Exodus 9:13-26 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage: Exodus 9:13-26. Let’s go!
Exodus 9:13-15 (NIV)
13 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,
14 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.
15 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.
On verses 13-15: These verses show us that the 10 plagues are evidence not just of God’s wrath, but of God’s patience, mercy and love. For God could have easily wiped out all of Egypt with one single plague and rescued Israel that way, but instead God chose to turn up the heat of His wrath incrementally. Why? To give the Egyptians time to repent. Thus God started with gentler plagues, so gentle that even Egyptians’ magicians could replicate them. God would rather lose a bit of face if it meant He could save the softer hearted among the Egyptians with relatively gentler signs and wonders. That’s the heart of God: to save and to rescue not just the Israelites, but all people.
Exodus 9:16 (NIV)
16 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.
On verse 16: Just as God raised up Pharaoh for the very purpose of showing His power and proclaiming His name in all the earth, so God raises every person up – including you – for the same purpose: that God might show His power and that His name might be proclaimed through your life.
Because God is sovereign, He will make sure one way or another that His power is shown and that His name is proclaimed through your life. The question is: will God accomplish that purpose with you or in spite of you?
For someone with a willing and humble heart like Moses, God will work WITH that person to accomplish His purposes. When you’re willing to surrender to God and trust Him with your life, you will actively see God working in and through your life. Your relationship with Him will be a blessing to others, and your life will be an example to others of how to love, trust and serve God.
For someone with a hard and prideful heart like Pharaoh, God will still accomplish His purpose through that person, but that person will have no idea and will not be actively involved in the process. Rather God will work IN SPITE OF that person, and that person’s life will be a cautionary tale of how not to live.
God is the sovereign “I AM WHO I AM” and He will use our lives to fulfill His purpose no matter what. The question is: will we be actively involved in that process like Moses, or will we be a dead tool in God’s hands like Pharaoh, one whom God might easily discard once He is done using us? The choice is ours to make.
Exodus 9:17-19 (NIV)
17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go.
18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.
19 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 man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.'”
On verses 17-19: So far the plagues have brought much inconvenience and disturbance to the Egyptians, but we haven’t as yet read of any loss of human life as a result of the plagues. Here, as God turns up the heat on Pharaoh and brings the most life-threatening plague yet, God first warns Pharaoh ahead of time to order everyone, including livestock, to find shelter lest they die in the hailstorm.
What can we learn from this? God is not cavalier in the exercise of His power, but careful. Because He loves humanity, He goes out of His way to warn Pharaoh to order the Egyptians to stay in so that they would not be harmed in the hailstorm. God does the same with us today. God knows that the hailstorm of God’s wrath will inevitably come one day, but in the meantime God goes out of His way to warn everyone to find shelter through faith in Jesus Christ. For it is only by finding shelter in Jesus that we are safe from the hailstorm of God’s wrath. God warns us ahead of time because He loves people and so that no one has any excuse.
Exodus 9:20-21 (NIV)
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.
On verses 20-21: As much as God tries to warn us, we must each make a choice: will we heed God’s warnings or ignore them? The consequences of our choices will have life or death ramifications.
Exodus 9:22-26 (NIV)
22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt–on men and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.”
23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward 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 men 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.
On verses 22-26: Once again we see that the Israelites in the land of Goshen were protected from the hailstorm. As believers in Jesus Christ, we get to live in our own land of Goshen, it’s the land of God’s grace and mercy, where we are shielded from the hailstorm of God’s wrath against sin. Praise God that with Jesus there is safety and shelter from the storm.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being my shelter in the storm, my safe refuge from God’s wrath. Thank You God that the fact that You sent 10 plagues instead of 1 is evidence not just of Your holy wrath, but even more of Your mercy, patience and love. You would rather start with gentler plagues and even lose face if it meant that by them You could save more people. Thank You for having a heart to rescue and to save. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
