The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
A knowledge of God
I. That the worst of men will one day have to recognize the reality of the Divine existence. “And the Egyptians shall know,” etc.
1. Men of bad moral character shall know this.
2. Men of sceptical dispositions shall know this.
II. That they will be brought to a recognition of the Divine existence by severe judgments.
1. Some men will listen to the voice of reason. The Egyptians would not.
2. Such will learn the existence of God by judgment.
III. That the existence of God is a guarantee for the safety of the good. “And bring out,” etc., from moral and temporal bondage into Canaan, of peace and quiet. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The plagues
1. These plagues are arranged in regular order, and gradually advance from the external to the internal, and from the mediate to the immediate hand of God. They are in number ten, which is one of the numbers denoting perfection. They are divided first into nine and one, the last one standing clearly apart from all the others in the awful shriek of woe which it draws forth from every Egyptian home. The nine are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given to Pharaoh in the morning (Exodus 7:15; Exodus 8:20; Exodus 9:13). In the first and second of each three the plague is announced beforehand (Exodus 8:1; Exodus 9:1; Exodus 10:1); in the third not (Exodus 8:16; Exodus 9:8; Exodus 10:21). At the third the magicians of Pharaoh acknowledge the finger of God (Exodus 8:19), at the sixth they cannot stand before Moses (Exodus 9:11), and at the ninth Pharaoh refuses to see the face of Moses any more (Exodus 10:28). In the first three Aaron uses the rod, in the second three it is not mentioned, in the third three Moses uses it, though in the last of them only his hand is mentioned. All these marks of order lie on the face of the narrative, and point to a deeper order of nature and reason out of which they spring.
2. The plagues were characterized by increasing severity, a method of procedure to which we see an analogy in the warnings which the providential government of the world often puts before the sinner.
3. These plagues were of a miraculous character. As such the historian obviously intends us to regard them, and they are elsewhere spoken of as the “wonders” which God wrought in the land of Ham (Psalms 105:27), as His miracles in Egypt (Psalms 106:7), and as His signs and prodigies which He sent into the midst of Egypt (Psalms 135:9). It is only under this aspect that we can accept the narrative as historical.
4. That the immediate design of these inflictions was the delivering of the Israelites from their cruel bondage lies on the surface of the narrative, but with this other ends were contemplated. The manifestation of God’s own glory was here, as in all His works, the highest object in view, and this required that the powers of Egyptian idolatry, with which the interest of Satan was at that time peculiarly identified, should be brought into the conflict and manifestly confounded. For this reason it was that nearly every miracle performed by Moses had relation to some object of idolatrous worship among the Egyptians (see Exodus 12:12). For this reason, also, it was that the first wonders wrought had such distinct reference to the exploits of the magicians, who were the wonder-workers connected with that gigantic system of idolatry, and the main instruments of its support and credit in the world. They were thus naturally drawn, as well as Pharaoh, into the contest, and became, along with him, the visible heads and representatives of the “spiritual wickedness” of Egypt. And since they refused to own the supremacy and accede to the demands of Jehovah, or witnessing that first, and as it may be called harmless, triumph of His power over theirs--since they resolved, as the adversaries of God’s and the instruments of Satan’s interest in the world, to prolong the contest, there remained no alternative but to visit the land with a series of judgments, such as might clearly prove the utter impotence of its fancied deities to protect their votaries from the might and vengeance of the living God. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The variety of the plagues
The diversity and various sorts of those plagues--each sorer than other. The first and second were upon the water, the third and fourth were upon the earth, the five next were upon the air, and the tenth falls upon the firstborn of men, insomuch that their punishment was absolute, not only as to the number of the plagues, which was a number of perfection, but more especially in respect of their nature, matter, and manner, all various and exquisite. For--
I. They were plagued by all kind of creatures.
1. By all the elements; as water, earth, air and fire.
2. By sundry animals; as frogs, lice, caterpillars, flies, and locusts.
3. By men; as Moses and Aaron were instruments in God’s hand.
4. By the angels who ministered those plagues, both the evil angels (Psalms 78:44), whom He sent among them, and the good that were employed in destroying their firstborn (Exodus 12:3, etc.), yea, by the very stars, who all combined against them--with the sun and moon--in suspending their light from that land--during the three days darkness--as all ashamed to look upon such sinful inhabitants thereof, etc.
II. They were plagued in all things wherein they most delighted.
1. In all manner of their luscious and delicious fruit, by its being universally blasted or devoured, etc.
2. In their goodliest cattle--some of which they worshipped--all destroyed by murrain, etc.
3. In their River Nilus, which they adored, and for which end, it is supposed, Pharaoh was going down to pay his homage to that idol, when God bade Moses go meet him in the morning (Exodus 7:15). This is intimated in Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9, where they are twitted twice for idolizing it, but God made it loathsome to them (verse 18).
4. In the fish, which was their daily and delicate diet (Numbers 11:5), for the flesh of many beasts they, out of superstition, would not eat of, as abominable (Exodus 8:26). All the fish died when their water was turned into blood (verse 21).
5. In their bodies, wherein they greatly prided themselves, but the boils God smote them which spoiled all their beauties in their wellbuilt bodies.
6. In their children, when in every house there was a dead corpse, and that not of a slave or servant, but of their firstborn. All these were the idols of Egypt (Exodus 12:12; Zephaniah 2:11).
III. They were plagued in all their senses.
1. In their seeing; for they lost all sight when the plague of darkness took away their light for three days, unless it were horrible sights mentioned in Apocrypha (Wis 17:6-7). However, their comfort of seeing they lost.
2. In their hearing. Oh, what a consternation! Dread and terror seized upon them when God uttered His terrible voice in those frightful thunders in the plague of hail, when fire ran along upon the ground, yet did not melt the hailstones (Exodus 9:23). This must be supernatural, and therefore the more dreadful, which might make them think that God was come to rain hell-fire out of heaven upon them as He had done, before this, upon wicked Sodom (Genesis 19:1-38.). How did this voice of the Lord break the cedars, etc. (Psalms 29:5-6, etc.), yea, every tree of the field (Exodus 9:25).
3. In their smelling, both by the stench of the frogs (Exodus 8:14), which might mind them of their sin that made them stink before God, and likewise by the stinking rotten matter that ran out of those ulcers wherewith they were smitten (Exodus 9:9-11). As they had oppressed God’s people with furnace work in making brick, so the ashes of that furnace became burning boils that break forth into putrid running sores, etc.
4. In their tasting, both by the waters turned into blood, because in them they had shed the blood of the male Hebrew children. These bloody men had blood to drink, for they were worthy (Revelation 16:6). Their River Nilus they used to boast of to the Grecians, saying, in mockery to them, “If God should forget to rain, they might chance to perish for it.” The rain, they thought, was of God, but not their river (Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9), therefore, to confute them in their confidence, as God threatens to dry it up (Isaiah 19:5-6), so here to bereave them of all the comfortable use of it; they now loathed to drink of it (verses 18-20). God cursed their blessings (Malachi 2:2), and also by their thirst thereby procured. Drinking such bloody water did rather torture their taste than please their palate, or quench their thirst.
5. In their touching or feeling, by their dolorous shooting pangs in their body, when the sin of their souls broke forth into sores of their bodies, which pained them so, that, as they could not now sleep in a whole skin, so they gnawed their own tongues for pain. This was superadded to the bitings of flies, wasps, flying-serpents, etc., whereby some might be stung to death (Psalms 78:45), and the magicians themselves, who had so insolently imitated Moses, the devil being God’s ape, were branded with those boils to detect their contumacy. Besides, also, the frogs ravaging upon their bodies so irresistibly, etc., must needs be very offensive to their sense of touching.
IV. Lastly, as if all this had been too little to fill up the measure of their plagues and punishments, Pharaoh and all his forces, that hitherto had escaped, were all drawn blindfold into the noose, by fair way, weather, etc., and then were drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:8-9; Exodus 14:21; Exodus 14:24; Exodus 14:28). (C. Ness.)