Exodus 9:13-19

Exodus 9:13

The message illustrates:

I. The longsuffering of God towards sinners. Pharaoh had been insolent and blasphemous, cruel and vindictive, pitiless and false. Yet God had spared him. So longsuffering was He, that He even now addressed to him fresh warnings and gave Him fresh signs of His power, thus by His goodness leading men to repentance.

II. The power of God to break the will even of the most determined sinner. First He sends slight afflictions, then more serious ones; finally, if the stubborn will still refuses to bend, He visits the offender with "all His plagues."

III. The fact that all resistance of God's will by sinners tends to increase, and is designed to increase, His glory. "The fierceness of man turns to God's praise." Men see God's hand in the overthrow of His enemies, and His glory is thereby increased. The message sent by God to Pharaoh adds that the result was designed (see ver. 16, and cf. Exodus 14:17; Exodus 15:14; Joshua 2:9).

G. Rawlinson, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. v., p. 223.

References: Exodus 9:16. R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England,p. 146. Exodus 9:27. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iii., No. 113.Exodus 9:34; Exodus 9:35. W. Denton, The Sunday Magazine,1875, p. 97.