Title: Exodus 10
Content Exodus 10:1-20
Now Pharaoh and his servants harden their hearts (v. 1; 9:34), and the eighth plague comes. It's a locust plague. God continued to show signs by hardening Pharaoh and his servants. Verse 2 says, “You will tell in the ears of your son and of your descendants the things I have done in Egypt, the signs I have performed in them, so that you will know that I am the Lord.” Why do we have to tell our descendants about the calamities that God brings?
The miracles God performed in Egypt were not only aimed at showing God's glory in Egypt and judging Egypt to deliver God's people. Furthermore, it was intended so that the people of God who saw and heard it would know the power of God and the salvation provided by that power and serve God over and over again.
The reason that we, who were dead, were raised to life through Jesus Christ is “so that the exceeding riches of His grace may be revealed in the generations to come” (Ephesians 2:7) (cf. 1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, believers no longer live for themselves (Romans 14:7).
Through this seventh plague, God struck down everything that Egypt was holding onto, but he struck down every last thing that remained. God did not give the opposing crowds a place to breathe. If God didn't do this, Pharaoh would try to make Israel his property forever.
Satan will never let go of the people of God he is holding on to. However, when a non-human, promised heavenly being comes and decisively strikes Satan, we will have no choice but to let go. After all, salvation is to take away his people who are held captive by the forces of darkness by the will and power of God (Colossians 1:13). Since it is “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19), there is no place for human merit.
Urgent due to the locust plague, Pharaoh allows the Israelites to serve God. But this time too, conditions were attached. Moses said that he would take all the people and animals that belonged to Israel, but Pharaoh offers to leave the women, children, and livestock, and only the men.
This is actually the same as saying don't go. This proposal was made by Pharaoh, thinking that if he left behind his wife, children, and property, he would soon return. Human beings have their own flesh and blood and tend to place their hearts where their wealth is. The devil knows it better than anyone. That is why even today, the devil is constantly tempting us to cling to the passion of flesh and blood and our possessions.
Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron hastily to pray for the plague to be over (verse 16). However, when the locust plague is over, it changes to its initial state at once. Pharaoh's appearance reflects the image of sinners who are the servants of the devil. Isn't that what we look like when we face hardships and when things get difficult, we repent, look to the Lord, pretend to depend on Him, and when things get better we live like we did?
Exodus 10:21-29
The ninth plague was the coming of darkness. The Egyptians were unable to move because of the darkness that fell for three days. This calamity revealed its powerlessness by chastising the sun god, whom the Egyptians worshiped as the supreme god. But where the children of Israel dwelt, there was light (verse 23). It is not because of the light of the sun that humans can live and farm, but God, who is light, has the source of life.
Finally, Pharaoh told Israel to go, but let the animals go, and only the humans (verse 24). But Moses adamantly rejects it. Because serving the Lord is expressed as a sacrifice (v. 26). Of course, it is true that what they had to receive was circumcision of the heart, and the heart they had to have was a broken heart. But such things are expressed as being contained in a vessel of form, which is a sacrifice. Therefore, it is meaningless unless it is a sacrifice offered in the spirit of circumcision and of a broken spirit.
By giving our hearts to the Lord, we should not ignore everything that appears in form or material. As long as we live in the world, we serve God by using the things of the world as a means. But we must be careful here that means should never be turned into ends. In other words, even if the things of the world are given to us, we must show love for the cross of the Lord with a heart that gives up moment by moment without giving any meaning to it.
King Pharaoh's refusal and intimidation of further dialogue itself is nothing more than trying to cover up his defeat in an urgent way. Pharaoh's stubbornness was like accumulating wrath against himself (Romans 2:4,5).
Here, we should not assume that God's salvation has been accomplished. Of course, since God will surely fulfill what He has promised, we can accept it as already accomplished. However, in the light of Exodus 3:19-22, salvation has not yet been completely accomplished as God said. It will be done when they yield and drive out Israel (6:1). So the tenth and final plague remains to be given.
From the fourth plague onward, God performed the judgment on Egypt through Moses, highlighting one savior of Israel. God's salvation through the Exodus was to make us look to one savior. Now what the role of the savior will be will be revealed in the tenth plague.