Sermon manuscript:

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 

¹⁴ The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. ¹⁵ They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. ¹⁷ Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” 

¹⁸ So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. ¹⁹ And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. ²⁰ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

Prayer

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 

be acceptable in your sight, 

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

Introduction

In the summer of 1874, trillions of locusts wrought havoc on the great planes. From Montana to the Dakota and Minnesota, they would make their way to Texas. 

There was little that farmers could do to stop them. Word of the coming invasion spread faster than the locusts, but even with advanced warning, there was little to stop swarms of locusts. Some farmers set fires around the perimetrs of their fields, but with so many locusts, there are also accounts of them smothering out fires. 

That same summer, Laura, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls along with Ma and Pa moved to Plum Creek in Minnesota. In “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” Laura Ingalls Wilder describes the invasion: 

“Plunk! Something hit Laura’s head and fell to the ground. She looked down and saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen. Then huge brown grasshoppers were hitting the ground all around her, hitting her head and her face and her arms. They came thudding down like hail.

The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm…

Grasshoppers covered the ground, there was not one bare bit to step on. Laura had to step on grasshoppers and they smashed squirming and slimy under her feet.…

(she continues)

Then Laura heard another sound, one big sound made of tiny nips and snips and gnawings.… The grasshoppers were eating.… You could hear the millions of jaws biting and chewing.… Day after day the grasshoppers kept on eating. They ate all the wheat and the oats. They ate every green thing—all the garden and all the prairie grass.… The whole prairie was bare and brown. Millions of brown grasshoppers whirred low over it. Not a green thing was in sight anywhere.”

Today, we’re continuing our series in Exodus and looking at the Ten Plagues. 

After suffering through a series of plagues, having the ecosystem turned upside down, the deaths of livestock, painful boils, historical hail storms, we see a plague of locusts. 

And like the Great Plains invasion of locusts in 1874, we will read of the incredible destruction brought forth by locusts in Exodus.

And so we’ll jump right into the passage this morning. We will be shorter than normal. 

And our three points will be the scenes of the passage. 

We’ll see the plague warned, we’ll see a failed negotiation attempt, we’ll see the plague brought to fruition, and we’ll see Pharaoh’s efforts to see the plague stopped. 

With that, we’ll jump into our passage this morning and look at the plague warned. 

1. The plague warned 

Beginning in verses 1-2:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, ² and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” 

Verse 2 gets at the generational nature of the work which the Lord is doing in this plague and in all of the plagues. 

The Exodus is meant to be a generational event. For the Israelites, it was something meant for their children, and grandchildren, and for future generatyions, up to today as we are given this story as an example of the glorious miracles that the Lord did to free his people from slavery in Egypt. 

The Exodus is the gospel of the Old Testament. 

It is constantly pointed back to. 

Dozens of references to this are made throughout the rest of the Old Testament, while we are constantly pointed to the importance of remembering these events. 

It’s mentioned in Exodus 20 when God gives the Ten commandments. During their desert wanderings, the Israelties are pointed back to God’s redeeming work in bringing them out of Egypt. In later generations, the prophets point back to this in contrast with Israel’s failure to follow God’s covenant. 

For the Israelites, they had a story that pointed them back to God’s great act of redemption in freeing them from slavery in Egypt. 

And for Christians, we have a story that points us back to God’s great act of redemption in freeing us from the slavery of sin through the grace of Christ. 

As the Israelites were to tell their children and their grandchildren about what God had done for them, we are called to tell the next generation about what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. 

Stories are powerful in communicating lessons, values, teaching us about where we came from and who we are. 

And the gospel does all of that. 

In his commentary of Exodus, Philip Ryken says: “It explains who we are: the people of God. It explains where we came from: a life of sin and misery. It explains where we are going: to live with Christ in mansions of glory. It explains who God is: the Father of mercy and love. And it explains why we are here: to glorify God by living for Christ.” 

Stories are powerful. 

A great movie can be enjoyed over and over again. 

A great family story can be told and retold and even though you know what happened, it still makes you laugh. 

And God’s story matters. In both the Exodus, and the gospel, and throughout the Bible, we see God’s story of redeeming and restoring a sinful humanity to himself. 

In verse 2, God says that in telling this story to future generations, you may know that I am God. 

The stories of God’s work are powerful. 

And it matters that we tell that story. 

If I saved your life, you’d tell people about it. 

We honor those who do great things to save, preserve, and protect others. 

Yet we often don’t tell people about the God who saved our soul. 

Why is that? 

We’re called to share that story both with our children but also with the world. 

Again, through the story of what God has done and is doing in the world, that stirs the human heart. That points people to God. That points people to goodness.

And that points people to true life.  

That we were sinful people and we were dead in our sins. But Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world. He lived a life without sin. He lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserved so that we could have eternal life with him in heaven. 

And that’s the truest thing there is. And that’s the greatest reality there is. 

And that’s the gospel. 

We don’t have to get it all figured out. We don’t have to get everything right. We have to come to Jesus. 

Romans 10:13 says that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. When we believe and trust in Jesus, there is forgiveness and life. 

In Exodus, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh with the warning of this plague of locusts. 

Exodus 10:3-6:

³ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. ⁴ For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, ⁵ and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, ⁶ and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’ 

There we have the official warning of the plague of locusts which will come if he continues to refuse allowing the Israelites to go. 

Moses says that they will cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land. 

And when he’s had seven other plagues and he’s told a plague of locusts will come, Pharaoh still does not relent. The passage says that the Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. 

While Pharaoh doesn’t want to allow the Israelites to leave, some of his advisors are starting to have a change of heart. 

Verse 7: 

⁷ Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” 

Pharaoh’s servants look at all of the destruction and feel like their society is ruined and are saying “just let them go. What’s it all for?” 

2. A failed negotiation 

Verse 8, we see a brief scene where Pharaoh tries to negotiate. This is something else that we’ve seen in other plagues. Attempts at bargaining with the Lord. 

We don’t have any leverage with an all powerful Lord. 

Pharaoh will fain willingness to release some of the Israelites. 

⁸ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?

So Pharaoh says that they can go, but then he asks “which ones are to go?”

He doesn’t want all of the Israelites to go. If some stay back, that will increase the likelihood they’ll return. 

But Moses has been directed by the Lord and is not in a position to negotiate. 

” ⁹ Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”

In other words, everyone will go. 

In verse 11, Pharaoh will say: 

¹¹ No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.”

So Pharaoh was only willing to allow the men to go for this religious pilgrimage. Again, he’s counting on them coming back to Egypt if their wives and children are left behind. 

But that will not do. 

This worship and God’s plan is not just meant for the Israelite men. It’s men for the entire Israelite people. 

And since Pharaoh has again refused to listen to the Lord, he will now have to bear the full force of the Lord’s judgment. 

3. The eighth plague: locusts

Verses 13-15:

¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. ¹⁴ The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 

¹⁵ They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

And the destruction is unleashed. 

When the text says that the locusts covered the ground, that’s probably not much of an exaggeration. I think about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoir. 

I have a couple of clips of locusts that we’ll look at in a moment. 

But here are a few facts about locusts.

The desert locust is the most destructive pest on earth. 

In many parts of the world, they’re a common nuisance. 

But when the conditions are right, when there are heavy rains and wet soil, a physical change happens in locusts which gives the conditions for them forming massive swarms where they begin to reproduce rapidly. 

While one locust is insignificant, a massive swarms of locusts can cause almost unimaginable damage. 

Some good news for us. The Rocky Mountain locust which plagued the Great Plains in the 1870s actually went extinct in 1902 and North America has no native locust species. 

A locust swarm can have over 100 million locusts in a square mile, and a swarm can be the size of a city. Large swarms can have tens of billions of locusts. 

Locusts eat nearly their body weight in a day. They will eat crops, flowers, leaves, grains, and tree bark. And if they run out of food, locusts will cannibalize each other. From 2003-2005, swarms did more than $2.5 billion dollars in crop losses in West Africa. 

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of locusts in a square mile can consume the same amount of food in a day as 35,000 people. 

And they’re mobile. A locust can cover 120 miles in a day. In 1988, swarms from Africa made it to England. 

Last year, and continuing this year, due to heavy rains, several countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia had plagues of locusts which have impacted the food supplies for millions of people. 

In our passage, verse 15 gets at the impact of the locusts.

Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

And something to keep in mind. We live in a time and place where there are lots of resources. If we don’t have enough food, there are things that can be done. It might cost more. But we are able to get food. 

The Egyptians losing crops to hail in the last plauge and then to locusts in this plague would be incredibly perilous and difficult. 

But as we’ve seen with other plagues, the Lord uses something natural to the world as an instrument of judgment. 

Sin is serious. And the sin of Pharaoh was serious as he continued to refuse to release the Israelites. 

Earlier in the chapter, Pharaoh had arrogantly dealt with Moses and Aaron, but amid the destruction of the locusts, he must again come to them with his tail between his legs. 

And that brings us to our fourth and final scene. 

4. Pharaoh’s effort to stop the plague

And as he’s done before, he’ll talk the talk when he says in verse 16:

¹⁶ Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. ¹⁷ Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” 

We’ve seen this pattern in some of the other plagues where Pharaoh asks for intervention, he asks for Moses to intercede and go to the Lord on his behalf. 

Pharaoh uses a lot of the right language. He talks of his sin and asks for forgiveness. 

We’ve seen it before. 

And Moses takes this apology before the Lord in verse 18. 

Verse 19:

¹⁹ And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. ²⁰ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

The Lord answers the prayer. 

The Lord wipes out the locusts in the Red Sea. It’s foreshadowing what will happen to Pharaoh himself in chapter 14. 

But how does Pharaoh respond to this prayer being answered? 

The section ends by saying that he did not let the people of Israel go. 

Once again, Pharaoh reneges. 

Here’s what’s so amazing about the whole story. 

Pharaoh keeps seeing the Lord answer his prayers, and yet never listens to God, never worships God, never turns to God in faith. Instead, Pharaoh continues to be spared and whatever repentance he just spoke of, we see what is ultimately insincere as we see time and again that he has not been changed. 

Pharaoh might say he’s sorry and use the right language in talking about his sin when he’s suffering. That is interesting in itself. He knows the language to use. He has some concept of what he ought to say or why he’s wrong. But whenever things return to normal, he continues in direct rebellion against God. 

Empty and faithless words. Wanting God’s blessing but not wanting God. Wanting God’s grace but not wanting to live for God. 

There’s nothing new under the sun. People still play these games today. People want cheap grace. People want easy grace. They want God to do what they want him to do so that they can go back to doing what they want to do. 

God is patient. He’s slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. But he is also righteous and just. God continues to give chances. Pharaoh has again and again made promises to free the Israelites and then refused. God knows all of this.

But there will be a time when our time runs out. 

And there will ultimately be a day of reckoning. 

And while God is gracious and merciful, he does not compromise on insincere faith. He doesn’t tolerate phony moralism. And he will not accept disingenuous confessions and repentance. God is all knowing. He knows who we are. He knows our hearts. He knows where our faith is. 

Let us not go through life playing games. Let our plan not be a death bed confession. 

But let us live for God today. Why? Because that’s the truest way to live, it’s the best way to live, and it’s the blessed way to live. 

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