The Plague of Hail

Turn with me in your Bible to Exodus chapter 9, and we're going to cover plague number 7 this morning.

Plague number 7. All right, here we go. Verse number 13: Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and stand 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. Or literally, in your heart, and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence.

you would then have been cut off from the earth. But indeed, for this cause, I have allowed you to remain in order to show you my power. In order to proclaim my name through all the earth, still you exalt yourself against my people by not letting them go. We'll stop right there. Three things I want you to see in this paragraph concerning this hail plague. The first thing I want you to see is the demand before the plague.

All right? The demand before the plague. Again, for the sixth time, God tells Moses. Tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Now, two things you need to understand about that. One is that it accentuates. The rebellion in Pharaoh's heart. It accentuates the rebellion in Pharaoh's heart. This is the sixth time God has said, You've got to let my people go. And Pharaoh's response is, I'm not going to do that because his heart is hard, his neck is stiff. He rebels against the authority of God's holy word. He will not budge.

I think about that. And I think about your life and my life. And how many times has God told us to do something and we not respond? Think about it. We want to read these plagues and think, well, this is something that happened, you know, thousands of years ago and in the life of Moses there in Egypt, and really has very little at all to do with me. On the contrary, it has everything to do with us. Because how many times has God said, you know what? This is what you need to be doing. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

Are you doing that? How many times has God said that? How many times in the 10 years of our existence have we preached on that verse? Are you doing that? The Bible says, Honor the Lord with the first fruits of your increase.

Are you doing that? You know, the Bible gives us so many explicit commands and demands that so many times we just kind of read them and they go in one area or not the other. And we look at Pharaoh and say, wow, Pharaoh is just such a stubborn, stiff-nicked, rebellious creature, wasn't he?

And forget that there are so many things that God told us to do, we don't even do them. And yet, on top of that, not only does it accentuate Pharaoh's rebellion, it reiterates God's wonderful mercy and grace. For God to say six times, Pharaoh, this is what you got to do. And Pharaoh says, I'm not going to do that. And God says, Pharaoh, this is what you got to do And Pharaoh says, I'm not going do that.

And God just keeps going back. You've got to do it. You to do it. He, No, I not going do that. That's the grace of God. God's just striking dead. He should strike him dead for a disobedience to him. But he doesn't. That's God's mercy. Aren't you glad God's patient with you? Boy, I am. And so the demand comes, let my people go. What has God said to you? What has God told you to do that you have refused to do? Maybe he said today. Is a day of salvation. You refused to God's refused that salvation's call.

Maybe he told you to do something in your family, in your workplace. Have you done it? Respond to the grace and mercy of our great God, who just keeps coming back and saying, Today's the day. Get it right today. Follow me today. Number two, the second thing I want you to see is the declaration before the play.

God makes this great declaration through Moses. And this decl is really unique because it's going to talk about the severity of these plagues and what's going to happen. Verse 14, this time I'm going to send my plagues on you, the New American Standard says. The King James says, in your name. Heart. God's going to work on Pharaoh's heart. Say, wait a minute. I thought Pharaoh's heart was already hard. Yes, it is hard. But God was going to work on that heart. And Pharaoh is going to experience some things he's never experienced before amidst all of his rebellion.

There was going to be some agonizing in his heart. There's going to be some wrestling in his heart. There's going to be some shattering in his heart. There's going to be, come of that, some confessions. Even some concess. But God's going to work on Pharaoh's heart. Not only is he going to work on his heart, but these plagues are going to come upon his people and his servants, unlike the previous six plagues. No one yet has died from the plagues until this one is about to come. This one will cause death in people.

Yes, the livestock have been killed. By our previous plague, Pregn M. But this time, more of the beasts of the field will die, and even some people will die. Because God says, Look, I've been nice to you so far, Pharaoh, but now it's going to grow with a greater intensity.

Because of your rebellious he. And God says, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

Pharaoh, you're going to come to realize there's nobody like me. I am the greatest. I am the God of this world. And there is nobody like me. And he says, I think it's so interesting. For if by now I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. You'd have died. See, that's the mercy of God. I could have stretched out my hand and zapped you, cut you off, but I've allowed you to live, Pharaoh. Even so, he says this, for this cause I have allowed you to remain in order to show you my power.

And in order to proclaim my name through all the earth. Pharaoh, you want to know why you're ruling? You're ruling because I'm allowing you to rule. You're in charge of Egypt because of my sovereignty. So that you will experience my power as never before, and all the earth will know that I am the king. Pharaoh, you're there because of me. You're not there because of you. And I'm using you to proclaim my purposes throughout the earth. Boy, that's good news, isn't it? God's in charge. I'm going to go and cast my vote, but God's in charge.

And I know that because He's in charge, He's going to put His ruler into office. See? God rules. God says, Pharaoh, you're here because I'm letting you be here, and I'm going to proclaim my purposes through you.

God says to America, my man will be the president of America. For the next four years, because through him I will use him to proclaim my purposes. God's in charge. See, Pharaoh thought he was in charge, he thought he had all the power. See, and God said, You have no power, Pharaoh, unless I give it to you. And that is the declaration before the plague. Notice this: Psalm 76, verse number 10: that God uses the wrath of man to praise his name.

He'll use the wrath of man to praise his name. Remember Revelation chapter 17? Revelation 17, verse number 17. It says this. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God should be fulfilled. God says, I have put everything into the heart of the enemy.

I have gathered all the kings of the world together to accomplish my purpose. I want them to wage war against the Lamb because I want the Lamb to come and destroy all wickedness finally and forever.

God's in charge. And Pharaoh needs to know that he's not in charge. And that's the declaration before the plague. And I want you to notice, number three, the denunciation before the plague.

Still, verse 17, you exalt yourself against my people by not letting them go. Still, you're arrogant. Still, you exalt yourself above everyone else. You see, Pharaoh's problem was his pride, his arrogance. And Moses was to tell him, Pharaoh, you are this way because you're an arrogant man. You don't want anybody telling you what to do. You think that you're in charge and you're not. He had the same sin that Satan had. Isaiah chapter 14, Ezekiel 28, speak about Satan's downfall, his arrogance, his pride.

That's why the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 that when you put an elder into office, make sure that he's not a novice.

A new convert, a new believer. Why? Because he could very easily, as Paul goes on to say in 1 Timothy 3, be ensnared by the sin of the devil, the sin of pride. Got to be careful about that. Read to the book of Revelation, and what do you have? Excuse me, the book of Exodus. Sorry. The book of Proverbs. And you have all these denunciations of the arrogant man, the scoffer, the prideful man. And the Bible says over in the book of Proverbs, the 16th chapter, the fifth verse: Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. Everybody who's prideful in heart, everybody who's arrogant, thinks that they can get away with it, and God says, no, they can't.

They will be punished. Either in this life or in the life to come. But they will be punished. Which leads us to our next paragraph. Or next three paragraphs in the next three points. Let me read them to you.

Behold, about this time tomorrow I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

Now, therefore, excuse me, now therefore send Bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die. The one among the servants of Pharaoh, who feared the word of the Lord, made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses. But he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants. There's livestock in the field. This is the deliverance from the plague. Listen to what God says.

God is so good. He says, This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to send a plague, a very heavy hail that Egypt's never seen before. But it's not going to come until tomorrow. In the meantime, this is what you need to do to escape the plague. Run for shelter and you won't experience it. And yet, if you don't fear the Lord and his word, which of course many did not, and pay no regard to his word, then every beast in the field, every person in the field, will die. You imagine hailstones coming down upon your head in such mammoth proportions?

They would kill you. And God warned them. And don't you see the gospel message in this? The gospel message is very clear. God says there's a way of escape.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. There's a way of escaping eternal death and torment. It's to receive the gift of God. So, don't we tell people about impending judgment? And yet there is a way to escape that impending judgment? And isn't what God did an offer of unmerited favor? These people all deserved to die. They were all idolaters. They were all in rebellion against God. But he let them have an opportunity to escape. That's because the Bible says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

None. And so God, in his kindness and his mercy, and his love, will say, okay. Here's how you can escape. They don't deserve to be set free from this plague. But God is a God of grace, isn't He? So, this is how you can do it: find shelter for you and for your beasts. And you'll live. What else do you see? You see the simplicity of the message. Was this hard to understand? What part of. Finding shelter, don't you understand? This is what's going to happen. It's going to come down, it's going be a very severe hail.

All you got to do is find shelter. Anybody can understand that. Tell your children, listen, go hide underneath that shelter over there, and you'll be safe. Do you think they'll understand that? Sure. How hard is it to understand when Jesus, when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes into the Father but by me. And God was presenting. A way for them to escape. And was not that way of escape open to every single individual in Egypt? Every one of them. They all could all escape, but did they?

They didn't. Why? Because he refused to believe the word of the Lord. That's why. They refuse to believe it. What's he saying? He who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field. You see, the reason man suffers eternal torment is because he doesn't believe in the word of God. The word of God incarnate. And the word of God inspired. That's why. It's you can see the whole gospel message in how God promised deliverance to the Egyptians from the Hal plague.

See it right there. Which leads us to our fifth point, and that is the destruction from the plank. Verse 22: Now the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt. On man and on beast, and on every plant of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder. and hail, and fire ran down to the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail.

Very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail struck all that was in the field. Through all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. The hail also struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field, only in the land of Goshen. Where the sons of Israel were, there was no hail. When sure enough, the land of Israel was spared. From the plague of the hail. Could you imagine what was happening? They were probably outside watching it.

They had no fear of it coming down upon them. So from a distance, they would see this fire, this hail, com down in buckets. People screaming. Because their lives were being shattered. Their family members were dying in front of them. The children of Israel would sit back and watch. To learn that God is serious about what He says. And that leads us then to the last point, and that is the duplicity in the plague. That is Pharaoh's duplicity. He was a double-minded man. Let me show you how it manifests itself.

Verse 27. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, I have sinned this time. The Lord is a righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones. Now, if I was to take that verse and only that verse and read it to you without you knowing the context, you would think this man was what? Repentant. I have sinned. God is righteous. I am wicked. My people are wicked. Whoa, that's it. You got it. But that's the duplicity of the man. It wasn't true. He would say anything to escape the plague.

Anything. How do you know? Well, all you have to do is read on. You see, we find ourselves in the midst of turmoil, a lot of times we'll say anything to get out of it. Even though we don't mean it. And it might sound good. It might sound really good. Say, Lord, if you just give me a job, I promise I will tithe every week. Just give me a job. If you don't tithe in your poverty, you will not tithe in your prosperity. That's truth. And God says, no, you tithe now, you give now.

And that's what happens here, as you can see. Watch, listen. 28. Make supplication to the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail, and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. What's he saying? The plague stops, I'll let you go. He makes conditions. He gives God a condition. God, if you get me out of this, I'll do this. Let me tell you something.

You can't bargain with God. And yet we want to put God in this little box of ours and, okay, God, if you do this, I'll tell you what I'm going do for you, Lord. I'm going to be so good to you, God. I'm just going do what you say. I am. I finally will do what you say, if, Lord, you do this for me.

You see, conditional prayer is disobedient prayer. You see, Pharaoh's job was to do what? Let the people go. If he was truly repentant, he would have let the people go and suffered the consequences for his sin. Because a true repentant heart makes no demands and has no agenda. That's a true repentant heart. Pharaoh says, This is what I'm going to do if you make supplication for me. Listen verse 29. And Moses said to him, As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth.

Is the Lord's. Wow. See, God is always, listen, He's always ready to forgive, but He only forgives. the repentant heart. But God's always ready. And Moses in his tenderness, knowing that he wasn't repentant, listen to what he says in the next verse, verse number 30. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet. Fear the Lord. How did you know that? How do you know someone fears the Lord? To this man I will look, to him who is broken and of a contrite heart, and who trembles at my word.

How do you know a man fears the Lord? Because he trembles more at the word of God than he does at the work of God. Of God. That's how you know. Moses knew. Read on. Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear, the flax was in the bud, but the wheat and the spe were not ruined. For they ripen late. We'll talk about that in our next plague. Verse thirty three So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased.

and rain no longer poured on the earth. Now think about that. Moses is in the city. He's with Pharaoh, and he says, As the hail is coming down on the city, I will go outside the city, and you will know that the Lord reigns over the earth. Two ways Pharaoh will see how God reigns over the earth. One, very simple. Moses will pray and the hail will stop. But that's the minor one. What's the major one? The major one is simple. Think about it: Moses is in the city where the hail is coming down. How does Moses get from inside the city outside the city without being destroyed by the hail?

Isn't that good? So here he goes walking out of the palace, and wherever he walks, there's no hail. It's all around him, but there's no hail on Moses. Oh, how else would he get outside the city to pray for the hail to stop? That is how Pharaoh will know that God is the ruler of the earth. As he watched Moses go out, and Moses survives. What an amazing miracle! But, last verse. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart. He And his servants.

And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. Can you believe that? But notice what it says.

Read very carefully. It says, he sinned again, hardened his heart, he and what? Servants. See the effects of sin? Now his servants' hearts are hardened. They would not believe in spite of the miracle before their eyes. They refused to repent. You know it's going to happen again, don't you? The whole hail thing is going to happen again. It's going to happen at least two more times. Once in Revelation chapter 8 and once in Revelation chapter 16. Remember what God said in Exodus 9, verse number 14? God says the reason I'm doing this is because you will know there's nobody like me.

The book of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Things are going to happen the way they happen so that everyone will know that there is no one like the Lord in all the earth. Remember it says, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, he and his servants, the Antichrist, the false prophets, and all of their servants join in in blaspheming God. And then the king returns. And we'll talk more about that when we talk about the plague of darkness and how the king actually comes back. But I want you to notice this.

In Revelation 16, verse number 17, the voice out of heaven says, It is done. It's done. The wrath of God is complete, except for the return of the Messiah. And when he comes back, he will destroy all those who have blasphemed his name. It's imperative that we understand that the finished work of Christ at Calvary ex us from the judgment of God. We're free from it if you believe in what Jesus Christ did at Calvary's Tree some 2,000 years ago. You won't experience the judgment of God. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray.