The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Hail” it comes from the Hebrew Word “barad” which means “hail, a devastating hailstorm.”
The plagues escalate from irritating to devastating, and Pharaoh still won’t budge. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Exodus 9.
God strikes Egypt’s livestock with a severe disease, killing horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and sheep, while sparing every animal belonging to Israel, another clear distinction between the two peoples. Pharaoh sends men to confirm that Israel’s livestock remains untouched, yet his heart stays hardened regardless of the evidence directly in front of him.
Moses and Aaron then throw handfuls of furnace ashes into the air, and it becomes boils breaking out on man and beast throughout Egypt, so severe that even the magicians cannot stand before Moses because of it. God tells Moses to warn Pharaoh plainly that these plagues could have already destroyed him, but God has specifically preserved him, “for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.”
Next comes a devastating hailstorm mixed with fire, the worst in Egypt’s history, destroying crops, trees, and any people or animals left in the open field. God again spares Goshen entirely. Pharaoh, momentarily shaken, confesses, “I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked,” and asks Moses to pray for it to stop. Moses does, the storm ends, but “when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart.”
God explains directly to Pharaoh why he is still standing after so much devastation, not because Pharaoh deserved mercy, but so that God’s power and name would be made known throughout the earth. Even Pharaoh’s stubborn resistance was ultimately being used to display something far bigger than one king’s pride.
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