Exodus chapter 9 and verse 13. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and
say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let
my people go, that they may serve me. For I will at this time send
all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon
thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like
me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my
hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and
thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this
cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power,
and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As
yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not
let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time
I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not
been in Egypt since the foundation thereof, even until now. Send therefore now, and gather
thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field. For upon every
man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall
not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and
they shall die. He that feared the word of the
Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle
flee into the houses. And he that regarded not the
word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward
heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon
man and upon beast and upon every herb of the field throughout
the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his
rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the
fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon
the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled
with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it
in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail
smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the
field, both man and beast. And the hail smote every herb
of the field and break every tree of the field. Only in the
land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no
hail. And Pharaoh sent and called for
Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and I
and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, for it is enough
that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I will
let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. And Moses said unto
him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad
my hands unto the Lord, and the thunder shall cease, neither
shall there be any more hail, that thou mayest know how that
the earth is the Lord's. But as for thee and thy servants,
I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God. And the flax and
the barley was smitten, for the barley was in the ear and the
flax was bald. But the wheat and the rye were
not smitten, for they were not grown up. And Moses went out
of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto
the Lord. And the thunders and hail ceased,
and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw
that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he
sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go, as
the Lord had spoken by Moses. Amen, and may the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. Six times, the Lord warned Pharaoh
by his servant Moses to let his people go that they might worship
him. And six times, Pharaoh appeared
to relent and agree, only to harden his heart, or indeed,
have it hardened, and so refuse to keep his word. And now we
come to the seventh time. Moses commanded, or was commanded
by God to go and stand before Pharaoh and repeat God's word
in its fullest form. Thus saith the Lord God of the
Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. There comes a time When you might
think Pharaoh would just say, enough is enough. It's costing
me more in life and in money and in national good, in national
standing to withstand God anymore. You would think, right? But once again, we find that
Pharaoh will harden his heart against God. There's something
revealed in this passage today. The verses, as we've already
seen, are quite extended. And there's something else that
is revealed in this passage to make us realise that this event
and this series of events, these plagues, are serving a higher
purpose with a deeper meaning than we first realize. At first it looks as though there
is a simple connection between the plagues and Pharaoh's disobedience. But remember that the plague
was not so much punishment for Pharaoh's lies but making an
example of Pharaoh for all who refuse God's warnings. If this was only about punishment,
God could have destroyed Pharaoh and his people with one plague
instantly. He could have, as he says here,
sent the pestilence that killed all of the cattle upon the people. He could have sent it like a
virus amongst the people. If it had been merely to punish
Pharaoh and his people for the things that they had done to
God's people, or for their insolence and rebellion towards God, it
could have been over with one plague. God could have destroyed
Pharaoh and his people instantly. And indeed he could have given
the whole land of Egypt into the hands of Israel if he had
chosen to do so. It's as though that God says
in verse 15 here, I brought a pestilence against your cattle, but I might
just as easily have brought it on you or your people. I could
easily kill you all for what you are doing to my
people, as easily as I have slain your cattle. He's telling Pharaoh to think
about the meaning of these plagues, and he's telling us to think
about this also. Why all the plagues? Surely it wasn't simply to put
the fear of God into Pharaoh, but as we see in this passage,
it was to put the fear of God into Israel, and into all the
nations of the world. And God goes on to explain why
he has done this. The reason is that God is going
to use Pharaoh, and he's going to use these plagues, he's going
to use this point in time, this history in the world, as an example
for all men and women and boys and girls of all time. an example of God's power and
His glory. And so we read in verse 16. And in every deed for this cause
have I raised thee up. This is God speaking to Pharaoh.
In every deed for this cause have I raised thee up. God raised
Pharaoh up for to show in thee my power. and that my name may
be declared throughout all the earth. So it wasn't just about
punishing Pharaoh for his crimes. There's a much bigger work going
on here as well. That the name and the glory of
God will be seen throughout all the earth. It's as though God
says, this isn't simply about you Pharaoh. Don't think that
you're that important. This is about my glory. This
is about my purpose. And we, you and I, who are listening
today, we should remember this too. Sometimes people think that
God is just about punishing evil and saying the things that you
shouldn't do and the things that you should do. It's true that God will punish
evil, but this world, this life, our human existence here on earth
is about God's glory and it is about God's purpose. If it was
just about punishment, it could all have been over long before
now. God tells Pharaoh by Moses that
he is about to send a plague of hail and storms upon the land
of Egypt. And he tells, he warns the Egyptians
to get their servants undercover. And any of the livestock that
remains after the mooring and the boils, get them undercover. Because this hail storm is going
to be like something they have never experienced and never seen.
And those who listened saved their property. And those who
did not lost their animals and their servants. And they also
lost their crops and their trees and their vines. And when Moses
called forth this storm, there was thunder and hail and fire
that ran along the ground. Now I guess that that was a form
of lightning. And it may well be that there
had never been a hail storm in Egypt because it's a very hot
and arid country. But certainly there had never
been one like this. And once again we're told that
in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel lived, there
was no hail there. So once again, while the plague
was raging and the hail was doing all its damage, Pharaoh calls
for Moses and Aaron and he pleads with them that they would entreat
God to stop the storm. And Pharaoh even confessed to
having sinned. not heard this kind of language
from him before, both himself and his people, and he promises,
I will let you go and ye will stay no longer. However, as before, when Moses
had interceded with God and the plague had ended, Pharaoh as
we are told, hardened his heart, he and his servants. And we're
further told at the end of the chapter, neither would he let
the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses. Now there was a lot of verses
and we've already thought about a lot of things in this passage,
but I just want to draw two applications, two important lessons from these
words for you today. And the first one is this. This
passage teaches us something interesting about confession
for sin. When we sin, as we all do. And when God the Holy Spirit
convicts us of sin, we should confess it to God and ask for
forgiveness. We should do so knowing that
sins can only be forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle John writes in his
epistle, his first epistle, he says in chapter one, verse nine,
if we confess our sins, he, that is God, is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And such a confession arises
when the Holy Spirit lets us see how awful our sin really
is. And how offensive our sin is
to God. because it takes God to give
us a true sense of our sin. And it takes God to cause us
to hate our sin and to repent of it because we see that whoever
else might suffer, our sin is actually committed against God. And such a confession obtains
God's mercy and God's forgiveness. However, there is another kind
of confession as well and the Bible teaches that this confession
of sin is not true confession but merely a way to dodge punishment
or to try to lessen suffering. And it's this kind of confession
that we see here from Pharaoh in Egypt. It's a little bit like
saying that you're sorry for something that you did, when what you really mean is
that you're sorry you got caught doing it. It's a kind of sorry,
not sorry. A non-apology apology. Like when somebody says, yes,
I did that. I'm sorry that you're upset.
That's not repentance. That's not confession. And Pharaoh's
confession wasn't a hatred of his sin, but it was a ploy to
try to trick Moses into thinking that things would be different
this next time. Pharaoh's words sounded good.
The Lord is righteous, he said, and I am wicked. It sounds like
good religious words, good religious language. If somebody confessed
this to us today, we would say, make that person a church member. But what if it isn't real? It
wasn't real with Pharaoh. And as soon as Pharaoh had dodged
the plague, he went right back to his old ways. He had no true
sense of his sin. You see, repentance is a spiritual
gift. And true confession, and true
repentance, and true faith comes from the heart. having been placed there by the
Holy Spirit. And it brings the experience
of forgiveness and salvation from God. So that Paul could
say to the Romans in chapter 10 and verse 9, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. And here's the other thing that
I just want to leave with you as well. This is the second point.
There's something else here that Paul teaches in Romans about
these verses that we've read today. Paul shows us how the
doctrine of sovereign grace and election is taught in this passage
from Exodus chapter nine. That gospel that we speak so
much about, that gospel of sovereign grace. It's a New Testament doctrine,
certainly it is, but it's an Old Testament doctrine as well.
And Paul shows us that here it is, right in this chapter. In Romans 9, verse 16, the apostle
says this. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, that's right here, even for this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Paul shows us that the doctrine
of sovereign grace and election is taught in this passage, and
he uses it to identify the children of promise and the people of
the covenant of God's grace. So we see how these Old Testament
histories teach us of God and his purpose of salvation. Salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel and what is sometimes
called the evangelical gifts of God the Holy Spirit. Let us
never imagine that these passages are simply stories about Israel
from olden times. They are full of truth and the
doctrine in them is good for our souls. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us today. Amen.