The Start of the Plagues
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last week, we talked about how moses and aaron faced off the with egyptian priests by turning their staff into a serpent, and swallowing the egyptians serpent when they did the same
we talked about the very real influence that the powers of evil have in this world, like the egyptians harnessed
we talked about God showing dominion in this situation
and not only here, but importantly, in our lives as fallen, corrupted people
God comes in and handily overcomes the fallen nature within us
the gates of hell will not prevail against God in one’s life
Catching up to where we are: Moses had asked pharoah several times to let the people go, ultimately never doing it
his heart would also harden throughout this process
we all know what it’s like to have a hardened heart, sometimes you just get uncaring or even resentful of certain things in your life
this is a dangerous place to be when it comes to Godly things, as the more you go down this path, the number and more uncaring to the things of God one becomes
at this point in the narrative, the plagues proper will start, wreaking great havoc upon egypt
And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.
And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.
Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.
God tells moses to again to tell pharoah to let the people go
we see though that God knows that He won’t let the people go
however, pharoah, having free will and an opportunity to free the people, does not
He suffers from something many others do, having God knocking on the door and refusing Him beause of the state of his heart
He keeps the Israelites enslaved, He refuses to do what God tells him to do, even after God has shown the previous sign
unfortunately, many do this, to their own destruction. pharoah would bring destruction upon himself due to this
when one ignores the things of God and living a Godly life, this is where one goes: on the path of man
this can affect believers as well, when they fall away - a numb, leathery, uncaring, ambivalent heart is what leads to this
in other words, when you stop feeling guilty about things
one sticks their finger in the face of God, rebelling against Him, acting in ways contrary to His very nature, and feel nothing
Moses tells Pharoah that the river will be turned to blood, stink, and yield up it’s life
In Egypt, the nile river is essentially the lifeblood of the country
it runs all up and down the country, and the nile delta region, where it connects to the Mediterranean sea, is where most habitability comes from
annual flooding of the nile deposited nutrients into the soil, water to drink, fish to eat and transportation up and down the country
one of Egypt’s important gods, called hapi, was thought of as a personification of the nile river and the blessings it brought them
so when God says He will turn the nile to blood, it is a very harsh blow to not only the practical life in the country, but also their religious system
these things show that in reality, God is in control of all of man’s needs, such as food, water, and so on.
further, this blood imagery would have been quite stark to the egyptians, as if their life-giving river had been literally slaughtered
imagine what that would have looked like: a giant river flowing red that stinks and is killing the fish. it would appear quite deadly
from the Christian perspective, blood cleansed us of the world and sin, egypt being a type of the world, so there’s somewhat of that element at play as well
additionally, this plague, and the others as well, work to authenticate the Word of God, showing that the words that He says are real and have power, coming from the one true God.
this would authenticate the word for the Egyptians
but if you think about us today, we see how many times the word was authenticated throughout Scripture - so many examples, including 10 just here
even outside of the Bible, we see the miraculous stories of salvation and changes to people’s lives that we see today
so many people have been changed in such great ways
many incredible answers to prayer have been had
these things, among others, show us how reliable God and His word is
that is not even counting the fact that we know that the Bible is historically reliable
many cities mentioned in the Bible, once thought to be fake by modern historians, have been found to have been real
the same is true with peoples, the hittites were once thought to not exist, until they found myriads of evidence of the hittite empire in anatolia
items with people’s names have been found that correlate to people mentioned in the Bible
the Israelites and kings, such as Omri, are mentioned in sculptures from other countries, such as the Moabites and Egyptians.
even further, there is the fact that we know that the biblical text was preserved with incredible accuracy
there are whole Bible’s from around 300ad which are essentially exactly the same as what we have today
the dead sea scrolls confirm what we have, and those were written before Jesus!
additionally, there is the fact that what we see that the gospel changes lives, just as the Bible says, and so many practical teachings work just as the Bible says
finally, regarding the exodus itself, we know in secular history that the capital of egypt at this time, avaris, was largely abandoned right around this time!
so, just like God authenticated his word to pharoah, He has done so above and beyond for us!
Pharoah followed his fleshly heart, doing what he wanted, even though he knew it was not what God wanted
which laid the path to his destruction
God took away what he had been giving the egyptians all of this time, water, food, all the things that came with the nile
and as fallible people, we must keep in mind that every life giving thing that we have every single day, is given to us by God
it must be kept in mind, however, that if He wanted to, or if we push the limits of sin and harden our heart, He could. He may not, but He always could
we even see in the last verse of this passage that the egyptians were digging around the nile in a desparate attempt to just find drinkable water
this is the pitiful state we would be in without God and His mercy
Pharoah probably thought he had a long life ahead of him as well, he was pharoah, he got the royal treatment
but due to his arrogance and out and out rebellion against God in an egregious way, it ended up being cut short
and if we think about it, it was because of his own doing.
had he not chased the hebrews on the way out, trying to bring them back into egypt, he wouldn’t have drowned in the red sea
We see Moses confront pharoah in this passage, which may have seemed like an underdog fight, or a fight against an unmovable stone.
we may feel like this way when we deal with someone either in our lives or out in the world
but as we mentioned earlier, the gates of hell will not prevail against, or withstand, the power of God
so we can always know that God always can overcome at any time, according to His will
PLAGUE 2: FROGS
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
“God encourages him to the combat, as much as to say, that he had to contend with a very hard stone until it should be broken. Hearing that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, he might begin to waver, unless a hope of victory were shewn him from elsewhere. But since the obstinacy of this beast is indomitable, God arms His servant with new weapons...”
PLAGUE TWO: FROGS
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.
And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?
And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God.
And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.
And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.
And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.
And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
many elements of this plague are similar to the river of blood plague
it turns the life giving river into a huge problem
so it takes what they perceived as a blessing into a curse
this plague involved frogs even getting into people’s houses, so it was a bit more encompassing than the previous plague
the egyptian priests were able to replicate bringing frogs up
some think this was sleight of hand, others think this was the power of real evil
truly, evil does exist and have influence in this world, it’s more than just people being bad
however, God shows His dominion again by one-upping the priests by having total control over where the frogs go
and He even showed mercy on the Egyptians in this plague
additionally, He showed His dominion over at least one other important Egyptian God, who was symbolized as a frog
which shows His power over evil and nature once again
CONCLUSION
We see in this whole passage a few things
the danger of a hardened heart
the dominion that God has over false gods, evil, and the elements in this world
the dominion that God can have in the believer over these things
the difference in where these paths bring us
Moses and the Hebrews were delivered
Pharoah’s path led him to his death
that God has authenticated His Word: it’s not just empty words, but the most substantive words that exist.
We have God’s Word, we know who He is and what He provides for us, and we know it’s all true
We cannot afford to let ourselves have a hardened heart like pharoah
instead, we should be seeking the path of God
the same path that Moses took, and when we look at what happened, Moses overcame, through God
let us do the same