September 14, 2025 - The Sixth Plague: Boils (Exodus 9:8-12)

The Sixth Plague: Boils (Exodus 9:8-12)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

8 So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Introduction

A large truck was stuck and it couldn’t move back or forward so it was stuck. It was traffic time and all of these cars were stuck as well, and the police were there to try to handle the situation. Many efforts were taking place to try to handle this situation and get the truck out. Since the truck was stuck and they couldn’t get it out, there was one elementary student who came to the truck driver. The elementary student asked the truck driver if he could help the truck driver to get the truck out. But when this truck driver saw this elementary student lingering around, this driver was annoyed so asked the elementary student to leave. But as the elementary student was leaving, he told the truck driver to let the air out of the tires and the truck could move. So they decided to let the air out of the truck and they were able to move the truck. What is the reason why God does not give us answers? We have so much stubbornness and our own thoughts that there is no room for God to intervene and help us. If we let go of our stubbornness and thoughts, and let God work then we can receive God’s answers. 

1. The Sixth Plague

(1) The cause of boils

Verse 8 - Last week we spoke about how God allowed a plague to come upon the livestock in Egypt which means that God was affecting the livelihood of the Egyptians. Why was that?  It was because the Egyptians were not worshiping God and worshiping other things. God was destroying Egyptians’ idols one by one. In Pharaoh's palace, there was an altar and an altar was made to worship the idols of Egypt. They built this altar to offer burnt offerings and to ease the wrath and fury of the Egyptian gods. They would take slaves and offer them as burnt offerings to their gods. They would take the ashes of these human burnt offerings and they spread their ashes to the sky, and they would pray for this plague to stop. God was so sad to witness this. When they would take the ashes and spread it, they would pray to stop this plague but God was saying that this would not stop their disasters at all. Many theologians also claimed there was an altar outside of the palace as well. There was a furnace outside of the palace where it would represent the suffering of the slaves. God was saying that He would pay back the suffering that all of the Israelites experienced. God was going to stop the suffering of His people, the Israelites. 

Romans 12:19 “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” - God knows that we are suffering and are in pain. In order to solve that, God is the one who possesses the solution for that. Don’t try to solve your own pain and suffering but let God solve it. God said that vengeance is His and let God solve your suffering and pain. I am sure that you have faced suffering and pain in your life, let God take care of your vengeance. 

(2) God's plague of boils

Verse 9 - This was something that God allowed. This wasn’t the first time that this happened. 400 years later, this happened again in the book of 1 Samuel. This happened during the time of Eli and they were fighting against the Philistines. The Israelites were trying to break down the wall of Jericho and the Philistines took the ark of the covenant. The Philistines thought that this ark of the covenant possessed great power so they took it and placed it in their land. God was so furious with this so He allowed the boils to take place in their land of the Philistines. So the Philistines were so tormented by the boils that they moved the ark of the covenant. So they kept moving the ark of the covenant but the boils kept coming to different people and land. So, they were thinking about what to do so they knew that God was punishing them so they decided to bring it back to the Israelites. The moment they sent the ark of the covenant back to the Israelites, their boils stopped. God is an eternal God. The same God who worked and caused the boils to take place in Egypt, this same God worked in the Philistines. This showed that God is working even now as well. God is working and is with us just like how God was with the Israelites. The Lord God that the Israelites experienced, we are able to experience as well. We must hold onto this. The God we believe in is not a dead God but He is living and active. God knows everything about us and is working. When we go before Him and pray, then we can experience great and living answers. 

2. The Living God

(1) The meaning of the judgment

Verses 10-11 - The moment Moses spread the ashes of the burnt offerings, the boils came upon all of the livestock and people. These boils were so painful that it was the same feeling like your skin was on fire. These painful boils were upon all livestock and people were in so much pain that they couldn’t sleep. I am not sure if you can understand how painful these boils are but it is the same level of pain when you have bed sores or shingles. I am sure these boils were more painful than that. 

God allowed this curse to be so painful that it shows how painful they were in 1 Samuel 5:12 “And the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.” - They were in so much pain that they were screaming towards heaven and their screams could be heard all the way in heaven. The suffering that God gave them was the suffering of hell. This is the suffering that comes upon people who prevent worship to God. 

Verse 11 - The magicians also experienced the painful boils on them. Who were these magicians? They were the ones who also turned the Nile River to blood and performed “miracles” in Egypt. They possessed “power” but they also experienced the painful boils. We must hold onto something important here. Their master, Satan and evil spirits, were nothing and powerless before God’s power. These magicians may seem powerful but they were nothing and powerless before God’s wrath and judgment. Why was that? Satan and evil spirits are just mere creations of God. These magicians seemed powerful but they were just mere creations before God. If we are inside of God then we can experience and enjoy all of the power of God. If you can experience the power of the heavenly throne then the power of Satan is nothing before us. Enjoy this blessing. 

(2) God's wrath

Verse 12 - This is important. The Lord God hardened the heart of pharaoh. Until now, there were five plagues that came upon Egypt and it was the pharaoh who would harden his own heart. But here, it says that God hardened the heart of pharaoh. Why was that? A characteristic of this sixth plague, there was no warning from God. The other plagues, there were warnings from God. The fact that God hardened the heart of pharaoh and God gave no warning means that God was going to kill pharaoh. Why was God going to do that? The land of Goshen did not experience the wrath of God at all. The land of Egypt was affected by God’s plague but the land of Israel was not affected at all. This was when the pharaoh realized that God of Israel was alive but his heart continued to be hardened. Why was that? This was all because of the imprinted disbelief that was in pharaoh. Pharaoh believed that he was a god himself and already had so much disbelief in his heart. When all of the plagues were taking place, instead of repenting, pharaoh was angry. When God saw this, God commanded Moses to spread the ashes. This represents death. 

Jonah 3:6 “Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.” - When Jonah was proclaiming the gospel, the king of Nineveh heard the gospel. Jonah was proclaiming that Nineveh was going to collapse and be in disaster so when the king of Nineveh heard this, he realized that there was no way out and repented before God. He sat on the ashes in a sackcloth and repented before God. When God saw this, he allowed the lifespan of Assyria to last for another 100 years. When the people repented, God showed them mercy. What is important is that God allowed the magicians the opportunity for repentance. These magicians were bound by Satan but God also gave them an opportunity to repent. If these magicians saw this and repented before God, then God would’ve let them live. If they realized that God was truly alive and living, and repented before God then God would’ve let them live. But God hardened the heart of pharaoh which means that God did not allow the boils to come upon pharaoh. Everyone in Egypt was experiencing the boils but pharaoh did not. When pharaoh saw that he did not experience the boils, he grew more arrogant and thought that it was because he believed that he was god. But this was because God did not give pharaoh the opportunity to repent. This is the greatest misunderstanding for mankind. When life is good and we don’t have problems, we don’t look up to God and do not pray. We don’t pray and life seems to be going great. The fact that life seems good and we are not praying, this is the most dangerous thing to do in our walk of faith. This is not a blessing. We must become more humble and give thanksgiving to God. We are living inside of God’s grace. Even if problems do come to us, what must we do? We need to realize that God is granting us blessings of meetings and trying to give us answers. This is because God is always listening and protecting us. 

3. The Way to Stop Disasters

(1) The fundamentals of your lifestyle

Colossians 2:3 “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” - All answers and treasures are found in Christ. All treasures are found in Christ alone. We must hold onto this. 

(2) Your life's goal

Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' ” - What is your goal in life? It is to live inside the power of God. Then we can stand as God’s witness. 

(3) Communication in prayer

Philippians 1:3-4 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.” - I prayed to God to thank Him for allowing me to pray to Him. How was I able to pray to God? How was I able to call the Creator God my Father God? As I gave an offering to God, I thanked God for allowing me to give an offering to God. There are people who are wondering how they can give offerings to God so I was thankful to God that I was able to give offerings to God. God is listening to our prayers and I am thankful that I have assurance that God is listening to me. May all of our church officers and remnants experience and enjoy this. 

Conclusion

Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Christ is the answer to all problems. Who is Christ? He is the resurrected Christ and is alive. He is the one who listens to all our prayers, with us, and guides me. He is the Jesus Christ who is the ruler of all the world. He is our salvation and our source of power. Enjoy this in the name of Jesus Christ.