Exodus 9: 13-21: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.”
This plague shows that the Lord had moved forward in His gracious effort the show that the Lord is the Lord and allow them to choose the protection that is implicit in that knowledge. While it is true that the Lord had sequestered Israel from some of the previous plagues, in this case everyone in Egypt could be protected from some of the consequences of the plague if they were willing to take some precautions. Previously the Egyptians were subject to the random and arbitrary actions of Pharaoh in the conflict between Egypt and the Lord but now any Egyptian could heed the warning and protect his or her own stock to protect them from the hail. This is just another aspect of the Lord’s grace. Each one of us is inextricably connected to mankind and our local community and we suffer because we live in world that has been tainted by sin (See Rom 8: 22, 23, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”) However, every person also has to individually live with the consequences of their individual choices. These Egyptians were given an insight into the individual God Who loves and seeks to save individuals. Nit was the sky goddess and the mother of the sun god Ra. Every evening she swallowed Ra and gave birth to him every morning. Her job was to protect the land from any destruction that came fro the sky but the Lord was more powerful than Ra.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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