God is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
• But our understanding of Him is not. We grow in our knowledge of Him, continually. Our understanding is not always right.
• Our view of Him is challenged by the changing circumstances around us, by the experiences and the encounters we have in life. They cause us to question who God is.
• He has not changed. It’s just that we are trying to figure Him out.
God reveals Himself in three ways through the plagues.
• Moses and Aaron were sent into Egypt to demand for the release of the people of Israel but Pharaoh refused to let them go.
• The Lord unleashed a total of TEN PLAGUES against Egypt (chapters 7-12).
Sandwiched between the plagues are these remarks:
• Exo 5:1-2 1Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'" 2Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
• Exo 12:12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn - both men and animals - and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”
Through the plagues, God shows that there is only one true God and LORD. He will bring judgment against all the false gods of Egypt.
• The stage is set. God is the director behind the scenes.
• The main characters may be Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron; secondary role are the magicians of Egypt. But God is the principal player. The plagues reveal God.
Remember last week’s message – God is going to reveal Himself through the agency of human servants, through Moses and Aaron.
• No matter how doubtful you are, God can use you. Believe it.
• He has not changed His mode of operation today. Through you the world will see God.
There are three specific things we see about God in these plagues.
1. GOD IS POWERFUL
The plagues were all miraculous, supernatural, and out of the ordinary.
• In Exo 4:17 God tells Moses to “take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
• In Exo 7:4 God says I will “multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt.”
The language is clear: God was going to work miracles. They are not acts of nature, but acts of God.
He can start them and He can stop them anytime. The plagues come and go at the command of Moses and Aaron.
• The magicians were able to bring the frogs, but they could not get rid of them. Pharaoh has to ask Moses to help.
• If you have the power to start it but not stop it, you are not Almighty.
• If you can smoke but cannot stop it, you are not great but weak. If you can gamble but not quit it, you are not strong but weak. You are addicted, in bondage, not in control.
If God is so powerful, why didn’t He do it? He is powerful enough NOT to do it. He is in absolute control.
• Even Pharaoh’s magicians commended after the third plague (Gnats): “This is the finger of God.” (8:19)
• The plagues can even be executed SELECTIVELY:
Exo 8:22-23 (flies): The Lord says, "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. 23I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'"
Exo 9:3-4 (livestock): “…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. 4But 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.'"
Exo 10:22-23 (darkness): “So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. 23No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
In fact, it takes more faith to believe that all these can take place naturally, than to believe that God did them. God is a God of the miraculous.
• Nothing is normal (or natural) about these plagues – the execution, the timing, and the magnitude of every one of them – all points to the God who rules over all nature – the land, sea and sky. He has sovereign power over all creation.
• Trust Him, if God has chosen to do something miraculous in your life. Trust Him still, if God has chosen NOT to do something.
• He is powerful enough to start something and stop it from happening. He can control and direct it in the way He wants it to go.
2. GOD IS PURPOSEFUL
Exo 12:12 “… I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”
The Egyptians, like many pagan cultures, worship a wide variety of nature-gods and believe they exercised powers over the natural phenomena they see around them.
• They worship the god of the sun, the god of the river (nile), the goddess of fertility (the frogs), god of the earth, god of protection over their crops.
• When Pharaoh responded, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2), he just ushered in the challenge to God to show Himself. AND GOD DID JUST THAT.
Every plague was addressed to the powers of the gods the Egyptians believe in.
• They were not random. They were not theatrical display of God’s power.
• They were executed to show that none of the Egyptians gods were as powerful. All the gods that they believed in failed them, because they were all false gods.
The plagues were purposefully chosen to show that only the God of the Hebrews is the one and only true God. There is no other.
• The Lord says to Pharaoh: “By this you will know that I am the LORD...” (Exo 7:17).
• And not only that. At one point, after the eighth plague (hail) in Exo 9:16, the Lord said to Pharaoh, “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.”
The plagues served a purpose. God revealed Himself and made Himself known.
• The people of Israel got to see and know that their God has come for them.
• It wasn’t Moses or Aaron, and it wasn’t Pharaoh. God is their deliverer, their Saviour.
Look at what God is doing. God is revealing Himself to us through His works.
• God is helping us see aspects of Him that we do not know and have not seen.
• He has a purpose, even in the plagues, even in our trials and sufferings.
3. GOD IS MERCIFUL
Someone asked, “Why all the theatrics? Why didn’t God just cut to the chase and kill the Egyptian firstborns to begin with?”
• Just move straight to the last plague and scare the hell out of Pharaoh!
• If God had wanted to, He could. Why didn’t He?
The answer is, God is a merciful. He is giving you time. He is giving you a chance.
• If you take a closer look at the plagues, you will notice that they started small and ended large.
• They started relatively mild in their intensity, with the irritations of water into blood, frogs in your rooms and gnats (lice, mosquitoes) flying around.
And when Pharaoh would not relent, the flies came and devastated the land, followed by the death of the livestock and the boils on all men and animals.
• Things got even worse after that. The hail came and destroyed crops, then the locusts came and ate everything else, and then darkness covered the parts where Egyptians lived, for three days. It was so dark that it stopped people from leaving their houses.
Before the hails came, Pharaoh was given a special warning from God.
Exo 9:13-16 “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, 14or 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. 15For 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.”
Exo 9:16-19 “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. 17You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. 19Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.'"
Isn’t God gracious? He even gave Pharaoh good advice as to what he should do, before “this time tomorrow”. God gave them time to react.
Exo 9:20 “Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. 21But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field.”
Those who believed and obeyed are blessed. The choice is always in our hands.
God gave Pharaoh, not one, not two, not three, but ten chances to submit to Him.
• He was given ten opportunities to recant his trust in false gods and put his faith in Jehovah God.
• He started off saying I DO NOT KNOW THE LORD and the Lord showed him many times I AM THE LORD.
• How many more chances do you want God to give you?
God is merciful. He tells prophet Ezekiel: “As I live, declared the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11)
• The choice is yours. Death came, eventually, because Pharaoh chose it. He hardened his heart and made his choice.
• Sin leads to death and all men will die in their sin. God has provided us a way out, but men do not want to take it up.
Do we see the extend God will go to get our attention? Time after time, again and again? Don’t harden your heart. Don’t be stubborn.
• Take up God’s offer and experience His blessings.
There is only one true God. He is worthy of our worship. He is powerful, purposeful and full of mercy.
• Put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. He is God in human flesh. He came to save us from our sin. Believe Him and you are forgiven.
• Be reconciled with God and receive the gift of life eternal.
