God's Authority and Love!
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Introduction:
We are going to get into plagues 8 and 9 which are locusts and darkness.
As we have witnessed and read about the past plagues.
The purposes are specific for 3 different groups of people.
To the Egyptian it is a show of Power for Yahweh over their deities.
Ultimately revealing to them their faith in fake deities is useless.
To the Hebrews they serve to provide assurance.
The God of their fathers has shown up to rescue them with a mighty hand.
Revealing to the Hebrews that their faith is secure and their God is fighting on their behalf.
The plagues served as a warning to all other nations, that the God of the Hebrews fights for them and the power of His might.
These next plagues are integral in preparing the way for the Hebrews to make an Exodus from Egypt and to plunder them on their exit.
In every plague we can see God’s Authority over His creation.
With every plague we should recognize God’s love and desire for humanity.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Each plague shows how God provides opportunities to receive His grace and accept His mercy.
That is only possible through an amazing amount of Love.
That unconditional love He has for us is described in 1 Corinthians 13.
I’m sure that we have all heard some of the sayings from these passages.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
His love is shown in John 3:16.
He always pursues us.
In the Old Testament He pursued us and provided a temporary fix to our relationship.
In the New Testament we have His permanent fix.
He reconciled that connection.
Hopefully you are able to see what I mean as we expound the 8th and 9th plagues. Then go back and re-read the 1st through 7th and receive His grace.
Gaining a new appreciation for How much He loves us.
Transition:
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and He stuck to His pride instead of giving into God’s request to let His people go and worship Him.
Here in Chapter 10 God provides:
Another Opportunity (1-11)
Another Opportunity (1-11)
God’s servant, Moses gets direction from God.
He encourages Moses by providing the “why” for these plagues.
Remember Moses lived and hung around all the people he sees receiving the plagues for the first 40 years of His life.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Pharaoh isn’t the only one with a heart problem.
Pharaoh’s servants are against God, and against Moses, and Aaron.
Understand that when people are mad at God they are going to be mad at His servants too.
God is going to use their hardened hearts for His glory!
For all to realize that Yahweh is God almighty and there is none other than He!
The Exodus truth is to be taught to the next generation through the telling of stories a first hand witness!
Exodus is ultimately the story of Israel, an account that shaped them as a nation chosen by God.
The account should be told all the way into the New Testament, similar to our personal stories of salvation through faith in the Messiah that came through Abraham’s family.
With their testimonies someone could record exactly what happened and even talk with Moses about it to get an accurate account.
Narrating all of the conversations between Him and God and what happened at each moment he spoke with Pharaoh.
Thankfully we have the recording of Exodus, written by Moses.
Moses’ testimony says:
3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field,
6 and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’ ” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Much like the last 7 times Moses and Aaron spoke to Pharaoh we find the routine:
Command to be let go
The warning given
The consequences explained
This time there was a question.
The nature of the question isn’t a national one, it is a personal one.
I wonder if this is Moses recognizing the position that Pharaoh is in having empathy for him.
Often when we stop being mad at people that are opposed to us we tear down that label of “enemy” and recognize that a soul that God cares about is in trouble and you have empathy for them.
Jesus taught this too.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
When you don’t hate your enemy, that anger and animosity isn't reciprocated it’s one sided.
They may have a problem with you; but you don’t have any problem with them.
Making it possible to extend love and help to them; because you empathize with their position so your desire isn’t to ruin them; but to help them get past the problem.
Pharaoh is asked: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?”
This question seems similar to one in the New Testament.
3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Saul was against the Lord, similar to Pharaoh at this point was and being asked a truthful question.
Why would anyone be asked questions like this?
Because they want the person to receive the truth about their own decisions.
God asks Pharaoh to stop fighting against Yahweh and let the Hebrews go to serve Him.
Point:
Humble yourself and receive the grace God is extending, stay the plagues against you!
Next comes the “or else”.
4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field,
6 and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’ ” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Locusts are coming!
They will clean your fields and trees of vegetation.
Moses mentions that Locusts aren’t abnormal to Egypt.
Locusts would come in different seasons.
What is different this time?
There isn’t going to be just a few, there will be so many that the land is covered.
No one has seen anything like this!
Pharaoh’s servants believing what will happen when Pharaoh doesn’t submit and let the Hebrews go pleads with Pharaoh.
7 Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
Everyone knew the cause of Egypt receiving these plagues, Pharaoh.
The servants were tired of people dying and loosing livestock that they were fed up enough that they didn’t fear him any more.
Connection:
When in our lives have we been told an “or else” that we wrote off or disregarded?
Often it doesn’t end as we hoped, it ends as the “or else”.
Have we discounted their care for us that we choose our pride over their wisdom?
In those moments our hearts are too hard to accept the truth right in front of us and we choose our selfishness and take the “or else”.
Just like Pharaoh.
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?”
9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”
10 But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.
11 No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
It kinda sounds like Pharaoh is trying to appease or earn favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
He gives an demand for how they would worship and leave Egypt, kind of like a compromise.
He doesn’t have any leverage with God so why does he think this is enough?
Connection:
You don’t meet God half way on anything, It is only His will not ours!
His way is always perfect and it is always best!
(?) Pastor Dave how can I know that His way is best?
You can’t, you have to believe Him, then your actions are according to your belief which shows your faith!
Transition:
God gave Pharaoh another opportunity to accept His will, and He even used the servants to tell him the truth.
Pharaoh many opportunities to accept God’s mercy and stop the plagues; but his pride wouldn’t let him.
Not much different than any of us.
Every life is provided with many opportunities to submit to Him as our Lord and Savior,
He even uses people we know and love to tell us about it.
Only we choose to stay in our pride and not submit to what He has for us.
Sometimes God calls us to help in ministries.
That little tug at your heart, or a desire you might have seeing things that can be done around church (your desires typically as a believer are your gifting or a natural talent to use for Him).
Give into God and let Him use you for His will.
Moses does the thing with the stick then Pharaoh offers
Another Lie (12-20)
Another Lie (12-20)
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.”
13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
Pharaoh brought God’s judgment on all of Egypt.
14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again.
15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
A result of God’s judgment was Pharaoh’s embarrassment.
Along with their deity Senehem.
This was the deity that protected their crops.
God smashed this deity through His control over the Locusts.
That would bring the possibility of starvation to all of Egypt, almost sure death!
God decimated their food supply.
Who’s fault is it?
Pharaoh’s.
He could’ve been a good leader who cared for his country instead of his fake power and authority!
His embarrassment brought him to a place of need and humiliation.
16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.
17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.”
18 So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord.
19 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.
20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
Pharaoh lied to God, Moses, and Aaron.
There is one person whom he ruined with the lie:
Himself.
He believed that he was getting away with his lies.
He may have even believed that Moses had no idea he was lying.
Connection:
We all tend to believe silly things that don’t make sense and are entirely illogical.
Sin blinds us from the obvious; but God isn’t fooled and neither are people.
Pharaoh hardened his heart and would’t submit.
Bringing to Egypt a terrible:
Reality (21-29)
Reality (21-29)
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.”
22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
This time there was no warning or request.
Just the ramifications.
The darkness is described as a darkness to be felt.
What do you suppose Moses meant when he wrote this?
Darkness would nevertheless convey a frightening spiritual message. Ra, the sun god, was Egypt’s supreme deity. The Egyptians took the regular rising of the sun and its traversing of the sky as proof of triumph over death. They would have considered the obstruction of the sun at Moses’ command to be an evil omen. - Faithlife Study Bible.
Ra was dealt with in this plague.
Ra was the deity of the sun, who brought light every day.
He could be considered one of the most powerful deities.
The God of the Hebrews showed His authority over him!
Darkness was controlled by Yahweh not Ra.
These consequences weren’t just physical, it could’ve been emotional too.
I read a statistic somewhere that the depression rate in Oregon where it is gloomy is a lot is higher than in Southern Florida where it is consistently sunny.
Darkness affects you more than you realize.
Imagine pure darkness and not being able to see anything for 3 days.
Peoples mood would’ve shifted in a bad direction.
Then to add salt into the wound
23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
God’s people are always in the light, even where darkness is present.
Invite people into the light with the gospel!
Pharaoh is at the point that he hates Moses and Yahweh.
He still in the back of his mind through all of this holds onto the thought that his labor force cannot leave and that He is almighty.
24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.”
25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.”
Pharaoh only understands worship from an Egyptian standpoint.
Hebrews worship was whole families.
Egyptians worship was only men worshiping deities.
Pharaoh didn’t know how to worship Yahweh.
God is only worshipped in spirit and truth.
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The reality is that for us to offer proper worship of our Lord it must be without lies.
It must be on God’s terms, not ours.
We cannot manipulate our worship to God.
Pharaoh’s fed up with Yahweh and Moses and Aaron.
27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.
28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.”
29 Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”
Egypt is aware of God’s power and authority, and the lack of theirs.
Conclusion
Moses brought the mercy of God to Pharaoh.
The only requirement for Pharaoh was to submit to the Lord’s will and it would’ve saved all Egypt from the plagues and many from death.
Each and every one of us have that same opportunity; it only requires humility and rejects pride.
How many times has God extended mercy to you?
How many times have you denied it?
Many times do we believe the lie we tell ourselves.
That we can handle it...
We’re strong enough, smart enough, etc...
God sees through the lies, were not fooling anyone.
Just like the darkness that all of Egypt was in.
Come into the light and expose the darkness of your life.
It will free you from the power of guilt and fear that rules your life. Just like when God told Moses that those who sought his life were gone. He had nothing to fear by going to Egypt.
Confess your pride and come into the light.
Bring back your hope and joy.
We have a promise in
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Believe it, confess it and live because of it.
- Pray
