Exodus 11

The Lord knew that all the foregoing plagues would not be enough to make Pharaoh let the people go, but the last one would. However, all the preceding plagues had been part of the build up. The Israelites were to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold, because of the preceding plagues they would be desperate to see the back of them.

Interestingly, the Egyptians actually had quite a high opinion of Moses, Pharaoh was the stumbling block. The gradual build up of plagues and repeated requests had probably contributed, or at least maintained, Moses' reputation. Countries are sometimes led by idiots (no doubt you can name a few current countries to whom this applies ....).

The final plague would involve the deaths of all the firstborn in Egypt, from the least to the greatest. The Israelites would be spared.

In verse 8 it says that Moses left Pharaoh "hot with anger". There were several occasions when Moses displayed his anger, and it could get him into trouble. Indeed his anger was a contributory factor in his not being allowed into the Promised Land. We do well to heed the words of James 1:20.

Exodus 10:21-29

The penultimate plague is one of darkness. This would be particularly poignant for the Egyptians for they worshipped the sun god Ra, so the blotting out of all light would be a demonstration that their god had no power. Complete darkness can anyway be very frightening and can almost cling to you. This went on for three days, and everything ground to a halt, except the places where the Israelites lived.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him and all his people to go and worship, but they had to leave their flocks behind. Moses refused, because they needed the sheep and goats to make sacrifices. Note that the sacrificial system of the Law had not been introduced at this point, but offering sacrifices was a common feature of worship.

Pharaoh is having none of this and tells Moses never to appear before him again, which indeed he will not.

After this will come the plague on the firstborn. It is puzzling why the demand was just to go into the desert to worship, when the goal was complete freedom from slavery.

Exoddus 10:1-20

God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh again, but also reminds and explains to Moses what is happening. God knows that Moses is bound to find repeatedly going to Pharaoh and seemingly getting nowhere a bit frustrating to say the lease, so He explains to him what is going on. Similarly, in Acts we read of the Holy Spirit encouraging Paul to stay in Corinth (Acts 18:9,10). God understands what we go through.

Rather than being a negative, Pharaoh's hardness of heart was all part of the plan. It would act as an encouragement for future generations. How would this work? Well sometimes the opposition seems to be unyielding, but God can always ramp up the pressure more than the opposition can. No matter what is coming against you just now, God is well able to enable you to withstand and overcome it.

We tend to see the battle only in its immediate context, how is it affecting me now? Sometimes we need to look beyond this and see it in its wider context. God takes us through things not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of others.

Moses goes to Pharaoh and threatens him with a plague of locusts. The officials are quicker on the uptake than Pharaoh is, knowing that they are on to a loser here. Pharaoh tries to give a little, but will not let the women and children go, so the plague comes. As was becoming a familiar pattern, Pharaoh relented, only to harden his heart again later.

Exodus 9

The next plague falls on all the livestock, so it is now directly affecting the livelihood of the nation. Yet again Pharaoh is given the opportunity to repent, but as usual refuses to do so. All the Egyptian livestock died, but none of the Israelite ones. Pharaoh investigated this, found it to be true, but did nothing. When people are hard of heart even the facts of the matter will not move them.

The next plague comes without an opportunity to repent, and this time affects the people directly. A plague of boils will come upon all of them. Still Pharaoh refused to change his mind. 

By now Pharaoh should realise that he is dealing with something that he cannot resist or oppose, and the Lord gives him yet another chance to repent.

God could have wiped out Pharaoh in an instant. Why didn't He do this? One was to give him the chance to let the Israelites go, and secondly to let the world see who He was, and how guilty Pharaoh was. This time He tells Pharaoh what the plague will be, hailstones, and instructs him to take action to avoid the worst effects.

People often ask questions about God's judgement, and particularly about hell, usually saying something like "how can a God of love ...." The truth is that at the final judgement the only question we will ask is why was God so patient, why didn't He do something sooner.

The warning and advice brought a division, some heeded it, others ignored it. Man's pride often leads him to do stupid things. The hail duly fell everywhere, except on Goshen.

At the end of it Pharaoh appears to have had a change of heart. Moses knew it was not real, but called for the hail to stop, and Pharaoh of course hardened his heart again.

Exodus 8:16-31

Next come the gnats. This time there is no warning to Pharaoh. It has been made perfectly clear to him what he has to do, and he has refused.

As well as speaking for Moses, Aaron is also using the rod for Moses. He strikes the ground and gnats spring up from all over the land of Egypt.

This time the magicians were unable to replicate the miracle. They told Pharaoh that it must be God who was doing this, so Pharaoh is being steadily backed into a corner, and will eventually have to acknowledge the Lord. However, that time had not yet come, and Pharaoh continued in his stubbornness.

Next Moses is told to go to the river to meet Pharaoh. Pharaoh probably went there either to worship at some shrine or to bathe. See that Moses is having to maintain contact with the enemy. When the enemy refuses to yield, and we have not been told by God to back off, we must continue the confrontation, dealing with the enemy directly.

This time Pharaoh does get the chance to let the people go. If not there will be swarms of flies all over the land. Note that the whole people suffered because of Pharaoh's stubbornness. If we live in rebellion against God it is not just us who will suffer, but those around us as well.

This time there is a difference, the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, will not be affected. God is making it steadily clearer who is in charge, and what He is doing. When troubles hit a nation sometimes Christians will be affected like everyone else (though they will/should react differently from everyone else), at other times there will be a clear distinction between the people of God and the rest.

Pharaoh seems to relent again, but is trying to compromise with God by getting the Israelites to sacrifice in Egypt. Moses is having none of it. So Pharaoh seems to agree to let the people go. Moses warns him not to be deceitful like the last time. However, Pharaoh again acted in the same way as before.

Exodus 8:1-15

The Lord gave Pharaoh seven days to think about things, before the next plague came. Again Moses is to tell Pharaoh to let His people go. So again Pharaoh is given the opportunity to avoid the plague, but as usual he is stubborn and refuses to repent.

This plague involves the Nile teeming with frogs. The Nile was involved in some of the plagues because it was vital to the harvest for Egypt. The frogs would expand from the Nile and get everywhere.

Aaron again acted on Moses' behalf and the frogs came, but the magicians were able to imitate the miracle.

Pharaoh was starting to get rattled and says he will indeed let the people go if Moses gets God to stop the plague. Moses has every confidence in his prayer, even allowing Pharaoh to set the time. It is strange that Pharaoh did not say do it now, instead of choosing tomorrow and so subjecting himself and his people to more torture. Perhaps he was trying in some way to save face.

Moses prayed to the Lord and the plague stopped, although the after effects continued, namely piles of stinking frogs.

Pharaoh, however, reneged on his promise once there was relief from the plague.

Exodus 7:8-24

First of all Moses and Aaron were to perform the "staff becoming a snake" miracle. This presumably had worked with the Israelites in convincing them, but it did work with Pharaoh. Pharaoh's wise men were able to do the same miracle, though Moses' snake ate up all theirs.

Jesus often rebuked the people, especially the religious leaders, for demanding a sign (Matt 12:39). If a person's heart is hard, then demanding a sign is only an excuse to continue in unbelief, and a sign will actually make no difference. It did not with Pharaoh, did not with the religious leaders in Jesus' day, and will not today. Now this is definitely not to say that miracles should not happen, they should. It is to say that we need to disabuse ourselves of any notion that if only people could see a miracle they would believe. If their heart is hard then they will not believe, if there heart is open then the miracle can be a key to opening their heart.

Now comes the first of the plagues. These plagues are designed to demonstrate beyond all doubt to Pharaoh who the Lord is. The first plague changed all the water into blood. However, Pharaoh was unmoved, and his magicians could repeat this miracle.