Locusts
10
📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, so that I might show these signs of mine among them, 2 📚and so that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, what things I have accomplished in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them so that you may know that I am the LORD”.10:2 God did what He did so that future generations also might come to know the Lord.⚜
3 📚And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may serve me. 4 📚For if you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring the locusts into your territory, 5 📚and they will cover the face of the land, so that one will not be able to see the land. They will eat the rest of what escaped, which is left to you from the hail, and will eat every plant which grows for you out of the field, 6 📚and they will fill your houses, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians. This neither your fathers, nor your grandfathers have seen, since the day that they came on the earth to this day.’ ” And he turned around and left Pharaoh.
7 📚And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you still not know that Egypt is destroyed?”
10:7 Even now when his officials give him this advice Pharaoh refused to submit to God.⚜
8 📚And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But who are those who will go?”
9 📚And Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters. We will go with our flocks and with our herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD”.
10 📚And he said to them, “Let the LORD be with you, if I ever let you and your little ones go! Watch out, for trouble is before you! 11 📚Not like that; you who are men go and serve the LORD, for that’s what you wanted”. And they were driven away from Pharaoh’s presence.
10:8-11 Pharaoh wanted to keep his hold on them through their children.⚜
12 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left”.
13 📚And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night, and when morning came the east wind brought the locusts. 14 📚And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and settled on all the territory of Egypt, a very great many. There were never such locusts before, nor will there be such after them. 15 📚For they covered the surface of the ground everywhere, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every plant in the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. And in all the land of Egypt, among the trees, or among the plants in the field, nothing green remained.
16 📚Then Pharaoh quickly called for Moses and Aaron and he said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. 17 📚So now please forgive my sin only this once, and pray to the LORD your God to only take away this death from me”.
10:16-17 Another insincere confession. He wanted relief from the plague but he did not want to submit to God.⚜
18 📚And he went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to the LORD. 19 📚And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. 20 📚But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
Darkness
21 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may be felt”. 22 📚And Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
10:21-22 The chief god of the Egyptians then was Ra (or Re), the sun god. Now this god too was shown to be helpless.⚜
23 📚For three days they did not see each other; nor did anyone get away from his place. But all the children of Israel had light in their homes.
24 📚And Pharaoh called for Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; only leave your flocks and your herds behind. Let your little ones also go with you”.
25 📚And Moses said, “You must allow us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 26 📚Our livestock also will go with us. Not a hoof will be left behind. For we must take from them to serve the LORD our God, and we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord”.
10:24-26 Pharaoh wanted to retain his hold on them through their property. Pharaoh made four attempts to get Moses to compromise. He said first “stay in the land and sacrifice” (Ex 8:25); then “don’t go far from the land” (Ex 8:28); then “only men may go” (Ex 10:10-11); finally he said they had to “leave flocks and herds behind” (Ex 10:24). Moses’ answer was clear – “not a hoof is to be left behind”.
Now, too, God wants His people to be spiritually delivered completely from this evil world (John 17:14-16; Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 6:17; Gal 1:4; 1 Pet 2:9-12; 1 John 2:15-17). Egypt is a type of this world, the kingdom of Satan, a picture of sin’s bondage from which God would redeem us. Pharaoh, a god in Egypt, is a picture of Satan. Now, as then, forces hostile to God would try to keep His people tied to the world. Believers must learn to say with Moses “not the tiniest part of who we are or what we have shall be left behind. Nothing shall remain in Satan’s control. With our wives, our children and all our possessions we will serve the Lord”.⚜
27 📚But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 📚And Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Watch out for yourself! See my face no more, for on the day you see my face you will die”.
10:28 Pharaoh here ends the contest with Moses and has to admit defeat. His magicians have failed, his attempts at compromise have failed, and Egypt’s gods have failed. All that is left for him is to make threats (compare Acts 4:15-22; 7:54-58). But threats do not change the truth. And the truth is this: Jehovah, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible is the true and only God, and the gods of Egypt and other nations were not and are not.⚜
29 📚And Moses said, “You have well spoken. I will not see your face again”.