Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 110
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
9:26–10:8
destroyed. The only place without hail was the region of Goshen, where
the people of Israel lived.
Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have
sinned,” he confessed. “The Lord is the righteous one, and my people and
I are wrong. Please beg the Lord to end this terrifying thunder and hail.
We’ve had enough. I will let you go; you don’t need to stay any longer.”
“All right,” Moses replied. “As soon as I leave the city, I will lift my hands
and pray to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail will stop, and you will
know that the earth belongs to the Lord. But I know that you and your
officials still do not fear the Lord God.”
(All the flax and barley were ruined by the hail, because the barley had
formed heads and the flax was budding. But the wheat and the emmer
wheat were spared, because they had not yet sprouted from the ground.)
So Moses left Pharaoh’s court and went out of the city. When he lifted
his hands to the Lord, the thunder and hail stopped, and the downpour
ceased. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped,
he and his officials sinned again, and Pharaoh again became stubborn.
Because his heart was hard, Pharaoh refused to let the people leave, just as
the Lord had predicted through Moses.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Return to Pharaoh and make your demands again. I have made him and his officials stubborn so I can display
my miraculous signs among them. I’ve also done it so you can tell your
children and grandchildren about how I made a mockery of the Egyptians
and about the signs I displayed among them—and so you will know that
I am the Lord.”
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord,
the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to submit to me?
Let my people go, so they can worship me. If you refuse, watch out! For
tomorrow I will bring a swarm of locusts on your country. They will cover
the land so that you won’t be able to see the ground. They will devour what
little is left of your crops after the hailstorm, including all the trees growing in the fields. They will overrun your palaces and the homes of your
officials and all the houses in Egypt. Never in the history of Egypt have
your ancestors seen a plague like this one!” And with that, Moses turned
and left Pharaoh.
Pharaoh’s officials now came to Pharaoh and appealed to him. “How
long will you let this man hold us hostage? Let the men go to worship the
Lord their God! Don’t you realize that Egypt lies in ruins?”
So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “All right,” he told
them, “go and worship the Lord your God. But who exactly will be going
with you?”
