The book of Exodus, tells the story of the life of the Israelites in Egypt. They did not have an easy time because the Pharaoh feared that if their numbers grew they might pose a threat by joining with his enemies.

To prevent this he put them into slavery. But despite this, the number of Israelites still increased. So to stop the growth in population, the Pharaoh decreed, “every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” But one particular baby boy, named Moses, survived this cruel fate.

His mother managed to hide him from the guards for three months, but when he could not be hidden any longer, she made an ark out of reeds and bulrushes carefully placed him in it by the river’s side. However, the Pharaoh’s daughter discovered Moses and subsequently took him as her son.

Later in the story, God presented himself to Moses. He wanted to gain Moses’ assistance in persuading the Pharaoh to release the Israelites from their subordination in Egypt, so they could journey into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to God. Moses went to the Pharaoh to discuss this matter with him. But the Pharaoh was uncooperative and did not believe in the God that Moses talked of.

To show that God really existed, Moses asked the Lord to perform a miracle. Accordingly, God turned a rod into a snake. However, this miracle has the opposite effect by hardening the Pharaoh’s heart as he thought he was being tricked, and he resolved never to let the Israelites go.

The Pharaoh’s reaction sparked off a series of events to try to make the Pharaoh change his mind. This involved turning the waters of Egypt into blood and sending a plague of frogs, lice and flies, boils, and locusts. But still the Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave.

So next God sent a storm of hail. Moses told the Pharaoh that God would “cause it to rain a very grievous hail” he warned him and the people to “gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die”. The pharaoh did not heed these warnings and the hail fell throughout Egypt, and both man and beast and every crop and tree in the field was destroyed or killed.

The Pharaoh was greatly distressed by the power of the Lord and the destruction that the hail had caused. He begged Moses to stop the hailstorm and said he would let the Israelites go. When the mighty hailstorm ended, the Pharaoh broke his promise. So God brought about the death of every Egyptian’s first born. That changed the Pharaoh’s mind and let the Israelites leave the country.

This story in Exodus certainly shows the powerful realities of the strength of nature. The hailstorm was so violent that it caused such great destruction. People, animals, crops and vegetation were completely destroyed by what must have been enormous hailstones.

Hailstones are hard pellets of solid ice that are larger than 5 millimetres in diameter. Some of the largest hailstones recorded have measured up to about 15 cm in diameter. It is easy to imagine the kind of damage a 15 cm spherical lump of solid ice can cause.

Today hail can be extremely destructive to buildings, cars, houses, and even people and animals. The heaviest hailstones recorded fell in Bangladesh on the 14th of April 1986. They weighed up to 1 kg and were reported to have killed 92 people in the Gopalganj region in Bangladesh.

So the hailstorm reported in the Bible is highly plausible, and we can assume the destruction it caused to the makeshift barns and houses of the Egyptians would have been great.

This story is another example of a great meteorological event recorded in the Bible. One that was so powerful to cause immense destruction. The force of nature and weather was used to reflect the power and omnipresence of God, and shows a way in which these events were used as a means for the Lord to communicate with his peoples on earth.

Related Links:

- Drought and Famine
- Noah
- Jonah