them.

D. He judges the cattle of the Egyptians and spared the cattle of the Hebrews. God does not need to treat everybody the same; He is no communist; not even a gentle socialist.

E. “All” doesn’t mean “all.” For there are still cattle in the following plagues.

F. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened when he discerned that not one of the cattle of Israel died.

II. The Plague of Boils. Number Six: 9:8-12

A. This was a horrible plague upon the very bodies of the Egyptians.

B. It was a curse upon their work, their livelihood. Their very glory, for it was from these furnaces that the great structures were built that were the marvel of the ancient world.

C. It was also in these furnaces that the very life-blood of the people of God had been wrung out for the advantage of the Egyptians.

III. The Plague of Hail. Number 7. 9:13-35

A. Vs. 14. These plagues 7-10 will go to the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and strike such terror as to leave them utterly destroyed. They would be shaken in their very souls and terrorized.

B. The hail destroyed everything that was not indoors: plants, trees, animals, horses, camels, etc. But not the possessions of Israel. God controls the weather: He has his way in the whirlwind. The snow and the frost and the hail are His, and He directs them to time and place and intensity of His choice.

C. Pharaoh is forced to confess that Jehovah is God: the hail destroyed everything; mingled with fire that ran along the ground. Vs. 27: Jehovah is God; I have sinned. My people and I are wicked. But this was not a confession of faith and love; but of terror. Pharaoh’s heart is stilled hardened.

D. Chapter 10: Number 8 and 9: the locusts and the thick darkness.

1. 10:1,2: to show God’s power—to be told to future generations. Nothing can defeat the redemption of God’s people. This is the figure that is used.

2. Locusts: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself” The natural man will never humble himself, but will go even into hell, weeping and gnashing his teeth against God. The fires of hell burn in his soul before he burns in hell.

3. Vs. 17. “forgive me this once.” This is the voice of a sorcerer, to buy off God, to make a deal to his advantage: not the humble surrender of faith.

4. Thick darkness; so that they did not leave their homes; nobody could see anything except in Goshen, where Israel lived.

5. God is the God of light. The Sun is no the light of the world; there was light before the Sun. In heaven there will be no Sun, God is the light. Light is a symbol for righteousness, faith, knowledge, and opportunity or hope. None of these exist except in the will and purpose of God. Thick, disorienting, terrible darkness.

6. Pharaoh says that Moses and Aaron will not see him again. He is right in way that he does not know, for God had intended his utter destruction after He no longer had use for him.

E. Vs. 16. Purpose for Pharaoh: To show God’s power and declare God’s name throughout all the earth.

F. God “raised him up.” And sustained him. For this purpose. How can men endure the horrors of hell for eternity? Because God will make them objects of His wrath and glory in His justice. He uphold their being with his omnipotent power and pours out his wrath upon them

G. They are vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction as the Bible says.

IV. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 9:16-24, to vindicate the power and glory of God. I will close with this wonderful and blessed Word of God.

A. Vs. 16: The lesson: The blessed of God are not blessed because of their will or their works. Their will or their walk [running]

B. Vs. 17: Illustraton: Pharaoh as interpreted to Moses by God. These are the very words of God.

C. Vs. 18: The lesson amplified. This does not imply unfairness in God. He is perfectly just in doing this: in raising up Pharaoh to use as a means of showing God’s power and glory. We are not talking about fairness or justice, but mercy. This whole discussion is about mercy, and mercy by its very nature cannot be earned. Mercy is not on the basis of law or desert on the part of those who receive it, but resides in the bosom of the one who grants it.

D. Vs. 19-24: illustration of potter and the clay.

1. God has power over the clay. The fallen humanity of Adam. God can do what He wills with men. The Bible never tells us to make ourselves clay: It declares that we are clay.

2. God deals with the clay in two different ways:

a) He deals in justice: He hardens the clay and uses the hard hearts of men for His own glory. It is bad clay and God is not wrong in doing this, though the natural man will never admit the fairness, because it will not admit the guilt with any honesty.

b) He deals in mercy: He shapes some of the clay into vessels of mercy, to show the wonders of His grace throughout eternity.

(1) You know you have got this doctrine right, when men begin to complain about the fairness of God; “It their unrighteousness with God” It is unthinkable. God can do what he wants with wicked clay.

(2) The Old Testament in Adam would always have the same result: Hardness of heart, bitter recriminations against God as Cain and ultimately its utter destruction for eternity in hell forever and ever.

(3) If any of Adam’s lump is to receive mercy, it will be because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, as Paul declares in the rest of this chapter and chapter 10: the righteousness of faith in Christ; quickened, given a new heart a heart of softness, humility, and love, and no longer rebellious.

(4) This softness of heart is not the cause of the new covenant, for that is made in Christ from the foundation of the world, but is the work of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus sends to those whom He calls to glory and virtue, to newness of life and faith and trust.

2Pe 1:3 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:” All the things that pertain to life and godliness are the gift of God to which we are called to the glory and virtue of God.

Only Pharaoh and the Egyptians got what they deserved. God was dealing with Israel on a completely different level that even they did not fully understand. Christ was in them; the new covenant lay concealed until the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus, and covenant of mercy and grace that would be foretold by the prophet

“31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:31-34 AV)

This new covenant would be based upon the fulfillment of the Old, the fulfillment by the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would completely satisfy the requirements of the law, and bring a perfect righteousness to His people by the mercy and grace of God.

To God be the glory, and amenen.