Battle of the Gods

Exodus 7-10

Big idea: We are the spearpoint in the Battle of the Gods.

We win a Kingdom victory when God says it and we do it

Moses vs. Pharaoh and the Gods of Egypt

We stepped into the shoes of Pharaoh last week, lets step into the shoes of Moses.

Now God has commanded him to do this audacious and amazing thing. Go into the presence of Pharaoh, God-king of the most powerful land on Earth, and demand that he "Let my people go" or ELSE! "In the name of Yahweh!"

Now this doesn't go well at first, and Moses is incredibly intimidated. He yells at God "You have not delivered us AT ALL!"

You remember all this. God calls him back to obedience, he outlines the plan again, he encourages Moses and Moses sets out again.

Again and again and again.

The Plagues (Signs)

The ten plagues. Really what we have are 11 signs. Starting with the snake, then through escalating miraculous acts that increase in impressiveness (to the Egyptians), scope (people they affect) and damage. And even as Pharaoh's heart gets harder and harder, so also does Pharaoh start to negotiate with Moses just a little bit.

Now imagine each day as Moses gets his instructions from God. Each miracle God gives his before-hand instructions. Moses you are going to say this to Pharaoh... Pharaoh will say or might do that. Then you do the thing that will signal the miracle.

Aaron: Throw your staff on the ground.

Tell Aaron to stretch his staff over the waters of Egypt... and the blood, and the frogs. Take handfuls of soot and throw them into the air... in front of all-might Pharaoh, by the way.

Stretch out your hand to the sky... and the hail will fall.

Stretch out your staff over Egypt... and the locusts come.

Stretch out your hand toward the sky... and the darkness fell.

The Plagues vs. the Gods

This all sounds and looks very impressive. But if I was Moses. I am standing up to Pharaoh, God-king of Egypt, most powerful person in the world. Behind him, he has all his magicians, and, in the ancient mind, all the power of the gods of Egypt. Egypt, like most ancient peoples, saw the world around them as inhabited by and empowered by divine entities: gods with a little g. What we often miss is that the plagues were direct confrontations against various gods in the Egyptian pantheon.

Besides Pharaoh, the God-king, the Nile was deified. It was the literal source of life in Egypt. Note how many of the miracles affect or take place around the Nile. Yahweh shows his sovereignity over

Khnum - guardian of the river's source

Hapi - Spirit of the Nile

Osiris - whose bloodstream was the Nile

Yahweh show his power over

Hapi, the frog goddess

Seb - the earth God

Uatchit - the fly God

numerous gods of livestock

gods of disease and gods of healing

Nut - the sky goddess

Serapia - Egyptian deity of protection against locusts

And, powerfully, above Re / Horus. The Egyptian sun gods

Recall the plagues: the river to blood, the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the livestock disease, the boils, the hail storm and the three days of darkness.

These were direct acts of power over these Egyptian gods who were thought to be in control of these things.

Moses would have known all of this. He was a royal trained Egyptian as well as a Hebrew by birth. Of all the Hebrew people, he knew exactly the breadth and power of the forces arrayed against him. He knew what blasphemy he dared against Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt.

Bring a Staff to a God-fight

And he had nothing. No personal powers.

Moses didn't bring a knife to a gun-fight

Moses brought a staff to a God-fight

He had to have been intimidated. In fact, we know he was discouraged and intimidated... that's what the whole of chapter six was about.

Imagine that: you against the most powerful political and military power in the world... you against most all the spiritual powers, the gods most everyone around you worship. Consider the intimidation... the feeling of being in over your head, pretty helpless, scared.

But Moses, he took hold of his staff. He took hold of his brother. He took hold of his courage.

He took hold of the commands of God. And then:

Exodus 7:6

Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them

just as the Lord commanded.

In fact, reading through the plagues can get tedious. Because everything is said twice. God tells Moses what to say and do... and we read that. Then we read what Moses and Aaron say and do... and it is exactly the same.

Time after time, miracle after miracle, power encounter after power encounter.

They didn't have cut-paste back then, they had to write this stuff all out again every time, this is the way of highlighting how Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded. Every time, all the way through.

Moses simply obeyed. Even if he was still terrified or intimidated or overwhelmed.

Moses simply obeyed. God said it. He did it.

Moses is the Spearpoint

I think Moses realized this.

The battle was never Moses vs. Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt.

The battle was Yahweh vs. Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt... Moses was just the front man.

In Exodus 7:1,

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

See Moses, it is going to look a lot like you verse all these guys. You are the front-line soldier... but it is Yahweh who "stretches out my hand against Egypt." And Moses knows because he stretches out his staff and his hand... and he knows nothing magical is happening.

"I am stretching... I am waving... maybe if I wiggle the staff a bit." Think of an oncoming hailstorm.. that might take a bit... "I am waving at the sky.. should I still wave... okay icy hail, better RUN!"

Moses is the front-line soldier, and he can stand there in the presence of Pharaoh, defying all the gods of Egypt, because he knows that the battle is the LORD's.

I like this image:

Moses is the spearpoint.

A spearpoint is very small. That's the point. (Pun). A spearpoint is very small, but as it approaches the enemy, it need not fear. It is the power and strength of what is behind the spearpoint, what directs and guides and propels it forward.

Moses is the spearpoint, the God of angel armies holds the spear.

And it worked because of Moses' simple obedience. Moses' name shows up over and over in the story, but what is stressed and underlined is the way that Moses obeys God's Will and Word.

God says it. Moses does it.

Moses wins a Kingdom victory when God says it and Moses does it

Wayward Spears

Now imagine fighting with a spear and you go in for the strike and... the spearpoint says "I... don't like this, I'm going to run away."

Or the spearpoint says: "Let's go over this direction instead. I really want to finish this book right now, we can do that later."

Sounds silly, but I have done all of those things. Knowing what God wanted me to do: I procrastinated... or I turned away... or I dragged my feet, fearing the opposition.

Maybe you know what that is like.

The Actual Battle

Or maybe not... because I can get lost in a metaphor.

Let's drop all the metaphor for a bit. We are fighting for the Kingdom, we are a spear, we are a soldier, we are Moses...

What are we actually meant to be doing.

We win a Kingdom victory when God says it and we do it

We win a Kingdom victory when He says it and we do it

Just what Moses did. Not saying "Let my people go" and waving a staff over the nearest river: the what changes, but the commanding General... and what is at stake does not.

God has always been in the business of winning His people, of rescuing His people.

When He calls you and I to do something, when He commands you and I to do something: that is part of His plan. That is part of the Great Exodus.

So, when He says that you and I are to love each other so radically, so selflessly, so completely that the world takes notice... those are our marching order to victory.

When God lays a name on your heart, to pray for them, that is calling in the spiritual artillery barrage.

You feel that tugging on your heart to speak to someone at work, to ask about their story, to give a reason for the hope that you have... it is God working in you to "let my people go!"

Maybe you have been asked to serve in a ministry here at church. Maybe God is calling you to be light and love in your literal neighborhood.

Maybe you have no idea what a "calling of God" might be... and I'll give you a starting point. His greatest command is this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind." And the second "Love your neighbor as yourself." Everything else is going to be summed up, going to be a slightly more specific application of those.

Whatever it is, wherever and however He calls you:

When he says, we do it

We win a Kingdom victory when God says it and we do it

Our Battle of Gods

But you know what it is like to intimidated by the forces arrayed against you.

We don't tend to use the word "gods" very often, but our culture is no less prone to idolatry. Our American gods have names like money, fame and fortune. How about sex and drugs. How about self-actualization and self-realization.

How about real and present spiritual powers with the express aim of keeping persons in our lives enslaved to death and darkness, such that

we struggle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the spiritual authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

And if that weren't enough, we add in the Pharaoh's of this world, the hardened hearts which actively fight against the will of God.

Against all of that... we may feel a little unarmored, unequipped, unprepared. We may feel like we are waving our hands and accomplishing nothing. We may feel like we bring only a knife to a gun-fight, or a staff to a god-fight.

You are the spearpoint.

How is my little part, my little gift, my little ministry, my little act of love: how is that going to free anyone or help anyone?

Hey Moses, how is waving your staff over the Nile going to do anything?

If God has called you to something, then regardless of your perception, you are the spearpoint in the spiritual battle. You are a front-line soldier for the Kingdom of God.

And there is something incredibly freeing about that. I don't know how to fix all of the problems in the world. I don't know how to rescue everybody. I don't know the whole plan, and I don't know all of the answers. I don't have all the skills, I don't always have the right words or any words. But I can do the very next thing that God has commanded me to do. Just the very next thing. And I know that whatever that is: the next thing is possible, or he wouldn't have pointed me right there.

Right now, my next thing is preaching this sermon right... now.

I am the spearpoint, striking a victory for the Kingdom

We are the spearpoint. (It might feel like we're all alone against all opposition, but behind us is the rest of the spear... and the hand driving that spear to victory.

Our Exodus

Why do we care?

Because I don't just want to read and hear about an Exodus from 3500 years ago!

I want to be part of God's Exodus of his people right now. I want to see God stretching out his hand over Thornton and freeing people from slavery! I want to be a part of that.

I want to be a spear in the hand of my God striking the heart of darkness.

I want to be part of the Kingdom victory. To see it, to see people saved to be free and truly alive.

I want to be a spear in the hand of my God

Imagine this room together. The strangest looking group of Spartan warriors... but all striking together for the Kingdom of God. We could do some damage!

We win a Kingdom victory when God says it and we do it

Sweet Moses, Let's go and do it