Exodus 7:8-13
Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and do what the Lord commanded them. Aaron’s staff turns into a serpent, but the Egyptian magicians also duplicate the act. And even though Aaron’s serpent swallows up the Egyptian serpents, Pharaoh, whose heart was hardened, refused to listen. This sets up the ten plagues that the LORD will visit upon Egypt.
The first plague is the water turning into blood. When Aaron strikes the water of the Nile with the staff, the water turns to blood, the fish die and starts to stink. All the water in Egypt turns into blood. The Egyptian magicians could also replicate this, and Pharaoh refused to listen.
Seven days later, Aaron stretches out his staff and frogs come up from the waters and cover the land. The magicians are also able to bring up frogs. Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron and requests that they pray to the LORD to take the frogs away and then he will let the people go sacrifice to the LORD. So that there would be no mistake that the LORD is doing this, they set up the exact time that the frogs would go away, and they all die at the appointed time. Pharaoh changes his mind and will not let the people go.
Then Aaron strikes the dirt with the staff and it turns to gnats, and they cover the humans and animals. The magicians cannot duplicate this one, and they admit that this is the LORD’s power. Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
Then the LORD sends swarms of flies. Goshen, where the Israelites live, is free of the swarm of flies, but the rest of Egypt is covered. Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and offers to let the people sacrifice to the LORD, but in Egypt. Moses informs Pharaoh that the sacrifice has to be outside of Egypt. Pharaoh agrees, the LORD removes the swarm of flies, and again, Pharaoh changes his mind and refuses to let the people go.
Pharaoh is told that if he continues to refuse to let the people go, then a pestilence will attack the livestock of the Egyptians, but not the livestock belonging to Israel. Pharaoh refuses and the Egyptian livestock die.
Then Moses takes handfuls of soot from the kiln and throws it in the air. It causes festering boils on humans and animals. It gets so bad that the magicians can no longer come into Pharaoh’s presence. Pharaoh still refuses to let the people go.
The LORD warns Pharaoh that there will be heavy hail and all people and living things in the open fields will die. People who believe the warning put people and animals under shelter, and those who do not believe keep them out in the open field, where they die. There is no hail in Goshen. Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and admits that he has sinned and requests that they pray to the LORD so the hail will end, and he will let the people go. The hail stops, but Pharaoh still does not let the people go.
Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and warn him that the LORD is about to send locusts to Egypt. Pharaoh’s officials urge him to let the people go. Pharaoh is willing to let the men go but not the children. Locusts come and cover the land eating all the vegetation. Pharaoh relents and asks that the locusts be taken away. But once all the locusts are gone, Pharaoh changes his mind and refuses to let the people go.
Then the LORD sends darkness on the land so intense that people could not see each other. It lasts for three days, but there was light in the land of Goshen. Pharaoh is now willing to let all the people go, including the children, but insists that the livestock must remain. Moses insists that the livestock must go with them, but Pharaoh refuses and threatens Moses with death.
These setup the final disaster on Egypt – The death of their firstborn, and Passover for Israel, which we will look at next time.
There are no satisfactory natural explanations for any of these disasters. It goes beyond natural events. Water is no longer water, amphibians and insects overrun the land, hail large enough to shatter every tree falls from the sky and darkness so thick that no one can see each other. The fact that the land of Goshen is not affected by any of these makes it clear that these are God’s doing.
Yet, we see that God does not act alone – He acts through Moses and Aaron. It is a joint venture. God is doing all the heavy lifting, but He chooses to depend on Moses and Aaron to do their part. Of course, Moses and Aaron could do nothing without God. It is interesting to note that for the first three plagues Aaron is the one that is active, but then Moses takes over the primary role – Just like the LORD’s original plan.
The reason why the LORD stretched this into a total of ten plagues is hinted at in Exodus 9:16 – “But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.”
The immediate purpose was for Israel to be freed to go occupy the promised land and become a great nation. But God also had a plan for the salvation of humanity. Passover will become the central point of the Old Testament. Everything that came before and everything that comes after either looks forward or looks back to the event. The connection between Passover and the death on the cross of Jesus Christ, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, is integral.
Because all ten plagues played out in all their exaggerated way meant that the whole world would note what happened to Egypt and the power of God was on full display to be feared and remembered.
As Egypt carried out its deadly plan of genocide for Israel by killing all the male babies, the LORD put a stop to it. By twisting creation in unnatural ways, God restored the order of His creation and purpose for Israel to bring forth the ultimate blessing on humanity – Jesus Christ.
We are not called out for giant things like Moses and Aaron, but we need to remember that God has roles for each of us to play for His kingdom. To be witnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world – To preach this good news to all who need to hear. Like Moses and Aaron, we cannot do it without God, but God is also depending on us to do our part.
(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during our worship on May 26, 2024.)
Japanese Congregational Church 