Moses—In Another Faceoff

 

Last time, in Moses—The Smackdown Heats Up! (from Exodus 8:20-9:12), we looked at the Second Triad of Plagues visited upon Egypt by God, in a conflict between God and Pharaoh that we have been calling the Divine Smackdown.  Unlike the first set of plagues—blood, frogs, and lice—which merely brought discomfort and inconvenience to Pharaoh and his people, this second set of plagues—flies, disease upon the animals, and boils—brought economic devastation to them and their land.  Such was not the case in the land of Goshen, however; for there, beginning with the fourth plague, the Israelites were covered by the Lord’s gracious umbrella of protection.

Also last time, when summarizing the episode, we learned that this initial showdown in Israel’s experience is a prophetic picture of the Smackdown yet to come during the Tribulation, when God, as the Husband of Israel, executes judgment upon the satanic world’s system and its front man, the Antichrist, to once again deliver His People.

In this episode (from Exodus 9:13-10:29), we will be examining the Third Triad of Plagues, the parallels between them and the ones to come during the Tribulation, and the profoundly irrational response to them by the unbelieving and wicked of the world.

 

 

Episode #6 of Act 1, Scene 3 of God’s One Big Story
Cast:     Narrator     God     Moses     Pharaoh     Servants

Round 7—Hail

Setting the Stage—At the end of our last episode, in spite of all the damage done to the land of Egypt—and in spite of the inability of his magicians to duplicate the plague of boils—Pharaoh stubbornly refused to submit to God’s commands to let His People go. When this episode opens, we don’t know how long it has been since Moses left Pharaoh—a day, a week, or longer—but we can be sure that the next three plagues will have even more devastating effect on his land and people than any of the previous ones.

Narrator:  Then the LORD said to Moses…

God:  Rise early in the morning 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.  But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.  As yet you exalt yourself against My people in 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.’ 

Narrator:  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 his livestock in the field.  Then the LORD said to Moses…

God:  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.

Narrator:  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, there was no hail.  And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them…

Pharaoh:  I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.  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.

Moses:  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.  But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD God.

Narrator:  Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud.  But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops.  So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and 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.

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Round 8–Locusts

Narrator:  Now the LORD said to Moses…

God:  Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened 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.

Narrator:  So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him…

Moses:  Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: ‘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.’ 

Narrator:  And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.  Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him…

Servants:  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?

Narrator:  So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them…

Pharaoh:  Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?

Moses:  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.

Pharaoh:  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.

Narrator:  And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.  Then the LORD said to Moses…

God:  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 that the hail has left.

Narrator:  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.  For they covered the face of the whole earth, 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.  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said…

Pharaoh:  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.

Narrator:  So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the LORD.  And the LORD turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts 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.

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Round 9–Darkness

Narrator:  Then the LORD said to Moses…

God:   Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt.

Narrator:  So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt 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.  Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said…

Pharaoh:  Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you.

Moses:  You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.  Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the LORD our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.

Narrator:  But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.  Then Pharaoh said to him…

Pharaoh:  Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!

Moses:  You have spoken well. I will never see your face again.

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Our Review

…of…

…The Most Important Points in this Episode

Round 7

— Rise early in the morning/Let My People go—the same pattern as before, with Moses being told to meet Pharaoh in the morning, with the same message.

— I will send all My plagues to your very heart—all three of these plagues were directed heavenward and their goal was to reveal the heart and real condition of the natural man—the man apart from God.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? ​​I, the LORD, search the heart, ​​I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

…as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 11:21)

— For this purpose I have raised you up—God tells them that He could have wiped out Pharaoh and the Egyptians at any time but instead, He is using their hardened hearts to fulfill His purposes.

— Therefore send and gather—this is the first time that the Egyptians are instructed on how to prepare for the coming judgment. God has Pharaoh issue the warning to his people–something which must have been very humbling for him to have to do.

— He who feared the word of the Lord—those who responded with faith in God’s Word were spared.  These become a picture to us of those who will come to faith during the Tribulation.

— Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven—in this last triad, the rod is used once again in the execution of the plagues.

— The Lord sent thunder, hail, and fire—bearing in mind that Egypt receives little to no rain each year, this storm would have been unprecedented in their history.  This plague corresponds to the that of the first trumpet judgment in Revelation 8:7.

The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

— Only in the land of Goshen—once again, a distinction is made between God’s people and the people of the world.

— I know that you will not yet fear the Lord—in spite of his confession that he has sinned, Moses knows that Pharaoh is lying and just stalling for time.

— The flax and barley were struck/but not the wheat and spelt—these two crops were not the main ones for food but were used mostly to provide them with their clothing and beverages.  The wheat and spelt were the ones used mostly for food and it is likely that they will be destroyed in the next plague.

— He hardened his heart, he and his servants—not only is Pharaoh’s heart hardened, so are those of his servants.

Round 8

— Go in to Pharaoh/I have hardened his heart—even though God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Moses is still told to go in and confront him. With each confrontation with Pharaoh, Moses grows stronger and more forceful.

— How long will you refuse to humble yourself—this is the real issue—Pharaoh’s refusal to humble himself before God.  But, God says…

Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!  ​​For I am God, and there is no other.  ​​I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. Isaiah 45:22-23

— Let My people go/or else—same message.  This time the or else will be a Plague of Locusts, which corresponds to the judgment of the Fifth Trumpet/Woe #1 in Revelation 9:1-6.

Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

— Let the men go/do you not yet know—although their hearts are hardened against God, Pharaoh’s servants don’t want to have any more destruction come upon their land.

— Go/who is going with you—this is Pharaoh’s third compromise—you can go but leave your children behind.

— The Lord had better be with you/go, you who are men—in other words, worse things are going to befall you if I ever let your children leave here.

— Moses stretched out his rod over Egypt/the Lord brought an east wind—whatever was left after the previous plagues, the locusts will destroy.

— He went out from Pharaoh/the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart—in response to Pharaoh’s “confession,” Moses turns and walks out without saying a word.

Round 9

— Stretch out your hand toward heaven/there was thick darkness in all the land three days—in keeping with the previously established pattern, in this third plague of the third triad, no warning is given.  Since God is light and the withdrawal of light results in darkness, the darkness here is a indication that God is now abandoning Egypt to her own choices.  Once abandoned by God, nothing would remain for them but the death that will  follow in the next plague.  When Christ became Sin on the Cross and He was abandoned by God, darkness covered the earth for three hours.  This plague of darkness will reoccur when the fifth bowl of God’s wrath is poured out upon the kingdom of the Antichrist in Revelation 16:10-11—a final warning that if you refuse to repent, this kind of darkness is what you will be experiencing forever when death comes and you are separated from God forever…

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

— But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings—given that the rest of the land was covered with darkness, this light would have to have been supernatural in origin—probably from the Shekinah Glory of God, which would later light the way for the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings.  While the Egyptians were plagued with a darkness that they couldn’t light up, the Israelites were blessed with a light that they couldn’t turn off.

— Go/let your flocks and herds be kept back—in his fourth and final compromise, Pharaoh offers to let the Israelites and their children go if they will leave their animals behind.  This could have been a ploy to ensure that the Israelites would come back, or it could have been that he simply wanted their animals to replace the ones that they had lost.

— Our livestock shall also go with us—there can be no compromise with the world. Without their animals, the Israelites wouldn’t have any animals to worship God with.

— But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s hear/get away from me—once again, Pharaoh refuses to repent—as in the case during the Tribulation. Although Pharaoh says that Moses will not see his face again, they will meet up again after the deaths of the firstborn.

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In Summary

To help us gain a better understanding of the devastating effects of Plague # 8, here is a bit of background information on locusts…

Locusts are related to grasshoppers and the two insects look similar. However, locust behavior can be something else entirely. Locusts are sometimes solitary insects with lifestyles much like grasshoppers. But locusts have another behavioral phase called the gregarious phase. When environmental conditions produce many green plants and promote breeding, locusts can congregate into thick, mobile, ravenous swarms.

Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage and attendant human misery—famine and starvation. They occur in many parts of the world, but today locusts are most destructive in sustenance farming regions of Africa.  The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is notorious. Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, they inhabit some 60 countries and can cover one-fifth of Earth’s land surface. Desert locust plagues may threaten the economic livelihood of one-tenth of the world’s humans.

A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile.  Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.  Like the individual animals within them, locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain. In 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean.[1]

Since locusts presently inhabit some 60 countries and cover one-fifth of the earth’s land surface, some have suggested that what is called a plague here could just have been a natural occurrence. Although this could have been true, it would still require an act of the God who is over nature to summon and then dismiss at will. And for those who try to rationalize the plague of darkness away as nothing more than an extended eclipse, eclipses don’t last for three days–and neither are they selective. They don’t block out the light in most of the country while leaving one area illuminated!

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As promised earlier, here are some of the ways that Pharaoh’s actions foreshadow those that the Antichrist will take during the Tribulation…

 

 

With the triads of plagues now behind us, there is only one left to come–so be sure to join us again next time for Moses–The Round 10 Knockout!

 

 

[1] Information courtesy of National Geographic at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/locusts/

Original plague images courtesy of EncouragingBibleVerses.org.