Three Plagues and the Distinguishing of God’s People- Ex. 9

If you are a middle child, would you please raise your hand? PLAYING FAVORITES

When we watch sporting events we accuse the referees of playing favorites. For example, when my dad and I watch a football game between Dallas and any other team, my dad always accuses the referees of cheating for the Cowboys (which I find incredibly ironic since they have not won a Super Bowl since 1996).

What does this have to do with our passage in Exodus this morning? Because God has already, in Ex. 8:22-32, demonstrated His favor of Israel over Egypt. Israel, as God has said frequently, are “my people.” Egypt is Pharaoh’s. God has chosen Israel, as a fulfilment of His promise to Adam and Eve in Gen. 3:15 and to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3, 15, and 17.

God’s purpose in bringing Israel to Egypt and allowing them to be in subjugation was a part of God’s plan to demonstrate His God-ness to Moses, Israel, Pharaoh, Egypt, and the world. One aspect of this demonstration is the Lord’s choosing of Israel over all other nations.

God began to distinguish His people with Abraham in Genesis 12. He further distinguished His people, Isaac, from Ishmael. Furthermore, He continued to distinguish His people through the line of Jacob as opposed to Esau.

We have come to the Exodus, where the children of Israel (Ex. 1:1) have inhabited and expand in Egypt.

God began this distinguishing in the last plague of chapter 8, but continues it and displays it in stark and unmistakeable terms. No one witnessing this epic battle has any question where YHWH stands in relation to Israel and Egypt. Pharaoh will receive a lesson on the rejection of God’s rule on his life to his eternal regret.

As we consider this chapter, keep two thoughts in mind:

That God’s grace is truly amazing and cause for us to praise Him for all eternity. Do you relish this grace?

That God can, will, and does harden hearts that refuse to bow to Him. Do you refuse this grace?

I. The Terrifying Three Plagues and Their Meaning

There are three plagues here in this chapter. The first plague is the plague against the livestock. The LORD gave Pharaoh one day to bow before Him, Pharaoh refused, and as a result “all the livestock of the Egyptians died.” (Which does not mean every one of them, as we will see in the seventh plague, or the third plague we will see this morning).

The second of the three plagues was boils. It was on every Egyptian and animal in Egypt. The magicians did not even try to replicate this. In fact, Moses records that “they could not stand before Moses because of the boils.” (9:11)

The third plague is hail. Egypt had never witnessed such destruction. This plague, though, was different. Those who “feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh” (9:20) could be delivered from the destruction.

What do these plagues mean? Let us consider a verse a little later in Moses’s writings, namely Numbers 33:4 “while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them. On their gods also the Lord executed judgments.”

You see, the very first of the Ten Commandments reveals a problem, these three plagues, that every human being, without exception, faces: idol worship. God tells us in Exodus 20:3 ““You shall have no other gods before me.” Yet our hearts, like Calvin describes, are perpetual idol factories. The Egyptians had a pantheon of gods and goddesses, each meant to provide something they needed and desired.

Just as with the Nile, serpents, frogs, etc., so too Egypt worshiped cattle, the gods and goddesses of healing (boils), and the land itself (hail). God destroys and decimates the idols of Egypt.

Howard and Elyse discuss modern day idols: (1) wanting something too much or (2) worshipping our version of happiness.

In what area of your lives are these demonstrated? Put them to death! God, through His almighty power, destroys the gods and goddesses of Egypt, and He does so to demonstrate Who He is. He is Yahweh, the I AM. The God whom we alone should worship.

II. The Delightful Distinction and Its Meaning

Notice 9:4. There is a distinction made between the flocks of Israel and Egypt. None of Israel’s flocks were lost (9:6, Pharaoh verified). While Israel is not specifically mentioned in the second plague (boils), Moses records “the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians” (9:11).

Then in 9:26 we read, “Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.”

God was showing who His people were. We have an important consideration here, for we could be prone toward pride. “God chose us because we are better!”

But this is the exact opposite of what their thoughts and our thoughts should be. Listen to Moses’s words to Israel after the Exodus, Deuteronomy 7:6-8 ““For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” He is a covenant-keeping God.

Which brings us to the passage Emily read for us from Romans 9. Perhaps you were startled at the words, “For Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” You may be tempted to think like children it is unfair for God to play favorites. But our surprise should not be, “Why does God hate Esau?” Our surprise should be, “Why does God love Jacob!?”

Paul extends these marvelous thoughts that simultaneously break them and cause them to soar in worship, Romans 9:25-26 “As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ””

God has made a distinction between His people through the blood of Jesus Christ. Are you like Israel, failing to live up to this distinction? Or, are you like 1 Peter 2:9-12 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

This distinction between Israel and Egypt demonstrates in a physical way the future people of distinction: those in Christ. This distinction is meant to be lived out in a way that glorifies God, demonstrates the Lord’s gracious work in our lives, and calls others to life in Christ. Are you doing this?

III. The Wonders of “Whoever” and the Glorious Gospel

Our last point will be a brief but needful as we consider this final thought. Look at 9:20. Any of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the LORD would be saved. Any one of them who heard the Word of the LORD and believed would avoid the destruction of the hail. Does that sound familiar? It should, it sounds very similar to Romans 10:9-13 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

That God’s grace is truly amazing and cause for us to praise Him for all eternity. Do you relish this grace?

That God can, will, and does harden hearts that refuse to bow to Him. Do you refuse this grace?