Holy Bible

Show these My signs. Exodus 10:1, 2 How God hardened Pharaoh's heart J. S. Exell, M. A. I. BY A MANIFESTATION OF RICH MERCY, WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE MELTED THE HEART OF THE KING. II. BY A MANIFESTATION OF GREAT POWER, WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE SUBDUED THE HEART OF THE KING. III. BY A MANIFESTATION OF SEVERE JUSTICE, WHICH MIGHT HAVE REBUKED THE HEART OF THE KING. IV. BY SENDING HIS SERVANTS TO INFLUENCE THE HEART OF THE KING TO THE RIGHT. God did not harden Pharaoh's heart by a sovereign decree, so that he could not obey His command; but by ministries appropriate to salvation, calculated to induce obedience — the constant neglect of which was the efficient cause of this sad moral result.Lessons: 1. That man has the ability to resist the saving ministries of heaven. 2. That when man resists the saving ministries of heaven he becomes hard in heart. 3. That hardness of heart is itself a natural judgment from God. 4. That hardness of heart will finally work its own ruin. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) God sends His minister to hardened souls J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Often. 2. Mercifully. 3. Uselessly. 4. Significantly. 5. Disastrously. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Hardened sinners J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. In companies. 2. Patterns of judgments. 3. Tokens of indignation. 4. The cause of plagues. 5. The curse of the world. 6. Still followed by the minister of God. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The signs of God to the generations of the future J. S. Exell, M. A. I. THAT GOD IS SUPREME OVER THE KINGDOM OF NATURE. Science places the natural universe under the command of man. This is the Divine ordination. But man's power over nature is derived; God's is underived and independent. Hence — 1. He can inflict pain on the wicked. 2. He can protect the good from harm. 3. He can send famine or plenty. II. THAT GOD IS SUPREME OVER THE CUNNING AND POWER OF THE DEVIL. The magicians of Egypt were agents of the devil. They were inspired by him in their opposition to Moses and Aaron. They were aided by his cunning. Their defeat was his defeat also. 1. God can deliver men from the power of the devil. 2. God can destroy the works of the devil. 3. God can frustrate the designs of the devil.Teach this blessed truth and glorious fact to the youthful: that the good agencies of the universe are more potent than the bad. This will lead youthhood to confide in God. III. THAT GOODNESS IS HAPPINESS, AND THAT CONFLICT WITH GOD IS THE MISERY OF MAN. Lessons: 1. That in the lives of individuals we have signs of God. 2. That all the signs of God in human life are to be carefully noted and taught to the young. 3. That all the signs of life are evidence of the Divine supremacy. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The ministry of sin W. L. Watkinson. God makes Pharaoh "to stand" for the benefit of Israel, and in them for the benefit of humanity. It was for Pharaoh in the first instance to resist Divine light and grace, and oppress Israel; it was then for God to economise the tyrant and his wrath. The conduct of the Egyptian king served — I. TO REVEAL GOD. "That ye may know how that I am the Lord." Pharaoh's perverseness revealed all the more fully — 1. The Divine love. 2. The Divine righteousness. 3. The Divine power. II. TO FURTHER THE INTERESTS OF ISRAEL. God overrules sin to high and happy issues. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Transmitting the knowledge of the true God J. S. Exell, M. A. I. JEHOVAH MADE HIMSELF KNOWN TO THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT AS THE ONLY TRUE GOD BY SIGNS. His wondrous acts revealed His supremacy. Christ is the fullest revelation of the true God. II. THAT THIS KNOWLEDGE IS TO BE TRANSMITTED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. Parental influence the most potent in telling of God's acts. No lips teach like the lips of loving authority. Some parents neglect this solemn duty. Ever ready to speak about worldly enterprises, the acts of great men, their own; but they are silent about God's. Such neglect is ruinous to their children and dishonouring to God. III. IN THE TRANSMISSION OF THE KNOWLEDGE, OF THE TRUE GOD IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. Wherever the knowledge of the true God prevails, righteousness and peace are found. Idolatry has ever been the bane of mankind. A false conception of God debases. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) By signs J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Showing the woe of sin. 2. The folly of human malice. 3. The justice of God. 4. The safety of the Church. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The signs J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Their nature. 2. Their locality. 3. Their design. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The Divine supremacy J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Rejected by the proud. 2. Received by the good. 3. Revealed by the works of God. 4. To be acknowledged by all. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The plagues J. Parker, D. D. So, allowing all that may be called romantic, supernatural, to fall off from this story of the plagues, there remains all that God wanted to remain — three things: — First, the assertion of the Divine right in life. God cannot be turned out of His own creation; He must assert His claim, and urge it, and redeem it. The second thing that remains is the incontestable fact of human opposition to Divine voices. Divine voices call to right, to purity, to nobleness, to love, to brotherhood; and every day we resist these voices, and assert rebellious claims. The third thing that remains is the inevitable issue. We cannot fight God and win. "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Why smite with feeble fist the infinite granite of the infinite strength? Who will lose? The certain result will be the overthrow of the sinner: the drowning of every Pharaoh who hardens himself against the Divine will and voice. Now that I come to think of it, have not all these plagues followed my own obstinacy and hardness of heart in relation to things Divine? We speak of the plagues of Egypt as though they began and ended in that distant land, and we regard them now as part of an exciting historical romance. I will think otherwise of them. The local incident and the local colour maybe dispensed with, but the supreme fact in my own consciousness is that God always follows my obstinacy with plagues. Dangers are rightly used when they move us to bolder prayer; losses are turned into gains when they lift our lives in an upward direction; disease is the beginning of health when it leads the sufferer to the Father's house. Pharaoh had his plagues, many and awful; and every life has its penal or chastening visitations, which for the present are full of agony and bitterness, but which may be so used as to become the beginning of new liberties and brighter joys. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) God's judgements J. Spencer. Lay a book open before a child, or one that cannot read; he may stare and gaze upon it, but he can make no use of it at all, because he understandeth nothing in it; yet bring it to one that can read, and understandeth the language that is written in it, he will read you many stories and instructions out of it; it is dumb and silent to the one, but speaketh to, and talketh with, the other. In like manner it is with God's judgments, as St. well applies it; all sorts of men see them, but few are able aright to read them or to understand them what they say; every judgment of God is a real sermon of reformation and repentance. ( J. Spencer. ) To-morrow will I bring the locusts. Exodus 10:3-6 Humiliation before God G. Brooks. "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me?" I. I SHALL SHOW OUR NEED OF HUMILIATION BEFORE GOD. 1. Let us inquire how we have acted toward God. As our Creator, our Governor, our Benefactor. 2. Let us inquire how we have acted toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Was made flesh. Died for us. 3. Let us inquire how we have acted toward the Holy Spirit. Rebelled, vexed, grieved, quenched. II. I SHALL SHOW WHEREIN TRUE HUMILIATION CONSISTS. 1. In confession of our sin before God. Fully and unreservedly. With deep and ingenuous sorrow. 2. In believing application to God through Christ for pardon of our sin. 3. In renouncing our sins and commencing a course of obedience to God. III. I SHALL SHOW THE EVILS OF DELAYING TRUE HUMILIATION BEFORE GOD. 1. The guilt ( Romans 2:4, 5 ). 2. The folly. Stronger than He? 3. The danger. Pharaoh. Manasseh. (1) Repentance is never too late. (2) Repentance is never too soon. ( G. Brooks. ) The delay of soul humility J. S. Exell, M. A. I. IN WHAT DOES SOUL-HUMILITY CONSIST? 1. It does not consist in mournful verbal utterances, k humble word may conceal a proud spirit. 2. Nor in outward manifestations of repentance. 3. It is rather evinced in calm resignation to the will of God as revealed in His Word, and as made known in the conscience by the Holy Spirit. II. HOW IS SOUL-HUMILITY TO BE OBTAINED? 1. By having a clear conception of the will of God and of the beauty of truth. 2. By allowing the varied discipline of life its due effect upon the soul. Pain ought to humble a man, reminding him of his mortality. 3. By submitting to the gentle influences of the Holy Spirit. III. WHY IS SOUL-HUMILITY SO LONG DELAYED? 1. Because men will not give up their sins. Humility is the outcome of purity. 2. Because men will not yield to the claims of God. 3. Because men are rendered proud by exalted social position. 4. Men can give no reason for the delay of soul-humility.Humility is the richest and best ornament of the soul, and no good excuse can be assigned for neglecting to wear it. This ornament is but seldom seen in this vaunting age. It is welcome to the eye of heaven.Lessons: 1. Soul-humility should be manifested by man. 2. God's ministers should enforce it. 3. God's people should cultivate it. 4. Its absence cannot be excused. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The plague of locusts threatened J. S. Exell, M. A. I. IT WAS THREATENED IN CASE THAT PHARAOH WOULD NOT GIVE THE ISRAELITES THE FREEDOM DEMANDED BY GOD (ver. 4). The good have in God a stern Defender. II. THAT SOME MEN ARE MUCH MORE SENSITIVE TO THE THREATENINGS OF GOD THAN OTHERS (ver. 7). III. THAT DIVINE THREATENINGS MUST MAKE MINISTERS FAITHFUL IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR DUTY (ver. 9). Denounce all attempts at moral compromise. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) To-morrow J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. A judgment. 2. A mystery. 3. A crisis. 4. An anxiety. 5. A hope. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) If thou refuse J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Then man can refuse to obey God. 2. Then man can dare the judgments of God. 3. Then man takes a great responsibility upon himself. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The locusts J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. Very grievous. 2. Darkening the light. 3. Devouring the fruit. 4. Entering the houses. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Good men should leave sinners u J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. As a reproof. 2. As a contempt. 3. As a prophecy. 4. As a relief. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Locust-scaring gods T. S. Millington. The Egyptians, in common with other nations whose ideas of religion were derived originally from Egypt, had particular deities to whom they appealed for help in times of particular necessity. There is reason to believe that they had gods to whom they looked for protection against locusts as well as against flies and vermin. Strabo, speaking of certain gods whose titles were derived from insignificant objects, says: "The inhabitants of Mount ?ta worshipped Hercules under the title of Hercules Cornopion, because he had delivered them from locusts. So the Erythraeans, who live near Melius, worship Hercules Ipoctonus, because he destroyed the ipes , or worms, which are destructive to vines: for this pest is found everywhere except in the country of the Erythraeans. The Rhodians have in their island a temple of Apollo Erythibius, so called from erysibe (mildew), which they call erythibe. Among the AEolians in Asia one of their months is called Pornopion, for this name the Boeotians give to parnopes (locusts), and sacrifices are performed to Apollo Pornopion. "The locust was esteemed sacred in Greece, and the Athenians wore golden cicadae, or grasshoppers, in their hair, to denote the antiquity of their race, as ?????????? , "of the land itself," or aborigines. Early historians tell us that the Greeks came originally from Egypt; Cecrops, the first king of Attica, was from Sais; Cadmus, from Thebes; and Danaus and Lynceus, with their colonies, from Chemnis. The locust-scarers of Greece and Asia were, therefore, in all probability, gods of the Egyptians in time of Pharaoh, and were put to shame, with the rest of their deities, by this unprecedented and miraculous visitation. Thus the winds from the four corners of heaven obey the command of Jehovah. As far as man is concerned, nothing is more uncertain, nothing more absolutely beyond control: "the wind bloweth were it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth" ( John 3:8 ). But God directeth it under the whole heaven; He calleth it, "Awake, O north wind, and come thou south ( Song of Solomon 4:16 ); He gathereth the wind in His fists ( Proverbs 30:4 ); "He bringeth it out of His treasuries" ( Psalm 135:7 ). At God's command the east wind brought the locusts, in twenty-four hours, from the uttermost parts of the east, collecting them, it may be, from the far-off deserts of Arabia and Persia; and at God's command the west wind carried them away again, as far as the Red Sea. There they all fell down and perished. "I am tossed up and down as the locust" ( Psalm 109:23 ), says David. These creatures were tossed up and down by the wind wherever God would send them. He had used them as His scourge, an instrument of punishment, in which He could have no pleasure; and when their ungrateful task was done, He drowned them in the sea. To those same depths the infatuated king who refused to be warned by the chastisement was presently to follow them, and with his miserable people, in their turn, to perish. ( T. S. Millington. ) Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? Exodus 10:7 Lessons G. Hughes, D. D. 1. Threatening from God may touch hearts of servants and not of rulers. 2. God useth king's own servants to move them, when His ministers can avail nothing. 3. Fear of plagues may move wicked ones to yield, where the fear of God is not. 4. It is usual for wicked men to charge God's servants to be snares, when their sins make them. 5. When God makes His servants ministers of wrath, the wicked are willing to be rid of them. 6. Idolatrous persecutors may tolerate God's Church to serve Him, when vengeance forces them. 7. Experience of destruction past, and fear of more to come, may cause enemies to move for the Church's liberty. 8. Persecuting powers are apt to be stupid and willingly ignorant of such destructions. ( G. Hughes, D. D. ) A remonstrance against sin J. S. Exell, M. A. I. ADDRESSED BY INFERIORS TO THEIR SUPERIORS. 1. Bold. 2. Wise. 3. Needed. II. INSPIRED BY A DEEP FEELING OF TERROR. It is well for men under any circumstances to cry out against moral evil. III. INFLUENTIAL FOR TEMPORARY GOOD. Some men are apparently more accessible to the advice of their comrades than they are to the commands of heaven. The wicked servant may preach the gospel to his despotic master. IV. ULTIMATELY DISREGARDED. Lessons: — 1. Remonstrate with the sinner. 2. Show him the folly and woe of sin. 3. You are not responsible for the result of such a remonstrance. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Pharaoh's mad ignorance T. S. Millington. "Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?" was the plea of Pharaoh's servants before the locusts came. No; he knew it not; he would not know it. Even now, with the scene of utter desolation everywhere around him, with the fields scorched and barren, and the naked trees stretching out their white and shattered boughs like ghastly skeletons, with even the walls of his houses and the furniture of his chambers marked by the gnawings of those "very grievous locusts," with all these terrible witnesses before his eyes, Pharaoh knew it not. ( T. S. Millington. ) We will go with our young and with our old. Exodus 10:8, 9 Lessons G. Hughes, B. D. 1. Upon importunity of men wicked powers may be moved to recall and treat further with God's ministers when His own word is slighted by them. 2. Upon carnal considerations powers may license the Church to serve its God. 3. Such wicked powers bound their grants of liberty with provisos destructive to God's will (ver. 8). ( G. Hughes, B. D. ) Lessons G. Hughes, B. D. 1. Captious questions from the wicked are answered with plain answers by God's servants. 2. Faithfulness to God will not suffer His servants to hide His mind to the wicked. 3. God's instruments have encouragement from Him to deliver His demands to greatest powers. 4. Little ones as well as great must be carried along with the Church of God to their rest. 5. The Church's portion in this life as to outward estate God is pleased to have free as well as themselves, that they may comfortably serve Him therewith. 6. The Church's work after redemption is to serve Jehovah, or keep a feast to Him (ver. 9). ( G. Hughes, B. D. ) Renewed opportunities of moral good J. S. Exell, M. A. "And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh." I. CONSEQUENT UPON THE FAITHFUL REBUKE OF FRIENDS. II. THROUGH CONTACT WITH A HOLY MAN. III. MAY BE LEFT UNUSED THROUGH THE PERVERSENESS OF THE SOUL. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The children must be rescued Prof. Gaussen. But particularly observe the subject of dispute. Concerning whom did it arise? Concerning boys and girls — little children. Pharaoh did not wish them to accompany their parents to hold a feast unto the Lord; he required that they should remain at home as hostages. Moses refused. Well, there are often similar disputes in our time between the devil and the servants of God concerning you. The devil causes worldly men to say, like Pharaoh, "Why should you trouble children with religion, they are too young yet? How can they understand the Bible, since I, who am a grown-up man, and perhaps a learned man, do not understand it? They can take no pleasure in it; it is too serious for them, since for my part I find it a weariness. At their age it becomes them to play, and not to study deeply. Let them enjoy their diversions; let them amuse themselves on the Sunday." Thus the prince of this world, the great Pharaoh of the darkness of this world, would wish to keep you as hostages in error, and ensnare your parents also. If your house were on fire, what would you think of a person who should say to your father, "Go out as quickly as you can, but leave your children in bed"? Or if you were at school, or an apprentice to a trade, what would you think of a man who should say to your father, "Your son has a holiday, but do not let him come home to be with you, for he is at an age to amuse himself. Do not teach him to love you, and to obey you, for that would weary him." Ah! dear children, you have as much need as we have to escape the wrath to come, and to love God. Ask from Him grace to love Him. The prayer of a child who seeks a new heart for the sake of Jesus Christ always ascends to heaven. ( Prof. Gaussen. ) Driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Exodus 10:10, 11 Driving away the servants of God J. S. Exell, M. A. 1. It is to drive away a good friend. 2. It is to drive away a faithful monitor. 3. It is to drive away a real benefactor. 4. It is to drive away an angel of God. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The threats of the wicked W. O. Lilly. I. EVIL MEN OFTEN SEEK TO RETARD GOD'S SERVANTS IN THEIR WORKS BY THREATS. But in vain. God sustains all whom He sends. No opposition, however virulent, can retard them from doing His work. They may be weak and few, but He is their strength. II. THAT THE THREATS OF EVIL MEN NEED NOT BE FEARED. Nothing can really harm God's servants. They may have to suffer, but suffering will be turned into triumphant joy. Like the saintly Rutherford, they will find that their enemies have only set them to reside for a while in one of God's palaces. Real evil cannot befall them. III. THAT THE EVIL THREATENED MENACES THE THREATENER. As Luther said concerning the potentates of his day, who did not remember the overruling might of God in their projects: "Our Lord God says unto them: For whom do ye hold Me? for a cypher? Do I set here above in vain, and to no purpose? You shall know that I will twist your accounts about finely, and make them all false reckonings." So it was with Pharaoh when he threatened Moses and Aaron. ( W. O. Lilly. ) The imperiousness of unbelief G. Barlow. I. IN ITS RELUCTANCE TO GRANT CONCESSIONS. II. IN ITS IRRITABLE IMPATIENCE IN LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF REASON. III. IN ITS IGNOMINIOUS TREATMENT OF RELIGIOUS TEACHERS. ( G. Barlow. ) The locusts went up. Exodus 10:12-15 The plague of locusts J. S. Exell, M. A. It has been observed that the plagues of Egypt, as they succeeded each other, were characterized with increasing severity. This one appears an exception to the rule. But only on first sight. The very name of locust was a terror to the Egyptians. They were an awful infliction ( Joel 1:6-12 ). I. THAT SOMETIMES THE RETRIBUTIONS OF GOD LEAVE A RESIDUE OF COMFORT TO THE LIVES OF MEN. It is so in bereavement; if the wife is taken, the child is left. It is so in business; if the capital is lost, it may be the reputation is saved. It is so in personal attributes; if one sense grows dim, another remains yet more active. If the flax and barley are destroyed, the wheat and the rye are left. This is mere than is deserved. It is merciful. But it is the kind way of heaven. II. THAT UPON CONTINUED SIN THE RESIDUE OF HUMAN COMFORT MAY BE ENTIRELY REMOVED BY THE RETRIBUTIVE ANGER OF GOD. III. THAT UPON CONTINUED SIN THE REMAINING COMFORTS OF MAN MAY BE DESTROYED BY THE COOPERATION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CAUSES. "And the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts." The sceptic may say that the east wind alone brought the locusts upon his green things; but this is unreasonable and atheistical. Men in these days have too much Scripture knowledge to regard nature as the origin of their trouble. God commissions the wind that works desolation upon the hope of the wicked. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Intreat the Lord your God. Exodus 10:16-19 Lessons G. Hughes, B. D. 1. God's hasty judgments may work hasty passions in sinners, though no repentance. 2. Vengeance may make persecutors call in God's servants for help as hastily as they drove them out. 3. Double confession of sin may hypocrites make under plagues, yet not in truth. 4. Proud persecutors may be forced to confess their guilt against men as well as against God ( Exodus 5:16 ). 5. Hypocritical oppressors may desire forgiveness of God's people under plagues, as if they would sin no more. 6. Wicked persecutors under judgment are earnest with God's servants to intercede earnestly for them. 7. It is only death which wicked sinners deprecate. 8. Hypocrites pretend upon deliverance from death, as if they would sin no more, or desire no more mercy (ver. 17). ( G. Hughes, B. D. ) A false repentance J. S. Exell, M. A. I. IT PROCEEDS FROM THE IMPULSE OF THE MOMENT, AND NOT FROM CONSCIENTIOUS CONVICTION. II. IT IS MARKED BY SELFISH TERROR, AND NOT BY A GODLY SORROW FOR SIN. III. IT CRAVES FORGIVENESS OF AN IMMEDIATE OFFENCE, RATHER THAN A THOROUGH CLEANSING OF THE HEART. IV. IT CONFIDES IN THE INTERCESSION OF A FELLOW-MORTAL, RATHER THAN IN THE PERSONAL HUMBLING OF THE SOUL BEFORE GOD. Christ is the only Mediator. V. IT REGARDS GOD MORE AS A TERRIBLE DEITY WHOSE WRATH IS TO BE APPEASED, THAN AS THE INFINITE FATHER WHOSE LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE. VI. IT EXPRESSES A PROMISE OF AMENDMENT WHICH IS FALSIFIED BY PREVIOUS DISSEMBLINGS.Lessons: 1. To be sure that our repentance is genuine. 2. To bring forth fruit meet for repentance in daily conduct. 3. Not to pass a hasty judgment on the repentance of men. Half the Revivalists of the day would have called Pharaoh a true convert; time tests conversion. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Pharaoh's imperfect repentances Prof. Gaussen. Dear children, when any one confesses with sincerity, "I have sinned"; when he says this to God, and not merely to man, be sure that he is never rejected. But let us observe what was wanting in the repentance of Pharaoh. 1. Belief in God, He called Him the Lord your God. He spoke of Him as of a stranger. Now, it is impossible that any person or child can love the Lord until he feels himself reconciled to Him by faith, until he can call Him the Lord my God. 2. Pharaoh had humbled himself before men, rather than before God. 3. He besought the prayers of others, instead of praying for himself. 4. He asked the forgiveness of the servants of God, instead of seeking pardon from God Himself. If he had said, like David, "I acknowledge my sin unto the Lord," he might have added like him, "And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." 5. Pharaoh did not concern himself about the salvation of his soul. He intreated, not that he might be delivered from sin, but only that "this death" should be taken away from him; he did not think of eternity, but only of the plague under which he was suffering. 6. Lastly, remark that the king still cherished secret designs in his heart; his submission was not unreserved. We have begun as it were to repent; but as long as we are not willing to renounce all, to follow Jesus, our repentance is of no avail. Pharaoh said, "Go ye, serve the Lord, only let your flocks and herds be stayed." His heart was not yet submissive, thus his repentance was vain. ( Prof. Gaussen. ) The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Exodus 10:20 Pharaoh's will and God's F. D. Maurice, M. A. I. The simplest and most patient study of that portion of the Book of Exodus which refers to the Egyptian plagues will lead us to this conclusion, that Moses is the witness for a Divine eternal law, and the witness against every kind of king-craft or priest-craft which breaks this law, or substitutes any devices of man's power or wit in place of it. Moses protested against the deceits and impostures of the magicians, precisely because he protested for the living and eternal Lord. It is a special token of honesty and veracity that Moses records the success of the magicians in several of their experiments. We might fairly have discredited the story as partial and unlikely, if there had been no such admission. Even the most flagrant chicanery is not always disappointed, and in nine cases out of ten, fact and fraud are curiously dovetailed into one another. If you will not do homage to the one, you will not detect the other. II. Do not the words, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart," distinctly describe God as the Author of something in man which is pronounced to be utterly wrong? Is He not said to have foreseen Pharaoh's sin, and not only to have foreseen, but to have produced it? The will of God was an altogether good will, and therefore Pharaoh's will — which was a bad will, a proud self-will — strove against it, and was lashed into fury by meeting with that which was contrary to itself. These words of Scripture are most necessary to us, for the purpose of making us understand the awful contradiction which there may be between the will of a man and the will of his Creator; how that contradiction may be aggravated by what seemed to be means for its cure, and how it may be cured. However hard our hearts may be, the Divine Spirit of grace and discipline can subdue even all things to Himself. ( F. D. Maurice, M. A. ) The hardening of Pharaoh's heart Abp. Thomson. I. THE REALITY OF THE HUMAN WILL, and consequently of responsibility, IS ATTACHED ON DIFFERENT SIDES: HERE ON PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND THERE ON HISTORICAL GROUNDS. We are told that facts connected with the human will admit of exact calculation and prediction, according to what is termed the law of averages, and that consequently the doctrine of free-will, which was never capable of proof, must be displaced by a doctrine recognizing the certainty of human action. To this we answer: 1. The belief that man has the power to choose is so far from wanting proof, that it has all the force which universal consent can give it. 2. This average, which is supposed to rule the will like a rod of iron, is itself most variable. It yields under the hand like tempered clay. That which our will is now acting upon, which varies in different countries because the will of man has made different laws there, cannot be conclusive against the doctrine of free-will. II. THE WORDS OF THE TEXT ARE NOT WITHOUT THEIR WARNING. They mean that God, who punishes sin with death, sometimes punishes sin with sin. When man has repelled the voice of conscience, and the warning of his Bible, and the entreaties of friends, then grace is withdrawn from him, and sin puts on a judicial character, and is at once sin and punishment. ( Abp. Thomson. ) The hardening of the heart Plain Sermons by Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times. " "The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart" is a very remarkable and startling expression, and it is repeated in this history no fewer than ten times. It is startling, for it seems at first sight as if it ascribed the sin of that wicked man to Almighty God. But a little thought will show that it is very far from meaning this. 1. In other places the hardening is attributed to Pharaoh himself. God gives bad men a mysterious power to change their hearts and minds continually for the worse, by their own wicked ways; so that in the end they cannot believe or repent. It is their own doing, because they bring it on themselves by their sin, and it is God's doing because it is the just punishment which His law has made the effect of their sin. 2. God knew beforehand that the heart of Pharaoh was such that not even miracles would overcome his obstinacy, and knowing this, He determined to deal with him in a manner which ought to have softened and amended him, but which, according to his perverse way of taking it, only hardened him more and more. 3. The taking off of God's hand, after each successive plague, had the effect of hardening Pharaoh's heart more completely. He repents of his own repentance, and wishes he had not given way so far to God's messengers. 4. Pharaoh, like other wicked kings, had no want of evil subjects to encourage him. He had magicians who counterfeited God's miracles, and servants who, on every occasion, were ready to harden their hearts with him. Such is Pharaoh's case; beginning in heathenish ignorance, but forced by warning after warning to become aware of the truth. Every warning was a chance given him to soften his heart, but he went on hardening it, and so perished. ( Plain Sermons by Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times. " ) Hardening influence of sin J. Spencer. Look but upon a youth when he comes first to be an apprentice to some artificer, or handicraft trade, his hand is tender, and no sooner is he set to work but it blisters, so that he is much pained thereby; but when he hath continued some time at work, then his hand hardens, and he goes on without any grievance at all. It is just thus with a sinner: before he be accustomed to an evil way, conscience is tender and full of remorse, like a queasy stomach, ready to kick at the least thing that is offensive. Oh, but a continued custom, and making a trade of sin, that's it that makes the conscience to be hard and brawny, able to feel nothing I As it is in a smith's forge, a dog that comes newly in, cannot endure the fiery sparks to fly about his ears; but being once used to it, he sleeps securely; so let wicked men be long used to the devil's workhouse, to be slaves and vassals to sin, the sparks of hell-fire may fly about them, and the fire of hell flash upon their souls, yet never trouble them, never disturb them at all; and all this ariseth from a continued custom in a course of evil. ( J. Spencer. ) Darkness over the land of Egypt. Exodus 10:21-23 Lessons G. Hughes, B. D. 1. God falls upon sinners without warning where they deal falsely with Him. 2. The same signal God may command for several uses. 3. God's word determines the end unto which all signals are appointed. 4. Men's hands lifted up to heaven God may make use of to bring evils on the earth. 5. It is God's word to make a kingdom the land of darkness. 6. Palpable darkness is a judgment of God's own making (ver. 21). ( G. Hughes, B. D. ) Lessons G. Hughes, B. D. 1. Obedience to God's signal commands must be given by His servants. 2. Signal obedience by God's ministers is not in vain. God giveth the effect. 3. Horrid darkness can God send upon souls darkened through sin. 4. Egyptian darkness is God's exemplary vengeance to the world. 5. The place and duration of darkness are at God's appointment (ver. 22). 6. Dismal darkness is that which takes from

Benson Commentary Exodus 10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: Exodus 10:1 . Go unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart — That is, either, 1st, Go and make a new address unto him, for what I have yet done has but hardened his heart: or, 2d, ?? , here translated for, must, as is often the case, be rendered although; go and speak to him again, although I have suffered his heart to be hardened, and to continue obdurate, that I might more fully display my power and providence, not only to Egypt and the adjacent countries, but to generations yet unborn, and especially to the posterity of my people Israel; that thou mayest tell ( Exodus 10:2 ) in the ears of thy son, and thy son’s son, what things I have wrought. These plagues are standing monuments of the greatness of God, the happiness of the church, and the sinfulness of sin; and standing monitors to the children of men in all ages, not to provoke the Lord to jealousy, nor to strive with their Maker. The benefit of these instructions to the world doth sufficiently balance the expense. Exodus 10:2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD. Exodus 10:3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. Exodus 10:3 . How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself? — By this it appears that God’s design was not to harden Pharaoh, but to humble him by these extraordinary judgments. It is justly expected from the greatest of men that they should humble themselves before the great God, and it is at their peril if they refuse to do it. Those that will not humble themselves, God will humble. Exodus 10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: Exodus 10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: Exodus 10:5 . They shall cover the face — Hebrew, the eye; of the earth — That is, of its inhabitants; that one cannot be able to see the earth — It is observable that no living creature multiplies so fast as the locust. It is almost incredible in what swarms they are sometimes seen in some parts. Thevenot gives an account of armies of locusts laying waste the country of the Cossacks. “They live,” he says, “about six months, and lay their eggs in autumn, to the number of three hundred each, which are hatched in the spring following. Such as have been eye-witnesses report, that they have seen the whole air in Arabia darkened by them, in their flight, for eighteen or twenty miles.” “They eclipse the light of the sun,” says Pliny, “in their flight, the people looking up to them in anxious suspense lest they should cover their whole country. They are so destructive that large territories have bean laid bare by them in a few hours, and the inhabitants reduced to famine. They do not spare even the bark of trees, but eat every thing that comes in their way, even to the very doors of the houses.” Exodus 10:6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. Exodus 10:6 . They shall fill the houses of all the Egyptians — Dr. Shaw says, the locusts he saw in Barbary, in the year 1724, “climbed, as they marched forward, over every tree or wall that was in their way; they entered into our very houses and bed-chambers, like so many thieves.” — See Encycl. Brit. on the term Gryllus, p. 162, 3d edit. Exodus 10:7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? Exodus 10:7 . Pharaoh’s servants — His nobles and counsellors; said, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? — That is, lay before us the occasion of our falling into one calamity after another. To the impenitent the punishment of sin, not the sin which is punished, is the cause of their sorrow. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? — It was so in a great degree by these repeated and very destructive plagues. Exodus 10:8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? Exodus 10:8 . Who are they that shall go? — I am not willing you should all go: it will degrade me in the sight of my subjects that I should be obliged to submit to him who thus makes himself the very friend of my slaves. When he is compelled to yield, yet it is with extreme reluctance, and as little as possible. Exodus 10:9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. Exodus 10:9 . We must hold a feast unto the Lord — And in such solemnities the whole body of the nation, men, women, and children, and all who were not confined by sickness, were wont to join. Exodus 10:10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it ; for evil is before you. Exodus 10:10 . The Lord be so with you, as I will let you go — As if he had said, “May your God Jehovah assist you to my ruin, if I let you go on these terms.” Look to it, for evil is before you — More evil and affliction shall befall you forthwith, unless you be content to go on my terms. Here the spirit of wickedness speaks its own language in impotent wishes of evil, when all its guile, malice, rage, and pride could perform nothing to hurt or hinder the Israel of God from doing as they were commanded. He especially curses and threatens them in case they offered to take their little ones, telling them it was at their peril. Satan doth all he can to hinder those that serve God themselves, from bringing their children to serve him. He is a sworn enemy to early piety, knowing how destructive it is to the interests of his kingdom. Exodus 10:11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Exodus 10:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. Exodus 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. Exodus 10:13 . The east wind brought the locusts — From Arabia, where they are in great numbers: and God miraculously increased them. The locusts are usually conveyed by the wind. In the year 1527 great troops of locusts were brought by a strong wind out of Turkey into Poland, which country they wasted; and in 1536 a wind from the Euxine Sea brought such vast numbers into Podolia, that, for many miles round, they destroyed every thing. And “in the year 1650, a cloud of locusts was seen to enter Russia in three different places; and from thence they spread themselves over Poland and Lithuania, in such astonishing multitudes that the air was darkened, and the earth covered with their numbers. In some places they were seen lying dead, heaped upon each other to the depth of four feet; in others they covered the surface like a black cloth; the trees bent with their weight, and the damage which the country sustained exceeded computation.” — Encycl. Brit., vol. 8. p. 162, 3d edit. Exodus 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they ; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. Exodus 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. Exodus 10:15 . They did eat every green herb of the land — There seems to have been some distance of time between the last plague and this, during which, in that warm and fertile country, new productions had sprouted forth, both out of the ground and from the trees. There remained not any green thing — The earth God has given to the children of men; yet when he pleaseth he can disturb their possession of it, even by locusts and caterpillars. Herb grows for the service of man, yet, when God pleaseth, these contemptible insects shall not only be fellow-commoners with him, but shall eat the bread out of his mouth. Exodus 10:16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Exodus 10:17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only. Exodus 10:17 . Pharaoh desires their prayers that this death only might be taken away, not this sin: he deprecates the plague of locusts, not the plague of a hard heart. Exodus 10:18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. Exodus 10:19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. Exodus 10:19 . An east wind brought the locusts, and now a west wind carried them off. Whatever point of the compass the wind is in, it is fulfilling God’s word, and turns about by his counsel; the wind blows where it listeth for us, but not where it listeth for him; he directeth it under the whole heaven. Exodus 10:20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. Exodus 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. Exodus 10:21 . We may observe concerning this plague, 1st, That it was a total darkness. We have reason to think, not only that the lights of heaven were clouded, but that all their fires and candles were put out by the damps or clammy vapours which were the cause of this darkness, for it is said, they saw not one another. 2d, That it was darkness which might be felt; felt in its causes by their finger-ends, so thick were the fogs; felt in its effects, (some think,) by their eyes, which were pricked with pain, and made the more sore by their rubbing them. Great pain is spoken of as the effect of that darkness, ( Revelation 16:10 ,) which alludes to this. 3d, No doubt it was very frightful and amazing. The tradition of the Jews is, that in this darkness they were terrified by the apparition of evil spirits, or rather by dreadful sounds and murmurs which they made; and this is the plague which some think is intended, (for otherwise it is not mentioned at all here,) Psalm 78:49 , “He poured upon them the fierceness of his anger, by sending evil angels among them;” for to those to whom the devil has been a deceiver, he will at length be a terror. 4th, It continued three days; six nights in one; so long they were imprisoned by those chains of darkness. Exodus 10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: Exodus 10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Exodus 10:23 . Neither rose any from his place — This circumstance is one of the lively strokes in description which critics call picturesque: it strongly paints the horror and dismay which this palpable darkness cast upon their minds. Le Clerc, however, justly remarks, that we are not to understand the expression so strictly, as if not one of the Egyptians rose from his place; for the servants, at least, must have moved about the best way they could to find victuals for themselves and their masters. The expression denotes that there was a total inaction and cessation from ordinary business, that they were all confined to their houses, and that such a terror seized them, that few of them had courage to go even from their chairs to their beds, or from their beds to their chairs. Thus were they silent in darkness, 1 Samuel 2:9 . Now Pharaoh had time to consider, if he would have improved it. But the children of Israel had light in their dwellings — Not only in the land of Goshen, where most of them inhabited, but in the particular dwellings which in other places the Israelites had dispersed among the Egyptians, as it appears they had, by the distinction afterward appointed to be put on their door-posts. And during these three days of darkness to the Egyptians, if God had so pleased, the Israelites, by the light which they had, might have made their escape, and have asked Pharaoh no leave; but God would bring them out with a high hand, and not by stealth, or in haste. Exodus 10:24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you. Exodus 10:25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God. Exodus 10:26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither. Exodus 10:27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Exodus 10:28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. Exodus 10:29 And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more. Exodus 10:29 . I will see thy face no more — Namely, after this time, for this conference did not break off till Exodus 11:8 , when Moses went out in great anger, and told Pharaoh how soon his proud stomach would come down; which was fulfilled Exodus 12:31 , when Pharaoh became an humble supplicant to Moses to depart. So that after this interview Moses came no more till he was sent for. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Exodus 10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: CHAPTER X. THE EIGHTH PLAGUE. Exodus 10:1-20 . The Lord would not command His servant again to enter the dangerous presence of the sullen prince, without a reason which would sustain his faith: "For I have made heavy his heart." The pronoun is emphatic: it means to say, 'His foolhardiness is My doing and cannot go beyond My will: thou art safe.' And the same encouragement belongs to all who do the sacred will: not a hair of their head shall truly perish, since life and death are the servants of their God. Thus, in the storm of human passion, as of the winds, He says, "It is I, be not afraid"; making the wrath of man to praise Him, stilling alike the tumult of the waves and the madness of the people. It is possible that even the merciful mitigations of the last plague were used by infatuated hearts to justify their wilfulness: the most valuable crops of all had escaped; so that these judgments, however dire, were not quite beyond endurance. Just such a course of reasoning deludes all who forget that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. Besides the reasons already given for lengthening out the train of judgments, it is added that Israel should teach the story to posterity, and both fathers and children should "know that I am Jehovah." Accordingly it became a favourite title--"The Lord which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Even the apostates under Sinai would not reject so illustrious a memory: their feast was nominally to Jehovah; and their idol was an image of "the gods which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" ( Exodus 32:4-5 ). Has our land no deliverances for which to be thankful? Instead of boastful self-assertion, should we not say, "We have heard with our ears, O God, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that Thou didst in their days and in the old time before them?" Have we forgotten that national mercies call aloud for national thanksgiving? And in the family, and in the secret life of each, are there no rescues, no emancipations, no enemies overcome by a hand not our own, which call for reverent acknowledgment? "These things were our examples, and are written for our admonition." The reproof now spoken to Pharaoh is sterner than any previous one. There is no reasoning in it. The demand is peremptory: "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself?" With it is a sharp and short command: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me." And with this is a detailed and tremendous threat. It is strange, in the face of the knowledge accumulated since the objection called for it, to remember that once this narrative was challenged, because locusts, it was said, are unknown in Egypt. They are mentioned in the inscriptions. Great misery was caused by them in 1463, and just three hundred years later Niebuhr was himself at Cairo during a plague of them. Equally arbitrary is the objection that Joel predicted locusts "such as there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations" ( Exodus 2:2 ), whereas we read of these that "before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such" ( Exodus 10:14 ). The objection is whimsical in its absurdity, when we remember that Joel spoke distinctly of Zion and the holy mountain ( Exodus 2:1 ), and Exodus of "the borders of Egypt" ( Exodus 10:14 ). But it is true that locusts are comparatively rare in Egypt; so that while the meaning of the threat would be appreciated, familiarity would not have steeled them against it. The ravages of the locust are terrible indeed, and coming just in time to ruin the crops which had escaped the hail, would complete the misery of the land. One speaks of the sudden change of colour by the disappearance of verdure where they alight as being like the rolling up of a carpet; and here we read "they shall cover the eye of the earth,"--a phrase peculiar to the Pentateuch ( Exodus 10:15 ; Numbers 22:5 , Numbers 22:11 ); "and they shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, ... and they shall fill thy houses, and the ... houses of all the Egyptians, which neither thy fathers nor thy fathers' fathers have seen." After uttering the appointed warning, Moses abruptly left, awaiting no negotiations, plainly regarding them as vain. But now, for the first time, the servants of Pharaoh interfered, declared the country to be ruined, and pressed him to surrender. And yet it was now first that we read ( Exodus 10:1 ) that their hearts were hardened as well as his. For that is a hard heart that does not remonstrate against wrong, however plainly God reveals His displeasure, until new troubles are at hand, and which even then has no regard for the wrongs of Israel, but only for the woes of Egypt. It is a hard heart, therefore, which intends to repent upon its deathbed; for its motives are identical with these. Pharaoh's behaviour is that of a spoiled child, who is indeed the tyrant most familiar to us. He feels that he must yield, or else why should the brothers be recalled? And yet, when it comes to the point, he tries to play the master still, by dictating the terms for his own surrender; and breaks off the negotiation rather than do frankly what he must feel that it is necessary to do. Moses laid his finger accurately upon the disease when he reproached him for refusing to humble himself. And if his behaviour seem unnatural, it is worth observation that Napoleon, the greatest modern example of proud, intellectual, godless infatuation, allowed himself to be crushed at Leipsic through just the same reluctance to do thoroughly and without self-deception what he found it necessary to consent to do. "Napoleon," says his apologist, Thiers, "at length determined to retreat--a resolution humbling to his pride. Unfortunately, instead of a retreat frankly admitted ... he determined on one which from its imposing character should not be a real retreat at all, and should be accomplished in open day." And this perversity, which ruined him, is traced back to "the illusions of pride." Well, it was quite as hard for the Pharaoh to surrender at discretion, as for the Corsican to stoop to a nocturnal retreat. Accordingly, he asks, "Who are ye that shall go?" and when Moses very explicitly and resolutely declares that they will all go, with all their property, his passion overcomes him, he feels that to consent is to lose them for ever, and he exclaims, "So be Jehovah with you as I will let you go and your little ones: look to it, for evil is before you"--that is to say, Your intentions are bad. "Go ye that are men, and serve the Lord, for that is what ye desire,"--no more than that is implied in your demand, unless it is a mere pretence, under which more lurks than it avows. But he and they have long been in a state of war: menaces, submissions, and treacheries have followed each other fast, and he has no reason to complain if their demands are raised. Moreover, his own nation celebrated religious festivals in company with their wives and children, so that his rejoinder is an empty outburst of rage. And of a Jewish feast it was said, a little later, "Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant ... and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow" ( Deuteronomy 16:11 ). There was no insincerity in the demand; and although the suspicions of the king were naturally excited by the exultant and ever-rising hopes of the Hebrews, and the defiant attitude of Moses, yet even now there is as little reason to suspect bad faith as to suppose that Israel, once released, could ever have resumed the same abject attitude toward Egypt as before. They would have come back victorious, and therefore ready to formulate new demands; already half emancipated, and therefore prepared for the perfecting of the work. And now, at a second command as explicit as that which bade him utter the warning, Moses, anxiously watched by many, stretched out his hand over the devoted realm. At the gesture, the spectators felt that a fiat had gone forth. But the result was strangely different from that which followed his invocation, both of the previous and the following plague, when we may believe that as he raised his hand, the hail-storm burst in thunder, and the curtain fell upon the sky. Now there only arose a gentle east wind (unlike the "exceeding strong west wind" that followed), but it blew steadily all that day and all the following night. The forebodings of Egypt would understand it well: the prolonged period during which the curse was being steadily wafted toward them was an awful measure of the wide regions over which the power of Jehovah reached; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts, that dreadful curse which Joel has compared to a disciplined and devastating invader, "the army of the Lord," and the first woe that heralds the Day of the Lord in the Apocalypse ( Joel 2:1-11 ; Revelation 9:1-11 ). The completeness of the ruin brought a swift surrender, but it has been well said that folly is the wisdom which is only wise too late, and, let us add, too fitfully. If Pharaoh had only submitted before the plague instead of after it![18] If he had only respected himself enough to be faithful, instead of being too vain really to yield! It is an interesting coincidence that, since he had this time defied the remonstrances of his advisers, his confession of sin is entirely personal: it is no longer, "I and my people are sinners," but "I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you." This last clause was bitter to his lips, but the need for their intercession was urgent: life and death were at stake upon the removal of this dense cloud of creatures which penetrated everywhere, leaving everywhere an evil odour, and of which a later sufferer complains, "We could not eat, but we bit a locust; nor open our mouths, but locusts filled them." Therefore he went on to entreat volubly, "Forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat Jehovah your God that He may take away from me this death only." And at the prayer of Moses, the Lord caused the breeze to veer and rise into a hurricane: "The Lord turned an exceeding strong west wind." Now, the locust can float very well upon an easy breeze, and so it had been wafted over the Red Sea; but it is at once beaten down by a storm, and when it touches the water it is destroyed. Thus simply was the plague removed. "But the Lord made strong Pharaoh's heart," and so, his fears being conquered, his own rebellious will went on upon its evil way. He would not let Israel go. This narrative throws light upon a thousand vows made upon sick beds, but broken when the sufferer recovers; and a thousand prayers for amendment, breathed in all the sincerity of panic, and forgotten with all the levity of security. It shows also, in the hesitating and abortive half-submission of the tyrant, the greater folly of many professing Christians, who will, for Christ's sake, surrender all their sins except one or two, and make any confession except that which really brings low their pride. Thoroughness, decision, depth, and self-surrender, needed by Pharaoh, are needed by every soul of man. FOOTNOTES: [18] Oddly enough, the same historian already quoted, relating the story of the same day at Leipsic, says of Napoleon's dialogue with M. de Merfeld, that he "used an expression which, if uttered at the Congress of Prague, would have changed his lot and ours. Unfortunately, it was now too late." Exodus 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. THE NINTH PLAGUE. Exodus 10:21-29 . We have taken it as settled that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Menephtah, the Beloved of the God Ptah. If so, his devotion to the gods throws a curious light upon his first scorn of Jehovah, and his long continued resistance; and also upon the threat of vengeance to be executed upon the gods of Egypt, as if they were a resisting power. But there is a special significance in the ninth plague, when we connect it with Menephtah. In the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes there is to be seen, fresh and lifelike, the admirably sculptured effigy of this king--a weak and cruel face, with the receding forehead of his race, but also their nose like a beak, and their sharp chin. Over his head is the inscription-- "Lord of the Two Lands, Beloved of the God Amen; Lord of Diadems, Beloved of the God Ptah: Crowned by Amen with dominion of the world: Cherished by the Sun in the great abode." This formidable personage is delineated by the court sculptor with his hand stretched out in worship, and under it is written "He adores the Sun: he worships Hor of the solar horizons." The worship, thus chosen as the most characteristic of this king, either by himself or by some consummate artist, was to be tested now. Could the sun help him? or was it, like so many minor forces of earth and air, at the mercy of the God of Israel? There is a terrible abruptness about the coming of the ninth plague. Like the third and sixth, it is inflicted unannounced; and the parleying, the driving of a bargain and then breaking it, by which the eighth was attended, is quite enough to account for this. Moreover, the experience of every man teaches him that each method has its own impressiveness: the announcement of punishment awes, and a surprise alarms, and when they are alternated, every possible door of access to the conscience is approached. If the heart of Pharaoh was now beyond hope, it does not follow that all his people were equally hardened. What an effect was produced upon those courtiers who so earnestly supported the recent demand of Moses, when this new plague fell upon them unawares! But not only is there no announcement: the narrative is so concentrated and brief as to give a graphic rendering of the surprise and terror of the time. Not a word is wasted:-- "The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings" ( Exodus 10:21-23 ). We are not told anything of the emotions of the king, as the prophet strides into his presence, and before the cowering court, silently raises his hand and quenches the day. We may infer his temper, if we please, from the frantic outbreak of menace and rage in which he presently warns the man whose coming is the same thing as calamity to see his face no more. Nothing is said, again, about the evil angels by which, according to later narratives, that long night was haunted.[19] And after all it is more impressive to think of the blank, utter paralysis of dread in which a nation held its breath, benumbed and motionless, until vitality was almost exhausted, and even Pharaoh chose rather to surrender than to die. As the people lay cowering in their fear, there was plenty to occupy their minds. They would remember the first dreadful threat, not yet accomplished, to slay their firstborn; and the later assertion that if pestilence had not destroyed them, it was because God would plague them with all His plagues. They would reflect upon all their defeated duties, and how the sun himself was now withdrawn at the waving of the prophet's hand. And then a ghastly foreboding would complete their dread. What was it that darkness typified, in every Oriental nation--nay, in all the world? Death! Job speaks of "The land of darkness and of the shadow of death; A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself; A land of the shadow of death without any order, And where the light is as darkness" ( Job 10:21-22 ). With us, a mortal sentence is given in a black cap; in the East, far more expressively, the head of the culprit was covered, and the darkness which thus came upon him expressed his doom. Thus "they covered Haman's face" ( Esther 7:8 ). Thus to destroy "the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples and the veil that is spread over all nations," is the same thing as to "swallow up death," being the visible destruction of the embodied death-sentence ( Isaiah 25:7-8 ). And now this veil was spread over all the radiant land of Egypt. Chill, and hungry, and afraid to move, the worst horror of all that prolonged midnight was the mental agony of dire anticipation. In other respects there had been far worse calamities, but through its effect upon the imagination this dreadful plague was a fit prelude to the tenth, which it hinted and premonished. In the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom there is a remarkable study of this plague, regarded as retribution in kind. It avenges the oppression of Israel. "For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation, they being shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay exiled from the eternal Providence" ( Wis 17:2 ). It expresses in the physical realm their spiritual misery: "For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a thick veil of forgetfulness" ( Wis 17:3 ). It retorted on them the illusions of their sorcerers: "as for the illusions of art magick, they were put down.... For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at" ( Wis 17:7-8 ). In another place the Egyptians are declared to be worse than the men of Sodom, because they brought into bondage friends and not strangers, and grievously afflicted those whom they had received with feasting; "therefore even with blindness were these stricken, as those were at the doors of the righteous man." ( Wis 19:14-17 ). And we may well believe that the long night was haunted with special terrors, if we add this wise explanation: "For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed by conscience, always forecasteth grievous things. For"--and this is a sentence of transcendent merit--"fear is nothing else than a betrayal of the succours that reason offereth" ( Wis 17:11-12 ). Therefore it is concluded that their own hearts were their worst tormentors, alarmed by whistling winds, or melodious song of birds, or pleasing fall of waters, "for the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour: over them only was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness" ( Wis 17:20-21 ). Isaiah, too, who is full of allusions to the early history of his people, finds in this plague of darkness an image of all mental distress and spiritual gloom. "We look for light, but behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity: we grope for the wall like the blind, yea, we grope as those that have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight" ( Isaiah 59:10 ). Here the sinful nation is reduced to the misery of Egypt. But if she were obedient she would enjoy all the immunities of her forefathers amid Egyptian gloom: "Then shall thy light rise in darkness and thy obscurity as the noonday" ( Isaiah 58:10 ); "Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee" ( Isaiah 60:2 ). And, indeed, in the spiritual light which is sown for the righteous, and the obscuration of the judgment of the impure, this miracle is ever reproduced. The history of Menephtah is that of a mean and cowardly prince. Dreams forbade him to share the perils of his army; a prophecy induced him to submit to exile, until his firstborn was of age to recover his dominions for him; and all we know of him is admirably suited to the character represented in this narrative. He will now submit once more, and this time every one shall go; yet he cannot make a frank concession: the flocks and herds (most valuable after the ravages of the murrain and the hail) must remain as a hostage for their return. But Moses is inflexible: not a hoof shall be left behind; and then the frenzy of a baffled autocrat breaks out into wild menaces; "Get thee from me; take heed to thyself; see my face no more; for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die." The assent of Moses was grim: the rupture was complete. And when they once more met, it was the king that had changed his purpose, and on his face, not that of Moses, was the pallor of impending death. In the conduct of the prophet, all through these stormy scenes, we see the difference between a meek spirit and a craven one. He was always ready to intercede; he never "reviles the ruler," nor transgresses the limits of courtesy toward his superior in rank; and yet he never falters, nor compromises, nor fails to represent worthily the awful Power he represents. In the series of sharp contrasts, all the true dignity is with the servant of God, all the meanness and the shame with the proud king, who begins by insulting him, goes on to impose on him, and ends by the most ignominious of surrenders, crowned with the most abortive of treacheries and the most abject of defeats. FOOTNOTES: [19] Such is probably not the meaning in Psalm 78:49 (see R.V.), though from it the tradition may have sprung. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.