Exodus 10

Ex 10:1-20.

PLAGUE OF

LOCUSTS.

1. show these my signs, &c.--Sinners even of the worst

description are to be admonished even though there may be little hope

of amendment, and hence those striking miracles that carried so clear

and conclusive demonstration of the being and character of the true God

were performed in lengthened series before Pharaoh to leave him without

excuse when judgment should be finally executed.

2. And that thou mayest tell . . . of thy son, and of thy

son's son, &c.--There was a further and higher reason for the

infliction of those awful judgments, namely, that the knowledge of them

there, and the permanent record of them still, might furnish a salutary

and impressive lesson to the Church down to the latest ages. Worldly

historians might have described them as extraordinary occurrences that

marked this era of Moses in ancient Egypt. But we are taught to trace

them to their cause: the judgments of divine wrath on a grossly

idolatrous king and nation.

4. to-morrow will I bring the locusts--Moses was commissioned to

renew the request, so often made and denied, with an assurance that an

unfavorable answer would be followed on the morrow by an invasion of

locusts. This species of insect resembles a large, spotted, red and

black, double-winged grasshopper, about three inches or less in length,

with the two hind legs working like hinged springs of immense strength

and elasticity. Perhaps no more terrible scourge was ever brought on a

land than those voracious insects, which fly in such countless numbers

as to darken the land which they infest; and on whatever place they

alight, they convert it into a waste and barren desert, stripping the

ground of its verdure, the trees of their leaves and bark, and

producing in a few hours a degree of desolation which it requires the

lapse of years to repair.

7-11. Pharaoh's servants said--Many of his courtiers must have

suffered serious losses from the late visitations, and the prospect of

such a calamity as that which was threatened and the magnitude of which

former experience enabled them to realize, led them to make a strong

remonstrance with the king. Finding himself not seconded by his

counsellors in his continued resistance, he recalled Moses and Aaron,

and having expressed his consent to their departure, inquired who were

to go. The prompt and decisive reply, "all," neither man nor beast

shall remain, raised a storm of indignant fury in the breast of the

proud king. He would permit the grown-up men to go away; but no other

terms would be listened to.

11. they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence--In the East,

when a person of authority and rank feels annoyed by a petition which

he is unwilling to grant, he makes a signal to his attendants, who rush

forward and, seizing the obnoxious suppliant by the neck, drag him out

of the chamber with violent haste. Of such a character was the

impassioned scene in the court of Egypt when the king had wrought

himself into such a fit of uncontrollable fury as to treat

ignominiously the two venerable representatives of the Hebrew

people.

13-19. the Lord brought an east wind--The rod of Moses was again

raised, and the locusts came. They are natives of the desert and are

only brought by an east wind into Egypt, where they sometimes come in

sun-obscuring clouds, destroying in a few days every green blade in the

track they traverse. Man, with all his contrivances, can do nothing to

protect himself from the overwhelming invasion. Egypt has often

suffered from locusts. But the plague that followed the wave of the

miraculous rod was altogether unexampled. Pharaoh, fearing

irretrievable ruin to his country, sent in haste for Moses, and

confessing his sin, implored the intercession of Moses, who entreated

the Lord, and a "mighty strong west wind took away the locusts."

Ex 10:21-29.

PLAGUE OF

DARKNESS.

21-23. Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be

darkness--Whatever secondary means were employed in producing it,

whether thick clammy fogs and vapors, according to some; a sandstorm,

or the chamsin, according to others; it was such that it could

be almost perceived by the organs of touch, and so protracted as to

continue for three days, which the chamsin does [HENGSTENBERG]. The appalling character of this calamity

consisted in this, that the sun was an object of Egyptian idolatry;

that the pure and serene sky of that country was never marred by the

appearance of a cloud. And here, too, the Lord made a marked difference

between Goshen and the rest of Egypt.

24-26. Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the

Lord--Terrified by the preternatural darkness, the stubborn king

relents, and proposes another compromise--the flocks and herds to be

left as hostages for their return. But the crisis is approaching, and

Moses insists on every iota of his demand. The cattle would be needed

for sacrifice--how many or how few could not be known till their

arrival at the scene of religious observance. But the emancipation of

Israel from Egyptian bondage was to be complete.

28. Pharaoh said, . . . Get thee from me--The calm

firmness of Moses provoked the tyrant. Frantic with disappointment and

rage, with offended and desperate malice, he ordered him from his

presence and forbade him ever to return.

29. Moses said, Thou hast spoken well.