Sermon Tone Analysis
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Last week we saw the big picture of what God was doing through the plagues and the truths we needed to take away from them:
God will reveal Himself
Remorse isn’t repentance
God’s power is infinite & Satan’s isn’t
God is exclusive
There is mercy in judgment
While we haven’t discussed the plagues in depth, we can see what God was doing through them:
He was giving Pharaoh and the Egyptians opportunity to repent
He was giving Moses & Aaron the opportunity to be obedient
He was preparing Moses and the Israelites to trust Him
God is always in the business of doing more than what we’re aware of.
He was doing more than even we know through the plagues
What we do know however is that the 10 plagues were not reactions
The water turning to blood was not plan A
The frogs were not plan B
The death of the firstborn was not plan J
God knew what He was doing
He knows the future and He knows His timetable
That’s the thing about God – He knows it all
God knew it would take ten plagues to convince Pharaoh to let His people go.
And what we have in chapter 11 is a warning of what is going to take place if Pharaoh continues to refuse to relent and repent
Exodus 11
Why a warning now?
For the first 9 plagues God didn’t give a warning of the plague that was about to happen
He gave Pharoah opportunity to repent but when he didn’t, God told Moses to stretch out his hand and pronounce the judgment over the land – there was no warning
Now God is giving Pharaoh one more chance to repent before the judgment of death is given
None of the first 9 plagues caused death amongst any humans
Now with this 10th plague death of the firstborn son is the judgment
No one would be exempt except the Israelites – even the firstborn of the livestock would be affected
So in this chapter God lays it all out for them – In essence He gives them a glimpse into the future and again we see Pharaoh refuses
Throughout all of these signs & wonders God has been patient but that patience will turn to judgment.
Remember that these signs & wonders evident to everyone – to both Egyptian & Israelite
It gave many people clear proof that God is omniscience and omnipotent and these signs encouraged everyone to repent of their sins and turn to God.
Everybody was going to be affected in some way.
Death has a way of getting people to see the fragility of life, humble themselves, and turn to God.
So why is this plague different from the others?
Because of what it reveals to us about God’s nature.
That’s what I want us to notice from this passage
God is Just
We all love justice – Law & Order, Judge Judy, The People’s Court
We want to see people get what they have coming to them
I like to listen to Cold Case Podcasts – where people who think they have gotten away with their crimes finally get caught and families get closure
We all want justice – when we’ve been done wrong – we demand that it be made right
However, when we’re the one in the wrong, we don’t want justice, we desire grace & mercy
We want leniency
God is just.
The world likes to think that God is love ( He is) and that He accepts and allows whatever they want because after all God is love
Those same people have a problem with the God of the OT - How could a God of love be a God of Wrath as well?
Voddie Baucham quote – “Why hasn’t He dealt with us already?”
Many people judge God according to their own finite, changing standards.
Instead of God being the standard for His own righteousness, they use themselves or their own opinions as the standard.
This is dangerous because that confuses the truth and reality in our thinking because the human heart is “deceitful” beyond our own understanding (Jeremiah 17:9).
It’s bad enough that God would allow these Egyptians and Pharaoh to experience what they have through these previous 9 plagues – it cost them their comfort, their livelihood and even their way of living
Now God pronounces death of the firstborn
Vs.4-7
Why would God go to this drastic of a measure against Pharoah & the Egyptians
We don’t know completely but we do know that God gets our attention
The firstborn held a particularly important position in the family and society,
They had privilege, mainly the firstborn would inherit a double portion of the father’s estate
In Egypt, the firstborn would ascend to the throne and continue the dynasty.
Whatever significance might have come from being the firstborn – whether it was religiously, politically, dynastically, and socially, it was all stripped away by the intensity of the plague
Some of you are quick learners and some of us are slow learners
God will go to whatever means to give you opportunity to turn to Him
There also comes an end to the leniency and judgment must take place
You know this to be true as a parent – My dad had a one warning rule – He told you once and then it was punishment
As we’ve seen through these plagues, God has been more than patient
Now God is going to remove all doubt about who’s in control
In the 1st9 plagues, God had Moses stretch out His hand
Now vs. 4 - “…I will go out in the midst of Egypt…”
God is going to put His full glory on display by this act of judgment
He is removing all doubt that He is the Judge of the Universe
It doesn’t matter if you like it or not or just want God to save everyone or not, He is not like that.
He takes sin seriously and will not allow sin to go unpunished.
We Must Take Sin Seriously
Growing up, I was known to do some things that were… maybe not so smart
It’s a wonder I made it this far
Many times as a result of doing something dangerous I would hear:
You’re playing with fire
You’re skating on thin ice
Don’t go grabbing that tiger by the tail
You reap what you sow – Granny’s favorite
You’re guilty too – we all are – maybe not with evil knevil type stunts but with other areas of our lives
If there’s one area in particular that we play fast and loose with, it’s with sin
We put degrees on our sin and somehow we justify and even excuse what God has called wrong
It is not a light matter.
All sin is worthy of death.
While God is patient and kind, He also hates sin and takes it seriously.
We’re to hate sin as He hates sin
We should take sin seriously, especially the sin of rejecting God willfully.
If we’re to learn anything from this historical account of the plagues and the Egyptians, it’s this:
You must take sin seriously
Why?
Because all sin is against God and there is a consequence for sin
Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death…
The Egyptians however were not concerned with their sin and willfully continued to keep going in the direction they were going
Vs.9-10
Even with the pronouncement of death Pharaoh and his taskmasters refused to heed God’s warning and let the Israelites go
Some people are slow learners… bless their hearts
We all know someone like this… sometimes it’s us
We think that there is time, God will let this pass, surely He doesn’t care about small insignificant sins
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