The Devastation of the Locusts: The Eighth Plague on Egypt - Saved for the Glory of God | Studies in the book of Exodus

In August 2008, I led a team to work at the Scripture Union campsite

in Malawi, which is located on a beautiful stretch of Lake Malawi.

And as you stand on the white sand and look eastward, you look

towards Mozambique.

But because the lake is so large, you actually can't see land

on the other side.

But what you will see on a regular basis is black smoke rising

on the horizon, going high up into the sky.

And you think, well, someone's built a pretty big fire.

At least that's what you think it is, because that's what it looks

like.

But it is, in fact, not smoke.

It's a swarm of lake flies.

About twice a year, they will come across the lake and come onto

land where you're simply swarmed by them.

A picture doesn't do justice, but that blackness that looks like

smoke is a swarm of flies.

And what you have to do is you have to make sure all of your windows

are closed, all doors are closed.

You have to even try and maybe cover your mouth and as best you

can, your eyes.

Because these flies are so small, they simply get everywhere.

They will quite literally infest you.

And as a visitor, it was something to behold.

But for a local Malawian, you're out with your pans to try

and catch these flies because as soon as you touch them, they die.

So there are men and women, girls and boys out waving these pans

in the air to try and catch them, to make them into meatballs

to enjoy that very night.

Now, that may not be your desired catch of the day.

I tried it and I survived.

But for hundreds of homes, it's quite literally a delicacy.

And so what you perceive to be this smoke in the distance as it

comes and comes onto land, you are enveloped by it, like fog or

a smoke from a fire.

You can't see in front of you.

And if you're wearing glasses, you're grand.

But if you're not, the flies can even then just get attached to

your eyes.

I tell you this story because it is the closest that I've ever

come to, to feel the sensation of a swarm of anything around me.

For some of you who keep bees, you've also had that sense of having

these insects around you in every direction and not knowing maybe,

perhaps sometimes, what to do.

But as we come to the eighth plague of punishment, the Egyptians

face a swarm of locusts.

And that swarm is blown by an east wind that, quite literally,

just as these lake flies come across the water and take land, so

these locusts came not only to devour the land of Egypt, but to

make life impossible to be lived.

No space anywhere to do anything, even breathe.

And so much like what we saw with the frogs around the feet, the

gnats and the flies, these locusts were everywhere.

But they left a trail of devastation that the others didn't.

As the last hailstone melted from the seventh plague, God repeats

his ultimatum to Pharaoh.

And with this previous plague, the hearts of Pharaoh and his officials

were hardened.

And verse one in chapter 10 gives us a bit more information about

what is to come.

Then the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened

his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform

these miraculous signs of mine.

Among them, as we saw with the plague of boils, the Lord sometimes

judges people by giving them over to their hearts evil desires.

His purpose in doing this is meant to be an encouragement to Moses

and to Aaron and to the people.

Because despite Pharaoh's rebellion, it is the Lord who remains

in full control.

And it is through his control that he wants to do two things.

First of all, he wants to punish Pharaoh for his rebellion,

but he also wants to teach the people truths about himself.

And we know this because as we read on in verse two, we see the

purpose of the plague for his people.

So that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I

dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my

signs among them.

And that you may know that I am the Lord.

God's using the rebellion of Pharaoh and his servants to accomplish

a far greater purpose.

And that far greater purpose is to display his miraculous judgment

signs in front of them so that they would see them and they would

know who was on their side.

The Israelites will then be able to tell future generations how

the Lord used these signs in his dealings with the Egyptians.

And as the Egyptians and their king have humiliated the Israelites,

now the true king will deliver the Israelites and.

And humiliate their abusers.

And as a result, future generations will know that the God

of Israel is the sovereign king over all the earth.

And so the principle that God is setting down here for us and for

the children of Israel is that we need to tell the stories of God.

I have a very distinct memory of being a very young child and being

in someone's house and sitting in front of a white agar stove.

And in front of that stove, I can remember red tiles.

I also remember a box of sweets would be brought out.

But I cannot for the life of me remember what those sweets were.

And I would love to, because they were the most Delicious sweets

I'd ever tasted.

And I grew up in a sweetie shop.

But I remember sitting at that fire and I remember listening to

grandparents and friends tell stories, and I remember some of those

stories, and I remember some of those songs, even from the age

of three or four.

And I know because you've told me, you remember similar scenarios.

You remember the stories you've been told and you retell them.

And of course, we know nothing hinders an embellishment of the retelling

a story can only get better.

But how important is storytelling to us?

And I think we would say, particularly coming out of a fisherman's

weekend, telling those stories are very important.

And yet it's something that God has directed us to do in demonstrating

this eighth plague against Egypt.

His command to his people is to tell the next generations.

And although this isn't the main focus of this passage, we must

pause for a second and just say, are we doing that?

Yes, we might be good at telling the stories, the good old

yarns, but are we actually telling the stories about God?

Are we telling about his goodness in our lives?

Are we talking about answered prayer?

Are we talking to our children about what we're reading in the Bible?

You see, we help our children to know the Lord when we retell or

recount to them his work in our own lives, just as many have

done to you in the generations that have gone by.

See, the purpose of the children of Israel witnessing all

these plagues was so that they would have a deeper understanding

of who God is and what his standards are.

And so likewise, we should be talking to our children about the

goodness of God to us so that they can know the deep truths that

we know about him.

And surely isn't that the most natural thing to do, to be sitting

around the dinner table and be able to say, you saw an amazing sunrise

this morning, or what you'd been reading in your own Bible, or

praying throughout the day for something and asking them to join

you in prayer for that thing.

See, God never mandated this to be so structured and compelling

that it became hard work.

What he's doing here is telling us this is to be part of

our natural conversations with our children, our children's children,

so that we pass these truths that as we were talking with the

girls and boys, like the Apostle Paul, had lived them out

and knew their deep truth and root in Scripture.

So I want to challenge you this morning.

Who's your generation below you?

Who's the one that you can talk to and say, let me tell you,

and maybe have A wee tin of sweets as well always goes down a

lot better.

But surely that's the most natural thing to do, to talk about

the wonderful truths of the God we witness before our very eyes,

so that the generations will know the faith that we have and see

that it is a faith worth believing, so that they too will

come onto Christ for salvation.

But we need to keep retelling, because as we know of the history

of the children of Israel, they continue to forget.

They continue to walk away from God as we get them into the

kingdom, as they set up for themselves a king.

And we know what happens when they're not ruled.

Well, they go after other gods.

Did they forget to tell these truths that God's telling them to

remember here and now?

Or did they only do it once a year so that it meant nothing but

became ritual and habit?

Tell your children and your children's children, tell your nieces

and tell your nephews, tell the children that you look after

the wonderful truths of God, just as God has commanded us here

as his people, so that they too will know him to be the God of

their salvation.

It's a lovely little thing in verse two that God gives to us the

purpose of this eighth plague, that indeed it would be told from

one generation to the next.

But as the passage moves on, we see that Moses and Aaron come

before Pharaoh again, but this time the demand of the Lord was about

the humility of Pharaoh.

And verse three poses the question of Pharaoh.

God asks him, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before

me?

That's a pretty direct question.

And it's a question that is full of judgment against Pharaoh,

and rightly so.

Pharaoh has refused to submit to the requests of God, but more

than that, he's refused to submit to the authority God.

And in doing this, or in doing so, he's set himself up against God,

because you can't be neutral.

You're either for God or you're against him.

There's no sitting on the fence.

And so for Pharaoh, he cannot be neutral.

So he is against God by not submitting to the Lord Almighty's

authority.

And so refusal this time to submit to the Lord and let God's

people go will result in a plague of locusts coming on the land.

And look at what verse five says of their epiphany.

They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen.

They will devour what little you have left after the heel, including

every tree that is growing in the fields.

Now, if you were here two weeks ago, you will Recall the plague

of heel that fell on any man or animal left out in the field,

and it destroyed the flax and the barley crops.

And you might think that there is nothing left for the locust to

eat.

But back in chapter nine and verse 32, we were told that the wheat

and the SP were not destroyed because they are a later crop to

be harvested.

So as the locusts arrive, there may be no flax and no barley

for them to devour, but they're still the second half of

the harvest, and that's what they devour.

Once again, as we've seen, with each plague, it's not just the

people outside of the palace who will suffer, but Pharaoh and

his officials will suffer too.

I genuinely cannot describe what it's like to see this dark cloud

come towards you, and then all of a sudden these flies all around

you, and as you walk into them, they quite literally die and

just stick on you.

And then after it's all over, truly the ground is black, but hasn't

been caught.

This is the closest that I've experienced to what's being described

here.

But how much worse for the Egyptians that the ground was darkened

because there'd be locusts everywhere, locust upon locust.

They wouldn't be able to walk, they wouldn't be able to plant, they

wouldn't be able to harvest, they wouldn't be able to save anything

because of the totality of this punishment that God was bringing

on the Egyptians.

And so, as Moses and Aaron leave, we see a turn in the discussion

with Pharaoh and his officials.

See, at the beginning of these plagues, they considered themselves

to be the ones in charge.

They were the world's superpower, so no one could defeat

them.

So they didn't fear anything that Moses was going to say to them.

And with the plague of hail, we saw some of the officials now

starting to change their opinion.

And they took the advice of Moses and went out and rescued their

servants and their livestock.

Whereas others remained in that idea that they were the superpower,

and that included Pharaoh, remaining determined in their thinking

of being in control.

And verse seven shows us the first real loss of confidence in

who the Egyptian leaders believed themselves to be.

Because we're told in verse seven, Pharaoh's officials said to

him, how long will this man be a snare to us?

Let the people go so that they may worship the Lord their God.

Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?

What an assessment.

These are the leaders of Egypt.

These who were but weeks ago the most confident people on Earth,

are now Looking at their decimated country as if it had been

a war zone and saying it is ruined.

So Pharaoh's servants appeal to him.

They describe Moses as a snare snare, that instrument that captures

something so that it can be killed.

That's what they see him to be, a trap for them and that they

will suffer because of it.

And the only way to escape the snare is to agree to Moses request.

So they tell Pharaoh to let the people go.

So it's not just coming from Moses, it's now coming from Pharaoh's

officials.

Let them go.

And the servants here have the sense to name what Pharaoh is ignoring.

The Lord has utterly ruined the land.

And as the leaders of the people, something they say must be

done.

So Pharaoh is persuaded and he calls Moses and Aaron back to him.

But this will not be a straightforward answer to the Lord's

demand.

Pharaoh is still arrogant.

Pharaoh has not humbled himself.

And he demonstrates his stubborn heart and that lack of humility

before the Lord.

And so, when asked who will go and worship the Lord in verse 8,

Moses response is his expectation that it will be all of

God's people, young and old, sons and daughters and flocks and

herds, to go and celebrate to the Lord, because they were to conduct

sacrifices to the Lord.

But this is not Pharaoh's expectation of how things will go.

He still believes that he is in control.

So he now wants to set the parameters of the deal.

And so he says in verse 10, The Lord be with you if I let you

go along with your women and children.

Clearly you are bent on evil.

Now, as this verse begins, it looks like within the first five

words, Pharaoh is submitting to the Lord.

But as he continues, we see that he is not.

Pharaoh begins really quite sarcastically, as if to say, may

the Lord be with you if I ever send you off.

But that's not going to happen.

Little does Pharaoh know how ironic his sarcasm is, because it

will not be long before he does send them off, asking Moses

to bless him as they go.

And that's in chapter 12 for us.

So after the sarcasm, he turns to the accusation.

You are plotting evil, he says, before finishing by deceptively

mischaracterizing the request.

Do you see how he twists it?

He'll only let the men go because Pharaoh states that that's

all Moses has ever asked for.

But that's not true.

Moses has been asking for the people to go and worship God.

The group never changed.

It was maybe the proximity that changed in some of the requests.

But there's nothing Moses can Do Pharaoh believes he's won the

negotiations.

The king has spoken.

And look how the Bible describes what happens to Moses and

Aaron.

They are driven out from before Pharaoh.

This will be something to be replicated as Moses and the people

are driven out of Egypt in just a few chapters time.

But the problem for Pharaoh is he's made a fatal move.

As soon as they leave, the Lord commands Moses to stretch his

hand over the land and anything left after the heel will

be devoured by the locusts.

Moses does as he's told by God.

And with the east wind blowing over the land, so the Lord brought

the plague of locusts to Egypt.

And verses 14 and 15 tell us of their devastation.

Listen to this or read along.

What do these locusts do?

They're described as an army.

They invade all Egypt and settled down in every area of the

country in great numbers.

Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will

there ever be again.

They covered the ground until it was black.

They devoured all that was left after the heel.

Everything growing in the fields and the fruit of the trees.

Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

There's a West African novel called Plague of Caterpillars and

it talks about something like this, where these caterpillars come

and just devour all of the crops.

I think it was my third winter here when I planted some winter crops

that caterpillars came and eat all the Brussels sprouts and broccoli

and cauliflower in one night.

Everything was gone from my small vegetable patch.

Think about it.

All the food that you depend on goes just like that.

Not by caterpillars that are small, but these large locusts that

cover the ground.

The language here in the Hebrew is that of apocalyptic.

It's giving us a description that nothing is remaining.

This is complete desolation on the land of Egypt.

Such thick clouds of locusts obscuring the sunlight or spreading

like a dark blanket across the earth's surface.

That's how we're to understand what's going on.

But of course, as we hear of darkness and the ground darkened,

it's also associated regularly with judgment by the prophets.

And we will see this in full force with the next plague that will

strike Egypt.

The plague of darkness.

And the Hebrew phrase used in verse 15 speaks of the ground being

black, suggests really quite an animal situation for these Egyptians.

What are they going to do?

How are they going to survive this?

Well, the judgment plays out in utter decimation because the text

emphasizes that the locusts eat all the land and tree crops so

that not a green thing of tree crops remain.

Quite literally.

The devastation is total.

And Pharaoh's thrown into a panic.

Wouldn't anyone?

At long last, we begin to see a humanity within him.

And in verse 16, he sends for Moses and Aaron to come back to the

palace.

And once again, we see what appears to be an understanding by

Pharaoh of the state that he's in.

He's real to himself.

He says to them that he has sinned against God.

This is powerful language coming from the world's superpower.

And he goes on to recognize that his rejection throughout all

of these plagues has been a sin as well.

This is like a complete turnaround.

How does he cap it all off?

He asks for his sins to be forgiven.

You think this is a man completely transformed, a man completely

changed.

And he says this because he really wants Moses to pray to God

and remove the plague as he did before.

And Moses does this.

And we see the answer to the prayer in verse 19.

And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind which

caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea.

Not a locust was left anywhere.

Egypt.

And so as complete was the devastation of the locusts, so complete

was their removal from the land.

Meaning that God has demonstrated to Pharaoh once again

who is in control of things.

But once again, this repentance by Pharaoh is only temporary,

because verse 20 tells us.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not

let the Israelites go.

Pharaoh is quite literally a smooth operator.

He says what he wants people to hear so that he can get what he

wants most.

Pharaoh goes back on his promise and does not let any of the

Israelites go to worship God.

So after eight plagues, we find ourselves in the same situation.

The great king of Egypt, Pharaoh, thinks that he can stand

against God, but he cannot.

And it's displayed for all of God's people to see so that they

will know who the true authority is and they will trust

in him to deliver them.

That's why they're told to recount and retell this story, so

those truths will be told as they have been seen.

Well, this plague is an account of complete destruction brought

about by Pharaoh's sinful rebellion against God.

And this is the reality of all sin.

And let me impress on you that there is no such thing as a little

sin or a big sin.

There is simply sin.

And the sin in our lives needs to be punished because it goes against

God's way.

He has given humanity a standard by which to live by.

And we will be measured against that standard from God and

not our own.

But as I say this, there are two things that I want to tell you.

First of all, if you have asked God to forgive you for your

sins because of Jesus, then your sins are truly forgiven.

This is God's great initiative of salvation to all who believe.

And you might be here this morning dwelling on past sins, yours

and perhaps those of others.

And yes, sin has consequences that reach far deeper than we might

realize.

But forgiveness in Christ means that before God we are truly

forgiven.

We rest in him and not in ourselves or the judgments of others.

There may be fractures in relationships, but those can be healed.

There may be disappointments, but those can be forgotten.

There may be complete breakdown in relationship, but those

can be healed.

Why?

Because in Christ all our sins are forgiven as we confess them before

Him.

So I want to say to you, Christian, this morning, take heart

today, take heart that Jesus truly forgives, that he does not

hold against you the sins that you have confessed and that you have

been assured pardon of.

And in fact, our assurance of pardon this evening in evening worship

comes from Isaiah 1:18, where the prophet says, come now, let us

Isaiah 1:18

reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as

snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

I am a sinner, but I am redeemed by the saving blood of Jesus

Christ.

And though my sins are like scarlet, not through any effort of

my own, but all of Christ, they are as white as snow.

And though they are red like crimson, because of Jesus, they shall

become like crimson.

Will I do not fear the judgment because my sins are forgiven

in Jesus.

This is the complete assurance I have as I have confessed my sins

before God and sought forgiveness for those whom I've sinned

against.

You see, in Christ we can know true forgiveness because that's what

he came to to give us.

So take heart, continue to trust in Jesus and look only to Him.

So that's the first thing in Jesus we are truly forgiven.

But secondly, if you don't have this assurance of the forgiveness

of sins, then you can, because assurance of forgiveness can be yours.

You can come to Jesus today and know his great love so that you

will not have to face the punishment that you deserve for your

sins.

That's why John tells us in First John chapter 2 and verse 2,

1 John 2 · chapter mention

he is the speaking of Jesus.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours,

but also for the sins of the Whole world.

You see, Jesus is enough.

Jesus is enough for all of your sins, whatever those might be,

whether you've started categorizing them as big sins and

little sins.

They're all sins.

And his love is enough.

So why are you not turning to Him?

Why do you think you can deal with this on your own?

Because you can't.

It's only in Jesus.

He is the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins so

that we can know true forgiveness in Him.

So, Christian, take heart.

And for those of you who don't have this assurance of forgiveness,

there is a way, and that way is still today to come to Jesus and

know his atoning sacrifice for your sins, that he died once for

all and he died for you.

But this also comes with a warning.

The warning is, please don't be like Pharaoh.

And I've said this now a few times as we've looked at Exodus.

Don't be like Pharaoh.

Don't harden your heart so much that God will use the desires

of your heart to punish you.

He does that, and I think we know it.

You see, don't harden your heart because you don't know better

than God.

And don't think that you do.

You can't save yourself and you won't save yourself.

You don't know better than God.

He's the One who made you and formed you and everything around

you.

So don't try to play him like Pharaoh.

Don't say you're a Christian and really deep down, there's nothing

there.

The warning is don't be like a Pharaoh.

You see, we get this wonderful Image from Romans 6, 23.

It's this sense of a scale for the wages of sin is death.

That's the harsh reality that we need to hear.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

See, God is doing his utmost so that you will come to Him.

Come to him and know that assurance, believer.

Come.

But come to him and get your hardened heart softened so that you

will know true and eternal salvation in Christ and Him alone.

The plague of locusts seems just like one more plague.

But yet it is a plague where we are told to tell of what God has

done in our lives so that we will know him.

And the generations to come will know that heritage of faith.

But look at the words that's described or that are used to describe

the sin of Pharaoh.

Dark, complete.

That is the punishment of sin.

It is dark and it is complete.

And just as quickly as the punishment of sin is complete.

So just as quickly the Lord Jesus drives that sin away, so that

we will not be held accountable for it, but that he has

taken the punishment for us this day.

Come to Christ and surrender to Him.

Don't be like Pharaoh, who thought he was better.

But surrender and know Jesus as the only one who can rescue and

who can save.

And in it all know that wonderful assurance that you are

his as you come to him.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank youk for your word.

Again, a plague that perhaps we've often just rushed over thinking

that's what they deserve.

But whenever we take it into our own lives and our own contexts,

how quickly we see.

We see in a mirror who we are as this Word is reflected on us.

But thank you that it's a good word because it's a word that encourages

us to know that we're truly forgiven in Christ.

It's a challenging word because there is still yet time that

we can know forgiveness of our sins.

But Father, it comes with a warning not to be like Pharaoh, where

we're hard hearted because you will use that hardness of heart to

punish us.

And that punishment could be for all eternity if we do not come

onto the Savior.

So Father, may we pay attention that after the words of

man have passed, we will pay attention to you, who works in our

hearts and in our souls, so that indeed we will come onto Christ

and know him fully.

So may we respond well this day as we ask these things in Jesus

name, Amen.