I AM the one and only

Goodmorning Church

Exodus 7-10.

Hook:

How many of you are familiar with the term GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)

Used to describe the greatest person in whatever category is being discussed…

How do we know who the greatest is???

By their performance…

In sports…the preformace of the career of a given athlete can help distinguish if they are the GOAT or not…

Now i understand the debate in sports…

Micheal Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever…He is the GOAT

Some of you would debate that Lebron James is the greatest…in that case you would be wrong and thats ok lol

Our argument would have to be how many championships has Jordan won (6)

How many for Lebron(4) and thats the only argument we need lol

One thing we can agree on is if I walked into an NBA gym and said hey yall im the GOAT…

They would laugh…then they would say what…”WHO ARE YOU???”

Thats what we have seen also in this EXODUS SERIES…

Intro:

Last week in this exodus series we saw Moses and Aaron finally being obedient and trusting the Lord with the mission He had placed them on….

They went to Pharoah and they did as God told them…they said “the Lord said for us to tell you Pharaoh to let His people go”

And look how Pharoah responded…

Exodus 5:1–2 “Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.””

Who is the Lord???

Why should I listen to your God??? He has no power over me…I dont even know Him…

The Egyptians didnt worship the LORD…They worshipped many other gods…

According to the theologian Ryken “there are about 80 major deities in Egyptian culture…all centered around 3 natural forces: the Nile river, the land, and the sky

They placed their faith and worship in these many gods…

In fact Pharaoh himself was worshipped as a God…

As we open our bibles to Exodus chapter 7…

We we are going to see the Lord respond to Pharoah…

Look with me at Exodus 7:1-5…READ

The Lord says…

Exodus 7:5 “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.””

The Lord says I am going to place upon Egypt GREAT ACTS OF JUDGMENT…

AND THEY WILL KNOW I AM THE LORD!!!

Keep reading with me (v6-13)

Snake and staff (7:8-13)

Gives Pharaoh one more chance…gives him the same miracle he gave his people (STAFF TO SNAKE)

He did not believe…instead he brought in his magicians …they replicated…but God destroyed this deceitful attempt to duplicate His power and greatness…

And so now begins these acts of judgments that the Lord said He would place on the Egyptians…

These acts of Judgments are going to come in the form of 10 PLAGUES…

We are going to look at 9 of the 10 today…we will save the last plague for next week…

We are going to see how significant these plagues are as we go through them…

When we dig a little we find that there is more here than meets the eye at first…

We are going to find that not only is the Lord judging Egypt…

BUT HE IS ALSO JUDGING the gods they worship in His place…

Exodus 12:12 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.”

And coming out of these plagues Pharaoh will have his answer to his question…

“who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?”

BIG IDEA: There is only one LORD of all…I AM

OKAY SO LETS UNPACK THESE PLAGUES!!!!

God wastes no time…Pharoah rejects miracle of staff and snake…

God brings the first plague

PLAGUES:

Nile River (7:14-25)

READ 14-25

The Nile was the life of Egypt…

Gave them drinking water, fish, irrigation, transportation, they even marked their calendar by it…

They worshipped the Nile as their sustainer…

HAPI (god of the nile…the sustainer of life)

Where is your god???

Magicians come and turn water to blood

While they could “replicate” with deception…they couldn't reverse it…

The Lord is the God of all

Pharaoh's Response: Hardened heart…NO GO!

Next plague…

Frogs (8:1-7)

READ 1-7

Frogs everywhere!!

Frogs were worshipped in Egypt as a god…

HEQET (goddess with a frogs head…goddess of fertility and creation of life)

This goddess was so sacred that the Egyptians were forbidden to kill frogs…

They are everywhere and they cant accidently step on a frog…

Magicians come and “replicate”…but couldn't remove…now there are more frogs!!!

Pharaoh pleads to remove frogs (READ verse 8)

Exodus 8:10 “And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.”

God Removes (READ Verse 12-13)

Pharaoh's Response: He hardened his heart against the Lord…(v. 15)…NO GO!

Gnats/Lice (8:16-19)

READ 16-29

ESV= gnats …KJV=Lice

Whatever they were…

They were everywhere (All the dust became gnats/lice)

And they were all over people and animals…

This was a strike on the head of the Egyptian god…

GEB (God of the Earth…God of rich soil)

Magicians tried to replicate but failed…

Magicians are like ok this must be the REAL GOD…

Pharaoh's response: hardened heart…NO GO

Flies (8:20-24)

If one flying/ annoying insect wasn't enough…

FLIES!

A swarm…All over the people…

In their houses…

In Pharaoh’s house…

On the ground…

Ruined the land…

Swarms of flies…

Illustration: How many of yall live on a livestock farm??? Pigs, goats, cattle??? We live on a hog farm…flies aint no joke!!!

Everywhere except…In the land of Goshen…where Gods people are…He keeps His people from the plague…

Because…This was a striking down of the Egyptian god…

KEPHER (god of resurrection…born out of dung and decaying matter)

Flies to are born out of decaying matter…

I AM THE GOD OF RESURRECTION!!

No magicians around for this one…0 for 2 on insects lol

Pharoah calls Moses and says “ I will let you go…plead for me”

Moses does…

God removed the flies (v31 Not one remained)

Pharaoh’s Response: Hardened his heart… NO GO

Livestock (9:1-7)

All the livestock in Egypt died…

cattle, horses, donkeys….

ALL gone…

Nothing that belongs to the people of Israel shall die…

Pharoah went and looked and not one of their livestock was dead…

The LORD is showing His greatness over the false Egyptian god…

APIS (Chief bull …god of fertility)

Pharaoh’s Response: Hardened Heart…NO GO

Boils (9:8-11)

Noah Webster 1828 defined BOIL as an “angry swollen, tumorous, sore”

A breakout on all the Egyptians…

Magicians couldnt even stand before them they were soo afflicted…

Egyptian false god…

SEKHMET (patron goddess of physicians…the healing godess)

The Lord hardened Pharaohs heart even more hear for his wickedness and disobedience…

NO GO

Before the next plague the Lord makes a statement to Pharoah…

He takes a brief moment in between this judgment and speaks to Pharoah through Moses…

A REMINDER to the most powerful king in the earth of why these Plagues are happening…

Exodus 9:14–17 “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.”

Remember Exodus 5??? “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice???”

There is NONE LIKE ME!!!

I have raised you up to SHOW MY POWER!!!

That I WILL BE PROCLAIMED IN ALL THE EARTH!!!!

Hail Storm (9:18-26)

You can either heed God’s word here and live…

or ignore it and lose everything…

See God’s grace here Church…

Before each and every single plague He has warned Pharoah…

Here He has warned Egypt…

Place your faith in the Lords words…shelter yourselves, your workers, your animals…and they will survive

THE GREATEST STORM EGYPT HAS EVER SEEN!!!

Fire and Rain and Ice raining down like no other!!!

This was to show God’s power over the false god…

NUT (god of the sky…god of weather)

Pharoah pleads…I will let them go

God stops the hail…

Pharaoh’s Response: Hardened Heart…NO GO

Locusts (10:3-13)

Crops destroyed after the hail…

V 32 of chapter 9 tells us though that the wheat and the rye were not struck down yet…

AGAIN the Lord could completely destroy Egypt, could have eliminated the food source…

BUT they still have wheat and rye…they still have bread!!!

Another warning…

I will send a swarm of Locust’s to eat up whatever is left…

This means starvation yall…

Starvation is a powerful motivator…

Remember the Israelites are in Egypt because of famine…(Story of Joseph)

Pharoah almost breaks here…

His own people are coming to him and begging him to let the Israelites go to stop these plagues…

So he says you can go but only the men can go…

THATS NOT WHAT THE LORD SAID!!! ALL THE PEOPLE!!!

So God sends the 8th plague…the Locusts…

A swarm so dense they covered the face of the land of Egypt…

EATING EVERYTHING…

NOT A GREEN THING REMAINED…

The mighty plague of a MIGHTY LORD…

Showing Egypt the HE is the GOD of ALL!

Not the false god they worshipped…

MIN (patron god of crops…god of bountiful harvest)

NOW YOU HAVE NO HARVEST…

Pharoah pleads again…

God removes again…

And this plague ends again with the hardening Pharaohs heart…

NO GO

Darkness (10:21-29)

Darkness…

Emptiness…

Blackness…

No one can see another…

EXCEPT for the Israelites…They have the light…

The Egyptians worshipped…

AMON-RE (god of the sun and of light)

To the Egyptians the sunset meant death…

And every morning they would worship AMON-RE for giving them light…

Pharoah himself was worshipped as the son of the god of light…(son of RE)

But the Lord has shown Pharaoh…

I AM the GOD OF THE LIGHT!!!

Pharoah pleads…

God commands…let my people go…

Pharaoh's heart hardened again…and again its a NO GO…

As we round out our time this morning…

Here is what the Lord has shown us today church…

THERE IS NONE GREATER THAN HE…

You can stack up all the false gods of the world…

and the LORD….

THE GREAT I AM…

JEHOVA!!!

HE IS GREATER THAN ALL!!!

There are alot of false gods out there…even today…

Let me ask you church…

WHO DO YOU WORSHIP???

There are many gods today to worship…

who is the greatest god in your life…

-WORK

-MONEY

-HOUSE

-SPOUSE/RELATIONSHIP

-SPORTS

-CHILDREN

-DRUGS

-ALCOHOL

-MEN/WOMEN

-MINISTRY

-KNOWLEDGE

WHO DO YOU WORSHIP????

There is no other greater than our Lord!

As we read through these chapters in EXODUS…

Today church we need to take from the text this…

THERE IS NONE GREAT THAN OUR LORD!!!

THESE CHAPTERS SHOULD BE A REMINDER YALL!!!

A REMINDER OF HOW MIGHTY GOD IS!!!

THIS TEXT SHOULD REMIND YOU OF HIS CAPABILITIES!!!!

HOW JUST HE IS !!!

HOW TERRIBLE HIS WRATH IS…(that we deserve)

AND HOW GRACIOUS HE IS…(grace for Pharoah but also giving him warnings…)

all throughout these 4 chapters we see a theme…

God gives His wrath and judgment to Egypt…

But for those that belongs to Him he spares…

For His children…He spares them judgment…

AND NOT ONLY THAT HE DEFEATS ALL OF ITS ENEMIES…NO MATTER HOW GREAT THEY ARE HE IS GREATER!

YOU WANNA SEE GODS GREATNESS…

LOOK AT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS!!!

PRAY