Exodus 9:13-35 -- Hail Falls from the Sky

Exodus 9:13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. 14 Otherwise, I am going to send all My plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like Me in all the earth.15 By now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth. 16 However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth. 17 You are still acting arrogantly against My people by not letting them go. 18 Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Therefore give orders to bring your livestock and all that you have in the field into shelters. Every person and animal that is in the field and not brought inside will die when the hail falls on them.”

As I read this, I think of how Moses was being obedient to the Lord's commands.  Early on, he had a lot of objections to this plan, especially telling God he was not qualified to do the work, but now, Moses does everything the Lord tells him to.  Another thing that struck me was that the Lord gave them a way out of this plague.  He said if the bring their people and animals inside, then they would be spared.  He said that anything or anyone left outside would be destroyed,

Exodus 9:20 Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the Lord made their servants and livestock flee to shelters, 21 but those who didn’t take the Lord’s word seriously left their servants and livestock in the field.

 After all that the Lord had shown the Egyptians through Moses and his plagues, there were some who still did not believe in the Lord's power.  They were obstinate and left their livestock and servants outside.

Exodus 9:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt—on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.” 23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field. 26 The only place it didn’t hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

God destroyed everything.  Man.  Beast.  Plants.  All the crops that had not been gathered was destroyed.  All the animals that had not been put to shelter were killed.  Every man who stayed outside lost their life.  The land of Israel was spared.

Exodus 9:27 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “I have sinned this time,” he said to them. “Yahweh is the Righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones. 28 Make an appeal to Yahweh. There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t need to stay any longer.”
29 Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will extend my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth belongs to Yahweh. 30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh our God.”

Moses knew that Pharaoh and the officials did not fear God.  They still held beliefs in their own gods even though our Lord showed his complete power over the gods of Egypt.

Exodus 9:31 The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe and the flax was budding, 32 but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops.

Here we see some mercy from the Lord in this plague.  Yes, the crops that were already planted and near to harvest were destroyed and the Egyptians had to suffer temporarily from lack of grains, they did have the harvest of wheat and spelt to look forward to.  It was not God's intent to utterly destroy the Egyptians, just to brake them enough to recognize his power and authority over all functions of the earth.

Exodus 9:33 Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land. 34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials. 35 So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

I know Moses was not surprised at this reaction.  He knew that Pharaoh and his officials did not fear God properly. They wanted their comfort back.  They wanted to rebuild what was lost, but they did not want to acknowledge God and what he had done.   Once things were back to normal, Pharaoh and his officials recanted what had previously been said,

There are other times in the Bible when the Lord uses hail as a judgment on wicked and evil people.

Joshua 10:6 Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Don’t abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, for all the Amorite kings living in the hill country have joined forces against us.” 7 So Joshua and his whole military force, including all the fighting men, came from Gilgal.
8 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have handed them over to you. Not one of them will be able to stand against you.”
9 So Joshua caught them by surprise, after marching all night from Gilgal. 10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel. He defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them through the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel, the Lord threw large hailstones on them from the sky along the descent of Beth-horon all the way to Azekah, and they died. More of them died from the hail than the Israelites killed with the sword.

Here, the Lord handed over the enemy of Joshua to his army.  They defeated them and as the defeated army fled, the Lord rained hail down on them, taking out more men that the Israelite army did.

Psalm 48:47 He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48 He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.

Here, Psalm is talking about the punishment God gave to Israel during their disobedience while they wandered through the desert.

Revelation 16:21 Enormous hailstones, each weighing about 100 pounds, fell from the sky on people, and they blasphemed God for the plague of hail because that plague was extremely severe.

At the end times, a hail storm will come and devastate everything.  People will curse God because of the hail instead of recognizing his power and authority.

As you see from these examples, hail is used as a judgment from God in the Bible.  God uses hail to show his power and might over many parts of nature.  Weather.  Life and Death.  Food.  Comfort.  And so much more.  God is all powerful and the righteous judge.  He brings the hail down on wicked people to they can see his power and might.  So they can know he is the one true, all powerful God.