10:1.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his
heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs
before him.”
Relative to
this hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, most scholars understand it to mean not
that God had caused the hardening, but rather, had permitted the evil king
to continue hardening his heart against God, and against Israel, His purpose
being to display His own omnipotence in the destruction of the impious
creature who had dared to oppose the Creator.
10:2.
“And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son,
what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among
them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.”
Clearly the
record of God’s power, displayed in the destruction of Pharaoh and his land,
was to be preserved for the instruction of future generations relative to
the imperative of walking obediently before that same omnipotent One; and
the lesson we need to learn is that it is as relevant to this present
generation as it was to that of Moses’ day. We are reading this record
amiss if we see in it nothing more than a fragment of ancient history. It
is God’s typological announcement that obedience commands blessing; and
disobedience, chastisement, that correction ending in destruction when
ignored.
10:3.
“And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the
Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before
me? let my people go, that they may serve me.”
Foolish
Pharaoh had arrogated the prerogative of the Almighty. He would compel
Israel to ignore God, and to serve him.
10:4.
“Else, if thou
refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into
thy coast:”
The punishment
for continued disobedience on Pharaoh’s part would be that God would plague
Egypt with one of the most dreaded scourges of the east: locusts.
10:5.
“And they shall cover the face of the earth, and they shall eat the residue
of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall
eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:”
So great would
be their number that they would virtually carpet the earth, devouring
everything which might have survived the hail, while denuding all the trees
so that they would die.
10:6.
“And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the
houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’
fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this
day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.”
The myriad
swarms would do what locusts had never done before: they would invade even
the houses, so that there would be no place of refuge from the repulsive
creatures.
10:7.
“And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare
unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest
thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?”
Pharaoh’s
servants had learned what he hadn’t: his refusal to obey God, and liberate
the Hebrews, had brought such terrible judgments on the land as to leave it
a virtual ruin. His folly has been repeated by countless multitudes since
then, and continues to be reduplicated still, for man’s deaf ears refuse to
hear God’s voice either in the still small whisper of conscience, or in the
thunder of calamity.
10:8.
“And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them,
Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?”
His question
implies only a qualified obedience. He, not Jehovah, would decide who would
go; but unknown to him his rebel heart was sealing his own doom, as is the
heart of every unrepentant rebel still.
10:9.
“And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons
and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for
we must hold a feast unto the Lord.”
Not one of
God’s people was to remain in Egypt, nor is one of His own today to remain
in what Egypt represents: the world of business and pleasure living in
defiant independence of God. The believer is called to walk in separation
from this present evil world, see e.g., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he
that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and
will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the
Lord Almighty.” The Lord Jesus Christ is to be our Example in all things,
and of Him it is written, “For such an high priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens,” Hebrews 7:26.
Nor is the
believer’s separation to consist of mere cold asceticism. The purpose of
Israel’s segregation was that they might “hold a feast unto the Lord.” It
was associated with joy and gladness, and the same spirit is to mark our
separation from the things of the world.
Their having
been commanded to take with them their flocks and herds is the reminder that
our separation from the world and its ways is not just for Sunday, but for
the whole week. The spirit of separation is to mark us in the performance
of our daily tasks, or in the operation of our businesses. Everything we do
is to be done as unto the Lord, see Ephesians 6:5-7, “Servants, be obedient
to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and
trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eyeservice,
as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from
the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”
10:10.
“And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go,
and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.”
The ambiguity
of the KJ translation marks most other versions also, as is demonstrated by
a glance at just a few, e.g., Be it so; Jehovah be with you: As you hope
for the Lord’s mercy, cried Pharaoh, you shall not go thus: as I send you
away, must I also send away your substance? The consensus of
commentators is that Pharaoh adamantly refused to let the people go.
Relative to
the phrase “for evil is before you,” some understand it to mean that Pharaoh
was warning Moses and Aaron that to lead such a mixed multitude into the
wilderness was reckless, and would prove to be a disaster; but others take
it to mean that he was accusing them of plotting evil against him, one
translation rendering the last clause, “Plainly you are out for mischief,”
and another, “Who can doubt there is mischief brewing here?”
10:11.
“Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did
desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.”
Pharaoh
obviously didn’t believe that their purpose was just to keep a religious
feast to Jehovah, for he countered their demand by declaring that only the
men, as the representatives of the nation, needed to go, since it was they
who presented the sacrifices. And with that as his final word he drove them
from his presence, failing to understand that the final word lay with God.
10:12.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt
for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every
herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.”
Locusts were,
and still are, one of the most dreaded scourges of eastern lands, for
besides devouring every plant, they defoliate trees and shrubs, thus killing
most of them.
The Bible
Knowledge Commentary makes the following pertinent observation, “Nut, the Egyptian sky
goddess, could not control these locusts, and Osiris, god of crop fertility,
could not prevent the destruction of the crops.”
10:13.
“And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord
brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and
when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.”
It is
instructive to note that in Scripture the east is invariably associated with
departure from God, and with other evil, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from
Eden, for example, was eastward, as was also Cain’s expulsion from God’s
presence, whereas in coming into the presence of the Lord, the wise came
from the east.
It is also
instructive to note that the wind (singular) is the biblical symbol of the
Holy Spirit, see John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth ... so is
every one that is born of the Spirit,” and again, Acts 2:2-4, “And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost....”
This then
would indicate that it was the Holy Spirit who brought the locusts.
10:14.
“And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the
coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such
locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.”
“... no such
locusts as they” has reference to their phenomenal numbers, not to any
unique physical characteristic.
10:15.
“For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was
darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the
trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the
trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.”
The darkening
of the land is usually understood to have been due to the fact that the
swarms of them were so vast that the light of the sun was obscured; and so
voracious were they that no green thing remained in their wake.
10:16.
“Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have
sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.”
As has been
noted already, confession of guilt, divorced from repentance, is worthless.
Pharaoh, like many another, was sorry for what he had to suffer because of
his folly, but he wasn’t sorry for the sin that had brought the suffering:
his rebellion against the God of heaven.
It is
significant too, that here, as throughout the narrative, he referred to
Jehovah as “the Lord your God,” but never as “my God.”
10:17.
“Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the
Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only.”
There is
further ominous significance in that he sought forgiveness from Moses and
Aaron, but not from God; and as also previously noted, he regretted the
suffering he had to endure, but not the sin that had caused it. There is a
world of difference between the sorrow felt for what I must suffer as a
result of my sin, and the sorrow of genuine repentance for having committed
the sin.
“... this
death” is also translated this deadly thing: this death: this deadly
plague: this fatal destruction.
10:18.
“And he went out
from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord.”
10:19.
“And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts,
and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the
coasts of Egypt.”
As the Lord,
by an east wind had brought the locusts, so now by a “strong west wind” did
He remove them, so that not one remained in the land. This is another
demonstration of the truth that in Scripture the east is synonymous with
sin, as the west is with good.
The fact that
“there remained not one locust” reminds us that God does nothing by halves.
The salvation of the repentant sinner is eternal, just as is the damnation
of the unrepentant sinner. The one will enjoy eternal bliss in heaven; the
other, eternal torment in the unquenchable flame of the lake of fire.
10:20.
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the
children of Israel go.”
Up to this
point God had permitted Pharaoh to harden his heart, but now He made the
hardening permanent. The evil king had passed for ever beyond hope of
mercy. He must now plunge on to eternal destruction. If those who reject
God’s pleadings to repent and be saved, could understand the awful
consequences of a final rejection, the one that carries them over the fatal
line separating His mercy from His wrath, they would grasp salvation with
both hands at the first offer!
10:21.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that
there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be
felt.”
10:22.
“And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick
darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:”
10:23.
“They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days:
but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”
Relative to
this plague The Bible Knowledge Commentary states, “This plague was
aimed at one of the chief Egyptian deities, the sun god Re, of whom Pharaoh
was a representation. Re was responsible for providing sunlight, warmth,
and productivity. Other Gods, including Horus, were associated with the
sun. Nut, the goddess of the sky would have been humiliated by this plague
(as well as by the plagues of hail and locusts).
The mysterious
stygian darkness seems to have been perceptible even by the sense of touch,
and of such a nature as to extinguish the flame of lamps or candles, the
fact that the Israelites had light in their dwellings placing the phenomenon
in the realm of the supernatural, with God as the Author.
10:24.
“And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let
your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with
you.”
The Egyptian
king knew perfectly well that the flocks and herds were the magnet that
would draw the Hebrews back into Egypt; nor has anything changed since
then. The flocks and herds were the equivalent of today’s business, and
only the spiritually blind will fail to see the extent to which moneymaking
distracts men from considering the brevity and uncertainty of life, and the
imperative of being ready to meet God, that fitness consisting of knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
10:25.
“And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that
we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God.”
This was the
annunciation of a foundational truth. There can be no approach to God apart
from the presentation of the prescribed propitiatory offering, for all men
are sinners whose sin must be atoned for before they can stand in the
presence of a holy God, and in the OT age each such offering was simply a
type of Christ, which God was willing to accept until that moment when the
Lord Jesus Christ offered himself without spot to God as our sinless
Substitute.
10:26.
“Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind;
for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with
what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.”
As has been
noted in our study of verse 24 their cattle were the equivalent of today’s
business, but Moses’ assertion that it was of their cattle that they were to
serve God, is the reminder that in our business dealings, and in the
performance of our jobs, all is to be done as unto the Lord. There is to be
strict integrity in everything we do, whether it be in our buying and
selling, or in our service to an employer.
10:27.
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.”
Pharaoh having
already crossed the invisible line that separates God’s mercy from His
wrath, had become incapable of repentance, and must therefore continue to
his doom without any further attempt of God to turn him aside from his
self-chosen path. It is a dreadful thing when a man’s rejection of God’s
entreaties causes them to cease, so that he is left, as was the Egyptian
king, to pursue his way to hell and the lake of fire unhindered.
10:28.
“And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my
face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.”
With this
final imperious command and threat the foolish king dismissed God’s servant,
unaware that he was sealing his own doom; and so has many another since that
day aped Pharaoh’s folly by dismissing a believer who was simply trying to
lead him to Christ.
10:29.
“And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.”
The dreadful
finality of Moses’ response will be appreciated only by those who realize
that it signified God’s abandonment of the Egyptian king to his self-chosen
destruction: eternal torment, first in the unquenchable flame of hell, and
then eternally in the lake of fire at the end of the few brief years left to
him on earth.
Relative to
the seeming contradiction between this and the later meeting between Moses
and Aaron and Pharaoh recorded in 12:31 The Bible Knowledge Commentary
explains it thus, “This can be explained by understanding Moses to have said
(in 10:29) that, because of Pharaoh’s raging, Moses would not go to him in
mercy with a word from God. In other words, if Moses saw Pharaoh again, it
would be to announce unavoidable judgment or it would be at Pharaoh’s
request to grant Moses and the Israelites permission to leave the land.”
[Exodus 11]