In Chapter 10 God tells Moses to once again go to Pharaoh. But the interesting part is the reason why God is sending Moses back to Pharaoh. This time God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh because God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart and now wants to display God’s signs among the Egyptians. God is making a mockery of the Egyptians to show that He is the Lord. God is giving the Jews a lesson that can be recounted to their sons and their son’s sons. God is actually instructing the Jews to tell generation after generation about God’s miracles when He was taking the Jews out of Egypt. But it is not only a lesson for the Egyptians and the Israelites, it is a lesson for the whole world through all the generations. That is why God has preserved the Old Testament writing for us. These writings give proof that God is The Supreme Being and we are to have no other gods before him.
Following God’s instructions, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked how long it would take for Pharaoh to humble himself before God? They followed up that question with an instruction from God, “Let My people go.” IF not, tomorrow you will be converged upon with locusts. Those promised locusts are going to cover the land so it will not be able to be seen, and they will devour all the grain in the field, that was left after the hail, and they will even eat away the trees that were left. And then it gets much worse than that. Those locusts will fill the palaces and the houses of the courtiers and of all the Egyptians. No one has ever seen before such a plague as this. Without waiting for an answer, Moses turned and left.
Pharaoh’s courtiers appealed to Pharaoh. They asked how long Pharaoh would let this be a snare to them. They advised Pharaoh to let the people go worship the Lord their God. They asked, “Are you not yet aware Egypt is lost?”
With that Pharaoh evidently decides to bargain with Moses. He said, Go, worship the Lord your God,” but then he questioned, “Who are the ones to go?”
Foxy old Pharaoh, he wants to hold the ace card! For Pharaoh being humble is just too hard. If only a portion of those Israelites go, He can still be running the complete show. They will surely come back to be with those who were left behind and were not chose. But Moses would not be controlled. His answer was “We will all go, young and old, for we must observe the Lord’s festival.”
Pharaoh sarcastically answers Mosses request with, “The Lord be with you the same, as I mean to let your children go with you. Clearly you are bent on mischief.”
The word in Hebrew that was translated mischief actually translates to evil. Pharaoh is accusing Moses that he wants his people to leave so they can do something evil – evil like wanting to be free. And while Pharaoh is making accusations to Moses he still doesn’t believe God has total power and he is rude and obnoxious to Moses, disregarding his own advisors advice. He told Moses, “You menfolk go worship the Lord, since that is what you want.” And then Moses and Aaron were kicked out of Pharaoh’s presence.
And of course it was inevitable that God told Moses to hold out his arm over the land of Egypt for the locusts. The Lord drove an east wind over the land all that day and all night; and when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. With hindsight, remembering what we have learned about the plagues earlier, we can see God uses natural forces to bring devastation upon Egypt.
It’s kind of a test. Anyone can believe either the plagues were by nature or by the Hand of the Lord. Today we still have the same conundrum the Egyptians had, was it coincidence or was it God? Throughout the years many, many people have made the mistake of not believing God has power. Even when it comes to our own existence we have to make the choice whether we evolved from a big bang or God created us.
Because of Pharaoh’s unbelief locusts invaded his land. They settled in the territory of Egypt in a thick mass. They hid all the land from everyone’s view, they ate everything green, not just a few. Nothing was left of grasses or green they ate all the fruit which could be seen.
And you probably can’t even imagine what happens next! – You are probably right! Pharaoh hurriedly summoned Moses and Aaron and humbly said, “I stand guilty before the Lord your God and before you.
But there is a hidden problem here in Scripture. We believe if we sin we can repent before God and he will forgive us. Polytheists, those who worship more than one God, believe they can sin before only one god while doing nothing wrong in the eyes of another god. This is why it is so easy to say if he did anything wrong before the Jew’s God, he is not guilty before any of his own gods. “Forgive my offense just this once” says Pharaoh. He continues with, “Plead with the Lord your God that he remove this death from me.”
Moses did as Pharaoh requested and God caused a shift in the wind to the west and cleared all the locusts from the territory of Egypt – Not one was left!
And of course experience teaches us, that once again it is not Pharaoh hardening his heart, it is God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go.
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