And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it toward the heavens; and it became boils [with] blisters breaking out on man and on cattle.
In the sixth plague, Moses takes soot from a kiln and throws it into the air while Pharaoh watches. The dust settles into painful sores on people and animals across Egypt. Two questions follow: why ashes, and why does this plague silence the magicians for good?
Pharaoh watched the whole thing from start to finish. What he saw was ordinary dust doing what dust cannot do.
They obeyed God and did as they were told. Moses sprinkled the ashes towards heaven in front of Pharaoh. Clearly this was no magician's trick, such as Jannes and Jambres, Egypt's magicians, might have played. Pharaoh heard no muttered spells; the men used none. Probably no one spoke a word; certainly none was needed. Pharaoh knew that in the ordinary way such means would produce no harm to man or beast. But when God works, the results are certain, and they may come at once. Straight away, boils breaking out into sores (perhaps pustules or ulcers) struck man and beast.
The material is not random. A furnace is what Israel had been laboring at, and what Egypt itself had been to them.
The word "furnace" comes from a word meaning "to subdue." Some think it was a lime-kiln, or a kiln for smelting ore. It was linked with the public works in Egypt where Israel had to labor so cruelly. Egypt itself had been such a furnace for the people of God, and had earned for itself righteous retribution. This seems a very natural explanation of what Moses did... As a picture, it fittingly speaks of the corruption of sin, the breaking out of that moral disease. Isaiah describes it in words that might have been drawn from this plague: "From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds." (Isa. 1:6.)
Commentators differ on the furnace. Another reading adds a second layer: the ashes may have come from an altar.
The ashes of the furnace have a double meaning. Egypt in its fiery persecution of Israel is called a furnace. Divine retribution now came upon them in the boils, which must have burned like fire. But the furnace may have been the altar in Egypt on which sacrifices were offered to their god Typhon. Most likely the Egyptians brought such sacrifices to stop the plagues. Now the very thing they trusted becomes a plague.
Until now the plagues had struck other things. This one struck the Egyptians themselves.
The plague here referred to as "an evil and grievous sore" reminds us of the sixth Egyptian plague (Ex. 9:10-11). This was the first plague to attack the Egyptians in their own bodies. The magicians, or wise men, suffered under it especially. It was a disgusting and loathsome disease (see Deut. 28:27, 35).
The sores also carried a warning of something worse ahead.
This plague was the first which endangered human life. So it pointed forward to the death Pharaoh would bring on himself and his people by his wicked opposition.
The magicians lost three things, one after another. The third loss ended them.
Three times Jehovah had struck them. He had taken away their rods of authority. He had taken away their power of enchantment. Now He had taken away their ability to carry on their religious rites. We hear no more of the magicians after this; they "could not stand before Moses" (v. 11).
These men were Satan's tools, and their collapse teaches readers today.
More than this: if we hold steadily to God and His truth, the workings of Satan will be exposed in due time. Three times these instruments of his "withstood" Moses. But the plague of lice raised the question of producing life from the dust of the earth. There the magicians were powerless, and had to confess that it was "the finger of God." (Ex. 8:18-19.)... In the next chapter we find that they "could not stand before Moses because of the boils." (Ex. 9:11) They themselves had fallen under the punishing hand of God. So we may rest confidently, whatever success the evil one seems to have now; for "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." (Rom. 16:20.)
- Furnace — The ashes come from the kiln Israel slaved at. Egypt had been a furnace to God's people, and now the furnace falls back on Egypt.
- Open — No spells, nothing hidden: Pharaoh watched dust leave Moses' hand, and knew dust does not do this.
- Flesh — This is the first plague to reach the Egyptians' own bodies: a disgusting and loathsome disease, and the first to put life in danger.
- Silence — God took their rods, then their spells, then their religious rites. The magicians cannot stand before Moses, and are never heard of again.
- Hope — Satan's work is exposed in the end, so believers can rest while evil seems to be winning: God will soon crush Satan under their feet.
And the scribes could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the scribes, and on all the Egyptians.
The sixth blow against Egypt lands on the bodies of the Egyptians themselves — including the court magicians who had spent the earlier plagues copying Moses. Their collapse raises the question the whole contest has been driving at: who can stand when God acts?
Their defeat came in two stages. First they lost the contest in front of the king. Then the judgment reached their own bodies.
Shortly before that the magicians had owned their defeat. Aaron's rod struck the dust of the land, and it became lice. The magicians tried to produce lice too, but they could not. Defeated in front of the king, they told him that what Aaron had done was by the finger of God. The God of the Hebrews could do what they, with their incantations, could not. Already defeated, they now had to feel the power of God in their own bodies. The boil broke out on them, and "they could not stand before Moses because of the boils." God was triumphing, but Pharaoh stayed stubborn. Other plagues would follow, making clear what was already evident: the God of Moses and Aaron was the God of the whole earth. The Creator had absolute rights over His creatures, and no one could overturn them. How true the word is: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
The text singles out the magicians, and one writer links this to what their office as priests required.
The account makes a point of it: the boils were so severe that the magicians, suffering like everyone else, could not stand before Moses. They were completely defeated. We are not told why this striking of the magicians is singled out. But we know that these men, the very highest rank of idolatrous priests, had to be sound in body and clean. Without that they were not allowed to carry out their office or use their charms.
One writer explains what the ashes did to these priests, and counts what God took from them.
The burning clearly had a connection with a religious rite, and the ashes falling on the priests made them unfit to serve their gods. Three times Jehovah had struck them. He had taken away their rods of authority. He had taken away their power of enchantment. And now He had taken away their ability to carry on their religious rites. We hear no more after this of the magicians; they "could not stand before Moses."
The disease struck at two things Egypt trusted: its ritual purity and its skill at healing.
Then came the sixth judgment: a boil breaking out with blisters on man and beast in all Egypt. It fell above all on the magicians, who could not stand before Moses. Such a festering eruption defeated their careful avoidance of impurity. The emptiness of their gods was as clear as that of their own arts of healing.
One writer traces how these men worked and how they were silenced.
that they "could not stand before Moses because of the boils." They themselves have fallen under the punishing hand of God. So we can rest in confidence, however successful the evil one seems now, because "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet."
One writer marks out what was new about this plague.
This was the first of the plagues which attacked the persons of the Egyptians, and the magicians, or wise men, suffered under it above all. It was a disgusting and loathsome disease.
Another writer sees a moral picture in the sore.
This plague is typical of the personal moral corruption that results from resisting the truth of the Word of God.
- Imitation. The magicians began by copying Moses — imitation is Satan's method.
- Confession. At the lice they ran out of power and had to admit, "This is the finger of God."
- Affliction. The judgment reaches their own bodies. The boil is on their own skin.
- Silence. God took their rods, their enchantments, and their fitness to serve their gods. They are never heard from again.
- Warning. Every power that sets itself against God ends the same way: unable to stand. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."