It’s hard to even imagine what a world without sin would look like. Since the fall of man, every aspect of life and of our world has been affected by sin. As we’ve studied creation, sin has loomed over the story of God’s good world. In today’s passage, we look at the downfall of man and the first sin. But it’s a passage which is also hopeful. While there are severe consequences, it is the first place in the Bible that tells us of the gospel and of a future offspring of the woman who will finally and forever crush the serpent.
Category: preaching
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The First Gospel – Genesis 3
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Sermon: Crossing the Red Sea. Exodus 14
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.
And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Prayer
Our gracious and heavenly Father,
We again come to you in a Spirit of praise and rejoicing. Lord, we continue to pray for our nation and all of the division that we face. Let us continue to honor you with our lives, our thoughts, our deeds. Let us live as living sacrifices to you O Lord.
We pray that you would bless our time in your word.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Introduction
We’ve actually covered this passage before. About a year and a half ago.
And I had asked myself “should we do it again?”
And for two main reasons, I decided to.
Perhaps most obviously, we’ve been talking about the Exodus and it makes no sense to skip over the most significant event of the entire book of Exodus, when God actually frees the Israelites from Egypt by parting the waters of the Red Sea.
And although we’ve looked at this passage before, it’s still helpful because it’s God’s word. And a good knife cuts more than once.
And with that very limited introduction, we’re going to get right into our passage this morning. And the plan is to cover the crossing of the Red Sea and close by talking about how that points us to the gospel.
And the main idea I want to make this morning: God delivers his people from slavery to freedom.
In chapter 12, God had brought the most severe plague against the Egyptians when he struck dead the firstborn of all the people in Egypt. When that happened, Pharaoh seemed to finally tell the Israelites to leave.
Fast forward to Exodus 14, and the Israelites are being led out of Egypt, but Pharaoh has decided to pursue them.
Now we saw numerous plagues where Pharaoh
Beginning in verse 5:
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
We see supreme pride and arrogance on display from Pharaoh.
God has continually shown his supremacy and Pharaoh won’t accept it.
Now Egypt had a well-equipped and well-trained army. They have chariots which was the great military technology of that day.
The Israelites are unarmed.
9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
I think the movie the Ten Commandments actually does a good job of capturing the drama.
The Egyptians are in pursuit of the Israelites.
With all that God had done for the Israelites, how do they respond?
Do they respond in confidence and faith and trust in the Lord?
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
The Israelites see the Egyptians coming for them and they’re scared.
They ask if he’s brought them out into the desert to die.
It’s the first time in their wilderness journeys that they’ll complain about the Lord’s goodness towards them. But it won’t be the last.
They lose confidence in what God can do.
Again, it can be easy to be critical of that. But it’s tempting to lose sight of God when an army is coming towards you. It’s temping to lose sight of God when a situation seems hopeless.
It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture of what God is doing, easy to forget what God has done and how he has blessed you.
Moses gives them a powerful word.
13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
Fear not. The most commonly given command in the Bible.
God had promised where he was bringing the Israelites.
Exodus 3:17, the Lord said to Moses:
and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey
That’s the land to which God had promised Abraham in Genesis.
He promises again in Exodus 6:6 and 6:8.
And after all the plagues, all the wonders that God had done, the Passover where the firstborn of the Egyptians all died and God spared the Israelites.
After all of that, at the beginning of Exodus 13:3-5, the Israelites were told:
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5 And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month
They had again been reminded of where the Lord was bringing them.
God’s promises are trustworthy!
And yet the Israelites fall into fear. The Israelites were in a dire circumstance in the eyes of the world. I think all of us would be tempted to fear too.
But they had the promise of the Lord.
I think fear, stress, worry, and anxiety are extremely common for us in our society.
But so many of the fears we have are not necessarily even about life and death situations. They’re not usually fears where we are in imminent danger.
We so often live in our minds, and dwell on situations and fears.
I can be terrible at this, by the way. So I don’t want to sound condemning.
But the problem is when we do that, and I know some of you know what I’m talking about, we can really go to some irrational places with our fears.
To some extremes that are never going to happen.
I’m not saying we need to be in denial if we’re fearful.
But in the face of fear, let us also respond in gratitude to God for his goodness.
And again, it can be tempting in the face of fear to make up a story for how things could go that is terrible, everything goes wrong, it’s all bad. That type of worry is not productive. It robs us of joy. It wastes time. It distracts us from the promises of God.
God is a good and loving God who has a good plan for his people in the world.
And he had a good plan for Israel.
Let us respond with gratitude, faith, and trust in the Lord in the times where we’re fearful.
The Israelites made a mistake when they jumped to the worst case and lost sight of what God had promised them, lost sight of the wonderful things the Lord had already done for them.
Moses says: stand firm.
We see phrases translated “stand firm” several places in the Bible, especially in Paul’s letters.
In this instance, what it seems to be saying is to stand still. Stand and watch. Look and see.
Especially as Moses continues this thought.
Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:13-14)
He was with them. They’d didn’t have to perfectly understand everything. They didn’t have to have control over everything. Again, I think these are temptations that we all face.
Let us look at what the Lord is doing. At what he has done in our lives and in his church.
Verse 15:
15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Go forward?
For the Israelites, with Egypt in pursuit, there are only two directions to go.
Towards the army or towards the water…
But it is in that moment that the Lord will do a miracle that the people could never have possibly imagined.
How could they? God does something that has never happened before it. But that’s what God does.
Verses 16-18 preview what God is specifically going to do.
16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
God is leading his people. And the Egyptians are going to follow but it won’t go well for them. God delivers his people from slavery to freedom.
Verse 19.
19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
God had been leading the Israelites by a pillar of fire. He had been directing them but he had also been protecting Israel.
And it says that the pillar moved before Israel.
But verse 20 also says that it came between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
Some think that the crowd created some sort of darkness or fog around the Egyptians which temporarily prevented them from following the Israelites.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided
The waters part.
I think this is the mental image we probably most prominently have with the sea parting. It’s like in the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston.
It’s not Moses who does this ultimately. It is God, literally parting the water for his people to cross.
22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
What must that have been like for the Israelites?
All of the miracles that God had done. Being brought into the desert. And now they’re walking on dry ground with the parted waters of the sea on either side of them.
Imagine that for a moment.
They had been given an incredible promise. And here it happens.
God delivers his people from slavery to freedom.
The Israelites make it across safely but then the Egyptians start pursuing them. They’re no longer being supernaturally prohibited.
23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
It’s ironic. The wheels the Egyptians chariots were getting clogged. The chariot was their greatest symbol of military strength, but here it’s a weakness.
The soldiers of Pharaoh want to turn back. They say that God is against them.
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
God had parted the waters. And now the sea is going to be closed back up.
27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
In verse 30, the story ends.
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.The Lord delivers his people from slavery to freedom.
The Egyptian army is defeated without Israel having to fight a war. Israel is now totally and finally and forever free of Egypt.
Gospel in Exodus
And that brings us to our second part which is looking at the gospel in the Exodus.
For the Israelites, God is using this miracle as an instrument of his grace.
The Egyptians were evil. They have not submitted to God. They have persecuted and oppressed the people of God, the Israelites.
And so the miraculous event God used for the redemption of Israel, he used for the downfall of Pharaoh and the judgment of Egypt.
Every person is going to ultimately bring glory to God. Either you will bring him glory through being an example of the grace of the gospel. Or you will bring him glory as the righteous judge.
And that is the beginning of Israel’s exodus. God acting in mighty ways to redeem his people and fulfilling his promises.
There are a number of parallels between the exodus and the gospel.
The Israelites were in slavery in Egypt. We were enslaved to sin and Christ redeemed us.
The Israelites complain and rebel here. That’ll be a continual theme. We continue to struggle and rebel. But for the person who has faith, Jesus continues to be faithful.
God redeemed Israel to bring them to the Promised Land. And God is bringing us into a land too. To a new heaven and a new earth.
Both the exodus and the new covenant of the gospel are commemorated with meals. As we talked about last week, the Passover meal was celebrated annually, as a reminder for God’s deliverance in the exodus event and for him sparing the Israelites. With the gospel, we celebrate the Lord’ Supper, communion which is a reminder of Jesus body that was broken for our sin and his blood that was shed for our sin.
Exodus was in fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham for land and to Moses for deliverance from slavery. The gospel is fulfillment of God’s promise of providing a Messiah, a king from the Davidic line, a perfect and spotless lamb to be sacrificed, of giving his Spirit to those who have faith.
In both stories, we see victory in a place where it appeared to be defeat. Israel was caught between an army and the sea. It seemed there was no way out. In the gospel, Jesus died on the cross, where it looked like that was the end of Jesus’ ministry, where it appeared that he had been defeated.
For both the Exodus and the gospel, they are entirely acts of God. It was entirely a work of God in freeing his people from slavery in Egypt and it is entirely a workof the Lord in redeeming us from the penalty of sin.
The exodus and the gospel are both stories of intervening in a situation where there was no hope. Egypt between the army and the sea. And we were dead in sin, and hopeless apart from Christ.
Both events are undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable, unimpeachable proof of God’s love. God loved Israel. And God loves you. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have enteral life (John 3:16). God shows his love that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Thanks for visiting! Have a blessed day
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Sermon: Studying the Exodus plagues – Hail. Exodus 9:13-35
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Sometimes we ignore warning signs.
Pharaoh was given several.
A person ignores the check engine light, ignores something a doctor tells them.
CEO’s ignore warning signs of issues in their companies.
Cyber security experts warned Equifax that their data was vulnerable and could be easily breached. They didn’t listen and they were hacked. The data breach compromised the data of 145 million Americans.
Companies like General Motors and Toyota have been warned about safety issues in cars and ignored whistleblowers.
Pharaoh has seen his kingdom turned upside down by a series of plagues and yet continues to resist the one thing that has brought the promise of relief.
Sending the Israelites into the wilderness.
We’re continuing in the plagues of Exodus. This morning, we look at the seventh. Hail.
In many ways, a tremendous hailing thunderstorm SEEMS like the stereotype for a good plague. The heavens opening up and unleashing destruction.
And with that, we’ll jump right into our passage this morning.
- Pharaoh warned
Beginning in verse 13:
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
So as we saw in the first and the fourth plagues, Moses is instructed to confront Pharaoh in the morning.
There’s actually a pattern to the plagues where they go in three cycles, each consisting of three plagues.
And across the plague cycles, there are similar patterns to the first plague in each of the three cycles. There are similarities to the second plague in each of the three cycles. And there are similarities to the third plague in each of the three cycles.
So the first nine plagues are in these cycles of three. The tenth and final plague is totally separate from what comes before it.
As we’ve talked about various creation themes in the Exodus, I also think it’s interesting how much order there is to the plagues. Genesis gives an orderly creation. Exodus gives an orderly uncreation.
Before we continue in our text, I have a question.
Why?
Who has this all happened?
What’s this all been for?
This is the seventh plague.
There will still be three to come.
Ten divine judgments from the Lord upon Egypt.
Why?
Why didn’t God just free the Israelites?
Why didn’t he just teleport them from Egypt to the promised land?
Why didn’t he just strike Pharaoh dead and have a new Pharaoh who would be more sympathetic?
Why didn’t he just start with the last plague first and have Israel freed then?
So often, I hear people ask why God does the things he does.
A person praises God for being healed of a disease.
Someone else asks “why’d God give it to you in the first place?’
A person talks about God’s protection in being rescued from a natural disaster.
Someone else asks why God allowed that to happen in the first place.
So often, we want to ask why God allows any bad things, but we never question why a God gives sinful people in a fallen world any good things.
Whenever we look to why God does something for his people, a person can always ask why God didn’t do things differently.
But verse 15 says something very important.
15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Let’s not overlook this.
I want to read it again. This is what the Lord had said to Pharaoh.
I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
God is saying “I could have wiped all of you out.”
Verse 16 begins: But for this purpose…
But for this purpose all of this is happening.
But for this purpose I haven’t wiped you out.
But for this purpose I’ve brought these plagues.
The Lord says: But for this purpose, I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
God is doing all of this to show his power and for the glory of his own name.
Is that vain to do?
The gods of our age
The Egyptians had their pantheon. They had their gods for various areas of life.
They had gods for the things that they valued. The river was central to their lives, so they had gods of the Nile. Family was important, so they had fertility gods. They cared about the afterlife too so they had gods of life and death. Their agriculture mattered to them so they had gods of the crops, gods of the livestock.
Our world makes up gods too.
We think we’re so different from ancient peoples.
Everyone, regardless of if you’re the most devout person of faith or the most ardent atheist, everyone has something that they value above all other things.
And whatever that thing is is your god.
In our day, we can worship family, money, success, accomplishments, pleasure, leisure, possessions, security, health, politicians, celebrities, and sports. Just to name a few.
Those are the areas where we can put our hope, where we can try to get our meaning, and the things and people that we can glorify.
None of those things are bad in themselves.
But they all make bad gods.
And so God has kept the Egyptians alive, he’s kept Pharaoh alive for the purpose of his own glory.
Because in the Exodus, God is glorified both in his redemption of the Israelites, in his signs, in his sparing of the Israelites, in parting the waters of the Red Sea, in leading the Isrealites in their wanderings, in being faithful to his covenant promises.
God is glorified in all of that.
But he is also glorified in his judgment against Pharaoh.
God’s name is proclaimed throughout the whole earth because of these plagues.
Why ten?
Ten is pretty hard to ignore.
One could be ignored.
Two might be thought of as a coincidence.
But God brings ten blows upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh leaving no doubt that he is the Lord.
We’ve talked a lot about how the plagues confront the Egyptian pantheon of gods. In doing ten plages, that gave God even more opportunities to show his power over the false gods of Egypt.
So in both his redemption of the Israelites and in his judgement upon Egypt, God’s name is being proclaimed, God is being glorified.
All men will bring God glory in the end. You will bring him glory through being an example of his grace or you will bring him glory through being an example of his righteous and holy judgement.
And so yes, God could have crushed Pharaoh right from the start but he has not because he is concerned about his glory.
God’s concern for his glory is something that some people don’t like.
If God is infinite, why does he care about his name going out in the world?
Isn’t that insecure?
C.S. Lewis gives some helpful insight in his book “Reflections on the Psalms.”
This is a long excerpt, but I think it’s incredibly powerful and helpful.
C.S. Lewis
Lewis says:
“The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard of him…”
Lewis goes on to say:
“Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark in approval of my books….”
“But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escapes me. I thought of it in terms of a compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.”
“The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, college, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humbles, and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least…”
I’ll pause from the quote for a moment.
So what Lewis is saying is that he used to think of God like a woman needing to be complimented, but he realized that truly enjoying anything ultimately results in praise.
We praise what we love.
Lewis says:
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completed the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.”
Lewis says that “the worthier the object, the more intense the delight.”
And one final quote from a few paragraphs later, Lewis says “The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy him.”
The byproduct of knowing and loving an infinite, almighty, eternal, holy, and righteous God is that we glorify him.
Because to glorify anything else is to glorify something less than God. That is first of all sin, but it is also aiming short of what is greater. ,
Verse 17, the Lord says to Pharaoh:17 You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
Once again, we see God’s power that he can predict the timing of this plague.
But even in this warning, the Lord tries to give some gracious advice.
- The Egyptians warned
19 Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.” ’ ”
So they’re warned about the great hailstorm that’s coming and also warned to bring the livestock into some sort of shelter.
It’s also ironic that the passage tells them to “send” their livestock into shelter.
We saw in a previous plague that Pharaoh sent people to investigate the effects of one of the plagues in Egypt yet he wouldn’t send the Israelites into the wilderness.
Here, he’s told to send his livestock into shelter.
But still he won’t send the Israelites into the wilderness.
They’re all continuing to use the same Hebrew word for send.
Verse 20:
20 Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, 21 but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.
It’s interesting that among Pharaoh’s servants, some do believe in the Word of the Lord here. Some take the advice and do bring in the animals.
Now the phrase that they feared the word of the Lord is found only here in the entire Old Testament.
The Bible talks a lot about a fear of the Lord.
But here, it talks of a fear of the Word of the Lord.
Does that mean that they had faith?
I don’t know if the text gives us enough to say that definitively, but as I’ve pointed out before, Exodus tells us that there were at least some Egyptians who did become followers of the Lord.
When the Israelites prepare to leave Egypt in Exodus 12, the passage refers to a mixed multitude.
Exodus 12:37 mentions the Israelites:
37 And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
But then the following verse says:
38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.
The point is that there are people who are not ethnically Jewish who are part of the Exodus.
And there will be other references to non-Israelites.
Exodus 12:48:If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it
So what that’s saying is that if a non-Israelite male wants to become Jewish, once he’s circumcised, he will be treated just like any other Israelite.
And then there are people who are not Israelites that we see elsewhere in the Bible.
Melchizedek, Caleb, Rahab, Ruth, the Queen of Sheeba, the Samaritans, among others.
Even in the Old Testament, when you have a defined people of God in Israel, there is still a message for the world that God can redeem them.
The New Testament has much less emphasis on a specific land, but instead focuses on a gospel that is for the whole world.
And it’s possible that we get one of the earliest glimpses of this in Exodus 9 as some of Pharaoh’s people begin to take seriously the Word of the Lord.
In following his instruction, it does show a certain deference to God.
So some Egyptians take the word seriously. Their livestock is protected.
Others disregard the warning of a storm.
Keep in mind that the threat of a thundering hail storm would seem just about as probable in the middle of Egypt as we would feel about being told a volcano was going to erupt and cover us all in ashes.
That might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much.
The part of Egypt that the Exodus events are taking place in receives on average far less than an inch of rain per year, and sometimes no rain.
So our idea of a big summertime thunderstorm is pretty rare there.
But with seeing the other plagues, even as improbable as a hailstorm might have seemed, some took it seriously.
We come to our third scene.
The plague.
Seventh plague: hail
Verses 23-26:
23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
Incredible destruction.
Thunder.
The passage says lightning ran down from heaven. I take that to mean lightning.
And hail.
I once saw a hailstorm when I was at Trinity basically cover the ground in a couple minutes.
It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
A few things to note about this seventh plague. Hail is often seen in the Bible as a sign of divine judgment. We see that in books ranging from such as Joshua, Psalms, Isaiah, and Ezekiel.
The passage says that the hail destroyed crops, but it’s actually the same Hebrew word for vegetation that’s used in creation, once again showing the uncreation that is happening in the plagues.
And as we again have seen in other plagues, this is an attack on various Egyptian deities over the sky and over weather.
The Lord is showing his power over all of them.
Pharaoh wants to talk to moses.
Verse 27:
27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
Now that’s very significant. Pharaoh acknowledges sin.
Now we will see that this is short-lived, but it’s interesting that he even begins to acknowledge that his own actions are wrong.
Repentance matters.
But just saying sorry or saying you’re wrong is not repentance.
Repentance also involves a change.
Pharaoh asks Moses to plead with the Lord to stop the storm. He says I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.
In verse 29, Moses says that he will plead with the Lord.
“As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.
Moses does this.
And the chapter ends in verse 34-35:
34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.
Pharaoh had indicated that he was repentant but when it came to putting that repentance into action, we see that he again reneges on the deal.
Conclusion
The Lord does not desire empty words or meaningless repentance.
He doesn’t want empty acknowledgement while we’re still totally going to do what we want and continue in sin.
He desires followers who will come before him in worship and reverence.
He desires faith.
God wants us to recognize our sin and our need for his grace.
As David said in Psalm 51:17:
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
And the good news of the gospel is that Jesus welcomes us to come to him.
Though we have hard hearts, he promises to remove the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.
Jesus welcomes us to find grace, and life, and forgiveness in him when we come to him.
Thanks for listening. I hope this sermon was a blessing. If you liked it, please share and subscribe!
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Sermon: The 10 plagues: water into blood
In this passage, we see a clash of world views as Pharaoh is commanded to release the Israelites. When he refuses, the first of the ten plagues befalls Egypt. Pharaoh was viewed as a quasi-divine person in Egypt, but we see he’s no match for the Lord, nor are the Egyptian pantheon a match for the Lord’s plagues which shows his dominion over nature and over life and death.
Sermon manuscript
And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. 17 Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.
18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” 19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”
20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
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 – series context
We’re continuing in Exodus this morning. Once again, taking a break from the Gospel of John for a few weeks.
Last week, we began our study and talked about the opening chapters of Exodus. That the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt but with a rapidly growing population, the Egyptians had made attempts to kill off the Israelite males.
He had attempted this through genocice and killing of males. Then Pharaoh had ordered males to be thrown into the river and drowned.
Barbaric.
We see the birth of Moses and his eventual calling to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
I give all of that background just as a reminder of where we’ve been.
Today we come to some of the best known events in the Bible.
The plagues of Exodus when Pharaoh is repeatedly told to release the Israelites.
And when he refuses, God brings divine judgment.
The Nile river turned to blood.
A plague of frogs.
A plague of gnats.
A plague of flies.
The death of livestock.
A plague of boils.
A plague of hail.
A plague of locusts.
Darkness.
Death.
It’s interesting to consider the plagues of Exodus.
Because I look back at the last year and a half, and I can’t be the only one who at times looked at everything going on in our nation and around the world and felt like we were actually LIVING through the Biblical plagues.
Plagues of 2020
Starting last year, in March, we had Covid turn our whole society upside down.
Then we ran out of toilet paper.
None of us probably ever thought that would be an issue we’d have to deal with, but deal with it we did.
Then in May, there were stories about murder hornets in the Pacific Northwest.
Murder hornets!
Throughout the summer, there were riots and civil unrest.
More shortages. Everything from coins, to cleaning supplies, to bicycles.
Shipping delays. Total disruption of supply chains.
Wildfires.
I read that last year was the worst year for wildfires in recorded U.S. history. Five of the six worst wildfires to hit California since 1932 happened last year.
Disease, murder hornets, civil unrest, wildfires, no toilet paper.
Last summer, there was a plague of locusts in Africa. Did you know that?
Billions of locusts. Tremendous destruction to crops.
That’s something about the Biblical plagues to understand. When it talks of things like plagues of locusts or infestations of frogs, those are real things. Those are things that cause issues in parts of the world.
More shortages.
Now we have labor shortages.
Economic fallout.
Inflation.
More product shortages. Building materials, microchips, and beef are all through the roof.
And on, and on, and on.
We’re surviving. But it’s amazing how these changes can so drastically impact life for so many.
Bridge
So with that, we return to Exodus this morning and we’re going to look at three scenes.
Pharaoh’s opposition to God.
God’s warning to Pharaoh.
God’s judgment on Egypt.
The main idea of this passage is that opposition to God will never work.
- Pharaoh’s opposition to God
In Exodus 4, after God had called upon Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, the Lord shows Moses two miracles.
He turns the shepherd’s staff of Moses into a serpent and he gives Moses leprosy and then heals him.
The Lord tells Moses to show these signs to Pharaoh, but in Exodus 4:21, the Lord says:
“When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
I point this out because this will become a common idea throughout the Exodus plagues, and it’s found for the first time here.
The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
Between Exodus 4 and Exodus 14, the idea of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened is mentioned 19 times.
Most of those instances are God as the active agent who is hardening the heart of Pharaoh, such as what we see here in this current verse.
What does that mean?
To harden one’s heart?
Does that mean that God is causing Pharaoh to resist him? Is God causing him to sin?
No.
God never causes us to sin.
Something that’s important to understand from the outset is throughout these passages, there is a clash of world views and a clash of religions in Exodus.
The Egyptians believed in a pantheon of gods. Gods of the river, the weather, livestock, the sun, the sky. And in the plagues, you have the Lord God showing that their false gods are all powerless against the Lord.
In these passages, you’ll have a clash between Pharaoh, who was thought to be a quasi-divine person vs the Lord. Spoiler alert: the Lord wins.
And you also have a conflict of the religious views of the Israelites and the Egyptians.
In Egyptian religion, they believed that when a person died, the heart was weighed. Sin added weight to the heart. There are hieroglyphics which show the heart being weighed compared to the weight of a feather.
A person’s admittance to the Egyptian idea of heaven depended on their own goodness. That’s what most religions ultimately believe.
Old Testament scholar Douglas Stuart is very helpful on this point.
Since the Pharaoh was such a revered figure in Egypt, they viewed him as being a morally pure. And that’s something that is very different from how we view our leaders.
Look at most presidents throughout our history. We generally don’t look to them as our exemplars of morality.
But with the Pharaoh who was a king and also a religious figure, they did.
And so the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is a judgment.
Again, the Egyptians thought that the gods weighed the heart, judged the heart.
The fact that the Lord can harden the heart shows his power over Pharaoh.
This also showed – quoting Douglas Stuart now – “that Yahweh had done what the Egyptians thought the “gods” would usually do—weigh the heart and decide whether its owner was worthy of eternal life or not.”
The weighing of Pharaoh’s heart is a matter of showing the sin and rebellion of Pharaoh.
Ultimately the choice to refuse God is one that Pharaoh continually makes in these passages.
And as a result of that, his heart is hardened. Weight is added to his heart as he continues to sin.
We’re still building up to the first plague.
At the beginning of chapter 5, Moses asks Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness for a religious pilgrimage. .
Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
We see Pharaoh’s hubris before the Lord.
And as I mentioned a moment ago, we’ll see him trying to go toe to toe with the Lord.
Who is the Lord?
Last week, we pointed out that the book of Exodus never tells us which Pharaoh this is.
So he asks Who is the Lord?
But the Bible leaves us questioning who is Pharaoh?
He doesn’t listen. He continues to make life miserable for the Israelites. In chapter 6, Moses is again told to confront Pharaoh.
Exodus 6:10 into verse 12:
So the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 12 But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me
As we saw last week, Moses continues to explain why he’s not the man for the job.
At the beginning of chapter 7, the Lord gives Moses and his brother Aaron their marching orders.
Exodus 7:2-4:2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.
In summary:
The Lord says he will give the words to speak.
Pharaoh’s heart will be hardened.
The Lord will show greater signs and wonders.
Pharaoh will not listen.
God will bring judgement
God will bring his people out of Egypt.
With that, we come to our second scene for today.
2. God’s warning to Pharaoh
Verses 8-9:
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ”
As a reminder, this was a miracle that the Lord had shown Moses in chapter 4.
A shepherd’s staff was a common possession in ancient times. They were used to aid in walking, they could be used for protection, they could be used for helping to tend to livestock.
So a pretty ordinary object for the time period.
But the Lord will work through this ordinary object for an extraordinary purpose.
Verse 10:
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
So Moses does this sign to display the power of the God whom he serves.
But then verse 11 tells us:
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
Pharaoh’s people do the same thing.
The verse calls them wise men and sorcerers.
They seem to be people who may have had some sort of priestly function.
So when the word magician is used, it’s not like Penn and Teller are doing this.
The passage does not tell us how they replicate turning their staffs into serpents.
Perhaps it’s simple trickery.
Perhaps it’s demonic.
The text doesn’t tell us.
But if there’s any confusion about the Pharaoh’s wise men one-upping this miracle, verse 12 says:
12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
So when they threw their staffs to the ground, and those staffs also became serpents, Aaron’s serpent ate there’s.
And so Pharaoh is unmoved.
Verse 13:
Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
A sinful heart can always find reasons to ignore the Lord.
He’d been warned by God’s word. He’d been shown a divine sign.
And he said “No.”
Pharaoh had seen evidence for God working but refused to listen because he chose instead to trust in his wise men.
When we don’t want to trust in the Lord, we can always find a reason.
I think of all of the evidence we have for God, evidence for the resurrection, reasons to believe in God, and still so many say no.
Why?
Not because there is a lack of evidence, but people don’t believe in God because they don’t want to.
Validation – going our own way
Romans 1:18-20 says:
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
There’s evidence for God.
God reveals himself to the world.
Psalm 19:1:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
For Pharaoh, he looks at what his wise men had just done and uses that as a justification to ignore the Lord.
Today, I fear that this is what science has become.
I’m not anti-science. And there are many scientists who are strong believers.
But there are also many people in our society who look to science and since they feel they can’t observe or measure God, scientifically, then they shouldn’t believe in him. And what that’s doing is quite literally putting faith in science and its putting your eternal hope in science.
Which as someone who studied philosophy in college, I’ve always found this mentality to be self destructive. Because the idea that all truth is scientific is itself not a scientific idea. It’s a philosophical idea.
The methodology by which things are judged as being scientifically verified is also philosophical. Science cannot create its own scientific method.
And so for science to stand, it needs something outside of itself to give it its structure.
I get that there are people who are very scientifically minded. I appreciate that.
And again, I’m not anti-science. Scientific discoveries have helped revolutionize the modern world.
But we shouldn’t blindly place our faith in it.
Romans 1:24-25 says:God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Pharaoh was called upon to release the Israelites. He refused.
God will not compromise.
So you have Pharaoh, the anti-God who tries to stand down the Lord God.
In Jesus, we see the one who truly is fully man and fully God. We see the one who truly does have a pure heart. We see the one who truly is righteous.
And he invites us to believe in him. He invites sinful people to be forgiven in him.
And for that, he will also not compromise.
God’s judgment – the first plague
Starting in verse 14:
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent.
Moses is called to given Pharaoh a forewarning of this judgment.
That will not happen with all ten of the plagues.
Where verse 15 tells Moses to go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going into the water, either Pharaoh had a habit of swimming in the river, or bathing in the river. Either way, that’s the palace where Moses is told to meet him. Pharaoh will be a first hand witness to this judgment.
Moses is to take the same staff that had been turned into a serpent and to use that staff to touch the water. Now it’s not that the staff had power in itself. It was the Lord who was powerful and who will work this miracle.
Verse 17:Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.
This is what the first plague will be.
The NIle will be turned into blood.
A few things to note about the Nile river.
It’s the longest river in the world.
Unlike rivers in this part of America which flow from north to south, the Nile flows from south to north.
In this period of history, the river would flood annually, usually in September and October as waters from further down the river in Africa and would flow down the river and cause floods in Egypt. Now we usually think of flooding as a bad thing, but it was essential to the Egyptians in a desert that sees very low rainfall.
Now it’s a fitting place for the first plague because hitting the Nile was hitting the lifeblood – no pun intended – of Egyptian society. It was necessary for their drinking water, necessary for their agriculture.
It’s also fitting to the story that the Nile is the site of the first plague. Earlier in Exodus, we’d seen Pharaoh attempt to punish the Egyptians by ordering that their male babies be placed into the river, as a horrific act of genocide.
But here that river will be what God uses to bring judgment on Egypt.
Something else to consider. I alluded to this earlier, but there were also Egyptian gods associated with the Nile.
Hapi was the Egyptian god of the flood. There were annual floods of the Nile which helped bring essential water to the soil.
Another mythological Egyptian deity associated with the Nile was Osiris, the god of the afterlife. The Egyptians also associated him with the river and the annual flood of the river became associated with life and death. The flooding of the river was associated with the resurrection of Osiris.
Something that I find interesting is that some scholars believe that this first plague occurred during the flood period.
We don’t know that for a fact, but if that was when this water into blood happened, at a time associated with the resurrection of Osiris, it would certainly be a very striking and unsettling sight for the Egyptians to see the Nile running red at a time associated with the deity whom they believed had power over life and death.
Pharaoh continues to be warned about what will happen to this river. Verse 18:
18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ”
Dead fish, rotting dead fish, and undrinkable water.
Again, there are legitimate questions about what exactly happens to the water.
There are many places where Exodus doesn’t always give us all of the details we would like.
But the main point is that this is something that the Lord miraculously causes to happen. With all of the plagues, that’s the most important thing. That the Lord is almighty and he is the cause.
Something else to note. While the Nile is really an important symbol of Egyptian life and livelihood. This first plague is ultimately going to be a nuisance for the Egyptians. Future plagues will be far more severe.
Continuing with the narrative.
19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”
The verse says: their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water
The point that seems to be making is that it’s not just the Nile’s waters which are impacted. It has a far reaching ecological impact. The river and where it flows.
there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”
That verse has more than one plausible interpretation. The major interpretations all get at the idea that this is talking of the far reaching consequences of the blood.
Verse 20, after all of the warnings and what has been foretold, we finally see the first plague set into motion:
20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
The river has been turned to blood.
Now there is question about if it’s literal blood. And if so, what type of blood? Human blood? Animal blood?
Could it be some sort of microorganism which turns the water red?
There can be algae blooms which turn water red.
Could it be turned red from some sort of rocky sediment?
Again, we don’t get all of the details.
Does it teach Pharaoh a lesson?
In verse 22, we see another twist in the story though.
22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.
As we’d seen with the serpent, the Pharaoh’s wise men are also able to turn water to blood some how. By their secret arts. And again, we don’t know exactly how.
It is interesting that they too could do the same thing, yet what they could not do was fix it.
And while they may have been able to turn some of the water to blood, it was certainly not as far reaching as what the Lord did.
Pharaoh had witnessed this miracle. He’d seen the destruction that had come from it.
But he still would not relent.
24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
The Egyptian people couldn’t use the Nile for drinking water so they had to dig for ground water.
So there was some potable drinking water.
So again, it is dramatic, it is significant, but it is ultimately a major inconvenience to the people.
It should have caught Pharaoh’s attention.
It should have caused Pharaoh to change and to listen to God, but it didn’t.
A lot more pain and misery will await him in the coming events of Exodus.
And there is a lot of misery in life when we avoid God.
No, he might not reign down plagues on us.
Conclusion
But he is truth. He is our creator. He is our Lord.
And the only way to live a life of true fulfillment, of true joy, of true peace is in him.
Does that mean all of those things will come easily when we say a prayer or get baptized? No.
Because there’s still sin in our life and in the world.
But without God, we can not have those things.
Does that mean that life will suddenly become easy at the snap of your fingers? No. There are challenges and difficulties. But you won’t be alone. You’ll have God.
Does that mean that everything you want God will give you? No. But God gives us what we need. And he gives us himself. Jesus literally gave himself on the cross. He literally gave up his life so that we could have life.
God calls us to trust, he calls us to believe.
And still so many turn their backs on him, find reasons why they can’t believe in him. It doesn’t work because it’s not living in accordance of what we were made for and who we were made for.
Quoting C.S. Lewis:
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”
True fulfillment cannot come apart from God, because to find fulfillment in anything else would be to find it in something that is less than God. When we aim for less than God, there is discontent because there is something bigger, something greater that we need.
Something that God has made cannot be the source of where we find fulfillment, where we find true joy, where we find true peace.
True life cannot come apart from the true source of life.
And so we’re called upon to trust in the Lord. And to trust in his son, Jesus Christ
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Sermon: Two kings and some wise men – Matthew 2:1-11
The wise men come to Herod in seeking the King of the Jews. It’s so much woven into the Christmas story that it can be easy to overlook how bizarre the scene is, but the first people who seek out the newborn Jesus are pagan astrologers. There are different responses to this king. Some will seek him out, others will overlook him, and some will seek to destroy him. How do you respond?
