Locusts and Darkness Exodus 10

 

Exodus 10 – Locusts and Darkness

 

A person might ask, what will it take to cause Pharaoh to let Israel go? 

God has many reasons for doing what He does.  One reason for the plagues was to make Pharaoh reveal that he was a godless man. He wanted to give Pharaoh the opportunity to let Israel go and the opportunity for salvation.  God also wanted to demonstrate to His people what He was able to do before He took them into the wilderness.

At this point in the story Pharaoh’s servants try to reason with him.  “Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?  How much longer are you going to permit it?  Let them go!”  Pharaoh had already tried two compromises and was turned down.  Now he tries again by telling Moses that the Adults can go but the children must be left behind. 

Just as Pharaoh tempted and tested Moses with compromise, so the child of God today is also tempted.  Christian parents want the best for their children.  Wanting the “best” of the world for their children is the most subtle temptation that can come to Christian parents.  Some are so anxious and ambitious for them to get on in the world that they lost them to the world. Moses did not accept this compromise either.

Locusts were prominent In the Asian area and this wind had brought them over a broad expanse of desert, and they were hungry.  They stripped all the land of vegetation. 

The first plagues were directed against the gods, idols that infested the land.  Now God is directing the plagues in a manner that works a hardship upon the people and their struggle to stay alive.  Pharaoh repented when the locust came but once they were gone, he changes his mind and goes back to his original position. Then darkness came over the land of Egypt in the daytime. God moved in with the darkness against the chief god that they worshiped.  The darkness was a miracle of God, and it caused Pharaoh to propose a fourth compromise. You would think that leaving their flocks and herds behind would be a compromise that Moses might accept for the Israelites. But that is not what God told them to do. There would be no compromise.  Egypt, by the way, is a picture of the world.

 

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