“God’s Execution of Judgment, pt.2” (Exodus 9:1 - 10:29) | 3/19/23
Exodus 9:1 - 10:29 | 3/19/23 | Will DuVal
As we continue our journey through the book of Exodus this morning, we find ourselves nearly halfway through the 10 plagues that God sends on Egypt and Pharaoh, as an act of judgment against Pharaoh’s refusal to obey God’s order to let his people - Israel - go free to serve and worship the LORD. And these plagues are hitting just a little too close to home for me, personally, this morning, as the rest of my family is currently at home SICK. And while I don’t THINK God is inflicting Exodus-style judgment on my wife and kids, the fact of the matter is: if He WAS, they’d DESERVE it! Because as we saw last week, ALL of us rightfully deserve God’s judgment, His wrath and punishment, because of our SIN. We are all FAR more like Pharaoh than we’d like to admit, in our sinful rejection of God, and our stubborn insistence on our way over His.
So the real question isn’t “How could a loving God send these plagues on Egypt?”, but rather: “How could a JUST God SPARE the often disobedient and faithless Israelites of that judgment?” And as we saw last week, the only answer is: GRACE! God’s choice to spare and save anyone is just that: His CHOICE; His sovereign (that means “supremely authoritative”), and gracious (that means “freely given and unmerited”) GIFT. And God offers you and me that SAME grace today, through the gift of his Son JESUS. This is the GOSPEL - the “good news” that while we were Hell-bound sinners, God showed us GRACE and offers us SALVATION through Christ. THAT is the most important message of these plagues.
So we gleaned 8 gospel principles last week; quick RECAP:
1) First, God always gives sinners ample WARNING. God warns Pharaoh 10x here, because God is patient, merciful, long-suffering, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)
2) And Second, God never hardens our hearts against our WILL. God won’t FORCE you to love Him, nor will He cause you to REJECT Him unless you are complicit in that choice.
3) However, third, God invites us to CRY OUT to Him, because…
4) Fourth, He delights to show us COMPASSION. FIVE times in these plagues Pharaoh will beg Moses to “PLEAD with the Lord” on my behalf, to which GOD responds by mercifully relenting. Because “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of [even] the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ex 33:11). But that brings us to gospel lesson…
-
#5) Because Pharaoh DOESN’T truly “turn” and REPENT of his sin; rather, he wanted the removal of the plagues - the consequences of his sin - without removing his sin. So instead, God proves that He will punish IDOLATRY. And we saw that each one of these plagues is God’s judgment not ONLY on Pharaoh, but on Pharaoh’s GODS.
The serpent goddess Wadjet,
the Nile god Hapi,
the frog goddess Heqet,
the earth-god Geb,
the “lord of the flies” Beelzebub…
And we’ll add FIVE MORE Egyptian deities to the list this morning, as Yahweh reminds Israel and informs Egypt that…
6) Sixthly: His power is INCOMPARABLE! As God will put it here in ch9: “I send all my plagues on you… so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth… for this purpose I have raised you up [Pharaoh], to show you my POWER”! (vv14,16) As we sing, “You have no rivals, you have no equals, now and forever God YOU reign; what a powerful name”; God’s power is INCOMPARABLE. Both His power to SAVE those who belong to Him, as WELL as His power to HUMBLE those who OPPOSE Him.
But Lastly, God DOES offer us GRACE… IF we come to Him on HIS TERMS. And Jesus couldn’t be ANY clearer: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; No one comes to the Father except through ME.” (Jn 14:6) We can ONLY come to God through FAITH in His son JESUS.
But unfortunately that doesn’t stop us from TRYING all sorts of other paths, does it? As John Calvin said, “Our hearts are idol FACTORIES”, constantly churning out new objects of worship, to give our hearts to; to enthrone in the place of preeminence in our lives, that ought to be reserved for Christ alone. And just as God judged each of Pharaoh’s gods, last week we confessed to our OWN pantheon of false gods still today:
the god of MONEY... (bull)
The god of STUFF... (Amazon)
The gods of Entertainment… (Netflix)
Popularity… (FB)
Sex… (bunny)
Politics… (elephant/donkey)
COUNTRY… (American flag)
Family… (stock photo)
Mother Earth… (environmentalism)
And the list goes ON!
So in light of those gospel REMINDERS, this morning we’re gonna receive the gospel’s REPROOF of our idols, its criticism, censure, disapproval, REBUKE of all those things that TRY to compete with God’s supremacy in our hearts. And in particular, we’ll look at FIVE of them (I wanted to get to all SIX, but we just won’t have time).
SO MUCH to get to; but first, let’s ask the Lord’s help in prayer…
SIX IDOLS in Pharaoh’s heart, and in OUR hearts, that God wants to expose and EXPEL - to cleanse us of, and save us FROM - this morning:
For starters, Plague #5: our RELIGION. Because your RELIGION cannot save you. (9:1-7)
We pick up the story in ch9:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. 4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’” 5 And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.”
Two quick passing observations:
First, “[God’s] punishment is becoming more intense [now]. Whereas the plague of gnats [last week in ch8] was attributed merely to ‘the finger of God’ (8:19), the plague on livestock [here] was sent - v3 - by ‘the hand of the LORD’” (Ryken, 261).
Second, when we come to the plague of the HAIL, #7, in v13, God in his MERCY will WARN Pharaoh to “get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter”, lest they be KILLED by the hail. Which SOUNDS like a contradiction, if “All the livestock of the Egyptians [supposedly] died” 13 verses earlier during plague #5. But a more careful reading reveals that God only killed the animals that were “in the FIELD”. Philip Ryken, whose helpful commentary I am relying on extensively again this morning, explains: “Late in the year, as the floodwaters receded, farmers put their livestock out to pasture. However, since the recession was gradual, during the month of January the animals were divided between field and stable” (Exodus, 262). So the animals left back in the barn would have survived this fifth plague. No contradiction.
But the BIGGER point here is that Yahweh is judging our idol of RELIGION. Here’s Ryken again (262-4):
“Many of Egypt’s gods and goddesses were depicted as LIVESTOCK. Some Egyptians worshiped the BULL, which they viewed as ‘a fertility figure, the great inseminator imbued with the potency of life.’ Cults dedicated to the bull were common throughout Egypt. There was Buchis, the sacred bull of Hermonthis, and Mnevis, who was worshiped at Heliopolis. Sometimes bulls were considered to embody the gods Ptah and Ra. But the chief bull was Apis… Then there were the goddesses. Isis, the queen of the gods, was generally depicted with cow horns on her head. Similarly, the goddess Hathor was represented with the head of a cow… One of her sacred functions was to protect Pharaoh, and on occasion she was depicted as a cow suckling the king for nourishment. To summarize… the Egyptians LOVED their sacred cows… Thus it is not surprising that when the Israelites later decided to rebel against [Yahweh] and return to the gods of EGYPT [in Exodus ch32], they will make a golden…” WHAT? {CALF!}
In killing all their livestock, then, God is exposing the IMPOTENCE of all these imposter gods; the idea that they could offer life, vitality, nourishment, fertility… it’s all a bunch of BULL!
But the idol of RELIGION is still alive and well today, isn’t it? And we don’t have to look to the 330 million false gods of the Hindus and their modern-day worship of literal “sacred cows” to prove it. No - there’s plenty of “RELIGION” right here in our own pews.
And perhaps I should clarify: when I say “religion” here, I mean “a set of rules that WE establish by which we can reach GOD.”
The 613 mitzvot of Judaism
The 5 pillars of Islam
The 7 sacraments of Roman Catholicism
The “Golden Rule” of secular humanism: just “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and surely it’ll all work out in the end. They stole that one from JESUS, by the way, in Matthew 7; the context of which - the Sermon on the Mount - was Jesus trying to show us our utter IN-ability to keep the Law, the IM-possibility of earning God’s favor - earning HEAVEN - through our OWN good deeds; “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, [the PROFESSIONAL law-keepers],” Jesus says, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven… You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (5:20, 48)
You want a RULE to reach GOD? A STANDARD? “Be perfect”, Jesus says. Do that, and you will have EARNED your spot in Heaven.
But friends, biblical Christianity isn’t a “RELIGION” at ALL. It’s not a set of rules established by US for reaching GOD; Christianity is all about a relationship established by GOD whereby HE reached down and rescued US! Not by giving us a “LIST” to keep, to earn His love; but by giving us a GIFT to receive, as the PROOF of His love: His very own SON!
And the minute you PAY for it - or TRY to, I should say; cuz you and I could NEVER actually “AFFORD” God’s love - but the minute we even ATTEMPT to pay for it, and “EARN” it, it ceases to be a GIFT.
Are you trusting in your “religion” - your baptism, your church attendance, your serving, your tithing, your knowledge of the Scriptures, your quiet time fidelity, your prayer life, your love for God and others - are you trusting in YOU for salvation, or are you trusting in JESUS?
It is “by grace that [we] have been saved through faith. And this is not [our] OWN doing; it is the… WHAT??
GIFT… of God… NOT a result of works, so that no one may boast” in ANYTHING other than CHRIST (Eph 2:8-9).
Plague #6 - Your HEALTH cannot save you. (9:8-12)
We read, v8:
“And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.”
FOUR quick observations this time:
First, this is the first plague in which God is said to have “hardened” Pharaoh’s heart. Since we’ve talked about that extensively now, I won’t go into it again, other than to simply acknowledge it.
Second, as for the FAKE gods, this could be Yahweh’s judgment on Thoth, god of the healing arts. Or Imhotep, god of medicine. But “the most common [Egyptian] deity for dealing with disease was Sekhmet… who was supposed to have the power of both creating epidemics and bringing them to an end.” (Ryken, 272) Well - where is Sekhmet when you NEED him, am I right? He’s impotent, an imposter.
Third, we saw last week that the plagues are a kind of INVERSION of the creation account in Genesis; a DE-creation. Similarly here, Ryken notes (273): “It was customary for Pharaoh’s priests to take sacrificial ashes and cast them into the air as a sign of blessing. But God took that ritual act and turned it into a curse. This was a matter of justice [too], because the soot may well have come from the furnaces for making bricks, like the ones the Israelites [were forced to] baked for Pharaoh… God was repaying the Egyptians for their sins… making Israel’s curse a blessing and turning Egypt’s blessing into a curse.”
And Fourth: it is fitting that this “infectious disease [would have] prevented the magicians from carrying out their religious duties. The Egyptians valued purity; so a priest covered with open sores would have been unable to perform his customary rituals.” (Ryken, 273)
Moreover, we hear they “could not [even] stand before Moses”, v11 says. That seems appropriate, doesn’t it? Psalm 1:5 declares that “the wicked will not stand in the judgment”. This plague - and ALL these plagues, by the way - are just a preview of a coming, greater, FINAL judgment, foretold in the book of Revelation. According to Revelation 16:2, when the first angel of the Apocalypse pours out the “bowl of God’s wrath” on those who reject Christ, “harmful and painful sores [will come] upon them”. It’s all gonna come full circle.
But NONE of that is the MAIN point of the sixth plague; the MAIN point is simply that your HEALTH can’t save you. In 2021, Americans spent $4.3 TRILLION (with a “T”) dollars on healthcare; that’s roughly $13,000 a person. Now, I’m not up here to say fire your doctor and trash your meds; I’m just here to remind us that all we’re really doing is delaying the INEVITABLE. You can put as many Band-Aids on that body as you WANT, but sooner or later, it’s gonna be a CORPSE.
Your health can’t SAVE you, friend. You can eat all the KALE you want, but it can’t guarantee you tomorrow - and even if you live to a HUNDRED, your health can’t guarantee you the day after THAT, and ALL the rest of the days of your ETERNITY.
Good Health is a good goal, but a terrible god. Good goal, miserable GOD.
Plague #7 - Your POWER cannot save you. (9:13-35)
We read in v13:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”’” 20 Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, 21 but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” 31 (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. 32 But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) 33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.”
Once AGAIN, Yahweh is judging the gods of Egypt; Ryken explains (283): “Many of the Egyptian [deities] were personified in the elements of NATURE. [They] could trust in Shu, the god of the atmosphere, who held up the heavens. They could pray to Nut, the sky goddess… They could depend on Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, or on Seth, who was present in the wind and storm.”
But no matter WHICH of these “gods” the Egyptians turned to, Yahweh once again exposed their IMPOTENCE; “They are POWERLESS to save you, from MY hand, and MY wrath against your IDOLATRY.”
And once AGAIN, the hail here is foreshadowing of an even GREATER storm yet to come, in the SEVENTH and FINAL bowl of God’s wrath, in Revelation 16: “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air… And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth… And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.” (vv17-21)
Have you ever been caught in a big hailstorm, a thunderstorm, a tornado… an EARTHQUAKE? Most of y’all remember the story, so I won’t BORE you with it again (although I can assure you: it was ANYTHING but boring!), but the day our son Elijah was born - 3 years ago YESTERDAY, actually - we were out in Utah picking him up, and Salt Lake City experienced its worst earthquake in 60 years - 5.7 magnitude; it was so big the angel Moroni on top of the Mormon Temple lost his TRUMPET (speaking of God’s judgment against false religions!).
But if you can imagine how it felt, waking up in a foreign bed (AirBnb!), 20 hours from home, in the middle of a global PANDEMIC (the world had just shut down the week before), amidst all the uncertainties that ALREADY come with childbirth, not to mention a baby that’s not even YOURS, who you’re hoping to ADOPT, but mom can change her mind at any moment on a whim… and 5 minutes after the alarm goes off that morning, before you’re even out of BED yet, the entire HOUSE starts shaking, pictures falling off the walls, lights go out, dust flying, people screaming…
Let me just TELL you who it felt; in a word, I felt POWERLESS.
Completely out of control of the situation. My wife said, “I’ve never known the FEAR of the Lord like that”; never been more convinced that HE’S God, and I’m NOT, and I am TOTALLY at your MERCY right now. I am POWERLESS.
That’s where God, in His mercy, wanted to bring PHARAOH, in this 7th plague, and in ALL the plagues. And for a moment, in v27, it sounds like maybe he’s finally learned his lesson: for the first time, he actually acknowledges his SIN: “This time I have sinned; YAHWEH is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.”
But Ryken (287-8) points out 3 major flaws with Pharaoh’s alleged “confession”: “First, he didn’t confess his sins to GOD”; he went to MOSES. “When a man is truly sorry for his sins, he takes them straight to GOD… Second, Pharaoh didn’t confess ALL his sins. He says, “THIS time I have sinned”... but what about the OTHER six times [now] that he hardened his heart? What about keeping the Israelites in bondage… By failing to recognize the depth of his depravity, Pharaoh was minimizing his sin… Finally, Pharaoh [STILL] did not TURN AWAY from his sins. He was very sorry that he was getting plagued with hail, but he was NOT truly sorry for his sins. The proof comes at the end of the passage… As SOON as Moses’ prayers were answered and the storm was stilled, Pharaoh went RIGHT back to his sins. He was afraid of the plagues, but he did not fear GOD.”
How about YOU - do you fear God this morning? Do you recognize - without him needing to send a HAILSTORM, an EARTHQUAKE, to PROVE it - that He is God, that you’re NOT, and that you are totally at HIS mercy, each and every moment of your life? That you are POWERLESS before Him, powerless WITHOUT Him.
And will you, UNLIKE Pharaoh, in LIGHT of God’s power - both to SAVE AND to SMITE, God’s prerogative EITHER to DELIVER OR to DESTROY - will you therefore HUMBLE yourself, and THROW yourself on God’s mercy, in TRUE repentance and faith, trusting in JESUS, who alone has the power to SAVE you?
Plague #8 - Your WEALTH cannot save you. (10:1-20)
We read in ch10 now:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. 4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, 5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail [remember, the “wheat and emmer” that hadn’t sprouted up yet], and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, 6 and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7 Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, “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 understand that Egypt is ruined?” 8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.” 10 But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. 11 No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” 18 So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 19 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. 20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.”
Once again, this is just a SNEAK PEAK of the far more terrifying locusts that God is gonna send in the last days; you can read all about them and “their torment like… a scorpion when it stings... And [how] in those days people… will long to die, but death will flee from them” in Revelation 9:3-10 for yourself.
But once again, as Ryken explains (299): “It was another humiliation for Egypt’s gods. [They] worshiped Min, the patron of the crops… Nepri (the god of grain), Anubis (the guardian of the fields), and Senehem (the divine protector against PESTS). They depended on ALL these gods to preserve their food supply.”
And, therefore, to preserve their BOTTOM LINE. Agriculture made up the MAJORITY of the ancient Egyptian economy. Which has now been effectively ERASED. OBLITERATED.
God is hitting Egypt where it REALLY hurts: they're WALLETS. It’s pretty telling, isn’t it, that the Egyptians have endured Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness to this point, but once God starts plaguing their WALLETS, in v7, even Pharaoh’s SERVANTS confront him: “How long are you gonna let this go ON?! Just let the Israelites GO already! Don’t you GET IT: Egypt is RUINED!
But Egypt was ruined already, if they were trusting in their PROSPERITY to save them.
How about us TODAY, friends? The Bible has SO much to say about this:
Prov 11:28 “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall”
Ps 62:10 “ if riches increase, set not your heart on them.”
1 Tim 6:17 “set [not your] hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything we enjoy.”
Are we trusting in our RICHES, or in the God who richly provides us even the power to GET wealth, Deut 8:18 reminds us; may we trust in HIM.
Lastly, and quickly: Plague #9 - Your SELF cannot save you. (10:21-29) You can’t save YOURSELF!
We read:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. 24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” 27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” 29 Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.””
If Pharaoh’s words there at the end sound familiar, that’s because they are almost identical to GOD’S warning to Moses at the burning bush, and especially later on Mt. Sinai, when Moses will ask to see God’s glory, and God replies “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Ex 33:20) Ryken points out (315): “God is so awesome in his holiness that to see him is to PERISH. For Pharaoh to assert the same power of his OWN countenance was an act of sheer arrogance.”
And that’s because above ALL his other idols here, Pharaoh’s ultimate idol was SELF! Because Pharaoh considered himself to be the incarnation of the Egyptian’s chief god Amon-Re. Here’s how Ryken summarizes it (303-4): “Days of darkness would frighten anyone, but they held a special terror for the Egyptians because they worshiped the sun… [They] served Horus (the god of the sunrise), Aten (the god of the round, midday sun), and Atum (the god of the sunset). But the supreme deity in [ALL] their national pantheon was Amon-Re, who said, ‘I am the great god who came into being of himself… who has NO OPPONENT among the gods.’”
And “Pharaoh… was regarded as the SON of Re, the personal embodiment of the solar deity. Egypt’s king was Egypt’s GOD, and as the incarnation of Amon-Re, pharaoh [allegedly] maintained the cosmic order… The Egyptians even prayed to him, saying ‘Attend to me, O rising sun that illuminates the land with his comeliness [and] dispels darkness from Egypt. ” (Ryken, 304-5)
Pharaoh: you claim to ILLUMINATE all of Egypt with your HOT-ness; let’s see you dispel THIS darkness!
But Pharaoh couldn’t save them. He couldn’t even save HIMSELF. He’s just grasping at straws here - “FINE! You can take your kids… but you gotta LEAVE your ANIMALS!” Still clinging to some semblance of power and control, in his stubborn PRIDE.
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So how then are we to RESPOND to God, friends? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Pet 5:5b-6).
Conclusion: Friends: only JESUS can save us! May we humble ourselves in true repentance and true faith in Him.