The Ten Plagues

Today, we’re going to be discussing the Plagues that God sent down upon Egypt to free His people. The first thing we’re going to see is that, even though God was working, it was not going to be easy for the Israelites and in most cases, they didn’t see the better life that they had expected. Many times, when people begin going to church, they expect that nothing bad is going to happen to them anymore, that life is going to be easy and that God is going to take away all the bad things in their lives. God shows us in His word that this isn’t His way.

Exodus 5:1-9

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.' "

Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."

Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."

 But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."

That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."

First we see that Pharaoh is an unbeliever. That is important because it relates to what will happen moving forward. In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar also was an unbeliever, but when he sees the work of the Hand of God, he repents and gives homage to God. But Pharaoh will react differently. He hears and sees the Hand of God and he makes life harder for the people of God. We see Satan working here. Satan will always step up when he is threatened by the work of God.

Here we see God about to work in the lives of the Israelites. However, when things start getting hard for them, they begin to despair and moan, even saying that they were better off before God stepped in. How many times has God began doing a work in you and all of a sudden, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong? How many times has Satan brought down financial hardships, relationship problems or other difficulties because not too much earlier, we had made a commitment to follow God? This is how Satan works. First he tries to stop us from hearing what God is saying to us. Then he tries to stop us from committing. Finally, he tries to make our lives difficult, even impossible, with the desire of getting us so caught up in our difficulties that we place priority on overcoming our situation and renege on our commitment to God.

We need to always keep our priorities straight. We will see in this lesson of the Plagues that no matter how hard it might get, if we can persevere and continue in God’s way, He will make things right for us in the long run.

So what we see is that Pharaoh has placed his will above God’s will. What does God do with this? He works to slowly break Pharaoh’s will. But Pharaoh is hard. He refuses to give in to God. Satan had a foothold in Pharaoh’s life and Pharaoh refused to let go of that. So even though several times, he knew the right thing to do was to give in, he immediately changed his mind and went back to being obstinate.

So God begins the work of breaking Pharaoh’s will. He does this through the use of miracles. They are known as the Plagues. You will hear many say that there are natural causes for these Plagues. There was a show on The Learning Channel called “The Ten Plagues of Egypt” that explained the plagues through natural science. One problem with this premise is that though many of these miracles do have a natural occurrence in Egypt, they are not typically of the intensity we see in Exodus. Another is that they do not occur at the time of year that we see these things happening in Exodus. Finally, and probably most importantly, they do not typically occur when someone says it will happen – i.e. when Moses or Aaron say something will happen – or at someone’s will – i.e. when Moses or Aaron “perform” the miracle.

What we’re going to see as we look at the Plagues is that although God performed the miracles, Pharaoh and the Egyptians were hard-hearted. Even though they saw these things happening, they closed their minds and hearts to what they should have known as obvious and stubbornly stuck to their wills.

Luke 16:27-31

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

  29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

  30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

  31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

This is the point that Jesus tried to tell us and that the Egyptians showed us. Even when God performs miracles, if we don’t want to hear it and see it, it won’t make a difference. The Egyptians experience the Plagues and after nine of these miracles, they still don’t accept that God is working and speaking. Jesus says that even if a dead person rises from the grave, we would have our explanations. We hear it all the time today. Science is filled with reasons for the things that God has done – the creation of the universe, the beginning of life on Earth, the work of Jesus Christ – all of these things have been “explained” by scientists and others who think they have a better explanation than “God did it”. So God continues to work miracles around us and we continue to give excellent reasons for why something happened. But we continue to not recognize that God has performed a miracle!

Why do we do that? Because we want our will to be done and not God’s. If we agree that God is here, watching over us, performing miracles in our midst, we would have to also agree to give up our lives and our wills to Him. We are just not ready to do that, so we find nice comfortable explanations for what God has done. Just like the television show that explains the Plagues. Just like the Egyptians did thousands of years ago.

So what were these Plagues? Well, we read about them in Exodus chapters 7-11. Of these Plagues, 7 of the 10 were through Moses, 3 were by God alone. It’s important to recognize that sometimes God works a miracle Himself, but more often, God works His miracle through someone else. Has someone come at the exact right time in your life to help you with something? Has someone done something for you that you know you would never have been able to do on your own? These are God’s hand in your life, performing miracles that seemed normal, but you know that the timing was just a little too coincidental. God will typically do His work through someone who is obedient to Him. Has God called you to do something for Him? Is He calling you to help out someone you know? Reach out to someone you don’t know? Go someplace you are uncomfortable going? If He is and you are faithful to Him, He will use you to perform a miracle for Him.

Exodus 7:19-22

19 The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'-and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars."

  20 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

  22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

The first Plague was blood – water was turned to blood. There are those who say that there is a time in the year when the water in the Nile does turn red. You will hear these statements in television shows that try to diminish the Power of God. What they don’t tell you is that during this time, when the Nile turns red, the water can still be used. It doesn’t turn to blood – it simply becomes red. The water was not usable during this plague. Another interesting note is that Pharaoh’s magicians were somehow able to replicate this. We’re not told how – could it have been Satan allowing them to perform this “copy” of what God did? After all, that’s the way Satan works, he always tries to emulate what God has done. Or could it be a simple science experiment and they dumped some sort of chemical into the river that turned it red and poisonous? We’re not told, but however they did it, it caused Pharaoh to harden his heart.

Exodus 8:1-7

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 2 If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. 3 The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. 4 The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.' "

  5 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.' "

  6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. 7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

The second plague was frogs, which covered the land. Notice that God doesn’t send the plague until Pharaoh denies the request. Also notice that God tell them what will happen before it happens. We saw this with the blood plague and we will see this with other plagues. It’s important to recognize that before these plagues occurred, God gave warning what the plagues would be and then delivered the plagues only after Moses and Aaron called the plague down. This goes against any attempt to call these miracles “acts of nature”. These are not natural events but supernatural events. Though these things might have happened in this land, they did not happen at the intensity or at the timing naturally – they were called down by God. Somehow, again, the magicians were able to replicate this miracle also.

Interestingly, after this, Pharaoh agrees to let the Israelites go into the desert to worship God, but then changes his mind. (Exodus 8:8-15)

Exodus 8:16-19

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats." They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals.

  The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said.

The third plague was gnats, swarms of them tormenting man and beast. This plague, the magicians could not replicate and they said “This is the finger of God”.

Ex 8:20-23

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.

  " 'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.' "

The fourth plague was flies. Again, we see that Pharaoh agrees to let them go and worship but again changes his mind after Moses prays to remove the flies. Interestingly, the Bible implies that even though God was working these miracles, the Egyptians weren’t giving Him the credit. So to make it painfully obvious that God was doing these things, He made sure it happened to everyone but His people in the land of Goshen.

Exodus 9:1-6

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to 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." 2 If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, 3 the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats. 4 But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.' "

  5 The LORD set a time and said, "Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land." 6 And the next day the LORD did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.

The fifth plague was disease in the livestock. Once again, the Lord destroyed the Egyptian livestock but not Israelites’.

Ex 9:8-9

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. 9 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."

The sixth plague were boils. This plague affected both men and beast. A boil is a skin abscess – a localized infection deep in the skin. Most boils occur because something has become lodged in the skin or has plugged up the pores or sweat glands. I can imagine that when the soot was thrown up into the air, it might have been the cause of the boils for those who were in the room, but how does that affect the entire nation? Except the Israelites in the land of Goshen? Only God could make this happen.

Ex 9:17-21

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 till now. 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.' "

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.

The seventh plague was hail. Here God gives those who would believe the opportunity to listen and save their animals and slaves. But even after all that has happened, most still do not listen and heed the word of God. Again, the hail destroyed crops and man and beast of the Egyptians but didn’t touch the Israelites and again Pharaoh promises and reneges on his promise.

Ex 10:4-6

4 If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. 5 They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 6 They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.' "

The eight plague was locusts. At this point, more and more Egyptians are starting to get it – that God is in control here and not them. At this threat, Pharaoh’s counselors request that he let them go. This time he agrees but he allows only the men to go. That’s not good enough for God. God takes care of all His people, not just one sex, one nation, one group – but all who put their faith in Him and believe. Moses stretches out his hand and the swarm comes and devours whatever was still around after the hail.

Exodus 10:21-23

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. 23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

The ninth plague was darkness. God creates a darkness that is so dense that they could not even see other people and they were stuck in their homes. This darkness lasts for three days. Once again, God allows the light to shine in Goshen to avoid any chance of confusion as to who and why this is happening. At this point, Pharaoh again allows them to go, this time all the people but not any of the animals. Moses insists that the animals need to go also, especially because they were going to perform sacrifices. But again, Pharaoh changes his mind and doesn’t let them go.

Exodus 11:4-7

So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

The final plague is the death of the firstborn. This plague is of course the worst of them all. In this plague, the first born son of every family that does not believe in the Lord will die. It is through this plague that God delivers his people from bondage. Next week, we will go into detail of this particular plague and how God delivers the people from this plague.

The Israelites had to go though some very difficult times. Pharaoh made their lives impossible when God tried to save them. But as time went on, God’s will was done, despite Pharaoh’s determined will not to let the Israelites go. The people of God needed to go through a difficult time, but by persevering through that time, they were able to withstand until God completed His will. Why did God make it so hard for them? Why didn’t He just let them leave on the first try. Because He was not only freeing His people, He was teaching them how to persevere. He was also trying to teach the Egyptians who he was. Finally, He is still using the lessons of the Plagues to teach us today who He is. And like the Egyptians of Moses’ day, there may be many who don’t want to hear it and will make up very good rationales for what happened and how it really happened, but we who are the children of God, like those Israelites, know what God can do.

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Last modified: March 19, 2006