Josh Benner

Category: Bible

  • Sermon: Studying the Exodus plagues – locusts. Exodus 10:1-20

    Sermon: Studying the Exodus plagues – locusts. Exodus 10:1-20

    Sermon manuscript:

    12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 

    14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” 

    18 So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 19 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. 20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

    Prayer

    14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 

    be acceptable in your sight, 

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

    Introduction

    In the summer of 1874, trillions of locusts wrought havoc on the great planes. From Montana to the Dakota and Minnesota, they would make their way to Texas. 

    There was little that farmers could do to stop them. Word of the coming invasion spread faster than the locusts, but even with advanced warning, there was little to stop swarms of locusts. Some farmers set fires around the perimetrs of their fields, but with so many locusts, there are also accounts of them smothering out fires. 

    That same summer, Laura, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls along with Ma and Pa moved to Plum Creek in Minnesota. In “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” Laura Ingalls Wilder describes the invasion: 

    “Plunk! Something hit Laura’s head and fell to the ground. She looked down and saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen. Then huge brown grasshoppers were hitting the ground all around her, hitting her head and her face and her arms. They came thudding down like hail.

    The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm…

    Grasshoppers covered the ground, there was not one bare bit to step on. Laura had to step on grasshoppers and they smashed squirming and slimy under her feet.…

    (she continues)

    Then Laura heard another sound, one big sound made of tiny nips and snips and gnawings.… The grasshoppers were eating.… You could hear the millions of jaws biting and chewing.… Day after day the grasshoppers kept on eating. They ate all the wheat and the oats. They ate every green thing—all the garden and all the prairie grass.… The whole prairie was bare and brown. Millions of brown grasshoppers whirred low over it. Not a green thing was in sight anywhere.”

    Today, we’re continuing our series in Exodus and looking at the Ten Plagues. 

    After suffering through a series of plagues, having the ecosystem turned upside down, the deaths of livestock, painful boils, historical hail storms, we see a plague of locusts. 

    And like the Great Plains invasion of locusts in 1874, we will read of the incredible destruction brought forth by locusts in Exodus.

    And so we’ll jump right into the passage this morning. We will be shorter than normal. 

    And our three points will be the scenes of the passage. 

    We’ll see the plague warned, we’ll see a failed negotiation attempt, we’ll see the plague brought to fruition, and we’ll see Pharaoh’s efforts to see the plague stopped. 

    With that, we’ll jump into our passage this morning and look at the plague warned. 

    1. The plague warned 

    Beginning in verses 1-2:

    Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” 

    Verse 2 gets at the generational nature of the work which the Lord is doing in this plague and in all of the plagues. 

    The Exodus is meant to be a generational event. For the Israelites, it was something meant for their children, and grandchildren, and for future generatyions, up to today as we are given this story as an example of the glorious miracles that the Lord did to free his people from slavery in Egypt. 

    The Exodus is the gospel of the Old Testament. 

    It is constantly pointed back to. 

    Dozens of references to this are made throughout the rest of the Old Testament, while we are constantly pointed to the importance of remembering these events. 

    It’s mentioned in Exodus 20 when God gives the Ten commandments. During their desert wanderings, the Israelties are pointed back to God’s redeeming work in bringing them out of Egypt. In later generations, the prophets point back to this in contrast with Israel’s failure to follow God’s covenant. 

    For the Israelites, they had a story that pointed them back to God’s great act of redemption in freeing them from slavery in Egypt. 

    And for Christians, we have a story that points us back to God’s great act of redemption in freeing us from the slavery of sin through the grace of Christ. 

    As the Israelites were to tell their children and their grandchildren about what God had done for them, we are called to tell the next generation about what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. 

    Stories are powerful in communicating lessons, values, teaching us about where we came from and who we are. 

    And the gospel does all of that. 

    In his commentary of Exodus, Philip Ryken says: “It explains who we are: the people of God. It explains where we came from: a life of sin and misery. It explains where we are going: to live with Christ in mansions of glory. It explains who God is: the Father of mercy and love. And it explains why we are here: to glorify God by living for Christ.” 

    Stories are powerful. 

    A great movie can be enjoyed over and over again. 

    A great family story can be told and retold and even though you know what happened, it still makes you laugh. 

    And God’s story matters. In both the Exodus, and the gospel, and throughout the Bible, we see God’s story of redeeming and restoring a sinful humanity to himself. 

    In verse 2, God says that in telling this story to future generations, you may know that I am God. 

    The stories of God’s work are powerful. 

    And it matters that we tell that story. 

    If I saved your life, you’d tell people about it. 

    We honor those who do great things to save, preserve, and protect others. 

    Yet we often don’t tell people about the God who saved our soul. 

    Why is that? 

    We’re called to share that story both with our children but also with the world. 

    Again, through the story of what God has done and is doing in the world, that stirs the human heart. That points people to God. That points people to goodness.

    And that points people to true life.  

    That we were sinful people and we were dead in our sins. But Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world. He lived a life without sin. He lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserved so that we could have eternal life with him in heaven. 

    And that’s the truest thing there is. And that’s the greatest reality there is. 

    And that’s the gospel. 

    We don’t have to get it all figured out. We don’t have to get everything right. We have to come to Jesus. 

    Romans 10:13 says that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. When we believe and trust in Jesus, there is forgiveness and life. 

    In Exodus, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh with the warning of this plague of locusts. 

    Exodus 10:3-6:

    3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. 4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, 5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, 6 and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’ 

    There we have the official warning of the plague of locusts which will come if he continues to refuse allowing the Israelites to go. 

    Moses says that they will cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land. 

    And when he’s had seven other plagues and he’s told a plague of locusts will come, Pharaoh still does not relent. The passage says that the Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. 

    While Pharaoh doesn’t want to allow the Israelites to leave, some of his advisors are starting to have a change of heart. 


    Verse 7: 

    7 Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” 

    Pharaoh’s servants look at all of the destruction and feel like their society is ruined and are saying “just let them go. What’s it all for?” 

    1. A failed negotiation 

    Verse 8, we see a brief scene where Pharaoh tries to negotiate. This is something else that we’ve seen in other plagues. Attempts at bargaining with the Lord. 

    We don’t have any leverage with an all powerful Lord. 

    Pharaoh will fain willingness to release some of the Israelites. 

    8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?

    So Pharaoh says that they can go, but then he asks “which ones are to go?”

    He doesn’t want all of the Israelites to go. If some stay back, that will increase the likelihood they’ll return. 

    But Moses has been directed by the Lord and is not in a position to negotiate. 

    ” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”

    In other words, everyone will go. 

    In verse 11, Pharaoh will say: 

    11 No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.”

    So Pharaoh was only willing to allow the men to go for this religious pilgrimage. Again, he’s counting on them coming back to Egypt if their wives and children are left behind. 

    But that will not do. 

    This worship and God’s plan is not just meant for the Israelite men. It’s men for the entire Israelite people. 

    And since Pharaoh has again refused to listen to the Lord, he will now have to bear the full force of the Lord’s judgment. 

    1. The eighth plague: locusts

    Verses 13-15:

    13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 

    15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

    And the destruction is unleashed. 

    When the text says that the locusts covered the ground, that’s probably not much of an exaggeration. I think about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoir. 

    I have a couple of clips of locusts that we’ll look at in a moment. 

    But here are a few facts about locusts.

    The desert locust is the most destructive pest on earth. 

    In many parts of the world, they’re a common nuisance. 

    But when the conditions are right, when there are heavy rains and wet soil, a physical change happens in locusts which gives the conditions for them forming massive swarms where they begin to reproduce rapidly. 

    While one locust is insignificant, a massive swarms of locusts can cause almost unimaginable damage. 

    Some good news for us. The Rocky Mountain locust which plagued the Great Plains in the 1870s actually went extinct in 1902 and North America has no native locust species. 

    A locust swarm can have over 100 million locusts in a square mile, and a swarm can be the size of a city. Large swarms can have tens of billions of locusts. 

    Locusts eat nearly their body weight in a day. They will eat crops, flowers, leaves, grains, and tree bark. And if they run out of food, locusts will cannibalize each other. From 2003-2005, swarms did more than $2.5 billion dollars in crop losses in West Africa. 

    According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of locusts in a square mile can consume the same amount of food in a day as 35,000 people. 

    And they’re mobile. A locust can cover 120 miles in a day. In 1988, swarms from Africa made it to England. 

    Last year, and continuing this year, due to heavy rains, several countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia had plagues of locusts which have impacted the food supplies for millions of people. 

    In our passage, verse 15 gets at the impact of the locusts.

    Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

    And something to keep in mind. We live in a time and place where there are lots of resources. If we don’t have enough food, there are things that can be done. It might cost more. But we are able to get food. 

    The Egyptians losing crops to hail in the last plauge and then to locusts in this plague would be incredibly perilous and difficult. 

    But as we’ve seen with other plagues, the Lord uses something natural to the world as an instrument of judgment. 

    Sin is serious. And the sin of Pharaoh was serious as he continued to refuse to release the Israelites. 

    Earlier in the chapter, Pharaoh had arrogantly dealt with Moses and Aaron, but amid the destruction of the locusts, he must again come to them with his tail between his legs. 

    And that brings us to our fourth and final scene. 

    1. Pharaoh’s effort to stop the plague

    And as he’s done before, he’ll talk the talk when he says in verse 16:

    16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” 

    We’ve seen this pattern in some of the other plagues where Pharaoh asks for intervention, he asks for Moses to intercede and go to the Lord on his behalf. 

    Pharaoh uses a lot of the right language. He talks of his sin and asks for forgiveness. 

    We’ve seen it before. 

    And Moses takes this apology before the Lord in verse 18. 

    Verse 19:

    19 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. 20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

    The Lord answers the prayer. 

    The Lord wipes out the locusts in the Red Sea. It’s foreshadowing what will happen to Pharaoh himself in chapter 14. 

    But how does Pharaoh respond to this prayer being answered? 

    The section ends by saying that he did not let the people of Israel go. 

    Once again, Pharaoh reneges. 

    Here’s what’s so amazing about the whole story. 

    Pharaoh keeps seeing the Lord answer his prayers, and yet never listens to God, never worships God, never turns to God in faith. Instead, Pharaoh continues to be spared and whatever repentance he just spoke of, we see what is ultimately insincere as we see time and again that he has not been changed. 

    Pharaoh might say he’s sorry and use the right language in talking about his sin when he’s suffering. That is interesting in itself. He knows the language to use. He has some concept of what he ought to say or why he’s wrong. But whenever things return to normal, he continues in direct rebellion against God. 

    Empty and faithless words. Wanting God’s blessing but not wanting God. Wanting God’s grace but not wanting to live for God. 

    There’s nothing new under the sun. People still play these games today. People want cheap grace. People want easy grace. They want God to do what they want him to do so that they can go back to doing what they want to do. 

    God is patient. He’s slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. But he is also righteous and just. God continues to give chances. Pharaoh has again and again made promises to free the Israelites and then refused. God knows all of this.

    But there will be a time when our time runs out. 

    And there will ultimately be a day of reckoning. 

    And while God is gracious and merciful, he does not compromise on insincere faith. He doesn’t tolerate phony moralism. And he will not accept disingenuous confessions and repentance. God is all knowing. He knows who we are. He knows our hearts. He knows where our faith is. 

    Let us not go through life playing games. Let our plan not be a death bed confession. 

    But let us live for God today. Why? Because that’s the truest way to live, it’s the best way to live, and it’s the blessed way to live. 

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  • 4 goals I have with every sermon I preach

    4 goals I have with every sermon I preach

    I’ve had the privilege of preaching over 450 sermons. In every sermon, I have four goals and those never change.

    1. To be faithful to the text

    Preaching must begin with the text itself. That might sound like stating the obvious, but it’s not actually where every pastor starts. Many pastors start with an idea “how to be a good parent,” “how to be a good financial steward,” “how to have a happy marriage,” etc. From that thesis, they seek out Biblical texts or passages which support that idea.

    It’s my conviction that the better place to begin in preaching is with a Biblical text itself.

    Sermons around topics can often take or leave the Bible.

    I believe that the best sermons are the ones that are so intimately tied to the Biblical text that they would be incomprehensible without it. The sermon must be grounded in the text. My goal is to let the text speak for itself and to preach that faithfully.

    2. To preach the gospel

    This is just as important as the first goal. Every sermon should be a gospel sermon. Every sermon should be an opportunity to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ and that we have an offer of grace and forgiveness from a good and loving savior.

    There are two key reasons why every sermon should be a gospel sermon. First, because Christians need to constantly be reminded of the gospel.

    In Romans 1:16-17, Paul says:

    For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 

    Secondly, there will almost always be someone listening to the sermon who does not actually believe in the gospel. For that reason, every sermon should be taken as an opportunity to proclaim the message of salvation.

    3. To explain how the text applies to life

    If the sermon has no real world application, it’s not a sermon. It’s a lecture!

    The great 20th century expositor and preacher John Stott said “if there is no summons, there is no sermon.” His point was that if a sermon isn’t calling on the congregation to do something, it’s not truly a sermon.

    Application can be challenging. Good application requires having an understanding of the true heart of the text. If the great takeaway from every sermon is “read the Bible more and pray more,” then it is ultimately lazy preaching. Great preaching must be mining for gold in the passage.

    4. To preach with clarity

    I’ve heard many a sermon that began well and then wandered off into incoherence.

    I’ve been in the middle of sermons and thought “what is the preacher even talking about?” Clarity is important in good preaching.

    I think the easiest way to preach with clarity is to have a clear outline for the sermon. Honestly, a good outline can be one of the biggest challenges of writing a sermon. Studying the passage is the easy part. Arranging the sermon in a logical way is where a lot of the real work of sermon writing comes in. But it’s the difference between a good sermon and a bad sermon.

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe

  • What are you seeking? Exploring John 1:35-39

    What are you seeking? Exploring John 1:35-39

    In the final sections of John chapter 1, several theological affirmations are made about Jesus. 

    In John 1:29-34, John the Baptist calls Jesus the lamb of God.

    That language will continue in the following section. John 1:35-36 says: 35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

    Understanding what that means

    In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was instituted to show that sin needed to be atoned for. Sin required a blood sacrifice. It was a complicated and rigorous system. Sacrifices provided temporary atonement. Certain sins required certain sacrifices. 

    Sacrifices also required worthy animals. A person couldn’t just pick out an old goat that was about to die. It had to be a healthy animal without blemish. 

    All of that was meant to point to the greater sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect and spotless lamb who is the true and worthy sacrifice. 

    And so John calls Jesus the Lamb of God because he is the one who was sacrificed to atone for the sins of all who believe in him. 

    John 1:37, John the Baptist has just made this statement about Jesus and then: The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

    John the Baptist points to Jesus. His own disciples leave him to go and follow Jesus. 

    With a respected religious leader like John, that would have been unthinkable. No one wants to lose people.A teacher doesn’t want to lose students. A dentist doesn’t want to lose patients. A hair stylist doesn’t want to lose clients. 

    But John is happy to point his people to Jesus. 

    He’s happy to lose his followers to Jesus, because that’s his entire purpose. Pointing people to Jesus. 

    The text says that they followed Jesus. 

    Verse 38:

    Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” 

    Quite the question Jesus asks. It has a double meaning. 

    Yes, it’s Jesus asking the two men who are following him. But it is also a probing question for anyone who seeks to follow Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    “What are you seeking?”

    What do you want from Jesus. There are many reasons why people try to find religion or turn to Jesus. But not all of them are good reasons. 

    If you’re a follower of Jesus, why are you following him? 

    Being a follower of Jesus is an end in itself. You follow Jesus because you get…Jesus. You get God. 

    That is the greatest promise that the Lord gives to us. Unworthy sinners are invited to know the God of the universe. 

    Sadly that’s not always the real heart behind a person’s desire to know Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Some people follow Jesus because they have all sorts of issues and think life will get easier. 

    And for awhile, that might be true. 

    But you’re still you. You’re still a sinful person. You still have various habits and areas of sin that aren’t productive. And life is still hard. 

    You get Jesus. 

    What about when the going gets tough? Because the going will get tough. And then where does that leave you?For some, they’re left disillusioned with faith because it didn’t give them what they wanted. 

    But the mistake was that they were looking for the wrong thing. 

    Some are led to Jesus because they’re sold a false gospel and believe that material blessing and physical health are both always the will of God for a believer. 

    It’s often called the prosperity gospel. It’s not Biblical Christianity. It turns our desires to stuff and not to God. 

    There are often blessings which result from the Christian life and living according to Biblical wisdom. But that is not meant to be the basis of being a follower of Christ. 

    Because the struggles still come. 

    If our hope is rooted in what we think Jesus will give to us, it leads to a faith that is superficial. 

    Plenty of Christians can see the flaws in prosperity theology. Yet we’re often still drawn to it. 

    Especially in America. 

    Why? 

    Because, in our heart of hearts, there’s a temptation to think that we deserve things to be good because we like to think we’re good. We pray, we serve, we give, we try to follow God. 

    We do these things and so it can be tempting to be angry with God when things don’t go the way we want them to. 

    The Bible does not promise the Christian life will be easy. It promises the opposite. 

    The Apostle James said to count it all joy, WHEN you meet trials of various kings (John 1:2). 

    In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: 

    10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

    11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)

    You can find verses on suffering in almost every book in the New Testament. 

    Most notably, it was Jesus who was unjustly tortured and executed. He told his disciples in John 15: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

    The Apostle Paul was imprisoned multiple times in his life and later executed for his faith. He said in Romans 5:3 we rejoice in our sufferings.

    Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians from jail, and was later executed. John the Baptist who’s in our passage this morning. Executed. 

    The apostles named in our passage this morning: all of them were martyrs. 

    The world hates the gospel. 

    The Christian life is hard. And life is hard. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Certainly I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with blessings. Christians oftentimes do enjoy blessings in life, because God is good and gracious. 

    Living Godly lives and living according to Biblical wisdom is the best way to live and so that often bears fruit in life. 

    But what about when it doesn’t? 

    Many faithful people follow the Lord throughout their entire lives and continue to suffer and struggle. 

    What are you seeking? I’m not saying we should desire a life of hardship of drudgery. 

    That’s not the life God wants for his people. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. But if Jesus is your everything, you can find joy even in hardship, even in suffering, even in sorrow, even in pain. 

    What are you seeking?  

    Is Jesus your chief love and the thing that matters most to you? 

    Do you want to worship Jesus as your Lord and savior or do you think he’s a genie who will grant wishes? 

    As we continue in verse 38, we see their response. Jesus had asked “what are you seeking?” 

    They respond to the question with a question 

    And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), where are you staying?”

    They don’t answer the question. 

    As they try to follow Jesus, perhaps it’s too difficult to spell out exactly what they’re seeking but they ask where he’s staying in the hopes of being with him and being able to talk to him and be in his presence. 

    He said to them, “Come and you will see.” 

    Jesus invites them in. He invites them into a relationship. He invites everyone into a relationship, into knowing him.

    “Come and you will see.” 

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe. This post is part of a series where I am looking verse by verse at the Gospel of John. 

  • Sermon: studying the Exodus plagues. Disease and boils. Exodus 9:1-12

    Sermon: studying the Exodus plagues. Disease and boils. Exodus 9:1-12

    Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. 4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.” ’ ” 

    5 And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 

    8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 

    12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. 

    Introduction 

    We’re continuing in Exodus this morning, and we’re in a section that looks at a series of ten plagues which were brought upon the Egyptians when Pharaoh refused the Egyptians permission to leave Egypt as the Lord had commanded. 

    Last week we look at plagues two, three, and four. 

    This week, we look at the next two plagues. 

    One thing I’d like to say at the beginning. On a personal note…

    I love Exodus. I love these passages. It’s my favorite book of the Old Testament. 

    And part of why I love these passages is because we see these pictures, and on the one hand, they’re such extreme situations. But at the same time, they’re also very applicable. 

    Because while it was a long time ago and while it was in a different part of the world in a different culture, people are still people. Faith is still faith. Sin is still sin. And God is still God. 

    And so while it can all seem so far off and far removed from us, one thing that we see over and over in the Exodus is that we’re really not so different from people of the past. 

    At the outset, I want to highlight the commentary of Philip Ryken on Exodus which I’ve found especially helpful with this ninth chapter of Exodus. 

    And so we’ll begin with the fifth plague. 

    Fifth plague: plague on livestock 

    Verses 1-4: 

    Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. 

    4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.” ’

    In the preceding four plagues, we had seen times where Pharaoh was warned. 

    We had seen times when he had agreed to free the Israelites, until to renege. 

    But God gives another warning when Moses tells Pharaoh that if he does not release the Israelites, there will be a plague upon his livestock. 

    Verse 2 into 3 says: if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock

    The verse says that the hand of the Lord will cause a severe plague. 

    It’s noteworthy that in chapter 8, when the Lord brings a plague of gnats, that is the first plague that Pharaoh’s magicians are unable to recreate and they tell Pharaoh this is the finger of God. (Exodus 8:19). 

    And here, the Lord says that it will be from his hand that this plague comes. 

    There does seem to be an intensification of these plagues. 

    This fifth plague is the first plague that brings death. 

    There have been plagues where death is a result. For instance, fish die when the Nile is turned to blood in the first plague. But the plague was primarily the Nile turning to blood. Or to give another example, during the second plague when there’s an infestation of frogs, the frogs ultimately die.

    But the entire purpose of this fifth plague is that it brings death. 

    And it also foreshadows the death which will happen in the last plague when God strikes dead the firstborn of all of the Egyptians. 

    That the early plagues were very severe and significant, but they were largely nuisances. 

    But here, the stakes are getting upped. 

    The ESV calls this a severe plague.

    Some translations will use the word pestilence. 

    The King James Version uses the term “murrain,” which is not a common word in modern English but refers to an infectious disease. 

    We don’t know specifically what this plague was, but it does seem to be some zoonotic disease, or multiple diseases which were to cause death among Egyptian livestock. 

    The passage says: 

    a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks

    So this plague will be wide ranging in its impact. 

    It will impact the food supplies, it will impact the economy. 

    I made this point last week, but one of the common things that we see in the plagues is a lot of language which mirrors the creation account in Genesis. 

    Genesis talks of the Lord’s orderly creation. 

    The plagues are an orderly un-creation. 

    In Genesis, man is given charge over the animals. 

    Genesis 1:26: 

    26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

    But here, the livestock is taken away. 

    Something else that’s noteworthy compared to the other plagues. As I’ve mentioned, many of them are in direct confrontation to Egypt’s pantheon of deities. 

    Among other things, the Egyptians believed that their creator God Ptah embodied a bull named Apis and that Apis was an intermediary between humanity and the Egyptian pantheon. 

    The Egyptians would actually keep a live bull in the temple at Memphis which was worshipped. When those bulls died, they were given funerary rights similar to what a Pharaoh was given. 

    The fact that the bull was such a significant symbol of the divine and of communication with God makes it interesting that shortly after the Israelites were freed from the land of Egypt, when things weren’t going their way, in Exodus 32, in their frustration, they make a golden calf. 

    There were also other Egyptian deities who could be associated with horns and other cow-like features. 

    But here in this fifth plague, the livestock of Egypt are under attack. 

    Continuing in our passage. 

    Verse 4, as we had seen last week in the fourth plague, the Lord says that he will spare the Israelites from the destructiveness of this plague.’

    Verses 5-6:

    5 And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.

    Something that’s worth nothing in this verse. 

    The passage says in verse 2 that the plague will be upon the livestock that are in the field. 

    Verse 6 says when the plague happened all the livestock of the Egyptians died. 

    Does it mean literally every single animal that belonged to any Egyptian died? I don’t think the text supports that because later plagues will make references to Egyptian livestock. 

    So either the word “all” there is hyperbole and simply means “a lot of the livestock died.” 

    For my sensibilities, such a rendering doesn’t bother me. It’s possible that this is what it means. 

    Or perhaps it means all livestock that was in the fields, because those were the animals who were contracting diseases from each other.

    Or perhaps it means all kinds of livestock saw death, but is not meant to be taken as exhaustively referring to every single animals. 

    The ultimate point is pointing us to the vastness of the destruction. 


    7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 

    Verse 7 is very subtle. 

    Pharaoh sent. 

    That’s almost awkwardly worded in English. 

    It can be easy to overlook because it’s just two words. 

    The plague has been inflicted. Egyptian livestock have died. 

    And Pharaoh sent. 

    What that means is that Pharaoh sent people to investigate the conditions in the Israelite territory in the Land of Goshen. 

    It’s also ironic. 

    Because in the Hebrew, the word “sent” is used twice in this passage. At the beginning when talking about letting the Israelites go – sending them out. And here in verse 7, where it talks of how Pharaoh sent people to investigate Israel. 

    In other words, he sent his people to investigate the Israelites, but he did not send the Israelites into the wilderness, as he had been commanded. 

    So Pharaoh sends people to scout out Goshen and sees that the Israelites did not suffer the same consequences that the Egyptians had.

    Application – a time for choosing

    Philip Ryken has a helpful observation on this situation as Pharaoh’s investigation. 

    And what Ryken gets at is the idea that there can be a time and place for healthy skepticism and questioning. Especially for someone who is not a Chrisitan or who does not believe in God. 

    There can be a time to investigate the claims of Chrsitianity, to look into the person of Jesus, the evidence for his historical ministry, the evidence for the resurrection, and a number of other topics in the Bible. 

    But there also becomes a time to trust, a time to believe. 

    I had a friend in seminary. I’ve tried to get in touch with him over the years, but unsuccessfully. 

    I don’t think he’s walking with the Lord today. 

    Brilliant guy. 

    One of the few people I’ve ever known who I will not hesitate to acknowledge that I know he’s smarter than me. 

    And he had had a church background before seminary. 

    But it hadn’t been the healthiest church that he had grown up in and he had a lot of questions, and he had a lot of things he wanted to figure out. 

    Again, there’s nothing wrong with questions. 

    But for some people, the questions never stop. 

    And it’s like you have to have it all figured out before you can believe. 

    You will never get there. 

    More than a century ago, mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead and philosopher Betreand Russell wrote their famous book Principia Mathematica – Principles of Mathematics.

    In establishing the basic axioms and proofs of math, they famously took 379 pages to get to their definitive proof that 1+1+2. 

    We can’t explain the whole world before we can live in it. We can’t know everything about God before we can believe in him. 

    There’s a time to question but then there comes a time to believe. 

    Pharaoh continues to be given evidence but continues to disobey. 

    We come to the sixth plague. 

    Sixth plague: boils 

    Similar to what we had seen from the third plague, this one comes with no warning. Beginning in verse 8: 

    8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”  10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast.

    Boils. 

    Just as a reminder from what we’ve seen in these plagues. 

    Plagues of the ecosystem when the river is turned to blood and the frogs are driven from the river. 

    We’ve seen plagues which caused nuisances such as the gnats and flies. 

    We’ve seen plagues that impact the animal kingdom such as the death of the livestock. 

    And now we see physical suffering with this plague of boils. 

    It’s some sort of skin disease. 

    Various conditions such as leprosy, smallpox, and skin anthrax have all been suggested as possible causes. 

    Whatever it is, it’s undoubtedly unpleasant. 

    Moses is told to take handfuls of soot from the kilns and to throw them in the air. 

    Bricks without straw

    There is irony in that. In Exodus 5, Moses first goes to Pharaoh with the command to let the Israelites go into the wilderness in order to have a feast to God in the wilderness. 

    Pharaoh goes out of his way to punish the Israelites and make their lives just a little bit more difficult. 

    Exodus 5:6-8:

    6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle.

    Straw was used in the brick making process because it helped add some stability to the bricks and also helped with the drying process. 

    Apparently, the Israelite brickmakers had been given straw but when Moses asked Pharaoh to allow them into the wilderness, as a punishment, Pharaoh made them get their own straw without reducing their quota of bricks. 

    Now when we come to our passage in chapter 9, the residue from those bricks that the Israelites had been forced to make is taken from the kiln and thrown into the air and the Lord uses that to bring a judgement upon the Egyptians. 

    This sixth plague inflicts both man and beast.

    As we’ve seen in other plagues, this one takes aim at the religion of Egypt. 

    The Egyptians had several deities associated with healing, and yet here the Egyptians are afflicted with boils but not upon the Israelites. 

     11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. 

    Once again, we see a scene which is almost comical. 

    The magicians are the people who had recreated the first two plagues. 

    The plague of gnats, they could not duplicate. 

    The third and fourth plagues, they didn’t even try to do.

    And now we’re at a plague of boils, and they’re in so much pain that they can’t even stand up in front of Moses. 

    They’re totally ineffective. 

    It’s also a play on words with verse 10 which says that Moses and Aaron took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh.

    But the magicians cannot stand before Moses. 

    It’s true physically, and it’s also true Spiritually.

    They and their false gods have been totally defeated.

    Pluralism

    In our day and age, pluralism is the flavor of the month. 

    We like to affirm what others believe and treat other ideas like they’re all equally valid. 

    But we cannot do that when it comes to faith. 

    Yes, we must always be courteous, and loving, and gracious. 

    But we cannot compromise on what we believe. 

    We can be loving but also lovers of truth.. 

    I made this point last week, but for the various sentiments that people give about religion of “no faith is any more true than any other” or “all roads lead to god” or “all religions are basically teaching the same thing.

    All throughout the Exodus, we’re seeing the Lord God and the fake gods of the Egyptian pantheon and it’s again and again pointing us that the Lord is true and that the Egyptian religion was false. 

    But that’s true today for any competing religion. 

    When people say that no religion is any more true than any other or that all religions are equally valid, that is making an absolute statement about the religions of the world. 

    That’s not open minded. It’s arrogant. 

    If there is one thing that all religions agree on it’s that they’re not all the same as every other religion. 

    Throughout the Exodus, the Lord is showing himself to be true. 

    Throughout the history of his people in the Old Testament, God showed himself to be true. 

    Through the ministry of Christ, God has shown himself to be true and for his promises to be true. 

    Through the resurrection of Jesus, God has shown himself to be faithful. 

    And God has been faithful to his church for almost 2,000 years. God has been faithful to change lives. God has been faithful to bless his church and to bless the ministry of the gospel as it has gone throughout the world. 

    It says in our passage that the magicians couldn’t stand. I take that both literally and figuratively. 

    That they couldn’t stand because of the painful boils, but that they also could’t stand up to the Lord. 

    Similarly to what the Psalmist says in Psalm 1.

    Blessed is the man 

    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, 

    nor stands in the way of sinners, 

    nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 

    2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, 

    and on his law he meditates day and night. 

    3 He is like a tree 

    planted by streams of water 

    that yields its fruit in its season, 

    and its leaf does not wither. 

    In all that he does, he prospers. 

    4 The wicked are not so, 

    but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 

    5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 

    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 

    Psalm 1 contrasts the person who delights in the Law of God against he person who does not. 

    And in verse 5 says that the wicked will not stand in judgment. 

    And the point of that is that the wicked have nothing to stand on before a holy God. 

    And Pharaoh’s magicians cannot stand a they’re afflicted by this plague, because they are in sin and are opposing God. 

    We cannot stand before to a holy God. 

    But the good news of the gospel is that we have someone who could, because he was the Son of God, he was righteous, he was sinless, he was holy, he was God himself, the word of God who became flesh. 

    Jesus. 

    While we are fallen, he is gracious and allows us to be forgiven and to go into the presence of the Lord. 

    That’s the good news of the gospel. 

    That when we believe in Jesus, 

    the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:10-11).

    Thanks for listening! I hope this sermon blessed you.

  • Why John the Baptist’s purpose is our purpose too. Exploring John 1:29-34

    Why John the Baptist’s purpose is our purpose too. Exploring John 1:29-34

    John the Baptist came to point to Christ, to witness to Christ, to be the bridge between BC and AD. 

    In John 1:29, John the Baptist sees Jesus. 

    The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

    It’s very possible that John himself did not realize the full magnitude of what he was even saying when he uttered those words. 

    But it’s impossible for a Christian to miss the meaning. Behold, John commands. Look to Jesus. Look upon the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. A profound theological statement about Jesus and what he did.

    Sacrifice and the lamb

    Jesus is the perfect and spotless lamb who is sacrificed for sins. It’s a theme that we will see throughout John’s Gospel. 

    Many of the Old Testament sacrifices call for a lamb. Isaiah 53 has a passage of the suffering servant and talks of a perfect lamb being led to slaughter. There’s the Passover sacrifice where the Israelites scarified lambs before the Exodus and where it was an annual holy day. 

    And here Jesus is called the Lamb of God. 

    The ultimate and greater sacrifice. He’s the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It’s not that sin is just written off or no longer matters. Just the opposite. Sin matters a great deal but it is Jesus who takes away sin, takes away the penalty for our sins. 

    He takes away the sins of the world. That’s not saying that he takes away the sins of every individual person. John talks about “the world” several times in his gospel and other writings. It is Jesus who bears the penalty for a fallen humanity and for everyone who believes in him. 

    John the Baptist continues speaking in verse 30: This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.

    This is similar to verse 15. There John said: ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 

    And what John is doing is looking back at his early prophesy, as pointing to one who was greater than him and he sees Jesus, and he says “this is that man.” John gets at his specific purpose. 

    Verse 31: I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

    Where John says he did not know Jesus, don’t get too caught up in that. The point isn’t that John the Baptist literally did not know Jesus but that he did not previously know Jesus for who he was: the promised messiah. John was called to baptize so that the savior of the world would be revealed. That’s not primarily about John, it’s about the Lord and the divine plan. 

    John’s call to repentance, John as the voice of one in the wilderness, John as a witness to Jesus, all of this was part of the divine plan for John’s ministry and purpose in the world as the forerunner to Jesus. 

    Verse 32: And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

    This is referring to when Jesus was baptized. 

    All four gospels agree that John was a witness to the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus. The Holy Spirit is another significant theme of the Gospel of John. Jesus promises to give the Holy Spirit to his believers in John chapters 14, 15, and 16. 

    In the Old Testament, there were passages that talked of the Spirit being with God’s anointed one. 

    Isaiah 42:1:

    Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

    I have put my Spirit upon him;

    he will bring forth justice to the nations.

    There are others, but just to give a sense of it. John sees that moment.  We see Jesus: fully God and fully man having the Spirit descend on him. I used to think “why would Jesus need the Holy Spirit when he’s God? 

    But I was asking the wrong question. “Why wouldn’t Jesus need the Holy Spirit?”

    All three persons of the Trinity are God. All three of them work in perfect unity. They are all equal in eternity, holiness, glory, and power.Again, Jesus is both fully God and fully man, but it is because he is fully man that he needs the Spirit. 

    And just as he enjoyed fellowship with God during this ministry, because Jesus is also fully God, it makes sense that Jesus would likewise enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit during his ministry. 

    John sees this moment. He’s a witness to the Spirit descending upon Jesus. And John says in the text that He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

    The same Spirit who filled Jesus during his ministry is given to all people because of Jesus’ ministry. The Spirit equips us with gifts, convicts us of sin, sanctifies us to God. 

    Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. 

    The Spirit bears witness to those who believe. The one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. Because we’re blessed to have more of the story. 

    We have the risen lamb.

    Believe in the lamb. Turn away from sin. Point others to him. 

    Final thought  

    John the Baptist had a ministry to do for a time in history. 

    He was not perfect. He was just a man. He lived a shorter life than Jesus. Much of his life was spent in seclusion.But he was faithful. 

    Yes, we don’t have the ministry that John the Baptist had. 

    He had a once in history ministry. He was the forerunner to Jesus. 

    But just because someone has a different ministry or a different way to serve, that doesn’t mean that the ways you can serve the Lord are insignificant. No one would know who John the Baptist was without Jesus. Jesus is the thing that gives relevance and meaning to his life. 

    But for anyone who’s a follower of Jesus, that’s the case. It’s Jesus who gives meaning. John’s ministry was to point people to Jesus. But that’s the ministry in which every follower of Jesus still shares in. 

    Pointing people to Jesus in word and deed. Following where the Lord leads. Walking in faith. Standing up for the truth of God. 

    Those things are a call which all Christians share. 

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus talks of John the Baptist and says: 

    I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

    No one before John was greater than he. 

    Yet Jesus says that for those who come after, the one who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater. The reason isn’t because we have anything great in ourselves. 

    It’s because we have a fuller picture of who Jesus is and a fuller picture of God’s revelation to the world. 

    John did have a once in history ministry to fulfill but he didn’t live long enough to see the fruition of Jesus’ ministry. He never heard about the resurrection or saw the risen Christ. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord today? It can be tempting to think that we don’t have what it takes to serve God.It’s not about your own abilities and your own power. John the Baptist was an effective minister without a lot of resources. 

    You don’t have to have a lot of money to serve God faithfully. John the Baptist certainly did not have that. He came from the wilderness. Other gospels tell us that John wore a garment made of camel’s hair. 

    You don’t have to have all of the degrees and credentials. John the Baptist didn’t have that….he came. from. the wilderness. 

    You might think you’re too old. John the Baptist had a ministry that was shorter than Jesus’s. His public ministry was incredibly short lived. You don’t have to have decades of ministry to have a ministry that matters. 

    You just have to follow the Lord, to love the Lord, to serve the Lord. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord? What are you living for? 

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