Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 9:18-35 I am going to re-tell it and refer to verses as we go.

Beginning at verse 18 God tells Egypt that He is going to bring a heavy Hail storm.

He warns Egypt that this plague is going to be devastating to both the crops and the livestock.

These livestock just cannot get a break can they.

Remember, this could have ended if Pharoah would have just let the Jew go.

This is not God’s fault, this is Pharaoh's.

he ultimately is bringing these plagues upon His nation.

So can I say, a leader or leaders who would bring calamity and destruction upon an entire nation so they can cleave to their ego, is no leader who should be in power.

Do with that what you wish.

Verse 20 is very interesting and also very tactfully written.

“20 Everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring his servants and his livestock into the houses.”

These are not Jews who are being spoken of in this verse.

These are Egyptians.

They feared the word of the LORD.

But that is what makes this verse so important, they feared the word of the LORD, not the LORD Himself.

But I will say, though verse 20 does not say they have converted, they some of them are at a place which would bring one to conversion.

The Word of the LORD testifies to who the LORD God is.

John 1:1“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

They fear the Word of the LORD, they do not fear the LORD.

On the other hand those who did not fear did nothing.

I mean they have seen the other plagues right?

Everything God said he would do, He did.

Do you see how pride can blind you?

The LORD commanded Moses to stretch out his hand toward the sky and hail began to fall.

The storm is one accompanied by thunder and bright flashes of Lightning.

Exodus 9:25-26 “25 The hail struck all that was in the field through all the land of Egypt, both man and beast; the hail also struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field.

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

The crops were wiped out from the storm.

Though trees would still be standing their fruit and branches would be torn off.

We have seen hail sizes reach 2 lbs and they fall at 111 miles per hour.

To put this into perspective, Aroldis Chapman is a Major League pitcher who clocked the fastest pitch, throwing a baseball 105 mph.

A baseball weighs 5 oz and he can throw it over 100 mph.

What happens when 5 ounces hits the human body?

Now, we have recorded hail reaching up to 2 lbs, that does not mean God sent only 2 lb hail.

They could have been larger.

We can see how this would have killed animals and wiped out crops.

What did Pharoah do?

Exodus 9:27-28 “27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time; the Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones.

28 “Make supplication to the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”

Wow!

The Hebrew to English is a bit off here.

Pharoah said, “I have sinned this time; the Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones.”

The Hebrew is better translated, “I have sinned this time; YAHWEH is in the right, and I and my people are the wicked ones.”

Is Pharoah repenting.

Is he acknowledging his sin?

We might think that, until we get to verse 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

I do want to point out before we get to the god’s who were once again powerless to stand against YAHWEH, notice the text says, “He (pharoah) and his servants.”

This is why we looked very closely at verse 20.

They did not fear God.

The gods’: This plague of hail was very unusual, as the region where this took place receives only about 3-7 inches of rain per year.

There are yet again more, Egyptian gods and goddesses proven to be powerless.

Since this plague originated with the sky, the most prominent deity discredited by this plague was Nut, the sky goddess mentioned earlier.

She is often depicted in Egyptian art as arching over the earth, her body painted with stars.

But Nut wasn’t the only Egyptian god discredited by this plague.

Where was Shu, the god of air and bearer of heaven.

Why didn’t he stop this devastating storm?

Where was Horus, the hawk-headed third member of the Egyptian sky gods?

And what of Seth, god of storms and protector of crops?

This plague was another devastating attack on the country.

The Egyptians had already lost fish from their diet when the Nile turned to blood.

The plague on the livestock killed off much of it, and animals still in the field at the time of this hailstorm were killed by the hail, so the Egyptians have now lost much of their sources of meat and milk.

And still, the various cow deities mentioned earlier could do nothing.

The flax that’s mentioned here was the Egyptians’ major source of fiber for linen clothing.

So they lost not only much of their ability to feed themselves, but also their primary material for clothing themselves as well!

Exodus 9:29-30 “29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.

30 “But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” Moses known, Aaron knows, and God knows.

Jesus said in Matthew 3:8 “8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

This I want to caution you, repentance is not a mechanism to gain something from God.

That is legalism.

If I come to church, if I do this, if I do then God must give.

We try and put God in our debt by our works.

This is dangerous.

Ladies and gentleman, God is not in our debt because we come to church.

He is not in our debt because we have created temporary behavioral modification.

No, we are in His debt and even in His debt He has given us Grace.

If anyone should call upon our debt, its God, instead, He pours out His Grace.

Upon repentance follows, not behavioral modification, repentance begins transformation.

I say this because I might have some bad news for you today, just because you are here, does mean God owes you.

What we are truly owed, Christ bore on the Cross and if you have not accepted Jesus Sacrifice on your behalf, then your debt still weighs on your shoulders.

But to those who are in Christ that debt has been paid by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Now, when we think of the plagues, at least when I do the first 2 that come to mind are the Nile, and this one, locusts.

But this is the eighth plague.

I know we don’t have a lot of time here but chapter 10 begins with an important theology we must discuss, Exodus 10:1-2“1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

Throughout the plagues we have seen that Pharaohs heart was hardened, and now God says He hardened Pharaohs heart.

So does this mean that God hardened Pharaohs heart preventing him this entire time to let the Jews go?

Does this mean that God is forcibly making Egypt suffer by preventing Pharoah to respond?

These are appropriate questions.

The short answer is no.

But here is why, it is evident that throughout the plagues we see Pharoah harden his own heart, Exodus 8:15, 32.

We now see here in chapter 10 God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Its clear that both Pharoah and God are a part of this heart matter.

I think Paul gives us some clear explanation to what is happening here with Pharoah.

Romans 1:21, 24“21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened… 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.”

Who hardened the heart first?

We do.

Pharoah did.

Then we see what scholars call the passive judgement of God, He hands them over to the hardness of heart.

Meaning God, hardens their heart.

Now this does get us off into some deep theological weeds, but, from what I can gather from Scripture as a whole is this, in God’s sovereignty, He knows who will come to Him and who will not.

I see no evidence in Scripture that says God hardens the heart of a person who would otherwise come to know Him.