Last week we saw Moses and Aaron finally confront Moses as God had commanded. After the first few plagues, Pharaoh began to relent and promised to allow God’s people to go into the wilderness to worship Him. However, Pharaoh continued to put stipulations on what he would allow and further hardened His heart as God said he would. And so the plagues continued.
Last week, we also learned that each plague that God caused undercut the power of a god or goddess of Egypt. In the plagues we will study today, God will continue to destroy the presumed power of these false gods.
The Sixth Plague: Boils and Sores
Read Exodus 9:8-12
– What does God use to cause the boils to break out on the Egyptians?
– What do we see God working through to bring about what He chooses to do?
– Earlier the magicians in Pharaoh’s court could not duplicate what God had done through Moses. How are they now shown to be even more powerless when compared to Yahweh?
With this plague, God was showing the Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet (pronounced with a “sh” sound) to be powerless. Her name was
derived from the Egyptian word Sekhem, which means “power” or “might.” Thus, her name means “The Mighty One.”
Sekhmet was the goddess who punished the enemies of the gods and of the pharaoh. She was said to go with the pharaoh into battle, launching fiery arrows into battle ahead of him. Sekhmet could also send plagues and disease against her enemies, but was also the goddess whom the people invoked to avoid plague and cure disease.
With this plague, Yahweh showed that Sekhmet was no match for Him and that He was the true and powerful God, not her.
The Seventh Plague: Hail and Fire
Read Exodus 9:13-21
– What does God say is the purpose of this plague? (vs. 14, 16)
– What idolatry was Pharaoh committing? (vs. 17)
– Considering the 4th plague, discuss the mention of livestock.
Read Exodus 9:22-26
This plague introduces the final group of three, before the final climactic 10th plague. In plagues 7-9, God strikes with fury, so Pharaoh would learn that there was no one like Yahweh, the God of Israel, in all the earth. This hailstorm was “such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation” (vs. 24).
To emphasize the severity, Moses used a three-fold parallelism to show the extent of the damage, which our translations don’t clearly show:
- All that was in the field
- All plants of the field
- All trees of the field
Again, God spared the land of Goshen.
Read Exodus 9:27-35
– What does Moses say about Pharaoh fearing Yahweh? (vs. 30)
– This time, what does Moses admit that he had done?
– Yet, what again does Pharaoh do when the plague ends?
With this plague, God undermines Nut (pronounced Noot), the goddess of the sky, often depicted as a woman arched over the earth god, Geb. The Egyptians considered Nut, working with Geb, to be the givers of food and water, not only to the living but also to the dead.
With Nut the sky goddess betraying the land of Egypt showed that Yahweh had power over her.
Eighth Plague: Locusts
Read Exodus 10:1-2
– Through hardening Pharaoh’s heart, what is God trying to change in His people?
– What does this imply?
Read Exodus 10:3-6
– What does God threaten to do to the land of Egypt?
Read Exodus 10:7-11
– What was Pharaoh doing with Moses (and, thus, God)?
Read Exodus 10:12-20
– Again, what does God use to cause what He wants to happen?
– What are some implications of this that we can take in to shape our worldview of God?
– This time, against whom does Pharaoh admit to have sinned?
– What does this show about how Pharaoh now sees Moses?
– What does Pharaoh also ask for about his sin? What does this show?
– But what is still taking place with Pharaoh’s heart?
With this plague, Yahweh is showing that Senehem, the Egyptian god of pest control, is powerless against Him. Yahweh can even 
control the locusts when Senehem cannot.
Yet, by God continuing to harden Pharaoh’s heart, we see that He is also focusing the plagues to teach the Israelites. For we see Pharaoh starting to relent, if only out of expediency and pragmatism, instead of sincerity. With the Israelites, we see God working to start taking the Egypt out of His people even while they are still there.
Ninth Plague: Darkness
Read Exodus 10:21-23
– What is different about the darkness of this plague than regular darkness?
Felt Darkness: The only other time that the Old Testament uses this form of the Hebrew word for “feel” is in Judges 16:26. There, Samson, after having been blinded, asks to “feel” the pillars of the Philistine temple. In Judges, Samson could not see where the pillars were and had to feel them. This darkness was so intense that it was more than the absence of light; it caused one to feel something. We don’t realize what that is until we see Moses use two words to describe that darkness in vs. 22–a dark, calamitous darkness. This then was a darkness where one felt dread.
Read Exodus 10:24-29
– What does Pharaoh agree to do?
– Despite, what he agrees to do, what is he still doing toward Moses, and thus also God?
– What does Pharaoh even threaten to do to Moses?
In Egypt, Horus was the god of light who personified the life-giving power of the Sun. A falcon-headed man wearing a sun disk as a crown was what how Egyptian drawings and art depicted him. The reigning kings of Egypt were also believed to be incarnations of the god Horus.
– Thus, who’s claim to divinity is God challenging and destroying when He brought about and controlled such darkness?
– Can you understand why Pharaoh became angrier and threatened to kill Moses?
Read Exodus 11:1-10
What isn’t immediately clear is where God spoke to Moses. But based on the setting and grammar, we can put the pieces together. In Chapter 11, the Hebrew begins with a conjunction, an “and” that connects Pharaoh’s words to what happens next (the Septuagint also does this). After Pharaoh threatened Moses, the text does not show Moses leaving (that would be an assumption on our part if we thought that). What does this mean? It means that Yahweh most likely intervened immediately and spoke to Moses. What we don’t know is if Pharaoh could hear Him.
Since Pharaoh didn’t carry out his threat to kill Moses, God must have spoken and intervened in a way where Pharaoh did not, and could not, carry out his threat. It’s likely then that Pharaoh heard God speak to Moses–but was too angry to recant or repent. Moses then tells Pharaoh what God told him, driving home that when Pharaoh heard Moses he was hearing God (remember when God told Moses that he would be God to Pharaoh?). And then in verse 8 we read that Moses “went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.”
The final act is of God again hardening Pharaoh’s heart. God will show to the Egyptians–and Israelites–who is the one, true God.
Next week: The institution of Passover
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