Josh Benner

Tag: Bible

  • Sermon: the Exodus plagues – Darkness. Exodus 10:21-29

    Sermon: the Exodus plagues – Darkness. Exodus 10:21-29

    Manuscript

    21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. 

    24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” 27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 

    28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” 29 Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.” 

    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 

    Over the past few weeks, we’ve been moving through passages in Exodus and building up to the Exodus event when God frees the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. 

    But before that happened, there was Pharaoh and his refusal to allow the Israelites to leave. 

    And so God brought a series of plagues upon Pharaoh which we’ve been covering for the past six weeks. 

    This morning, we look at the ninth and penultimate plague. Darkness. 

    In the text, this ninth plague is among the shorter plagues but it still covers many of the same themes which we saw in the previous eight. 

    As we’ve moved through these passages, we’ve seen an intensification of plagues. 

    They started as nuisances. 

    Then the death of livestock. 

    Disease which caused boils. 

    Then God unleashed severe weather from the heavens with terrible hail storms. 

    We saw the ecosystem devastated by a plague of locusts. 

    And here we come to darkness. 

    In comparison to what has come before, at first glance, that might seem almost anticlimactic or more tame than its predecessors. 

    But as we move into this plague, we will see that this is anything but the case. 

    With that, we’ll jump into our text this morning. 

    And the first thing that we’ll see is that this ninth plagues comes without warning. 

    Ninth plague: darkness 

    Verses 21-23:

    21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. 

    The first thing that we must appreciate about darkness is that it impacted people in ancient times differently than it impacts us today. 

    During harvest, you’ll see combines at night. Powerful lights. 

    We can travel in the dark. Our cars have lights. We have cell phones. We have street lights, and in bigger cities, you see more and more street lights. 

    None of these were luxuries which were enjoyed in ancient times. 

    Darkness had a stopping power in the ancient world that it doesn’t have today. It was difficult to travel in the dark – and also dangerous. It’s when unsavory people are most likely to be on the move. And it’s when many dangerous animal predators are most likely to be on the hunt. 

    And so God brings utter darkness upon Egypt. 

    Verse 21 says that it was a darkness that could be felt. 

    Some scholars take that literally and think it’s a reference to some sort of sand storm. 

    I don’t like to assume that since a dust storm is never mentioned and that interpretation is speculative. I think the darkness being felt is a metaphor. That it was so utterly dark that it caused this visceral response almost like it was tangible. 

    There’s an intensity of the darkness. 

    The text says that there was pitch darkness in Egypt for three days. 

    Think of how disorienting that would be. 

    It’s not like they had clocks or cell phones they could look to in order to check the time or even what day it was. In ancient times, and undoubtedly in places today, people still use the sun in order to help keep the time. 

    But with a few days of no sun, how do you know when it is? 

    How do you know “well it’s been a few hours, or it should be morning now.” You wouldn’t know any of that. Tme would lose all meaning. 

    Three days in utter darkness. 

    Three days confined to your house. 

    Stumbling around. 

    And a theme that we’ve seen in so many of the other plagues we see again with the darkness, but points back to creation and God’s uncreation of Egypt. 


    Genesis 1:1-4 says: 

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 

    3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. 

    In the beginning, God made the light. 

    In the Exodus, he takes it away. 

    And there’s another reason why the darkness would be so disconcerting to the Egyptians. 

    Yes, darkness made things more difficult and dangerous. 

    But darkness also once again turned their religious worldview upside down. 

    Throughout these plagues, we’ve talked about how many of the plagues impacted aspects of Egyptian life which were thought to be under the domain of various gods.  

    And one of the most venerated of all the Egyptian pantheon was their creator and sun God: Ra. 

    In bringing about a plague of darkness, after all of these other plagues have shown up the Egyptian deities, the plague of darkness shows the ineffectiveness of their greatest deity. 

    It also once again showed the powerlessness of Pharaoh. 

    The Egyptians believed that Pharaoh was a quasi-divine manifestation of Ra. 

    And yet Pharaoh is powerless to stop the darkness. 

    I think it’s hard for us to appreciate that mentality and worldview. 

    I’ve been listening to the audio book “In order to live’ by Yeonmi Park, a woman who escaped from North Korea. And one of the things she talks about in the book is that when Kim il Sung – the grandfather of current North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un – died, how difficult that was for her family to accept. Kim Il Sung has started the Kim dynasty and had so brainwashed the people into thinking that he himself was a god, that when he died, it was hard for some of her relatives to accept. 

    And I think about the Egyptians and their views of Pharaoh. Believing that Pharaoh was a divine figure. 

    The plague of darkness would have been earth-shattering.  

    Philip Ryken summarizes the situation fantastically: 

     “The plague of darkness proved God’s absolute power over creation. God can unmake what he has made. This is something that all the plagues showed by reversing the six days of creation. The God who made the waters turned the Nile into blood. The God who made green things grow destroyed vegetation with hail and locusts. The God who made creatures swim in the sea and swarm on dry land brought death to fish and frogs. The God who made men and beasts sent them disease and even death. Finally, the God who brought light out of darkness made the light fade to black.”

    We continue in our passage. 

    Light in the darkness – the light in Israel

    Because amid the darkness in Egypt, there was one place with light: 

    Verse 23 ends with: 

    all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

    I mentioned a moment ago that some scholars believe that it was a dust storm.

    There are scholars who will try to give purely naturalistic explanations for how they could have happened. 

    But then several of the miracles give us other details that are hard to explain with a purely naturalistic explanation. 

    So you read about darkness and say, “It was a dust storm. Dust Storms are a thing. That caused the darkness.” 

    But then how is it not dark in the Israelite portion of Egypt? 

    How is it that their sector just happens to be insulated from the darkness? 

    And so what happens is you almost need another miracle to explain the naturalistic explanation. 

    The plagues are divine acts of an almighty God. 

    That’s what we see in the plagues. 

    That the Lord is absolutely sovereign over everything in his creation. 

    And so he spares Israel. 

    all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

    What a great picture that is. 

    In a darkened Egypt, God’s people still had light. 

    It’s a symbol for how God’s people were to be in the Old Testament and it’s a symbol for how God’s people are to be today. 

    Because the world is dark. 

    We’ve spent two years in the Gospel of John. John loves the light and darkness imagery. 

    The light is a symbol for righteousness and truth. Darkness is a symbol for what is sinful and wicked. 

    Jesus is the light of the world. 

    In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls his followers light. 

    Matthew 5:14-16: 

    14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 


    You don’t have light to keep it hidden. 

    You have light to shine. 

    And as God’s people, we are to shine his light in the world. 

    The world is in darkness, but in our church, in our homes, in our families, in our lives, we are called to shine light. 

    Jesus doesn’t say “you should be light” or “you could be light” or “it’d be really great if you were light.” 

    He says “you are the light of the world.”

    In a dark world, the Lord has given us the light of the world, Jesus Christ. 

    The light of the world who was the true light. 

    And that light is meant to shine so brightly in his people that we shine it on the rest of the world.

    We shine by loving people. We shine in truth. We shine in sharing the message of Jesus. We shine in pointing people to Jesus. 

    Are you shining for Jesus? 

    Do you ever meet someone and it is so obvious when you interact with them by how they talk, how they carry themselves, their countenance, it’s obvious that they know Jesus? 

    Let us be a church full of people like that. 

    Let us be people who passionately and unabashedly and unapologetically and fully live to shine the light of the glory of Christ in our community and in our world. 

    And that will impact people. 

    2 Corinthians 2:15-16 talks of how the followers of Jesus will impact society. Some in society will respond favorably, others will not: 

    15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. 

    Some will respond favorably. Others will not. Who will and who won’t, we cannot control. 

    We’re just called to be faithful, and trust that the Lord will bless that. 

    But again as people, and as a church, we are to be the place that’s shining brightest in our community. 

    We come to the third act of the passage. Verse 24, we see the response from Pharaoh. 

    Pharaoh’s heart

    24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.”

    Now the passage had previously said that there were three days and nights of this darkness. 

    It doesn’t specify if that period had ended by this point or if Pharaoh is talking to Moses in the pitch black. 

    Moses has been trying to get Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to go. 

    In the most recent plague, Pharaoh tried to allow just the men. 

    In this verse, he will allow all of the Israelites to go but says that they must leave their livestock. 

    We again see the incredible pride of Pharaoh that he is trying to still negotiate. He is still trying to save face. 

    A person can be totally beaten down and defeated and still refuse to look to God in all of that. 

    Pharaoh really doesn’t have any buying power with trying to negotiate. Him and his kingdom have been repeatedly turned upside down. 

    And so Moses says in verses 25-26: 

    25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.”

    The Israelites go and the livestock goes. 

    The passage says not a hoof shall be left behind. 

    They’re taking everything. 

    How does Pharaoh respond? Contrition? Humility? 

    Verses 27-28:

    27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.”

    Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. 

    Now as we wind down this morning, I want to revisit that subject. I talked about it over a month ago. The plagues series in Exodus repeatedly mentions Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. 

    In this verse and others, it says that it was the Lord who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. 

    In other places, it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. 

    And in some places, it doesn’t specifically say the cause but reports that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. 

    These are always interesting verses to consider when we think of doctrines like providence and divine sovereignty. 

    I don’t think that these verses are enough on their own to build entire doctrines. 

    Pharaoh does harden his own heart. He does that by his sin and by his refusal to listen to God. 

    We live in a world full of hard hearted people who refuse to obey God. 

    We’re fallen and sinful. 

    We choose to sin. 

    We’re responsible for our own sin. 

    But in God hardening the heart of Pharaoh, I think that points us to how God can use sinful people who refuse him for his own divine purposes. 

    God doesn’t harden the heart of someone who otherwise would have loved him or obeyed him. 

    Again, God doesn’t cause Pharaoh to sin. 

    But God does utilize a sinful Pharaoh for his divine and eternal purposes. We see that throughout the Bible. 

    In the prophets, we see God using entire kingdoms as instruments of judgment upon the Israelites. Kingdoms who were pagan such as the Assyrians and the Babylonians. 

    In Jesus’ day, we see pagan Roman officials such as Herrod. 

    And we see it with Pharaoh. 

    His heart is hardened to God. He will not listen and so he will instead be an object of God’s judgment. 

    Don’t feel sorry for him. Pharaoh is not a victim. He’s guilty of his sins. He sins against God and his people. 

    And there will be consequences for that. And the wheels are now in motion for one final plague. 

    Moses leaves Pharaoh and says in verse 29:

    “As you say! I will not see your face again.” 

    Pharaoh would soon meet the God whom he continued to refuse to obey. 

    Chapter 11

    I close by reading chapter 11, which is the final warning for the final plague. 

    Everything else the Lord had said would come to pass came to pass. And after nine plagues, God promises one final and ultimate plague upon Egypt. After all of the refusal to release the Israelites, God will strike down the firstborn of all of the Egyptians.  

    The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. 2 Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” 3 And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. 

    4 So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ 

    8 And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” 

    10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land. 

    Because of sin, Egypt will bear great consequences. 

    Next week – Lord willing, we look at the tenth and final of the plagues of Exodus. 

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

  • 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. 

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

  • Sermon: Studying the Exodus plagues – Hail. Exodus 9:13-35

    Sermon: Studying the Exodus plagues – Hail. Exodus 9:13-35

    Manuscript

    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. 

    1.  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. 

    1.  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! 

  • 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.