Exodus 9:8-12

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Exodus 9:8. Furnace] “For burning lime or smelting metals, and for the preparation of glass, out of which, while it is heated, a thick smoke ascends (Genesis 19:28) and in which ashes and soot rest.”—Fürst.

Exodus 9:9. A boil breaking forth with blains] Or, “A burning sore breaking out in pustules.”

Exodus 9:10. Raised thee up] Not necessarily—“Brought thee into being”; but much rather, judging from the tenor of the entire narrative,—“Raised thee to the throne, given thee sovereign power in Egypt;” or, better still,—“Enabled thee to stand firm.” This indeed is the most literal meaning of העמרתיך, the causative form (Hiphil) of עמד, to stand. How entirely this rendering accords with the observations on the hardening or Pharaoh’s heart offered under Exodus 7:3, may be seen by a reference to what is there said.—This seems the place to remind the reader of the care displayed by the Apostle Paul in his comments on cases like Pharaoh’s, in Romans 9:22: “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction:”—i.e. already fitted, previously fitted (κατηρτισμένα), as the perfect participle implies. The Greek word, indeed, is indifferently either middle or passive voice; and so is quite consistent with the idea that the vessels of wrath had fitted themselves for destruction, or had given themselves over to Satan, and had been by him, as the result of their own guilty surrender, fitted for destruction. In any case, the Apostle does not say that GOD had fitted them for destruction; which is all the more satisfactory when we notice how, in everything else, the Divine activity reigns throughout the passage; and most satisfying of all when we observe that in the following ver.

(23) it is God who is expressly said to have “afore prepared the vessels of mercy unto glory.” God, in certain cases, ENDURES (not takes delight in) the vessels of wrath; ENDURES them for a while longer, permitting them to multiply their acts of tyranny or other wickedness, instead of AT ONCE smiting them down in death, and so preventing their doing any more wrong and harm;—when they have already become vessels of wrath, and are ripe for their doom.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 9:8

THE PLAGUE OF BOILS; OR, THE PHYSICAL SUFFERING BROUGHT UPON MEN BY SIN

Now the plagues of Egypt begin to assume a more serious character. Hitherto they had been an annoyance. Now they are an affliction threatening life. This sixth plague is ushered in with a peculiar ceremony. Moses appears before Pharaoh with a censor in his hand, filled with ashes from the furnace. He scatters the ashes and they are carried by the wind in all directions. They become small dust and afflict the Egyptians with boils. This ceremony was well calculated to remind Pharaoh that this plague was retributive. He had compelled the Israelites to labour in the brick-kilns, and had made their lives bitter with hard bondage in the heat of the furnace. Hence the ashes now smite the oppressor. Even the beasts of the Egyptians were thus afflicted; even those that escaped the previous plague. It not unfrequently happens that when men injure others, they are injured some time or other in the same way themselves. This is the abundant teaching of history. In the first three plagues the natural resources of the land were made the medium of retribution; but in the sixth God showed Pharaoh that He could bring ruin upon him from the very workshops which had been used in the erection of his splendid edifices.

I. That there is much physical suffering brought upon men by sin and disobedience. Through the disobedience of Pharaoh and his people they were smitten with boils. Their suffering was directly traceable to their sins. Had they been obedient to the commands of God, as uttered by Moses and Aaron, they would have been spared this affliction. And the commands of God come to men in our own day. They are uttered distinctly in the Bible. They are made known faithfully from the pulpit. They are silently made known by many pious lives. But they are disobeyed. And in this we find the true explanation of much of the pain and physical suffering that comes upon men. Their ailments are the outcome of their sins. And thus bodily pain is given to punish and correct moral transgression. There are multitudes in our land in continued suffering who would be healthy if they would be good. Moral considerations are at the basis of health. If men would be physically well they should obey the laws of God as revealed in His Book, and recognize all His claims upon them. Sin will always make a man want medicine. The body is influenced by the moods of the soul. Piety is restorative. It gives eternal life.

II. That the physical suffering consequent upon sin comes upon men independent of their social position, or of their scientific attainments. The king, the magicians, and all the people of Egypt were smitten by the pestilence. None were exempt.

1. Hence we see that social position does not exempt men from the physical suffering consequent upon sin. Men who occupy high station in society, have frequently every facility for sin. They have time. They have money. They have every opportunity of concealment. But there are times when the sins of the monarch are made known in his physical manhood, and when nature speaks to him in retributive voice. Royalty is subject to the same laws of physical life as the pauper, and must equally pay the penalty of transgression. The purple and fine linen are not proof against pain. Suffering is not bribed by money.

2. Hence we see that scientific attainment does not exempt men from the physical suffering consequent upon sin. The boils were upon the magicians. These magicians were men of scientific knowledge. They were the king’s advisers. Their position in the nation was dependent upon their education and skill. Hence their trickery. But the suffering consequent upon sin, is not to be warded off by scientific prescriptions; nor is it to be deluded by cunning. Thus men who have strengthened others in sin are themselves overtaken with the retributions of heaven. All men are in the hand of God.

III. That the physical suffering consequent upon sin does not always lead men to moral reformation. This terrible pestilence did not work repentance in the heart of Pharaoh, but only rendered him more wilful in his obstinacy. And so men are often unsubdued by the most alarming consequences of their conduct. They are afflicted. Their families are ruined. Their reputation is gone. Yet they show no token of penitence. Their calamities only appear to harden them. In this mood of soul they are taken on to destruction, to eternity. Pain is not necessarily regenerative in its influence. It does not always humble the spirit. It does not always conquer the tyrant. Man has a wonderous power of moral resistance. He can reject the severe discipline of God. LESSONS:

1. That God permits suffering to come upon wicked men to reprove and correct their moral character.

2. That the laws of physical manhood are in harmony with true well-being of the soul.

3. That pain should lead us to review the meaning of our lives.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exodus 9:8. Upon former warnings despised God falls suddenly upon the wicked.

Though God can plague His enemies without instruments, yet sometimes He will use them.
God gives command out of ashes to bring fiery plagues on the wicked.
Handfuls of ashes are to note full measure of vengeance on God’s enemies.
Signal actions God sometimes uses for men to see and fear
God can make ashes dust, and dust boils, to plague His enemies.
Divine retributions:—

1. Transformative.
2. Diffusive.
3. Afflictive.

Exodus 9:10. Exact obedience must God’s instruments give as to matters and actions in executing God’s plagues.

Exact performance does God make of His word upon the obedience of His servants in plaguing His enemies.
Man and beast in Egypt are the memorials of God’s faithfulness in His vengeance.

THE INSIGNIFICANT COMMENCEMENT OF GREAT CALAMITIES

I. That great calamities are often insignificant in their commencement. This plague was caused by the sprinkling of a few handfuls of ashes. None of those who witnessed the performance of this ceremony by Moses and Aaron would imagine that so great a calamity could have proceeded from so trivial a cause. But in reality there is no such thing in the universe as a trivial cause; all causes are potent to great effects. A trivial ailment may work death. A little misunderstanding may break up a church. A little sin may ruin a soul. Let us remember that a few handfuls of ashes are productive of great woe. A little anger breaks into a great fire, and may end in murder. A little slander spreads a long way, and may injure the best reputation in the world, and nullify the toil of the best Christian worker.

II. That great calamities are often mysterious in their infliction. Moses and Aaron simply sprinkled the ashes in the air, and they became afflictive with this sore pestilence. How was this accomplished? What was the method of its working? The result would astonish Pharaoh and his magicians. And so it is astonishing how apparently trivial causes are influential to such great results. Men are at a loss to explain how little sins are so far-reaching in their effects. This cannot be explained on any principle of science. It must be recognized as the wondrous ordination of God, and as the efficient law of moral life, designed to keep men right.

III. That great calamities are often irrepressible in their progress. These ashes were sprinkled in the sight of Pharaoh and his magicians; but the proud monarch was impotent to prevent or stay the curse. And so when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, and when little causes are working out their punitive issue in the lives of men and nations, they cannot be restrained by pride or power. And thus we see how the smallest ashes in the hand of God may become afflictive to a vast nation.

THE HELPLESSNESS OF WICKED MEN IN THE HOUR OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION

Exodus 9:11. Men exhibit their principles in the hour of retribution and pain; then it is that character is made manifest. In this verse we see how helpless were the magicians under the retributions of heaven.

I. They are helpless because they have not the ability to avert the retributions of God. These magicians had not the ability to avert the pain with which they were afflicted. They had not the power to contend with God. Nor could Satan throw around them a shield to quench the darts of a retributive Providence. The devil gets men into trouble, and then leaves them in it without help. The sinner is helpless before the anger of God. In the Great Judgment he will be unable to avert the sentence of the Judge. Sin ever makes men helpless.

II. They are helpless because they have not the courage to endure the retributions of God. These magicians had not bold manhood enough to bear the plague defiantly, and to shake off its pain by apparent insensibility. Sinners are generally the most sensitive to the judgments of God. Sin makes men cowardly. Hell cannot inspire the wicked heart with courage in the hour of trial.

III. They are helpless because they lack those moral qualities which alone can aid men in the hour of retribution. If man is to stand in the presence of God during the time of pain, he must be strong in faith, in prayer, and hope, and in a desire to work the Divine will. But of this strength, the sinner is destitute, and he is therefore given over to the weakness of the moment. LESSONS:

1. That though men have experience of Satan’s inability to help them in their trouble consequent upon sin, they will not desist from it.

2. That all Satan’s instruments are vanquished by the plague of God.

HEART-OBDURACY

I. It is permitted by God.
II. It renders men deaf to the voice of God.
III. It calls for the continued retribution of heaven.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON

Ashes! Exodus 9:8. At one time, it was common in Egypt to burn strangers and captives alive, and to sprinkle their ashes far and wide in the air. As the little ones of Israel were cast into the Nile-god, a cruel holocaust; it is as likely that they were thrown into the furnaces, and their dust scattered to the winds to invoke blessings. Moses was directed to take the dust of the brick-kilns. and throw it into the air for a curse instead of a blessing. The sprinkling of ashes was also an ancient sign of purification. Its meaning was now reversed, and it became the instrument of corruption. Modern science has taught us that what would have formerly seemed only a figure of speech is literally possible; and that a few handfuls of ashes can be divided into particles so inconceivably minute as to fill the air over a whole country. Professor Tyndal’s valuable experiments—as well as those of other scientists—incontestably shew that invisibly small particles may be poisonous germs of infectious plagues. Therefore

“Regard no vice as small,
That thou mayest brook it.”

—Oriental.

Boils and Blains! Exodus 9:9. Boils were an inflamed ulcer; whilst blains were an angry tumour, or malignant swelling in the skin. The one was an aggravation of the other; for in Exodus 5:9 the expression “breaking forth” means literally to vegetate—i.e. to put forth flowers like a plant or tree. In Deuteronomy it is called the “botch of Egypt;” and it is used in Job 2:7 to express the disease with which Satan was permitted to afflict Job. Whether this plague upon the Egyptians was associated with habitual uncleanness cannot be decided; but it may very well be inferred that Satan’s malignant purpose was to blacken the pure and spotless moral life of the Chaldean patriarch. Smith says that this plague was black leprosy—a fearful kind of elephantiasis. Whatever it was in character, it was evidently a terrible infliction on the religious purity of the people; and designed to teach them that the heart was wholly corrupt:—

“Idols of mind, affection, will,
The power of darkness triumphs there.”

—Montgomery.

Little Things! Exodus 9:10 A small flaw in a cable—a slight error in a chart may cause the loss of a ship. The communication of a spark led to the burning of the Goliath training ship. The careless handling of a small box led to the disastrous explosion at Bremerhaven. Only a few ashes led to the wholesale plague of boils! As Bishop Hopkins says, it is not the greatness or smallness of the coin, but the royal image stamped upon it, that gives it authority and power; so truly, the stamp of God being on little means will produce results as great, as though mighty means were employed. Even in man’s hand, the tiny keen-edged axe can soon demolish what it has taken the springs and summers and showers and snows of hundreds of years to raise. As has been said, it is but the littleness of man that sees no greatness in a trifle. What a greatness there was in the Divinely-prepared worm, which laid low that bowering gourd, beneath whose green and grateful shade the prophet of Nineveh sat. Even

“The little mountains, humble though they
be, Make the mighty ages of eternity.”

Boil-symbolism! Exodus 9:11. In Revelation 16 Exodus 9:10, we find that the Roman Vatican, while smarting from the effects of the extreme castigations and heavy shocks received under the preceding four vials from God’s righteous indignation, are visited with a plague of boils and blains. They gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores. It is remarkable that these sores are associated with spiritual adulteries, with the harlot of fornications. They can signify nothing else than the hideous blotch of infidelity or atheism, which has spread with infectious virulence to the ends of the Papal earth. As vicious humours taint the blood, poison the body, and break out in unsightly and ulcerous sores upon the skin; so with the principles of Roman atheism. This moral ulcer has spread far and wide—corrupt in its principles—vicious in its manifestations—destructive in its tendencies; if we are to believe the Pontiff’s own confessions as to the religious sentiments of Papal nations:—

“Withering their moral faculties, and breaking
The bones of all their pride.

—Lamb.

Impenitence! Exodus 9:12. Shakespeare says: “Bow, stubborn knees! and heart with strings of steel, be soft as sinews of the newborn babe; all may be well!” But Pharaoh would not bow. Of the antitypical Egypt, it is also said that they repented not of their deeds: Revelation 16 Exodus 9:10. All are as hardened as at the beginning. Like Pharaoh they are impenitent to the end. The cumulative combination of retributive justice—so far from inducing repentance—only raises the blasphemy to a higher pitch:

“Egypt forbear! no more blaspheme:
God has a thousand terrors in His name,
A thousand armies at command,
Waiting the signal of His hand.”

—Watts.