YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

In baseball, if a batter gets three strikes, he's out. In California, a person convicted of three felonies is in the clinker for life. We've followed Pharaoh to the fifth strike and he's still as stubborn as a mule in spite of a lot of discomfort and annoyances.

God said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him, 'GOD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Release my people so they can worship me. If you refuse to release them and continue to hold on to them. I'm giving you fair warning: GOD will come down hard on your livestock out in the fields - horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep - striking them with a severe disease. GOD will draw a sharp line between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. Not one animal that belongs to the Israelites will die.’

"Then GOD set the time: 'Tomorrow GOD will do this thing.'

"And the next day GOD did it. All the livestock of Egypt died, but not one animal of the Israelites died. Pharaoh sent men to find out what had happened and there it was; none of the livestock of the Israelites had died - not one death. . . (The Message).

Do you hate to see an animal suffer as much as I do? My cat jumped onto a hot charcoal grill one night and burned himself. Even though this poor animal smelled like burned hair, I stayed up most of the night doing everything I could to make Spook comfortable. I sought the best veterinarian I could find to treat and give me advice on how to keep Maggie, my English Springer Spaniel, healthy and alive for 161⁄2 years. We've all seen the pitiful sight of cows with mad cow disease falling over as they tried to walk or stand. The normal person wants to help a suffering animal. Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man regards the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” Even though Pharaoh knew what would happen to all the animals in Egypt, his stubbornness persisted. He wouldn't release God's people.

God was not impressed with Pharaoh's hard heart and stubbornness. This time He didn't have Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh to let His people go or there would be boils. What He did say was, "Take ashes from the kiln. Moses, toss it into the sky as Pharaoh watches. It will spread like fine dust over all the land of Egypt and cause boils to break out upon people and
animals alike, throughout the land." Pharaoh's magicians couldn't attempt to duplicate this plague because they were suffering from boils. God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he still tenaciously refused to let the Israelites go worship God. How did God harden Pharaoh's heart? All He had to do was remove the plague and Pharaoh was as stubborn as a mule.

God was growing weary of Pharaoh’s stubbornness and beginning to tighten the screws. For the seventh time, God sent Moses to Pharaoh to say: "Let my people go to worship me." God said that He could have killed Pharaoh by now, but He didn't because He wanted to demonstrate His power to all the earth. Arrogant Pharaoh still thought he was great and could defy God's power by refusing to let God's people go.

God told Moses, "Tomorrow about this time I will send a hailstorm across the nation such as there has never been since Egypt was founded! Quick! Bring in your cattle from the
fields, for every man and animal left out in the fields will die beneath the hail!" (Exodus 9:19, TLB). That must have been some storm. Even some Egyptians realized that when God said He was going to do something that He was not kidding, and they had better take cover. They brought their cattle and slaves in from the fields. But those who had no regard for God left them out in the storm. Moses held out his hand, and God sent thunder, hail, and lightning. It was awesome! All Egypt lay in ruins. The land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was the only spot in Egypt without hail that day.

This got Pharaoh's attention and he sent for Moses and Aaron. "I finally see my fault." Pharaoh told them. He said He would let the Israelites go at once if God would only put an end to the terrifying thunder and hail. Moses agreed even though he knew that Pharaoh wouldn't obey God. When Moses lifted his hands to heaven to the Lord, the thunder, hail, and rain stopped. But... for the seventh time, Pharaoh refused to let God's people go.

The one lesson that should ring in your ears is that God is not impressed with your self-importance, arrogance, self-will, stubbornness, and hard-heartedness. These things do not reap good things. Quite the contrary! These characteristics in Egypt's leader brought much pain and suffering, both to man and beast, and destroyed Pharaoh's nation. Samuel told King Saul, "Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" 1( Samuel 15:22b-23a).

Being tenacious can be a good or bad character trait. If you're tenaciously stubborn in rejecting God's will in your life, this is iniquity or sin and idolatry. You're putting your own person, your own self-interest and self-preservation before what God wants you to do. On the other hand, if you tenaciously obey and follow God, blessings will follow you all the days of your life and you'll make it into God’s Kingdom. This is serious business and young adults can't learn this lesson too soon. Will you tenaciously obey and follow God?