God Assures His Deliverer

Transcript

GRS 2-16
04/24/2005
God Assures His Deliverer
Exodus 6-8
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Book of Exodus together and we come to chapter 6. God is preparing to redeem His people Israel from 400 years of bondage in Egypt and we come to a power struggle if you can call it that, where we see clearly man’s arrogance in setting himself up to defy the living God and as we see what Pharaoh does in his open defines of God, we are reminded that this is the attitude of every single person who has not bowed the knee before Jesus Christ. The living God has spoken and fallen sinful man defiantly determines to oppose God and resist His will. Things have not started off well, humanly speaking. God has called Moses and Moses wasn’t really happy to be chosen of God. He has spent 40 years shepherding his father-in-law’s flocks and had evidently settled somewhat comfortably in the shepherd’s life after spending the first 40 years of his life and the elegance of the Egyptian palace and sometimes we can settle down into our rather comfortable part of our life and we know the step out in service for the living God is going to be an unsettling thing to our comfort Zone, but Moses has a realistic view here. He lived for 40 years in Pharaoh’s household. Now, he spent 40 years away in the quite and solitude of a wilderness region. Now to go back into Egypt and confront Pharaoh and the man that he led the Israelites to leave can only bring turmoil and conflict.

God has chosen Moses and He has given him his brother Aaron to go with him to the household of Pharaoh. The response of Pharaoh is as would have been expected in chapter 5, verse 2, Pharaoh said "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go. I do not know the Lord and besides I will not let Israel go.” That is clear and as blunt as it could be. I don’t recognize the God you are talking about. He means nothing to me. His word means nothing to me. Israel stays. In fact, the Israelites must have more time on their hands than is good for them. They were involved in making bricks which involved getting the mud mixture and then the straw that was mixed in with the mud in making bricks. Up to this point, the Egyptians provided the straw. Pharaoh’s instructions are no longer will the Egyptians provide the straw. The Israelites will have to go out and gather the straw themselves, but they still have to make the same number of bricks. Well this brings added oppression to the Israelites. It seems the things are going downhill. Moses comes as a deliverer and his initial approach is welcomed, if God is going to deliver me, that’s got to be good and is often in our own lives we expect the things are to turn around today and the opposite occurs.

So, chapter 5 ended on a down note if you will, verse 22, “Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you brought harm to this people, why did you ever send me?, ever since I came to pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to these people and you have not delivered your people at all. Lord, I went, I spoke to Pharaoh, things are worse than they have ever been and you haven’t delivered Israel. So, what’s the purpose? I have only added to the burdens of Israelites and they are no closer deliverance from there where when I went, they just have a harder slavery now.”

Chapter 6 gives God’s assurance of deliverance and some background material on Moses and Aaron and their family. The first 13 verses contain assurance to Moses, then the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh for under compulsion he will let them go and under compulsion, he will drive them out of his land. So, you know God who is the Omniscient God never expected Pharaoh to respond to Moses and say “Oh okay, your God says the Israelites should be let go, sure take them and go.” It’s going to be under compulsion, I am going to apply the pressure. God spoke further to Moses and said to him “I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty.” We are familiar with that Hebrew name and it is become more familiar because of the song El-Shaddai, God Almighty, but my name Lord YHWH. I did not make myself known to them, I also establish my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. Four times in this section God reminds Moses I am the Lord, verse 2, the end of the verse I am the Lord, verse 6 “Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord,” verse 7 “And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God,” verse 8 ends with “I am the Lord.” It is foundational to everything. All the problems, all the opposition that Pharaoh will lead thee dissolve into nothing, "Just remember who I am, I am the Lord". All that He is going to do is based on who He is, on his honoring the commitments that He has made in the covenant that He established with Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is God Almighty. He revealed Himself as God Almighty to the patriarchs. Now he is going to reveal himself more fully as the “Lord YHWH, The covenant keeping God.” This name has been used before by God. This is not the first time that Lord is translated Jehovah often in the English translation. YHWH usually carried over, the four consonants YHWH, but now he is going to reveal more fully as the Lord the covenant keeping God and they will see him honoring the covenant that he has established as he brings Israel into the land that he has promised, verse 4, “I established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, which they sojourned. Four hundred years have gone by, it doesn’t matter, God's covenant is God’s covenant, He keeps His word. He is the covenant keeping God. Time does not nullify that or change that. So he is going to deliver them, verse 5, “I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage and I have remembered my covenant,” not that He forgot it now he remembers it. "I have remembered my covenant in the sense that now it is time for me to act upon that covenant in bringing the people into the land that I promised in the covenant" and remember when He gave the covenant, He told Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years in a foreign land and then He would bring them back into the land that he had promised. Verse 6, “Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from their bondage, I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment, I will take you for my people, I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I will give it you for a possession, I am the Lord.” You know in verse 6 to 8, “I will” is used 7 times as God emphasizes this is what I will do, this is what I will do, this is what I will do. There can be no doubt, it will be done and say this is what I will be able to do if enough of you join with me. He doesn’t need any help and that doesn’t mean that he sometimes does not choose to use humans in his plan. He often does, but it is not because He needs help. He is the Omnipotent and All Powerful God. He could speak the word and Pharaoh would kill over. He could speak the word and every person in Egypt would be dead. We are going to get a sampling of that in the last plague with the death of the firstborn, no big thing for God. He could cause every Egyptian to drop dead. Later in Israel’s history, a 180,000 Syrian soldiers will not wakeup in the morning just because God’s spoke the word, but he is going and bring about His deliverance in His way, so that not only the Egyptians, not only the Israelites, but all the world see the might of God almighty as he acts to keep the covenant that He has established with His people Israel.

Verse 9, so Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel. Now note this, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage. You know much of the pressure and burden of the Israelites would have been alleviated if they had been willing to trust the promises of God in the midst of their suffering. Now, they have got to continue bearing through their suffering for a time, but you know they could have taken their attention off of their sufferings, off of their trials saying “I don’t know what God is going to do, but I know what he has said.” I don’t know how he is going to do it, but I know what he had said, when all said and done He will deliver us.” This is what my God has promised, the one who is the Almighty God and the one who is the God who keeps His covenant with Israel, He will keep his word, I can trust that and no matter what trials, what suffering are ahead, the outcome is clear, we will be delivered, its such a relief to me. I can face the burdens, I can face the trials because I know the outcome and as you and I have are getting under pressure, burdens come in, things seem to be pressing in, I come back and refresh myself and here is what God has promised. He said “I will never leave or forsake you.” He said “I will cause all things to work together for good to those who love me, to those I have called according to my purpose.” Lord I am refreshed by these promises, You are with me, You will provide all of my needs according to Your riches in glory. Lord I don’t know how this is all going to unfold, but my strength is in your promises and what a relief it is and so the Israelites are in despair. The word of God to them now you know I have got so much on my plate; I have so many things to worry about, I have got so much pressure in my life, I don’t even have time to think about what God had promised and focus on that.

So, the Lord said to Moses, go tell Pharaoh King of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go, but Moses spoke before the Lord saying “Behold the sons of Israel have not listened to me, I mean I can’t even get your people to listen to me and now remember I am not very good at speaking, What makes you think Pharaoh is going to listen to me.” Isn’t it interesting even in our prayer life as Moses has exercising prayer here in discussion with God, that we feel a necessary to inform God of the situation? You know we know that we have the All Sovereign God, but somehow we think “Lord maybe you don’t know how bad it is”. “Lord the Jews won’t listen to me, there are your people, they are my people, and what make you think Pharaoh is going to listen to me, and remember I am not very good with words in this kind of situation.” The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh King of Egypt to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. I mean here is where we were going, here is what’s going to happen, there is going to be a deliverance. Now you have unfolded here a genealogy of Moses and Aaron and they become the two key people out of the line of Aaron will come the Aaronic priesthood that will be established in the Mosaic Covenant and that will occur following the Exodus from Egypt. So, you have summary genealogy given in the last part of this chapter. There are some gaps in the genealogy because in the Exodus chapter 12 verse 40, we noticed some of this already in our study. We were told that they were in bondage for four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, well there is not four hundred and thirty years in the genealogy unfolded here and so what you really have is a highlight of key people to give you the line of Moses.

The chapter concludes verse 28, ”Now it came about on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt that the Lord spoke to Moses saying “I am the Lord, speak to Pharaoh King of Egypt all that I speak to you and note that connection, “I am the Lord.” First thing to get fixed in my mind who is God and who is not. He is God, I am not. I am the Lord, go speak to Pharaoh all that I tell you.” Now the connection ought to be simple shouldn’t it? If He is the Lord and He says go do this what you do, but Moses said before the Lord, “Behold I am unskilled in speech, how then will Pharaoh listen to me.” Moses is a great man and the word of God honors him as such, but we learn here from the struggles he had to submit himself to the will of the Lord. What is the problem? The problem is I want to concern myself with the business that is only God’s. Pharaoh’s response to the word of God is God’s problem, not Moses. Moses responsibility is to go, tell Pharaoh what God has said. We all get into this trouble, we want to wonder if God is going to be able to get His work done. He gives us his word. He tells us to share this truth, but I think well if I share the gospel of Jesus Christ to somebody, they won’t listen and furthermore they may only be antagonized by my words and furthermore I never was good at talking to people about these kind of things and we are not much different. So, I say that because we sometimes wonder how could Moses do this. I can always see it in someone else’s life, particularly in history so clearly. Moses, “Don’t worry about it, just do what God told you, go tell them what He told you tell them.” What if Pharaoh won’t listen, well then I guess God has a problem on His hand, let’s hope He can handle it and that’s how the chapter ends and we come to chapter 7 and we are getting ready now to move into the plagues.

God’s intention is that He will deliver Israel after he has brought about a series of ten plagues on the nation Egypt for the deliverance of the nation Israel and His plagues will increase in severity and what all said and done Egypt will be destroyed and the Egyptians will be begging the Jews to leave and be willing to pay them to leave. God will do it His way. So, in the first seven verses, God gives assurance to Moses regarding His plans, that the Lord said to Moses, “See I make you as God to Pharaoh, your brother Aaron shall be your prophet,” because in other words Moses is going to come and he is going to be His God who gives the word to his brother Aaron and Aaron will speak to Pharaoh. So, we have the connection, God speaks to Moses and Moses speaks to Aaron and the Aaron speaks to Pharaoh. You shall speak all that I command you and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel to go out of his land, but I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt, when Pharaoh does not listen to you then I will lay my hand on Egypt, then bring out my host, my people the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by great judgments, the Egyptian shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. You know, two purposes of God unfolded here, one is the deliverance of Israel, but secondly in the deliverance of Israel it is God’s intention that the Egyptians recognize that the God of the Israelites is the true and living God because what will happen by the time we were done with ten plagues, the gods of Egypt will have been crushed and shown to be no gods, powerless gods because they have suffered destruction. God is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart in verse 3, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.” We have noted this before and we will see it again, scripture tells us this is what God is going to do, then we have a series of times when Pharaoh hardens his heart, then we have series of times when we were said the God hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

Why don’t you turn to Romans chapter 9, remind you again. The Apostle Paul picks up this account and uses it as a clear example of the sovereignty of God in working His purposes and in Romans chapter 9, verse 14, just he is talking about the sovereign work of God in choosing some and rejecting others “What shall we say then, there is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be.” We may not understand everything God is doing, but we know that there can never be injustice with God. For he says to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” I want you note something here, it’s crucial. We are not dealing with innocent people. If you were innocent and not guilty, you don’t need mercy. We are dealing with people who need mercy and God is not obligated to show mercy. Mercy by definition is something undeserved. So, we are dealing with guilty sinners. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” We say, but that’s not fair. “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” You ought to have mercy on everyone, you ought to have compassion on everyone, why? If He is required to show mercy, it is no longer mercy, it is something owed to someone. God is not required to show mercy. Remember the example the angels who sinned, God never showed them mercy. He never provided an opportunity for them to be forgiven. They sinned, it was done. They are forever under the judgment of God doomed to hell. He showed them no mercy. He provided no salvation, no forgiveness for them. He is not obligated to. He is just obligated to do justice. There is no injustice with God. Sin will be punished. So, if He showed mercy to no human being, that would be fair, that would be just because we are guilty sinners even as the angels who sin. So then it does not depend on the man who wills, with the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. God’s mercy is His to dispense according to His choice, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up to demonstrate My power in you, that my Name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. That’s the account where we are in Exodus where God raised up Pharaoh so that He might display His Might, His Power, His Majesty. So that He has mercy on whom He desires, He hardens whom He desires. Then people say well why does He find fault, you know if His will is accomplished, that’s the just the way it is. Just remember, He is the Potter and we are the clay and clay can’t answer back to the Potter. These kind of doctrines are very difficult for us to swallow because we are somebody and we think that we are to maybe not on totally equal level with God, but you know somewhat equal and the comparison is He is the Potter, we are the clay. The Potter does with the clay as He pleases, but remember the clay is fallen humanity, it is not innocent humanity, it is not neutral humanity, it is fallen humanity and the sovereign God is free to do with fallen humanity as He pleases as long as He functions consistent with justice because there is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be, that’s an impossibility! So in dealing with Pharaoh, we are trying to say well God hardens Pharaoh’s poor heart, Pharaoh he doesn’t have a chance. Well Pharaoh is a sinful being and is a sinner by choice. He is responsible for his actions and God will use his sin to accomplish His purposes.

Come back to Exodus. So, in this historical account, going back some 1500 years before Paul writes a letter to the Romans, is a lesson we learned from and see the sovereignty of God at work. We noted in previous studies, nine times it will be said that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, nine times we said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God is not hardening Pharaoh’s heart and making him act against his will. They saw the initial contacts of the word of God with Pharaoh, “Who is God that I should recognize Him, why should I pay any attention to His word? The word of God will only have a hardening effect on Pharaoh’s rebellious heart. So, when all said and done Israel will be delivered and the Egyptians will know the God of Israel is the true and living God.


At the end of chapter 7, in the end of first section, Moses was 80 years old, Aaron 83 when they spoke before Pharaoh. So, Aaron is the older brother of Moses. Remember 3 years older than Moses. Moses is going to die at a 120 years of age. He has another 40 years to live, so does Aaron. Aaron’s is going to die at 183 years of age. So if you are elderly, don’t think your work is over, it might just be beginning. Your service for the Lord, may be the first turned to 80 years of your life were just getting you ready for what God was really going to do. So, you got to be careful at bailing out, perhaps God’s # for us. God will let us know whenever He is done with us. We will be gather together say we are here in memory of, let’s say yes. God was finished with His work on earth, until that time, we are His servants to be used according to His will and the accomplishing of His work. So, in that sense, we don’t have to worry about early retirement from the work of the Lord.

Alright, verses eight to thirteen, we have the staff that becomes a serpent. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying when Pharaoh speaks you saying “Work a miracle, you will say to Aaron, “Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh to become say that it may become a serpent.” Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and thus they did just as Pharaoh commanded. Aaron threw His staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, it became a serpent. Pharaoh calls for the wise men of Egypt and you know what, the replicate the miracle. They are able to duplicate that miracle. There is no explanation of how it was done. There is no discussion of whether there miracle was genuine or credible or not. It doesn’t really matter. We are noted here that false miracles, things that seem so miraculous don’t necessarily come from God. Aaron staff swallows up all the other staffs. I don’t know amazing to me everybody is standing or watching this when the snakes hit the floor I would be out the door, but Aaron staff goes around swallows up all the other staff and you note verse 13, yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He did not listen to them as the Lord had said.

Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 8 tells us that the name of two leading magicians here was Jannes and Jambres, then preserved down through history outside the bible so on the traditions of Israel and so on that we do know their names, godless men. Alright, we are ready to move into the plagues. That first miracle was a general miracle, didn’t cause any hardship for Egypt, didn’t cause any problems. It was a demonstration that these men served God, remember we saw in our study of the Apostles in the New Testament, their message was validated by miracles. That’s what God is doing for Moses and Aaron. These are my spokesman, he validates their message by miracle to staff. Alright, now we are ready to move to the plagues on Egypt, the plague will be to turn water to blood. They are going to be ten plagues and the first nine are really grouped into a series of three. The first three plagues are the rather mild ones and they are universal, general plagues: blood, frogs and gnats. The first plague will be announced in the each group of three, the last plague will we not, in other words there will be a warning given to Pharaoh it is coming on the first in each group of three. So the blood, the flies and the hail each of the group of three. The last three, the gnats, the boils and the darkness and those groups of nine will not be announced. You just see a pattern and there will be progressive each group will get worse. The first three are mild compared to the next three, which are more severe, the last three are devastating and of course then the tenth is the crushing plague that results in deliverance. Some have tried to figure out how long the plagues occurred, how long the period of time and they have come with 6 to 9 months on the basis of harvest and so on, I think it is difficult to know for sure how long the time was entailed here. They weren’t all compressed into a week, at least note that number of commentators have estimated between six and nine months, but I wouldn’t die on that hill, which you ought to know is the plagues are a direct attack on the God’s of the Egyptians, look in chapter 7 verse 5, “The Egyptians shall know that that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt, then bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. Now, go to chapter 12, verse 12, “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, man and Egypt and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am the Lord.”

Turn over to Numbers, Chapter 33. Numbers chapter 33, the end of the verse, verse 4, recounting some of what God has done in Israel’s history since he brought them out of Egypt, the end of verse 4 tells us the Lord had also executed judgments on their gods, just refer to that climaxing judgment of the death of the firstborn, then they reminded the Lord had executed judgment on the their gods. I have a chart that we will share with you some of the gods that may be impacted by the plagues so you get some idea, the Egyptians had many gods and so sometimes you know which god is in view in this plague, but it gives you at least some idea to see the different gods in view for example when He turns the Nile to blood you have there then the possible Egyptian deity that is impacted by this and you expected the god of the Nile of course is directed, then they have a god who is the spirit of the Nile, the god who really the Nile was his bloodstream. So, you see when the Nile is turned to blood that the gods associated with Nile or impacted and shown to be powerless before the action of the God of the Hebrews. The frogs Heqt manifested himself in the form of a frog and you see some of these if you watch the history programs and they get into these Egyptian ruins in that and they have the little artifacts sort of made and so on in the frog and represented their god Heqt manifested himself in the form of a god. He was a god of resurrection. Gnats or mosquitoes, we look at these as we move along, some view this as gnats when some see them as being a variety of mosquito. You can go to the Encyclopedia of Britannica and they will set out some of these for you or Bible Encyclopedias are set that the god of desert is the god that might be impacted by the mosquitoes and the gnats. The flies, they have God to Uatchit, I know you want to get this down, isn’t it amazing whoever heard of the Uatchit, when gods just go by the way some god right.. He was the god possibly represented by the fly again in some of the Egyptian archeology they have found the representation to the fly and that and so this god may have been the one in view there and you see some of the other gods that plague on the cattle the possible gods that would have been impacted the boils, I mean hooked up the god of medicine. You know it is hard to tell some of these the god like I mean hooked up maybe a later god, but if he doesn’t work Sekhmet, the goddess with power over disease, Sunu, he was the pestilent god. So, that’s why I say there is different gods. When you have got so many gods, I don’t know how the Egyptians kept tract of them. You just pick out your favorites I guess if you were an Egyptian. I like the one for hail that fits gnat. See the gods they are locusts, the gods that might be impacted darkness, death of the firstborn. I have a different list that includes some of these. It adds gods that aren’t on this list. These gods I think this list came out of the encyclopedia of Britannica. So, you got an idea when God says that He is going to demonstrate that he alone is God and in these plagues just not a plague on the land of Egypt, but it is an attack on the gods of Egypt to show them as powerless. There be clarity here to the Egyptians that their god who supposedly functioned in this area or gods in this area couldn’t do anything. So, they would have viewed as a defeat of their god. Remember later in Israel’s history when there was battle, it is so they defeated the armies of the enemies of Israel said well the God of the Israelites must be a God of the planes. If we do battle in the hills, then there god won’t be so good because you know you have to have different gods and maybe he is a god that you have is good, flat country, but he is not good in the hills or maybe you have a god who is good in the hills, but he won’t be good in the flat country, but they connect it that you know your God was stronger than our god in this setting. So, the gods of Egypt are about to be demonstrated as no gods at all. The people of Israel must be freed so they can go and serve their God and that’s His desire for them. The Nile that is the recipient of the first plague is the lifeblood of Egypt, I mean everything is centered in the Nile and that’s why they saw it is the bloodstream of one of their prime gods. If you didn’t have the Nile, you just have Egypt as a blowing desert, it sustained by the Nile. We are told in Exodus chapter 7, verse 16, “You shall say to him, the Lord the God of Hebrews sent me to you saying “Let my people go that they may serve, if not listen, verse 17, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, it will be turned to blood. The fish that are in the Nile will die, the Nile will become foul, the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile. So, the Lord said to Moses say to Aaron take your staff stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the rivers, over the streams, over the pools, over the reservoirs of water, they become blood. There will be blood through the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded, He lifted up the staff, struck the water that was in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh, in the sight of his servants, all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood. The fish that were in the Nile died. The Nile became defiled. Now you have got a stinking god, revealed to be no god. The Egyptians couldn’t drink the water, is blood everywhere in Egypt, but the magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their secret arts oh that helps a lot. Here we found some water that’s not blood. Look we can turn it to blood. What are you really help out and turn the bloody water back to good water. No I can’t do that. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He didn’t listen to them. Pharaoh turned verse 23, went into his house with no concern for even this. I am not impressed. Evidently it takes about a week, obviously God could have brought the Egyptian and all of Egypt to its knees by just maintaining all the water as blood. How long can you get by in a desert without the water, but God chooses to limit the impact of these plagues because His intention is to pile one upon another until His purposes are accomplished. Alright we had the Nile to blood. Now we are going to go in chapter 8, frogs and gnats and insects. The second plague is frogs, the Lord said to Moses go to Pharaoh say “Let my people go that they may serve me, repeated emphasis, “Let my people go, they may serve, Let my people go they may serve me, and if you don’t I will smite the whole territory with frogs and here you will get more of your Heqt than you know what to do with. The frog was sacred in Egypt and you could be executed for killing a frog because a frog was the visible manifestation of God, this particular God and so was capital offence death often mediated out even if the killing of frog was you know not intentional. You could be executed for such a crime. Now they are in a problem because you are going have frogs everywhere, then that grows out, you are going to have it in your eating bowls, in your ovens. So, you go to the oven here come frogs, then the eating bowl where you make the bread here come frogs. There are frogs everywhere, so frogs come out over the land everywhere. Verse 7, the magicians did the same with their secret arts making frogs come making frogs come upon the land, I don’t know how you discern the difference, I don’t know how they sorted it out, but here we can make frogs come to. You know that in each of these the Egyptian say we can do the same thing, they can oppose it, so all we can do is make the plague worse because we can bring more frogs as though Egypt needs more frogs, but they did the same thing in at least this counterfeit because its Pharaoh to its not so bad, but it is bad, I mean even in the palace what you are going to do. Frogs everywhere. I am just going to go to bed and pull the covers over my head, not a bad idea; frogs. So, verse 8, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, entreat the Lord that He may remove the frogs from me and my people. I will let the people go, they may sacrifice to the Lord. Moses said to Pharaoh, the honor is yours, just tell me when you would like them to be gone, tomorrow. Okay, they will gone tomorrow. Verse 10, tomorrow may it be according to your word that you may know there is no one like the Lord your God, the frogs will depart from you and your houses and yours servants and your people they will be left only in the Nile. Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. We will describe a little more concerning the frogs, the Lord did according to the word of Moses, the frogs died out of the houses, courts and the fields. They piled them in heaps. Millions of frogs. The stench was terrible, rotting frogs. The god Heqt is in trouble. When the Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart. You know foxhole conversions. Pressure is on, oh Lord if you get me out of this, I will serve you. The frogs are gone, pressure is off.

Next plague is insects. Insects, gnats, mosquitoes, some call them mosquitoes, some say gnats. There is a small insect that is hardly visible that is why my version say lice, but bites and has painful sting. Some translators knew this is a form of a mosquito. Either way, you get an idea of the kind of bug, insect that we are dealing with here. You know this plague is not announced. In verse 16, he doesn’t go to Pharaoh and tell him what’s coming next. It just follows on. Stretch out your staff, strike the dust of the earth that there may be come gnats throughout the land. So, you see strike the dust. You see how many of these # going to be. The dust is turning to these gnats, lice, mosquitoes whatever the particular insect was. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all of Egypt. The magicians tried with their magic arts to bring forth gnats, they could not. There were gnats on man and beast. The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” The magicians realize this isn’t a magic against magic. This isn’t a trick against trick. This is genuine stuff. Pharaoh heart was hardened. He wouldn’t listen. Not even do his magicians. Not even do his wise men. Now again, we are not told when that stopped. They was evidently a time limit on it and the Lord said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning, present yourself before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water; say to him thus says the Lord let my people go, they may serve me, you don’t let my people go behold I will send swarms of insect on you” and they will be everywhere. But on that day, verse 22, “I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people are living. There won’t be any insects there, you will know that I am the Lord, and I am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur, I want you to see I am the God of Israel, so this won’t happen to the Israelites, it will happen to you.” It is becoming increasingly clear, the God of Israel is working here. There is no natural explanation for this because the Israelites are except from the plague. So verse 24, there came great swarms of insects into the house of Pharaoh, the houses of his servants. The land was laid water because of the swarms of insects on all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, say go sacrifice to your God within the land. Now Pharaoh is willing to make some compromises. “You can’t leave Egypt, but you can sacrifice within the land, maybe we can compromise.” There is no compromise with God’s word. He is God, we are not. What He has spoken, that is the word. Verse 26, Moses says we can’t do that besides the Egyptians hate remember shepherds, the sheep, we do this in the land. It will only cause a violent reaction against the Jews is something like going and killing a pig in a Muslim temple and it is just going to cause an uproar in a Muslim mosque, kill a cow in an Hindu temple, similar kind of reaction that the Jews would have had to do something that was important to the Egyptians here. Verse 28, Pharaoh says you can go, but you can’t go far. Well he doesn’t say now you got to stay in the land. You just shouldn’t go far. Moses willing to accept that evidently because he said behold I am going out from here I will make supplications to the Lord that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh and his servants, only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again and not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. I mean you can go, you can leave the land. You can go into the wilderness. You can make your sacrifice. Alright you can go out of the land and do this, but as soon as the insects are gone, verse 32, Pharaoh hardened his heart and he did not let the people go. Progressive situation going on and you know it’s the way the word of God works and the impact of the work of God in a life is either hardens or softens and Pharaoh gets progressively harder and harder and harder and even in the face when his own people will tell him Egypt is destroyed, he stands his ground. All people would rather die than give in to the living God. There is no winning a battle with God. I mean that’s the way it is, but nothing changes. Human nature has not changed. Pharaoh is not an exceptional case. He is just a clear manifestation in the context in which God has put him of the sinfulness of the human heart, the fallen sinful human nature. We are adamantly opposed to God. You remember what were told in the gospel of Luke, the rich man and Lazarus. If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe even if one is raised from the dead. The issue is not proof or lack of proof, miracles or lack of miracles. Issue for a fallen sinful human being is his unwillingness to submit to the living God and act in obedience to His word and so Pharaoh simply a clear example of the activity of sinful humanity apart from the intervention of the mercy of God in bringing about His salvation. Well we stop there in the midst of the plagues. We were about almost halfway through and it’s only going to get worse. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for the revelation of who you are. Lord, we are here now to see you, unveil something of your power and your might and to see weak, frail humanity and pride and arrogance stand opposed to you. Lord we realize, but for your mercy, but for your grace, we are those kinds of people, we were those kind of people, but you have dealt with us in mercy. There is no good explanation, we were not better than others. We did not deserve your mercy and grace, but you have poured it out upon us that we might know you and experience your forgiveness, be the recipients of your love. We praise you for it. We praise you for the nation Israel that you are the covenant keeping God. Lord even to this day, is there any rebellion and experiencing your judgment and things will only get worse. There is coming a time when your covenant promises will be fulfilled and they will realize all the blessings that you have promised to them as the people you have chosen for yourself. Pray that the truth of your word be an encouragement and blessing in our lives as we serve you in a variety of ways and variety of places for the days of this week. We pray in Christ's Name. Amen.