Study Questions for Exodus 10:21-11:10

Study Questions for Exodus 10:21-11:10

What has been happening so far?

v. 21—What did God tell Moses to do next?
Why didn’t he tell Moses to go and tell Pharaoh what was coming?
Which direction was Moses to direct his hand?
What was coming this time? How pervasive was the darkness?
Darkness that may be felt may mean darkness that is so dark that the people must feel their way around to go anywhere.

v. 22—How long did Moses wait to do what God commanded?
Does this tell you anything about what obedience means?
What did Moses to in response to God’s command?
What happened when Moses lifted up his hand? Isa. 8:22; Joel 2:2
How long did the darkness last? Can’t be an eclipse.
Where was it dark?
What is the significance of the darkness?
God is in control of what he has created. The Lord gives and the Lord can take away any time he wants. Jer. 4:23-28

v. 23—How dark was the darkness?
Could the people see even in their houses?
What about the Israelites? Isa 60:1-3; Rev. 21:18-22

v. 24—What did Pharaoh do in response to the darkness?
How did they move around to get Moses in the dark?
What was Pharaoh trying to keep in the land?
Why did he offer this?

v. 25—What did Moses want to take with him? Why?
Why wouldn’t Moses compromise and deal with Pharaoh?
What does this say about our life in Christ and before God?
Pharaoh’s offer makes provision not only to keep some of Israel’s wealth in Egypt, but more importantly it dictates to the Israelites how they are to worship God. Pharaoh will tell them how to worship rather than God telling them how he will be worshiped.

v. 26—Why did they need to take all of their livestock?
These sacrifices were the kind that were offered and then eaten before God. It refers to a feast, not burnt offerings which are consumed by the fire.
The law hadn’t been written yet and they didn’t know what to offer or how much to offer.

v. 27—What happened to Pharaoh’s heart?
And what was the result of a hardened heart? (Made strong)

v. 28—What did Pharaoh say for Moses to do?
How strong was Pharaoh’s warning to Moses?
Why didn’t Pharaoh kick Moses out of the court much earlier in the battle?
Why didn’t he just kill Moses?
“…the Bluster of an overwhelmed man denying his own powerlessness.” Mackay

v. 29—How did Moses respond to this warning?
When does Moses think he will be seeing Pharaoh next?

What happened to the darkness?

11:1-10 Transition from the first nine plagues to the last and most deadly one.

1-3 A parenthetical statement.
v. 1—What does God say to Moses next?
How many more plagues (blow or stroke) will God bring on Pharaoh?
Who is getting the plague besides Pharaoh?
Why only one more?
Who all will be going out to worship?
How will they be going?

v. 2—Who is Moses supposed to talk to about this plague?
Who has he been talking to about the plagues before?
Why will the people listen to Moses this time when they haven’t before?
What are the people supposed to do? “Ask” is used in all the other translations rather than borrow in the KJV. It is more like, what would you give me to get me to leave your country? Exo 3:21
Who are their neighbors?

v. 3—Why did the Egyptians like the Israelites at this point?
What did the Israelites think of Moses?
How about the rest of the people of Egypt?
Why didn’t they mention Pharaoh here? Pharaoh is isolated in Egypt against God by himself.

v. 4—Where is Moses when he says all of this? Vss. 7-8
What did Moses tell the people?
When would the next event happen? Midnight was the time when the Egyptian myths said the gods fought. Exo 12:12
Which day would it happen? The second gotcha
Who would be going out into the midst of Egypt?

v. 5—What will happen when God walks among the Egyptians at midnight?
How many firstborn children will die?
What is a firstborn? A man or boy of any age as long as his father is still alive.
He is the one the family focused on because he was destined to take on the family name, fortune, career, etc. He was responsible for the whole family. In Pharaoh’s case he would have been king, pharaoh of all Egypt. Everything about his life would have pointed to this end.
Why the firstborn sons? Exo 4:22
Egypt persecuted and exploited God’s firstborn and now God was going to restore the situation to the place it should have been.

v. 6—What will be the result of all the dead children?
How extensive will be the weeping?

v. 7—What will happen to the Israelite children?
What is this about dogs? Josh 10:21
Why does he mention dogs?
What is the point of killing the firstborn of Egypt but not even Dogs get to growl at the Israelites?

v. 8—Who is going to come to Moses and talk to him?
What will they do when they come to Moses?
And what will they say to him?
What was Moses response?
Why was he angry? Pharaoh wouldn’t repent

v. 9—What will Pharaoh’s response be to God’s final warning?
Why will Pharaoh ignore Moses?
How will killing all the children bring glory to God? Gen 18; Josh. 6; Rom. 9:13-24
What does it mean that all of God’s wonders are multiplied in Egypt?

v. 10—So, what did Moses and Aaron do?
Why isn’t Aaron mentioned much?
How did Pharaoh’s heart get hardened? (Made strong)
Why did Pharaoh’s heart get hardened?

The defeat of a nation by another nation was a defeat of the first nations gods by the second. So it wasn’t simply one nation destroying another nation it was also one religious system destroying another.

The point of this whole story? Don’t mess with God or the people of God. Ezek. 33:11