Exodus 10: 1-11: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD. And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.”
The hail storm destroyed some of Egypt’s crops but the next plague was even more destructive. Anyone who has been through a locust plague will understand how destructive these insects are. Before locusts are able to fly they go through a stage where they are just able to hop but then they mature and are able to fly as well. A big locust plague can go through hundreds of kilometres of land and the locusts eat almost every plant they encounter. After locust plague the trees look like skeletons and the ground is bare for every other plant has been eaten as well. While the hail left some plants and some future for Egypt, the locust left nothing. Even the animals that had survived the hail were left to starve. There was a locust headed god called Senehem in Egypt but this god was unable to prevent the Lord from demonstrating His absolute authority over all Egypt. In fact the Lord didn’t just show Egypt that He was the Lord, and He is still the same today, He showed Israel that He is the Lord of the whole earth as well. When the locust plague flew into Egypt they were so thick that they blackened the sky as well. This plague was evidence of the Lord’s hand because there was no where outside Egypt for the locusts to hatch their eggs in the desert and grow to plague proportions. By the time the plagues were complete no one in the entire land of Egypt had any excuse not to understand that the Lord is the Lord of all the earth and no one can escape the power of His mighty hand. In fact, some of Pharaoh’s servants were afraid of the Lord and wanted to submit Him but Pharaoh would not. He wanted relief from the plague but he wanted to make sure that the Israelis came back because he told them to leave their children behind.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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