The Powerful Hand Of God Series

The Powerful Hand of God

Exodus 9:1-7

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

- In the previous sermon of this series, we looked at the fourth plague God sent on Egypt, the plague of flies.

- In that sermon, we saw that Pharaoh was warned by God about the coming plague, yet he refused to heed the warning.

- We saw that Pharaoh was covered as the plague of flies covered everything and everyone in Egypt and spared the Israelites.

- Lastly, we saw that Pharaoh was defiant against God Almighty.

- Even though God was showing Him who had the true power, Pharaoh was stubborn, and kept hardening his heart against God and His servant Moses.

- Today, we’re going to look at the fifth plague, the plague against the livestock of Egypt, and we’re going to focus on the powerful hand of God.

- That might sound familiar to you because a few weeks ago, when we looked at the plague of lice, we focused on the mighty hand of God.

- We saw that with His Mighty hand, God can do things the way He wants to, God can use even the smallest of things, and God can make the enemy powerless with His hand.

- The reason I titled that message, “The Mighty Hand of God” is because when the magicians couldn’t copy the plague of lice, they told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God!”

- So, with that plague, those heathen priests acknowledged it was God at work.

- Obviously, Pharaoh didn’t listen to them, because Pharaoh refused to let the people go, so God sent the fourth plague, the plague of flies.

- Now, with the fifth plague, Pharaoh is going to find out directly from God that these plagues truly are the work of the hand of God.

- I remember when Leah was born, I was so surprised by how tiny she was.

- I took her tiny little hand and I placed it in the palm of my hand and was amazed with how big and powerful my hand looked compared with her tiny little hands.

- There’s actually a picture on Facebook of my hand with Leah’s little hand holding onto my pointer finger.

- Her hand was so tiny that it wrapped right around my finger and only covered about half of my finger.

- I thought, “Wow, I’m her father, and my hand is big enough and powerful enough to protect her from harm.”

- That’s how God’s hand is…

- Much bigger and more powerful than anything you and I can imagine…

- And with His powerful hand, He can show the world that He is God.

- So let’s look at 3 things in this passage that show us the powerful hand of God at work.

I.) God’s hand can send pestilence- Vs 1-3

- Years ago, there was a swine flu scare.

- Everybody was worried that there was going to be an outbreak, so the vaccination was readily available.

- At the time, I was still in the National Guard.

- I remember at drill they had us all go over to the Medical Command to receive our flu shots.

- When I got in the office, the soldier administering the vaccine was an Army officer, I believe he was a Captain.

- “Okay”, he said, “Time to get the flu shot. We’re also going to give you the swine flu vaccine while we’re at it.”

- Me being the little rebel I was said, “Sir, I don’t want that shot.”

- Well, here I was, a lowly Sergeant, telling an officer “No.”

- Well, that didn’t go over so well.

- He responded, “Sergeant, you’re getting this vaccine, whether you want to or not!”

- He then went on to explain that if there was an outbreak, National Guard troops needed to be ready to activate to stop it from spreading, and thus, we needed the vaccine.

- Well, I still didn’t want the vaccine, so I said, “Is that an order, sir?”

- And of course, he said yes, so I had to get the shot.

- That officer had the power to give me that shot against my will because he outranked me, he was the medical expert, and my contract with the Army said I had to obey his orders.

- Obviously, God Almighty is much more powerful and has more authority than even the highest ranking military officer, and that’s what we see here as He sends the fifth plague on Egypt.

- Notice in vs 1 that God once again sends Moses with a message for Pharaoh.

- For those from the outside looking in who would criticize God for sending such harsh judgments on Egypt, I would say, “Look, God kept warning Pharaoh, time and time again…If you don’t let My people go, I will send this plague!”