Divine Human Strategy

Supernova in Egypt

How do countries die?

Think about it for a minute…There are a number of countries that no longer exist....Names of countries that you might know…But these were countries that were on the map that are no longer countries now....or the same people group is there but it is governed totally differently...

There are kind of 2 ways.

1. Absorption or annexation…Which means a larger power swallows them up

The Republic of Texas was its own country from 1836-1845

Hawaii was its own kingdom for hundreds of years until it was annexed to the us in 1898

2. The second way that countries die is under their own weight...

A dying star is called a supernova. When the star is dying what happens is that it grows so large for so long that the star literally can not sustain itself any more…

So it grows, grows and grows until it literally collapses in on itself

Let me give you a really good example of a country that did this...World War 2 Japan was probably the fastest growing country in the world...

Their goal was to be the Great Britan of the Pacific

They had many Wars of expansion like the Sunto-Japanise war which gave them influence over Korea & Manchuria in 1895…It gained a lot of power...

When Russia wanted to expand to a warm water port for its navy in 1904 it sparked this little know war called the Russo-Japanese war where Japan Sank the entire Russian fleet in the matter of a couple hours at a battle…and all of the Sudden Japan was growing like crazy

In the height of its power in world war 2 it controlled everything in the pacific from where modern day Indonesia is, almost to Australia…

To where Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, China, north and south Korea and all the way up to the Russian boarder in a place called Manchuria

The empire of Japan was so massive that it literally couldn't support occupying all of the territory that it had...

They grew so big so fast that they couldn't support all of the new territory and because of the war their power went from massive to almost nothing over night

In addition to that, in order for Japan to get this territory, they had to do some truly heinous acts, From medical experimentation in Manchuria, to the battle for Shanghai or what is commonly known as the “Rape of Nanking”…in the 1930’s the Japanese had an oppressive hold on china and all of south east Asia.

In an effort to keep the US out of the Pacific they bombed Pearl harbor, they picked a fight that they couldn’t support because they had military assets everywhere

With the US entering the war, Japan put up a huge fight but ultimately they couldn’t keep up the control of a region and fight the United States too...

So even more rapidly than it grew, Japan imploded in on itself...

It got so bad in Japan toward the end of the war that they lacked the ability to refine crude oil into Gasoline, and they poured straight crude into their ships engins and burned that. Basically ruining their hundreds of million of dollar ships

At the Mitsubishi Plant where they made the famous Japanese Zero plane, they had no jet-fuel so they had to have oxen tow the planes the couple of mile journey to the air force base

So what we see is that Japan got really big in the span of about 50-75 years and then in a historical instant it collapsed on itself.

It was a supernova in the east....

So why do I tell you all of this?

Because this is the story of Egypt too. It got so big, so massive, so oppressive and so sinful…That the judgment of God on Egypt was to allow the sin of Egypt to come back on its own head...

This is not inconsequential as you get into the New Testament. One of the things that we will see one day when we get into the book of Revelation is that as Jesus opens the scroll in the book, then there are all kinds of great plagues that affect the world.

God wants us to see that these beastly nations…Like Egypt, Babylon and Rome…They are all the same…It is human power that goes unchecked…These nations have turned into a parody of God’s goodness and power

Human power that oppresses and breaks people…They build the world in their own image and they don’t care about all of God’s images that are on the earth...

Joseph Stalin put into words something that Kings of these nations have believed for thousands of years but never said. Stalin is attributed with saying, “A single death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic”

So I am introducing the plagues with looking at other nations because the way that God’s judgment happens is that he allows their own sin to take them down.

This is just the way divine Judgment works…Sin has consequences...

Maybe you have felt the consequences of your own sin or someone else’s

and it hurts! God designed sin to hurt....for when you say something dumb…you get embarrassed…These are all little natural judgments that God designed to help correct us from a sinful life!

Moses Recap

This is where we are at with Egypt in our series on Moses...

If you are just joining us, God had allowed Moses to be raised in Pharaohs household,

Pharoah had enslaved Moses’s people the Israelites and then as Moses is becoming aware of all of the injustice of this, he tries to deliver his own people his own way...

the last couple of weeks we have seen where Moses had an encounter with God at the Burning bush...

Moses is now called by God, God revealed his personal name Yahweh to Moses and he called him to both go to the Israelites and to Egypt and get them ready for Israel to flee Egypt...

So one of the things that we are supposed to see though all of this is that Pharoah and Egypt are a picture of the height of human and spiritual rebellion.

They are the archetypal foe of the bible

What does this mean?

Every time we get into the bible and talk about these great powers like Babylon and Rome the Bible will often point back to the plagues as almost an example of when human power and human rebellion goes unchecked.

The bible will constantly point back to these plagues as a way of showing that God is in control over the nations

So Open your Bibles to Exodus 5, we have a ton of ground to cover today!

Exodus 5:1–2 NIV

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’ ” Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Look at the response of Pharaoh. Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let israel go?

…I don’t know the Lord and I am not letting Israel go.

What we are seeing here is a scene of two rival god’s...

Pharoah is like, I am the living embodiment of Rah the Sun god, who is this Yahweh that you speak of?

Pharoah is like, do you remember who is enslaving who here buddy? All of your people work for me!

But during all of the plagues there will be 7 times that Yahweh uses a variation of this verse

Exodus 7:5 NIV

And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

It’s like…Oh Pharoah, you don’t know me…let me introduce myself!

But what I think is important to point out is just as much as these plagues are judgment for Egypt and the sinful way that they acted…it is also part of God’s severe grace....Pharaoh’s heart gets so hard that the only way for Yahweh to get his attention is through these plagues

Sometimes our hearts are so hard toward god it takes severe acts of grace by God for us to recognize him

It reminds me of the CS Lewis Quote: “pain is god's megaphone to rouse a deaf world”

And through the process of the plagues, it wont just be Egypt’s pain…Because God’s people need to be reshaped…They need to get Egypt out of them and to be made new as well.

We actually get our first glimpse of what it is going to be like for Moses as he leads the Israelites in the desert in Exodus 5,

After Moses tells Pharoah to let his people go, Pharoah gets mad and orders them to make the same amount of bricks that they were making before but this time he is not providing the straw.

Egypt starts to oppress Israel even more

Exodus 5:21 NIV

and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

There might be a bit of stockholm syndorme at play here…Where an oppressed people don’t want to upset their oprerssor…because they have forged their identity on their own oppression

Guess what, It gets hard for Israel and they complain…This will be a running theme in all of exodus!

After this Moses rightfully goes and asks God…like Hey lord…what is up?

Exodus 5:22–23 NIV

Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

So one impotrant thing to see here is that for Moses following God’s plan was hard and discouraging so what does he do:

Now this isn't the main point but: Moses took his discouragement and doubt to the Lord

When we have discouragement and doubt where do we take it? to facebook? to work?

Moses brought his discouragement and doubt to yahweh because they had a relationship and God can handle it!

When God gives us a purpose and and plan in the same way that he gave moses, we are going to face discouragement.

God allows this and wants you to experience it because he knows that as humans our faith is a bit weak and we need to get that straightened up!

Now Moses doesn’t know it yet but walking 2million people out of Egypt will be a cakewalk compared to what God has for him in the dessert for the next 40 years!

Faithfully walking through discouragement and doubt with God will solidify your faith

See because Moses brought his discouragement and doubt before the Lord, we don’t have enough time to cover it all today, but God encourages Moses in half of chapter 6, he says “I am the Lord” 5 times to moses…And he encourages Moses that he is in charge of all human life…The beginning and the end…he’s got it all covered!

This encouragement will be huge in Moses’ life…

Just as God is using Moses at this point…he is still molding him and shaping him

Then when we get to the plagues…One of the things that we will see is that Moses grows into the leader who can last 40 years in the desert because he see’s God’s deliverance close up

So we know there are these 10 plagues but did you know that each plague is an act of de-creation?

Here is what I mean by this…

So in Genesis 1, in 7 days of creation God speaks 10 times.

God’s judgment of Egypt is really in response to Pharaoh’s killing of Hebrew Boys in the Nile river.

So there are 10 plagues, and each of these 10 plagues correlate with the 10 words spoken at creation

But this is a grotesque de-creation....kind of an opposite of Genesis 1...

And then in addition to that and we wont get there for a few weeks but God will speak again in another sequence of 10 in the book of Exodus. We know them as the 10 Commandments…And guess what…This is a sign of new creation

So Why Did I spend time talking about Japan and these other countries that don’t exist any more. Because they are strikingly similar to Egypt. An emperor who refuses to stop with a campaign of death so much so that it eventually makes the whole thing implode…

Its like in all of these instances where nations Supernova it is their own sin coming back on their own heads...

And By the way, the Bible tells us that this is always how unchecked human power operates...

And this is what is happening to Egypt

So let’s get to the plagues now:

Exodus 7:14–19 NIV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”

So all of these plagues actually undo creation:

If you remember back to Genesis 1, at the end of every day…what happens? God sees all that he has created and he calls it good...

We tend to take for granted how good creation is…We have air we breathe, water we drink, food that just grows up out of the ground....God’ creation provides everything that we need to sustain life on earth...

So what these plagues are all doing is they are undoing life for Egypt…Its like God is taking creation apart one by one because the Egyptians insist on living in sin.

Plague 1: Water to Blood (Exodus 7:14-25)

The first Plague is that water turns to blood…So God’s good creation of water turns to blood…So life turns to death…The Nile river constitutes life for Egypt, all food, and fishing, the entire economy of Egypt is all about this strip of water that flows in the middle of a dessert.

There is a rarely used Hebrew verb that connects this to God’s creation of the waters in Genesis 1:10, to the waters being changed to blood in this first plague

But it is also a response to Pharoah and his evil…This is the way God’s severe judgment works. He allows Pharaoh’s sin to come right back on his head. Pharoah used the Nile to kill Hebrew Baby Boys…so now Pharoah is using it to Judge Egypt

Plague 2: The Plague of Frogs (Exodus 8:1-15)

So in Genesis 1, God separates the dry ground from the water....And now we have frogs…Which are both a water and land animal…The frogs undo the seperation in creation

Now the first two plagues, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to reproduce these

Plague 3 : The Plague of Gnats (Exodus 8:16-19)

In Genesis 2, God creates humans out of the dust of the earth…Here Moses takes his staff and strikes the earth and you get all of these gnats flying around everywhere…on your skin

The purpose of a gnat is to decompose…It is literally for death…So in Genesis, dust was used for making new life and in Exodus here this dust is used to decompose

This plague is where Pharoah is warned by Pharaoh’s Magicians, hey this is the finger of God…We can not do this! And Pharaoh’s heart was hard

Plague 4: The Plague of Flies (Exodus 8:20-32)

Now flies are air creatures…They live in the air…but they are not like birds…flies “swarm” and its the same exact word in Genesis 1:20, when God says let the waters and sky’s Swarm with birds…

We’ve all had houseflies, one or two is a plague!

Flies like to hang out on dead things. So God is bringing about a creature that again is attracted to death

So this is also the first plague where there is a distinction where Israel doesn’t get flies but the Egyptians do

But still Pharaoh’s heart is hard

Plague 5: The Plague of Livestock (Exodus 9:1-7)

This plague is actually a straight up sickness of the livestock that are used for food and agriculture.

Genesis 1:24 God created livestock…These are actually animals that are helpers to humans like donkeys, horses, cattle and sheep

Again this brings death to Egypt...

Plague 6: The Plague of Boils (Exodus 9:8-12)

So here Moses goes to an oven and throw the soot in the air and when it lands on humans they get boils all over them…So this is a plague that doesn't fit perfectly into Genesis 1-2 but the word Boils in Hebrew is actually the word Snake spelled backwards in Hebrew…And the Hebrew authors do this all the time...

Its almost a way of saying that the sin of Pharoah…that slippery serpent is now spread out all over the land, the people and the animals…the sin of Pharoah is now on all the people!

But every time, Pharoah summons moses…and says hey would you pray to take this away… then I’ll let your people go

And when the problem is gone he goes right back into his old ways

Plague 7 Plague of Hail (Exodus 9:13-35)

This is a long plague and we need to camp out right here for a second!

A couple of weeks ago my family and I were driving up to Hume lake and there is a high pass that we were driving over and the hail was so intense that there was a thick layer of ice on the road just all of the sudden and our van started to fishtail…and it was so loud in the car that we couldn’t even hear each other.

So the hail is connected to creation in that it strikes down all of the things that the land produces, people, vegetation and animals.

God reveals his purpose for Pharoah

Exodus 9:15–16 NIV

For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Even though Pharoah is totally disobedient, God had a plan and a purpose for him too. But he refused to live into it!

I want to talk to those of you who are not following Jesus today…Who are here because your husband or wife or mom or dad dragged you…It is east to look at Pharoah and think well that guy is a lost cause! That guy is the worst....But God had a plan for him too…He wanted him on his team…he had to break Pharaoh’s rebellion and disobedience and it was hard and server

If your here and you are not following Jesus, I guarantee, he wants you on his team, I don’t think he wants you to go through plagues, but he is willing to allow you to go through trouble to break the rebel that lives inside you!

So while Pharoah didn’t bow down and worship Yahweh

We have to remember that every time Moses comes to Pharaoh’s house his entire court is watching…

So this is the first plague where grace is offered

Exodus 9:19–21 NIV

Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’ ” Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.

So grace was offered and some Egyptians who were smarter than Pharoah and who at this time had come to believe that Yahweh was actually God actually listened to Moses!

In the plagues it wasn’t just the Israelites who were spared but the Egyptians who began to listen to Moses.

Plague 8: The Plague of Locust (Exodus 10:1-20)

So the locust eats everything that was made in day 3 of creation! Plants and trees

And the crazy thing about this plague is that god creates a wind to take these locust into Egypt and decimate the land...

The word for wind is Ruakh…In Genesis 1. God’s Ruakh come into creation and calms the chaos and makes order

Now the plague of Exodus is that there is a Ruakah that comes and destroys all of this vegetation life…which by the way is what is needed for humans to exist

Plague 9: The Plague of Darkness (Exodus 10:21-29)

This is great and a lot of English translations of the Bible don’t do this justice, but God says to Moses, “Let there be darkness” which is the exact inverse of let there be light literally from the first few sentences of the Bible.

Plague 10: Plague of the firstborn (Exodus 11-12)

This plague is even a reminder…because you are harming my first born son (Israel) I will take your first born sons...

So in the same way you threw the boys of Israel into the Nile, I will take your first born of everything

But in contrast to Pharoah’s utter lack of Mercy,

God provided a way out for this one, And we are going to look at this much deeper in the next couple of weeks because this is a a

The plagues reveal Yahweh as the true Creator God

Conclusion

The Plagues represent the sin of Pharoah being turned back on Egypt.

What Moses got a front row seat to and what Pharoah learned the hard was was this

What Pharoah had to learn was what Moses was getting a front row seat to

Romans 6:23 NIV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Moses would learn this lesson too.

God’s Justice is to allow un-repented sin to consume us.

This is what happens in all of human history, these countries get so large and so oppressive that all of their sin comes back on them

And this is what happens in our own life

We live in a world that wants to pretend that sin doesn't exist.

We legislate sinful things and call them legal but they will never be good

Sin un-does us…it de-creates us and makes us less than human …This is the point of the plagues

Un-repented sin comes back to haunt us. But the Good news is that Jesus took our sins on him…That he who knew no sin, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God!

I think the point of all of these plagues is that sin messes with life and we need a way out! Sin de-creates! sin strips us of life and has consequences for individuals and even nations!

God’s Justice is to send his son to forgive our sin and make available a relationship with God

Whose name will you live by? The name of Pharoah or the name of Yahweh?

Pharoah and his political religion?