Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Introduction

We are continuing our series on Moses, and Last week, Paul started to look at the plagues of Egypt - today we’re going to finish them off, but we’ll leave the last one until next week, because it’s rich with theology and the last plague needs a sermon in itself to do it justice.

But if you were here last week, you may remember some of the things that Paul touched on.

Paul rightly reminded us that while God is a God of love and mercy and forgiveness, he is also a God of justice - and because he is a God of justice, sin MUST be punished.

Which means that God is also a judge - he is the divine judge who punishes sin and idolatry and he does it through his wrath.

God’s wrath is the dishing out of his punishment as an act of judgement.

And woe betide anyone who meets the wrath of God…because that kind of judgement you would not wish on your worst enemy.

And Paul mentioned that last week, and we’re going to look at that in some more detail again tonight.

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Paul also mentioned about the plagues being kind of like a slap in the face of the gods that the Egyptians worshiped - For example, the Egyptians worshiped a god in the form of a frog, they worshiped the life-giving Nile which provided fresh water for them.

They worshiped the sun-god Ra and they worshiped Pharaoh as a god too...

And so when God brings these plagues on Egypt he is systematically knocking each of these Egyptian gods off their little pedestals....I AM greater than your Nile-god...I AM greater than your frog-god.

I AM greater than each of your other gods…I AM greater than the sun-god…and I AM greater than Pharaoh, whom you think is a god.

And, like I said, Paul touched on that last week too.

And the other thing that Paul pointed out last week is that it is GOD who is the one who hardens Pharaoh’s heart and we see this in various passages in the text, such as chapter 9:12...

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But I want you to keep all of that in mind as we look at the plagues.

We’re going to go through them briefly, picking up on certain things as we go along.

But keep in mind the three things that Paul touched on last week...

God is a judge, who punishes sin - he is the God of justice, the divine judge.

God is greater than the Egyptian gods

God is the one who hardens Pharaoh’s heart

So let’s look at the plagues that came upon the land.

And notice the level of intensity as the plagues continue.

They go from being uncomfortable to being life-threatening, to the treat of extinction…to not only the threat of death, but death itself.

Notice this as we go through them.

First of all the Nile turned to blood, which Paul spoke about last week.

Then frogs came out of the river and went everywhere and the magicians in Egypt made matters worse by making MORE frogs.

Then came the gnats, which the magicians couldn’t replicate, showing cracks in their belief.

And then we have the flies, but from this plague God puts a division between Egypt and the Israelites - between the judgement on Egypt and his people…in other words, his people are SPARED the wrath of God...

Pharaoh gives in - OK, go…but when the flies are removed, his heart is hardened and more plagues come.

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Now things start to get more intense, because the next plague is the death of livestock…And you can see how things are getting worse now…Livestock are their source of living - it’s meat and vegetation.

And if the meat is gone then they’ve just the vegetation to rely on.

PLUS, they won’t have any livestock to sacrifice to their gods.

So the Egyptian livestock dies, but the division between Egypt and God’s people remains and their livestock are healthy.

God protects his people from the more serious plagues.

And of course Pharaoh doesn’t let God’s people go.

Pause

Up to now Pharaoh could have kinda avoided the effects of the plagues, but then God sends boils which affects ALL the Egyptians - even Pharaoh.

Then comes the hail, which will destroy all vegetation and everything on the trees, drastically reducing the Egyptians food source.

Their livestock are dead, and now most of the vegetation is destroyed by hail.

Gone is everything growing in the field and everything on the trees - except for the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

God was protecting his people.

Now at this point it looks like Pharaoh gives in, and Moses asks the Lord to stop the hail.

And of course, when it stops, Pharaoh hardened his heart and wouldn’t let God’s people go.

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But not all vegetation was destroyed by the hail...

So then come the locusts - to wipe out any remaining vegetation that is left.

So the livestock is gone, the ripe vegetation is gone, any remaining vegetation is now gone too - the Egyptians are threatened with extinction through starvation.

These plagues are getting worse and worse and are compounding the matter - all because of Pharaoh’s stubborn heart.

This is judgement on Pharaoh, because don’t forget, Pharaoh think’s he’s a god.

See, other gods have been quashed - the frog god, the Nile, and now the big hitters in the Egyptian gods are coming down...

Remember Ra, the sun-god.

Well he’s about to be pushed aside too...

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And even the Egyptian sun-god had no power over the darkness - a darkness that could be felt.

And this plague was getting really up-close and personal to Pharaoh, because the Egyptians believed that Pharaoh was the son of Ra.

So Pharaoh’s FATHER was being vanquished.

Pharaoh’s own dad, according to Egyptian belief, is being killed off by this plague of darkness.

And Pharaoh doesn’t even relent here…instead he tells Moses to get out of his sight.

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So Moses is banished and it appears that all hope is lost.

What are the Israelite’s to do now?

When studying this, I read this from a commentary, and I think the commentator put it brilliantly.

He said this...

There is no longer any place to turn, no longer anyone to whom petition can be made, no longer anyone to do the turning and the petitioning.

As happens so often in the biblical narrative, every human endeavor stands exhausted, and every apparent alternative has been used without success.

What is left?

What can even God do?

The dream of freedom lies smashed.

Yahweh’s deliverer may have difficulty delivering even himself.

All Yahweh’s promises remain unfulfilled.

He has proved his Presence, but to what avail?

The expectations of the Israelites have been brought to nothing.

The moment is like that of the scattering and the confusion of Babel, like the moment of the command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Moriah, like the moment of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and like the moment of the death of Jesus on the cross.

Nothing more can be done, clearly.

Yet the promises are promises of God, so how can nothing more be done?

In this stark contradiction, the point of this special section is to be seen, and we are made ready for what is to come.

Pharaoh has just ‘lost his father’ with this plague of darkness.

And now he is about to lose his son.

Because the tenth and final plague is the death of every firstborn in Egypt…and Pharaoh is about to feel the full force of his God’s judgement on him for his treatment of God’s people and for his sin by thinking of HIMSELF as a God.

He’s going to feel the pain of losing his son and the rest of his kingdom facing extinction because there are no animals, there’s no grain, there’s nothing to eat…and his kingdom is coming to ruin.

God is punishing Pharaoh by killing his firstborn son because of the way Pharaoh has treated God’s firstborn son....

And Pharaoh knew this was coming.

Moses warned him about this in chapter 4...

But we’ll look at the tenth plague next week.

Pause

But all along, did you notice the plagues growing in intensity?

Did you notice the wrath of God coming upon the pagan, anti-God Egyptians?

Did you notice the Israelites being spared the effects of the more critical plagues?

Did you notice God manifesting his presence to Pharaoh - God is the I AM…and God IS there in the plagues.

You see, what is happening here is that God is making himself present in these plagues, but he’s doing it for a reason...

God is doing this to show HIS power to those in the world.

And his people are seeing just what THEIR God can do.

No wonder they fear God, although they forget so often - but here’s God’s wrath for all to see and it should bring people to their knees in reverence and fear.

And Pharaoh, I think would have given in long before this, but God hardened his heart so that God’s power could be made known - so that ALL would fear him.

Do YOU fear God?

I think we’ve lost our fear of the Lord, which isn’t a good thing.