We look this week at the fifth and sixth plagues against Egypt, the plague of livestock and the plague of boils. The Lord could have rescued Israel from Egypt another way. He could have destroyed Egypt immediately, and Israel just walked out. The Lord chose the way of plagues to teach us about his nature and other lessons. Each plague is instructive, and collectively they are a solemn, clear statement of God’s sovereignty and man’s sinfulness.
In the plague against the livestock of Egypt, the authority of God’s word is magnified. The Lord tells Moses to speak to Pharaoh beginning with, “Thus says the Lord...” He then warns that the livestock in the field of Egypt will be struck dead, yet none of Israel’s livestock will die. So the Lord makes a distinction between people by his word. He also sets the time of the plague; this will happen tomorrow. We then read that it all happened just as the Lord said.
The plague of livestock struck at Egypt’s economy. The animals listed in the plague were used for the wealth and productivity of Egypt. The Egyptians were proud of their economy, and they placed their hopes in it, at the cost of Israelite labor. They also worshipped the cattle. The cow was a goddess of love, and the bull was adored as a fertility cult. From ancient Egypt, archeologists have found huge pictures of bulls on walls with supplicants depicted below.
We learn in the Scriptures that man is not autonomous. He is not a law unto himself. He cannot escape or opt out of accountability to God. God is sovereign, and men are his creatures. It isn’t excused by God when men place their hopes in anything but him. It always leads to evil. When men worship the creature over the Creator, they are in darkness.
Egypt is not an innocent victim of God’s judgment. The judgments are not arbitrary. The Egyptians would justify any action against other nations or men to keep their economy strong, (like all nations have). Their worship of bulls was to justify immoral desires of their sinful nature, and they would put to death any who disagreed. In these plagues, God is showing his people Israel (and us) a mirror to look into the path our sinful nature will take us. There is a day of reckoning. It is not overlooked.
In the next plague we are shown again that sin has consequences. The Lord tells Moses to take ashes from a furnace and throw them into the air in front of Pharaoh. The furnace was used to make bricks; the Israelites’ slave labor produced the bricks. When the dust from the ashes blew over Egypt, the Lord caused boils to break out on the Egyptians. Again, a day of reckoning has come.
We don’t know what kind of boils, but Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, later described it as terribly painful, itching running sores, like a case of poison ivy on steroids. He brought it up then to warn Israel of what happened to Egypt. The physical suffering depicts for us the underlying pain of the soul, twisted by sin in rebellion against God.
In the plague of boils, the magicians of Egypt are afflicted to such an extent that they cannot even stand up to attempt to thwart what God is doing through Moses. The Egyptian magicians were the modern equivalent of men in positions of power and authority who disparage the existent of God (or accountability to God) who are the social engineers found in every generation. Even though they suffer and die, men still look to them for answers.
Despite all that happens, we see that Pharaoh remains hard of heart. After the livestock plague, we read he hardened his heart; after the plague of boils, we read the Lord hardened his heart. Willful hardness of heart is often punished with judicial hardening. If men shut their eyes to the light, it is just with God to close their eyes to their folly.
The gospel is good news because in Christ, God not only grants forgiveness of sins but gives new life. In Christ alone we will find peace and rest. We must come to him to turn from the folly of sin and the judgment it leads to.
