Exodus 9

v1-7: We cannot say with any certainty “what we will do tomorrow.” Not so, with God. He can say, “tomorrow it will be done.”

v8-12: “If people shut their eyes to the light, God is just to close their eyes.” Pharaoh had hardened his own heart and resisted the grace God was showing to him, and so “now God justly gave him up to his own heart’s sinful desires, to a degenerate mind, and strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and hardened him, and ordering everything from now on so as to make him more and more obstinate.”

v13-17: God raised Pharaoh to this position of “honour and power,” and spared him long enough that he become “intolerably defiant,” so “that he may be more glorified in [Pharaoh’s] eventual destruction.”

v18-21: When God threatens ruin, He shows His mercy by providing “a way of escape from it.” Those that “will accept the warning may take shelter,” and those “who will not accept the warning” and counsel He gives, have only themselves to blame if they perish.

v22-35: It is possible to speak words of repentance and have hearts that are hardened the whole time. “The fear of punishment often draws out repentant confessions from those who have no deep sense of repentance.”

Exodus 10

v1-7: The plagues that were inflicted upon Egypt were “recorded for generations to come as undeniable proofs” of God’s power. “These plagues are memorials to the greatness of God, the happiness of the church, and the sinfulness of sin, and constant reminders to the whole human race not to provoke the Lord to jealousy nor to strive with their Maker.”

v8-11: Satan will do all that he can to hinder God’s people from “bringing their children” to worship and serve God. “He is a sworn enemy to godliness in children, knowing how destructive it is to the interests of his kingdom.”

v12-20: “Those who truly repent of their sin mourn sin as an offence committed against God.”

v21-29: Pharaoh tried bargaining with God, but God will not lower His standards. “It is common for sinners to bargain with almighty God. They will leave some sins, but not all; they will leave their sins for a time, but they will not say their final goodbye to them. They will allow him a part of their hearts, but the world and the flesh must also have a part.” Let us not do this.