Three years ago (2009), Leonard Mlodinow shared a story in The Wall Street Journal from the life of baseball great, Joe DiMaggio:
During the summer of 1945, right after World War II had ended, Yankee slugger, Joe DiMaggio, returned to baseball after serving as a soldier during the war. Not wanting to make a big deal of it, he snuck into a mezzanine seat at Yankee Stadium as an ordinary fan with his 4-year-old son, Joe Junior, before rejoining his team. But a fan noticed him, then another. Soon throughout the stadium people were chanting, “Joe, Joe, Joe DiMaggio!” DiMaggio was touched and looked down to see if his son had noticed the tribute. He had. “See, Daddy,” said the little DiMaggio, “everybody knows me!” (Leonard Mlodinow, “The Triumph of the Random,” The Wall Street Journal, 7-3-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
Junior assumed that all the glory was for him and not his father. It was a silly mistake made by a 4-year-old, but when we as adults make the same mistake in relationship to our Heavenly Father, it’s not silly; it’s downright foolish.
Romans 1 says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:21-22, NIV).
Do you want to keep from becoming such a fool? Then I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 7, Exodus 7, where we see how God dealt with an ancient Pharaoh, who foolishly assumed all the glory was for himself.
Exodus 7:1-5 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 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.” (NIV)
God makes it very clear: Everyone will know that He alone is the LORD, that He alone is YHWH, the great I AM. Pharaoh is not. The Egyptian gods are not. Only God is the LORD, the I AM, and He will send 10 plagues of judgment to demonstrate that fact before every single Egyptian.
Now, the 10 plagues can be divided into three groups of three each, with the 10th plague being the culmination of them all. Notice, the 1st, 4th and 7th plague each begin with “In the morning.” Aaron’s staff is used in the first 3 plagues. No staff is used in the second 3 plagues, and Moses’ staff is used in the last 3 plagues.
In addition, each set of 3 plagues begins with a purpose statement, the reason why God is sending the plagues. In Exodus 7:17 God says, “By this you will know that I am YHWH. In Exodus 8:22 God says, “So that you will know that I, YHWH, am in this land.” And in Exodus 9:14 God says, “So that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.”
God wants everyone to know that He is, that He is here, and that He is holy. And the sooner we acknowledge that, the less foolish we become and the better off we’ll be. So if you want to keep from becoming a fool in everyone’s eyes, like Pharaoh did, then first of all…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS.
Recognize that the God of the Bible exists and none other. Realize that God is real, the ONE WHO IS, the I AM, YHWH Himself. Look at Exodus 7:14 where the first three plagues are introduced.
Exodus 7:14-24 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord [that I am the I AM, YHWH]: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs’—and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.” Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. (NIV)
God had turned the Nile river into blood! Now, this was a direct blow to one of the Egyptian gods. In fact, all 10 plagues are! The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River as a god. They believed that the Nile was the god Osiris’ bloodstream flowing to their crops with nourishment. So what does God do? He turns it into blood!
Do you see what God is doing here? He is making a mockery of Osiris. “I am the God WHO IS,” God is saying to the Egyptians. “Osiris is not, and you’re foolish to believe in him.”
The Egyptians also had a fertility goddess. Her name was Heget, and she looked like a frog. So guess what God does. He makes her real fertile!
Exodus 8:1-7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.’ ” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’ ” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. (NIV)
God multiplies frogs all over Egypt, making a mockery of Heget, the frog-like fertility goddess. Is it fertility you want? You’ve got it – in your bed, in your cupboards, in your food, on your chair, everywhere. “I am the God WHO IS,” God is saying to the Egyptians. “Heget is not, and you’re foolish to believe in her.”
Now, the Egyptian magicians are able to do the same thing, so it doesn’t have much of an impact on Pharaoh. Hence, God sends another plague they cannot repeat. He turns the dust into pesky gnats.
Exodus 8:16-19 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said. (NIV)
Before there might have been some doubt, but now there is no doubt: God really exists. He is the God WHO IS, the I AM. This is a miracle no one else can duplicate, but Pharaoh still refused to believe. His heart was hard and he would not listen. As a result, Pharaoh begins to look very foolish, because his attitude and actions fly in the face of irrefutable evidence.
My dear friends, if you want to keep from looking like a fool, then unlike Pharaoh, you must believe that God is. The evidence is irrefutable! You cannot look at the intricate design in creation and honestly conclude, “It all came here by chance.” A tornado blowing through a junk yard is not going to produce a Ferrari. In the same way, the winds of chance and time are not going to produce the intricate design in a single DNA molecule, much less the human body.
Francis Collins is a world-renowned researcher and physician. He headed up the Human Genome Project before serving as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. In 2007, he wrote a New York Times best-selling book and titled it, The Language of God. It’s the story of his work interwoven with the story of his journey from atheism to faith in Christ.
It was a long period of searching, which included grilling a pastor and reading C. S. Lewis, but it was the beauty of creation that finally brought him to Christ. Here’s what he wrote:
“I had to make a choice. A full year had passed since I decided to believe in some sort of God, and now I was being called to account. On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains during my first trip west of the Mississippi, the majesty and beauty of God's creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ.” (Francis Collins, The Language of God, Free Press, 2007, p. 225; www.PreachingToday.com)
He had no other choice! The evidence before him was irrefutable, unless he wanted to play the part of a fool and ignore it altogether.
I like the way C. S. Lewis put it in his Chronicles of Narnia tale of The Magician’s Nephew. In the story, Uncle Andrew refuses to hear Aslan’s song, which brings all of creation into being. Aslan is a lion that represents Christ. Now, it’s not that Uncle Andrew cannot hear the song. He just dislikes the song, because it makes him think and feel things he does not want to think and feel. So he convinces himself that the song is only noise – the roaring of a lion. And the longer and more beautifully the lion sings, the harder Uncle Andrew tries to make himself believe that he can hear nothing but roaring. “Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are,” Lewis says, “is that you very often succeed.” (C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Collier Books, 1970, pp.125-126; www. PreachingToday.com)
Uncle Andrew did, and so do many today. It’s not that they CAN’T believe. It’s that they WON’T believe, and that makes them look very foolish. So if you don’t want to be a fool, 1st, acknowledge that God is. Then 2nd…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS HERE.
Recognize that God not only exists, but that He is personally involved with His people as their protector. Realize that God is a PRESENT help in a time of trouble for those who rely on Him. That’s what the next three plagues are all about.
Exodus 8:20-22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are. “ ‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. (NIV)
I.e., the land of Goshen where God’s people are. God wants Pharaoh to understand that He is with His people to protect and care for them. So when He sends the insects, Israel is spared.
Exodus 8:24 And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies. (NIV)
But not the land of Goshen. Then when God sends disease on all the cattle, Israel is spared again.
Exodus 9:1-7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’ ” The Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” And the next day the Lord did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharaoh sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go. (NIV)
God was there protecting His people. And when God sends the boils, only the Egyptians are afflicted.
Exodus 9:8-12 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land.” So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals. The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses. (NIV)
Where are all the Egyptian gods? Where is Sekhmet, goddess with power over disease? Where is Hathor, the cow goddess, or Apis, the bull god? Where is the insect god, Re? They are nowhere around. The Egyptian gods are tellingly absent. Only Israel’s God is there to protect His own people, and He is HERE, as well, to protect those of us who trust in His Son.
Corrie Ten Boom and her family lived in Holland during Hitler’s invasion of that country. She tells of that time in her book, The Hiding Place, and describes a particular night when she tossed restlessly in her bed while the war planes growled overhead.
After a while, she heard her sister, Betsy, downstairs in the kitchen. And since she couldn’t sleep anyway, Corrie went down for a cup of tea. They heard explosions all around them and talked well into the night until all was quiet again.
Then Corrie stumbled through the darkness back to her room. When she got there, she reached down to pat her pillow and cut her hand on something very sharp. It was a jagged piece of metal 10 inches long! She cried out for her sister and raced down the stairs with the shrapnel in her hand.
Betsy bandaged her hand and Corrie said, “Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen…”
“Don’t say it, Corrie,” Betsy replied. “There are no if’s in God’s world.”
That’s because God is here for His people. He is in this land protecting His own. And even if they die, they are not ultimately harmed, because God protects them from all judgment against sin.
Later, Corrie and Betsy were carried off to a concentration camp where Betsy died. But that wasn’t the end for her. It was the beginning of her glorious eternity in heaven.
You see, God Himself entered our world to save us from sin. Jesus is God, who became a man, so he could die on a cross for our sins and rise again. Now, anyone who finds refuge in Christ, finds protection from God’s wrath against sin. Judgment will one day fall on the entire world, as the plagues fell on all of Egypt, but those of us who depend on Christ are immune from that judgment. It doesn’t affect us, because Jesus has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.
My dear friends, if you haven’t yet put your trust in Christ, I urge you, “Do it today.” Call upon the Lord, who died for you and rose again, and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you will find that he makes a distinction between you and the rest of the world as He did for Israel in Egypt.
Don’t be a fool like Pharaoh. Acknowledge 1st, that God IS and 2nd, that God is HERE for you if you choose to depend on Him. Then 3rd, if you don’t want to be a fool…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS HOLY.
Recognize that God is unique unlike any other god. Realize that there is no one or nothing like Him. That’s what the third three plagues are all about. Look at Exodus 9:13 where those plagues are introduced.
Exodus 9:13-14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. (NIV)
God is unique, holy, set-apart in a class all by Himself. The hail storm He sends demonstrates that.
Exodus 9:22-26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on men and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.” When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were. (NIV)
They had seen hail storms before, but never like that. There is no one like God! The locusts He sends also demonstrate that.
Exodus 10:12-15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. (NIV)
They had seen locust invasions before, but never like that before or since! There is no one like God! The hail storm demonstrates that. The locust invasion demonstrates that, and the darkness God sends likewise demonstrates His uniqueness.
Exodus 10:21-23 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. (NIV)
They had seen darkness before, but never like that. There is no one like God! Acknowledge it, or like Pharaoh become a fool in denying it.
In his book Soul Searching, Christian Smith summarized the perceptions about God that are prevalent in our culture today and even in the church. He said that most people believe in what could best be described as “moral, therapeutic deism” (Think Santa Claus and you’ve got the idea).
Moral implies that God wants us to be nice. He rewards the good and withholds from the naughty.
Therapeutic means that God just wants us to be happy.
And Deism means that God is distant and not involved in our daily lives. Oh, God may get involved occasionally, but on the whole, God functions like an idea, not a personal being actively present in our world. (Christian Smith, Soul Searching; www.PreachingToday.com)
Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The God that IS is the God who IS HERE and the God who IS HOLY. He’s not an obese, jolly toymaker who works one day a year. He is the Almighty, actively involved in our every-day lives, judging sin even as He justifies believing sinners and equips them to serve Him.
That’s how God wants to be known. And if you know Him, God wants to use you to make Him known. So if you don’t want to be a fool, acknowledge that God IS; acknowledge that God IS HERE; acknowledge that God IS HOLY. Then…
ALLOW GOD TO USE YOU TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO THE WORLD.
Let God have His way in your life to make His name famous wherever He leads you. Accept your role in God’s plan to glorify Himself.
That’s what Moses had to do. At first, Moses is in the background, letting his big brother, Aaron, take the lead. Aaron is the one raising his staff. Aaron is the one God uses to perform the miracles.
Exodus 7:10 AARON threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. (NIV)
Exodus 7:19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell AARON, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt… and they will turn to blood. (NIV)
Exodus 8:6 So AARON stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. (NIV)
Exodus 8:17 When AARON stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. (NIV)
God is using Aaron initially, but when you get to the 6th plague, God says to Moses, “Now, it’s your turn!”
Exodus 9:8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have MOSES toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. (NIV)
Moses can no longer hide behind his big brother. Now, it Moses’ turn to let God use HIM! And from here on in, that’s what happens.
Exodus 9:10 MOSES tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals. (NIV)
Exodus 9:23 When MOSES stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail… (NIV)
Exodus 10:13 So MOSES stretched out his staff, and… by morning the wind had brought the locusts. (NIV)
Exodus 10:22 So MOSES stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. (NIV)
God glorified his name through Moses, and God wants to glorify His name through us, His people, today. So let Him use YOU to make Him famous and quit hiding behind someone else. Let God use YOU to make Him known at least to your friends.
As a 15-year-old girl in 1927, Lois Secrist promised God she'd go overseas as a missionary, perhaps to Africa or India, helping the needy. But Lois never made that trip.
At 23, she married Galon Prater, a handsome farmhand who became a heavy drinker.
Many years later, Galon did become a Christian and witness about the peace of Jesus to his drinking buddies. But by then he was almost 80 and nearing death. When he died January 9, 1988, Lois's childhood desire of becoming a missionary returned.
At first she resisted. At age 76, she felt her opportunity to serve overseas as a missionary had slipped away. Lois admits, “I said, ‘Lord, I'm too old to go now. I can't do this.’”
But this great grandmother was determined to fulfill her unforgotten promise. Pricked by the memory of ignoring God's calling as a teenager, Lois would not refuse a second chance at becoming a missionary.
So at 87, Lois Prater became the unlikely builder of an orphanage in the Philippines, which became a lifeline to 35 children whose lives have been rescued from neglect, begging in the streets, and parental abuse.
They lived in a two-story, 2,000 square foot white stucco home and called Lois, “Lola,” which means “grandmother” in their native Tagalog language. Lois's “children,” as she called them, ranged in age from eight months to 10 years, each with a heartbreaking story.
Now, Lois built the orphanage without taking out a loan, relying instead on individual financial support from across the United States. She was not supported by any mission organization or denomination, but depended solely on private donations.
When asked if that makes her nervous, she said confidently, “I serve a mighty God. He's in control. I feel I'm not talented enough to do any of this. But God enables me. My responsibility is to do what I can." (Gail Wood, “Mission Delayed,” Virtue, June/July 1999; www.PreachingToday.com)
Lois didn’t let age stop her from pursuing God’s call on her life. Don’t let age (young or old) stop you either. Acknowledge that God is, that God is here, and that God is holy. Then allow Him to use you to make Him known to a world in desperate need of Him. Do that; or else, be a fool!
