Sermon Tone Analysis

SIGN 5: BULLS

ANIMALS/CATTLE OF FOOD, CLOTHING AND TRANSPORTATION

ALL = EVERY TYPE IN THE FIELD

LET MY PEOPLE GO = SEND

PHAROAH WILL SEND TO SEE IF THE LIVESTOCK ARE DEAD BUT HE WON'T SEND THE PEOPLE.

The symbolism of the fifth plague is especially potent because many of Egypt’s gods and goddesses were depicted as livestock.

Some Egyptians worshiped the bull, which they viewed as “a fertility figure, the great inseminator imbued with the potency and vitality of life.”

Cults dedicated to the bull were common throughout Egypt.

..But the chief bull was Apis.

At the temple in Memphis, priests maintained a sacred enclosure where they kept a live bull considered to be the incarnation of Apis.

When the venerable bull died, he was given an elaborate burial.

Archaeologists have discovered funeral niches for hundreds of these bulls near Memphis.

Then there were the goddesses.

Isis, the queen of the gods, was generally depicted with cow horns on her head.

Similarly, the goddess Hathor was represented with the head of a cow, sometimes with the sun between her two horns.

Hathor was a goddess of love and beauty, motherhood and fertility.

One of her sacred functions was to protect Pharaoh, and on occasion she was depicted as a cow suckling the king for nourishment.

SIGN 6: BOILS

SOOT FROM A KILN. POETIC JUSTICE.

THE FURNACE WAS A SIGN OF OPPRESSION AGAINST ISRAEL.

THE VERY SOOT MADE BY THE SLAVES WILL NOW BE USED TO CURSE EGYPT.

EGYPTIAN PRIESTS WOULD TAKE SACRIFICIAL ASH AND CAST IT INTO THE AIR AS A SIGN OF BLESSING.

THE EGYPTIANS KNOWN FOR MEDICINE.

AMON-RE THE CREATOR GOD IS A PHYSICIAN WHO HEALS ALL.

THOTH GOD OF THE HEALING ARTS.

IMHOTEP THE GOD OF MEDICINE.

CHIEF WAS SEKHMET.

Sekhmet, a lion-headed goddess, was supposed to have had the power of both creating epidemics and bringing them to an end.

A special priesthood was devoted to her called Sunu.

Amulets and other objects were employed by the Egyptians to ward off evil in their lives.

The Hebrew verb for ‘to stand’ is the same one that was used in the previous verse.

It highlights a contrast: whereas Moses and Aaron could stand before Pharaoh and perform miraculous feats, the Egyptian magicians could not even stand before the Hebrew prophets….IN VS. 13-14 MOSES WILL STAND BEFORE PHARAOH.

SIGN 7: BOOM

SEND = PHAROAH WILL NOT SEND THE PEOPLE OUT SO GOD WILL SEND THE PLAGUES/SIGNS/STRIKES

AGAINST YOU = LIT.

AGAINST YOUR HEART

CUT OFF = BECOMING UNKNOWN.

YHWH WILL BE KNOWN PHARAOH UNKNOWN IF GOD WILLS IT.

PROCLAIMED = IN OT VERB USED FOR GREAT PRAISE AND RECOUNTING THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

IT IS A VERB OF WORSHIP.

HAS NEVER BEEN DONE = EGYPTIAN IDIOM OF BOASTING AMONG THE PHARAOHS

THUNDER = VOICE = THEOPHANY

LIT FIRE TAKING HOLD OF ITSELF.

LAND = 7 TIMES IN THE 7TH PLAGUE

LAST ITME IS THE CALM OF GOSHEN = SABBATH REST

REMEMBER THE EGYPTIANS BELIEVED THEIR GODS TO BE PERSONIFIED IN THE ELEMENTS OF NATURE.

The catastrophe of the hail was therefore a mockery of the Egyptian heavenly deities, including Nut (the female representative of the sky and personification of the vault of heaven), Shu (the supporter of the heavens who holds up the sky) and Tefnut (the goddess of moisture).

APPROACH PHARAOH PROSTRATING THEMSELVES SMELLING THE EARTH, CRAWLING ON THE GROUND WHILE EXALTING HIS BEAUTY.

THIS TIME...YOU PLEAD.

REMORSE NOT REPENTENCE.

MIRACLE - THE YOUNG AT RISK PLANTS ARE PRESERVED.

HE ADDED TO/INCREASED THE SIN

NOT JUST PHARAOH BUT HIS SERVANTS AS WELL.

YHWH IS THE ONLY TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS JUDGE.

BECAUSE YHWH IS OUR JUDGE WE SHOULD FEAR HIM

DON’T BE LIKE PHAROAH.

REPENT NOT JUST REMORSE.