Moses, Primer Prophet: My God is Bigger than Your Gods

Text: Exodus 7:2-6

Theme: The story of the exodus is not so much the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh or between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. Rather it is an account of God’s victory over the false gods of Egypt and the satanic forces behind them.

The ancient Egyptians were polytheistic. That’s a fancy word meaning they worshiped many, many gods. The Egyptians had gods for everything. Every area of life was governed by a different god. Egyptologists tell us that there were 80 major deities in the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Each had its own symbol and each demanded worship or appeasement.

Some might be tempted to write off Egyptian polytheism as the superstitions of an unenlightened culture. But doing so means ignoring a primary truth from the Bible. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Rom.1:20-25, NIV)

The evidence for Jehovah, the one and only true God, is revealed through creation itself. Therefore, all men are without excuse. Like other cultures, the Egyptians worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

Modern man is polytheistic too. In the supposedly enlightened age of the 21th century, men still worship many false gods. Here in America, many bow before the idols of power, money, sex, chemical addictions, abuse, entertainment, technology, knowledge, and the list goes on and on. Augustine of Hippo, one of the early fathers of the church, wrote, “Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshiped.”

The Bible teaches that the true power behind the false gods of Egypt and the power behind man’s idols today is satanic:

"The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News — the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God" (2 Cor.4:4, NCV).

You see, men will not worship gods who do not work for them. Why worship deities who will not answer prayer or give you things, or heal you? That doesn’t make sense. In his effort to lead men away from the true and living God, Satan will put power behind the worship of inanimate objects of wood, and stone, and metal. Herein lies the central issue of the exodus story.

The account of the exodus is not so much the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh or between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. Rather it is an account of God’s victory over the false gods of Egypt and the satanic forces behind them.

I. CONTEMPORARY LESSONS

1. this passage is about the fact that Moses’ God was bigger than any of the gods of Egypt

2. my God is the same God that spoke to Moses

a. my God is bigger than any of the false gods that still seek to lure people away from the true God

b. He is also bigger than anything that threatens us today

"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome…" (Deut.10:17, NIV)

3. as we pick up the story in chapter seven, Moses and Aaron have already appeared before Pharaoh and asked him to let the Hebrew slaves go

a. Pharaoh ignores them

"Pharaoh’s heart grew hard and he did not heed them." (Exodus 7:13, NIV)

4. as a result, God sent 10 plagues on Egypt that manifested His power

a. they are found in the book of Exodus, chapter 7-11

5. what can we learn from this confrontation between our God and the false gods the Egyptians worshiped?

A. LESSON #1: MY GOD IS OMNIPOTENT AND CAN OVERCOME ANYTHING

1. that word omnipotent simply means that our God is all-powerful

a. the miraculous nature of the 10 plagues cannot be explained by simply identifying them with natural occurrences to which Moses then applied a theological interpretation

ILLUS. Scholars have, for decades, been attempting to associate the plagues of Egypt with natural occurrences or devastating natural catastrophe. One of the more recent theories that has gained some acceptance is the Thera volcanic eruptions.

b. they were obvious displays of God’s power over the elements of His created world

2. in one commentary I read the author wrote: “I think those Hebrews probably cheered for every plague. ‘There are locusts in Egypt! Hip Hip Hurrah!’”

a. I humbly disagree

b. I think that the Hebrews stood in awed silence at the display of God’s power

1) their God really was more powerful than the gods of Egypt

c. these plagues were not indiscriminate acts of power on God’s part

1) in other words, God didn’t sit up there in Heaven thinking to Himself, “What next? I’ll bet a day of darkness will impress them! Phoom!”

2) each of the plagues was directed against a different god of Egypt

a) God was not merely displaying His power over nature, but over the gods whom the Egyptians worshiped

3. God’s purpose was not only to convince the Hebrews that He was the true God and that He had sent Moses to deliver them

4. God also sought to convince the Egyptians that He was the true God so that they too, might bow down and worship Him

a. listen to God’s message to Pharaoh with the seventh plague:

“. . . Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But 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.” Exodus 9:13-16 NIV

b. in vs 15 we see that even in His judgments, God has been merciful and longsuffering

1) God tells Pharaoh, “I could have wiped you and Egypt off the face of the map, but I didn’t!”

5. as the plagues continued, the Hebrews began to understand that the God of their fathers is the true God who can overcome all things

a. my God can overcome a hard-hearted Pharaoh

b. my God can overcome oppression

c. my God can overcome a pandemic

d. my God can overcome addictions

e. my God can overcome financial crisis

f. He can even overcome sin and death

6. in the vernacular of today’s youth, “My God rules!”

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22-23, NIV)

B. LESSON #2: MY GOD WILL ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES

1. God would not allow His people to worship idols

a. in fact, the very first commandment God gave them was “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3, KJV)

2. my God is a jealous God — He brooks no rivals

“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14, NIV)

“For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:24, NIV)

3. are you serving any false gods today?

a. how do you know if your serving a false god?

b. answer these questions: “What is it that gets you through the day?” “I mean, bottom line, when the chips are down, what do you depend upon or turn to?”

ILLUS. “Idolatry is trusting people, possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do.” — Bill Gothard

c. while you may not make a graven image or bow down to a statue, you must be constantly on guard so that nothing comes between you and God

1) as soon as anything does, that thing is an idol

2) maybe that’s why the Apostle John wrote:

“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:20-21, NIV)

4. even our worship of the true God can become idolatrous if we are not careful

a. huh?

b. let my ask you a question this evening ...

1) “Do you want God?”

a) a simple enough question, “Do you want God?”

c. if your answer is ‘yes’ then here’s the next question: “Why? Why do you want God?”

1) some of you might answer that question by saying, “Well, I want God because I want a happy life.”

2) then a happy life has become your idol and you’re merely using God to insure it

d. if you want God for any other reason than to love Him with all of your heart, and all of your soul, and all of your mind, and all of your strength, then God has become a means to an end for you — and that’s idolatry!

5. in the introduction I quoted Augustine

a. he hits upon this very problem when he says that “idolatry is also using anything that is meant to be worshiped.”

b. what’s he saying?

c. that we often use God as a means to an end and that is just as wrong as worshiping some object made out of metal, or stone, or wood

ILLUS. Tony Campolo says that Christians are often guilty of “Remaking God in our image.” He writes: “Our society has taken Jesus and recreated him in our own cultural image. When I hear Jesus being proclaimed from the television stations across our country, from pulpits hither and yon, he comes across not as the biblical Jesus, not as the Jesus described in the Bible, but as a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Republican. God created us in his image, but we have decided to return the favor and create a God who is in our image.”

6. God will accept no substitutes — and He’ll not be used

C. LESSON #3: MY GOD WILL ACCEPT NO COMPROMISES

1. you can’t bargain with God

a. Pharaoh tried it and discovered that it doesn’t work

1) first he tells Moses, “You can’t go.”

a) a few plagues go by

2) he tells Moses, “OK, you can go,” but then he reneges on his promise

a) a few more plagues take place

3) he tells Moses, “Why don’t you just sacrifice to your God here in Egypt?”

a) Moses says, “That won’t do.”

b) Pharaoh says, “Ok, just go a little ways into the desert instead of three full days march away.”

c) more plagues

4) he tells Moses, “Ok, you can go, but just take the men and leave the women and children behind.”

a) “Won’t do,” says Moses

b) locusts devour everything green

c) three days of darkness cover the land

5) he tells Moses, “Ok, ok, the women and children can go, too only leave all your livestock behind.”

a) Moses does not agree, and the stage is set for the last and most devastating of the plagues that God will pour out upon Egypt

2. four times Pharaoh seeks to compromise with God

a. God wanted obedience, Pharaoh sought compromise

1) four times He sought to compromise with God and each time God rejected his offers

3. you cannot bargain with God — He will not compromise

a. He demands obedience

ILLUS. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; and he that trusts God, obeys God.”

4. Jesus said, “Obey ... take up your cross ... deny yourself”

a. it all sounds very hard

1) it is hard

2) anyone who tells you differently is peddling spiritual syrup, not real Christianity

b. and yet, in a strangely paradoxical way, it is also easy

1) with every cross that we lift in obedience to Christ comes the strength to carry it — It is always a package deal

CON. What kinds of followers does God desire?

1. People who put God's business above any other business.

2. People who brings their children to church rather than sending them.

3. People who are willing to be the right example to every child they meet.

4. People who think more of their Sunday School class than their Sunday sleep.

5. People who measure their giving by what they have left rather than by the amount they give.

6. People who go to church for God's sake rather than for themselves or someone else.

7. People who have a willing mind ready to serve rather than a brilliant mind full of excuses.

8. People who have a passion to help rather than a passion to be helped.

9. People who can see their own faults more than the faults of others.

10. People who are more concerned about winning others for Christ than they are about winning worldly honor.