Exodus 5-11 Talk

Introduction:

My brother is an MMA fighter. He is very good but I can’t Watch him. But I do love watching it on TV, and I am not alone. It’s one of the fastest growing sports in the world. People love it when two big fighters square up to each other, ready to put their reputation on the line before a watching world. This is a picture of what we have in our passage this morning - the two greatest contestants in the world - the gods of Egypt, and the God of Israel, squaring up, ready to do battle before all peoples. And, as our passage will show us, it was in reality no contest.

Context:

Last week, we saw how that prize of the nation of Israel, God’s promise bearing people, were enslaved by the Egyptians. But we also saw how God heard the cries of his people, and raised up a deliverer to go and set his people free.

Exegesis:

As we turn to our passage, the first thino the author does is to introduce us to Pharaoh, the representative of the Egyptian gods, and a deeply unsympathetic figure. He is proud, such that when Moses asks him to let the people go in the name of the Lord, he says “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” (5:2). He is also cruel. Having heard the people want to leave, he doubles their work quota in punishment. Our author wants us to see the effects of living under the gods of this world.

After this, God tells Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and ask him to let the people go. But this time, he tells Moses what is going to happen (7:1-4). He tells them how he is going to defeat Pharaoh. He knows that Pharaoh won’t listen to him. But still Moses must ask, because God is about to make an example of Pharaoh. He is about to defeat Pharaoh and all the gods from whom he claims protection. And so he does: he goes to Pharaoh 9 times, asking him to let the people go, and when Pharaoh refuses, God sends a plague that defeats a different god. He turns the Nile into blood (7.14-22), he creates a plague of frogs, gnats, and flies. He kills their livestock, gives the Egyptians boils, sends a hailstorm, all in anticipation of his greater judgement to come. As God says to Pharaoh in Exodus 9:16, “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.” In his defeat of Pharaoh, God shows his justice, his glory, and his love for his people.

Illustration:

It’s just like in MMA: no fighter wants to win by split decision. He wants to dominate. He wants to prove to the judges, the ref, and everybody else watching that you were totally superior. That is what God is doing in this passage - he is proving to the Israelites, the Egyptians, and all the watching world, that he is superior. The gods of Egypt could do nothing before him. Nor can any other gods.

Application:

And friends that is still the case today. In fact, more so. For in our day, God has won a victory over the other gods so magnificent it resonates through the ages. When Jesus Christ hung on a cross, and declared the power of sin and death over, he was also telling the gods of this age that their time was up. When he rose from the dead, he declared himself king and all other powers vanquished. But, friends, do you know how powerful sin still is? It is powerful enough to make us believe that our gods of old are still on the throne. We are like modern Germans still living as if Hitler was Chancellor. And if we keep living under them, we will become like Pharaoh. And so I urge you, open your Bible, let it open your eyes to show you that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that you must live in line with his kingdom. It is the only way to true life.