MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 11:4-10
THE LAST PLAGUE THREATENED
I. It was to be solemn in its advent. “About midnight I will go out into the land of Egypt.” This plague was threatened (Exodus 4:23), and is at last to be executed. God is slow to anger. Human life is precious in His sight. But now the Divine forbearance has reached its limit. The time of the terrible plague is at hand. The first-born are to sleep the sleep of death, not silently and insensibly, but so as to rouse their families at midnight to see them die. The silence of the midnight hour is to be broken by the agonies of the dying, and that in every Egyptian home in the land. The destroying angel will slay the first-born of Egypt. How sad the scene! How solemn the hour! How beyond description! God often plagues the sinner at midnight. When darkness is all around him, then the plagues of Heaven come, and are rendered more awful by the time of their advent.
II. It was to be fatal in its issue. “And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die.” Thus the last plague was to be intensely real. It was not to affect the events of nature; it was to slay man. It was no mere sickness; it was death. Egypt had destroyed the first-born of Israel. Now they meet a just retribution. No doubt those who suffered death were sinners, and deserved the calamity that came upon them. The first-born of beasts were also included in the devastating plague. Thus the Egyptians were punished for their idolatry, and were deprived of their property. The plagues of Heaven are sometimes fatal—fatal to the temporal and eternal welfare of man.
III. It was to be comprehensive in its design. “From the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts (Exodus 11:5). Thus the prince who was to succeed to the throne was not too high to be reached by it, nor the slave at the mill too low to be noticed. It was to extend from the most honourable to the meanest in the realm. The prince is spoken of as sitting upon the throne because he was the next heir to it; or it may be that he was even crowned, as was Solomon while David lived. From the palace to the dungeon would this plague travel. The king is helpless at a time like this. Sometimes the plagues of God are comprehensive; they embrace a vast nation, thousands of homes and families.
IV. It was to be heartrending in its cry. “And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.” The cry of those bereaved would be heard in every direction. Parents who had lost their only child would thus proclaim their grief. The voice of this cry should never die away from our hearing; it makes known the penalty of sin. There are many heartrending cries in the world occasioned by sin.
V. It was to be discriminating in its infliction. “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11:7). Thus Israel was to be protected during the terrible retribution. They should be silent. They should be hopeful. The pestilence that walketh in darkness should not come near them. The dog, the most vigilant creature, should not bark at them. The Divine protection of the good is minute; it defends from the most trivial enemy. God will protect the good in the final retribution of the universe. Piety is the best protection against woe. It averts the judgment of God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 11:4-6. God takes His time at midnight sometimes to visit sinners.
God’s midnight visitations:—
1. Terrible to His enemies.
2. They aim at destroying the choicest possessions of the wicked.
3. They are painful.
4. They are almighty.
5. They are irreparable.
6. They are irrespective of social position.
7. They awaken the anguish of men.
Exodus 11:7. A contrast:—
1. The wicked crying—the good quiet.
2. The wicked dead—the good living.
3. The wicked frightened—the good peaceful.
4. The wicked helpless—the good protected.
In executing judgments God makes a difference between His elect and His enemies:—
1. Wonderful
2. Pleasing.
3. Inspiring.
4. Prophetic.
Exodus 11:8. Divine vengeance will make those come to God’s servants who have despised and discharged them.
Highest anger against sin becomes the best of God’s servants.
God makes His despicable servants victoriously to scorn the powers that scorn them.
THE RIGHTEOUS ANGER OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTER
“And he went out from Pharaoh in a great rage.”
Anger is not of necessity sinful. There are times when it is righteous to be angry. Moses was not in an unholy passion. He was grieved at the perversity of a wicked soul:—
I. Because the claims of God were rejected. How many of the servants of God are made angry by the wickedness of men! Men are morally perverse. They will not give up their sin. They refuse repeated offers of mercy. They repulse many judgments. They despise many ministers of truth. They awaken the holy indignation of those who have sought their welfare.
II. Because his Christian work was apparently a failure. Moses had seen Pharaoh penitent. He had perhaps indulged a hope that the terrible retribution he had announced would have awakened the wicked king to calm thought and change of purpose. But in vain. His last interview was apparently a failure. How many Christian ministers are grieved by the failure of their best energies to induce men to moral goodness!
III. Because the freedom of Israel was yet unaccomplished. Moses was perhaps too hasty in expecting the accomplishment of his task. Men who are working for the freedom of souls must be patient and hopeful in their spirit and temperament. Ministers are human in their feelings.
Exodus 11:9-10. God foretelleth, and sometimes maketh known, that wicked sinners will not hear His ministers sent to them.
Such refusal of the wicked to hear God’s word foreruns usually some strange plagues.
God sometimes aims at the multiplying of prodigious judgments upon multiplied unbelief.
God’s ministers do but His work and deliver His word, and sinners harden themselves by the same.
Ocular demonstration of God’s strongest plagues will not persuade sinners to believe.
Upon such wilful hardening against His word, God justly hardens to destruction.
Sinners hardened by God will do all the mischief against Him and His people.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Divine Interposition! Exodus 11:4. In this last plague God is represented as descending in person. “I” will go out. This was designed to impress Pharaoh with the terrible character of the next inflictive judgment. When a great Eastern monarch sent his general to restore order in an insurrectionary province, the rebels would not heed his authority, but attacked and routed the royal troops. This aroused the king’s indignation, and he sent a message that he himself would appear in person at the head of his army, and punish their persistent contumacy. Jehovah warns the Egyptian rebel against His sovereign commands, that He would now personally interpose to secure submission to His supreme authority. If the paw of a bear meet with so thin a substance as the caul of a man’s heart, how easily is it torn to pieces. Pharaoh had fitted himself for the interposition of Jehovah in person, and His judgment would he as fire rushing through the dried prairie grasses.
“Stay, wretched monarch, in thy sinful path,
And hear this message of avenging wrath;
Hear it and tremble—it is GOD’S, not mine!”
First-Born! Exodus 11:5. It is computed that more than one-half of the human race die under five years of age. Think of the millions that constitute one generation! Think of the generations that have come and gone!
“There is no flock, however watched and tended,
But one dead lamb is there.”
It has been remarked, that as there are more blossoms upon trees in spring-time than ripe fruits in autumn, so there are more infants than adults that fall away from the circles of earthly affection. Like those flowers which grow on frail, slender vines—disclose their beauties for one hour in the morning, and then fold them to their hearts from the gaze of earth for ever—so our first-born pass swiftly and beautifully away,
“In their spirits young prime,
E’er earth has profaned what was born for the skies.”
Righteous Anger! Exodus 11:8. High and gusty passions, says Beecher, are sometimes like fierce storms that cleanse the air, and give the earth refreshment by strong winds and down-pelting rains, provided always that such are justified by the occasions of them. The wrath of Moses was that righteous indignation which noble Christian souls are—under certain contingencies—justified in displaying towards wicked and perverse oppressors. This anger of Israel’s leader was the reflection of Jehovah’s majestic brow—the wrath of truth and love. It was not a current flowing through oozing marshes, gathering foulness from its foul and stagnant waters; but it was a divine stream—
“It did through wild and rock-bound valleys run,
Like glittering dewdrops in the morning sun.”
Sin-Sirens! Exodus 11:9. In an Exhibition of Art Treasures held in Manchester some years ago, there was a picture by Haydon, entitled, “The Song of the Syrens.” It represented a ship in full sail passing by an island on whose beach were some beautiful women, slightly clothed, singing (as the spectator might imagine), most melodiously to attract the attention of the men on board the vessel. Lashed to the mast, and making eager and almost frantic gestures, was a man dressed in military armour; but the sailors—utterly heedless—seemed as though they cared for nothing but to get past the island as quickly as possible,—all the more as the beach was strewn with dead men’s bones. That group of women was Circe and her siren-nymphs! That warrior was Ulysses, the hero of Troy, returning from its capture! He had resolved to prevent his destruction and that of his crew as they sailed past the island by filling their ears with wax, and then ordering them to bind him so firmly to the mast that it would be impossible for him to set himself at liberty. Thus deaf to all his cries—as well as to the song of the sirens—the sailors passed safely out of sight and hearing of their tempters. Pharaoh listened to the Siren’s song, and when Moses and Aaron tried to dissuade him, he refused to heed their prudent counsel, and chose to listen to the tempter’s song—
“False as the smooth, deceitful sea,
And empty as the whistling wind.”
Heart-Wickedness! Exodus 11:10. However wild the wind and wave, there is stillness far beneath. The waters may surge as mountains to the skies—and sink as valleys in the seas; but away down below the troubled surface of the waters a dead calm prevails, where hideous blind monsters swim, and where loathsome repulsive reptiles crawl. The surface of Pharaoh’s heart was tossed and disquieted, for the wicked are like the troubled sea; but the depths are still—the drear, dread calm of the death of sin reigns—a haunt for the ravenous and ugly monsters of sin. His heart was hardened—
“And, like the billows of the stormy deep,
Onwards he rushed, with desolating sweep,
Until ONE ROOK opposed his crested pride.”