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For I will at this time send all my plagues, etc.: Exodus 9:14. Keeping the last tremendous visitation apart, for it stands out in lone grandeur in the story, it is well to take the other nine plagues together in any homiletic, use we make of them; for -

1. They have many features in common.

2. And are closely connected with one another. A landscape should not be cut up, when we can see at a sweep the whole panorama. The subject, then, is Jehovah's conflict with this great idolatrous world-power.

I. THE AGENT. What was Moses? What was his Divine legation?

1. He was a patriot-deliverer, ranking with Tell, Bruce, etc. etc., as the saviour of his nation - but more!

2. A statesman - the creator (under God) of first a polity, and then a nation. He taught free men to govern themselves, under God. But Moses was more!

3. A prophet of the living God. Moses was intensely religious. He ranks with the greatest spiritual leaders of the world. His peer is Elijah, though Elijah was not quite equal. So great are they both that they appear on Tabor with the transfigured Lord. God, eternity, the soul, law, salvation, religion are the master motives of this great spirit. All that Moses was besides is to be traced to this deep root. The lesson is obvious: religion first - then the things that accompany salvation.

II. HIS DEEDS.

1. Their historic reality. Two facts certain -

(1) Israel in Egypt.

(2) Israel in Canaan. he historic problem is: How was the transition made?

(1) Kings are not in the habit of emancipating races (note! apparent exceptions - William III. and Revolution of 1688. Emancipation of serfs by the Russian Czar. Lincoln and the freedom of the four millions of slaves.)

(2) Israel never won its own freedom. Nor

(3) was Egypt overthrown by a foreign power, and so in the confusion Israel emerged to liberty.

(4) The Deliverer was God, and the mode, that described in the book.

2. Their exact nature. Exposition here of the miracles seriatim, with a careful note of the specialities of each. This as a foundation for the discussion of the question: Were the plagues natural or supernatural? They were either

(1) natural; or

(2) supernatural; or

(3) natural in kind,

but supernatural in degree, in circumstances and in concomitants. See Exodus 10:12, 19; Exodus 14:21. Our view is the last. But that the visitations were direct from the hand of God is clear from -

(1) Their colossal proportions.

(2) Their concentration upon one epoch.

(3) Their relation to the moral controversy.

(4) Their gradation.

(5) Dependence on the word of Moses. [On the evidential value of the plagues, see 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 1:241.]

3. Their objective. This word here used in a military sense. What was the Divine object in these visitations? To hurl thunderbolts against the idolatries of Egypt: Exodus 12:12. For detail, see Dr. Alexander's Kitto's Cycle., p. 75l, vol. 1:4. Their superiority to the acts of the magicians. Full discussion of the questions - What the magicians really did, and how they did it, will be found in the Congregational Lectures by Rev. Walter Scott, of Airedale College, on "The Existence of Evil Spirits," 145-156. The conclusion, sustained by argument, is that they were adepts in sleight of hand. But, for homiletic purposes, show the grandeur of the scale on which Moses acted, and the imposing character of his deeds as a moral demonstration to the idolaters of Egypt.

5. Their climacteric character. When God deals with sinners, he begins afar off, and only very gradually draws near and close to their deepest life and acutest feeling. So here he touches first the river - then comfort (frogs, Ice, flies) - then cattle - then the skin of the people - then food (hail and locusts) - then threatens life by the suffocating effects of the fifty days' sand-storm darkness - at last life itself. "I will sing of mercy as well as of judgment," etc.

III. HIS WORDS. Fine homiletic use may be made of the verbal controversy which went on between Moses and Pharaoh all the time of these visitations, and which increased in tragic vehemence as blow after blow descended. Note Pharaoh's waverings, relentings, and anon persistence; and also the occasional passionate entreaties of the hardened sinner on behalf of the awestruck and repentant people. But "whom the gods purpose to destroy they first of all madden."

IV. EFFECTS.

1. On the Egyptians. Leading some finally to attach themselves to the redeemed of the Lord.

2. On Moses. Called to a stupendous work. Timid. Trained to confidence in God, and obedience to his slightest word. Note! - So God is ever training his servants.

3. On Israel, through Moses.

V. LESSONS. The main ones of this great controversy.

1. The object of God in dealing with men. To beat down the idolatries of the human heart - to reveal himself - his law - his salvation - to reconcile men with himself.

2. The inevitable conflict, i.e. until God's purpose be accomplished. Show the reality of this conflict in the case of every sinner. Message after message, mercy after mercy, judgment after judgment. If men will not be reconciled, then there must be antagonism; to that antagonism there can be but one end. It is in this sense that Amos challenges Israel - "Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." This is the word of the Lord as "a man of war."

3. The futility of the repentance of fear. Case of Pharaoh. Case of every sinner. Fear, however, has its mission - to awaken to concern. But no repentance is solid, lasting in its effect, but that which takes place in view of the love of our Father as seen in the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. - R.

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KJV: And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

WEB: Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.