The Plagues (Part 1)
Notes
Transcript
The Plagues (Part 1)
Exodus 7:14-8:19
It’s going to take us a few Sundays to make our way through the plagues. This is an important part of Scripture, and we need to look closely at it. You’re going to see the plagues are not just random acts of judgment.
There are three cycles of three plagues.
The last plague stands alone. The last plague stands alone because of:
It’s severity- the death of the firstborn sons.
It’s sacrifice- a lamb was killed by the Jews (Becomes the Feast of the Passover)
It’s symbolism- It becomes a picture of the coming Christ who redeems those who turn from and sin and exercise faith.
The sequence of the nine plagues is interesting:
1st, 4th, & 7th plague- Moses meets Pharaoh early in the morning at the Nile and warns him (7:15, 8:20, 9:13).
2nd, 5th, & 8th plague- Moses meets Pharaoh in the palace and warns him (8:1, 9:1, 10:3).
3rd, 6th, & 9th plague- no warning is given (8:16, 9:8, 10:21).
Three plagues and the cycle starts over.
Warning by the river
Warning in the palace
No warning
God is gong to use these plagues to break the back of Egypt. He is going to bring this nation to its knees. He chooses to use these particular plagues because they are an attack on the gods of Egypt.
Do you remember what Pharaoh said about God?
Moses told Pharaoh what God said in Exodus 5 and Pharaoh responded by asking “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?”
The God of the Hebrews was no one to Pharaoh.
He was weak. Pharaoh had his own gods.
Pharaoh thought:
You have one God? Ha! We have MANY!
Your God is a God of slaves?
Ha! Our gods have built the most powerful nation on earth!
God responds by taking Egypt’s gods out one by one through the plagues. How do I know this?
Exodus 12:12 “on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.”
Numbers 33:4 says, “On their gods also the Lord executed judgments.”
The fact is their gods were not real. But Scripture says behind every idol is a demon (Deut. 32:16-17). Therefore the plagues were an attack on Satan and his demons.
The plagues were:
A display of the power of God. Greater than the gods of Egypt.
A punishment upon a nation that oppressed God’s people.
A warning for those who opposed God’s people in the future.
Joshua 2:8-9 Rahab turned from the Canaanite gods to the God of Israel because she heard what God did to Egypt.
1 Samuel 4:8 the Philistines were afraid of Israel because they heard about the plagues put upon Egypt.
Let’s look at the first three plagues.
1. God turns the water of Egypt into blood (7:14-25).
A. Pharaoh is warned (7:14-18).
Must have been his custom to go to the Nile early in the morning. Probably some sort of worship he offered.
Moses met him there. He told him he has not obeyed God. Note this is not a suggestion. God commanded Pharaoh let the people go. “you have not obeyed” (16)
Not forever. Just for a feast in the wilderness (16).
Moses tells Pharaoh what will happen.
The Nile will turn to blood.
The fish in the Nile will die (major food source)
The Nile will stink and the water become contaminated.
Pharaoh doesn’t listen. Aaron is told to take a tour and symbolically stretch his staff out over the waters in Egypt.
Rivers
Canals
Ponds
Pools
Imagine what people thought when they saw this 83 year old man walking around stretching a staff out over the waters.
Why did he do this?
So there would be no mistake as to why the water is polluted. Pharaoh couldn’t invent some other story as to why this was happening. The people of Egypt could connect the dots.
It was not only a warning top Pharaoh. It was a warning to Egypt as well.
What was a warning to the enemies of God was encouraging to the people of God. When they saw Aaron I‘m sure many of them were filled with hope.
B. The water is polluted.
The Nile turned to blood.
Liberal scholars suggest floods caused red clay to come into the Nile and the muddy water killed the fish. It’s clear more than that happened.
That wouldn’t explain how the water in the ponds, pools and even vessels were polluted.
The Nile was the source of life to that region. Now it was dead.
Fish began to die.
A stench surrounded it.
Undrinkable.
Couldn’t wash/bathe.
Couldn’t water livestock.
Egyptians had to start digging to find water to drink (7:24).
Could you imagine the devastation of a nation when all the water is polluted?
It only lasts seven days but immediately the suffering begins. Try going without water for seven days.
The Nile was a god to the Egyptians. Other gods were connected to it:
Hapi- the god who filled the Nile up annually so the land would be fertile. He was there to protect the Nile and bring prosperity to the land.
Where was Hapi now? God just attacked the Nile. He shut it down. He cut Egypt’s lifeblood off.
C. The magicians could not help Egypt (22-23).
They were able on some scale to replicate the miracle. Let’s think about that for a moment:
1) Why would they want to replicate it? That would only make it worse.
2) Why not stop it? If they are more powerful why not reverse it?
3) What they did had to be on a very small scale. They had to use water they dug up (24). It would be easy to falsely replicate a miracle like this. What they did couldn’t be compared to what God did in destroying all the water supply of the nation.
But they satisfied Pharaoh. His heart was hardened even more. He went home while the nation suffered for seven days.
2. God sends a plague of frogs (8:1-15).
A. The land is invaded by frogs.
Interesting fact- it was a crime to kill frogs in Egypt.
Frogs were considered a sign of blessing and fruitfulness.
When the Nile flooded the frogs would chirp. The sound of frogs meant the Nile was filled with water and therefore the land would be fertile.
One of the Egyptian goddesses was Heqt. She had the body of a woman but the head of a frog. She was a goddess of childbirth and fertility.
Moses tells Pharaoh that God is about to give them more frogs than they can imagine (8:3-4).
Start in the Nile
Into your homes
In your bedrooms
On your bed
In your ovens
In your kneading bowls
Aaron again makes a tour of Egypt stretching out the staff over all the bodies of water. When he is finished frogs come from everywhere.
That may sound unbelievable to you. Did you know that in 1952 the town of Oconto Wisconsin was overrun by frogs? A very wet year made the conditions perfect for frogs.
Articles tell of a town that was scared to death. 175 million leopard frogs made their way out of the marsh and into the town. They outnumbered the people 35,000 to one.
When people drove down the road frogs were popping left and right. Dogs feared the frogs. People were afraid. As the waters receded and temperatures increased the frogs disappeared. The only good thing is the town folks joked that there were not many mosquitos that summer.
Egypt couldn’t get away from these frogs. They didn’t hurt the people. But it was gross. It was aggravating.
In your house
In your bed
In your food
The magicians somehow, on a very small scale, replicated this act. But again, why?
They made the problem worse.
Why didn’t they reverse it?
This would have been a very easy miracle to fake by the way.
B. Pharaoh pleads with Moses to take away the plague (8:8-12).
He says if the Lord will take the plague away, he will let the people go worship the Lord in the wilderness.
Moses asks Pharaoh “When?”
This is a crazy part. Pharaoh says “Tomorrow.”
Why? Why not now?
Pharaoh probably held out hope that his gods would come through. He thought perhaps he could endure one more night. This shows he doesn’t want to let the people go.
There are people who love to procrastinate with God. You are up to your eyeballs in frogs, and you think “Tomorrow I’ll do something about it.”
Today is the day of salvation!
Don’t be stubborn with God like Pharaoh was.
He wouldn’t allow Israel to go and worship the Lord (7:16).
He wanted to wait until tomorrow to do something about the frogs (8:10)
He wouldn’t listen to his own magicians when they told him this was being done by the finger of God (8:19).
When you know what God wants you to do, do it then.
C. The devastation of the frogs (8:13-15).
The frogs began to die.
Died in the houses
Died in the courtyards.
Died in the fields.
The people gathered them together and made piles. The piles were disgusting. They stunk.
Remember they would not kill a frog. But Moses God would. He killed a bunch of them. Frogs live for years. This wasn’t a natural death.
If living frogs were a sign of blessing to them what was the sign being given to them now?
Where is Heqt?
Piles of dead frogs all over the place.
The stench of rotting amphibians.
Look what Pharaoh did. In verse 15, once the frogs were dead, he changed his mind. He didn’t let the people go.
This is the sign of a hardened heart. You make a promise to God and then you break it. I have seen it many times.
Oh God if you will heal me, I’ll serve you!
Oh God if you’ll get me out of this, I’ll get sober!
Oh God if you’ll save my marriage, I will serve you!
Some of you had frogs in your kitchen. You told God if He would get them out things would be different. He did, you didn’t.
Be careful friend!
3. God sends a plague of gnats (8:16-19).
A. God creates insects that attack the Egyptians.
No warning is given to Pharaoh. It says, “all the dust became gnats”. Hyperbole is used. There was an enormous number of insects created.
The Hebrews is difficult here. Some translate the word as “lice” others as “gnats” and others as “mosquitos”.
What we know is it was a small biting insect.
The goddess Nut and Hathor were both depicted as cows. This plague is an attack on the people and the livestock.
This would have been a very difficult plague to endure.
Lice- I remember having lice as a child. I thought my mom was going to scrub my head off.
In Florida there are No see ums. These are gnats so small you cannot see them, but they bite!
This plague would have been chaos for both the people and the animals. They were swarmed with small biting insects.
B. The magicians cannot replicate this miracle.
In fact, they won’t be able to replicate any more.
At this point the magicians admit their own weakness. They say, “This is the finger of God.”
They recognize the power of God.
Pharaoh doesn’t care.
His heart is hardened.
His nation is crumbling around him, but he is too stubborn to admit it.
A nation is suffering because of the hardened heart of one man.
Don’t make others suffer because of your own hardened heart.
All Pharaoh must do is let the people go. It’s that simple.
Sometimes it’s so simple.
Just forgive someone.
Just admit you were wrong.
Just get back to serving God.
C. The staff has symbolism (17).
We’re not told why but the Bible tells us in Genesis 46:34 the Egyptians hated Shepherds. Probably had something to do with battles and skirmishes with groups of people who were likely shepherds.
Remember we said that Moses being a Shepherd for 40 years meant that he was now rejected by his own people (Hebrews) and his adopted people (Egyptians).
Pharaoh being defeated with a shepherd’s staff made things all the worse for him.
But there is more.
This points to One who is even greater than Moses.
A greater enemy- Satan
Enslaved God’s people in the Garden of Eden
Laid heavy burdens on them
Mocked them
Condemned them
Refused to let them go
A greater Shepherd- Christ (John 10)
The Good Shepherd
Calls His sheep out of the world
Knows who His sheep are
Loves His sheep
Gives His life for the sheep
Jesus has come to set you free from Satan.
He says to you “Come!”
You say, “I can’t!”
Why not?
He will conquer every enemy that tries to stop you. He will lead you out.
Satan cannot stop you from coming if you want to come.
We spend our time worrying over how God turned water into blood when we should be more concerned about a heart that was turned to stone in this story.
Hear the cry of the Good Shepherd. Come out! Come to Christ! Be saved!