The Dust of Judgment Text: Exodus 9:8-12
Introduction: The Theocratic Showdown
We are in the middle of a divine deconstruction project. God is not simply trying to persuade Pharaoh to let His people go. He is systematically dismantling the entire religious, political, and cultural framework of Egypt. Each of the ten plagues is a targeted missile, aimed directly at the heart of a particular Egyptian deity. God is demonstrating, in spectacular fashion, that the gods of Egypt are no-gods, impotent nothings. This is not a contest between Yahweh and the Egyptian pantheon; it is a demonstration of the infinite distance between the Creator and His creatures. It is a polemical education for Pharaoh, for Egypt, and for Israel.
The first five plagues have already struck at the heart of Egyptian life and worship. The Nile, their source of life and a god itself, turned to blood. The frog goddess Heqet was mocked with an infestation of her own symbol. The dust of the earth, from which the god Geb supposedly ruled, became a torment of gnats. The fly god was overwhelmed, and the sacred livestock, symbols of gods like Apis and Hathor, were struck down. With each plague, God has been turning up the heat, and with each plague, Pharaoh has been hardening his own heart, a process which God then confirms and solidifies.
Now we come to the sixth plague, the plague of boils. This one is different. It is the first plague to directly attack the bodies of the Egyptian people themselves. Up to this point, there has been discomfort, economic ruin, and religious humiliation. Now there is personal, physical agony. And significantly, this plague will fall upon the magicians, the spiritual special forces of Pharaoh's court, incapacitating them and exposing their utter bankruptcy. This is God getting personal. He is showing that the rebellion of man against his Maker is not an abstract, political affair. It has consequences that are skin-deep, and deeper still.
This is a lesson we must continually relearn. Men believe they can defy God and manage the consequences. They think they can build their secular towers, worship their man-made idols of power, wealth, and autonomy, and keep the fallout contained. But God owns the dust. He owns the air. He owns our very skin. When a nation sets itself against the Lord and His Christ, the judgment is not merely "spiritual." It will eventually manifest in the dust of our lives, in the very fabric of our society, and on our own bodies.
The Text
Then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses toss it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. And it will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and it will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt." So they took the soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses tossed it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians. And Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not listen to them, just as Yahweh had spoken to Moses.
(Exodus 9:8-12 LSB)
The Soot of Humiliation (v. 8-9)
The instructions for this plague are specific and symbolic.
"Then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses toss it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. And it will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and it will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.'" (Exodus 9:8-9)
God commands them to take soot from a kiln. What is a kiln? It is a furnace, a place of intense fire, used for making bricks or pottery. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and their primary task was making bricks. This soot, then, is a direct symbol of their oppression. It is the residue of their bondage, the grime of their affliction. God is about to take the very dust of their slavery and turn it into a weapon of judgment against their masters. This is the pattern of God's justice. He uses the instruments of the enemy's pride to bring about their downfall. The cross, an instrument of Roman torture and shame, becomes the instrument of salvation and the symbol of Christ's triumph.
Moses is to toss this soot "toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh." This is a public act of war. It is a sacramental gesture, a visible sign of an invisible reality. Just as baptism is water that signifies cleansing, this is soot that signifies judgment. Moses, acting as God's covenant mediator, throws the dust of Israel's affliction up into the heavens, and God transforms it into a plague that rains back down upon all of Egypt. This is a profound statement of sovereignty. Pharaoh thinks he rules the land, but God rules the sky from which all blessings and all curses flow.
The dust will settle everywhere, on man and beast, and become boils. This is a direct assault on several Egyptian deities. There was Imhotep, the god of medicine, and Thoth, the god of magic and healing. They are shown to be utterly powerless to stop this affliction. More than that, some scholars have noted that certain Egyptian rituals involved priests scattering ashes from sacrifices into the air to secure divine blessings. Here, God mocks that very practice. Moses, the prophet of Yahweh, performs a counterfeit ritual that brings not blessing, but a curse of agonizing boils. God is fighting fire with fire, or in this case, ashes with ashes.
The Eruption of Judgment (v. 10-11)
The execution of the command is swift, and the results are devastatingly effective.
"So they took the soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses tossed it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians." (Exodus 9:10-11 LSB)
The boils are described as "breaking out with sores." This is not a minor rash. This is a painful, debilitating, and humiliating affliction. It is a physical manifestation of the corruption of the Egyptian system. Their society was built on injustice, and now their bodies are erupting with the fruit of it. Sin always works this way. It promises liberty and power, but it delivers bondage and corruption, right down to the cellular level.
And notice who is specifically targeted for humiliation: the magicians. "And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils." This is the end of the line for them. In the first plague, they were able to mimic the turning of water to blood. In the second, they managed to summon more frogs. By the third plague, the gnats, they were flummoxed and had to admit, "This is the finger of God." But now, they are not just defeated; they are disgraced and dismissed from the field of battle. They cannot even stand. They are sent scurrying away, scratching at their own sores, just like every other Egyptian.
Why is this so significant? Because the magicians represented the pinnacle of Egyptian wisdom, power, and religion. They were the spiritual gatekeepers, the ones who supposedly had access to the power of the gods. By striking them down with the very plague they were supposed to stop, God utterly demolishes their credibility. He shows that their power was a cheap parlor trick, and that their gods were nothing. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. When the gospel goes out in power, it doesn't just out-argue the worldly philosophies; it makes them look ridiculous. It exposes them as impotent to deal with the real problems of the human condition, the boils of sin and death.
The Divine Hardening (v. 12)
The verse that follows is one that causes modern, sentimental readers a great deal of trouble. But it is central to understanding everything that is happening here.
"And Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not listen to them, just as Yahweh had spoken to Moses." (Exodus 9:12 LSB)
Up to this point in the narrative, the text has said that "Pharaoh's heart was hardened" or that "Pharaoh hardened his heart." Now, for the first time in this plague cycle, the text says explicitly that "Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart." This is not a contradiction; it is a progression. Pharaoh has been consistently choosing rebellion. He has set his will against the revealed will of God. He has been hardening his own heart. Now, God gives him over to the logical end of his own choices. God confirms him in his rebellion. He strengthens Pharaoh's resolve to be what Pharaoh already wants to be: a defiant rebel.
This is a terrifying biblical principle. When a man or a nation repeatedly rejects God's grace and resists His commands, there comes a point where God gives them what they want. He judicially hardens them. He removes restraining grace and allows their sin to run its course to its own ruinous conclusion. This is what Paul describes in Romans 1: "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness... For this reason God gave them up to vile passions... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind."
God's sovereignty is absolute. He is not a frustrated spectator, wringing His hands over Pharaoh's stubbornness. He is the director of the entire drama, and He is using Pharaoh's rebellion for His own glorious purposes: to demonstrate His power and to proclaim His name throughout all the earth (cf. Romans 9:17). Pharaoh thinks he is asserting his autonomy, but he is merely playing his assigned part in God's redemptive plan. He is a tool, a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction, so that God might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which is Israel.
Conclusion: The Dust of Our Rebellion
This account is not just a fascinating piece of ancient history. It is a revelation of the character of God and the nature of our rebellion. We live in a world that is covered in the soot of its own kilns. We have built our civilizations on the brick-making of humanistic pride, and the residue of that rebellion is everywhere.
And like the Egyptians, our world is covered in boils. We see the painful, erupting sores of our sin in our broken families, our corrupt politics, our sexual confusion, and our cultural despair. We have our own magicians, our experts and technocrats, who promise us that with a little more education, a little more technology, a little more government spending, they can fix it all. But they cannot even stand. They are covered in the same boils as everyone else, because their secular wisdom is bankrupt.
The only hope is for God to intervene. But we must understand the nature of that intervention. For those who, like Pharaoh, harden their hearts, God's intervention is a terrifying judgment. He will give them over to their sin and its consequences. He will let the boils of their rebellion consume them.
But for His people, His intervention is salvation. And it comes through a greater Moses. Jesus Christ stood before the powers of this world, the Pharaohs of Rome and the religious magicians of the Sanhedrin. He took upon Himself the grime and soot of our slavery to sin. On the cross, He was afflicted with the boils of our judgment. He bore the full eruption of God's wrath against our rebellion in His own body. He did this so that we, who were covered in the leprous sores of sin, might be cleansed.
The warning of this passage is to not harden your heart. If you feel the conviction of God's Spirit, do not resist it. Do not think you can defy the God who commands the dust. But the comfort of this passage is that the same God who judges Egypt with boils is the God who saves His people. He is the God who, through the affliction of His own Son, provides the only true healing. Flee to Him. Do not trust in the magicians of this age. Trust in the one who bore your sores, so that by His stripes you might be healed.