Darkness

Story: Darkness

Passage: Exodus 10:21-29

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God told Moses to stretch out his hand and the land would be covered in darkness.  Moses obeyed and the land was dark for 3 days.  Pharaoh told Moses to go and they could take their kids with them.  But they were not allowed to take their livestock.  Moses said that they needed their livestock so that they could make sacrifices.  Pharaoh got really mad and told Moses to never show his face again or he would die.  Moses left.

Notes: This is described as a darkness to be felt!  That’s ridiculous!  For three days the people could not see each other and stayed home.   This was another plague which was unannounced.  Goshen was unaffected.  I wonder what caused this darkness.  I almost feel like the laws of physics had to change for the light to be so divided.  Pharaoh was fully aware that the Hebrews wanted to escape.  That is why he was going to allow all of the people to go without the animals.  The Israelites couldn’t escape into the desert without their livestock.  This would effectively keep them on a leash.  When Pharaoh heard Moses demand to take all of their animals he knew Moses was trying to trick him.  He was furious and vowed to kill Moses the next time he saw him.  Moses agreed and said he would never see him again.  This won’t turn out to be true, but this is one of the last times the two of them will see each other.  Once again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because of God.  God had one last display of power planned.  This last plague would prove to be significant in His redemptive plan for the world.  Because of this, we will get more description for the upcoming plague than for the previous nine.

Questions: What did the Hebrews think of this?  Were the Israelites getting any warning before the plagues?  Did the darkness confuse the Egyptians?  Did Pharaoh really think Moses would take the Israelites out of Egypt without their animals?

Lessons:  In this passage we see Moses standing his ground and easily speaking to Pharaoh on God’s behalf.   He is radically different from the Moses we saw at the burning bush.  Moses has seen the power and authority of the one he serves.  He realizes that he is on the winning side and it totally transforms him.  Are we totally transformed?  We are also on the winning side and we serve the same God with the same power.  Do we act like it?  We need to get a hold of the fact that we serve God, not some idea.  We are on the correct side and we need to let that transform the way we live our lives.