The Ten Plagues Week 2

Good evening everyone, we are in our 2nd week, where we are talking about the 10 Egyptian plagues. As I mentioned last week, this story, found in the book of Exodus teaches us that God is truly powerful and is a rewarder of those who follow Him. Let’s go ahead and pray, then we will get started.

PRAY!

Last week I took much of our time going over the context behind this story. How the Israelites got into Egypt in the first place, how Moses became involved and why these plagues would have been considered such a “slap in the face” of the Egyptian people and their gods.

God called Moses and Aaron to approach Pharoah and tell the leader that the Israelite people are to be set free! Of course, that did not sit too well with the Pharaoh, so, Aaron stretched his staff out over the Nile river and God turned the water into blood. We left off at the end of verse 21, where the writer said that the water became foul and the fish died…no one could drink the water. But, something interesting happened after that. Let’s take a look at that, then we will move on to the 2nd plague.

Exodus 7: 21-25

“The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this. So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the Nile. Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.”

OK, so all of the water turned to blood, so the magicians who accompanied Pharaoh turned around and did something similar. I would say that this begs some explanation. We do not know what the magicians did to convince Pharaoh that what happened was merely a trick, or at least, that what God did was not nearly enough to let the Israelites go. From what I’ve read, it is believed that the magicians took a small amount of water and made it turn red. As I said, we do not know exactly, but I’ve never see it suggest that what the magicians did was on a large scale at all. When I was a kids pastor, whenever I taught the kids about this lesson, or any lesson that involves how we can be deceived, I would perform a couple of card tricks that I know. I’m way out of practice, so I won’t be doing that today. This may seem goofy to us, but to give you some brief context to just how easily we can be deceived and how convincing good magicians are, I want us to watch a quick video.

SHOW VIDEO

That magician did a documentary where he went to a remote tribe and did his tricks. He had to convince them that he wasn’t a God, by showing them how he does the tricks, because to you and I, we are fooled very easily.

Regardless, Pharaoh had all the motivation in the world to not bend to God’s command. I’m sure the magicians were trying to convince the Egyptian leader that they could fix the situation with enough time. So, Pharoah turned his back and walked away in defiance. So, Moses and Aaron turn around and leave as well.

Now, before we talk about the next plague, I want to back up a bit and talk about Aaron for a moment. When the Lord called Moses to approach Pharaoh, Moses was not too keen on the idea. Here is how Moses and Aaron ended up becoming a team.

Exodus 6:28–7:2

Now it came about on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, that the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the Lord; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I speak to you.” But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am unskilled in speech; how then will Pharaoh listen to me?” Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

We are not going to spend a ton of time on this, as this is not our subject de’jour. However, it is important to make a note of why Moses did not simply go to Pharaoh on his own. When God approaches Moses and commissions him to go to Pharaoh, Moses responds by saying:

“Behold, I am unskilled in speech; how then will Pharaoh listen to me?”

What exactly does this mean, that he is “unskilled in speech.” Another translation actually says

“I am of uncircumcised lips”

It is widely believed that Moses has a severe stuttering problem. I knew a couple of kids growing up that stuttered…it will definitely affect your self-worth, that is for sure. Moses was concerned that Pharaoh will not take him seriously. So, God told Moses to take his brother with him. God would speak to Moses, then Moses would communicate to Aaron, who would relay it to Pharaoh.

Now, think for just a moment about this. Think about all of the miracles that God performed in Moses’s lifetime…all 10 plagues, the parting of the red sea, providing for the nation of Israel while wondering the wilderness for 40 years, the fact that Moses is the only person in all of scripture to see a glimpse of God the Father... and on and on. Of course, when God first approached Moses, none of those things had happened. Why didn’t God simply heal Moses’s speech problem? When I was writing this sermon I got to thinking about that question…I’m pretty sure I know at least one of the reasons why:

Because in Moses’s weakness, he was made strong.

The more Moses had to rely on God, the stronger he became. Moses is described as the meekest man in the entire Bible, despite the fact that he was a witness to so much of God’s glory. I believe that the reason that God did not make Moses’s speech better is the same reason he did not remove Paul’s affliction…what he refers to as his “thorn in the flesh.” Paul even prayed to God that he would be free, but God did not do it. We do not know what Paul’s affliction was, as he does not describe it, but he had to live it it, just like Moses had to live with his.

So, anyway, God was gracious enough to understand Moses’s affliction and had Aaron go as a team....so, that is why in all of these interactions between Moses and Pharaoh we see Aaron.

After God turned the water of the Nile into blood, then the magicians did their own thing, Pharoah walked away. Now, let’s move forward to our next plague. I’ll read the entire section, then we will go back and talk about some of the different sections.

Exodus 7:25–8:15

Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, “I will smite your whole territory with frogs. The Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and on your people, and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls. So the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your servants.” ’ ” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’ ” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. The magicians did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Entreat the Lord that He remove the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile?” Then he said, “Tomorrow.” So he said, “May it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your servants and your people; they will be left only in the Nile.” Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord concerning the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. The Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. So they piled them in heaps, and the land became foul. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

As you can probably tell, this plague was a bit different…other than the fact that it was frogs instead of blood.