Yet think not thou, amidst thy warlike bands,
They lie beyond redemption in thine hands.
The God in whom they trust may help them still,
They know He can deliver, and He will:
Whether by life or death afflicts them not;
On His decree, not thine, they rest their lot.
—Montgomery.
God gave to Moses and Aaron power to do wonderful things, miraculous things, that through them Pharaoh might know that the power of God was with them.
Aaron went before Pharaoh, and, throwing down his rod before him, it turned to a serpent.
But Pharaoh only laughed. "My wise men can do as much," he said. So he called them. They also did in like manner, but the rod of Aaron swallowed up the rods of Pharaoh's wise men.
Now, it is the river Nile that makes Egypt the fertile, fruitful country that it is. Without it Egypt would be a burning desert. The Egyptians well knew this. One day Moses went down to the waters, and, stretching his rod out over them, turned them to blood. The people were frightened.
The fish died; and no man could drink of the water.
Then Moses stretched out his rod again across the water; and behold thousands upon thousands of frogs came up out of the water. They infested the land. The houses were full of them. They sprang upon the banquet table of the king; and when he went to bed they were there also.
Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and said, "Take away these horrible frogs, and I will set thy people free."
Moses raised his rod again, and the frogs disappeared. There was rest in the land again.
But when they were gone, Pharaoh hardened his heart again. He would not let the Israelites go.
"Stretch forth thy rod again," came the word of God to Moses. He stretched forth his rod, and another plague fell upon the country. The ground was covered with lice, and the lice swarmed upon the animals and upon the people.
Then Moses went to Pharaoh and said, "Let my people go; but if thou wilt not, I will send flies upon thee and upon thy people; but I will send no flies upon the Israelites."
But Pharaoh would not listen. And the flies came—wasps and biting insects. But none of these came near the Israelites, though about the homes of the Egyptians they swarmed until Pharaoh, beside himself with torment, called upon Moses to deliver him from the plague, promising again to free the people of Israel.
Again this plague was lifted; and again Pharaoh perjured his soul. For no sooner was he free, than again he refused to let the people go.
Then the Lord sent Moses again into the presence of the king. "If thou wilt not let the people go," said Moses to Pharaoh, "then a plague shall fall upon the cattle; and not one shall be left alive to all the Egyptians; but those of the Israelites shall be free from harm."
Pharaoh made no answer; and on the morrow the plague fell, and not only the cattle but the magicians were covered with boils. Besides this, a terrible storm came. The trees were broken down, and the crops in the fields were destroyed.
Pharaoh was terrified. Famine he knew now would follow; for they had neither meat nor corn for food. And again he promised freedom to the Israelites.
But when the storm had ceased, and the crops were again growing, he forgot his terror, and freed not the people.
Then the locusts came, millions upon millions of them. They swarmed upon every bit of green in all the land and devoured it,—the leaves, the grass, and the newly-growing crops. Not a leaf nor a blade was left. And again famine sent terror into the soul of Pharaoh. And again he promised freedom to the Israelites; and again he refused, when the plague was lifted, to keep his promise.
THE PLAGUE OF DARKNESS.
Then came a terrible darkness upon the country,—a darkness that no light could penetrate.
"Go, Moses," said Pharaoh again. "Go out from the land to the land thou lovest. Go; but leave behind thee thy cattle and thy possessions. Those belong to Egypt."
Now, to have set out with the great company of the Israelites without cattle and corn for food would have been worse than useless for starvation would have come upon them.
Therefore Moses answered, "No, Pharaoh, the Israelites go not forth from Egypt without their cattle and corn and all that belongs to them."
Then Pharaoh was angry, and he drove Moses forth from him, saying, "Never more let me look upon thy face!"
THE FIRST BORN SLAIN.
Moses went out from the palace and told all that had happened to the Lord.
The darkness ended in three days. Then God said, "Now will I send another and a greater plague upon Pharaoh; and after this, he will let the people go."
So God sent an angel to smite the first-born of all the Egyptians. This Moses told to his people, and bade them put a mark upon their own doorsteps, that the angel might pass by the homes of the Israelites, and leave their children unharmed.
This the Israelites did; and in the night-time the angel came. Not one house of the Israelites did he enter; but in every house of the Egyptians, when the sun rose, there lay the dead body of the oldest child.
Then a groan went up from the people. There was wailing in the streets. Pharaoh himself could bear no more. He sent for Moses and Aaron in the night time and said to them, "Rise up, you and the Israelites and all their children. Take all that you have and be gone."
Then Moses and Aaron told the people, and bade them make haste lest again Pharaoh repent. But Pharaoh's heart was too heavy. At last his proud spirit was subdued, and Moses and Aaron, with 600,000 Israelites, set out for the land of Canaan.
THE DESTROYING ANGEL.
He stopped at last,
And a mild look of sacred pity cast
Down on the sinful land where he was sent
To inflict the tardy punishment.
"Ah! yet," said he, "yet, stubborn king, repent,
Whilst thus unarm'd I stand,
Ere the keen sword of God fill my commanded hand;
Suffer but yet thyself and thine to live:
Who would, alas! believe
That it for man," said he,
"So hard to be forgiven should be,
And yet for God so easy to forgive!"
Through Egypt's wicked land his march he took,
And as he march'd the sacred first born strook
Of every womb: none did he spare,
None, from the meanest beast to Pharaoh's purple heir.
Whilst health and strength and gladness doth possess
The festal Hebrew cottages;
The blest destroyer comes not there
To interrupt the sacred cheer:
Upon their doors he read, and understood
God's protection writ in blood;
Well was he skill'd i' the character divine;
And though he passed by it in haste,
He bow'd and worshipp'd, as he pass'd,
The mighty mystery through its humble sign.
—A. Cowley