Sermon Cloud

We are continuing to look tonight at this series of deadly plagues that God is sending upon Egypt…..

 

 

 

 

We have watched as Pharaoh has repeatedly refused to let the people go

• …agreeing to the demands of Moses and his God only long enough for the plagues to be lifted

 

 

…and then quickly changing his mind….

 

 

 

We have seen over and over again how each of these plagues is a graphic demonstration of how God is defeating these Egyptian gods…one by one

 

 

And we have also seen how God is demonstrating His complete control over creation…

• …because God is using creation in order to bring about destruction
  • ….the same God who brought order out of chaos is now bringing chaos out of order

…God is, in a sense…..un-creating the Genesis account of creation….

 

 

 

 

Tonight…..the plagues continue….

• ….as we look at the eighth and ninth plagues….
  • …leaving, after tonight (of course)…..
    • ….only the final tenth plague standing between Israel and freedom

 

 

 

 

Exodus 10.1-20

 

 

 

 

Last week…..we saw that God gave three purposes for sending these plagues upon Egypt;

 

 

They were;

1. 1.     To show His uniqueness 
2. 2.     That His glory would be proclaimed
3. 3.     That all may know His power over creation

 

 

 

Tonight….God gives another purpose for sending these plagues

• ….He wants to be the subject of children’s stories…

God wants the Israelites to tell their children of His mighty deeds in Egypt

 

 

v 2

and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them

 

 

 

God wants the Israelites to tell this to their children…..and their grandchildren

• ….for a long time to come….

 

 

 

God has no intentions that the Israelites keep this story to themselves;

• ….He wants this story told….

 

 

 

Because this is the story of salvation….

 

 

 

Just like the story of the cross….

• ..that story that we cannot tell too much….cannot tell too often
  • …the story of the exodus should be told

 

 

And tell this story is what they did;

 

 

When Moses meets once again his father-in-law, Jethro…in Exodus 18…

 

 

Exodus 18:8

Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

 

 

….and once again…..God’s purpose was accomplished…..

 

 

 

Exodus 18:9-11

And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel…Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians…Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods…

 

 

 

 

And this story was to be told as reason why the Israelites were to obey God;

 

 

Deuteronomy 6:20

When your son asks you…'What is the meaning of the…rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

 

 

 

 

The Israelites have a story to tell;

• …but so do we……

 

 

We have an exodus story even greater than this one before us…

• …because our exodus story does not have a mere man as our deliverer
• …and our exodus story is not about delivery from mere physical bondage…

 

 

 

But our story is of the King of kings who came and freed us from eternal bondage that leads to death….

 

 

 

 

Ours is a story…..that like the Israelite story….is a story that must be told and told again…

• …to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren…..

 

 

[…]

 

 

…now….as we have said before…

• …there is no perfect translation…..

 

 

And unfortunately tonight…..the normally accurate ESV will make a couple of choices in translation with which I will disagree….

 

And the first comes here in v 2

• ….The Hebrew word translated harshly is one possible meaning
  • …but it is the least likely of all the possible meanings here….

 

 

 

…much more likely…the meaning here is humiliate….or make a fool of….or make to appear foolish……or make a public spectacle of

 

 

 

The NASB translates; made a mockery of

 

The old RSV translates; made sport of…

 

 

 

…and that’s the idea here; As God said in our passage last week;

 

Exodus 9:15

For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

 

 

 

…God could have driven the Egyptians into full submission with one strike of His hand

• ….but He is not…..He has a point to make…
  • ….and ten plagues make that point much more forcefully than does one plague….

…because….God desires….

 

v 2

that you may know that I am the LORD

 

 

 

God is toying with these Egyptians….He is making a fool out of Pharaoh

• ….that we may clearly see that He is God….

 

 

 

…what a powerful God He is, indeed….

 

 

 

[…]

 

 

 

So Moses comes and asks the Pharaoh a direct question

 

v 3

"Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.

 

 

Moses is correct to connect Pharaoh’s refusal to let the people go with his arrogance before God

Because all of our sin….really boils down to a pride problem…..

 

 

Pride is at the root of all our sin

• …the worship of self….instead of the worship of God is the foundation of all sin….

 

 

And so Moses points this out to Pharaoh

 

 

 

…and then he tells Pharaoh of the next plague that is coming….

 

 

v 4

Moses describes the plague of the locusts that are coming;

 

 

They will cover the land

• They will eat what was left after the hail
• They will eat every tree in the land
• And they will fill their houses such that has never been seen

 

 

…In verse 7

• ..Pharaoh’s servants try to talk some sense to Pharaoh
  • …they say….can you not see that Egypt is ruined….
  • …how long will this man be a snare to us?

 

 

But notice, they say….let the men go

 

Now, apparently Pharaoh listens to this advice

• …because he then tries to bargain with Moses

 

 

v 8

"Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?"

 

 

 

Moses replies in verse 9

• …well…..all of us….of course

 

 

And Pharaoh says;

 

 

v 10

The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking." And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence

 

 

 

Now….the wording in verse 10 is a bit difficult

• …..but basically….(to put it in the modern vernacular); God would have to be with you for me to let you all go…
  • …..because you obviously have some evil purpose in mind

 

 

…So Pharaoh says; the adult men can go…no more….

 

Pharaoh makes this offer, because (obviously)….that means that the men will come back…..

 

 

 

They are not going to leave their women and children behind

• …they will quickly return…

 

 

 

 

To Pharaoh….this probably seemed like a reasonable offer

• …because we know that the Egyptian women were not involved in worshiping their gods….
  • …..so Pharaoh reasons that the Israelites are probably the same

 

 

 

To Pharaoh….women and children simply didn’t count

 

 

But this offer was unacceptable to Moses and to God for two reasons

 

 

First; God clearly intended that all His people were to be set free;

 

 

Let My people go….means everyone….

 

 

But even moreso than that;

• I think Moses’ blunt refusal of this attempt to bargain with God shows us this;

 

 

Worship Is Intended for the Whole Family

 

 

 

…from the oldest to the youngest……from the men to the women to the children

 

God’s model for worship includes the entire family worshiping together

 

 

…and this goes back to the beginning of God’s plan for His people…

 

 

Deuteronomy 16:14

You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.

 

 

…that pretty much covers the whole family…

 

For God’s people…..worship is a family activity

• …to be done together…..as a family unit…..

 

 

…this means that God intends for families to worship Him

• …as a family….

 

 

God’s plan is for families to come together and worship Him

• …in the house of God
• …and in the home of God
  • …which means (yes)…..we are to be doing those things that everybody loathes;

 

 

Family devotions…..

• …you say….where does the Bible say that?

 

 

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

 

 

 

That sounds pretty much like family devotions to me….

 

 

The primary place that the Word of God is taught to children

• …should be in the home……
  • …not in church….not in Sunday School…
    • ….but in the home

 

 

The family that serves God….worships God together….

 

[…]

 

I’ll say one more thing about this and then we’ll move on

 

 

We’ve developed this idea (21^st century) that in order to do church

• …we have to separate everybody out by age groups…

 

 

We’ve got the adults doing church over here

 

We’ve got the Seniors doing church over there

 

We’ve got the youth doing church over here

 

We’ve got the children doing church over here….

 

 

Do you realize…..that is taught nowhere in the Bible…..

 

 

Nowhere does the Bible even hint that teenagers don’t worship right alongside the adults….

• …and children don’t worship right alongside the parents…..

 

 

In fact…passages like the Deuteronomy 16 passage (to me) seem to say just the opposite….

 

 

 

Now….I’m not saying that we need to do away with the nursery and children’s church…

• …but I am saying this;

 

 

If we are interested in doing church the biblical way

• …maybe we should find more ways to worship together….and less ways to do church  separately…..

 

 

Maybe we should find more ways to treat our teenagers

• …like the adults they are becoming…..
  • …and have them worship like the adults they will soon be….

 

 

I believe the consistent picture that we see in Scripture

• ….is the picture of people of all ages….worshiping together

 

In Luke 18…we read;

 

Luke 18:15-16

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them…

 

 

Am I saying that youth groups are bad…and Senior groups are bad…

• ….no….I am simply saying that the biblical model of worship is age-inclusive
  • ….and the more we worship like that….the more biblical we are being…

 

[…]

 

 

 

But Pharaoh tries to again bargain with God…

• And this, too, is rooted in Pharaoh’s pride
  • Pharaoh assumes that he is dealing with Someone who is more or less his equal

 

 

…Yes….God is proving more powerful than he

• …But Pharaoh is still considering himself to be a god
  • …and so, in his thinking…..he is one god who is dealing with another God…

 

 

Again……all of Pharaoh’s sin (as is ours)…..is rooted in pride…

 

 

 

 

But Pharaoh will find that God does not discuss terms….

• …God dictates terms…..

 

 

And what God demands…is the same He demands from us

• …unconditional surrender….

 

 

….you know….there are many kinds of surrender….

 

In 1973…Richard Nixon announced the signing of the Paris Peace Accords….

• …ending the US involvement in the Vietnam conflict

 

 

 

How different was that peace agreement than that total surrender

• …signed by the utterly devastated nation of Japan in 1945

 

 

 

 

…you see the difference….North Vietnam was not a defeated nation

• ….Japan was entirely hopeless….utterly defeated…

 

 

 

Therefore, their surrender was without conditions

• …they were in no position to dictate any terms
  • …simply surrender……

 

 

 

God will demand nothing less that Pharaoh’s unconditional surrender

 

 

......Pharaoh is not there, yet…..but God is not done yet

 

 

 

The practical lesson that we are to take from this;

 

 

Discipleship is Not Open to Discussion

 

 

We must take God on His terms……not ours….

 

 

 

When we receive Jesus Christ as Redeemer

• …we don’t make a few concessions here and a few considerations there

 

 

 

We surrender our whole lives to the lordship of His will

 

 

….that is by definition salvation…..

 

 

Paul says in Romans 12;

• …that if we are children of God…..we are being transformed

 

 

We can only be transformed if we are surrendered…..

 

 

When God calls us to serve Him

• …He is not calling us to enter into negotiations with Him
• …He does not call us to suggest to Him what and who we’d like to be

 

 

 

God’s call upon our lives comes with the requirement of total surrender…..

• …a total forsaking of ourselves and our lives
  • ……and a submission to a Christ that enters our heart and our being
    • …..and begins transforming us from the inside out….

 

 

 

[…]

 

 

 

So…Pharaoh refuses this call to surrender…

 

And then….Moses obeys God…

 

 

v 12

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left."

So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt

 

 

 

Notice that each time….Moses is clear to show us that his actions are purely symbolic

• …it is God who brings the locusts
• …it is God who sent the hail
• …it is God who made the boils, and the flies, and the gnats, and the frogs, etc….

 

Moses doesn’t bring the plague

• …just as Moses won’t pat the Red Sea
• …just as Moses won’t cause manna to fall….or water to spout from rocks….

 

 

 

Moses’ actions are always merely symbolic of God’s actions….

 

 

Which is the same for us today…

 

 

 

You think that I am preaching the Word of God to you tonight?

• …it is the Spirit of Christ who is testifying to you….not me

 

 

 

 

You think that anything we do for the kingdom is us….

• …no….
  • ….just like Moses….we are merely the obedient symbols for God to use

 

 

We are merely the hand that holds up the staff of God…..

• …we are simply the ones who lift up the Son of God
  • …it is God…who draws all men unto Himself….

 

 

 

 

And so God brings these locusts in with an east wind

 

 

 

v 13

and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.

The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again.

 

 

We read that in the Nile Delta…the surface winds never come from the east

• …that always come from the north and the west…..

 

…yet again….telling us that this is the hand of God at work here…

 

 

 

[…]

 

 

….now, the destructive force of this plague of locusts is quite amazing

 

 

 

v 15

They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

 

Scientists tell us that there is perhaps no other force in nature quite as destructive as a swarm of locusts

 

 

We are told that each day…a locust eats it’s body weight in plant life

 

 

 

Now….that might not sound like much

• …until we consider that a normal swarm of locust covers several square miles

 

And it contains between 100-200 million locusts per mile

 

 

 

That’s a normal swarm of locusts

• …as was seen in Africa in the 20s and 30s…..
  • That completely wiped out an area twice the size of the US

 

 

Or like the swarm that was seen in 2001 in central Asia

• …a swarm that was reported to contain 10k locust per ten square feet

 

 

…all those are natural swarms of locusts

• …God makes it clear that this is a supernatural swarm of locusts

 

 

 

Now….just think of the impact that this would have…..

This would create literally an immediate food shortage….

 

 

There would be absolutely no plant life left for food whatsoever

• …and any animals that might have survived the hailstorm
  • …they would also be immediately stripped of any food whatsoever….

 

 

 

This is a crisis in Egypt in epic proportions

 

 

Which is why Pharaoh calls it;

 

 

v 17....this death…..

 

 

This is now far beyond serious

• …in essence…….God just created an immediate famine

 

 

[…]

 

….now think about this…..

 

 

If our God doesn’t have a sense of humor….

• …He at least has a very healthy sense of irony

 

 

God just stripped Egypt of every source of food available to them

 

 

Between the hail and the locusts

• …literally the only things left to eat are the rotting carcasses of the animals in the field
  • ….and the bark of the tree…..

 

…there is no food in the land of Egypt

• …except (of course…in the land of Goshen)

 

 

 

Now…here’s the irony

 

 

Think back just a couple of generations…..

 

 

Where was the only place in the world that had food?

 

 

 

[…]

 

 

In the midst of a worldwide famine….

• ….God has one humble servant in Egypt who has given Him total surrender of his life….total control over his body and his future

 

 

…and we read;

 

Genesis 41:49

And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

 

 

 

God is truly the Giver and the Withholder of good things

 

 

Psalm 104:14-15

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth…and bread to strengthen man's heart.

 

Psalm 111:5

He provides food for those who fear him…

 

Psalm 136:25

he who gives food to all flesh…

 

 

And lest we forget….He prepares a table in the presence of our enemies

• ….God is the Giver of our food

 

 

 

 

…The God who gave so abundantly is the same God who just stripped them of everything they had….

 

 

The difference between being the richest nation of earth and having nothing

• ….is disobedience to God…..

 

…we would do well to study the story of the Exodus in our Congress and in our Supreme Court and in our White House….

 

 

…we would do well to study what God does to a disobedient nation

• …because, as of yesterday…..
  • ….we have a new law in our land….

 

 

If I preach against homosexuality

• …and someone who listens to me then commits a crime against a homosexual….
  • …..then I go to jail on a federal charge….

 

 

As of yesterday…..that is the newest law in our nation….

 

 

 

God gave us everything we have

• …but just as in the 7^th and 8^th plagues….God can take it all away overnight

 

 

 

 

[…]

 

 

So….Pharaoh does his usual…false repentance

 

 

v 16

Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.

Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me."

 

 

 

Once again….

• …Pharaoh is not sorry that he sinned
  • …He is sorry that Egypt is ruined….He is sorry that God is judging him

 

 

 

Notice;

• ..Pharaoh wants to apologize for this sin only (v 17)
• …and once again….he can only confess to Moses and Aaron…not to God

 

 

 

But, nonetheless…..

 

 v 18

So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD.

And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

 

 

God gives a pre-cursor here…a foreshadowing of what will happen in chapter 14

• …as the Egyptian soldiers drown in the Red Sea….

 

 

 

God is almost done with Egypt

• …He has manifested His glory in eight plagues
  • …and Pharaoh’s time is running out

 

 

We know…of course….that Pharaoh’s heart will remain hard until the end…..

 

 

But as we began tonight….

• …this is a story to be told and re-told….
  • …because just like Pharaoh…
    • ….men’s hearts remain hard yet today…..

 

 

 

Pharaoh saw visible manifestations of God’s power right before his eyes

• …and yet, he was too much in love with his own sovereignty to submit to God

 

 

The point here is that the hearts of men have not changed……

 

 

But we have an even greater story to be told today….

• …a story even greater than hail and boils and locusts and frogs…..

 

We have the story of the final exodus…..

• ….when the bonds of sin were broken forever….

 

 

 

Let’s tell that story this week……

 

 

Will you find someone this week who needs to hear that story

• …and will you tell them the story of Jesus?