So that is Exodus chapter 10
and verse 21, and we'll read through to chapter 11 and verse
8. 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. 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 for three days. But all the children of
Israel had light in their dwellings. 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. And Moses said, Thou must give
us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice
unto the Lord our God. 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. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he would not let them go. 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. And Moses
said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no
more. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go
hence. When he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the
ears of the people and let every man borrow of his neighbor and
every woman of her neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold.
And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very
great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants,
and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus saith the
Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt.
And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from
the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even
unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and
all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall
come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get
thee out, and all the people that follow thee, and after that
I will go out. and he went out from Pharaoh
in a great anger. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word also. The chapter break in the reading
that we have just had together appears to come in the middle
of Pharaoh's angry exchange with Moses. And it does appear as
if these two men have come to the end of their tether with
each other. So we've read these few verses
into chapter 11. But there appears to be in this
plague of darkness no separate warning given to Pharaoh and
to the people of Egypt. But the sudden falling of this
strange darkness comes upon all people as the Lord instructs
Moses to bring it into the experience of the nation. Not into Israel,
and again we see the distinction or the difference that is made
between God and His judgments. One people being judged and the
other people being delivered. but it comes upon the people
of Egypt, Pharaoh and his household, his servants, and upon the whole
land. And we discover that it was a
darkness that could be felt. So there's a strange quality
about this darkness. There's something different about
this. It's a darkness that could be
felt, and it's a darkness that lasts for three days. And actually, of all the verses
that we read together, the darkness is only spoken of in a few verses
at the beginning. And it doesn't appear as if there
is any lifting of this plague as a result of Pharaoh's asking
for relief. So it appears as if relief notwithstanding,
or the request for relief notwithstanding, It lifts after three days, almost,
one might say, by itself or at the timing of God. We're told
that it was a felt darkness. We're told that it was a thick
darkness. And we're told that people neither
rose or left their homes. And it certainly seems to have
been more than simply an absence of sunlight. It's possible that
the thickness and the feeling of it was something to do with
a heavy mist which blocked out the light of the sun or a thick
cloud of smoke that blocked out the light and seemed to cling
to people so that they could not see and they could not move
around. Or perhaps, and I just leave
this for your consideration, or perhaps there is something
more menacing and something more sinister than this in this darkness. As if perhaps it was a darkness
that was in people's minds and a darkness that settled on their
souls, like a spiritual oppression that rendered them fearful and
helpless and with no desire to face their day, no desire to
get up out of their beds, no desire to go out of their homes,
no desire to do any work. There are different kinds of
darkness and sometimes we speak about a darkness that can enter
into our minds and enter into our person, into our souls. And there's something as well,
just about this darkness, which is related in the Psalms, which
perhaps just, well, can I say, sheds a little bit of light on
the darkness. In Psalm 78 and 49, verse 49,
we're told there about God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt. And the psalmist uses this phrase
to speak about the darkness. He says this, listen to this,
I think it's interesting. He cast upon them, that's God,
he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation
and trouble by sending evil angels amongst them. So evil angels
or evil ministers or an administration of evil was sent amongst the
Egyptians. And we've seen how the move or
the trend of these plagues have been intensifying and becoming
more and more aggravated. And perhaps this is an indication
that this darkness that fell upon Egypt was a darkness that
came into the very hearts and souls and minds of the Egyptians,
an evil angel sent from the Lord. And if this was some kind of
deep anxiety and depression, it would help explain the reaction
of the Egyptians to the children of Israel as they prepared to
leave the country, handing over their goods and their possessions
to them all, which likely was occurring at this very time. and borrow. When we talk about
the children of Israel borrowing from their neighbours, if we
use the word borrow it usually implies that we've got an obligation
to pay back that which we have borrowed. But the word can also
mean to ask. And either way, there was a justice
in the children of Israel being given these riches because the
children of Israel had worked without pay on behalf of the
Egyptians for many, many years. Pharaoh called for Moses and
told him that he was to leave and he was to take the children
of Israel and he was to take their families, their little
ones, and to go. Only, he said, leave your flocks
and your herds. Pharaoh wanted them to go. He was prepared to give them
what they asked for as long as they would leave their livestock.
And we can well imagine that Pharaoh would like to have these
herds given to him, delivered into his hand after all the losses
of the cattle by disease and hail, etc., the other plagues
in the land of Egypt. However, Moses insisted that
all of Israel, all of the possessions must leave together. And the
phrase that Moses uses here has become a little bit of a proverb.
Moses says, there shall not be an hoof left behind. Not an hoof be left. There shall
not an hoof be left behind. It was all or nothing. All the
people and all the property must go out. And Pharaoh realises
that he is boxed in. He realises that there is nothing
that he can do. And you can see, almost as the
verses unfold and the story unfolds, that Pharaoh's anger against
Moses spills over at this point, and he orders Moses from his
presence. And indeed, he threatens Moses
with death if Pharaoh ever sees his face again. And Moses' response
to Pharaoh is that Pharaoh's words are more true than he realises
that he appreciates. And following this discussion
there would be no more meetings between Pharaoh and Moses and
this meeting would be the very last time Moses and Pharaoh would
ever meet together or talk together. The start of chapter 11, the
few verses there at the beginning, is a little piece of information. Sometimes if we were writing,
we would put it into brackets and sort of say, well, this is
a little piece of information to help move the narrative, the
story along. And it shows us here that God
provided Moses with an insight and an understanding, either
there and then in the presence of Pharaoh or at another time. And God was telling Moses what
would happen so that Moses could convey that and relay that to
Pharaoh. This is what God was going to
do. And verse four then continues
where, as it were, chapter 10 left off. And Moses says, you're
right, you won't see me again, but let me tell you what God
is about to do to you and to your country. God is going to
go through the land of Egypt. And in verse five, he says, all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. from the firstborn
of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn
of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn
of beasts." Moses tells what is about to happen, which must
have filled Pharaoh and all his people with great dread. So many
times, time after time, as these plagues have unfolded, Pharaoh
and his people have seen the word of God coming true and the
words of Moses being realised. And now Moses is telling them
that all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt is about to
lose their lives. The events of the coming day
would break the nation of Egypt and have all the people of Egypt
pleading with Moses down on their knees to leave the country as
quickly as possible. And here's a couple of lessons
that we can just quickly draw from this passage. This is a
very solemn passage, and it's, in some respects, a very fearsome
passage. But it reminds us that God's
will shall be done. We must never forget that our
God, the God of this universe, the God who created this world,
is the all-powerful God, the eternal God. And men and women
and boys and girls are merely weak and puny creatures before
him. Pharaoh thought that he was a
mighty king because all the people around about him told him, Pharaoh
you are a mighty king, Pharaoh you are a wonderful person, Pharaoh
you can do whatever you want. But in truth Pharaoh was just
a weak man. before Almighty God. He thought he could beat God. He probably thought that he was
a God himself, if the religion of the Egyptians that we know
about today is anything to go by. He thought he could threaten
and destroy God's servant. He thought he could hold and
enslave God's people. But no man can stand against
God. and God's will to free his people
will and shall be accomplished. Pharaoh is an example for us
in very many ways and one of those ways concerns sin and Satan. Like Pharaoh, Satan thought that
he could thwart God's plan, that he could obstruct God's purposes. He thought he could threaten
and destroy God's servant. He imagined that he could hold
and enslave God's people. But Satan was defeated at the
cross and the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross has redeemed his
people and set us free from the dominion of sin and the slavery
of Satan and the curse of the law. Moses, of course, was a prophet. But another prophet was the prophet
Daniel, and Daniel said this in his little prophecy in chapter
four, verse 35, speaking about God's power and authority and
strength. He said, all the inhabitants
of earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven. and among the inhabitants of
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? Pharaoh thought that he could
hold back the hand of God. Pharaoh thought that he could
demand of God an explanation and an answer. and God was about
to crush Pharaoh and God was about to do it in the most devastating
way with the death of the firstborn in the land of Egypt. God was
about to slay all the firstborn in a righteous judgment and none
can stop him or question his action. And that leads us to
the second point that I want to leave with you. I want us
not only to realise that there is a power with God, but there
is also a terror of the Lord. And this is another point connected
with the first one. Whatever it was, this darkness
that the Lord brought against the Egyptians, It shall not compare
to the awfulness and fearfulness of the judgment that lies ahead
for those who deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a day of terrible judgment
coming, terrible darkness into men's souls. The little book
of Jude speaks about this. And he tells us there, Jude tells
us, that's one of the Lord's disciples, that for those who
deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever. And Jude actually uses the example
of Pharaoh to make his point. He says, And whether that was the wicked
Jews amongst the children of Israel, or whether it was Israel
serves the purpose either way because they believed not. And
that's the distinction that Jude makes for us here in this note.
The death in Egypt of the firstborn of people and beasts was a terrible
act of judgment. And Paul tells us, Knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. You see, we preach the gospel. We are bringing the gospel to
your ears and to my ears and to the ears of men and women
in this world today, the ears of boys and girls, wherever we
have the opportunity, because we know that there is a terrible
judgment coming. And we endeavor to preach the
gospel and to persuade men and women and boys and girls to go
to the Lord and to ask for forgiveness for their sins and to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. People in this world today, if
they have any sense of God at all, they tend to imagine Him
as some kind of old man who wouldn't hurt a fly. And yet the Lord held up Pharaoh
and Egypt as an example of what awaits all those who have no
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pharaoh is a warning to us all. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Our God must punish sin. and
he must judge rebellion. He is holy, he is just, and he
is true, and he will judge sin. However, because God desires
to save a people for himself, just like he desired to save
Israel, because of his promises, because of his covenant, because
of the faith of Abraham, because of faith in his people, God has
a people that he will save. And he sent the Lord Jesus Christ
to die on the cross, to bear the sin and punishment of those
he chooses to save. And the gospel that we believe,
and the gospel that we preach to others, the gospel as it were
that like Paul we say, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men with this gospel. That gospel, it shows us that
there is a way of salvation. a deliverance from this judgment
that is coming because of and through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ. And it is my prayer that for
all who listen today, that God the Holy Spirit will open our
hearts to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be delivered
from judgment to come, that we might be delivered from the blackness
of darkness forever. That would be good news indeed. That would be gospel indeed. That would be everlasting life
for our souls in trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. May it be
so. Amen.