Six plagues are already past and Pharaoh hasn't let the people go. He will persist in saying "no" to God and four more plagues will fall. These four final plagues will be more severe than the first six and in today's study the Lord warns him the worst is yet to come if he does not relent.
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning, confront 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, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.'" (Exodus 9:13-14) As the saying goes, Pharaoh "ain't seen nothing yet". It has already become clear to the king that his own magicians are no match for Moses and Aaron, who are working by the power of the Lord. It should have already become clear to the king that his "gods" are no match for the God of the Hebrews. The Lord has put to shame the false deities whom the Egyptians believed protected things like the waters, the agriculture, and the livestock. There is no one like God. There is no God besides Him. If the king would only acknowledge this fact now he would spare himself and his people a great deal of misery and heartbreak.
Because the Lord is the Maker of all things and holds power over all things, He points out that He could have already taken the king's life if He wanted. He could have destroyed the nation of Egypt. But instead He has shown mercy. "For by now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." (Exodus 9:15-16)
Rescuing the Israelites from Egypt could have been done in one day if God had chosen to do it that way. He's so mighty that with one breath He could have struck all the Egyptians dead. Or He could have made the Israelites vanish from Goshen and appear in the Sinai desert where they'll be traveling later. But God uses a process for most things because the process has a purpose. There's a reason for each step along the way. God has allowed Pharaoh to resist Him through six plagues in order to display His majesty and glory and supremacy to both the Egyptians and the Israelites. As we will see later in today's study, some of the Egyptians have begun to believe in and fear the Lord and they will react accordingly to the warning of a seventh plague. The faith of the Israelites will be bolstered by everything the Lord is doing in Egypt, for it's human nature to want to see things with our own eyes. They do believe in and reverence the Lord, but they've been struggling in a foreign land for a long time. Some perhaps gave up on ever being rescued; they may have thought it was the Lord's will to leave them there forever. They're exhausted from their hard labor and they've been prevented from performing public observations of their religion for a long time. This has taken a toll on them. They need to see demonstrations of the Lord's strength so that when at last He tells them to move out they'll be ready to get up and follow Him despite any and all opposition the Egyptians bring against them.
The Lord continues His warning to Pharaoh. "You still set yourself against My people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded til now." (Exodus 9:17-18) The king is once again given twenty-four hours to think about what the Lord is saying and to change his mind about letting the people go.
The Lord even gives the king the opportunity to preserve his outdoor servants and his livestock. "Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and it will die." (Exodus 9:19) There's nothing anyone can do about the crops in the field. We'll be told in tomorrow's study that the hail is so severe it destroys not only the crops but also strips the trees bare. But there's a lot the Egyptians can do to preserve their livestock and to protect their slaves who tend the livestock. Some of Pharaoh's officials have learned that God doesn't mess around. If He warns of a plague, and if the king doesn't relent, the plague comes. These particular men take action when they hear the hail is coming. "Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field." (Exodus 9:20-21)
Why do some of the Egyptians still scoff at the word of the Lord? Hasn't He followed through on every plague He's predicted? Why is the king so prideful? I think he'd rather see his nation destroyed than to look "weak" (in his opinion) by letting the Hebrew people go. Why does anyone repeatedly refuse the word of the Lord? Why did you and I wait as long as we did to turn to Him? I think there's something in each of us that wants to be the lord of our own lives. I think the carnal side of our nature doesn't want to be told what to do. That side of us is always "me, me, me". That side of us says, "Not Thy will, but mine, be done." But thanks be to God that many of us have already heard His voice over our own, and thanks be to God that untold numbers of people still will decide to listen to His voice and turn to Him. We are not losing or giving up anything when we submit to our Creator. We will never be who we were designed to be unless we place our trust in the One who made us. We will never experience the joy and peace meant to be ours if we stubbornly insist on being lord of our own lives. And most importantly, we will never attain the salvation of our eternal souls if we keep saying to Him, "Not Thy will, but mine, be done."
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