Exodus 10:2, commentary and pictures

The command was to tell in the ears of the son and of the son's son what had been wrought in Egypt and the signs done among them, so that they and succeeding generations might know that He is the LORD Jehovah, giving them a lasting account to remember. God bore long with Pharaoh's stubborn and continual rebellion and let him keep resisting, knowing he would not receive the signs and that his heart would be hardened, so that He might multiply His great signs and wonders before Pharaoh and before Israel. Every rejected punishment brought the next chastisement closer and more severe until his proud heart was humbled to acknowledge the Maker of heaven and earth as the living and all-powerful God above all gods. By sad experience laid upon him in judgment Pharaoh was made to know that God's power is superior to all others.

In delivering His people with a high hand and outstretched arm, God gave the Egyptians opportunity to exhibit the feeble wisdom of their mighty men and arrayed the power of their gods in opposition to the God of heaven. The plagues thus exposed the powerlessness of Egypt's idols to show His strength mightier than the strongest and Jehovah's supremacy. The display of power was to confirm Israel's faith in Him as the only true and living God. It revealed His character and divine authority, gave them clearer and more exalted views of God, and gave unmistakable evidence of the difference He placed between the Egyptians and His people.

Although Israel had been bound down by hard labor and despised, He had chosen them as His peculiar people and would work for their deliverance in a wonderful manner. That deliverance was a plain display of His distinguished mercy to His people before all the Egyptians, serving their deliverance from bondage. It was wrought so that all Israel should fear Him and be made willing and anxious to leave Egypt and choose the service of the true and merciful God, since without these manifestations many would have been satisfied to remain in Egypt rather than journey through the wilderness. It was to make Him known to all nations with exemplary and demonstrative proof of His divine power and justice, so that His name would be declared throughout all the earth. All nations were thus to know that the Hebrews were protected by the God of heaven and that Israel's God rules over the whole earth.

He designed these exhibitions of power to strengthen the faith of His people so that their posterity would steadfastly worship Him alone as the One who wrought such merciful wonders in their behalf. The retelling displays His glory in working out His will, proving that what He has done shows He will finish what He has undertaken, with all human resistance only making His victory more marked and triumphant. The verse warns that God still bears long with the perversity of men, sending decided reproofs and clear light to call them to search their hearts closely, humble themselves before God, and repent. Unless they repent He will surely repeat His judgments as He repeated them to the king of Egypt, and if they persist in following their own will and impulses and refuse His warnings He will send His judgments and will not pardon persistent determination to be like the people of the world.