God's Purpose In The Plagues: To Glorify Himself Series

God’s Purpose in the Plagues: To Glorify Himself

(Exodus 9:8-35)

view video clip from The Exodus Revealed

1. Since our video-clips contain a number of related segments, we have to view some of these before we get to the texts that address them.

2. Eventually, we will get the children of Israel to the Red Sea. But we are not there yet.

3. We began our series in Canaan, when the children of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, moved to Egypt during a famine. We examined the life of Joseph.

4. Thing deteriorated for the Israelites, and they eventually became slaves to the Egyptians. The Israelites sojourned in Egypt for over 400 years.

5. But God had His hand on His people. Moses, an infant Hebrew, was rescued from death by an Egyptian princess and raised as her son.

6. Through a variety of circumstances, he came to identify with the Hebrews and had to flee Egypt for the land of Midian, modern day Saudi Arabia.

7. One day, God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush and commanded Moses to return to Egypt to bring his people to freedom and return them to Canaan.

8. But the Pharaoh would not let the people go, hence God sent a series of plagues over a nine month period to persuade the hard-hearted Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.

9. We are in the midst of the plagues, as we look at plagues 6 and 7.

10. The plagues reveal many things, but their most impressive theme is “God’s Glory.”

11. "A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling ’darkness’ on the wall of his cell..." C. S. Lewis

(sermoncentral)

Main idea: God glorifies Himself by discrediting His detractors and vindicating His character by what He does.

I. The Sixth Plague: Boils on MAN and BEAST (9:8-9:12)

A. Dust taken from Hebrew BRICK kilns

B. Painful BOILS

This insulted Sekmet, a healing goddess (also goddess of war)

Deut.28:27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

C. The MAGICIANS are humiliated

These Magicians were probably also priests….

(1) God was humiliating the supposed gods of Egypt

(2) God was humiliating the religious leaders of these false gods

(3) God was humiliating Pharaoh, a supposed son of the gods and a god himself

D. Pharaoh typifies the lost man whose authorities are DISCREDITED

(1) modern day example: Marxists after the dissolution of the Soviet Union

(2) when the supposed facts of The Da Vinci Code are discredited, adherents still cling to them

(3) most people believe what they want to believe

Note here that, “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” (12)…Man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty…at first, the Pharaoh hardened his own heart…

God glorifies Himself by discrediting His detractors and vindicating His character by what He does.

II. The Seventh Plague: HAIL (9:13-35)

* from the harvest schedule of vs. 31, we know this plague hit in early February; this would begin 8 weeks of misery for Egypt and the Pharaoh; This first 6 plagues are like the first part of the Tribulation while the last 4 are like the Great Tribulation, the latter half; the drowning of Pharaoh’s army is much like Armageddon in its pattern…

A. Why God Was PLAYING with Pharaoh (13-16)

Notice the threat of vs. 14, “this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you…”

vs. 15-16 are central thoughts in the entire plague narrative:

"For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Exodus 7:5, “And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."

Exodus 8:10, “Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God.”

Exodus 9:29, “Moses replied, "When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.”

Exodus 14:4, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."

B. God’s Actions Display His GLORY (16)

1. This verse ties in with Romans 9:16-18