Pharaoh now offered the Israelites permission to sacrifice in Egypt, but they refused. “It is not right to do so,” said Moses. “If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us?” The animals that the Hebrews would be required to sacrifice were among those the Egyptians regarded as sacred—to kill one even accidentally was a crime punishable with death.
Moses again proposed to go three days’ journey into the wilderness. The monarch agreed and begged the servants of God to ask God to remove the plague. They promised to do this but warned him against dealing deceitfully with them. The plague was stopped, but the king’s heart had become hardened by persistent rebellion, and he still refused to yield.
A more terrible blow followed—a plague of disease came upon all the Egyptian cattle. Both the sacred animals and the beasts of burden—cows and oxen and sheep, horses and camels and donkeys—were destroyed. It had been clearly stated that the Hebrews were to be exempt; and Pharaoh, on sending messengers to the home of the Israelites, confirmed the truth of this. “Of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.” Still the king refused to yield.
Moses was next directed to take ashes from a furnace and “scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.” The fine particles spread over the land of Egypt, and wherever they settled, they produced boils that broke out “in sores on man and beast.” The priests and magicians had encouraged Pharaoh in his stubbornness, but now a judgment had reached even them. Struck with a repulsive and painful disease, they were no longer able to fight against the God of Israel. The magicians were not even able to protect their own bodies.
Still the heart of Pharaoh grew harder. And now the Lord sent a message to him, “At this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. ... But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you.” God’s providence had overruled events to place him on the throne at the very time appointed for Israel’s deliverance.
Although this proud tyrant had forfeited the mercy of God, his life had been preserved so that through his stubbornness the Lord could reveal His wonders in Egypt. God’s people were permitted to experience the grinding cruelty of the Egyptians so that they would not be deceived concerning the degrading influence of idolatry. In His dealing with Pharaoh, the Lord showed His hatred of idolatry and His determination to punish cruelty and oppression.
God had declared concerning Pharaoh, “I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go” (Exodus 4:21). No supernatural power hardened the heart of the king, but the seeds of rebellion that he sowed when he rejected the first miracle produced their harvest. As he dared to continue from one degree of stubbornness to another, his heart became more and more hardened, until he was called to look upon the cold, dead faces of the firstborn.
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