Exodus 9:8 - Meaning and Application

Observe here, about the plague of boils and blains, sores and swollen spots on the skin.

I. When the death of their cattle did not move the Egyptians, God sent a plague that struck their own bodies and hurt them deeply. If smaller warnings do not do the work, God can send greater ones. So let us humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and meet him through his judgments, so that his anger may turn away from us.

II. The sign that called for this plague was the tossing of warm ashes from the furnace into the air (Exo 9:8, Exo 9:10). This pointed to the air being heated with an infection that would bring painful boils on the Egyptians. Right after the ashes were scattered, a scorching dew came down and blistered wherever it touched. Sometimes God makes people feel their sin through the shape of their punishment. The Egyptians had oppressed Israel in furnaces, and now the ashes of a furnace became as frightening to them as their taskmasters had been to the Israelites.

III. The plague itself was very severe. Even a common skin eruption would be hard to bear, especially for people who were refined and delicate, but these were inflamed sores, like Job’s (Job 2:7). It is later called the boils of Egypt (Deu 28:27), as if it were a new disease, never heard of before, and remembered afterward by that name. Sores in the body should remind us of sin’s punishment, and they should call us to repent.

IV. The magicians themselves were struck with these boils (Exo 9:11). In this, they were punished for helping harden Pharaoh’s heart, as Elymas did when he tried to turn people from the right ways of the Lord. God will deal severely with those who strengthen wicked people in their evil. They were also punished for pretending to copy the earlier plagues and for making sport of Moses and Aaron. Those who try to produce lice will, against their will, end up producing boils. It is dangerous to mock God’s judgments. Do not mock, or your bonds may become stronger.

They were also shamed in front of the people who admired them. How weak their magic was, since it could not even protect themselves. The devil gives no true protection to those joined to him. At last they were driven out of the contest. Their power had been limited before (Exo 8:18), but they kept opposing Moses and supporting Pharaoh in unbelief until they were forced to retreat and could not stand before Moses. The apostle refers to this when he says their folly became plain to everyone (Ti2 3:9).

V. Pharaoh stayed stubborn, for now the Lord hardened his heart (Exo 9:12). Earlier, Pharaoh had hardened his own heart and resisted God’s grace. Now God justly gave him over to his own stubborn desires, to a mind that could no longer judge rightly, and to strong lies. God allowed Satan to blind and harden him, and he ordered everything after that in a way that made Pharaoh more and more obstinate. Willful hardness is usually punished with judicial hardness, meaning God’s righteous act of giving a person over to the hardness he has chosen. If people shut their eyes against the light, it is just for God to close them. We should fear this as the worst judgment a person can suffer before hell.