Who Do You Rely Upon? Series

Who Do You Rely Upon?

Exodus 7:14-25

- We’re continuing our study through the book of Exodus.

- Last week, we looked at some of the reasons why God is the source of our boldness.

- We saw that God knows everything, when He told Moses exactly how Pharaoh was going to respond.

- We saw that God can do anything, when He turned the rod of Aaron into a serpent.

- And we saw that God is greater than the world, when God’s serpent ate the magician’s serpents.

- This week, we’re looking at one of the false gods that the Egyptians relied upon and some of the ways in which they relied on him.

- I’m reminded of a time years ago when I worked for the Career Center in Machias.

- I was part of a program that matched youth in our area with difference jobs in the area.

- The Career Center paid their wages through a grant, and in exchange, the employers taught them job skills and training.

- I was one of the supervisors who had to visit these youth at their worksites, and sometimes, I’d have to drive from one part of Washington County all the way to the other part.

- We had a group of kids working at the school in Danforth, helping out with maintenance and janitorial duties.

- One of those kids was very disrespectful to me, so I didn’t really like dealing with him, but it was part of my job.

- One day, he didn’t show up for work.

- He didn’t call in sick, or let anyone know where he was going to be that day, so of course it caught my attention.

- I asked the other kids if they knew where he was, and they told me he had been out drinking and partying the night before, so he was probably passed out somewhere.

- So I tried calling him several times, and finally got ahold of him.

- I asked him why he wasn’t at work, and he said he was sick.

- Then, I asked him if it was true he was out partying, and he hesitatingly told me yes.

- Well, I was angry, so I gave him what-for over the phone, and I fired him.

- I hung up and felt a lot better.

- When I got back to the office, my boss pulled me into her office and said, “Bobby, what did you just do?”

- I went on to explain to her what happened, thinking she’d support my decision…

- Instead, she proceeded to chew me out for firing him without first speaking to her.

- Turns out, I didn’t actually have the authority to fire anyone.

- So she ordered me to call him back and apologize, then re-hire him…

- Boy was I embarrassed!

- The reason I tell you that story is because on that day, I took matters into my own hands and was relying on myself and my “position of authority”, but I should have been relying on my boss and her expertise in dealing with difficult kids.

- So I was relying on the wrong person.

- And that’s where we find Pharaoh and the Egyptians here today, relying on the wrong thing, a false god that had no power!

- So let’s look at 3 areas where they relied on the wrong thing.

I.) They relied on the Nile for religion- Vs 14-17

- When I was a young child, about 6 or 7, one of my fears was that a vampire was going to come in the middle of the night and bite my neck.

- I guess I was watching too many horror-shows or something.

- So every night when I went to bed, I’d take my blanket and completely cover myself so that no part of my body was exposed.

- It didn’t matter if it was scorching hot, I still put that blanket over my head and laid like that until I went to sleep.

- I even remember one of the blankets of mine was a superman blanket, and I must have thought that would scare a vampire away or something.

- Anyways, obviously, vampires aren’t real, but if they were, that blanket wouldn’t have done me any good for protection.

- False religion is kind of like that…

- A person covers themselves over with it, relying on it to save them and protect them, but, in reality, it doesn’t do any good.

- Pharaoh and Egypt relied a lot on religion, on all their false gods, and they were all about to prove useless against the One True God.

- In vs 15, God tells Moses and Aaron that Pharaoh will be going down to the water in the morning.