Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 7:8-11:10

L/W-We discussed Moses’ second encounter with Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s response.

In the staff of Moses being turned into a serpent, devouring that of the magicians, we see

Moses presenting the credentials, presenting the authority by which he was speaking…that of God, His credentials and authority as the one and only true and living God; and we see

God’s patience and longsuffering in giving Pharaoh yet another opportunity to repent and let the Israelite people go.

In Pharaoh’s rejection and dismissal of God’s message and messenger, we arrive at pivot point and our sermon this week:

(Sermon is structured a little differently).

Over the next several weeks, we will be discussing the judgment God towards Pharaoh and Egypt in the 10 plagues.

Yet before we detail each of these, it’s important for us to lay the proper foundation of these plagues and what is underscored in the plagues, to help give us better understanding of the purpose of God’s judgment.

Why the judgment, why the plagues?

The nation of Israel was at a pivot point, they were on a the precipice of a holocaust—initiated and carried out by Pharaoh and the taskmasters/armies of Egypt.

Israel had seemingly come to the end of themselves.

When they began, there was 72 (including Joseph) living in Egypt

Over time, they multiplied to an estimated 2 million (including women and children)

The Pharaohs who would have remembered Joseph had died and a new Pharaohs took over and then began to oppress the Israelites

This translated into 400 years of oppression and all that entailed

In God hearing the cries of His people He called and delivered them a messenger in Moses

In being sent, Moses visited Pharaoh twice, which only produced even more oppression and death

Fears of a holocaust, generations of bondage and enslavement began to overwhelm and consume the Hebrew people

Apart from God intervening—Pharaoh and Egypt were poised to destroy and dismantle Israel as a nation:

Enter God—enter God’s message and messenger (Moses)

In response to Israel’s bondage and Israel’s cries for deliverance, God sent Moses with a message of, “Let my people go.”

When Pharaoh hardened his heart and rejected God’s message, God set out, not only to free His people, but God set out to establish He was

The God of redemption/salvation/deliverance

The omnipotent and almighty God

The only One True Living God

And He did so in the 10 plagues against Pharaoh and Egypt:

I.

All the plagues were severe:

They posed a threat to Egypt’s survival as a nation

If they continued and had never been stopped—the land would have been devastated

If they continued and had never been stopped—the life of every living thing would have perished or forced to move elsewhere

They ceased b/c of God’s mercy.

God’s mercy is what caused each plague to relent

Any of the plagues, if never stopped would have decimated Egypt–including the 10th and final plague

The death of the firstborn foreshadows the death of God’s firstborn—in this we see God’s character of mercy—which in its simplest understanding is God withholding what we deserve to gift us what we don’t—His grace!

II.

All the plagues (possibly) increased in intensity

III.

The purpose behind the plagues must be understood-(this is the focus of today’s message)

(CONTEXT)

God used the plagues to teach ONE lesson: The Lord (Yahweh/Jehovah) is the God of redemption/salvation/deliverance

Exodus 7:5 “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among

Pharaoh and Egypt lived in open rejection/rebellion of God

Pharaoh denied Him

Exodus 5:2 “And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?

I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.””

Pharaoh rejected the message from God

Exodus 7:13 “And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said.”

Pharaoh persecuted/tormented/tortured God’s people

Exodus 1:11 “Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens.

And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.”

Exodus 1:13-14 “So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.

All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.”

Exodus 5:11-12 “Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’

” So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.”

Exodus 5:16 “There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’

And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.””

Pharaoh was the orchestrator of it all; Pharaoh lived, believed, and led Egypt—under the deception that his way, his gods’ way(s) were the means of “deliverance,” the means of passing into an “afterlife.”

The Egyptians believed in as many as 80 different “gods.”

(we will see this as we unpack each of them), yet it’s important to remember this:

False gods

False religion-

False teaching

(These are the corrupt roots that grow a poisonous tree, which produces poisonous fruit)

The Egyptians belief system had an orchestrator: Pharaoh himself; and the plagues were an attack on his role:

(David Jeremiah): “It’s a mistake to say that each plague was an attack on an Egyptian deity (e.g. they didn’t worship, gnats, lice, or flies).

However, all the plagues did attack the role of Pharaoh, who was considered a son of the gods.”

WE WILL SEE THE CONNECTION TO THIS SOON!!!

God was sending His messenger of deliverance, Moses, with a message of COMPLETE and DISTINCT deliverance, b/c God was passing judgment on the orchestrator, the culprit, and evil head of what was causing the tyranny and oppression of His people: Listen to what God Himself promises Moses in the 10th plague:

(COMPLETE) Exodus 11:1 “And the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.

Afterward he will let you go from here.

When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.”

(DISTINCT) Exodus 11:7 “But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’”

(CONNECTION-YOU AND ME)--Satan and the world

Operate in open rejection/rebellion of God and God’s message--

Satan’s rejection/rebellion began in the garden when He planted seeds of doubt in Eve and has not ceased in his mission

Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?””

John 10:10a “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...

Rejects God’s message

Isaiah 14:12 ““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!”

Persecute/torment/inflict God’s people with suffering/trials and tribulations

Satan is the orchestrator of it all:

Through the infection of sin, deceit, and discord—the enemy has planted seeds in man, which have led man to believe in other ways to deliverance

We justify to ourselves that God will deliver us, through:

Rules/Works/Religion—But how is this deception?

Luke 18:9-16 (READ) This the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector; what do we learn from this?

Luke 18:9-12 “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’”

Religiosity and religious activity:

Compares itself to others

Justifies it’s good works and wagers what it “doesn’t do,” as the measure of God’s acceptance

Makes it a point/focus to live so to make a model of our own righteousness, instead of modeling the righteousness we are given through Jesus Christ

Takes confession of sin outward, rather than inward; religious confession is an act Jesus speaks of when He pronounces woes to the Pharisees

Matthew 23:24-26 “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!