We're going to be reading today in Exodus chapter 10, the end of 10, and chapter 11. The title of today's message is Pharaoh's Darkness. Starting in verse 21 in chapter 10, it says, They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones go with you, also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind. For therefore must we take to serve the Lord our God. And we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come hither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face, thou shalt die.' And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more. Then chapter 11 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt." in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn of the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. but against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee, and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. As the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Father God, Lord, we thank you for bringing us together today, Lord. I thank you for these people of the Lord, this church, God. I pray that you would keep those who are not here today, keep them safe, keep them healthy, Lord, if there's any sickness, God. And I just pray, Lord, that you would open our ears today to your word, God, and help us to hear what you have to say to us today, God. Help us to learn what you would have us to learn, God. Lord, I thank you for preserving your word for us in these last days, God, in your King James Bible. Thank you for your son, Jesus, who died to save us from our sins, Lord, and that we can be saved through simple faith in his blood. And God, I thank you again for this church, Lord. Thank you for this day. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. When the time that the Israelites have spent in Egypt is coming to its end, Moses, sent by God to deliver them, has been continually going to Pharaoh, requesting that he let the people of Israel go. Three days' journey into the wilderness to serve the Lord. And Pharaoh has continually refused to let them go, just as God said. And this allowed the Lord to show His might to the people of Egypt and Israel alike. Pharaoh could have allowed them to leave at any time, but we were told that God would harden Pharaoh's heart. in order that he could judge Egypt with the wonders that he had purposed to bring against Egypt. The river turned to blood, the frogs, lice, and flies, the murren on the cattle, and the boils and blains that afflicted man and beast, and then the deadly hail mingled with fire that killed everything in the fields. Then the locusts came and devoured every green thing that was left in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh's magicians had warned him to try to appease God, to at least let the men go because they said that Egypt was destroyed. Yet Pharaoh continued to defy God because God wasn't going to allow the children of the Israelites to remain behind, and Pharaoh wasn't willing to let them go. So the locusts wiped out all the remaining crops and trees, and again Pharaoh had to beg Moses to remove the locusts from their land, and Moses did. He prayed to the Lord to remove them, and God sent a mighty west wind and blew them all into the Red Sea. And then again, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the children of Israel go. And that brings us to today's text. It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another. Neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." This darkness seems to be some kind of cloud that blots out all the light. The Bible calls it a thick darkness and a darkness that can be felt. The Bible uses the same language when talking about the dwelling place of God in the temple. In 1 Kings 8 it says, And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever. says clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. This darkness is the presence of the Lord being made known to Pharaoh in Egypt. I can imagine that after all the events that have led up to this, the people must be terrified. It's one thing to be without sight and have to be led by others. But in this case, there was no one to lead them. They were all in darkness and could do nothing but grope about. And so they just stayed where they were for three days. This would also be an indictment of the Egyptian sun god, Ray. Ray was the king of their gods, and this darkness would send a message to the priests and magicians of Egypt that the God of Israel was greater than all their false gods. And as usual, the Lord put a distinction between His people and the people of Egypt, and the children of Israel all had light in their houses. God has given us the light of His Spirit and His Word to light our path in this dark world. Colossians 1.10 says, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. The power of darkness here being sin and death, which Jesus defeated when He died on the cross. Ephesians 5.14 says, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. The Egyptians are a picture of the world dead in their sins. Not even a picture, they are the world dead in their sins. Verse 24 says, And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not an oaf be left behind, for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God. And we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. Pharaoh tries to bargain with Moses again. He says, go ahead, take your children, just leave the flocks and herds of your cattle with us. Perhaps Pharaoh might have been content to never see them again, but desired to keep their substance since they had lost everything at this point. But Moses again refuses to deal with Pharaoh and says that they are not leaving anything of their animals behind because they don't know what the Lord will require of them when they get into the wilderness and they will need them to make sacrifices. Verse 27 says, But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more. In Pharaoh's final act of defiance, he threatens to kill Moses the next time he sees him. The depravity of his mind is fully revealed. He knows that he has no power against Moses, but he would rather see his people destroyed than to give in to the God of the Israelites. I think that the darkness that God had sent could be a picture of the darkness of his heart, that whatever light he may have had at one time was blotted out. Moses accepts Pharaoh's final response and agrees that the time for talking is over. In chapter 11, verse 1, it says, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold. Moses is still in Pharaoh's presence, and the Lord is giving him one last warning to deliver to the people of Egypt. He tells Moses that after this final plague, Pharaoh is going to let the children of Israel go. This last plague is going to be so devastating that he will drive them out of Egypt, but they won't go out empty as God foretold. God says, for every man and woman to borrow of their neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and the people of Egypt willingly give these things to them. Verse 3 says, And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. It says, The Lord gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians. have elevated the Israelites in the eyes of the Egyptians. And Moses was very great, it says. His name was probably on everyone's lips as they discussed the things that Moses had done in the land against Pharaoh. And I would imagine that the people would be afraid not to give their wealth to the Israelites at this point. Anything to get the plagues to stop. But I think they may have also had compassion on them for the things that they had endured under Egypt's captivity. Psalm 106, 46 says, He bade them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. So the people would be brought out of Egypt with great substance, just as God had promised Abraham. But before this will happen, God has one more plague for Pharaoh in Egypt. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts, and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee, and after that I will go out. and he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. This judgment upon Pharaoh was foretold to Moses before he had even returned to Egypt. Back in Exodus 4, verse 22, it says, And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. But the actual pronouncement of this final plague was much more severe, that God would slay the firstborn, not only of Pharaoh, but of every man, woman, and beast in Egypt. Moses is not commanded to bring this plague upon them. God Himself is coming to do this thing. He gives the time, about midnight, when most surely we'll be asleep. He says that He will go out in the midst of Egypt, and when He does this thing, He says that there will be such a great cry as was never before heard in Egypt. This plague will not come upon the children of Israel. He says that not even a dog will move its tongue against any man or beast of Israel, and afterwards the servants of Pharaoh are going to bow to Moses and beg them to go. Then it says that Moses went out from Pharaoh in great anger. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Moses knew this would be how Pharaoh responded. To every plague that God sent, he had responded the same way. He might make as if he were going to comply with God's command, and then he would refuse to let the Israelites go. If Moses got angry with Pharaoh at all during these meetings that he had with him, the Bible doesn't say. But this time it does say that Moses went out in a great anger. Was he angry because Pharaoh had threatened his life? I don't think so. We see a story in Numbers 12. It says, And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. In the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. Moses, it said, was very meek. It said, above all the men upon the face of the earth. Meekness is a quality that the Lord prizes in His people. We looked at meekness a bit in our Wednesday night message a couple of weeks ago. The Webster's 1828 defines meek as mild of temper, soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated, yielding, given to forbearance under injuries, And it quotes that verse, "...now the man Moses was very meek above all men." Moses was not easily provoked and not likely to get angry on his own account. Pharaoh, threatening to kill him, would likely not even get a rise out of him, especially when Moses knows that the Lord is on his side and Pharaoh could do nothing to him all this time. Pharaoh's threatening would probably make Moses laugh. Psalms 37 verse 8 says, Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Moses' anger must have had a different cause. There aren't many times in the Bible that Moses is said to be angry. One example is when he comes down from the mountain with the stone tables that God had made and finds the Israelites singing naked and worshiping a golden calf. In Exodus 32, it says, And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hand and break them beneath the mount. Moses didn't just break those tables. He went and burned the golden calf, ground it to powder, and then mixed it into the water and made them drink it. And then he asked those who would be on the Lord's side to step forward. Verse 26 says, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. Moses' anger was nothing to laugh at, but Moses was angry for the Lord's sake. The Lord had told Moses, that the people had done this thing, that they had made this calf and corrupted themselves. And verse 80 said, They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation." God wanted to destroy them because they had hardly even gotten out the door from Egypt and already the people were making idols and worshiping them instead of the true God of their fathers. God offered to make Moses a seed into a great nation because he was so angry with them. But Moses interceded for them and argues that it would give the Egyptians something to speak against God and His people. and says, Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give it unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." Moses gets angry for the things that God gets angry for, the things that displease God displease Moses. Pharaoh has continued defying God right up to this point where God has now promised to kill all the firstborn in Egypt if he doesn't let the children of Israel go. And Pharaoh is still steadfast in his disobedience, his refusal to allow them to leave. For his swollen pride, his darkened heart has no room for compassion on his own people, his own children. He only cares that no one sees him bend his knee to this Moses and his God. And God is going to make good on His promise. All those first born in Egypt are going to die of man, woman, and beast. Many of them are wicked, just like Pharaoh. But some are innocent children and animals that had no agency in any of this. And God doesn't delight in their deaths any more than He delighted in the deaths of those 3,000 men that died after the golden calf incident. Ezekiel 33 says in verse 11, "'Say unto them, as I live,' saith the Lord God, "'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, "'but that the wicked turn from his way and live. "'Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, "'for why will ye die, O house of Israel?' God cares even for the sparrows. Jesus said that not one of them is forgotten before God. I think that if Pharaoh could have repented, this would not have happened. Jonah said that he knew that God was gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. He was angry that God spared Nineveh and God rebuked him for this spirit. Jonah 4, he said, Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? Moses is angry. that Pharaoh has obligated the Lord to carry out the judgments that he warned about over and over by refusing to submit himself to God and repent of the evil that Egypt has done to Israel. And I think God is also angry for the same reason. God foreknew that Pharaoh would not receive Moses' warnings, and that the continual chastening of the nation through these plagues would only serve to harden Pharaoh's heart, and even says that he raised up Pharaoh for this end, that his wonders would be manifested in his name declared throughout all the earth but this doesn't mean that this is what he wanted. He didn't desire to kill so many Egyptians. He desired for them to turn from their ways and live, but Pharaoh was too far gone to repent, and he and his people became an example to other nations like Nineveh. Moses is right to be angry, just as he was right to be angry at the people when they made the golden calf. Moses was the meekest man according to the Bible, but there were times when his meekness gave way to righteous anger. And there was a time when his anger with the Israelites caused him to sin in Kadesh, when he smote the rock twice after God had told him to speak to it. Moses' anger wasn't necessarily wrong, but he allowed his anger to have too much influence over his actions. And he disobeyed God while telling off the Israelites when he said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And because of that, Moses lost the opportunity to lead them into the Promised Land. Proverbs 14, 17 says, He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated. If the meekest man on earth could get angry and sin because of it, how much more should we be wary of our own anger causing us to do foolish things? I won't spend too much time on this today because we're going to hit it again very soon in Ephesians 4, where it says in verse 26, Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. But we need to learn to be angry at the appropriate times, to be angry at the appropriate things. The things that God is angry with should be the things that we get angry about. The things that God calls abomination should be the things that are abomination to us. Psalm 711 says, God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. We also need to remember that God can be angry with us. If we are not following His commandments, if we are living a worldly life and ignoring the warnings in Scripture, or just ignoring the Word altogether, we might begin to reap chastening from the Lord. If we harden our heart like Pharaoh did, that chastening can become quite severe. Sometimes God just allows us to reap the natural consequences of our sin, and that can be bad enough. Drinking and driving can cause all kinds of problems for someone who has been caught. and could even lead to prison time for repeat offenses, or if, God forbid, someone was killed in an accident. But sometimes God will allow a disobedient Christian to experience extra consequences. They might start to feel like the finger of God is on them, just like the magicians told Pharaoh. Things just go wrong for them all the time, and it seems like the things that are happening just couldn't all be random chance. But God is singling them out. and he probably is. God is very interested in the lives of every one of his children. And if you're living with sins on your conscience that you haven't repented of, then God is not likely to leave you in peace. Hebrews 12, verse 5 says, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Not responding properly to God's chastening is despising it, like Pharaoh despised the judgments that were upon him when he continually refused to release the children of Israel. God's chastisement is meant not just to punish, but to restore you to fellowship with Him. He wants you to acknowledge your sins and repent of them. Our flesh will want to just give up and say it's too hard to please God. You should just give up trying. Just go ahead and faint when God rebukes you. But you have to endure the chastening. allow it to teach you and correct you. Verse 7 in Hebrews 12 says, for they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present time, for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. God has already given us salvation and the forgiveness of sins through the blood of His Son. This isn't a means of earning that salvation or keeping it, but it's to have fellowship with the Lord and to be able to see Him during the millennial reign. The most loving thing that God can do in response to our sin is to correct us with chastisement so that we don't end up missing out on that millennial inheritance. Because the alternative to hearing the Lord say, Well done, now good and faithful servant, is hearing Him say, Depart from me, I never knew you, and being appointed a portion with the hypocrites in hell for a thousand years. Psalms 2 verse 11 says, Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Father God, Lord, I thank you again for this day, Lord. I thank you for this opportunity to preach your word, God. I pray, Lord, that there was something in this message, God, for everyone who hears it, God. And I just pray, Lord, that you would help us all, Lord, to live for you, God. Help us not to despise your chastening, Lord, but help us to be brought into subjection to your will, God. And Lord, help us, Father, to do the things that you love, to refuse the things that you hate, God. And Lord, I just pray that you would be with us the rest of our day, God. Be with our fellowship. Be with those again who are not here, Lord. Keep them safe, Lord. Keep them healthy. And Lord, I just thank you so much for your son, Jesus, who died for us. Thank you for that free gift of salvation through his blood, through simple faith. Lord, I pray these things in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen.