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| Exodus 9:8-12 |
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Lesson # Exodus 9:8-12 Study Material - Exodus 9:8-12 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Ex. 9:8-12 8 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 And it will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.' 10 So they took soot from a kiln, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians. 12 And the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses. This passage is expanded upon in Deu. 28:27. The soot tossed into the air became representative of the very bad skin condition on the Egyptians. They had inflammations with abscesses, pustules, running into open sores, boils, blisters, tumors, scabs, itchy and painful that no soothing oil or ointment could help. These were no fatal, but they were certainly painful, annoying, and incurable. The passage begins with the usual policy of Gods instructions to Moses and through Moses to Aaron. This mechanism of communication was established earlier on before the plagues began. Then the communication to Pharaoh, then the plague. The soot from the kiln is ash after the fire has burned and gone out. What is left is the ash. Ashes were at one time a god source of fuel for the burning of fires in the kilns. They could have been wood, or something else used as fuel. Their benefit was prior to the fire. But after the fire, there is virtually nothing. The wood has no further use, and this will tie into Gods comments in verses 15 and 16, which we will get to tomorrow. These verses are significant, in that God is finish with dealing with Pharaoh after this sixth plague. Six by the way is the representative number for mankind. Man was created on the sixth day. Pharaoh had six opportunities to release the people. He played games in all six instances. In all of these encounters, Pharaoh had the free will to make up his own mind, but now in verse 12, God hardened Pharaoh's soul for him. Pharaoh did not do this himself, God did it. Why? Well the answer is in tomorrow's lesson. But suffice to say, Pharaoh's soul has sufficiently hardened over of his own free will in his defiance toward God and truth, that he has in effect a darkened soul, or a blackout of the soul as it were. The book of Ephesians covers this concept in more detail. What has happened, is that Pharaoh has used up all his nine lives. Under any other situation, he would now be dead, but God did not take his life at the end of this plague, but extended it. And God will extend it for the purpose of adding on additional plagues to further demonstrate His power as well as the continued defiance not only of Pharaoh, but of the Egyptian people in general. There is one other purpose for the additional plagues, and that is to further ingrain on the minds of the Hebrews that their deliverance comes from God alone and from no other source. That they did nothing to secure their freedom. That only God did the work, and only God is due the credit. The magicians served to promote disinformation, or to dilute Gods Word by their participation in imitating former plagues. In their efforts they mocked God, and thus they have become a part of the judgment. God herein destroys any of their attempts to further confuse peoples minds by their game playing with their tricks. Gods message needs to be heard in all of its clarity, and without distortion, such that people have no excuses as to what they hear or understand, and eventually decide. Thus far we have three good examples or perhaps four, which give us good lessons to guide our own lives. The first Pharaoh of Abraham's time, Abimelech of Abraham's time, the Pharaoh of Moses' time, and perhaps Job. All four had problems. The first Pharaoh and Abimelech recognized the problems and did something to resolve them. Though they did not turn to God, but they just wanted to get rid of Abraham. They were still negative toward God and, consistent with Gods policy for each individual they would encounter further problems in their lives obviously. Job was a righteous man, and he encountered trouble too. So trouble is not exclusive to negative people. Trouble comes to everyone on the face of the earth. Seeing someone in trouble does not mean that they are under Gods judgment. And it is not our place to determine what other peoples spiritual state is. What is important here is that if you are negative toward God, then trouble will fall on you in one form or another, and that trouble may or may not be obvious to others. The very wealthy may appear to be well off, but if they are negative than their troubles will be there in some form. A very poor person is exposed to this same miserable life too, if they are negative. The problems of the rich and poor most likely will be of different types, but problems will be there. And, they will increase in some form until the negative person is dead. Positive people who are advancing to spiritual maturity will see trouble but these troubles are designed to build up their spiritual muscle, their faith, to enhance their spiritual growth. For them the troubles will go away eventually. Now their troubles may go away at death as in the case of perhaps a cancer situation for example, but they will have had the opportunity to rely on God for a happy and fulfilling life. They will die, or the trouble will go away and these people will be confident, comforted, poised throughout the ordeal, whatever it may be. Positive people have the thorough knowledge that God will take care of them. The people of Egypt are now miserable, and the misery is something that they cannot get away from. It is upon their own personal bodies, and they have brought it upon themselves by their own free will choice. They have taken advantage of other peoples. They have abused their positions as privileged citizens over others. They have refused to change their ways, and to release their hold on the Hebrew people. Rejection of truth, turning ones face away from ones own sins or negative attitudes, only furthers the misery of that person and no one else. So the Word of God is a mirror by which we can see our real self, and as such we have an opportunity to judge ourselves, or evaluate ourselves and then take ourselves from where we are in life, and back into compliance with where we should be in accordance with Gods will. If you are a negative person, then of course you are probably not reading this Bible study, or any other study for that matter, or you are just passing through so to speak. You can expect nothing less than misery for your life ahead. If however, you are a positive person desiring to further your knowledge of God and His will, then you are consistent in this Bible study or some other appropriate study, you are attentive to your spiritual status (ie. sin, fellowship, etc.), and you take life in stride no matter what it throws at you. What lies ahead for you is blessing, and more blessing. You persevere as Job did. You advance to the winner circle in life and into eternity. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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