Today when the Lord gets Moses up, He gives him His longest speech recorded in our story of the 10 Plagues. Basically, the Lord appears to Moses and starts with the typical instructions: Get up and go see Pharaoh. Tell him that the Lord says, "Let My people go that they may worship Me." But now it starts to get interesting. "For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go." (Exodus 9:14-17) In this speech, we see the Lord getting more personal. He zeroes right in on Pharaoh's sin and His purpose for the plagues.
Pharaoh's Sin: Idolatry (of himself!) "You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go." (Exodus 9:17)
God's Purpose: To show His power and proclaim His great name. "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." (Exodus 9:16) The Lord said to Pharaoh, "You know, I could have smote you long ago and wiped your entire nation off the planet, but I have a purpose, and that's to show my power." Pharaoh's idolatry attempted to thwart mighty God's plan, but we know that none can stay His hand. (Daniel 4:35)
So we've seen the Lord show His power and glory through blood. Through frogs. Through gnats. Through flies. Through the death of the Egyptian livestock. Through boils. And now ... through hail. Yes, the Lord made His name great through a hail storm.
Now this was no ordinary hail storm. This was "hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation." (Exodus 9:24) This hail "struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field." (Exodus 9:25) These were no jelly-bean size pieces of hail. These were grapefruit size pieces of hail, not to mention the flashing fire, or lightning, as the HCSB translates it.
I love what happens next. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.'" (Exodus 9:27) Pharaoh doesn't wait for Moses to come to him; he calls straight for the man himself! Then he utters a beautiful phrase: "The LORD is in the right, and I ... [am] in the wrong." I love that! But I love what he says next too. I can just see Pharaoh's eyes wandering to the window, where the storm crashes and roars outside. "Plead with the LORD," he says, "for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." (Exodus 9:28) Pharaoh's finally had enough of "God's thunder." I just have to say, if God's thunder boomed and crashed against me, it wouldn't take too long for me to have enough! God is too powerful to have as an enemy.
Well, the Israelites are finally free to go ... as long as the biggest storm Egypt has ever seen dissipates. "So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth." (Exodus 9:33) It truly amazes me how the Lord can powerfully strike Egypt with plague after plague and then stop them in an instant. With a snap of His mighty fingers, the rain and the hail can completely vanish, yet with another snap, they can start right back up again.
"But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses." (Exodus 9:34-35) Well what do you know? Pharaoh changed his mind. Imagine that. I just have to say, if I didn't have complete and utter trust in the Lord's sovereign power over Egypt and this indecisive Pharaoh, I'd wonder if the Israelites were ever going to be free. But, thankfully, I do trust the Lord's power; I also know that these plagues have a purpose, and that this one perturbed pharaoh is not in control. And that is really, really awesome.