The Great Deliverance Series

Chico Alliance Church

Pastor David Welch

”The Great Deliverance”

I. CONFRONTATION #1 “Let my people go!” 5:2-6:13

A. Moses communicated God’s demand 5:1-3

God said to let my people go! Pharaoh, “Who is this God? The God of the Hebrews said, “Obey or else.”

B. Pharaoh hardened his heart and increased the people’s labor 4-14

C. People appealed to Pharaoh 6:15-19

D. The People blamed Moses 6:20-21

E. Moses blames and questions God 22-23

Moses allowed the immediate to obscure the imminent. Moses ignored the call and questioned God’s faithfulness. Moses forgot about God’s plan. God always has more going than what I can ever see or discern.

F. God reaffirmed the promise 6:1-8

G. The people refused to listen 6:9

II. CONFRONTATION #2 “staffs and serpents 6:10-7:13

A. God renewed the commission 6:10-13; 28-30

B. Moses renewed his objections

C. God reaffirmed the plan 7:1-5

D. Pharaoh’s sorcerers duplicate the sign 7:11-13

God a series of natural disasters of epic proportion intended to completely humiliate and discredit all of the so-called gods venerated by the Egyptians. These plagues were supernatural in their prediction, intensity and discrimination.

III. CONFRONTATION #3 Plague 1 “Nile to Blood” 7:14-25

A. Moses warned Pharaoh 14-18

The Nile River was considered a god. It was the source of life for the land. Pharaoh would have probably gone to its shores each morning to worship. At God’s hand, the great source of life would become a source of death. This was more than a land slide into the upper Nile that colored the water. Such an explanation does not explain how the water in the containers became colored. Whether or not this was literal blood or not is up for debate. Whatever it was, destroyed all the fish.

B. Nile turned to blood 7:19-21

C. Pharaoh ignores the plague 7:22-25

IV. CONFRONTATION#4 Plague 2 “Frogs” 8:1-15

A. Moses warned Pharaoh 8:1-6

In ancient Egypt the frog was associated with the Goddess Heka (and a frog-headed deity has been discovered on monuments in Egypt). The Goddess Heka was thought to assist women at childbirth, and so was a symbol of life-giving power to the Egyptians.

So you like frogs? Frogs you shall have. It is Yahweh who controls the coming and going of frogs, not Heka. You wondered who Yahweh is, by the time we are done, you will know without a doubt.

B. Sorcerers duplicated the sign but can’t reverse it 8:7

C. Pharaoh cried for relief 8:8-9

He is getting to know Yahweh now! He even asked Moses to intercede for him. Moses even allowed Pharaoh to set the time.

D. Moses promised Pharaoh relief and prayed to God 8:10-14

What a phenomenal statement. The LORD did according to the word of Moses. It wouldn’t be the first time or the last time God acted through the prayers of His saints.

E. The plague lessened Pharaoh’s heart hardened 8:15

God knew how Pharaoh was going to respond all through this encounter. As soon as Pharaoh “he got air” from the plague of the frogs, he hardened his heart.

V. CONFRONTATION #6 Plague 3 “Gnats” 8:16-19

A. Moses struck the dust and produced gnats/lice 8:20-24

The exact identity of the insect which the New King James Version translates as “lice” is uncertain. The word has been translated as gnats, mosquitoes, fleas, sand flies, maggots, and gadflies. Whatever the precise identity of the insect, it filled the land. The frogs had invaded the homes of the Egyptians; the lice now invaded their bodies.1

This plague was initiated by the striking of the dust. The River god turned foul. Now “Seb” the earth god was totally unable to protect them. They would not be able to worship because the presence of lice was a sign of uncleanness. Out of his territory came a most terrible plague of a personal nature.

B. Sorcerers could not duplicate the plague and acknowledge a god 18

They did not use the name Yahweh but the common name for a god here. They are willing to admit that some deity was at work here who was outside of their influence, but not that the supreme deity Yahweh was in charge.

C. Pharaoh did not listen 19

VI. CONFRONTATION #7 Plague 4 “Biting Flies” 8:20-30

A. Moses warned Pharaoh again 8:20-24

God is teaching that he is the Ruler over all people and over all the earth and over all the gods of Egypt by inflicting plagues on everyone up to this point. He also wanted them to know that there was a difference between them and His covenant people.

There are different ways of looking at particular aspects of this plague. Some scholars believe that this plague was designed to destroy the trust of the people in Beelzebub. Beelzebub was the fly God—reverenced as the protector of Egypt from visitation by the swarms of flies which commonly infested the land. The people had depended upon Beelzebub to be their guard against ravenous flies, but this plague convinced them of the impotence of Beelzebub, causing them to look elsewhere for relief.