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One-sentence summary: God strikes Egypt with many plagues, but Pharaoh still hardens his heart and refuses to let the Israelites go!
God tells Moses that He has made him as God to Pharaoh and that Aaron will be his prophet, and that Moses will speak all that God has commanded him, and that Aaron will tell Pharaoh to let the people go. God also says that He will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply His signs and wonders in Egypt, and that Pharaoh will still not listen, so God will bring His people out "through great judgements," so that the Egyptians will know that He is the Lord. So Moses and Aaron obey God. (Moses is 80 years old, and Aaron is 83 years old when this happens.)
Then, the Lord speaks to Moses again. He says that when Pharaoh asks for a sign, Moses should tell Aaron to take his rod and throw it down before him it so that it becomes a serpent. But Pharaoh calls the magicians (the wise men and sorcerers of Egypt), and they perform the same trick with their arts. But Aaron's snake swallows up all of theirs. However, Pharaoh's heart grows hard, and he does not listen.
So God says to Moses to go to Pharaoh early in the morning as he is going out to the water to bathe by the river's bank, and to take the rod and give him God's message again, and to strike the waters with the rod so that they are turned to blood, so that all the fish will die and it stinks and no one can drink the water. Moses also tells Aaron to take his rod and stretch his hand over all the waters of Egypt so that it is all turned to blood. Then, the magicians do the same, and Pharaoh's heart grows heart, and he doesn't listen. (His "heart [is] not moved by this.") So for seven days, all the water in Egypt is blood.
The Lord speaks to Moses and tells him to go to Pharaoh again with God's message, telling him that if he still refuses to let them go, that God will cause a plague of frogs over all Egypt, which will be everywhere. He tells him to tell Aaron to stretch out his hand with the rod over all the waters so that frogs come up out of them. Of course, Pharaoh doesn't listen, so frogs cover the land of Egypt. The magicians do so as well.
So Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron and asks them to pray to God to take away the frogs (nothing is said of the blood), and that he will let the people go. Moses politely asks Pharaoh when he should intercede for him, and Pharaoh says, "Tomorrow." Moses says, "Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God." Then Moses and Aaron go out from Pharaoh, and Moses entreats God about the frogs, and they all die and are gathered into heaps, and the land stinks.
However, when Pharaoh sees that there is relief, he hardens his heart and will not listen. So the Lord says to Moses to tell Aaron to stretch out his rod so that the dust of the land becomes lice. So Aaron strikes the dust, and it becomes lice on every man and beast. And the magicians are not able to do this, and they say to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But his heart grows hard, and he does not listen.
So the Lord tells Moses to meet Pharaoh again by the water early in the morning, warning him that if he will not let the people go, God will send swarms of flies into all the land, and it will fill the houses and every place, even on the ground, except in Goshen, where the Israelites dwell. Also, He says to tell Pharaoh that God will make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. And so it happens, and "the land is corrupted because of the swarms of flies." So Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron and tells them to sacrifice to their God. But Moses and Aaron say they cannot sacrifice in Egypt but must go three days journey into the wilderness. Pharaoh says he will let them go, only not too far, and asks them to intercede for him. Moses says he will do so the next day but warns Pharaoh not to be deceitful again.
But Pharaoh hardens his heart again after the plague is lifted.
Then, the Lord tells Moses to go again to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go so they can serve Him, or else He will put his hand on all the livestock of Egypt to kill them, but that He will protect the livestock of Israel. Pharaoh sees the the livestock of Israel is protected, but he still hardens his heart and won't let the people go.
So the Lord tells Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and to scatter it in the air before Pharaoh to become fine dust that will cause the people of Egypt to break out in boils and sores. And the magicians "[cannot] stand before Moses because of the boils," because they are afflicted as well. "But the Lord [hardens] the heart of Pharaoh so that he does not heed them, just as [He] had spoken to Moses."
The Lord tells Moses to rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh again with another warning of a plague that will " go to their very heart... that [they] may know there is none like [the Lord God] in all the earth." He also tells Moses to tell Pharaoh that God could have destroyed them completely, but that He has raised them up so that He can show His power in Egypt, and so that His name can be declared through all the earth. He tells Pharaoh that the next day, He will cause very heavy hail to rain down such as has never been seen in Egypt, and to take all the livestock and servants from the field, because any animal or person left in the field will die. Then the Lord tells Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven so that the hail may fall, and thunder, hail, and fire, fall to the ground. The Egyptians who fear the Lord take their servants and livestock from the field, but for the ones who do not heed the word, all their servants and livestock are killed. The hail also strikes the herbs and trees in the field. But in the land of Goshen, there is no hail.
So Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron again and admits that he has sinned, that the Lord their God is the righteous One, and that he and his people are wicked. He asks them to ask God to stop the hail and says that he will let them go. Moses says he will pray to God once he leaves the city so that Pharaoh will know that the earth is the Lord's, but that he knows that Pharaoh and his servants still will not fear God. The barley and flax are struck (since they were budding,) but the wheat and spelt are not struck by the hail (since they are late crops.) I think this point is mentioned to show that God did not want to destroy Egypt completely.
So the hail stops. And when Pharaoh sees it, he sins more by hardening his hearts along with his servants, and he does not let the people go, just as God had said through Moses.
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
This idea of God hardening people's hearts has been a controversial one. In the book of Romans, Paul addresses the response that we are not responsible for our actions, since it is God who does the hardening. His response is not to talk back to God! I believe that God sees when a person will not turn, and so He decides to use that person- through their hardened heart and actions- for His purpose and glory, to show that nothing and no one can stop His will. It is a kind of judgement. The decision has already been made a long time ago and on multiple occasions to turn away from God, and there comes a time when is too late to turn... at least for a season. We see this also in Romans where God gives people over to evil, because they persisted in it.
I recently read how a well-known and accurate prophet, who is now in heaven, prophesied years ago that God would use Vladimir Putin in this way. He prophesied that God would raise up a remnant in Ukraine and that fruit would come of this time that would bring God glory. Let's pray for the people of Ukraine, Russian, and Vladimir Putin!