Exodus 9 — There Is No One Like Me in All the Earth

Today’s Passage: Exodus 9

We come now to the middle stretch of the great contest, and the blows grow heavier as we go, so read this chapter slowly and let the weight of it settle on you. Three plagues fall here, and each one climbs higher than the last. First a sickness sweeps through the fields and strikes down the livestock of Egypt, the horses and donkeys and camels and herds and flocks, while not one animal belonging to Israel so much as sickens. Then the trouble leaves the fields and lands on the bodies of the people themselves, festering boils breaking out on man and beast until the very magicians cannot stand before Moses because they are covered in sores. And then, out of a clear sky, comes the worst hailstorm Egypt had ever seen since the day it became a nation, thunder and fire and hail beating down everything left standing in the open field. But watch closely, because in the middle of all this severity the LORD keeps speaking a purpose out loud, that Pharaoh and all the earth may know there is no one like Him, and that His name may be proclaimed in every land. And watch, too, for the mercy folded inside the judgment, the warning given before the hail so that those who feared the word of the LORD could bring their servants and cattle safely indoors, and the land of Goshen kept quiet under an open, hail-free sky while the storm ruined Egypt all around it. Hold that together as you read, the severity and the mercy in one hand, for they are both the work of the God who was making Himself known.

As you read, hold this: The LORD sent judgment and mercy together, so that all the earth would know there is no one like Him.

Exodus 9:1-5 (BSB)

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. ² But if you continue to restrain them and refuse to let them go, ³ then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks. ⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’” ⁵ The LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land.”

Once more the old demand rings out, unchanged and unhurried, let My people go, so that they may worship Me, for the whole contest turns on this one thing, a people set free to bow before their God. And once more, when Pharaoh will not yield, the LORD names the blow before it falls. This time it is the livestock, the wealth of a nation counted in horses and donkeys and camels and herds and flocks, all of it under threat of a severe plague from the hand of the LORD. Notice how the judgment climbs. The frogs and gnats and flies were a torment, but now the LORD reaches for the very riches of Egypt, the animals on which its farming and trade and comfort all depended.

And yet, even as He announces the blow, He draws His line of grace right through the middle of it. The LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that not one animal belonging to His people will die. Then He does something that should stop us in our tracks: He sets the time. Tomorrow, He says, the LORD will do this in the land. He is not content to let the plague fall and leave Pharaoh guessing whether it was chance. By naming the day in advance, the LORD stakes His honor on a promise kept to the hour, so that when the herds of Egypt lie dead and the herds of Israel stand untouched, there will be no room left to call it luck. This is a God who tells you beforehand exactly what He will do, and then does it.

Exodus 9:6-7 (BSB)

⁶ And the next day the LORD did just that. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. ⁷ Pharaoh sent officials and found that none of the livestock of the Israelites had died. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let the people go.

And the next day the LORD did just that. There is a settled certainty in those few words, for what the LORD says He will do, He does, exactly and on time. The livestock of Egypt died, and not one animal belonging to Israel died, the promised distinction made plain in a single day for anyone with eyes to see. The line the LORD had drawn in His warning was now drawn in the fields themselves, dead herds on one side of it and living herds on the other, and the difference was not luck and not skill but the deliberate hand of God keeping His own.

See what Pharaoh does next, because it tells you everything about the state of his heart. He sends his officials to check, and they find it is exactly as the LORD had said, that none of Israel’s livestock had died. He has the proof in hand, verified by his own men. And still the text tells us his heart was hardened, and he would not let the people go. Here is a solemn thing to sit with. Evidence alone does not soften a hard heart. Pharaoh saw the distinction with his own eyes, confirmed by his own servants, and it changed nothing, for a heart that is set on having its own way can look straight at the work of God and refuse to bend. Let every reader take the warning gently to heart, for proof was never our deepest need; a willing heart is.

Exodus 9:8-12 (BSB)

⁸ Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the furnace; in the sight of Pharaoh, Moses is to toss it into the air. ⁹ It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on man and beast throughout the land.” ¹⁰ So they took soot from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on man and beast. ¹¹ The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians. ¹² But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said to Moses.

Now the plague moves in closer still, off the animals in the field and onto the bodies of the people themselves. Moses takes handfuls of soot from a furnace and tosses it into the air before Pharaoh, and it becomes a fine dust settling over the whole land, and wherever it settles, festering boils break out on man and beast alike. Think of the misery of it, a whole nation covered in painful, oozing sores, no one exempt, the great and the small suffering the same shameful affliction in their own skin. The trouble that began out in the fields has come home to the flesh.

And here we meet the magicians again, one last time, and we see how far they have fallen. Once they matched the frogs and imitated the signs; then they failed at the gnats and confessed the finger of God; and now they cannot even stand in the room. The boils have broken out on them along with everyone else, and the men whose whole standing rested on facing down the works of God can no longer face Moses at all. Their defeat is complete and their bodies bear the marks of it. Yet the chapter tells us the sober truth about the king they served: the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said to Moses. The Scripture reports it plainly and we will report it plainly with her, that here the hardening is named as the LORD’s own act, and that it happened exactly as He had foretold. What God had said would come to pass came to pass, down to the hardening of the heart that resisted Him.

Exodus 9:13-17 (BSB)

¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. ¹⁴ Otherwise, I will send all My plagues against you and your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. ¹⁵ For by this time I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the earth. ¹⁶ But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. ¹⁷ Still, you lord it over My people and do not allow them to go.

Here the LORD pauses in the middle of the plagues to tell Pharaoh, and to tell us, what all of this has been for, and these are some of the most important verses in the whole book of Exodus. The demand comes again, let My people go, so that they may worship Me, but now it is wrapped in a plain statement of purpose. I could send all My plagues, the LORD says, so that you may know there is no one like Me in all the earth. And He says something that should make the proud king tremble: by this time I could have stretched out My hand and wiped you off the earth altogether. Pharaoh is not standing where he stands because he has held God off. He is standing there only because God has, so far, allowed him to.

Then comes the great sentence, the one the apostle Paul would one day lift straight out of this chapter to teach the church about the ways of God. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, the LORD says, that I might display My power (כֹּחַ) koach, pronounced KO-akh. Strong's H3581, strength, might, power. The word means strength, might, raw power, the kind of force that gets things done and cannot be resisted. When the LORD says He has raised Pharaoh up that He might display it, He is announcing that the whole drama of the plagues is a showing forth of His own unstoppable strength against the strongest kingdom the world then knew. And it is worth knowing that this very verse became a cornerstone in the New Testament. When the apostle Paul wanted to teach the church that God is sovereign over kings and nations and works all things toward His own ends, he reached back and quoted this exact word to Pharaoh, that God raised him up to display His power and to proclaim His name in all the earth. So the strength put on display in Egypt was not a strength that stayed in Egypt. It is the same power by which God still rules the rise and fall of the mighty, and the same power the gospel calls the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. What Pharaoh felt as a hand he could not resist, the church knows as the strong arm of a God who saves. to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. There is the reason underneath the reason. The plagues were never merely about punishing one hard king or freeing one enslaved people, as great as that freedom was. They were about the LORD making His power known and His name proclaimed across the whole world, so that nations who had never heard of the God of the Hebrews would hear how He humbled the mightiest empire on earth with a stretched-out hand. Even Pharaoh’s stubborn resistance, even his lording it over God’s people, was being woven into a purpose far larger than himself, the spreading of the fame of God to the ends of the earth.

Exodus 9:18-21 (BSB)

¹⁸ Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹ So give orders now to shelter your livestock and everything you have in the field. Every man or beast that remains in the field and is not brought inside will die when the hail comes down upon them.’” ²⁰ Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their servants and livestock to shelter, ²¹ but those who disregarded the word of the LORD left their servants and livestock in the field.

Now the LORD announces the seventh plague, the worst hailstorm Egypt had ever known, from the day the nation was founded until that hour, and again He names the time, tomorrow. But look at the astonishing mercy folded into this warning, for it is one of the tenderest touches in the whole account of the plagues. The LORD does not simply drop the hail on a helpless people. He warns them, and He tells them exactly how to be spared: bring your livestock and everyone in the field inside, under shelter, and the hail will not reach you. Even here, in the middle of judgment on a rebellious nation, the LORD holds a door open, and any Egyptian humble enough to heed His word could walk his servants and cattle to safety.

And then the Bible does something quietly wonderful. It divides the Egyptians themselves into two kinds, not by blood or by nation but by whether they feared (יָרֵא) yare, pronounced yah-RAY. Strong's H3372, to fear, revere, stand in awe. The verb means to fear, to hold in reverent awe, to take someone so seriously that you act on what they say. It can mean plain fright, but at its best it means the reverence that changes what a person does, the trembling respect that hears a warning and hurries to obey it. That is exactly its force here. The officials who “feared the word of the LORD” were not merely frightened; they honored God’s word enough to move on it, and in that reverence they and all they owned were saved. This is the same fear the wise men of Scripture call the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom, the doorway into a right walk with God. It is a striking thing that in a chapter so full of the LORD’s power, the ones who came through the hail alive were simply the ones who feared Him enough to listen. The fear of the LORD is no cringing terror for His people. It is the reverence that takes God at His word and acts, and it has always led not to ruin but to shelter. the word of the LORD. Those who feared His word hurried to bring their servants and their livestock inside, and they were spared. Those who disregarded His word left everything out in the field, and they lost it all. Do you see what this means? The line that mattered most on that terrible day was not the line between Egypt and Israel but the line between those who trembled at God’s word and those who shrugged it off. The very same warning came to every Egyptian ear alike. What made the difference was whether a man feared the LORD enough to act on what he had heard. It has always been so, and it is so still.

Exodus 9:22-26 (BSB)

²² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt—on man and beast and every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.” ²³ So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. ²⁴ The hail fell and the lightning continued flashing through it. The hail was so severe that nothing like it had ever been seen in all the land of Egypt from the time it became a nation. ²⁵ Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast; it beat down every plant of the field and stripped every tree. ²⁶ The only place where it did not hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.

Moses stretches out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sends the storm, thunder rolling and hail crashing down and lightning running along the ground, a fury of sky and fire such as Egypt had never seen in all its long history. Picture the terror of it, the hail beating down everything left in the open, striking man and beast, flattening every plant and stripping every tree, the lightning flashing through the falling ice until the whole land seemed to be coming apart. This was the LORD showing His power in the heavens themselves, turning the very weather against the empire that thought itself secure.

And then, in a single quiet verse, the great mercy shines out again. The only place where it did not hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived. While the storm ruined Egypt, Goshen lay under an open, peaceful sky, not one stone of hail falling on it. The same God who sent the storm held it back at the border of the place where His people dwelt, exactly as He had drawn the line at the flies and at the death of the livestock. He does not need to change His nature to save some while judging others; one hand carries both the storm and the shelter, and He knows perfectly where His own people live. Everyone who belongs to God by faith should read that verse and be steadied by it, for the God who kept Goshen dry in the worst storm Egypt ever saw still knows exactly where His own are, and He is well able to keep them in the midst of a world under judgment.

Exodus 9:27-30 (BSB)

²⁷ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. ²⁸ Pray to the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not need to stay any longer.” ²⁹ Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. ³⁰ But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the LORD our God.”

Under the hammering of the hail, Pharaoh breaks, and for a moment his words sound almost like true repentance. This time I have sinned, he says; the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. It is the furthest his mouth ever goes, an open confession that God is in the right and he is in the wrong. And he begs for prayer and promises again to let the people go. But notice, it is the storm that has driven him to it, not a changed heart, and Moses seems to know it. He agrees to pray, saying he will spread out his hands to the LORD and the thunder will cease, and he tells Pharaoh why he will do it: so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. Even the lifting of the plague is meant to teach the same lesson as the sending of it, that this whole world and everything in it belongs to God.

But Moses adds a word of piercing honesty, and it cuts right through Pharaoh’s fine confession. As for you and your officials, he says, I know that you still do not fear the LORD our God. There is the very heart of the matter, and there is that word again, fear. The Egyptian officials who feared the LORD had run to shelter their servants from the hail; Pharaoh, for all his words, does not fear the LORD at all. His confession is real fright but not real reverence, the cry of a man who wants the storm to stop, not a man who wants to bow before the God who sent it. And Moses, who has learned this king by heart, is not fooled for a moment. He can tell the difference between a heart that fears God and a mouth that only fears the hail.

Exodus 9:31-35 (BSB)

³¹ (Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom; ³² but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late crops.) ³³ Then Moses departed from Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the LORD. The thunder and hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. ³⁴ When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart—he and his officials. ³⁵ So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

The Bible pauses to tell us a small farmer’s detail, that the flax and barley were beaten down because they were already ripe and in bloom, while the wheat and spelt survived because they come later in the season. It is easy to read past a note like this, but it is a mercy quietly recorded, for even in the ruin the LORD left something standing, a later crop still coming that Egypt would need to live. He does not destroy everything down to the last root; there is restraint even in the storm. Then Moses goes out of the city, spreads his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and hail and rain all stop, the LORD answering His servant to the letter just as He always does.

And then, for the last time in the chapter, the heavy refrain we have heard so often. When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses. Look once more at the exact moment the hardening returns: it comes when the relief comes. As long as the hail was falling he confessed his sin and begged for prayer; the instant the sky cleared and he could breathe, he sinned again and set his heart like stone. This is the same terrible pattern we watched with the frogs and the flies, only deeper now for having been repeated so many times, a heart softened by trouble and hardened again by relief. Let the whole chapter end where it began, then, with the God who was making Himself known. He struck Egypt so all the earth would know there is none like Him, and He sheltered Goshen and every Egyptian who feared His word, so that mercy and judgment together proclaimed His name. Pharaoh hardened, but the LORD’s purpose stood. It always does.