(Exodus) Exodus 9:18-35

Behold, tomorrow, about this time, will I cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Now, the land of Egypt is a land of no rain. I was told when I was there that they had less than one inch of rain.

And the year that I was there, it was, of course, early spring in long about May, and they had not had a drop of rain that year. And I do not know how much they got during the year, but it averages out less than an inch of rain. Now they're going to have a rain, and the kind of which they could do without.

And we are told here, verse 19, Send therefore now and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field, for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses. You see, it's a question here whether you believe God or not.

God says, get your servants in, your cattle in. Many didn't believe God, and they were judged by the hail and were destroyed, of course. But God gave them a chance, you see.

It's just a question of whether you believe God or not. And that holds good today. Verse 21, And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

And that was, of course, to a great disadvantage. Now, Isis is the goddess of the air. And you find a great deal that's said about her in the religion of Egypt.

And she's one of the principal members of the Theophany, by the way. She is one that was very prominent in the land of Egypt. Now, hail is actually directed against her.

But you see, it touches mankind, and that's very important to note. Now we have in verse 22, And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, upon beast, and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and break every tree of the field. Now, those that didn't believe God, then naturally they made no provision for protection.

That's the same message that God has for the world today, that judgment is coming, and that man's not wise today to go on as if nothing is going to happen. It was that way in the days of Noah. It will be that when he comes again in judgment.

And here you have a great many didn't believe God. All God does is ask you to believe Him. Now again, we're reminded of the fact in verse 26, only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

You see, from here on, the land of Goshen is spared from the plagues that are coming on the land. And we find here that the plague now of the hail had a tremendous effect upon the land of Egypt. For instance, we're told in verse 31, and the flax and the barley was smitten, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was bold.

So that flax was for the garments, for clothing, barley for food, and the wheat and the rice also, we're told, was smitten. They weren't grown up. It was all beaten down.

And this was a judgment against the foodstuff and the clothing. You see, God is now striking at man, and Pharaoh was smitten first, and he ought to wake up. But he's not.

He's hardened. We're told here, verse 35, and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Neither would he let the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

He would not yield yet. Well, you wonder what it's going to take to make it possible for this man to let them go.