Exodus chapter 9. We'll read through verse 35 of this section. This ninth These 7th, 8th, and 9th plagues take up a lot of space. There's a lot of description about it. We're going to look at the 7th plague today, beginning in verse 13 through the end of chapter 9. If you're using the Bibles that are under your seats, you can find it on pages 51 and 52. I'm sure that with the events of yesterday, our hearts and minds are can easily be distracted and wondering why and how talking about events that happened thousands of years ago can have any relevance. Actually, what we'll talk about today has all relevance in the world because we're talking about our God, His sovereignty, His control over all things. so let your heart be encouraged this day as we look even at a very difficult and vexing aspect of His Word in dealing with these plagues. Let us now give heed to God's Word. Exodus chapter 9 beginning at verse 13. Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you My power, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against My people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall such as has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter. For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. And the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. and the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, This time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail, I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.' Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. Flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord. And the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. And may the word of the Lord be magnified in our hearts, And may we heed what the Lord our God says to us through it. Let's pray together. O Lord of heaven and earth, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, we would ask you now to grant to us illumination and insight that we might understand your word aright, how we need to see the incredible wonders of Your grace that are evident, even in the midst of judgment that was poured out. May our love, may our devotion to Christ deepen as we see His Word, as we give heed to it this day. And so live before You as men, women, and children who know our God. For it's in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, that we pray, Amen and Amen. before the Incredible Hulk becomes the Incredible Hulk, his original self, David Banner, would usually get mad. Something would hit him or cause him to become upset. And he would fly into rage. He would turn into Lou Ferrigno. He'd turn into the Incredible Hulk. And then he would start smashing things and damaging, you know, throwing cars around, smashing lights and just whatever he could get his hands on. I know you're thinking, Pastor, where are you going with this sermon? Well, I think a lot of people look at God many times as the way they do the Incredible Hulk. God gets mad and He just wants to take out His anger and wrath on somebody. And this happens to be Pharaoh in Egypt at this time. Well, one of the things we're going to see is that even in the midst of these devastating plagues that the grace and the mercy and the restraint of God is very, very evident. There's some detail that Moses, the author, goes into describing this plague. I mean, he was an eyewitness here. Not only did he receive, was he inspired by God, but he was there. And because this seventh plague of hail actually is the longest of the plagues, although not by much, because the next plague, that of locusts, is almost as long. So it tells us something as Scripture goes into more detail about these these plagues that are being poured out. So today we will only have time to look at the seventh plague. But these last three acts of judgment really show the restraint, the merciful restraint of God in judgment. So as we look at verses 13 through 35, which covers the seventh plague. In this plague, this plague of hail, We see that God could have destroyed, completely destroyed Egypt. Man, beast, crops, everything. He could have wiped it out completely, but He mercifully chose not to do so. that's going to be highlighted in this account. Now in the verses 13 through 19, what we see here in the description of the plagues, that these plagues will get worse as it starts with this judgment of hail. When verse 13, once again we see the typical presentation of Moses before Pharaoh and the demand that he gives there at the end of verse 13, let my people go that they may serve me. That again is the central command that Pharaoh is to heed because the Lord is God. Recall earlier when Moses brought that to Pharaoh, he said, who is Yahweh, the Lord, that I should obey Him and give heed. Well, along now Pharaoh is beginning to understand more and more who Yahweh is. Verses 14 through 19 give us a rather detailed explanation of this plague. God goes into some detail in describing it. And verse 14 through 16, we get the purposes of this plague. Number one is to know the Lord. Lord says in verse 14, this time I will send all my plagues, and that comes from a word that has the idea of strikes. I will send all of my strikes, my blows on you yourself and on your servants, your people for the purpose, notice this, at the end of verse 14, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. So that is a central purpose of these plagues. explains verse 15, and this is where we see that God could have destroyed and wiped out Egypt completely from off the face of the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand, struck you and your people with here with pestilence, and you've been cut off from the earth, completely annihilated. I mean Egypt could have been like the Hittites or the Assyrian civilizations that no longer are around. For a long time, people doubted the Bible when it spoke of the Hittites because there was no record of them. But archaeology has in fact shown that the Hittites were a civilization, a very sophisticated civilization, but indeed were wiped out. And the second purpose in verses 16 and 17, and that's to proclaim the name of the Lord, Yahweh, everywhere. For this purpose, I've raised you up. speaking to Pharaoh, to show you my power, that my name be proclaimed in all the earth. And Paul uses that in Romans 9 as he talks about God's purposes, His eternal purposes for every individual as well as nations. So we see that the purpose of these plagues is that Pharaoh and Egypt would know the Lord, that the earth would see that there's none like Yahweh with all the gods that were being worshiped and given obeisance. These would show that the Lord is indeed the only Lord of heaven and earth. And of course, His name being proclaimed everywhere. Verse 18 gives us a description of this plague. We have three features here. We're told the time. Moses tells Pharaoh, tomorrow, you see that word tomorrow showing up a lot, but it gives preparation for Pharaoh. And then the nature, I will cause, the Lord says, very heavy hail to fall. It doesn't tell us how heavy, just that they were very heavy. enough to do damage, enough to, if someone was hit by it, that it would actually severely injure or kill them. And then we see the character there at the end of verse 18, such as never been in Egypt from the day that it was found until now. Nothing has been seen in Egypt like this or ever will again. So there's a uniqueness to this plague. Now verse 19, it's interesting because Here, Pharaoh is given a course of action to disseminate among the population, that they have time to give heed to the Word of the Lord. If they'll respect what God has to say, they can actually spare themselves more damage than otherwise would be. In verse 19, it says, send, get your livestock, everything that you've got in the fields, that is out in the open, bring it in to shelter. because every man and beast that's out in the field that's not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. So here we see this description of the plague. It's ominous. yet Pharaoh and the Egyptians are given opportunity to give heed to the Word of the Lord and to mitigate the damage. Now in verses 20 through 21 we're told what happened once the hail struck see that the Egyptians, that there was a response. It differed according to how they respected God's Word. The Egyptians would respond differently based upon whether or not they respected God's Word. Verse 20, you notice there were some that respected the Word. Whoever feared the Word of the Lord among the Egyptians Among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. Just as a by the way here, you have slaves of Egyptians that were non-Israelite. These probably were more like the domestic servants and so forth. But the ones that gave heed to the warning that God gave would bring their servants in and they would be safe. And they bring their animals as well. But we get the flip side of this, there were those who did not respect God's Word. Notice it says they did not pay any attention, but left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Now what the ratio was to those who gave heed and those who did not, we don't know. But likely it was a little bit more than probably we imagine. One of the things that we're seeing all throughout these accounts is more and more of the Egyptian populace is starting to scratch their heads and say, you know, we better listen. This God of the Hebrews means business. And we get to verses 22 through 26. It describes the absolute devastation of the plague. The plague, this hail, devastates everything outside. Now you see Moses' role in verses 22 and 23. God tells him to stretch out your hand towards heaven. And once again, the staff is going to play a role. That's that symbol of God's power. Moses to stretch out his hands towards heaven with the staff. And then the Lord at the end of verse 23 will send thunder and hail and fire. down to the earth and that's exactly what happened. We see the uniqueness and the damage of the hail in verses 24 and 25. There was hail and then look at this fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail. I think that's one thing that the 1955-56 movie got right. Seems to me the hail that they had showed fire coming out of the midst of it and it comes right here from this verse. Another description, it's very heavy hail. And when you look at over in Revelation 21, this is the only time that hail came down from the Lord upon people. There would be another time when Joshua was going to the land to fight against the Canaanites. And then a description in Revelation chapter 16, there it describes the weight, a hundred pounds. It says about a hundred pounds. Can you imagine a hundred pounds just kind of coming hurling towards earth. You think a hundred pounds is that much, but with the speed it likely had, incredible damage that it could do. The end of verse 24, this has never been seen before in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And it will strike again, man and animals outside. Everything that was in the field both man and beast. And then describes also other damage, damage to the plants of the field, the crops, and the trees of the field. All this would be damaged and destroyed. But notice verse 26, because once again we're seeing the The difference that God makes between His people and the Egyptians, this demarcation, this discrimination, only in the land of Goshen where the people of Israel were, some several miles from where Pharaoh was, was there no hail. So it cannot be explained in strictly natural phenomenon of weather patterns and so forth. Well, we see the response of Pharaoh. What will he do? How will he act? We can see this in verses 27 to 35. Pharaoh, interestingly, confesses his guilt and initially he does grant permission to leave the land. So, there does seem to be some contrition some humbling on Pharaoh's part. He sends and he calls for Moses and Aaron. And look what he says in verse 27, this time I've sinned. Well, Pharaoh, you've sinned all along. But at least now he's recognizing that he is guilty before the Lord. The Lord is in the right, he says, and I and my people are in the wrong. That's quite a confession. I wouldn't say it rises yet to the level of true faith and belief in the Lord, as Moses will certainly reveal and point out here in a moment. And then he begs Moses to intercede, to pray for him, plead with the Lord. Now he's not talking about just throw up a prayer, you know, five second prayer. He's expecting Moses to get before the Lord and to plead to remove this hail. I mean, he's terrified. And at the end of verse 28, this is quite astounding. When you think about it, he says, they can have their unconditional release. That is the people of Israel. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. I mean, isn't this exactly what Moses was asking for? Okay, you can go. Just stop the hail, the thunder, and the fire coming down, and all the rain, and take your people and go. It's over. They're gone. Right? Well, not so fast. Moses is going to respond in verses 29 through 33. He will indeed get the hail to stop. As soon as he goes out of the city, he will stretch out his hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease. There'll be no more hail. And the result, and also the purpose, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. Many Egyptians had their gods that they attributed to of being in charge of the weather, in charge of the sky. Now they would know, they should know, that it was Yahweh God. that controls everything in earth. Notice the, I want to say skepticism, but I'm not sure it's really, Moses knows that Pharaoh doesn't really mean what he's saying. Why? Well, first of all, the Lord told him. Verse 30, But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. But Pharaoh's just said, I've sinned. The Lord's right. I'm wrong. Well, Moses is coming to understand Pharaoh. Of course, he has the Word of the Lord. We get a parenthesis, if you will, in verses 31 and 32, that as an aside, it's telling us that as bad as this hail was, it didn't destroy everything. The flax and the barley were struck down because they were sprouting barley was in the ear, flax was in the bud. But the wheat and the emmer and emmer is like a spelt. It's a form of wheat. It had not yet come up. That was not struck down. So there were, they still would have some crops that would come up. And that's a significant aside, if you will. Because we see again that the Lord has mercy, even in the midst of His judgment. Well, Moses does act. Verse 33, the hail stops. But notice what Pharaoh does. I mean, we've come to expect it by now. Verses 34 and 35, Pharaoh hardens his heart. When Pharaoh sees that the rain, the thunder and fire and all that has stopped, oh good, it's gone. Once the crisis is over, things are back to normal. And it says he sinned yet again. and hardened his heart, he and his servants." The bottom line is the Israelites are not released again at the end of verse 35, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. The hail. God goes into some detail on this so that they and the Israelites would understand the power of the Lord and his name would be proclaimed. I don't know if you've ever been in a hail storm. I've been in some, certainly not of this magnitude. I mean, I've seen some, you know, mothball-sized hail, and I've seen pictures of golf ball-sized hail. And of course, it can do damage. Cars can be dented. Roofs can be damaged. Just the small stuff. It can be quite, unnerving. But what we're seeing here is the extraordinary nature of this plague, of this judgment. It cannot be explained solely on the basis of weather systems and climate patterns, like maybe someone like Neil deGrasse Tyson would try to do. to go into detail about a certain climate pattern and the warm air rising and the cool air and all of that and so forth. Think about how you would have reacted had you been an Egyptian. Would you have brought things in from the field just with a warning? Or would you have said, well, it's just one of those strange things that happen. Hell, there's never been that terrible of hail before. can't be that bad. But as bad as these judgments were, God still left room for mercy. And there was a way of escape that was very, very available. I mean, when you look back to that verse 19, the counsel that was given of sending for your livestock and everything you've got. The Lord gave warning to the Egyptians on how to avoid the worst part in terms of man and livestock, a way of escape. When you think about it, it's quite amazing and quite incredible and wonderful that God endures with the patience that He does against the arrogance and the insolence of sinners, as long as He has. Think of the long suffering and patience of God, of those who would shake their fist in His face and blaspheme against Him. God is very, very patient. And even when He's pouring out His judgment, there's still mercy and restraint that we see. You know, if God were like we are in I-95, 495 traffic, you know, no one would be left alive. I read this morning, God's kindness is what should lead people to repentance. And in that passage, he's talking to Jews who, as he's, as Paul is basically indicting the Gentile heathen world, the Jews, probably with his arms crossed, just shaking his head. You tell them, you tell them, Paul. And then he turns his focus upon them. Says, you know what? You do the same thing. And you know what else? God has been very kind and merciful and gracious to you. If anyone should repent and not turn away from the Lord and not listen to His Word, it should be you guys. You've had the blessings. You've had the kindness of God bestowed upon you. Is it any wonder we read in Scripture where when judgment begins, it begins with the household of God. If anyone should understand the kindness and mercy of God, it should be us. How forbearing He has been. The kindness of God should lead you to repentance. So ignoring God's kindness, that stores up judgment, that stores up wrath. It seems that many people when they think of judgment and wrath, the wrath of God. Consider it to be a vestige of ancient barbarism, judgment, wrath. What age or what generation are you living in? You know, and even today people will scoff at God judging. yet Scripture is very clear. I think one of the reasons why judgment and the wrath of God is seems so foreign to people, modern people today, is because we really don't understand the biblical teaching on the fallenness of mankind. I mean the world is not normal. We've come to think of it and feel it as normal, but the world is not normal. I mean, we need God's Word to tell us the way things really are and the way things must be. Even the smallest degree of sin is deadly. I mean, we have the same The same sinful DNA as the worst sinner you can think of, of Jeffrey Epstein or Sean Diddy Combs, or think of the worst sinner that comes across your mind. We have the same sinful DNA. It's only by God's grace that it's restrained. I mean, all sin falls short of the glory of God, of reaching that blessedness, that vision, and that being with God in His glory. We've all fallen short of it because of our sin. So the Lord God judged the Egyptians, and yet This is something we need to see from this passage. Even in judgment, God shows mercy and forbearance. Even in judgment, the Lord God shows mercy and forbearance. Once again, verse 15, the Lord says, for by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. God had every right and reason to obliterate Egypt. That's a sobering thought. God has every right and reason to strike us. The difference between Israel and Egypt because they were just as sinful, but the difference was God's covenant and they were protected. God's judgment against the heart of, the hard heart of man, generally does one of two things. I mean, there could be a continuum, but generally seems to fall into these two categories that the judgment of God can either make the hard, the hard heart harder, or someone shakes the fist, God how could you? Why me? If there's a good God, why, why, why? There are those that become even more hard in their sin with the judgment of God, even though it's tempered and filled with mercy and grace. The other end is the heart softens and One begins to realize his or her finiteness. This is God. We must bow before Him. And the eyes turn upward, Lord, let me know Your purpose. You notice how Pharaoh became conscious of his sin. Verse 27, this time I have sinned. That hail did its work. Pharaoh. And the text seems to focus on that the full force of my plagues. That's the idea. I'm going to send all my plagues on you. That it's not that it's going to be one grand finale like we have at the fourth of July fireworks. But these plagues are the full force of his plagues are that Pharaoh is going to feel. And he did. And he knew he sinned. The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. You know, last time we talked about natural disasters, and we observed that the judgments of Scripture are revelatory. The natural disasters that we see today are part of God's ordinary providence. The Lord is in everything. We don't want to become deists that there's somehow these mechanisms that stand between God and nature, that God is involved in all of them. Yet the natural disasters, the weather patterns and so forth, though God controls it all, we have not been given revelation as to what the exact purposes may be. even in the natural disasters and the terrible tragedies that happen today. It should cause us to have a consciousness of God at work, at least to look to Him and to say, Lord, let me understand. Let me know Your Word. This leads us, I think, to understand something that happens quite often when natural disasters or adversities strike us, and that is that in judgment we should become more conscious of our sin, of our rebellion against God. Adversity and problems that we see in life should make us more tender, more pliant, before the Lord, not stubborn, not resistant. Some of us, we've been through the storms and vicissitudes of life. We've had to learn how to be humbled by hard times. Some of you younger people, your life is ahead of you, Lord willing. And you will be experiencing difficulties, and adversities, and calamities, and so forth. And how will you respond? When you read the newspaper, do people even read the newspaper today? You go to your blog, your news blog, or the Instagram that gives you your news, or whatever it is. And you read that. Do you put more stock and trust in what something's being reported to you? We should not necessarily doubt. But how will we respond when those adversities and difficulties come? Young person, you'll have a lot of opportunities to see how you respond. One expositor had, I think, an interesting observation I wanna share with you. It'll lead to our final application here. One of the things you see in verses 14 through 16, there's a repetition of the word earth. And sometimes that word can mean just the local region. just like the Greek word can mean a local region. But it's the context that really tells you what's in view. And it's clear that God is wanting His name proclaimed, not just in the in the Delta region of Egypt. It's through all the earth that His name is to be proclaimed through this judgment. And so many have observed that what we're seeing here in those verses 14 through 16, where His name is being proclaimed in all the earth, and we know that there's no one like the Lord in all the earth. And you see this word crop up several times in this passage. And in a sense, we are seeing a form, some call it a proto-evangelium, a first or an early gospel. The judgments aren't the gospel. But they prepare the way for the name of the Lord to be announced, proclaimed. And in these judgments, they see the mercy and the grace of God. They could see God's forbearance, His patience, His mercy. They could see God's power. They could see God's deliverer, Moses. And all this pointing to the ultimate gospel. that would be fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. Pharaoh's judgment was a message to the entire world. It's a message to us today even. How merciful God is. Now we see the end result of this incredible mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. And the kindness of God in Christ. should lead us to repentance and faith, to trust Him. And this is a message for everyone. It wasn't just for, what, 15th century BC Egyptians and Israelites. Hundreds of years ago, the messages of pastors and ministers of the gospel, they would be written down and they would be published. Not because, especially we're talking after the invention of the printing press. There's an explosion of the message of the gospel just being disseminated all throughout the Western world. And churches and congregations and preachers wanted this message not to just be heard in the Sunday morning worship with their sermons, as important as that was, but they wanted people everywhere to hear, to ponder, to ruse and to ruminate and meditate upon what had been preached from the Word of God. And so pamphlets, books were printed and disseminated. They say that Calvin, when he would get in the pulpit, would take no notes and he would preach for a couple hours. And he had his students, those who were disciples, would write his words down as he spoke. He must have been an incredibly logical speaker. If you'd ever tried to write my words down, you'd wonder, what did he say? Where'd this go? And I'm sure that one of the students didn't get everything and they have to compare notes with others. But the point is that it went out to the city, to the countryside. Many would be converted because they would hear the message of the gospel. You know, think about today with all of the mass communication, the video. That's a plus side of that. There's a downside of that, certainly. but the podcasts of messages, streaming and all of that. People are hearing the gospel. I recently got an email from a classmate I hadn't seen in 50 years. When I was at my class reunion, he kept calling me the preacher. and he'd be singing these bawdy ballroom songs. He'd go, watch out, the preacher's here. I got a email from this dear brother, who's a dear brother, how the Lord got a hold of his heart, hearing the message of the gospel, and shared that with another who came to Christ. The Word of God, he's watching over it to perform it. And that in judgment, this core idea of the gospel is available to those who wish to see it, even in this judgment. The gospel, the rudiments of it, the truth, the mercy, the grace, the love, the justice, all of that of God is there. And so adversities and calamities are all opportunities. to understand the gospel. So think about it, church. God's restraint against sin. How amazing is that? If God did not restrain His anger and wrath against sin, none of us would be able to take another breath. where sin abounds, grace literally super abounds, Paul says in Romans 5. And yet there will come a time when the day of grace will come to a close. If you know Christ, in faith and repentance, truly bow before Him in humble adoration and humiliation. What grace has been given to you to have a changed heart, to want to follow Christ. It's all of God. If you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior, learn the lessons of judgment. Yes, there's punishment, righteous punishment, but there's also incredible grace and restraint that God pours out. If you do not see God's mercy in the adversities, in the calamities, in the judgments, Like Pharaoh, the only thing you're going to see is hail. That's all you'll see. And the hail will fall on you. But it doesn't need to fall on you. Because in Christ, He is the ark of safety. The refuge from the storm. The one in whom You find complete rest and safety and shelter only in Christ. If God were not restrained in His judgment, you and I would be destroyed. We'd be toast, but you're not. So let that kindness of God bring you to faith and trust in Christ today, tomorrow, forever. Our God, you temper judgment with mercy, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray that you would so shape our hearts, that they would be soft and pliable before You, whether there's adversity or whether there's prosperity. Your restraint and Your patience and Your mercy, how great they are toward us. Help us to see it. May it always lead us to give thanks to repent when we stray and wander. Truly You do not treat us as our sins deserve. So we pray for a heart of wisdom that we would not only number our days, but we would always respond to Your kindness. We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen.