Exodus 9:1-7

I.   Introduction

The judgments on Egypt are harsh and will become harsher.  But an important theme is the purpose to display the beauty of redemption.

II. God displays his glory by destroying the bull and hardening Pharaoh.

1.  The fifth plague is an attack on livestock that provided food, clothing, and transportation to Egypt.  More particularly, it is an assault on the bull cults of Egypt and Pharaoh both of whom were deities.  The symbol of the bull in American financial markets indicates good times and bad times is a bear.  God is bringing a bear on Egypt and a bull in Goshen.  The harshness of the one is a display of the beauty of the other. 

2.  In Egypt, the most important of the sacred animals in Egypt was Apis.  The symbol of Apis was the bull.  He was the only deity represented as an animal (the rest had a human body with the head of . . . ).  Apis symbolized strength and virility.  The Apis bull was also considered a manifestation of Pharaoh and the qualities of his kingship.  His movements were interpreted as prophecies, and his breath could cure disease.  When the bull reached a certain age (28), he was killed and eaten by Pharaoh and the priests so as to partake of his strength.  Sometimes, the bull was mummified and placed in the tombs of Pharaoh for protection. 

3.  Moses says to Pharaoh, if you refuse to let God’s people go, then the hand of God will come on your livestock.  Literally, the text of vs. 3 reads the plague will be heavy and the word is the same as the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. He refuses.  God strikes.  Every bull cult loses their mascot and every beast of the field dies.  The strong and virile wither before God.  Without protection, Pharaoh is hardened too!  Again, the symbolism here is stark.  In the after life, Pharaoh would harden his heart so as not to come under judgment.  God is hardening him in this life and bringing judgment upon him. In the Book of the Dead, sin meant judgment and annihilation.  Pharaoh will not confess, but he is judged regardless.

4.  It is instructive that we all want bull markets.  But we do foolish things and cry out to government to take the bear away.  We expect our government to legislate immunity from folly.  But we live in a moral universe.  When you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind.  It has nothing to do with a bull or the power of government.  God has natural law.  Men cannot override it or him.  There is no safety from his moral order only in it.

The harshness of the chaos only display the beauty of the moral order.

5.  The folly of Pharaoh is that he refuses God.  In chapter one, Pharaoh killed the young male children of Israel.  He has misappropriated God’s people and used them to build temples, the pyramids, for his glorious send off to the after life.  God hardens him justly.  It is a continuing story.  Read Romans 1:22-23, 24a, 28a.  It is not a good thing to refuse God and take his glory.  I am sure after hearing the warning that Pharaoh went to the temple of Apis and prayed.  It did not work.  God is sovereign over time and place. 

He imposes his will and none can stay his hand.  See Isaiah 46:10-11.  The text has something of a play on the word send.  The text begins and ends with it.  In 9:1, let my people go or send them out.  He refuses.  And God sends a plague.  In 9:7, Pharaoh sends to Goshen to check this miracle out.  But he does not send the people out.  He will send his servants to investigate, but he will not send the servants of God out of the land.  It is a folly for which he will pay dearly.  But it also displays the beauty of God’s power.

6.  And simultaneous with judgment, is the grace of God.  It is the hope that God gives to us.  We cannot extract his attributes of verity and justice.  Neither should we mitigate his mercy.  In the harshness of his judgment on false gods, we read his tender compassions upon the children of Israel.  This too is grace for they are as undeserving as Pharaoh was deserving.  If the bear was in Egypt, then the bull is in Goshen.  We read in vs. 4 but the Lord will make a distinction between Israel and Egypt . . . so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.  In the one place there is incredible loss and financial ruin.  There is the loss of religious prestige.  In the other, there is life.  See 11:7 and Psalm 4:3.  God spares his people wrath.  I remind you, we will face the wrath of men and the discipline of God.  But we will never face his wrath because his Son took it for us.  It is the beauty of the tandem of judgment and salvation.  Again in vs. 6 but of the livestock of the sons of Israel not one died.  And again in vs. 7 behold there was not even one that died.  Moses is mocking Pharaoh and extolling the goodness of God.  On the one hand all are lost in Egypt and on the other none are lost in Goshen.  Both are a tribute to God’s power to create chaos and salvation simultaneously.  The end of one is the beginning of redemption for the other.

7.  It is a goodness that is even clearer in the New Testament.  We see it in the symbolism of Matthew 12:29 (cf. Revelation 20).  Jesus says and (John 6:39) this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.  None are lost.  All are recovered and reconstituted.   And again in John 10:28, and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 

8.  The message is clear.  There is harsh judgment and beautiful salvation.  The former should chase us to the latter and the beauty of Christ.  Nothing can stay the hand of God but the Son of God.  I trust your faith is in him.