Exodus 9-12 — Brian Brodersen

Let's open up our Bibles to Exodus, Exodus chapter 9. As we pick up the study here in Exodus chapter 9, the Lord has brought four plagues upon the Egyptians thus far that have demonstrated His power over the gods of Egypt.

There are six plagues that God will yet visit on Pharaoh in Egypt in His deliverance from Israel. So we pick up tonight in chapter 9, coming now to the fifth plague. God's judgment began upon the Nile River.

And you remember we talked about how the Egyptians worshipped the Nile under the name of the god Hapti. And they attributed all of their provision and blessing not to the living God, but they attributed it to the river, to the Nile River.

And we saw how the water in the river was turned to blood. We saw that the next plague was this infestation of frogs. And we pointed out how the Egyptians worshipped the frog-headed goddess Heka. And so God giving them more frogs than they ever wanted to see.

And then as we went on, we saw that there were the lice or the mites or the ticks there in the dust. And then we saw also the swarms. And so as we pointed out, in each one of these, there is not only a chastisement coming upon Pharaoh in Egypt, but there is this judgment of the gods that they were worshipping.

So chapter 9, verse 1,. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh and tell him,. Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep a very severe pestilence.

And the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. Then the Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.

So the Lord did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died. But of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died. So now a couple of things here. Again, the Egyptians worshipped the bull.

The god Apis was depicted as a bull, the god Hathor as a cow, and the god Cunam as a ram. So, again, here we see a judgment coming upon the gods of Egypt. Now, it says here that it was all of the livestock that were afflicted.

But as we're going to go on in the story, we're going to find that there are still livestock that are going to be affected in various ways. The reference here to all is probably all that were out in the field.

So at this point, not every animal was affected, but probably those that were out in the fields or maybe in a particular location. We see, of course, that they were not affected in Goshen, where the children of Israel were.

So, then Pharaoh, verse 7, sent, and indeed not even one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead, but the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go. So Moses had said that there was going to be a distinction.

Pharaoh sent messengers to find out if it were the case, and it was the case. But once again, Pharaoh hardened his heart, and he did not let the people go. So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.

And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven, and they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast.

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all of the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened or strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not heed them just as the Lord had spoken.

So understand, and every time we read that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, we need to understand it in the sense of God strengthening the heart of Pharaoh. God is strengthening Pharaoh in his opposition to him.

And so, again, just one more reminder. Pharaoh, and the reason I bring this up is because, of course, people accuse God of being unfair. And they give the impression that, you know, God is just this God who is ruthless and mercilessly judging people.

And right here is a good example. He hardened Pharaoh's heart just so he could punish him. But we have to keep in mind that the hardening began with Pharaoh. He continued to resist, and God is just confirming him in his ongoing resistance.

Now, the boils would not represent any particular God, but they would show that some of the gods and goddesses that they worshipped were unable to do what they were declared to do. Sekhmet was the goddess who allegedly had power over diseases.

Sunu, the god of pestilence. And Isis, a name that we're familiar with, Isis was known as the goddess of healing. But yet they're stricken with these boils, and there is no healing. There is no deliverance that comes to them through any of the Egyptian deities.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise early in the morning, verse 13, and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. For at this time I will send all my plagues to your very heart and on your servants and on your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. So God is saying to Pharaoh essentially, Look, I'm being merciful to you.

He's basically saying, I could obliterate you in a second. I haven't done that. So you see, the reality is God is patiently trying to turn Pharaoh toward the reasonable position of responding to his request.

But Pharaoh continues to harden his heart. So now God says, All right, I'm going to bring all of my plagues to your very heart now. But indeed for this purpose, verse 16, I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

So Pharaoh is a man. Now, I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but you know, Pharaoh is for all practical purposes. He is the most powerful man in the world. Egypt is the greatest empire at the ancient at the present time.

And Pharaoh is the head over Egypt. So this guy is basically the most powerful man on earth. And so God says to him, let my people go. Pharaoh says, Who is Yahweh that I should obey him? I'm not going to let him go.

And so the Lord is basically taking Pharaoh. And as he says here, he says, For this purpose, I have raised you up, raised you up into this position that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

So Paul, maybe you remember reading this verse in Romans chapter 9. Paul quotes this in Romans chapter 9. And what the Lord is saying here to Pharaoh is basically this. OK, if you want to oppose me, if you want to resist me, if you want to continue to be obstinate in regard to my commands, then I'm going to allow you to do that.

And I'm going to take you and I'm going to demonstrate my power by bringing a judgment upon you. Now, some people would say, Oh, well, that's not fair. Well, why isn't it fair? God wasn't forcing Pharaoh into the position that he was in.

It was the position Pharaoh was taking. And so since he's taking the position, God says, OK, since that's your position, then this is my position. You're the most powerful man on the earth. You think you're a god?

I'm going to show you and everybody else who's really God. That's pretty much what's happening here in this contest that's transpiring. And so as yet you exalt yourself against my people and that you will not let them go, behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now.

Therefore, send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home, and they shall die.

He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses. But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and livestock in the field.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail. So very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field.

Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. Now, I've lived almost my whole life in Southern California, a few years over in the UK. I have not seen hailstones like I've heard told of.

People have told me about hailstorms in places like Texas and other places in the South, hailstorms with hail the size of golf balls. Now, I've been hit with hail the size of marbles, and that's troubling.

So, you know, golf balls, I wouldn't want to experience that. But I think we're looking at something like bowling balls in this particular plague here. It's just smashing all of the vegetation and everything else to bits.

Now, do you see some parallels here with the boils? Is there another place that that reminds you in Scripture? Remember Revelation, there's coming a day. It's interesting, as you look at the judgment on Egypt, it becomes sort of a miniature picture of the judgment that will come upon the world at the end time, the judgment that's spelled out for us in the prophetic writings and most specifically probably in the book of Revelation.

But there we have that foul sore that breaks out on those who have taken the mark of the beast. And there we have hail stones that weigh as much as a talent. And if you look in your Bible and, you know, you look alongside of the weight of a talent, it is anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds.

So unimaginable the devastation that's going to come. But this, notice it says here in Egypt that this hail, there was nothing that had ever been like it before. So this was an unbelievably devastating thing.

Last summer, funny enough, it was summer. It was June and we were having a conference out in Marietta. And you know how warm it can get out there in June. I mean, it can be 110 degrees out there sometimes.

And it was actually fairly warm, but we had these really bizarre thunderstorms that kind of started hitting throughout the conference. And I was walking along and this hail, and you know, I mean, it was really like the size of marbles started coming down.

But the thing that amazed me was when it hit you, it was so freezing cold. I mean, you know, it felt like it was ice that was hitting and it would melt immediately, but it was really cold water. So it was a relatively warm day, but this kind of bizarre hail thing.

And, you know, as I mentioned previously, you know, God is so amazingly gracious to human beings. He's so patient with us. Do you know how many billions of ways he could just wipe the planet out in a matter of seconds if he wanted to?

You know, you think about it. We talked about the, you know, the swarms in our last study and we're looking at tonight some locust as well. How many of you remember Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds from years and years ago?

That was a freaky movie, wasn't it? Yeah. Well, you know, it could happen. It's a possibility, I think. So, you know, it just astounds me how arrogant we are as people and just how quickly. And, of course, we saw an example of that just recently with this earthquake in Haiti.

I was watching a lady who was being interviewed and she said it happened so instantaneously. It happened so fast. She walked in a room. The next thing she knew, she was buried under rubble. So fast. And just like Pharaoh, so many today, you know, mocking God and dismissing God and blaspheming God, not considering how quickly, how instantaneously God could, as he said here to Pharaoh, I could wipe you out in a second if I wanted to.

And he could, but he's gracious and he doesn't. And so Pharaoh sent, verse 27, and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous and my people and I are wicked.

Now, it seems like we've got a breakthrough here. Pharaoh's saying, okay. This is the first time he's said he's actually sinned. So now he's making a bit of a confession. I've sinned. The Lord is righteous.

It's me and my people. We're the wicked ones. Entreat the Lord that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail for it is enough. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. So Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord.

The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. The earth is Yahweh's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet, that you will not yet fear the Lord God.

Now, the flax and the barley were struck. He's talking about during the hailstorm. The flax and the barley were struck. For the barley was in the head and the flax was in the bud, but the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops.

So, based upon this statement and understanding the agricultural cycles in that part of the world, they figure that it was probably February or March when this was happening. Now, somebody asked me this week, and it's a good question, how much time transpired during this visitation of these plagues upon the Egyptians?

We don't know exactly, but the estimate is from 10 to 12 months. This happened over a period of almost a year. So, Moses, he went out of the city from Pharaoh, and he spread out his hands to the Lord.

Then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more, and he hardened his heart, he and his servants.

So, the heart of Pharaoh was hard. Neither would he let the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses. Now, the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart. I have strengthened his heart and the hearts of his servants that I may show these signs of mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son, the mighty things I have done in Egypt and my signs which I have done among them that you may know that I am the Lord.

So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Listen, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? You see, this is the problem with Pharaoh. He's an arrogant man.

He's the most powerful man in the world. Who is Yahweh to tell him what to do? And so it's his pride that's keeping him in this entrenched position. And this is something that is utterly astounding to me how many people are entrenched in their pride against the Lord.

It's amazing. You know, sometimes we see people who are very arrogant and prideful in regard to their attitude toward God. And we think, oh, you know, if we could just, you know, say this to them or that to them and get them to, you know, repent or whatever.

But, you know, the problem is this. The Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So you see, as long as a man is prideful and this is a huge problem with human beings, isn't it?

We all have a degree of pride. We all struggle with pride to some extent or another. But, of course, there are those people that are just so proud that they cannot humble themselves even before God. And Pharaoh is the great example here.

And, of course, Pharaoh is following the example of Satan. Satan is the father of pride. His sin originally was the sin of pride. He wasn't content with his position, but he said, I will be like the Most High.

I will ascend. I will place my throne above the throne of God. That's pride. That's the devil. And that's where Pharaoh is at. How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me or else if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory and they shall cover the face of the earth so that no one will be able to see the earth and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.

They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.

So this is going to be the plague to beat all plagues in regard to locusts. All throughout the Bible there's mention of these plagues of locusts. The Bible uses this terminology a lot, that which the locust has eaten.

And in my lifetime I've never seen a swarm of locusts, but of course we still have these kinds of things in different places in the world. As a matter of fact, if you want to, go on YouTube when you get home tonight and type in locust swarms and there's some pretty amazing stuff that you can find there.

And there's one great one with a family in a car in the midst of a locust swarm just listening to the kids scream is fun in and of itself. The little girl is just absolutely freaking out as these grasshoppers are, you know, climbing, trying to get in her car.

But, you know, this kind of thing, again, here is something that's not just a typical plague of locusts, but it's something that has never been before. So these kinds of things are fairly common, but this is something that's going to go beyond anything that anybody has ever known.

So as it says here, that the whole earth, the land, the ground will be so covered with these locusts, you can't even see the dirt. That is, boy, this is, you know, this is Alfred Hitchcock stuff. This is scary, frightening stuff.

So Pharaoh's servant said to him, speaking to Pharaoh, how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed? Even now his own men are saying, look, it's enough.

This, you know, if you persist in this, there's not going to be anything left. Egypt's already destroyed. So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh and he said to them, go, serve the Lord your God.

Who are the ones that are going? And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds. We will go for we must hold a feast to the Lord.

Then he said to them, the Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go. Beware for evil is ahead of you. Not so. Go now you who are men and serve the Lord for that is what you desired.

And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. So once again, as we looked at previously and as Pastor Chuck was teaching this morning, these compromises that Pharaoh is tempting Moses with, we saw previously in our study of the eighth chapter, how initially Pharaoh said, well, you can worship God, just stay in the land.

We talked for a minute about how, you know, the enemy would try to suggest that same thing to us. You know, be a Christian, just stay a part of the world system. Just go to church on Sundays if you need to.

But, you know, the rest of the week, just be like everybody else. And then, of course, in verse 28 of chapter eight, there was the suggestion that you could go, but not to go too far away. And not going too far, not going overboard, not becoming a fanatic, not, you know, being at church all the time or reading the Bible every day or, you know, not telling other people about Jesus.

You know, just don't, it's okay if you're a Christian, just don't go overboard with it. And so we see here further temptations to compromise. Pharaoh suggests that if you're gonna serve God, you better watch out because evil could befall you.

Tries to strike fear in Moses. And the enemy will try to get us to compromise our commitment by striking fear into us. He'll try to get us to draw back by saying, oh, you know, if you really go for it all the way with the Lord, you know, you're gonna turn a lot of people off, you're gonna lose a lot of friends, you might even lose a position at work, you might even lose your job.

If you lose your job, what's gonna happen? Or, you know, if you really dedicate your life to the Lord, if you really are determined to follow Him, He's gonna send you to that one place that you've always been afraid that you might end up having to go to.

And these are the kinds of things the enemy really does. So many people have held back, and in a sense, they've compromised their commitment to serving the Lord because of fear, because what Satan does is he will threaten evil consequences for obedience to God.

He'll say, hey, if you obey God, this is what He's gonna do to you. And it's a tactic of Satan. We see Pharaoh using it here. He says, hey, you know, the Lord had better be with you when I let you go because there could be evil ahead of you.

But then he goes on to suggest that the children are to be left behind, another attempt at getting a compromise. Yeah, you adults, you can go, but, you know, you just leave the kids here. And, of course, the whole motive of Pharaoh was he wanted to assure, if he was gonna let them go, he wanted to assure that they would come back.

He certainly didn't want to lose them as his slaves. And so, verse 12, then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, all the hail, all that the hail has left.

So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt.

They were very severe. Previously, there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them. Now, again, it's interesting in the book of Revelation, we find a similar kind of thing. Remember, the bottomless pit is opened, and these creatures that appear initially from a distance like locusts come out of the bottomless pit, but upon closer inspection, we find that these seem to be little demonic creatures with hair like women and faces like lions and teeth like lions and tails like the tails of a scorpion.

And they have power to afflict men. Frightening. That's yet in the future. But nothing like this had ever occurred in Egypt, nothing since then. For they covered the face of the whole earth, and the word earth here would better be understood as land.

They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, so there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

So the whole agricultural system is in ruins. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and Haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now, therefore, please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only.

So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord, and the Lord turned a very strong west wind, which took the locust away and blew them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

So once again, the hardening of the heart. Now, you know, Pharaoh, here's Pharaoh's big problem. Pharaoh has no genuine repentance in his heart, but he does come under duress when, you know, as these plagues are coming upon him.

So he cries out to the Lord, but it's not genuine because it's basically only to be freed from the immediate suffering. And once the suffering is alleviated, then he's right back in his position. And tragically, this is true with many people.

Many people have a momentary show of repentance when they're under some sort of chastisement or the consequences of their sin have caught up with them, and they're having to reap now the consequences of their sin.

And oftentimes, under that kind of a thing, you will find that a person will cry out, and it will seem that they're crying out to the Lord. But the sad thing is that once everything changes and normalizes, you see that their conversion was not a real conversion.

And I cannot tell you how many times I have seen that over the years. And you know where I've seen it so often? I've seen it so often in regard to marriage. I've seen it so often in regard to men who have been idiots and jerks and just have been abusive and just absolutely horrible husbands to the point that after numerous shows of mercy, the wife has finally said, It's over.

I can't do this anymore. That's it. And I can't tell you how many times we've seen the guys come in weeping. And, oh, my wife has left me. And, oh, God, please bring her back and all of that sort of thing.

And there's a seeming repentance. But so often once things change, you find that there was never really a genuine conversion. I've seen it so many times. So many times that I finally got to the point of when I would have an encounter with a person like that, I would just say, Look, this has nothing to do with getting your wife back.

Don't even think about that. That's not the issue here. The issue here is you need to repent before God and get yourself right with him because you're going to be judged. You're going to be judged for a lot of things.

And you're going to be judged for the way you treated your wife. And you're going to end up in hell unless you repent. So let's forget about your wife. Let's forget about your marriage. And let's get you and God right.

And then if God wants to have mercy on you and restore your marriage, well, that's his business. See, so often people get all of these things confused. And what happens is they come to the Lord sort of like Pharaoh, not really wanting salvation because they're humbling themselves and really wanting to repent for their own sins, but they just want to be freed from the situation that they're in.

You've all heard about jailhouse conversions. A lot of people get converted in jail. What else are you going to do in jail? Get beat up? Better get converted. Now, of course, there are some genuine conversions in prison.

Thank God for that. But a lot of times, and that's what they refer to them as, are jailhouse conversions. They're converted while they're in jail. Once they're out of jail, they're right back out doing the same thing again.

Why? Because, you see, it was just the circumstances. Or the foxhole conversion. We've heard about those. You know, you call out to God and, you know, in the midst of trouble, you call, oh, God, I'm sorry.

Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Oh, God, I'll follow you. I promise that if you just deliver me from this, I'll be your servant forever. And the Lord comes through. It's a repeat of what Pharaoh did. It's exactly the same kind of thing.

See, Pharaoh never really humbled himself. He never, it was never really the conviction in his own heart that he was a sinner and a rebel against the creator, God. And so none of this ever took. It never translated into any permanent change of heart because his motive was always impure.

And so don't be like that. Don't be like that. Sometimes the most difficult thing for a person to do is to repent, is to honestly say, I am wrong. I have been wrong about everything. I am completely to blame.

And, you know, it's the hardest thing to do, but it's the best thing to do, and it's the only thing that you can possibly do to really get right with God. Whenever a person says, well, yeah, I'm sorry, but, you know, you want to know what they did?

No, I don't want to know what they did because that's not the point. You see, whenever we're trying to justify ourselves or make some, even the smallest excuse, then you have to question whether genuine repentance is really there because genuine repentance says, I'm to blame.

I'm at fault. I deserve everything that I'm getting. I deserve even worse. I deserve to be damned eternally to hell. When somebody says that sincerely, that's where you know, okay, that person's repented.

David is such a great example, and I use David oftentimes when I'm talking to people about repentance. We know the story of David, of course, the great king of Israel, the sweet psalmist of Israel and the great giant slayer and all of that, but we know also that David was a great sinner, and he sinned with Bathsheba, you remember, committed adultery with her and then conspired to have her husband murdered.

And, you know, all of this was brought out eventually, and God dealt with it, and then, you know, there were all kinds of consequences that followed in David's life as a result of that, and his children revolted against him, and they rose up, and one of his sons raped one of his daughters, and one of his other sons then murdered the one who raped his daughter, and then we know the story of Absalom who eventually turned against his father and tried to drive him out of the kingdom, and you remember maybe in reading the story there, when David is fleeing from Absalom and he's leaving Jerusalem, as he's going out of the city, there's a Benjamite named Shimei.

Shimei hates David. He's a Benjamite. He was Saul's man. So he hates David, and as David's leaving the city, Shimei's throwing stones at him, and he's cursing him, and he's calling him all kinds of names, and one of David's men, he turns to David, and he says, how could you allow this dog to treat you like that?

He says, let me go and take off his head, and David says this. He says, what have I to do with you? He says, no, leave him alone, because perhaps the Lord has sent him to curse me. Perhaps this is God's judgment on me for my sin, and that story has always impacted me because I see, wow, here's a guy whose repentance is so genuine and so sincere that he's willing to take whatever comes his way.

He says, you know, maybe God sent him. I deserve worse than this, so maybe God sent him. I'm not going to touch him. You see, that's the kind of attitude that we do not see in Pharaoh, and that's the kind of attitude that, unfortunately, we don't see in people still to this very day.

Repentance, true repentance, is the key, and that is not just, you know, turning to God to be delivered from the consequences of your sin, but turning to God truly, sincerely, whether or not those things ever get sorted or worked out.

You know, some people have genuinely turned to the Lord who have been criminals, and guess what happened? They've gone to prison afterward. Some have thought, well, I've become a Christian now. Isn't God going to get me out of prison, or isn't the judge going to be lenient?

Maybe, but maybe not. You never know, because God knows what's best. He knows what we need. And so, Pharaoh, no real repentance, still hardening his heart against the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness.

We're in verse 21. That there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may be felt. That just sounds eerie. Darkness which may be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Now, the great Egyptian god was Ra, the sun god. So out of all of the gods that they worshipped, Ra was the greatest of the gods, and he was known as the sun god.

And so here, there's this thick darkness that comes upon the land that there's obviously nothing that can be done about it. So Ra is completely powerless to do anything about this darkness, but in the land of Goshen, there's light.

Now, as I mentioned previously, there are those scholars and Bible commentators who want to take these plagues and naturalize them and say that, well, like we mentioned, the red in the water that looked like blood, it was really plankton or something like that, or the frogs were explained by the receding of the river, and they've got all of these natural explanations.

And with this darkness, I've read many commentators who have said, well, this was due to a tremendous sandstorm. And then they went on to describe these sandstorms that can come, and it will be dark and so forth.

And I just think this. If it was a sandstorm, it would have said a sandstorm. It doesn't say sandstorm. It just says a darkness came. So to me, this is a supernatural thing, because a sandstorm surely would have affected Goshen as well, I would imagine.

But it's a supernatural thing. God is judging here, and God is making a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites with this darkness. Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, Go, serve the Lord.

Only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you. So the final temptation to compromise here. Okay, okay, you can go. Pharaoh's basically given him everything he's asked for except this one last thing.

And you know, that again is the way the devil operates, isn't it? He will concede that, okay, yeah, take it all. Go all the way, but. That's just this one thing. And you know, if there's one thing that the enemy can trick us into holding on to, not turning over to the Lord, just one little area, that one little thing can become a snare.