Exodus 9:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is a warning about another plague, the murrain, a deadly disease among animals. When Pharaoh’s heart was hardened again, after he seemed to give in under the earlier plague, Moses was sent to tell him that another judgment was coming. God used these warnings to test whether the earlier plagues had made any lasting impression. In this way, God’s anger against human sin is shown both in his word and in his works.

Moses still gave Pharaoh a fair chance to stop the plague: “Let my people go” (Exodus 9:1). That was still God’s demand. God wanted Israel freed, while Pharaoh kept resisting, and the question was whose word would stand. This shows how deeply God cares for his people. When the time comes to rescue them, he will give up even a whole nation rather than leave them in slavery. It also shows how reasonable God’s demands are. He asks only for what belongs to him: “They are my people, so let them go.”

Moses also described what would happen if Pharaoh refused. The Lord’s hand would strike the cattle directly, without Aaron’s staff being stretched out, and many animals would die from a disease (Exodus 9:2, Exodus 9:3). This would be a heavy loss for the owners. They had made Israel poor, and now God would make them poor. We should remember God’s hand even in the sickness or death of livestock, or any loss we suffer in them, because not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father.

God also made clear that he would set apart Israel’s cattle from the Egyptians’. Even though they breathed the same air and drank the same water, none of Israel’s animals would die (Exodus 9:4). This showed that God’s judgments may fall in the same place, yet they do not affect everyone in the same way. See (Isaiah 27:7). We should also thank God for his care over animals, because he preserves both people and beasts (Psalm 36:6).

To make the warning more striking, God fixed the time: “Tomorrow it shall be done” (Exodus 9:5). We do not know what any day will bring, so we cannot even be sure what we will do tomorrow. But it is not that way with God.

The plague came as promised. The cattle died (Exodus 9:6). Creation was made subject to ruin because of human sin, and in some measure it shares in human punishment, as it did in the flood (Romans 8:20, Romans 8:22). Pharaoh and the Egyptians had sinned, but what had the sheep done? Yet they suffered. See (Jeremiah 12:4). Because of the wickedness of a land, even the animals are consumed. The Egyptians had later worshiped cattle, and some think they were doing so even then. It was among them that Israel later learned to worship a calf. In this plague, God struck at that very sin. What we turn into an idol, God is able to take away or make bitter to us (Isaiah 19:1).

God also made a clear difference between the cattle of Egypt and the cattle of Israel, just as he had said. Not one of Israel’s cattle died (Exodus 9:6, Exodus 9:7). God does care about oxen, and his providence reaches even the smallest creatures. But this is also written for our good, so that when we trust God and make him our refuge, we will not fear the plague that comes in darkness, even if thousands fall around us (Psalm 91:6, Psalm 91:7).

Pharaoh sent to check whether the Israelites’ cattle had been affected, but he did not do it to learn the truth and obey God. He was either satisfying his curiosity or hoping to recover his own losses by taking from them. Since he had no good purpose in asking, the report did not move him. Instead, his heart grew harder. Those who stubbornly refuse the truth can even turn the means meant to lead to life into something that brings greater judgment.