Let My People Go: Exodus 7-11 (The Plagues)

Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Moses returned to Egypt with his brother Aaron. The staff in his hand. The word of God on his lips. The demand: Let my people go.

Pharaoh refused. Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.

He would learn.

The first plague: blood. Aaron stretched out his staff over the waters of Egypt—the Nile, the canals, the ponds, the reservoirs. All water became blood. Fish died. The river stank. Egyptians could not drink.

The Nile was a god to Egypt. The source of life became the color of death.

Pharaoh's heart remained hard.

The second plague: frogs. They came up from the Nile in countless numbers. Frogs in the palace, in the bedrooms, in the ovens, in the kneading troughs. Frogs underfoot, frogs in bed, frogs everywhere.

Heqet, the frog goddess of fertility, turned to curse. The Egyptians could not kill them without offending their own deity.

Pharaoh begged relief, promised release. The frogs died. Pharaoh's heart hardened again.

The third plague: gnats. The dust of Egypt became gnats—tiny, biting, inescapable insects covering man and beast. Even Pharaoh's magicians admitted: This is the finger of God.

But Pharaoh's heart remained hard.

The fourth plague: flies. Dense swarms of flies invaded Egypt. But not Goshen. The distinction began—God's people protected while judgment fell on Egypt.

Pharaoh offered compromise. Moses refused. The flies vanished. Pharaoh hardened his heart.

The fifth plague: livestock disease. Horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, goats—Egyptian livestock died. But not one animal belonging to Israel was harmed.

Pharaoh sent investigators. They confirmed: not one Israelite animal dead. Still, Pharaoh refused.

The sixth plague: boils. Moses threw soot into the air, and festering boils broke out on Egyptians and their animals. Pharaoh's magicians could not even stand before Moses—they were covered with boils themselves.

The LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart.

The seventh plague: hail. The worst hailstorm in Egypt's history. Fire mixed with hail, destroying everything in the fields—crops, trees, people caught outside. But in Goshen, no hail fell.

Some Egyptians believed and brought their servants and livestock inside. Others ignored the warning and lost everything.

Pharaoh confessed sin. Moses prayed. The hail stopped. Pharaoh sinned again.

The eighth plague: locusts. An east wind brought locusts—so thick they covered the ground, darkened the sky, devoured everything the hail had left. Egypt's officials begged Pharaoh to relent.

Pharaoh offered partial release. Moses refused. The locusts came. Pharaoh confessed. Moses prayed. A west wind blew every locust into the Red Sea.

The LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart.

The ninth plague: darkness. Three days of darkness so thick it could be felt. Egyptians could not see each other, could not leave their homes. But the Israelites had light where they lived.

Ra, the sun god, supreme deity of Egypt—powerless. The darkness declared: Yahweh alone is God.

Pharaoh offered another compromise. Moses refused. Pharaoh threatened: Get out of my sight! The day you see my face you will die!

Moses agreed: You will never see me again.

One plague remained. The worst. The one that would break Pharaoh's resistance forever.

About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh to the firstborn son of the female slave. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.

But against any Israelite not a dog will bark. Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

The death of the firstborn. The final plague. The Passover was coming.