The Eighth Plague: Locusts, Part FBCPM Filename: LJD-BCS-02-Exodus

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1 The Eighth Plague: Locusts, Part FBCPM Filename: LJD-BCS-02-Exodus And Pharaoh s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? 8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? 9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. 10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. 11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh s presence. 12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. 13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. 15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only. 18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. 19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. 20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. (Exodus 10:1 20) 1

2 I. FREEDOM THAT ENSLAVES Exodus 10:7 And Pharaoh s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? How was Moses "a snare unto" the Egyptians? A snare is a kind of trap, so the Egyptians felt like that were trapped in a situation that they did not want to be in. It's a bit of irony: they had enslaved the Israelites and would not let them go; now they were enslaved because they refused to give the Israelites freedom. Sin is like that. We might sin because we think that we are free to do so, but the very act of exerting our freedom enslaves us. Drugs are the clearest example of this you may think you have the freedom to take the drug, but the freedom will enslave you. Can you think of other examples? Pharaoh's servants were annoyed (that's an understatement) at this situation and put pressure on Pharaoh to "let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God." They felt that it was time to give in, because their nation was plunging towards total destruction. Stop and think about this a moment. This is what a hardened heart can do it can lead to the destruction of a nation. If it can do that, what about a marriage, a friendship, a business? How many things and people are destroyed because of a hardened heart? The worst part of the hard heart, as we have seen in our look at the plagues on Egypt is that it can get harder and harder with every bit of discipline God puts against it. The hardening has a blinding effect Pharaoh sees the need to escape the situation, to escape the snare...but he isn't willing to let go of his pride. This is just the same as many other powerful leaders throughout history. Hitler, for example, knew that he was defeated months before the last bomb was dropped. 2

3 Yet he held on, even executing people who had worked against him, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even though their execution would do nothing to help his situation. Hitler s pride (which told him that he had freedom to do whatever he wanted because he was the Führer) enslaved him to do spiteful acts. That's how Pharaoh is here. He knows that it is over, but refuses to yield his prideful power. He is enslaved to his power, so he has his own demands. Exodus 10:8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? Pharaoh's question is a set up. He knows what Moses is going to say, and he's got a prideful response ready. Exodus 10:9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. Exodus 10:10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you [i.e., you are planning evil]. The Hebrew here is difficult to understand, but it's clear that Pharaoh is being sarcastic. Oh, sure, the Lord will need to be with you if I ever let your families go I know that you are up to no good Pharaoh s final answer is Exodus 10:11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh s presence. Pharaoh agreed to let the people go worship, but only the men. The women and children would need to stay behind. This, of course, would not fly, because the Lord wanted all his people to go. 3

4 4 Pharaoh s pride would not let him see that he needed to let the people go. While he must have thought that he had the freedom and power to do what he wanted, he could not see that he was actually enslaved to destruction. This time it would be II. DESTRUCTION BY LOCUSTS Exodus 10:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. Exodus 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. Exodus 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. Exodus 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. What are locusts? What is the difference between locusts and grasshoppers? The main difference is behavior. They both are solitary insects, but locusts have the ability, when there s enough of them, to work together to fly and swarm and destroy. Laura Ingalls Wilder described a swarm of locusts (she called them grasshoppers) that came when she was a child. Her description will give you an idea of what happened in Egypt: A cloud was over the sun. It was not like any cloud they had ever seen before. It was a cloud of something like snowflakes, but they were larger than snowflakes, and thin and glittering. Light shone through each flickering particle

5 5 Plunk Something hit Laura's head and fell to the ground. She looked down and saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen. Then huge brown grasshoppers were hitting the ground all around her, hitting her head and her face and her arms. They came thudding down like hail. The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm. Laura tried to beat them off. Their claws clung to her skin and her dress. They looked at her with bulging eyes, turning their heads this way and that. Mary ran screaming into the house. Grasshoppers covered the ground, there was not one bare bit to step on. Laura had to step on grasshoppers and they smashed squirming and slimy under her feet. Ma was slamming the windows shut, all around the house. Pa came and stood just inside the front door, looking out. Laura and Jack stood close beside him. Grasshoppers beat down from the sky and swarmed thick over the ground. Their long wings were folded and their strong legs took them hopping everywhere. The air whirred and the roof went on sounding like a roof in a hailstorm. Then Laura heard another sound, one big sound made of tiny nips and snips and gnawings. "The wheat" Pa shouted. He dashed out the back door and ran toward the wheat-field. The grasshoppers were eating. You could not hear one grasshopper eat, unless you listened very carefully while you held him and fed him grass. Millions and millions of grasshoppers were eating now. You could hear the millions of jaws biting and chewing. 1 This is something like what happened in Egypt, and it s no wonder that Pharaoh responded quickly. 1 Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek, rev. ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1953), pp

6 Exodus 10:16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. We've seen Pharaoh reverse himself before, but this time there are some subtle differences that indicate that he may have progressed a bit. For one thing, he called Moses back in haste. Also this is the first time that Pharaoh acknowledges that he had "sinned against the LORD," and not just saying generically that he had sinned (see Exodus 9:27). To top it all off, he actually asked for forgiveness: Exodus 10:17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only. Exodus 10:18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. Exodus 10:19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. Exodus 10:20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. If Pharaoh asked for forgiveness, then why did the Lord harden Pharaoh s heart? The question itself betrays it s bias. It assumes that humans are right and God has to behave in a way that is just in human eyes. But the human side is wrong: Pharaoh s request for forgiveness was not genuine. We see that in how he asks for God to forgive my sin only this once. Pharaoh only wanted to make the plague to come to an end and he didn t care what he had to say to make it happen. He cared about the consequences of his sin, but he didn t care about the sin itself. 6

7 7 God, on the other hand, isn t being unjust or unfair here. Rather, he is being gracious. He knew that Pharaoh s request for forgiveness was not genuine, yet he graciously sent a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts. God is always going to be good and gracious it s us humans who are the problem. When you find yourself questioning God s actions, remember that he is good and gracious and you are the fallen sinner. You have to change not God. CONCLUSION Sometimes God has to send plagues our way in order to break our pride. We might think that is a cruel thing for a loving God to do, but think about it: our pride enslaves us even though we think we re acting in freedom. God simply wants us to be truly free free from the tyranny of pride and free to be humble before him. This is how we came to be saved in the first place. Our pride was broken. We thought that we were free to enter Heaven based on our good works, but God broke that pride. We came to understand that only through Jesus Christ can we be truly saved and truly free. As he said, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). The truth is that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves, and that God is a gracious God who will save you if you humbly receive his gift of Jesus. Pride is something that Christians also continue to struggle with throughout our lives. What are some ways that a Christian might struggle with pride and actually be so enslaved by his or her pride that they do unbiblical and ungodly things?