What is the meaning of Exodus 10:15? They covered the face of all the land until it was black • The Lord sent a literal swarm of locusts so dense that daylight was choked off: “They covered the face of all the land until it was black” (Exodus 10:15a). • Scripture repeatedly describes darkness as a mark of divine judgment (Exodus 10:22; Joel 2:2; Revelation 9:2-3). • By blotting out the sun, God demonstrated His absolute dominance over Egypt’s sun-god Ra—striking at the very heart of their worship. • The language stresses totality; this was no scattered pest problem but a nation-wide blanket of insects, visibly proving that Pharaoh’s resistance had invited a calamity only the Creator could unleash or halt (Exodus 10:3-6). They consumed all the plants on the ground • “They consumed all the plants on the ground” (Exodus 10:15b) records a literal agricultural wipeout. • The ground crops—grains, vegetables, newly sprouted growth—were ravaged. Compare Joel 1:4, where successive locust invasions leave nothing behind. • Egypt’s famed fertility, sustained by the Nile’s annual flooding, was now powerless to save them (Genesis 41:47-54). • God was systematically dismantling Egypt’s economy, proving that every earthly resource is vulnerable when a nation hardens its heart against Him (Deuteronomy 28:38-42). and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind • The previous plague of hail had already stripped many trees (Exodus 9:24-25); what remained was now devoured. • “all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind” (Exodus 10:15c) highlights God’s escalating judgment—what one plague spared, the next destroyed (Psalm 78:47-48; 105:33). • God’s precision is evident: hail struck first, leaving some food; locusts followed, erasing the remainder. The pattern underlines that each plague was intentional, not random. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt • The closing line underscores completeness: “Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt” (Exodus 10:15d). • Total devastation fulfilled Moses’ warning (Exodus 10:5). Not a sprout remained—symbolizing utter helplessness before God’s Word (Isaiah 15:6; Joel 1:10-12). • By stripping every green thing, the Lord showed that He alone sustains life (Acts 17:25). Pharaoh’s refusal to submit resulted in a land that looked as spiritually barren as his own heart. summary Exodus 10:15 records a literal, nation-wide locust plague orchestrated by God to confront Pharaoh’s defiance. The swarm darkened the sky, devoured ground crops, stripped surviving fruit, and left Egypt completely barren. Each detail magnifies God’s sovereign power, exposes the futility of false gods, and warns that persistent hardness against the Lord invites escalating judgment until repentance is the only hope. |
    |