Exodus 9-10: Pharoah’s Plagued with a Hardened Heart

We are getting to the end of the fight between God and Egypt in Exodus 9-10. In the last few rounds, God sends a loud message to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that can’t be ignored.

What can we learn from Pharaoh about the heart?

First God knows Pharaoh will fight.
- Then God makes clear before the plagues start WHAT he will do and WHY he will do i
  - God knows that Pharaoh will not let Israel go. So God will harden Pharaoh’s heart. Why? So that when they finally go, everyone will know that it was the Lord, God who brought it about.
- But HOW does the hard heart start and who started it?

In the first 5 plagues, this is our description of Pharaoh’s heart:

1. 1. 1. The Plague of Blood: Pharaoh’s heart “became hard” (7:22)
    2. The Frogs: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (8:15)
    3. The Gnats: Pharaoh’s heart “was hard” (8:19)
    4. The Flies: “Pharaoh hardened his own heart” (8:32)
    5. The Livestock die: Pharaoh’s heart “was hard” (9:7)

Plague 2 and 4 Pharaoh are clear that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
But what about 1, 3, and 5? Like Exodus 7 became hard and was hard are unclear.

In the second 5 plagues, this is the description of Pharaoh’s heart:

Boils: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (9:12)
Hail: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (9:34)
Locusts: God announces that he has “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (10:1,10:20)
Darkness: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (10:27)
Death of the firstborn: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (11:10)
- 6, 8, 9, and 10 are clear that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
- Plague 7, however, says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. But if we look more closely at what we are about to read, right after it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart it says exactly what it said in 1, 3, and 5 that Pharaoh’s heart was hard. This implies that all of the uses of became hard or was heard mean that Pharaoh’s hard heart was his own fault 6 of the 10 plagues.

God knows the heart and its intent.

He knows the end of every story before it begins. And still, he gives opportunities for humility and repentance.

Pharaoh chose not to listen, he chose pride, and in the end, he lost the fight.
God chose to use Pharaoh. And the mystery of what he knows of our heart and who he chooses to use we cannot understand.

Round # 7 – The Plague of Hail

The significance of the use of hail:

It barely ever rains in this area of Egypt
The temperatures range from a rare low of 50 to highs in the 90’s
Hail requires moisture and cold, 2 things Egypt is obviously lacking.
So while hail is a natural phenomenon, hail in Egypt was not.
Like the other plagues, this was an unnatural occurrence in nature, the creation they worshipped with a multitude of gods was in chaos and the God of Israel was against them.

The significance of God’s words:

Represent a change in intensity: God says he is sending the full force of his plagues, so that you may know there is no one like me. In other words, your gods are a figment of your imagination. And in particular your gods of the sky like goddess Nut.
God also states why he is unleashing the full force… I could have wiped you out with one swipe of my arm. The reason I did it this way is so that I could show my power and the world would know.

The significance of the devastation:

Is an underlying message to the Egyptians: the use of the words in 9:25 “struck” and “beat” mimics, the beating of the Israelites by the Egyptians.

It’s as if the whole land has been whipped. Just as all of Israel had been whipped

The significance of Pharaoh’s, the officials, people’s response:

When the heavens open in anger with lightning, thunder, wind, hail you cannot hide from it, you cannot dismiss it. It is terrifying.
This gets Pharaoh
- Pharaoh admits sin, admits that God is right and that he is wrong
- But then he hardened his heart
Some of Pharaoh’s officials take cover
- however, some harden their hearts
The people For the first time Pharaoh is offered a chance of protection for his people. He was told to “give an order” to bring in the livestock and for people to take cover. Some did, demonstrating a loss of trust in the false gods of the Egyptians.

Round # 8 – The Plague of Locusts

Pharaoh’s hard heart from the start

In the plague of locusts, there is no chance Pharaoh will change his heart. God tells Moses in the first verse.
The officials feel differently and beg Pharaoh to relent.
But Pharaoh has terms and God is not negotiating.
And pharaoh’s words confessing his sin, hold no value.
Pharaoh is now alone in the ring with God. The magicians, the officials, and the people have lost faith in their leader.

Locusts as the final link

With each round of this fight, there has been a radical decline in the affluent, prosperous Egyptian culture. The land is devastated and their chance for survival is bleak.
Seth, the false god of disorder, darkness, and chaos is invalidated.
The 8^th plague takes the destruction from the first 7 and completes it. The locusts devour all that was left from the hail. Linking this plague to the past.
And at the same time, the locusts foreshadow the plagues to come.
- The blackness of the locusts covering the ground foreshadows the darkness to come in the 9^th plague
- The locusts come on an east wind to consume the vegetation, and the same east wind will part the Red Sea.
- The locusts are carried into the Red Sea and it says not one survives. Just as the Egyptians are killed in the Red Sea and it says not one of them survived.

Power transfer

No one really knows how many days transpired from the first to the last plague. Most commentaries believe it was at least 40 days and possibly up to 4 or 5 months. We know it was under a year because Moses was 80 when it started, he will wander with the Israelites for 40 years and he will die at 120. Therefore he couldn’t have turned 81.
Whatever the time period, there was an obvious shift in God’s attitude and in the world’s awareness of who He was.
Paralleling God’s attitude was Moses’ attitude.
While God worked, there was an obvious shift in Moses’ leadership ability and in the world’s awareness of how God was going to use this man to free His people.

QUESTIONS:

Do you listen to God? Are you transparent and humble about mistakes? Or do you harden your heart and resist God?
How are you Moses to God? Do you declare his power?
Do people see your faith in God and find it winsome? What awareness are you bringing to God?