Exodus 9:8-12 The Sixth Plague, Boils!

8Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the furnace; in the sight of Pharaoh, Moses is to toss it into the air. 9It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on man and beast throughout the land.”

10So they took soot from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on man and beast. 11The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians.

12But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had told Moses.

“So they took soot from the furnace”....

“Would be black and fine. Perhaps ‘soot’ would be the best English rendering, for it is described as very fine ‘dust’ blowing in the wind.” (Cole)

This plague came without a warning, “let My people go”. 

But if pharaoh had been willing to yield and repent, the Lord would have shown mercy.

God loves all His children.

“Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Clarence H. Woolston

“For the first time the lives of humans are attacked and endangered, and thus it was a foreshadowing of the tenth and most dreadful of all the plagues.” (Kaiser)

When I was a child every once in a while I would get a boil on my ... where the sun doesn’t shine! One of my parents would have to lance it! Ouch! I can’t imagine them all over my body! 

“But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart”...

“This is the first occasion on which this form of words is used after an actual plague. Previously, the position has always been put from the other side: pharaoh has hardened his own heart. The moral would be that God hardens those who harden themselves.” (Cole)

“‘Harden’ is the expression, not of the divine purpose but of the result of disobedience to the divine appeals. As a matter of fact, all the plagues were intended and calculated to soften, if Pharaoh had been willing to yield.” (Thomas)

Are you willing to yield?

Examine your heart before the Lord and ask Him to reveal to you any areas of hardness. 

Blessings, David