The Seventh Plague

Exodus 9:13-26

“13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself, your officials, and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. 15 Indeed, by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power and to make my name resound through all the earth. 17 You are still exalting yourself against my people by not letting them go. 18 Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place; every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.’ ” 20 Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place, 21 but those who did not regard the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the open field. 22 The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24 there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field and shattered every tree in the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail.”

Egypt experienced the worst hail storm it had ever had.  There was thunder, lightning that flashed continually, and large hail that struck down everything in its path, animal, plant and human.  

The crops were ruined.  The pride and arrogance of the Pharaoh was slowly destroying Egypt.  Did the Pharaoh notice?   Did he not remember the bloody water, the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the dead livestock,the boils…

And now the crops?

Did Pharaoh’s pride deafen him to the misery of his people?

Christians often let their pride destroy their spiritual lives.  It happens slowly and incrementally, and despite God’s warnings to us, we are not humble enough to hear His Holy Spirit.  Our pride has quenched the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Because of this we confuse our voice with the voice of God. We think we have all the answers. We think we have all the strength.  We think we have all the wisdom.  We think we know all the pitfalls.

And before we know it, we look around and our spiritual lives are in shambles.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but wisdom is with the humble. 

(Proverbs 11:2)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)