Exodus 10: Locusts And Darkness

A swarm that strips a nation bare. A darkness so thick you can feel it. Exodus 10 doesn’t just escalate the plagues of Egypt, it exposes the brittle foundations of power, pride, and false security. We follow the story beat by beat as Moses returns to Pharaoh yet again, and we watch the same pattern repeat: warnings, bargaining, partial offers, and a hardened heart that keeps dragging everyone else into the fallout. 

We dig into the locust plague and why it lands like a direct strike against Egypt’s spiritual confidence, especially the belief that their gods control life, harvest, and stability. Then we sit with the most unnerving sign in the chapter: three days of oppressive darkness that shuts down normal life, while Goshen remains lit. That contrast becomes more than a historical detail, it becomes a picture of what God is doing in Israel and what it means to be a visible witness when the world feels like it’s getting darker. 

Along the way, we talk about Pharaoh’s attempt to negotiate worship, why Moses refuses to leave anything behind, and how God’s deliverance aims to be remembered and retold across generations. If you’ve ever wondered whether your faithful, imperfect life is making any difference, this chapter offers a surprising encouragement: your light may be brighter than you realize. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, what part of Exodus 10 hits you the hardest?

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Exodus chapter 10, and today's title is Locust and Darkness. Locust and Darkness. If you've been with us, you you know that the gods of Egypt, that our God, Yahweh, the true God, the gods that he is picking off and just destroying one after another, they're getting stronger along the way. And we're about to get to two of the strongest gods, and God lays waste, including the one that I would have been the most nervous about. And I'm curious, I want to know the comments below, which one would you have been the most nervous about if you saw? We'll get all that in just a moment. So get your coffee out, get your Bibles out, get your Bible journals out, and we're gonna get to all that in

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SPEAKER_01 1:11

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Why The Plagues Target Gods

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Well, once again, if you've been with us, we've been going through these different gods, and we've been keeping a tally of the different gods that God is destroying. And remember, all of these different plagues, they weren't random. God was picking off all of these different deities that they thought protected them. They thought that they were more powerful than Yahweh. And so God is saying, Nope, I got that one, and I got that one, and I got that one. And he is slowly tearing down their polytheistic worldview and building up that he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. And he's been working through all these different ones, and now he is going to get to two of the three of the last ones. So if you're ready, here we go. Exodus chapter 10, verse 1 says this. Then the Lord said to Moses, return to Pharaoh. Pause. How many times? I mean, over and over again, like how many miracles does it take before you start to go, ah, maybe God's maybe he's good enough. Maybe he's big, right? And once again, I always feel so sorry for the people of Egypt. They're the ones having to deal with this joker, with Pharaoh's narcissism, man. All right, here we go. Let's do this again. Verse 10 or chapter 10, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, Return to Pharaoh and make your demands again. I have made him and his officials stubborn, so I can display my miraculous signs among them. I've also done it so that you can tell your children and your grandchildren about how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and about the signs I displayed among them, and so you will know that I am the Lord. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord, the God

Pharaoh’s Stubborn Cycle Repeats

SPEAKER_01 3:18

of the Hebrews, says How long will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go so they can worship me. If you refuse, watch out, for tomorrow I will bring a swarm of locusts on your country, and they will cover the land so that you won't be able to see the ground. They will devour what little is left of your crops after the hailstorm, including all the trees growing in the field. They will overrun your palaces and your homes of your officials and all the houses of Egypt. Never in the history of Egypt have you or have your ancestors seen a plague like this one. And that Moses turned and left Pharaoh. Pharaoh's officials now came to Pharaoh and appealed to him. How long will you let this man hold us hostage? Let the men go and worship the Lord their God. Don't you realize that Egypt lies in ruins? So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. All right, he told them, Go, worship the Lord your God. But who exactly will be going with you? Moses replied, We will all go, young and old, sons and daughters, our flocks and our herds. We must all join together in the celebration and celebrating a festival to the Lord. But Pharaoh retorted, The Lord will certainly need to be with you if I let you take your little ones. I can see through your evil plan. Never. Only the men may go and worship the Lord, since that is what you requested, and Pharaoh threw them out of the palace. Then the Lord said to Moses,

Locust Plague Destroys The Land

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Raise your hand over the land of Egypt, and bring on the locusts. Let them cover the land and devour every plant that survived the hell storm. So Moses raised his hand, excuse me, over raised his staff over Egypt, and the Lord caused an east wind to blow over the land all that day and through the night. When morning arrived, the east wind brought the locust, and the locusts swarmed over the whole land of Egypt, settling in dense swarms from one end of the country to the other. It was the worst locust plague in Egypt's history, and there was never been another one like it. For the locusts covered the whole country and darkness and darkened the land. They devoured every plant in the fields and all the fruit on the trees that had survived the hellstorm. Not a single leaf was left on the trees and plants throughout the land of Egypt. Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you, he confessed. Forgive my sin just this once. Plead with the Lord your God to take away this death from me. So Moses left Pharaoh's court and pleaded with the Lord. And the Lord responded by shifting the wind, and a strong west wind blew the locusts into the Red Sea. Not a single locusts remained in all the land of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart again. So he refused to let the

Osiris Defeated By Yahweh

SPEAKER_01 6:25

people go. So pause. Let's go back to this again. Back to the our little graph here. If we're watching online, and it was locusts, locusts were considered to be an absolute plague because what they were, they looked like grasshoppers. And what they would do is they would go throughout the land and they would just devour everything. Excuse me. They could absolutely lay waste to an entire area and do it quickly. And so locusts were thought to be under the control of Osiris. Osiris was probably the second or third most powerful God in all of Egypt, and he was the giver of life. And so he was over crops. Whether crops would live or crops would die, he was considered the giver and the taker of life. And so God is literally looking at their second or third most powerful God, and he's saying, No, that God doesn't control the locusts, I do. And so yet another one falls to the power of God. All right, verse 21.

Darkness That Can Be Felt

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Then the Lord said to Moses, Lift your hand toward heaven. The land of Egypt will be covered with a darkness so thick you can feel it. Now pause. That's the one. Like if there were one of these, other than the very last one, I don't know if anybody would disagree with the last one being the worst one. But if there was ever one that I was like, okay, I don't want that one, is can you imagine a darkness so thick you can feel it? The closest I've ever got to this, I think, was where I live. There is a cave system. And I don't know, wherever you may live in the world, you may have this as well, but there is a there's a cave system and you can take tours. And if you go into this cave system on a tour, there's a moment when on purpose they will turn out all the lights. It is literally the most pitch black environment I've ever been in. And in that environment, you can almost feel the darkness because it's so dark it messes with your other senses as well. That's what this makes me think of. So dark that it's darker than just when you close your eyes. And God said, that's how dark it's gonna be. Verse 22. So Moses lifted his hand to the sky, and a deep darkness covered the entire land of Egypt. For look at that. For three days, verse 23, during all that time the people could not see each other, and no one moved. But there was light as usual where the people of Israel lived. Can you imagine? So in Goshen there was light, everywhere else was darkness. Verse 24. Finally, Pharaoh called for Moses. Go and worship the Lord, he said, but leave your flocks and herds here. You may even take your little ones with you. No, Moses replied. You must provide us with animals for sacrifices and burn offerings to the Lord our God. All of our livestock must go too. Not a hoof can be left behind. We must choose our sacrifices for the Lord our God from among these animals. We will we won't know how we are to worship until we get there. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart once more, and he would not let them go. Get out of here, Pharaoh shouted to Moses, and I'm warning you, never come back here again. The day you see my face, you will die. Very well, Moses replied, I will never see your face again. And so we got one more.

Ra Defeated And Goshen Stays Lit

SPEAKER_01 9:42

The second most powerful god in all of Egypt was the God Ra. He was called the sun god, and he was considered to be the supreme source of power. Because back then, if you think about it, the sun provided light, it helped the crops grow, it was everything, and so whoever controlled the sun was super powerful. And so the god of Ra is to be the second most powerful, and so God says, Oh, really? You think Ra's more powerful than me? Then for three straight days, there will be no sunlight. And what I love about that is not only does God defeat the second most powerful God in all of Egypt, but not where the Israelites lived. Where the Israelites lived, there was still light. And when I this mental picture of it being dark all around, but right where Goshen is, like a nightlight, shining in the darkness. And you know what I love about that is it said at the beginning of the chapter, one of the reasons why God was letting this happen was to show Egypt they were not more powerful than God, but also to show the nation of Israel that God was going to come through for them over and over. So you tell, tell the successive generations what God did here. And what I love about that is at some point, then the Egyptians are looking at the Israelites and saying, Wow, look, as it gets darker and darker among us, it's getting brighter and brighter for them. Their God

Living As Light In Darkness

SPEAKER_01 11:15

must be real. Do you know that's why? I believe once we get saved, God doesn't immediately take us to heaven. You know, the Bible says in in John chapter 17, Jesus is praying to his father, and he's praying loud enough for the apostle John to hear, so he could later write it down. And and he as he's praying to the Father loud enough for John to hear, he says, Father, I pray that we take them not out of the world, but that you would keep them through the world. Why? Because we are called to be a light and a dark place. Jesus said that just as a city set on a hill, let your light shine so that all in darkness may see it. Our job on this earth is to live our life in the light of God so that others can see and know the power of God. So, in other words, we become a picture of the grace of God. Not a picture of perfection. Many of us lost that a long time ago, right? But a picture of this is what God's grace on display looks like. So if you've ever wondered, God, am I making a difference? God, am I ever going to do anything for you? If you're living for God in public, you're making more of a difference than you realize. Because as people see, not your perfection, but your consistent willingness to focus on God and to make him first and to live for him, you're making more of a difference than you realize. You'll never know until you get on the other side of heaven what it is to know what what a difference you're making. I love how that one quote said, preach the gospel at all times, and then if necessary, use words. It doesn't mean that we don't use our words, but it's that the very first message someone should hear is the message of our lives lived out loud. Let's

Prayer And Tomorrow’s Teaser

SPEAKER_01 12:59

pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you are more powerful than any enemy we will face. Lord, I pray today if there's someone here today and the enemy has tried to tell them that they're not making a difference, they're not doing this, they're not doing that. I want you to silence the voice of the enemy. Help them to realize, God, that if they're living for you out loud, they're already doing more than they can imagine. If they're not, today's the day. They can take a step of faith and trust you to lead them. We celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Exodus 6, verse 6, it says, I will free you from your oppression and I will rescue you from slavery. I can't wait to get to the next chapter tomorrow, and I will see you then for Exodus chapter eleven.