The Darkness: 9th sign. Exodus 10:21-29 A thick darkness that could be felt settled over Egypt, so dense that people couldn't see anything for three days. All the Egyptians could do was stay where they were, without moving. None of the false gods the Egyptians worshipped could do anything to help them. They were all left helpless and hopeless. Moses had said that all the vegetation in Egypt would be eaten by the locusts, and sure enough, the ground was completely covered with them. Without any warning, the sign of darkness suddenly came upon Egypt.
The Egyptians must have realized how useless their belief in Hapi, the river god, was. It couldn’t stop the river from turning to blood. The cow goddess Hathor could not protect their livestock. The sun god Ra couldn’t pierce the darkness. In contrast, none of those things reached Goshen, where the Israelites lived, because the Lord God of the Hebrews is a living Being who is the One True God. He is the only One who should be worshipped and loved.
Even after the three days of darkness that was so thick it could be sensed, Pharaoh attempted the tactic of compromise. Pharaoh's half-hearted and deceitful confessions when he said, “I have sinned,” were meaningless. They held no value as he tried to negotiate a deal with Moses and persuade him to accept his terms.
Often, people try to rationalize events and obvious divine interventions within the limited scope of their own experiences. Faith in God extends far beyond what we can comprehend. We must acknowledge that God's ways are beyond our understanding. Words spoken with the lips are not necessarily heartfelt. Only genuine repentance is acceptable to God.
Total surrender to God means that a person has come in sincere repentance and admission of guilt and sin. Then, God can deal with that person. Pharaoh never accepted that God was over all. He wanted his own position in Egypt to be supreme, and he desired the free labor of the Jews to achieve his own goals. In anger, he cast Moses away forever. Moses’ last warning about the death of the firstborn was given, and there was no further offer of repentance. Judgment was imminent.
The hearts of unregenerate people are “deceitful and desperately wicked.” Despite the good actions people do, a person's true nature remains unchanged until they are born again by the Spirit and the word of God. A hardened heart can speak the right words and be moved to compassion, but it ultimately stays the same when it is not right with God. People are free to choose their actions, whether good or bad, but it is “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.”
The signs in Egypt testified to God’s existence and power. They also served as a testament to His grace, offering repeated opportunities for repentance and submission to His divine will. Each time a sign was rejected, His patience with willful sinners was demonstrated, and yet another sign was given. The Lord waited after each sign for some evidence of repentance and humility. Nevertheless, His sovereign will, will be accomplished, even though He is longsuffering and does not want anyone to perish.
When people are given time to repent and turn to God in faith but stubbornly refuse and reject the offer of mercy, they choose death instead of life. Every person who rejects the Lord and is determined to go his or her own way will someday call out, and God will not answer. They will bow their knees before Him, but not in repentance. All will acknowledge that "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
EXODUS 11. WHEN WARNINGS ARE REJECTED. After nine plagues had nearly devastated Egypt, God had to act in righteous judgment. Unanswered warnings will eventually lead to the need for divine retribution. The tenth plague, which involved the death of the firstborn of every family—from Pharaoh's household to the firstborn of all the cattle—was truly a judgment. Judgment is God's “strange (not often used) work." God is full of grace, mercy, compassion, and limitless in His love. But none of this negates His righteousness, His holiness, and His judgment.
After all that had happened, it would be expected that all Egyptians would hate Moses and the Israelites. Instead, most of the people, including Pharaoh’s servants, were willing to act positively toward the Hebrew slaves, and Moses was regarded as a very great person. God can make even a person’s enemies be at peace with him.
The Lord’s response to Pharaoh’s anger and threats was to have Moses leave, now “hot with anger.” The servants of Pharaoh seemed to sense that there was a very clear difference between them and the Israelites. That difference went beyond just being slaves or free. Spiritual forces were at work, and the power of darkness was losing the battle. Now, the death of the firstborn was involved, and mercy had given way to judgment. Not even a dog would bark in Goshen, where the Israelites were, when the “great cry” rose, as the whole land of Egypt was filled with sorrow.
The first nine plagues clearly answered the question Pharaoh had asked when Moses and Aaron first spoke to him about letting God's people go. During these nine plagues, Pharaoh recognized who the Lord was. His question, "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" led to the downfall of his entire nation, yet he still refused to free God's people. When leaders of a nation hold such an attitude, it impacts the entire country.
When a society persistently refuses the ultimate authority of God to prevent the breakdown of moral order, God sends judgment. When a crisis occurs in a smaller group, like a church or even a family, and the warnings are ignored, there is no choice but judgment. Not all Christian believers understand the difference between themselves and those who are not saved. They know God has saved them, but the true characteristics of the new nature in a new creation in Christ may take time to fully realize that “I am different. I do not belong in this worldly society.”
Moses had started to clearly see the difference between God's values and standards and those of the Egyptians. God had made a covenant with the Jews that set them apart from all other nations. The Israelites hadn’t even begun to understand what it meant. It wasn’t until they were in the wilderness, totally dependent on God for their survival, that it started to dawn on them what it meant to be a “Chosen generation, a peculiar people.” Some believers in Christ never seem to realize this, even though they are blessed with many spiritual blessings from God’s benevolent hand.
Judgment is often condensed into a short period, even though it usually involves months or years of suffering for wrongdoing. It befell Sodom as a result of immoral living. It occurred in Babylon because of their mistreatment of God's people. It transpired in Jerusalem due to their attempt to combine holy things with ungodly idolatry. It happened to Egypt because of their refusal to acknowledge God despite the numerous supernatural events caused by nature going out of control. It took place at the cross, when God's righteous, holy judgment was poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ as He was made sin for us—He who knew no sin—so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
One wrote: On Him, almighty vengeance fell Enough to sink a world to hell He bore it for a sinful race And thus, became my hiding place.
We truly have no understanding of the judgment Christ endured when "The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Infinite holiness demanded infinite justice, and infinite justice demanded infinite satisfaction. The perfection of the Lamb of God made it possible for a Righteous God to be fully satisfied. When the Lord suffered as "a green tree," as an absolutely perfect substitutionary sacrifice for sin, God could accept the declaration of a completed work - "It is finished." If that was achieved in "the green tree," what more should be expected in the dry? There will never be satisfaction from God in the "dry tree" of human effort.
To those new to the faith, there's a tendency to believe that if God performed some miracles, people would then believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said that if people didn’t listen to what Moses and the prophets said, they wouldn’t believe even if someone rose from the dead. Some of the greatest miracles that have taken place only made people more opposed to the Lord. For example, the Pharisees saw Lazarus after he was raised from the dead after four days, as well as the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter, yet they became more hostile toward Jesus than before. Miracles are simply signs of God’s greater power and authority over the natural order. When people resist the obvious evidence of God, their hearts tend to become more hardened. Conversely, faith in God softens hearts and opens people's minds to His liberating truth.
EXODUS 12. A NATION IS FORMED An uneasy feeling of dread settled over Egypt, as if everyone were holding their breath, afraid of what might happen next. In the land of Goshen, God's people would have been growing more confident in Him than in "the gods you served before the flood." As moral and spiritual darkness spreads across the world today, those who know the Lord personally and can confidently say to God, "Abba Father," can see increasing light in our faith's "eastern sky" as we await the Lord's return. Deliverance is on the way, just as the Lord Jesus Christ promised.
Pharaoh had made up his mind long before the plagues started that he was the supreme ruler. He saw himself as the greatest of all. All the terrible, destructive events that had ravaged his country did not soften his heart at all. His attempts at compromise were just stalling tactics he thought would help him get through the current crisis. He never planned to submit to the God of heaven. He simply wanted God to stay out of Egypt and leave his country alone so he could go back to his own way. Still, God gave him many chances to repent and change his mind. God says, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked." But judgment does come after rejecting divine mercy, grace, and love.