The Story of Moses II: The Ten Plagues That Destroy Egypt

PHARAOH“Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice?”

That is what the most powerful king in the ancient world said when two men walked into his throne room and asked him to release an entire nation of slaves. Ten plagues later, that same king would be on his knees in the middle of the night, begging those same men for a blessing.

This is the true story of how God broke the most powerful empire on earth, one plague at a time. Water turned to blood. Frogs crawled into the king's own bed. Fire fell from the sky. A darkness so heavy it could be felt paralyzed the entire nation for three days. And then came the night no Egyptian would ever forget.

PHARAOH'S SERVANTS“Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”

His own court turned against him. His own magicians admitted they were outmatched. And still, Pharaoh refused. Until midnight came.

Stay with us until the end, because this story will show you what happens when the most powerful man alive refuses to listen, and what it costs everyone around him.

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Let's begin.

Thousands of Israelites bent under the Egyptian sun, hauling mud and stacking bricks across an endless construction site in Pi-Rameses. But one man had come back to Egypt. Moses, who had spent forty years as a shepherd in the Midian desert, walked into the throne room of the most powerful ruler in the ancient world with his brother Aaron. A man raised in this very palace now stood before a new Pharaoh, not as a prince, but as a messenger of God.

MOSES“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'”— Exodus 5:1

PHARAOH“Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.”— Exodus 5:2

And then he made Moses pay for asking. That same day, Pharaoh sent new orders to the taskmasters.

PHARAOH“You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. You shall not reduce the quota. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'”— Exodus 5:7-8

Straw held the bricks together. When the quotas fell short, the Israelite foremen were beaten.

The foremen went to Pharaoh and begged for relief. He called them lazy and sent them away. When they came out and found Moses and Aaron, they turned on them.

ISRAELITE FOREMEN“Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”— Exodus 5:21

He turned back to God.

MOSES“Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”— Exodus 5:22-23

GOD“Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. I am the LORD. I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. I will bring you out, I will rescue you, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.”— Exodus 6:1-7

Moses brought this message to the Israelites. But they could not hear it. They were too broken, too exhausted from the work.

MOSES“The children of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”— Exodus 6:12

God did not reassure him. He redefined him.

GOD“See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply My signs in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.”— Exodus 7:1-5

Moses and Aaron went back to Pharaoh. Aaron cast his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent. Pharaoh called his wise men and sorcerers, and they did the same thing. But Aaron's rod swallowed theirs.

Pharaoh's heart grew hard. His magicians had matched the sign.

God told Moses to meet Pharaoh at the river in the morning. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile as Hapi, the giver of life. Everything Egypt was, the river made possible.

MOSES“By this you shall know that I am the LORD. I will strike the waters of the river with the rod in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.”— Exodus 7:17

Moses raised the rod and struck the water right in front of Pharaoh. Every drop in Egypt turned to blood. Pharaoh's magicians did the same thing, and Pharaoh walked back into his palace without a word.

Seven days passed.

GOD (through Moses to Pharaoh)“If you refuse to let them go, I will smite all your territory with frogs. They shall come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls.”— Exodus 8:1-4

The frogs came. They covered everything. Heqet, the frog goddess, was sacred in Egypt — now her creatures were a plague. Pharaoh's magicians did the same thing, bringing up even more frogs. But making frogs was one thing. Removing them was beyond their power.

For the first time, Pharaoh called for Moses.

PHARAOH“Entreat the LORD that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go.”— Exodus 8:8

MOSES“Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you.”

PHARAOH“Tomorrow.”

MOSES“Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.”— Exodus 8:9-10

Moses prayed. The frogs died everywhere, in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. Dead frogs piled up across the land, and the smell was unbearable. The relief came. And Pharaoh broke his promise.

God told Moses to have Aaron strike the dust of the ground. Aaron did, and the dust became gnats across all of Egypt, covering every person and every animal. The magicians tried to do the same, but this time they could not.

MAGICIANS“This is the finger of God.”— Exodus 8:19

Pharaoh ignored them. But the men who had matched Moses sign for sign had just admitted they were outmatched. From this point on, they never challenged Moses again.

God sent Moses to meet Pharaoh at the water the next morning. This time, the message carried something new.

GOD (through Moses to Pharaoh)“I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. I will make a difference between My people and your people.”— Exodus 8:20-23

The flies came the next day. Thick swarms filled Pharaoh's house, his servants' houses, and the entire land. But in Goshen, where the Israelites lived, not a single fly.

PHARAOH“Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.”— Exodus 8:25

MOSES“It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God. If we sacrifice before their eyes, will they not stone us?”— Exodus 8:26

Some of the animals the Israelites would sacrifice were considered sacred by the Egyptians.

PHARAOH“I will let you go, that you may sacrifice in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.”— Exodus 8:28

Moses warned him not to go back on his word. Then he prayed. God removed every fly from Egypt. Not one remained. But the moment they were gone, Pharaoh did exactly what Moses warned him not to do.

GOD (through Moses to Pharaoh)“If you refuse to let them go, the hand of the LORD will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep. It will be a very severe pestilence. And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt.”— Exodus 9:1-4

The next day, every animal in the fields of Egypt died. The Egyptians worshipped Apis the bull and Hathor the cow as gods, and those gods could not protect their own kind. But Pharaoh sent men to Goshen to check. Not a single Israelite animal had died. He saw the proof and still would not let the people go.

GOD“Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.”— Exodus 9:8

Moses and Aaron took the ashes and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw them into the air, and wherever the dust settled, painful boils broke out on the skin of every Egyptian and every remaining animal. The magicians could not even stand in Moses' presence anymore. The boils were on them too.

And for the first time, it was not Pharaoh who hardened his own heart. The LORD hardened it for him. Pharaoh had made his choice too many times. Now God made it permanent.

Moses stood before Pharaoh with a message unlike any before it.

MOSES (to Pharaoh)“For this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”— Exodus 9:16

Through Moses, God was telling Pharaoh why he existed. The reason you sit on that throne is so the entire world can see what happens when a man stands against Me.

But even now, God offered mercy.

MOSES“Send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and beast which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.”— Exodus 9:19

Some of Pharaoh's servants feared God's word and brought their people and animals inside. Others ignored it and left them in the fields.

Moses raised his rod toward the sky. God sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along the ground. It was the worst storm Egypt had ever seen. The hail struck everything in the open, shattered every tree, destroyed every crop. But in Goshen, there was no hail.

Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron.

PHARAOH“I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the LORD, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, and I will let you go.”— Exodus 9:27-28

Moses already knew how this would end.

MOSES“The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the LORD's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD God.”— Exodus 9:29-30

Moses left the city and raised his hands to God. The thunder stopped. The hail stopped. The man who had just called himself wicked went right back to being wicked.

GOD“Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, that you may tell your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt.”— Exodus 10:1-2

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh.

MOSES“How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? If you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. They shall cover the face of the earth, and they shall eat everything the hail left behind.”— Exodus 10:3-6

Moses turned and walked out. But before Pharaoh could respond, his own servants confronted him.

PHARAOH'S SERVANTS“How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”— Exodus 10:7

He called Moses and Aaron back.

PHARAOH“Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?”

MOSES“We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds.”

PHARAOH“Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desired.”— Exodus 10:8-11

They were driven out of Pharaoh's presence.

Moses raised his rod over Egypt. God sent an east wind that blew all day and all night, and by morning the locusts had arrived. They covered the land until the ground was dark with them. Nothing green remained in all of Egypt.

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste.

PHARAOH“I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the LORD your God, that He may take away from me this death only.”— Exodus 10:16-17

Moses prayed. God sent a powerful west wind that swept every locust into the Red Sea. Not one remained. But God had already closed the exits behind Pharaoh.

Moses raised his hand toward the sky. A thick darkness covered all of Egypt, so heavy it could be felt. For three days, no Egyptian could see another person. No one moved from where they were. Ra, the sun god, was the supreme deity of Egypt. For three days, he went dark.

But in Goshen, the Israelites had light in their homes.

Pharaoh called for Moses. His position had been crumbling plague by plague. First he had tried to keep the Israelites in Egypt. Then he tried to keep the families. Now he gave up everything except one thing.

PHARAOH“Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you.”— Exodus 10:24

MOSES“Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind.”— Exodus 10:26

The LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart.

PHARAOH“Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!”— Exodus 10:28

MOSES“You have spoken well. I will never see your face again.”— Exodus 10:29

Nine plagues had struck Egypt. Pharaoh had not broken. But Moses was not finished. God had given him one final message to deliver before he walked out.

MOSES (to Pharaoh)“About midnight, all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant behind the handmill. There shall be a great cry throughout Egypt. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue.”— Exodus 11:4-7

Then Moses walked out in fury.

God gave Moses the instructions for what was about to happen.

GOD“Every household shall take a lamb without blemish and kill it at twilight. They shall put the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”— Exodus 12:3-13

In Egypt, Pharaoh himself was worshipped as a god. His firstborn son was heir to that divinity. And that was exactly where the final plague was aimed.

That night, across Goshen, families selected their lambs, killed them at twilight, and painted blood on their doorframes with hyssop. They ate the lamb roasted with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, dressed and ready to leave, sandals on their feet and staffs in their hands. Then they went inside, closed their doors, and waited.

At midnight, the LORD struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt. From Pharaoh's own son to the child of the lowest prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of the livestock.

Pharaoh rose in the night. His servants rose. All of Egypt rose. A cry of grief filled the land, because there was not a single house where someone had not died.

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night.

PHARAOH“Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”— Exodus 12:31-32

The man who once asked "Who is the LORD?" was now asking the shepherd from Midian for a blessing.

The Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave immediately.

THE EGYPTIANS“We shall all be dead.”— Exodus 12:33

The Israelites asked the Egyptians for silver, gold, and clothing, and the LORD gave them such favor that the Egyptians handed over whatever they asked.

They left Rameses, the city they had built with their own hands. The road cut through the green fields of the Nile Delta, the only land most of them had ever known. Six hundred thousand men walked on foot, and with them their wives and children. A mixed multitude of non-Israelites joined them, and the crowd stretched so far along the road that the front could not see the back. By the time they reached Succoth, the green of Egypt was behind them and the desert spread out ahead. After four hundred and thirty years, an entire nation walked out in a single night. And that night has been remembered ever since.

Pharaoh asked "Who is the LORD?" and God answered with ten plagues that dismantled every god Egypt worshipped, one by one. But this story is not just about ancient Egypt. It is about what happens when pride refuses to bend.

Pharaoh had nine chances to let the people go. Nine times God sent a warning, and nine times Pharaoh chose his pride over his people. His stubbornness did not just hurt him. It cost Egypt its water, its crops, its livestock, its health, and in the end, its children. Pride never destroys only the proud person. It always takes others down with it.

Sometimes freedom requires a step of faith before you see the result. The Israelites did not get to see the angel pass over their homes. They had to kill the lamb, paint the blood on the door, and stay inside trusting that it would work. They had to act before they had proof.

And sometimes the hardest night of your life is the night right before everything changes. The Israelites sat in their homes eating with their sandals on, staffs in hand, not knowing what the morning would look like. But the morning came. And four hundred and thirty years of slavery ended in a single night.

If this story moved you, you need to see what happened next. The Israelites were free, but the Red Sea stood between them and the wilderness, and Pharaoh changed his mind one last time. Watch that story next.

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