Exodus 9:8-12 comments: boils

8 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. 10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast. 11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. 12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

Remember how when we considered Job that God gave Satan permission to give him boils all over his body?

Job 2:7 ¶  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 8  And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

Here is a point, also, of defining words in the Bible. Verse 9 refers to a boil breaking forth with blains. Blains, an inflammatory swelling or sore, is how the boils were expressed as they filled with pus and were very painful, preventing the magicians from even appearing to try to combat Moses. So, again, we see the Harry Potter wannabes unable to deal with what God is doing. (For all of you fans of Rowling’s books and the movies, keep in mind that a ‘muggle’ used by God is capable of far more than any graduate of Hogwarts.)

The furnace from which the ashes come carries with it an interesting comparison. Egypt is likened to an iron furnace. Imagine a brick-kiln, a furnace where bricks are baked.

Deuteronomy 4:20  But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

1Kings 8:51  For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

Jeremiah 11:4  Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:

Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. A rod turned into a serpent, infestations of frogs, lice, and flies, a great plague among the Egyptian cattle, and now boils on the Egyptians themselves, but still this Pharaoh, that great type of Antichrist, refuses to yield to the God who created him and who gives him every moment of life. If you find this hard to believe remember how Germany and Japan’s leaders in World War Two kept ordering them to their destruction even when it was clear that all possibility of victory was gone and their homelands were on the verge of being invaded. Pride is a powerful drug.

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.