Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 10:3-6

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.

4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

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:

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.

At first a plague of locusts might sound like a step backward from the previous curses. God had just slain the Egyptians’ cattle with a plague, and their servants with fire and hail. There had been a real loss of life just recently, but locusts seem to be more of the caliber of the frogs, lice, and flies several curses ago.

But on closer examination, this is not the case at all. The previous animal nuisances may have been able to spread mild diseases or irritation, but the locusts would do far worse: they would eat all of the Egyptians’ grain! We had heard during the previous plague that the hailstorm had destroyed the flax and the barley, but not the edible crops like the wheat and the rye. God had been willing to leave Pharaoh the most important crops if he would let the Israelites go, and Pharaoh had initially agreed to this, but now Pharaoh went back on his word and so now the locusts were here to finish the job.

No more meat and no more grain, the Egyptians were drawing nearer and nearer to starvation! If God had taken just one source of food they could have relied upon the other, but piece-by-piece, He was taking it all. We can build up all manner of securities and contingencies against the powers of man, but no place is safe and no insurance is reliable when God comes calling.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 10:1-2

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:

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.

Once again, I’ve made my case for why I believe the verses that suggest Pharaoh exercised his self-will to harden his own heart over the ones where God says that He is responsible for Pharaoh’s stubbornness. Obviously, these verses support the latter perspective, as they have God detailing exactly why He would be hardening Pharaoh’s heart, so that he “might shew these signs” and that Moses “mayest tell in the ears of thy son…what things I have wrought…that ye may know how that I am the Lord.”

I will say that while I still dispute that God hardened Pharaoh’s hearts, I have absolutely no qualms with the idea that God positioned the Egyptians and Pharaoh in a position of power for the express purpose of breaking their pride and sending a message to the world. And not only to the world, but most especially to the Israelite people that would forever rely upon Him.

God’s liberation of Israel in Egypt is an absolute seminal moment in the story of that people. It establishes the pattern and the surety that all future generations look back to. The covenant people may have at times fallen into disbelief, they may have entered into terrible afflictions, they may have been under the power of others for a time, but God has always come through, destroying any power of devil or world that held them bondage. This was true with the Egyptians, this was true with the Romans, and this was true with Nazi Germany. This is the legacy of Abraham’s people, that they will be tried by fire, but God will ultimately prevail and redeem them. It is a hard legacy, but an encouraging one. A trying story, but one with a hopeful ending.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Miracle of Seeds

Seeds are one of the most miraculous things I know of, and they have been quietly working their wonders every day for untold years. Seeds usually come in a miniscule package, sometimes no more than a pinpoint, yet from their confines entire trees will emerge, stand for hundreds of years, and produce millions of new seeds of their own.

I also find incredible how the saplings that emerge from the seed is able to take dirt and nutrient from the earth and transform it into stem and leaf. The transformation of material is one of the most strange and mysterious things, and the more we learn of the complex process by how it works the more miraculous it seems.

And here is one more miracle of seeds, most of them have incredible versatility, able to lay in sterile or hostile environments for multiple years, appearing absolutely dead to the world, but will still germinate and grow long after they fell from their parent tree. In some cases, seeds have been known to still grow after laying as a dead husk for more than a thousand years! Somehow they retain the potential for life without food or batteries or nourishment.

When a seed lays dormant, all that it is waiting for is the correct environment. Once it is put in the right levels of moisture, temperature, and oxygen, it finally begins to flourish.

And so it is with people.

I have met men and women who moved through their lives in a catatonic state, feeling useless and reaching for nothing. It can be all too easy to write such people off, to assume that if they have already spent years in this lifeless same state then they will remain there forever.

But these people still have the potential for life—real life. It may be laying dormant inside of them, but that doesn’t mean it is dead. Like a seed, they are often just waiting for the proper environment to flourish, and from what I’ve seen, that proper environment is being brought into the light of God’s love. I have seen how lethargic and passionless men and women fell into the soil of belief, were rained on by the saving power of Jesus Christ, and sprouted towards the sun! Suddenly they wanted to go back to school and get the education they had abandoned, and change jobs for something more purposeful, and begin engaging in their home and family! They started seeing and helping the needy around them, and meeting with their brothers and sisters with sincere purpose, and finding joy and nourishment in the little wonders they had never noticed before.

Not only did they sprout upward, but they also reached further downward, deepening their roots and stability. These people began operating from a seat of power, sure enough to finally thrive.

Before this sprouting, these people appeared to be dead. But they were not dead, they simply hadn’t yet been born. There are many people who are still waiting to start living for the first time, so help plant them somewhere good if you can, somewhere that they can finally open their shell and live.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A God of Vengeance

God’s Devastation of Egypt)

In my scripture studies I have been making my way through the early chapters of Exodus, in which we read the story of God sending His plagues against the people of Egypt, afflicting them until finally they let the Israelites go. Recently I noted how these chapters show the side of God that is a God of vengeance. It has stood out to me a great deal just how vicious God’s breaking of Pharaoh and the Egyptians was.

God began the whole affair by summoning forth the blood of the innocent Israelite babes thrown into the river, symbolizing that He was about to require the same blood of the Egyptian people. He then procedurally and strategically took from the Egyptians their comfort, their health, their wealth, their sacred animals, and their safety. He announced that He had propped the entire nation up for the express purpose of beating it down in the sight of all the world. When finally He brought His death upon them, He made sure to take someone from each and every household, ensuring that all of the Egyptians had their hearts broken in the very same night.

One cannot seriously meditate on this story without being moved by the absolute devastation God inflicted upon those people. And more meaningful than the size of the devastation was just how methodical and purposeful it all was. God really knew just how, where, and when to intimidate, to apply pressure, and to break.

A Guilty Heart)

Personally, seeing this view of God does not disturb me. I have always understood and been comfortable with the view that God is to be trusted by the righteous, but feared by the wicked. I know that God endeavors to save the sinner, for He saved me. But before my time of repentance He stood against me and afflicted me, and never did I resent Him for that. I have come to see that the nature of my sins is that they inevitably lead to hurting others, especially those that I love most, and in those moments I am absolutely deserving of God’s judgment and punishment.

Granted, God hasn’t visited me with so great of curses as He did the Egyptians, but neither have I killed thousands of innocent babes as they did. I know that some people struggle with the magnitude of God’s punishments in the Old Testament, but when I read the accounts that are given I do not see that He did anything that was unwarranted. Yes, He smote Sodom and Gomorrah, and Egypt, and the various nations who possessed the land of Canaan, but we also know that they were given to all manner of cruelty and perversion. Many of them worshipped pagan gods which demanded horrifying and barbaric practices, such as the sacrifice of living children!

A Lost Perspective)

The fact is, if we struggle to understand the good in a God who uses great power in attacking the wicked and defending the righteous, it is only because we live a life that is so safe and secure that we cannot fathom the horrors of darkness that God has historically stood against.

In general, as a people today we have no firsthand knowledge of what it is like to live without a powerful government to protect us, or to spend our entire life as a slave to another, or to have no welfare support if we become sick or injured, or to be surrounded by a culture that doesn’t believe in the basic dignity of every person, or to be at the mercy of wild animals and natural elements, or to have the necessity of doing hard labor all day just to have enough food and shelter to survive, or to be constantly be at risk of being slaughtered by a roaming army. Some of the most unfortunate among us might encounter just one or two of these daily realities of ancient life, but overall we are left only to our imaginations of how such an existence must have been.

When one is as vulnerable, persecuted, and afraid as the ancient Israelites then, and only then, can one truly judge whether God’s mighty hand against the Egyptians was a good thing or not.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:33-35

33 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.

34 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.

35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

I’ve already discussed this, but I’ll point out once again that in verse 34 it sounds as though Pharaoh willfully hardened his heart, rather than that the Lord did it to him. Particularly notable to me is that he “sinned” in the hardening of his heart. We typically consider a sin as requiring an intentional, coherent decision to do wrong. We say that someone who is taken by a sudden insanity is not necessarily culpable for the terrible things that they do in that state, so if God had afflicted Pharaoh with a temporary madness that hardened his heart, it seems unlikely that this verse would say that Pharaoh had “sinned.” He would not be culpable anymore.

Also, we are told in these verses that Pharaoh’s servants hardened their hearts as well. But who are these servants, and why would their hardness of heart be relevant to the story? Based on some upcoming references to the same servants, it seems most likely that these were Pharaoh’s advisors and officers. Thus, as they similarly hardened their hearts, they were encouraging and bolstering Pharaoh in his defiance. If it were otherwise, then his continued provocation of the Lord might have put him in danger of rebellion or even assassination!

In some later verses Pharaoh will eventually will lose the support of his servants, but even then he will not surrender to their arguments or be subdued by them. That would have been a surrender of man to man, but the story of Pharaoh was to be one of surrender to God, and God alone!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:31-32

31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.

32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.

Different crops grow at different seasons. The flax and the barley had already sprouted out of the earth and were developing their fruit, thus they were exposed to the elements and destroyed. But the wheat and the rye were still in the ground, which provided a sufficient barrier to keep the seeds alive and well. They would still be able to grow and be harvested.

What is the significance of this? Other scholars have pointed out that flax would have been used for the Egyptian manufacturing of linens, and the barley for the feeding of livestock and brewing of beer. In short, these crops were not essential for human life. The wheat and the rye, however, were a major food source, and necessary for survival. Thus, even in the midst of God’s curse, He had shown mercy. He had sent His hail at precisely the right time to hurt the Egyptian’s finances, but not their bellies. This is yet another example of God creating a wall between what was to be destroyed and what was to be preserved. It shows what careful control He has over the Earth and His power upon it.

God had shown terrific power to kill, but as of yet had not turned that power directly upon the Egyptians. He had destroyed their livestock, He had destroyed their crops, He had irritated and inconvenienced them, but the only loss of human life had been due to those who were so obstinate as to leave their servants in the field during the hailstorm. God was churning a menacing storm before the eyes of all the Egyptians. With every curse it grew nearer and nearer to lashing out against the lives of the people. How much longer could it be before God’s storm would fall upon Pharaoh’s people directly? Not much longer.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:29-30

29 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.

30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God.

Pharaoh had made quite a statement of repentance, admitting that he was wicked and that the God of the Israelites was righteous. They were impressive words, but in verse 30 Moses tells Pharaoh that he already knows that the king will still go back on his promise. Moses tells Pharaoh that the Lord will draw away this curse, but he makes it clear that it isn’t because Moses or the Lord have been fooled by Pharaoh. The Lord will not recall the hail because of Pharaoh’s phony repentance, but so that Pharaoh “mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s.”

As I have discussed already, even more impressive than the curse is the healing. God would strike Egypt, and then, at the precisely prophesied moment, He would restore peace. Pharaoh was learning how God ruled from end to end, from start to finish, from destruction to creation, from life to death. Continuing to heal Egypt, even without Pharaoh’s full surrender, was still an opportunity to prove God’s absolute power.

It also might have helped to prove to Pharaoh the state of his own soul. It may have been that Pharaoh really did think he was going to let the Israelites go, and if God refused to call back the curse he would think that God was unfairly judging him. But by being given relief he could see how fickle his own heart really was, how deceitful and faithless he really was.

Certainly there are many of us who have misjudged the conviction of our own repentance. Sometimes God relieves our afflictions so that we can see how faithless we still are once everything gets back to being smooth and easy. He is convicting us of our own guilt, getting us to see ourselves as we really are. True repentance requires true appreciation of how deep our mischief runs.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:27-28

27 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.

28 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.

Pharaoh had been more obstinate during the second phase of God’s curses, holding out through more and more of the afflictions, but finally he sounds repentant, more so than at any point thus far. Pharaoh was not merely capitulating to the Lord’s power, he even called himself wicked and admitted that he knew he had sinned.

Of course, Pharaoh will still recant on this repentance, he will break his word yet again. This raises the question whether he was genuine during these verses or not. Did he feel guiltless, and was lying in every word? Or did he truly know that he and the Egyptians were morally in the wrong, and was sincere in his admission of guilt, but wasn’t actually willing to commit to doing what was right?

We aren’t given a clear answer, but in tomorrow’s verses we will see that Moses and the Lord saw straight through Pharaoh’s words and knew that he would ultimately prove faithless.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:23-26

23 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.

24 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.

25 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 brake every tree of the field.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

It was not only hail that afflicted the Egyptians, but fire as well! The nature of this fire is rather mysterious. It was not mentioned in God’s foretelling of the curse, and we never have explained to us exactly what connection it had to the hail. They are a most strange combination, as they would seem likely to extinguish and melt one other!

Of course, we are not told that the fire was raining down from heaven. The passage says it “ran along upon the ground” and “mingled with the hail.” Perhaps the hail knocked something over which spilled embers or hot coals and spread a fire over the land. Or, the fire might have been lightning which accompanied the same storm that brought the hail. Maybe there was lightning, but it started an actual fire on the ground. Some readers have even posited that the tongues of flame might have literally burst out from the hail in some way!

In any case, and in whatever manner, it seems clear that there was both a severe pummeling of hail and an intense heat as well. A truly devastating wonder this was, and such a terrible fate must have befallen those who still stood out in the fields!

How does this curse represent the ill effects of sin? One way that stands out to me is that this curse was focused on destroying all that was vulnerable and exposed. It is always the weak and defenseless who are first victimized to satisfy the selfish sins of others. Eventually the mighty will fall, too, but they land upon the broken bodies of the small and innocent that went before.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:22-23

22 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.

23 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.

Today it stood out to me that God had Moses perform the physical act that would summon the storm: raising his rod to the heavens. Obviously the sending forth of hail was a miracle, and was therefore a work of God, so one would think that He didn’t need any involvement from Moses to perform it. And yet, God told Moses “stretch forth thine hand…that there may be hail.”

In verse 23 we are told that Moses did “stretch forth his rod…and the Lord sent thunder and hail.” So yes, it was the Lord sending it, but only when His servant performed the physical act to kick off the event. Why was it done this way?

Some have suggested that outward, physical rituals like these are done strictly for the benefit of those who witness the miracle. These outward motions are ultimately unnecessary, but they provide a visual aid that helps people connect God’s invisible hand to something that is observable and tangible.

However, I can’t help but think that there is something more to it. I like to think that whenever God tells us to do something that it is more than just a symbolic gesture. Somehow it is essential to the working out of God’s plans. What exactly that would be in this case, I do not know. Perhaps the Lord had committed the elements in Egypt to Moses’s stewardship. If so, then by the permission of the Lord Moses truly was commanding nature in that area, and so his involvement was necessary.

Or perhaps it was the staff that was specially empowered. It had already been sanctified by the Lord, taken from a common shepherd’s crook and transformed into a pure instrument of the Lord. Perhaps this rod was a channel for God’s power, and holding it up into the air created the conduit between God and the atmosphere.

Or perhaps it was neither of those. The point is that there are multiple ways in which this physical action could have been integral to the working out of God’s plan, so it is possible that really it was.