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3 April 2019

Exodus 9

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’ If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field – on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.”’
The Lord set a time and said, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.’ And the next day the Lord did it: all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.
The plague of boils
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and let Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on people and animals throughout the land.’

The plague of hail
20 Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. 21 But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt – on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.’ 23 When Moses stretched out his staff towards the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields – both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. 26 The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. ‘This time I have sinned,’ he said to them. ‘The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.’
31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom. 32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands towards the Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. 34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: he and his officials hardened their hearts. 35 So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.

There’s a difference between knowing about something and acknowledging the truth of it. Pharaoh and his officials certainly knew about the plague, the boils and the hailstorm. They knew experientially, in terms of the devastating effects and their own powerlessness.

Moses also knew something: ‘But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God.’ (verse 30)

As Proverbs puts it, ‘The fear of the Lord is the first principle of wisdom’ (Proverbs 1:7). Now this sort of ‘fear’ is not the intense emotion of terror. We jump at lightning and a loud thunderclap, and our hearts race. It’s scary. But the storm passes and so does that emotional moment.

The ‘fear of the Lord’ is different. It is something to internalise and it lasts for a lifetime as a guiding principle. It is a sustained attitude of reverence and respect for our Creator who we also dare to call ‘our Father’, as Jesus taught us, who makes us secure in His Father’s steadfast love.

Pharaoh and his officials model how not to respect and reverence ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews’ (verse 1), despite the repeat lessons, despite these displays of God’s mighty power, and His determined commitment to His people.

Prayer: Father God, we acknowledge that You alone are Lord of heaven and earth. We want to live before You with that in mind and with the wisdom of holding You in reverence and respect. ‘Hallowed be Your name,’ we say, as Jesus taught us. We cannot doubt Your commitment to us and Your steadfast love in sending us Your Son to free us from guilt and the enslaving grip of false gods. Thank You.