The Eighth Plague: Locusts
10:1 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, 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.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
21 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 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.” (ESV)
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
Pharoh is starting to finally get it! God wanted to show Pharoh that He is the LORD….looks like God succeded in that! God also said Pharoh’s heart would be hardened, and as you can tell by the end of this chapter, Pharoh just wont give in! Later, Pharoh will find out just how powerful God can be!
Ex 10:10 Pharaoh said, “The LORD be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.
It’s facinating how the world’s view of evil differs from that of Almighty God. Jsut like today, people say that the LORD’s way is wrong and evil but then, now and forever it is the path to real life. Let’ make choices today to follow His Word, Jesus Christ, becasue He is right and righteous!
11 No! Have only the men go; and worship the LORD, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence.
Pharaoh was willing to let the men go to worship the LORD, but that was not the full extent of what God wanted him to do. God wanted Pharaoh to let the Israelite men, women, children, and livestock go. This passage shows the fact that partial obedience is disobedience. Pharaoh and the Egyptians paid a high price, locusts everywhere and utter darkness, due to Pharaoh’s unwillingness to obey God completely. I was thinking how I do this to God sometimes. When He asks me to do something big or sacrifice something that is precious I often respond by obeying some of what He asks of me. If I do not submit wholly to His will and obey all that He has asked me to do I am just as guilty as Pharaoh and will have to face the consequences in my life. It is my prayer that I am willing to obey God completely and immediately, even if He asks me to do something that is very difficult!
3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
At some point everyone must humble themself and admit that the LORD is the only God of the universe. He is self-existent and self sufficient not needing anyone or anything to live. He has supreme rank and authority and nothing happens outside of his command. He knows everything instantly and completely. He is all powerful and is present everywhere at the same time. He is above all things and has existed and will exist for eternity. He does not change. He is perfect in his actions, attitude, and behavior. He is perfectly equitable and is right in his compensation for everything. His glory commands and deserves to be worshipped above everything else. He acts selfishly and sacraficially for the benefit of others. He always keeps his promises and patiently endures despite provocation from His creation. God deserves our worship and our first response should be that of humility as we consider our sin versus His greatness.
“Then David said to the whole assembly. ‘Praise the LORD your God.’ So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king.” 1 Chronicles 29:20
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
18 Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.
“What did Pharaoh say?……..HE SAID NO!” Pretty funny/cute clip by Pastor Bobby and his son. :) Well, in these verses we can clearly see that once again, Pharaoh declined Moses to let God’s people go. It is a bummer on what is going to happen to Pharaoh once he realizes….oops. I think, Pharaoh is gonna get a spanking…
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
I don’t think Pharoah is really sorry, reminds me of that sermon at True North we had in the fall semester about Godly sorrow. Pharoah might have been a little sorry, but this sorrow will make him not let the Israelites go or Pharoah doesn’t have godly sorrow that make him turn to the true God and the one that makes Himself know to Pharoah by all of these miracles and plagues He does.
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
here Pharaoh appears to be apologizing and confessing his sin to Moses and Aaron, and ultimately to the Lord. however, Pharaohs confessions and asking of forgiveness wasn’t genuine, and he ends up chasing down the Israelites at the Red Sea.
Pharaohs false confession of sin should remind us of what our God desires. He wants true repentence and contrition of our sin. other people may not be able to tell our confession is fake, but ultimately God knows the truth.
Thanks John for the verse and the help.
I feel bad for the people of Egypt in a way. Not the Israelites but the Egyptians. They didnt have a choice and they got punished for the choices of Pharoah. I agree with Kyle. Pharoah was not really sorry and didnt feel remorse for disobeying God. He simply says that so the plagues would leave him. Even though I know the end of this story, my heart still wants to plead with Pharoah to let the Israelites go, before the plagues get to the angel of death. God’s plan is holy and perfect, and He himself is just. Everything that happened here was a part of this perfect plan.
Your welcome Chelseaaa. What are your thoughts after reading Romans Chapter 9?
2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
God had a reason for hardenings Pharoah’s heartand it was so future generations of people not yet born would know that He is God. It was so his Glory would be proclaimed throughout the earth. And here we are today reading the story of Moses and Pharoah and giving glory to God for what he did thousands of years ago in Egypt. Our God is Awesome and his plans are amazing.
Saturday night evagelism was good last night. God’s word was shared and we are trusting in him for the results!
bugs flying every were would be weird. Why did God do so many plague till the Hebrews could leave.
29 “Just as you say,” Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.”
Moses must be so excited, for Pharaoh is so mad and is frustrated with Moses and his GOD(and our GOD :]) that he just can’t deal with Moses, because God always wins so no matter how hard Pharaoh tried he failed and adventually God’s people leave Egypt. :]
***REMEMBER that you are in the LORD’s army***
Wow!! Our God is so powerful! I like how in verses 13 and 19 it says that the Lord caused the winds to shift to make the locusts go where He pleases, that is so cool!
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
I agree with Kyle. This is not true godly sorrow. Pharaoh just wants a free get out of God’s wrath ticket. The motives behind Pharaoh’s confession are pretty weak-sauce because they are of the wrong motives. He just doesn’t seem to understand that realizing his sin is only half of it. He must turn from it also, which he obviously doesn’t do. Instead he becomes even more angry and chases the Israelite’s out of Egypt, causing him and his fellow Egyptians to be crushed by the waters of the Red Sea. Too bad for him.
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them
I think it is amazing that God can hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and officials so many times. This just shows how powerful our God is that he can harded hearts and do miraculous signs. We should defently fear God not man.
23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
This is like the world today. Most of the world is living in darkness and they are struggling and cannot see, but all of God’s followers are fortunate to struggle less and to see have light to see given to them by by God! This is what happens when we have God on our side.
In this passage (and the other ones in which the plagues are chronicled) we get a clear picture of what will happen to those who do not obey the Lord’s will. His will will be done no matter what, but people are able to oppose it. However, this is an extremely foolish thing to do, as we see what happens to Pharaoh and all of Egypt as a result. May it be a reminder to us all that what God wants to happen WILL happen.
God, please forgive us for when we have gone against your will, and help us to live according to it, the way you want us to.
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
18 Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.
This is kind of like what we do. We are judged on our actions, we repent and say we are sorry to avoid further judgement, but then nothing changes, we continue to sin against God over and over again.
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
I agree with Kyle, I do not really think he seems sorry either…. truly sorry. When we say “sorry” we should feel conviction and not do it again. As Kyle mentioned, we should feel a Godly sorrow and truly mean it!
23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
What an amazing Father we have! I love this verse. It isn’t the first time God had his hands of protection over the Israelites either. He is constantly taking care of his people. What a comforting thing to know; that no matter what evil, worldly things are going on around us, God is going to take care of his children. I’m excited to see what happens next!
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
That is really sad because he is completely faking his sincerity and repentance even after all those plagues, he should’ve got the message not to mess with God. Because of this, he’s going to lose even more- his own son. Then he gets lets the Israelites but he’s still really really stubborn. I understand God hardens his heart but sometimes I’m just confused. If God didn’t harden his heart, would he be more accepting and responsive to Moses? and then none of this would have happened and he didn’t have to bring harm to his people too.
Some of you are asking why God would harden Pharaoh’s heart? As many of you have already responded over the last few days every time Pharaoh says “No!” it is another opportunity for God to show his power.
2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
This verse is so true. We are even telling our children about the plagues or “spankings” that God sent on Egypt today! In fact, if you want to watch a video of a 3 year old talking about Pharaoh check out what Tyler has to say here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1219030347#/video/video.php?v=1120739298215
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them
This verse reminds me of a kid my group met at evangelism night last night. We went up to him to share the gospel, and he wouldn’t listen. He tried to disprove christianity, but even when we made sense he denied it. GOD is the only one who can change hearts, we are only ambassadors.
Wow! God’s power is so amazing! He had a plan for Pharaoh. Like Pastor Bobby said, God hardened his heart in order to show His power and bring Himself glory. Through Pharaoh’s stubbornness, God performed amazing acts that would show His power to not only the Egyptians and Israelites, but also to all future generations.
OH it is so nice to see you on here Elizabet! And nice comment!
AND amen to what Dan Lauder said! God is sooooooooooooooooooo awesome! :D
29 “Just as you say,” Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.”
This verse for some reason, really stood out to me the most. I love how submitting Moses is to Pharaoh! AND TO THE LORD! After a while I’d be like, “Are you sure Pharaoh is going to give in to You Lord? He seems like he never will.” I would be totally frustrated with Pharaoh and probably give up on him and his people and just take the Israelites anyways, but Moses knew that God had a plan! He had his full trust in the Lord and was humble before Him. I want that kind of attitude in everything I do! Like the girls learned at girls workshop, we need to have an attapat attitude! Anytime, anyplace, anything, all for the Lord! :D
23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
I agree with Elizabeth. This verse can be reminiscent of the world living in darkness and Christians living in light of the truth. The sad thing is most of the world will never know they are in darkness if we are unwilling to share the gospel with them. We need to pray daily that God will give us opportunities to spread the good news throughout Orange County!!
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them
2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
God is making the Egyptians an example. This is what happens when you don’t listen to God. The longer you cast aside what He says, the harsher the punishment gets. The plauges get worse and worse every time pharoah rejects God. This is what will happen if we ignore what God says. He’s going to punish us, just like he punished the Egyptians. We need to listen to what God tells us to do, and obey, or else we’ll end up like the Egyptians. And we all know where the Egyptians ended up…. on the bottom of the Red Sea.
Let me just say that was an amazing sermon this morning Pastor Bobby, I look forward to applying it to my life! The mosting intersting phrase I think this chapter was a small phrase the Lord speaks in verse 3
‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?’
This verse I think is applicable because when you think about it, God is punishing Pharoah because he will not humble himself… This is such a great reminder for me that I need to remain humble before the Lord our God so that he will not punish me like he does pharaoh! And plus when we do not humble ourselves we are in sin… But the question we all need to ask ourselves is, “How can I NOT humble myself before the Lord?!?!” We need to constantly think about how God controlls everythings, and that his power exceeds our thoughts and way beyond.. Lets remain humble and remember that there is no other response
Goodness gracious Pharaoh is stubborn!! Yet i love seeing how God uses that stubborness to show his power.
23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
This is sooo cool,, frusterating for the egyptians but im sure it would leave the israelites utterly amazed and thankful!!
This amazes me!! our God is so awesome and powerful, i love reading about these miraculous signs becasue its gives me something more to praise God about!!
I pray that i am not stubborn but willing and hopeful and obedient for what God wants me to do.
It is great to see how the Lord always keeps his promises. God told Moses that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart and he did. Our God is so faithful and it is amazing that we can have so much confidence in the Lord.
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
Pharaoh is finally starting to humble himself before God. God kept telling Pharaoh to let his people go, but since he had hardened the Pharaoh’s heart, he remained stubborn and refused. Finally he sumbits himself and his sin to God. I think this passage is so cool because of how God planned out the whole thing to show His glory.
I love the video ‘Tyler on Pharaoh’, it’s so awesome! :D
My goodness, Pharaoh won’t humble himself nor just give in when all these plagues are happenin’. Yeah in verse 16 n 17 he said he was sorry but did he really mean it? No! God harden his heart, so this man just won’t let God’s people go. But Pharaoh saw just a few things that God can do… later on he’s gonna see how powerful the almighty God truely is. Just like in the video, God’s goin’ to spank Pharaoh!
and the battle continues between pharaoh and God… OBVIOUSLY God is winning!! It is sooo interesting to see how God used his miraculous power to make his name known. Praise God for his HOLY power over us!! :D
I have a question… why is pharaoh at fault in the end if God is the one who hardened his heart?? My mother stumped me with this question…
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them
2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
This sums up all the signs that the Lord has been doing in Egypt! Even though Pharaoh’s heart wasn’t softened to the miraculous signs of the Lord, maybe other Egyptian’s hearts were. God was performing some crazy mircales in Egypt! Who WOULDN’T believe? He was showing His power and might to all the people: Egyptians and Israelites, so that they may know He is Lord!
Good question, Sarah G.! I also have a question: Why doesn’t God perform these miracles, or similar miracles, like this today?
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
After probably weeks of deliberation between Moses and Aaron and Pharoah, Pharoah finally realizes what he is doing and what he has done. But still, God hardens Pharoah’s heart after that, and once again says to Moses that he will not let the Israelites leave Egypt.
God is so powerful!! He sends massive plagues that no one could even imagine today what it would be like, and in a blink of an eye He took them away as well.
Great comment Kelly! Our God is faithful. We can have complete confidence that He will fulfill His promises. Fear the one who has complete control over our lives.
It’s crazy and awesome to see how powerful our God is! What has been sticking out to me in these chapters is how God is the one who is hardening Pharaoh’s heart! He is the one who is hardening the hearts of people today and its all for a reason! God has the ability to do anything, anytime with our lives! After reading all of this we need to be fearing God and NOT man! We have one Mighty God!
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
Here Pharaoh seems to be appologizing and is confession His wrong doings and sins to Mos and Aaron but Pharaoh did it as a fake and what he did not know is he was going to be ultimately punished for it and it happens when he chases the Israelites to the Red Sea and God parts to sea and has them cross and then crushes Pharaoh and his soldiers.
So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
In the same way the People of the world are like the Egyptians; they dont know what they are doing because all they do is trust themselves. the Israelites, however, are like the Christians of today; they (or us, as it kind of applies to us) Obey and Serve the Lord, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob; the Maker and Creator of the Universe, but are being persecuted because of their beliefs.
We might become like the pharoah because every time something bad happens, he begs for Moses to ask God to take it away, but his heart becomes harder each time. gotta watch out for that..
Sarah, to try and answer your question: God may have been the one who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but He can still hold him responsible for the choices he made. God Pharaoh still had free choice (inasmuch as humans do have that), and time and time again he chooses to disobey God’s orders. In many ways, this concept is played out today as well – there are people who have not been predestined for eternal life by God, which means they never really had a chance at eternal life. But even so, they are still held responsible for their actions and punished for rejecting Christ. it is a great question, and i hope my confusing answer helps a little bit, but in the end it comes down to the fact that we have no excuses for our actions and will be held accountable for them one day.
First off I just want to point out that when the hail came down, it probably broke a lot of the statues being built and maybe even some of the Sphynx and pyramids! (if they were being built at that time). This would’ve made Pharoah really mad.
21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.”
22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
I just want to point out that this does not only demonstrate God’s power, but it also challenges Ra, the Egyptian sun god’s power. Ra was the pagan god of the sun that they worshipped and the fact that there was darkness for 3 days was a direct challenge to their religion.
One last thing. This is a question: If God gives us all free will, then why does it say that he is hardening Pharoah’s heart?
After all of this, you would think that Pharaoh would finally see God’s power. But his heart is so hard that not even the destruction of his country can break him out of it. While this may be an extreme, God-induced case, we need to be wary of all hard-heartedness we may have in our lives. It is an extremely dangerous problem that blinds us to our own sin – which is never a good place to be in. In order to combat this, we need to be humble and open before God about our sin, looking to Him to cleans us and sanctify us day by day.
26Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the KORD our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the LORD.”
To worship God Moses needed to make sacrifices using his livestock. It’s amazing how we can worship God by doing little things like reading our Bible’s, glorifying His name by just talking to someone about Him, singing to Christian songs, doing our homework because we know were doing it 100% for God. And we talked about at girls workshop we can do it freely whenever we want, we probably won’t go to jail for it and get killed like Perpetua and her friends. We have it easy worshiping God compared to how people had it way back then but not everyone in this world has even ever picked up a Bible. Let’s glorify God’s name everyday all day
12 And the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.”
13 So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts;
14 they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.
Wow our God is powerful! These verses really show the Lords strength. It is amazing to me that Pharaoh’s heart is so hardened that not even by the most powerful things God did to destruct his country kept him from doing what was right. This is a great reminder for me to fear the Lord.
God’s amazing power continues to be revealed in the plagues against the Egyptians! He had a plan by hardening Pharoah’s heart to use the plagues to reveal his glory to the Egyptians and to the Israelites. As Christians (all creation) we were put on this earth to bring glory to the Father. We can bring him glory daily by our holy living and putting his righteosness on display in our lives! I desire to give God glory today and do what I have been created for! (1 Corinthians 10:31)
This chapter just once again reveals the total power of our God. He has shown his power to do such crazy things in the previous chapters but once again He does something unthinkable. Our God is so powerful that he can make it so dark that people cant see for three days in a certain place for the egyptians but then where His people are they are in total light. THis truly shows the power of our GOd!!!!!!
Get ready for what is to come!! Pharaoh has had countless opportunities to respond rightly but has failed and now we will see even more of the power of God coming about in the next chapter!!!
WOW our Lord is so powerful! The Lord has given Pharaoh so many opportunities to obey him, and he is still hardened against HIM. I still think it is amazing how the Lord can use anyone to do his miraculous works. Moses had an ATAPAT attitude (those who were at girls workshop) He is willing to serve God any time and place any thing!! We need to be willing to have that kind of attitude for Christ, and fear God more than we fear man!
(:
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.
okay i have been wondering…..is it really Pharaohs fault that he wont let the people go because it says that God is the one hardening his heart, so if God didnt do that, wouldnt he let them go?? hmm its would be great if someone could explain that to me.
7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
After just some of the plagues Pharaoh’s officials realized that Egypt had been ruined. But God’s will still hadn’t been completed, so he wasn’t going to soften Pharaoh’s heart just yet.
It just goes to show that God does indeed have ultimate power. The fact that he can call all of these plagues is remarkable. Just curious though as to why God continuously hardens Pharaoh’s heart. I’ll check back later, or just facebook me. Nelson
mike basically summed up what i was thinking about his passage… about how an unrepentant heart can become hardened and how we need to be taking the initiative to defeat sin in our lives… that God given power to overcome sin is demonstrated in this chapter as God gives pharaoh a taste of His wrath, and gives Moses the power to actively strive for God’s will, not letting pharaoh’s temptations and distractions get in the way.
28 Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die.”
29 “Just as you say,” Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.”
This just seemed to be really stupid of Pharaoh, saying he wants Moses and Aaron out of his sight, when they were the only ones who could pray to God to remove plagues. Pharaoh also acts foolishly in that he keeps promising to let the Israelites go, but then changes his mind at the last minute.
When we are caught in troublesome situations, our natural inclination is many times to turn away from God and look for temporary relief. But in reality, God has control of everything in our lives, and the troubles we face might even be a result of our own sin, as in Pharaoh’s case. The first thing we need to do in those situations in confess and repent of our sins to God, and He will make things right starting with our hearts. But when we are stubborn and refuse to repent to God, things will just get worse and in Pharaoh’s case, lead to the destruction of his country.
that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
The whole point of this plague is to be used to teach the children and grandchildren of God’s people. Later in the chapter is when Pharaoh allows just the men to go and he tells them that just they can go because that is what they were asking all along. But this isn’t what they were asking, Moses and Aaron said that they were all going to go. So when Pharaoh allowed just the men, God unleashed his plague on them. See, Pharaoh wasn’t fully obeying and God wanted Moses and Aaron to be able to teach their children and grandchildren that they are to fully obey the Lord!
This is a great lesson for us. Unless we fully obey and trust in what he demands, he will unleash his wrath on us as well.
Pharaoh just doesn’t have the true sorrow that is necessary when we repent. We might sin and realize it was wrong, but if we’re not truly sorry when we confess that to God and ask for forgiveness, then we’re still not going to be totally right with God. Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and not be truly sorry, and he hasn’t seen the last of God’s powerful display!
2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
it is so great knowing God did this so all of us could read it and know that it happened. also to know that it has been passed down by every generation. God is Good
^