YouTube video sermon
Exodus 7:14-8:19
Once again, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus. As most of you know, last month Parker and I took a trip to Lake Tahoe to do some skiing. It was Parker’s first-time skiing and flying, both of which he really enjoyed. And during the first flight I had an opportunity to talk to him a little bit about flying. Now mind you, I’m not a pilot or an aeronautical engineer, but we were sitting over one of the wings. So, we could see the slats on the leading edge, and the flaps, spoilers, and ailerons on the trailing edge: all responding to the pilot’s input.
One of the other things that we talked about were all of the gauges and switches and displays in the cockpit – one of which is a gyroscopic instrument called an “attitude indicator.” [show picture]. Basically, it shows the position of the plane in relationship to the horizon. Now, you might think that’s not needed, but if you’re flying in dense clouds during the day or night and you can’t see the horizon, or the ground and lights below or the stars, sun and moon above then you can get disoriented real quick. So, when the plane is climbing you have what’s called a “nose-high attitude.” The blue dips below the horizontal line, showing that you’re climbing. And when the plane is descending you have what’s called a “nose-down attitude.” The brown creeps above the horizontal line.
Obviously, there’s a lot of monitoring the plane’s attitude, and sometimes it’s necessary to change the attitude in order to change the performance of the plane. Well, today, we reach the point, in Exodus, where Pharaoh is about to crash. His “nose-down” attitude makes his heart hard, and God uses that to demonstrate His power and sovereignty. Follow along with me, beginning with Exodus 7:14.
14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. 17 Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.’” 19 And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”
20 Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So, Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
25 Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that they may serve Me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4 The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.’” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” 10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” 12 So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. 13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. 14 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” 17 And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So, there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
“Father, in heaven, once again we ask that You might open our eyes and ears to the truth of Your Word. Lord, even in the pages of this Old Testament book, we ask that we might get a glimpse of Your great and mighty power and sovereign rule over all of life – including our own. May we hear from You today, and would the Holy Spirit make the needed adjustments in our hearts and lives, in order that we might be more obedient and faithful followers of Your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.”
Outside of the Red Sea crossing and the actual, literal exodus event, the ten (10) plagues of Egypt are pretty much known by most people. Even if you didn’t grow up in the church, you probably have at least some familiarities with the plagues. Maybe you don’t know all of them or the order in which they come, but you know that God did something miraculous in order to show Himself, to Pharaoh, as the One true God. Well, that’s where we are.
The way this is going to work over the next several weeks is like this. We’re going to look at the first three plagues today. Next week we’re going to look at the middle three. The last Sunday of the month we’ll look at the last three (that’s 9). Then, on the night of Palm Sunday (April 2) at 6PM, we’ll be hosting Arielle Randle from our ministry partner, Jews for Jesus. He’ll be walking us through Christ in the Passover, which is the final decisive sign of God’s power and reign.
The final plague: the death of the firstborn. The only way to avoid having your firstborn child killed was to kill a spotless lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and on the lintel (we’d call it the header). That blood would act as the protective covering for the entire house, so that when the Spirit of God brought His judgment against Egypt the Israelites would be sparred.
That seminal event would become the backbone of the religious life for the Jewish people, and it’s precisely this event that Jesus would use, in the New Testament, as an equally dramatic sign showing His divine power over sin, death and the grave. Likewise, the only way for you and me to avoid our own ultimate destruction is to be covered in the blood of Christ – our spotless Passover Lamb. So, let me invite you to make plans to be here on Palm Sunday night (6PM).
Well, today, is a rare occasion. I only have one major point. But even though I only have one point, we’re actually going to see it played out in three different ways in these first three plagues. If you have obsessive tendencies, or you just really need to have three points for it to be considered a “good” sermon, well then, you’re still good. Here’s the single point:
Our God Is the Lord Almighty
There are certainly other ways of saying this. In fact, God actually says it this way in Exodus 7:16 “Thus says the LORD, ‘By this you shall know that I am the LORD.’” The “this” that God is referencing there are these plagues – “By these plagues you’ll know that I am the LORD.” And speaking of plagues, let me offer a word or two about the list. There are 11 signs, but only 10 plagues. The first sign was the staff-to-serpent thing that we read last week (vss. 8-13). It’s not a plague; it’s just a sign.
As for the plagues, there are 10 of them and there are all sorts of ways that theologians, Bible teachers, and preachers have tried to group them in order to highlight different things. For example, if you just take them in the order that they’re given (leaving the 10th by itself), then you have 3 cycles of 3, and the duration of the first 3 looks like this: long, long, short. The duration of the second 3 is long, short, short. And the duration of the final 3 is back to long, long, short.
Now, there’s nothing inherently spiritual in that. This isn’t one of those things where you’re looking under every rock, reading the Bible backwards and upside down trying to find some hidden meaning. Some of you remember the 60’s-70’s. There was this myth that you could play records backwards and get hidden messages. It was common to hear preachers talk about this when heavy metal bands were all the rage, “There’s a satanic message in all that stuff.” For sure, there was, in some of it, but not all of it.
That’s not what we’re talking about here. But it is interesting to consider that the cycle runs long, long, short – followed by long, short, short – and then back to long, long, short. It’s likely that this kind of pattern helped Moses and the Israelites remembered the sequence of the plagues, in order to share it with future generations.
Here’s another example of grouping. The first cycle are plagues 1, 4 & 7. Those are the first plagues in each cycle (1, 4 & 7). The interesting thing about 1, 4 & 7 is that Moses was instructed to meet Pharaoh outside early in the morning. The second cycle would be plagues 2, 5 & 8, and the neat thing there is that Moses was instructed to meet Pharaoh inside, presumable in Pharaoh’s court. The third cycle would be the last plagues 3, 6 & 9, all of which seemed to be outside in the presence of whoever happened to be around.
Those are just a few of the ways that scholars have tried to examine the plagues. Again, I don’t want us to get overly caught up in or enamored by something that isn’t clearly outlined for us in the normal reading of the passage. But it’s interesting to consider. Now there is one thing that we can say for sure and that’s the fact that as we move along, we’ll notice that they get more intense, and they’re all directed at humiliating the pantheon of Egyptian deities.
The first plague is turning the Nile into blood, which demonstrates God’s power over nature. We’ll see other demonstrations of power over nature when we get to plagues 7 & 9. But this one is unique because the Nile was such a large part of Egyptian life. It was their superhighway. It was the way they made a living and watered their livestock and grew their crops. Additionally, it was believed that the Nile was the actual lifeblood of the Egyptian god Osiris. So, for God to turn the Nile into blood was more than just a physical inconvenience. It carried a spiritual significance too.
When the fish died and caused the water to stink it’s as if God was saying, “Your religion stinks!” When the water became temporarily polluted so that they couldn’t drink from it, it’s as if God was saying, “Your gods can’t quinch your thirst.” Now think about that in light of what Jesus said in John 7, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (7:37). Or what He said in John 4, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (4:13-14).
The skeptic says, “Oh yeah, well Pharaoh’s magicians were able to replicate the miracle so what do you say about that?” Well, only two things. First, that’s what magicians do. They deceive. They trick. They manipulate. In all likelihood they simply added something to the water to give it the appearance of blood. And second, while I might not be able to fully explain exactly what the magicians did (or didn’t do) to replicate this plague, the one thing I know for sure is – they were powerless to reverse it.
This first plague was a sign of what’s still yet to come. Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those . . . always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men” (2 Timothy 3:1-9). Or how about this short passage from the hand of John, “The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea” (Revelation 16:3).
Folks, listen to me; just as God judged the false gods of Egypt, He’s coming again to judge the living and the dead. Do you know Jesus? If not, then let me tell you that the gods of this world – money, fame, power, prestige, knowledge – all of them will be humiliated by the Lord God Almighty on that day. Only the blood of Jesus can save you.
The second plague is the multiplication of frogs. Again, we really need to slow down when reading texts like this, because we have a temptation to simply read black words on a white page. We need to employ our imaginations a little bit.
Some of you were without internet on Thursday, or perhaps you remember what it’s like to be without power. Or think about the folks in the Seirra-Nevada mountains: enough snow already. It doesn’t take very long – perhaps an hour, certainly 3-4 hours – and the novelty of no internet and no power has worn off. It’s been a week of bloody, stinky water, and digging new shallow wells to locate uncontaminated water, and all of a sudden you have a new inconvenience to deal with – frogs.
The frogs were so bad that they literally got into everything: houses, bedrooms, beds (remember that they likely slept on mats at floor level not on raised platforms like us), cookware, ovens. They were even promised that the frogs would get on people. In other words, don’t think that you can just sweep them out of the way and find yourself a closet where you can be protected. Literally, they were everywhere.
And imagine the noise. You know what it’s like to go camping and try to sleep, right? Many of you have water features at your homes. In the summertime it can get downright impossible to hear yourself talk with all the croaking and bleating. And imagine the mess. When you have this many of anything, surely some are going to get stepped on, or rolled over on when trying to sleep, or cooked in the oven. (Listen, I know that some of us southern folks enjoy some fried frog legs, but this is ridiculous.)
In fact, this plague, unlike the previous one, was so bad that Pharaoh begged that Moses bring it to an end. The previous plague wasn’t too bad for Pharaoh. After all, he could have servants bring him fresh water from a new well. But notice verse 4 of chapter 8, “The frogs shall come up on you [Pharaoh] and on your people and on all your servants.” Pharaoh wasn’t protected this time. And we’ve already mentioned the sound they must’ve made. Also, like the first plague, although the magicians were able – in some form – to replicate the plague, they were powerless to remove them.
Pharaoh begged Moses to end this plague, and notice Moses’ response (v. 9) – “Well, big guy, why don’t you just tell me when you want them gone.” This is brilliant, because it gives God another opportunity to show Pharaoh that He’s the One true God. See, if the frogs naturally went away or were killed off little by little, then there could be all kinds of explanations. But giving Pharaoh the opportunity to set the time takes those explanations away. In other words, this plague was the point by which Pharaoh should’ve been able to admit that there was a true, powerful God behind all of this. Yet he refuses, which is a warning for anyone, who, though confronted with the reasonableness of biblical truth, nevertheless refuse to believe.
Pharaoh’s answer (“Tomorrow”) might surprise us. We’d think that he might ask for immediate relief. Then again, perhaps it was near the end of the day, and Pharaoh anticipated that it might take some time for Moses to intercede on his behalf. And don’t let the fact that Pharaoh seeks Moses’ intercession pass you by either. He’s beginning to see that his magicians can’t help.
I see this all the time in hospitals; when calamity strikes, our non-Christian, non-believing neighbors will seek us to intervene in prayer. But don’t be surprised when they refuse to believe, even though prayer might have brought the very answer they were seeking. Nevertheless, like Moses, we pray for our enemies and those that persecute us and those that mistreat us (Matthew 5:44, Like 6:28). And if you’ve been putting off your confession of Jesus until “tomorrow” don’t – repent and believe today, while there’s still time.
Finally, our last plague (for today) is gnats. If you’re reading the KJV, NKJV or ASV, then you get the word “lice,” but every other translation has “gnat” and I believe it’s the best. Again, think about camping and summertime and the swarms of little gnats and “no-see-ems.” I have literally suffered this plague.
Summer and late-spring parades at The Citadel in full-dress uniform were absolutely awful – especially as knobs, because your body was so new, so fresh. Upperclassmen had endured years of this plague, and thus their necks and ears and arms had been turned to leather by the harsh Charleston sun. I can still see it – drenched in sweat, the sun baking you from the inside out, the smell of the salty marsh, Charleston sewage, and gun powder from the cannons. A smorgasbord of human statues that weren’t allowed to swat or twitch or blink or blow. It was “gnat nirvana.” (I originally wrote “gnat heaven,” but changed it because gnats won’t be in heaven. PRAISE GOD! Plus, “gnat nirvana” has a nice alliteration to it.)
There’s one difference between this plague and the previous two, and that’s the fact that the magicians couldn’t replicate it. And that was enough to convince them this was, indeed, a supernatural occurrence that only God could produce. Their confession in verse 19 isn’t a confession of faith, but a recognition that true and genuine miracles will always overwhelm and defeat false and deceptive works of man.
Folks, our God is the Lord Almighty and His deeds, His actions, His salvation, His truth and miracles, His grace and goodness, His righteousness and holiness WILL win out in the end and be victorious over every earthly god to the praise and glory of Christ Jesus! That’s what we’re getting a glimpse of in these plagues. It’s not just about setting the Israelites free, although that’s certainly in focus here. This is a story that proves that our God Is the Lord Almighty – and we praise HIm for it.