Note: This article is an AI-generated adaptation of a spoken transcript and may not fully capture the nuances of the original presentation.
How far will God go to break through the stubbornness of the human heart? Well, that’s a question that our text today in Exodus chapter 10 verses one to 20 deals with. So let’s have a look.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.’ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land, and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.”’ Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, ‘How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?’ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, ‘Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?’ Moses said, ‘We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.’ And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.’ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.’ So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.”
Now this pattern by now is pretty familiar to us. There’s a warning from God, there’s defiance on the heart of Pharaoh, there’s judgment on Pharaoh in the form of the plague that had already been warned about, there is a period of brief remorse in which Pharaoh says sorry for his sins, but then as soon as things get better, there’s a renewed kind of rebellion.
You see, this passage adds something new though that is quite interesting for us and perhaps even quite profound. The purpose of these plagues in this case is not just to humble Pharaoh, but actually to teach Israel about who their God is. Notice the purpose statement at the start. The Lord says he will display these signs so that you will tell your son and your grandson about who God is. You see, God is already providing a way of shaping the people who will come after Moses to remember his power and to pass it on throughout the generations.
Now, here exegetically, Pharaoh’s partial obedience, you know, only allowing the men to go, reveals a kind of attempt for him to negotiate with God. You see, God demands full surrender on the part of Pharaoh, actually on our behalf as well. But he doesn’t want compromise. God is not one who negotiates, as we said the other day.
And so the locusts here are described as this unprecedented swarm. They strip Egypt bare. As bad as the hail was, whatever was left over is now eaten by the locusts. Now remember Egypt was a powerhouse of the time. And the reason why they were so strong is partially because the Nile provided so much water and so much food that they could supply an entire nation. But this land that was once fertile and glorious now lies completely desolate.
You see, Pharaoh’s second confession sounds a bit more sincere than the one before. But again, it’s short-lived. He pleads for forgiveness, but again he lacks true repentance, he lacks a changed heart. Eventually, of course, Pharaoh would let the people go, but that won’t happen until even more severe consequences come.
Now, we need to see here that God’s mighty acts are supposed to reveal his glory, are supposed to call us to a wholehearted surrender to him. When we obey him partially, like Pharaoh wants to do here, we are actually still rebelling against him. And so we need to learn from that and to remember that our salvation is a call into full obedience to God.
Now of course this takes time as the Holy Spirit works on our hearts. We don’t instantly, most of us don’t instantly change who we are already. The Spirit has to have time to work on our hearts. But God still requires us to be obedient to Him in response to what He’s already done for us on the cross.
One of the things we can do, like Moses and Aaron here were to do, is to tell people what God has done to save us. Here, in this case, He sent a mighty judgment of locusts on the land of Egypt. But in our case, He sent a mighty judgment on Himself, on His own Son, Jesus on the cross, to save us. And so as we share what God has done for us, we become more like Him. This is part of our obedience to God. So we can put aside the fear we have of people for the fear, the right obedient kind of fear we have before the Lord.
Now, the last thing we need to recognize here is that repentance itself bears fruit. So Pharaoh quickly apologizes here and shows us how easy it is for us to just say the right words, you know, to pray the sinner’s prayer if you like. But really he’s still resisting in his heart a true repentance. So true repentance changes how we live. It changes us from being in rebellion to God to aligning our lives with who he wants us to be.
And so if you are in that place today, I want to encourage you to let go of the life that you have led in disobedience to God and to turn yourself to Jesus and follow in his footsteps as an obedient new child that has been saved by God and to tell others of the same thing.
Let’s pray.
Almighty God, we recognize that you are worthy of our full obedience. We pray that you will forgive us for the times when we have held parts of our lives back. We pray that you will teach us to trust you completely and to tell of your mighty works to those who come after us that we might share our faith with them as well. We pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.