Monday Bible Study
Exodus Series (Study 13)
Date: 01 06 2026
Teaching by Pastor W F Kumuyi
Text: Exodus 11:1-10; Matthew 3:7,10; 13:42,50
Exodus 11:1-3
– 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
– 2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.
– 3 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people.
Matthew 3:7, 10
– 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
– 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Matthew 13:42, 50
– 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
– 50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
OPENING REMARK
Praise the Lord! I welcome everyone to our Bible study tonight in Jesus name! Studying the Bible, not just reading, or glossing over it, studying the Bible with an open heart and yielded life is the backbone of the believer and the church. That is why we thank God for all those who are with us in the Bible study today and from the headquarters here reaching out in in-depth study of the word of God. The Lord strengthens you, and makes you steadfast and gives you strong conviction as we study together in Jesus name.
INTRODUCTION
We are coming back to Exodus and we are now in chapter 11:1-10. Here we come to the final end of the series of plagues upon Egypt. The reason was that God wanted to redeem Israel out of captivity, bondage and iron furnace of the oppression of the Egyptians. This was a prelude to the redemption of Israel. The plagues have been against their gods, idols and iron will of Pharaoh in not letting Israel go. Now, there was going to be a final plague, a final outpouring of the wrath of God upon Egypt which would cause loud wailing and crying because in every home, God would visit them with an unprecedented judgement.
Before this wailing, a warning comes to them. We are looking at PROMPT WARNING BEFORE PERPETUAL WAILING. It is a picture of what will happen to the whole world. Everything we learn from Egypt and the stubborn will of Pharaoh attracting the judgement of God is to teach the whole world that the same thing that happened to sinful Egypt of that time will happen to everyone without exception that sets his will against the will, call, and commands of God. But there is a warning before the wailing.
Matthew 3:7 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He warned the Jewish rulers, the Pharisees and Sadducees who set their minds and will against the word, and Christ of God before the judgement comes.
vs 10 “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
ch 13:42,50. Judgement is coming and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth which shall be eternal and perpetual. Before this, there was a prompt warning. Every man and woman of God must be faithful in warning everyone around who are yet to be saved, sinners who indulge in sin as if it brings them joy, sinners who sin as if there is no end to life, sinners who are not conscious of eternity and the great judgement to come. We need to give them present and prompt warning before the day comes as a way to show our love for them, and because the love of God propels us to warn them because a life lived in sin will end in perpetual punishment.
A. PRESENT WARNING AFTER PREVIOUS WILFULNESS (Exodus 11:1,4-6)
Pharaoh and his people have been wilful in all his past interactions with Moses and Aaron. Now the final and present warning is coming to him. In our text, we see the present warning that God sent after all the wilfulness and stubbornness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
1. Final Warning of One More Plague (Exodus 11:1; 9:14; Isaiah 26:9-11)
ch 11:1. The final plague would be the most terrible and painful of them all.
ch 9:14. The purpose of the plague was to convince Pharaoh that there is God in heaven. He asked the question earlier, “who is that God?” He didn’t know God then, but with all the plagues, and the final one, he would be convinced. Are you convinced yet yourself that there is a God in heaven who has given us commandments to obey, who gave us His only begotten Son to save us from sin so that we can have the grace to live a holy life?
Are you convinced that God has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all on Him, and have you given your life to Christ and you are not stubbornly resisting His word?
Isaiah 26:9-11. Many times, people don’t respond favourably to favour from God, they continue to be sinful. God favours us, gives us blessings, heals us of diseases and delivers us from affliction. People say God is great and good, but that does not drive them to righteousness and holiness.
vs 10. Let favour be shown to the wicked, let blessings come to him in the form of rain to water his farms, and the sun upon the just and the unjust, yet, their minds will not change to help them turn around for good.
vs 11. This was why God had to apply the pressure of plagues of judgement to people so that they will not continue in evil and perish, but turn around and do good. But even before He does this, He sends a warning so that the people will have the chance to escape.
2. Foolish Wilfulness Against the Only Mighty Potentate (Exodus 10:7; Isaiah 45:9; 1 Timothy 6:15-16)
Wasn’t Pharaoh wilful, adamant and stubborn against the Almighty God? It is like an ant being proud and heady against an elephant, with a single stamp of his feet, the ant is gone. A man being wilful against God is an act of foolishness.
Exodus 10:7. Pharaoh’s servants spoke to the King to let the people go because their king, the throne and the land of Egypt were being destroyed.
Isaiah 45:9 “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” There was going to be heaven’s response and reaction against such foolish action. Woe unto him who fights against his maker, sorrow and sadness will be the end of it. God has many ways to bring such down to the earth.
1 Timothy 6:15-16. God is the King of kings who has power over all other kings, the Lord of lords. Plague after plague, the stubborn one will know that he has been foolish. Pharaoh could not see God, but he saw His mighty hands. He saw Moses and Aaron His messengers. Even though he could not see God, he saw the plagues.
3. Faithful Watchfulness by Observant Melted Penitents (Joshua 2:9-13; Ecclesiastes 8:11-13; Hebrews 2:1-4)
We don’t have to wait for the flood to sweep us and our properties away before we escape. Be observant and let what you see happening to Pharaoh melt your heart. Learn by observation.
Joshua 2:9. Joshua was just entering into the land of Canaan, and he heard from the report brought from Rahab in Jericho that they were already afraid because of what God did to all the nations around them. Their kings were killed and their lands destroyed. She said all these melted their hearts in fear. Has your heart melted since you’ve been hearing the word of God even when you know that no one can escape the judgement of God? Has your heart melted, have you fainted and considered that no sinner will go unpunished? By observation, knowing what God did to others, and that He never repents, have you run, pleading for mercy and forgiveness?
Ecclesiastes 8:11-12 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Because judgement does not come immediately sinners rebel, hard-hearted people continue to commit sin.
vs 12 “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:”
vs 13. It shall not be well with the wicked. Judgement will come if not now, on the other side of the grave. All unrepentant sinners will suffer forever in hell fire.
Hebrews 2:1. The things we have learned, how the plagues came one after the other, and what we learned about escaping and giving earnest heed.
vs 2-4. Every transgression done in secret and in the open will be exposed and judged. While grace and mercy and God are available, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Neglecting and belittling the great salvation shall lead to everlasting punishment in hell. He is the God of power, and applies it in positive ways to help us come to Him, so, His goodness is to bring us closer to Him and to punish sinners and melt their hardened hearts.
B. PAID WAGES FOR PROTRACTED WORKS (Exodus 11:2-3)
The children of Israel had worked hard as slaves for hundreds of years while being paid less than they deserved. So, God was using their exit from Egypt as a time to compensate them for losses incurred in their protracted labours.
Exodus 11:2. The word borrow has confused many people. In the original language in which the Bible was written, they were not to borrow, but to ask for jewels of silver and gold. Using the word borrow is indicating that they would return what they got, but the Israelites were not coming back to Egypt. Asking for those things was a way of them getting back part of what they had been shortchanged in all the hard labours of building infrastructure all over Egypt.
vs 3. God gave the children of Israel favour before the Egyptians despite all the plagues that came upon them. They did not respond with hatred at their request, because what they were asking for were wages for their protracted labours of many years. Moreover, Moses was a great man in the sight of Pharaoh and the people.
1. Predicted Wealth in Silver and Gold (Exodus 11:2-3; Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 12:35-36)
God told Abraham who was the foundation of the nation of Israel that his children would be servants in a strange land, and would be afflicted for 400 years and He would judge those who afflict them, after which they shall come forth with great wealth. We can see that the plagues were predicted, and everything came to pass to the letter.
ch 12:35-36. The word of God will not go in vain. God has said that they will serve a strange nation and they did, but they will not be there forever, He would bring them out with great riches and wealth.
2. Paid Wages for Servitude without Gain (Psalm 105:37; Malachi 3:5; James 5:4–8)
Psalms 105:37 “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” This was the workings of God to pay them back. Left to the Egyptians, they counted the children of Israel as slaves and would have sent them away empty-handed since there was no agreement on what to pay them, but the favour of God worked for them, and they got just wages for all their years of servitude.
Malachi 3:5. It is the principle of God that there will be justice. When people work for you, pay them appropriately, and don’t think that you are clever, otherwise, God will still take from you whatever you are owing them. It is better to pay them well so that the blessing of God will be upon you and you are not seen as oppressing anyone who has no one to stand for them. God will always stand for them.
James 5:4. When you keep back the right wages from the people that work and serve you, it is not right, God will hear their cries and undertake for them. It was because the cries of the children of Israel get to His ears that He compensated them accordingly.
3. Perverted Wealth Wasted on Strange gods (Exodus 32:1-4,7-8,31–33; Ezekiel 16:17-18; Hosea 10:1-2)
When the children of Israel got all the silver and gold, the Lord had something in mind for them to do. He brought them out so that they could serve and worship Him in the wilderness. In building the tabernacle, and ark of covenant, gold and silver would be needed to adorn them. Where would they have gotten such in the wilderness? But they thought that they were for them because they got them easily from Egypt.
Exodus 32:1-2. When Moses did not come back on time from the mount, the children of Israel told Aaron to make a god for them, and he asked them to bring their earrings and other jewels, and with it, he made a golden image for them. They misused the wealth that God gave them.
vs 31 “Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.” Their wealth which God provided for them hindered them from remembering all the lessons they learned in Egypt. God fought against the gods of Egypt, and gave them silver and gold which made them forget all the lessons of the plagues. They made themselves gods of gold.
vs 32-33 “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” Their wealth hindered them from continuing with the Lord, and He blotted them out of His book because they used their wealth of gold to make gods of gold.
Ezekiel 16:17. God told the Israelites in later years that He gave them the wealth they had, but they used them to make gods and images.
vs 18. They made things which God gave them to become idols. When some people were poor, they served God heartily, they had time for evangelism and He blessed them according to His promise, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” All the things that God added to them – the silver, gold, job, profession, family, and prosperity became their consecration and they no longer have time for God. They made idols out of the provisions of God.
Hosea 10:1. Israel became an empty vine. When you use the wealth and privileges God gave you to replace Him in your life and you don’t honour Him but make idols out of all He gave, you will become an empty vine. Israel brought fruits unto herself, diverting the honour, fame, and popularity that should have gone to God to herself. And God will not share His glory with anyone.
vs 2. When God gives us favour and prosperity in the world, we are not to waste them on strange gods.
C. PECULIAR WONDERS BEFORE PUNISHING WICKEDNESS (Exodus 11:7-10)
Wickedness will be punished everywhere, and anywhere, yet, there will be peculiar wonders for the people of God.
Exodus 11:7 “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” The final plague was going to come, and God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that it won’t affect the children of Israel, only the wilful, stubborn and hard-hearted who set their will against that of God. The Israelites would be spared and the plague would not come upon them.
vs 8 “And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.” Moses assured Pharaoh that his willfulness would not exceed that time because God would exercise His authority and establish His sovereignty.
vs 9 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” The stubbornness of Pharaoh made God continue to act in sovereign power.
vs 10 “And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.”
1. The Protective Wonder over Israel’s Dwelling Place (Exodus 11:7-8; 10:22-23; Malachi 3:16–18)
This was what God promised, the final plague was coming, and the judgement of the firstborns will take place all through the land of Egypt, but the firstborns of the children of Israel would not be affected. God was going to make a difference because He wasn’t going to punish His own sons. Every family was to slay a lamb and apply the blood on the lintels of their houses, and they would be spared of any death because the substitutionary lamb has taken their place. But Egyptians who had no way of salvation would have death come upon them.
Exodus 10:22-23. While thick darkness covered the land of Egypt for three days, the children of Israel had light in all their dwelling. This is the wonder of God separating His children from the children of disobedience and rebellion.
Malachi 3:16 “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” The people who made a difference in their heart, and taught and encouraged one another to be obedient to the word of the Lord, to fear and honour Him.
vs 17 “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” The people who obey and live by the word, those who are saved and live holy, humble and obedient life, and serve Him, God makes a difference for them.
vs 18. God will make a difference between the righteous and the unrighteous, those who serve Him and those who do not serve Him.
2. The Punishable Warfare against Israel’s Deliverer (Exodus 11:9; 3:19; Romans 9:17-18)
People who raise arms against God, who strive against His word, and declaration of what He demands and desires, and such warfare is punishable.
Exodus 11:9. God knew that Pharaoh would not listen to Moses, he would be wilful and rebellious so that His wonders of judgement may be multiplied in Egypt. God knows us, in and out. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Salvation is available, but He knows those who will accept and those who will not. He does not desire that anyone should perish, but those who are adamant against His word and will, He has prepared His judgement against them. Warfare against the Lord will be punished, regardless of where it is coming from – Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, or a poor fellow who does not know that he needed to submit to the Lord.
3. The Prevailing Will for Israel’s Dominion (Exodus 11:10; Isaiah 43:13–19; Daniel 4:35,37)
God will prevail, win, thrash, conquer and break the will of anyone who is hard in the heart and stubborn in will. Every individual in any nation or any generation who rejects salvation and die in sin will be judged.
Daniel 4:35. All inhabitants of the land who are beautiful, wealthy, mighty and powerful, authoritative and rebellious, all sinners of the world are reputed as nothing. None, no matter how mighty and great can stay His hands or ask what He does. This was what Pharaoh learned eventually.
Nebuchadnezzar also learned about the almightiness of God at a late hour, and his mind, head and heart were turned to that of an animal. After he had been debased and conquered, his proud heart was brought low. Now he said, not only for himself, but for all that all who dwell on the earth are reputed as nothing.
Pharaoh did not learn on time, he waited until the final wailing which came as a result of the death of all firstborns of Egypt. Not only this, after he had released the Israelites, he asked himself why he did what he did and took his chariots and army and pursued them into the midst of the Red Sea. By the time he realised the truth, it was too late for him, and he did not live to admit the lessons he learnt. He perished in the Red Sea and went to an eternity of perpetual wailing. We cannot fight against God and win, what we can do to our favour is to yield and surrender to escape the judgement to come. The axe is laid to the root of every tree that bears not good fruit, it shall be cut down and cast into the fire.
If any sinner calls on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved, because God commands everyone everywhere to repent after which He forgives and saves, and takes care of them from now till they enter glory. Repentance favours us before God, while rebellion destroys our chances of eternally living with God in heaven.
Rise and go to the Lord in prayer. The door of God’s mercy and grace is still open. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.