Exodus 9:1 - Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

Bible Comments

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Exodus 9:3. Murrain.] Lit. destruction.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 9:1-7

THE MURRAIN OF BEASTS; OR, THE SUFFERING THAT COMES UPON THE BRUTE CREATION IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SIN OF MAN

This plague was upon the cattle of Egypt. They were smitten with “a grievous murrain,” which was a consumptive disease. Our English word murrain is derived from the Greek μαραινω, which means to wither and fade away; or it may be derived from the French word mourir—to die or perish. The Egyptians venerated a great variety of animals; but oxen were among their chief deities. Hence the grievous murrain which now fell upon all the cattle of the Egyptians was another and more direct blow aimed at the monstrous idolatries of that benighted people. In modern times murrain is a not unfrequent visitation in Egypt; but the disease in Pharaoh’s day was different from every other manifestation of it, as well in the extent as in the suddenness and swiftness of its effects. In one day all the cattle in the field died. This disease was not confined, as murrain usually is, to one species of animal; it destroyed alike the oxen and the sheep, the asses, and the camels. Thus their beasts of burden, and the only animals they had for locomotion, were cut off. It has no parallel. It was a mark of the special displeasure of God.

I. That wicked men often act in reference to the claims of God in such a manner as to provoke His judgments. In this plague the rod of Moses was not used. It was accomplished without human intervention. This would show Pharaoh and his magicians that these calamities were not produced by magic, or by human ingenuity. God can flash His judgments direct from heaven upon the wicked. This plague upon the cattle would be a just punishment for the over-loading of the Hebrews with burdens and tasks. Thus we see how wicked men provoke the judgments of God.

1. That men are disobedient to the claims of God. This is seen in the case of Pharaoh. He would not obey the Divine command. And disobedience to the law of God is common amongst men, and always invites the retribution of heaven. God has claims upon the race. He is Creator. He is Preserver. He is Moral Ruler. He is merciful. He has revealed His will. But men regard it not. Hence they invite Divine retribution.

2. That men are obstinate in their rejection of the claims of God. This is evident in the case of Pharaoh. He did not merely manifest a temporary disobedience to the Divine command, but a continued and wilful rejection of them. And in this respect he is typical of men in our own age. They are morally hardened. Their souls are in determined opposition to God. They invite the retribution of heaven.

3. That men are hypocritical in their rejection of the claims of God. Pharaoh was so. He pretended to Moses that if he would entreat the Lord to remove the plagues by which he was afflicted, that he would yield to the Divine commands. But this was only a pretence. The promise was not redeemed. And so men in our own age, in moments of retributive pain, deceive the servants of God with the pretence of amendment. They cannot thus deceive God. He sees their subterfuge.

4. That men are presumptuous in their rejection of the claims of God. It is impossible to find words in which to express the presumption of Pharaoh in his opposition to Jehovah. Kings have not the weapons wherewith to resist the great God. Heaven could have smitten Egypt with a stroke, and have prevented continued opposition; but the methods of the Divine government are patient and merciful. Hence we see that the way in which men treat the claims of God provoke His judgments.

II. That men who thus reject the claims of God often involve the brute creation in pain and woe. Man has in his keeping the welfare of the entire universe, with all contained therein. The world was made for man, and it depends for its welfare upon his rule. It is affected by his moral conduct. It is unseparably connected with him. God has ordained it so. When man was driven out of Paradise, the brute creation followed him. If man sins he involves all those below him in disorder and pain. Here is a mystery. The infidel regards it with scorn. Scripture proves its certainty. The sin of Pharaoh and the Egyptians wa3 visited upon the brute creation. Here we see that these retributions were coming nearer and nearer to those who had invited them. They have passed from the river and the land to the animals. And thus the sin of man affects all nature, animate and inanimate. This is clearly shown by the history of these plagues, the pain in which the brute creation is involved by the sin of man:—

1. It is Divinely inflicted. “Behold the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle.” Thus the brute creation is not directly stricken by the hand of man, but its pain is the consequence of his sin. The hand of God is potent both to afflict and to heal the cattle. The beasts of the field are under a Divine providence.

2. It is grievously effective.

3. It is sadly comprehensive.

4. It is proudly certified. “And Pharaoh sent and behold there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.” He was anxious to disprove the word of Moses.

III. That the men who thus involve the brute creation in pain and suffering, are often unmoved by the devastation they occasion. “And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.” He knew the suffering and loss his conduct had wrought amongst the cattle, yet he was not moved to pity or regret. Some men are never influenced by the pain they observe in the brute world. They regard not the suffering of animals as worthy of momentary thought. Pharaoh did not ask Moses to remove this plague, because it did not affect himself as the former ones had done. Tyrants are only moved by personal inconvenience, and then only for a time. Wicked men little know the elements of pain they introduce into the universe, and perhaps if they did they would be but little affected by the knowledge. LESSONS:

1. That the retribution of sin does not end with those who occasion it.

2. That the brute world is affected by the conduct of man.

3. That men should endeavour to banish pain from the universe by attention to the commands of heaven.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exodus 9:1. God follows the proudest sinners with new messages when they break faith with Him.

God’s powerful work gives entrance unto kings.
God still owns His despised Church.
God demands His right in His Church as often as persecutors deny it.

Exodus 9:2-3. God’s goodness abounds in letting obstinate sinners know the danger of keeping sin.

God’s severity is great, threatening such as refuse His word and hold their sin.
God declares to the wicked the evil they must expect if they persist in obstinacy.
God’s hand is immediately put forth in vengeance to terrify enemies.

Exodus 9:4. Signal judgments of God to the wicked are set with discrimination to the good.

God works wonderfully sometimes to secure the good from the plagues of the wicked.
Life and death of all creatures is in the hand of God.
Not the life of a beast is in danger when God takes the protection of it.

Exodus 9:5-6. The patient God at last sets a time for sinners, when He will bear no longer with them.

The morrow has been God’s time of reckoning with sinners and may be now.
God faileth not to execute judgment as well as mercy as He hath spoken.

Exodus 9:7. Providence orders wicked men to inquire whether God’s word be true in judgment and mercy.

Providence answers the inquiry of men that the Divine word shall stand in life or death.
Aggravated rebellion follows such heart-hardening in wicked men.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON

Sacred Bulls! Exodus 9:1. The Hindus still pay reverence to the ox as a sacred animal. One particular kind of cattle, having a hump upon the shoulders, is consecrated to Siva. They are allowed to roam at large, and may destroy the most valuable crops with impunity. One day an English gentleman entered one of their market places, and saw a fat bull busily employed eating up the rice, fruit and sweetmeats, which the poor women had been trying to sell. None of them durst touch the sacred animal; but the Englishman at once drove him away with a stick. The men, who crowded the market, looked fiercely at the insulter of their Bull-god, and enquired of him what he meant. A Brahmin priest came up, saying, “Do you know that you struck a god?” To this the missionary replied that he had understood from their own Hindu books that God was honest and just; “Was it honest for that bull to take the property of these poor women without payment?” The Brahmin was silenced; whereupon the servant of Christ addressed the people about the only God:—

The effluence of whose light Divine

Pervading earth from England’s shores shines where
The mighty Indus rolls its tide of wealth.

Animal Worship! Exodus 9:3. The priests of Egypt held bulls in great veneration, and renewed their mourning for Osiris over the graves of those beasts. When Cambyses the Great was at Memphis, Herodotus tells us that the god Apis (bull) was conducted to his presence with much ceremony by the priests, the Egyptians following him, clothed in their richest apparel, and making great rejoicings. Cambyses, indignant at their folly, inflicted a mortal wound upon the beast with his dagger. Then turning to the priests, he exclaimed, “Wretches, think ye that gods are formed of flesh and blood, and thus susceptible of wounds.” This murrain was, therefore, another and more direct blow at the monstrous idolatries of Pharaoh’s benighted people; and a foreshadowing of the hour when all the idol-gods of earth should be cast down, and

“No more at Delos or at Delphi now,

Or e’en at mighty Ammon’s Lybian shrine,

The white-robed priests before the altar bow.

Bethune.

Humaneness! Exodus 9:4. The regard which we pay to the brute creation must always be considered a test of disposition and character. The wise man says that a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. No individual can be trusted for his humane feelings to his own species, who is Lot humane in his feelings towards the brute tribes. It is recorded that, when an ancient senate of the Areopagites were assembled in the open air, a small bird—to escape a larger one of prey—took refuge in the bosom of one of the senators, who being of a cruel disposition hurled it from him so rudely that he killed it. The senate instantly banished him from their presence, declaring that he, who was destitute of humanity to a helpless and confiding bird, was unworthy the honour of a seat in their body.

“Oh! do not lightly take away
The life thou canst not give.”

Gisborne

Cruelty! Exodus 9:6. An indulged propensity o cruelty to insects or larger animals—as Hogarth has finely illustrated—has often ended in the perpetration of crimes of the deepest dye. Those who have wantonly sported with life in inferior creatures have come to sport with life in beings of a higher and nobler order. There was a lad strolling through the fields with his sister when they found a nest of rabbits. The brother, in spite of his sister’s entreaties and tears, flung them one by one into the air, laughing as each fell dead upon the stones. Ten years after, that sister was again weeping by the brother’s side, not in the open fields with the golden sunshine making balmy the spring air, but in a dungeon. He was in chains, sentenced to be hung for shooting a farmer while poaching on his preserves. As they were waiting for the awful procession to knock at the cell-door, he confessed to her that, ever since the wanton destruction of the helpless rabbits God had forsaken him, and left him to follow his own inclinations.

“Yea, all the pity upon earth shall call down

a curse upon the cruel;

Yea, the burning malice of the wicked is their

own exceeding punishment.”

Tupper.

Exodus 9:1-7

1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,

3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.

5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.

6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.