The Mighty Hand of God
Exodus 8:16-19
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Exodus.
- Last week, we looked at the second plague God sent on Egypt, the plague of frogs.
- We compared the “frog problem” with sin, and saw that the frogs multiplied, just like sin does…
- The frogs covered everything, just like sin does once it gains a stronghold in our lives.
- And we saw that the frogs died, which is what sins leads to, death, if the person does not turn to Jesus.
- This week, we’re going to look at the Mighty Hand of God.
- One of the tv shows my boys like to watch is called Power Rangers.
- Power Rangers has been running on tv for a long time, and all the power rangers in the different seasons are different from each other.
- However, one of the things they all have in common is that they all have Zords.
- Zords are these giant robots that the power rangers use to defeat the giant versions of their enemy.
- One of the things that stands out to me when I watch this show is how big the hands on these robots are.
- They’re huge!
- So usually, the attacks the Power rangers use have something to do with the hands on their zords.
- Punching, chopping, holding a giant sword and slashing with it, or holding a giant gun and shooting it…
- The hands on those robots are huge and very mighty…they have a lot of power!
- Obviously, the power rangers and their zords are make-believe, but if they were real, their power would be nothing compared with the mighty hand of God!
- So let’s look at 3 things we see about God in the next plague He sends, the plague of lice!
I.) God can do things the way He wants to- Vs 16
- Sometimes, we think we know how someone or something works, and we expect the same method and outcome every time.
- Then we find out that’s not always the case!
- For example, I was never very good at Algebra class.
- However, algebra was one of the required classes I had to take in order to graduate college.
- I’ll never forget taking the placement exam to see which class I’d have to take.
- I was hoping it wouldn’t be the basic one, because that class didn’t count toward credits for your degree.
- Well, I didn’t do so well, so I ended up having to take that class.
- Once I passed that class, it was time to take algebra.
- Oh, and this was all online, so that made it even more difficult.
- I remember how hard it was.
- But one of the things that made it easier was the way it was structured online.
- For most sections, there were practice questions.
- The practice questions showed you exactly how to solve the problem, step by step.
- So once I looked over the practice ones, I was able to do it step by step with the questions on the test.
- Unfortunately, not all of the questions on the exam had a practice question.
- That’s because it was set up for you to learn the subject, not just memorize the steps on how to do the problem.
- I’d come across a harder one without a practice question, and I’d ask myself, “Why can’t they just do it the same way with all of the problems?”
- The answer is because the creators of the course material were able to create it however they wanted to.
- That’s just a small example, but sometimes, we do the same thing with God.
- We think we know how God works and we expect Him to use the same method and give the same outcome each and every time.
- It’s almost like we put Him in a box, but God has many ways of doing things, and He always accomplishes His will in His way.
- That’s what we see here with the plague of lice.
- With the last 2 plagues, Pharaoh was given a warning.
- God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and to tell him, “Thus saith the Lord!”
- This time, however, God doesn’t tell Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him what the next plague will be.
- Instead, Moses is told to tell Aaron to stretch out his rod and strike the dust of the land, turning it into lice.
- Depending on the translation of the Bible you have, it will either say ‘lice’ or ‘gnats.’
- The Hebrew word can be translated to mean either of those, so it’s not a huge deal which one it is.
- Either way, you’ve got a tiny little insect that brings a lot of misery to the person or animal it afflicts.
- Personally, I believe this plague was lice, because that’s what I was taught as a child.
- So, let’s think about this for a moment.
- Pharaoh and his people have just gone through the plague of frogs, and now, they’re trying to go back to normal.
- The last thing Pharaoh promised was that he would let the Israelites go to sacrifice to the Lord.
- Then, in vs 15, we’re told that he hardened his heart and didn’t let them go.
- I think Pharaoh thought he’d won.
- He told God when to stop the plague, and that might have made him think he had the upper hand.
- Now, the frogs are all dead, he’s back in his palace, and he thinks the plagues are over.
- He’s still blinded, and he’s still stubborn.
- If I had been Pharaoh, I would have been shaking in fear, wondering what horrible plague God was going to send next…
- Not Pharaoh though…
- He hardened his heart because there was relief.
- I believe Pharaoh also thought he didn’t have anything to worry about because Moses didn’t come back to him to announce the next judgment, like he did the other times.
- We’re not told how much time there was between the second plague and the third plague, but I think we can safely say that it was more than one day, because the Egyptians had to gather the dead frog carcasses up and throw them in piles.
- With all the frogs that had been there, it probably took them several days to do this.
- During that time, Moses doesn’t come back to Pharaoh, and I believe Pharaoh thought he was going to.
- Since he didn’t come back, Pharaoh probably thought, “Hah! That’s all he’s got?! Well I survived…I showed their God who the boss is!”
- Pharaoh was hugely mistaken though.
- God was about to show him, with His mighty hand, who was the One in control.
- What about you and me?
- Are there times when we think we know better than God?
- I think we’ve all been there; those times when we think we know how God should do something, or we think we know when He should do it…
- Then we find out quickly that God is doing it His own way, not ours.
- Then we get frustrated with God because He’s not doing it our way…
- Proverbs 19:21 says, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.”
- Think about Moses for a minute…
- Can you imagine how silly it would have been for him to say to God, “Wait a minute, Lord. You didn’t tell me to go to Pharaoh and tell him about this plague. You can’t send the lice until I warn him first, like the other times…”
- No, that thought probably didn’t even cross Moses’ mind, because He understood that God knew what He was doing…
- He didn’t need Moses and Aaron’s input or help to make sure He was doing it the right way…
- It’s the same with you and me.
- Imagine how silly it is to think that we could stand before God and say, “Wait a minute, Lord. I don’t think you should do it that way. Here’s how I think you should do it, my way would be better!”
- I think we’d deserve a kick in the behind…yet we do it all the time, don’t we?
- Here are some examples:
- “God, this person did wrong to me. I want to see you make them pay for what they did to me!”
- Yet we’re told in God’s Word, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord!”
- God wants us to forgive and love our enemies.
- How about, “God, I don’t have enough money. You should give me more money, that way I can tithe more and have more money to help people.”
- Yet we’re told in God’s Word, “…godliness with contentment is great gain!”
- It’s more important to be happy with what God has given you, than to covet more money, and try to use tithing or helping others as an excuse…
- How about, “God, I really want this important thing to happen now. I need it now, and it’s really hard to wait. If you give it to me now, I know I’ll be happier and closer to you.”
- Yet God tells us in His Word to “…wait upon the Lord…”, and when we do, “…we will mount up with wings as eagles, we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not faint.”
- How often we forget that God’s timing is always best…
- That’s evident all throughout Scripture, and we all could probably point to something in our lives where He’s already shown us that.
- So you and I must never forget that God’s Mighty Hands are much better at taking care of whatever our issue is.
- His hands are the same ones that hold the world together.
- His hands are the same ones that hold you and I as Christians secure, and He’ll never let go of us or cast us away.
- Those hands can do whatever they want because they belong to God Almighty, Our Creator and Sustainer, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the end…
II.) God can use even the smallest of things- Vs 17
- When I was a young child, my hair was long and curly, and because I’m Puerto Rican, it puffed out, sort of like an afro, but worse.
- I didn’t do a good job combing it, so the longer it got, the more tangled it got, and messier.
- I’ll never forget those dreaded times of year at school when all the children had to go to the nurse’s office and be checked for lice.
- I dreaded it because I knew what was coming.
- The nurse sits you down, grabs a flashlight, and proceeds to move her fingers around all over your scalp.
- I was always so embarrassed because every year, up until about 7th or 8th grade, the nurse always found lice in my hair.
- That meant getting sent home in shame.
- Then my mom would have to shampoo my hair with some kind of special shampoo.
- After that, my parents always made me go and get a haircut…
- Back then, I didn’t like getting my hair buzzed off, although it was much easier to take care of than the tangled-up mess I had on my head.
- So the barber would shave everything off, and when I returned to school, all the other kids knew that I had lice.
- Some of them even blamed me for giving them lice, so I had a rough childhood.
- Today, I don’t have to worry about that anymore because I shave my head most every week, voluntarily.
- Lice are small, and they’re gross…
- When they get in your hair, there’s an unbearable itchy feeling, and all you can do is scratch and scratch and scratch some more.
- Even as you scratch, though, you don’t get relief because the lice are all over the place in your hair, and what they’re doing is feeding on your blood.
- It’s amazing that such a tiny little creature can cause so much pain and torment to a person.
- The Egyptians had to deal with probably millions of these horrible creatures, because it says the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt…
- They were crawling all over men and beasts.
- So why did God send lice?
- There are likely 2 reasons…
- One is that the Egyptians worshipped a god named Set, who supposedly was the god of the desert.
- So when God turned the dust of the desert into lice to torment the people, not only was He judging them, but He also was judging their god Het, who should have had the power to stop the lice, since the dust was supposedly his.
- The second reason God sent lice is because the Egyptians priests prided themselves on their purity.
- They constantly shaved and washed, and they wore linen robes.
- These lice that God sent were so vicious that it didn’t matter how clean the priests were, or how little hair they had…the lice still tormented them.
- It was so bad that they couldn’t perform their duties as priests…
- On top of that, the beasts were also being tormented by the lice, and the beasts were supposed to be used by the Egyptians to make sacrifices to their gods.
- Now, they couldn’t because their priests and their sacrifices were polluted by this plague.
- So, the One True God put a complete halt to their worship of these false gods by sending a whole lot of tiny little creatures…lice.
- That shows you just how mighty the hand of God truly is!
- God can use even the smallest of things.
- Does that still ring true today for you and me?
- The answer is yes.
- Turn with me please to 1 Corinthians 1:26-29…
- To illustrate this, I want you to think back to when you were a kid.
- Most of us probably played some kind of sport for fun with our friends…
- In order to choose who went on which team, there were 2 captains who would take turns picking kids for their team.
- One of the things I remember is that the team captains always started with the kids who they thought were the best at the sport.
- So the tall kids, and the fast kids, and the big kids, would all get picked first.
- By the end of it, there were 2 kids left who got chosen last because they either weren’t good at the game, or didn’t look like they could play very good…
- That’s the way humanity views our world…the strongest and best get chosen for things, while the smallest and weakest get left out or chosen last.
- But when God looks at humanity, He doesn’t look on the exterior…He looks on the inside, at our heart.
- So even though a person might look like they’re weak or foolish or small, that doesn’t matter to God.
- God can use anyone to accomplish His will.
- We see it constantly in Scripture…
- Moses was 80 years old, and not a warrior, yet God used him to deliver His people from one of the most powerful empires in the world at the time.
- Gideon was weak, scared, and had no confidence, yet God also used him to deliver Israel from their enemies…
- David was a shepherd boy, yet God gave him the strength and courage to kill a lion and a bear…
- Then He gave him the boldness to face the giant Goliath in battle and kill him, even though the strongest soldiers of Israel cowered away from.
- God has done it over and over and over again…
- He uses the foolish, the weak, the based and despised people to accomplish His will in so many instances.
- So think about this…
- If God could use a tiny, disgusting little insect called lice to bring a wicked people to their knees, what can He do with us?
- When we’re available, and willing to do whatever God asks us to, He will always equip us and give us the strength and talent we need to do it.
- For example, years ago, I hated public speaking.
- My legs would shake, my face would go pale, my mouth would get dry, and I’d stumble over my words.
- I hated any time I had to speak in front of people at school or in the Army.
- Yet here I am today, by the grace of God, standing here preaching God’s Word because He helped me overcome that fear by being with me.
- There’s absolutely no way that I could do this on my own!
- What’s He asking you to do?
- Don’t listen when the enemy tries to tell you, “You can’t do it. You’re too weak. You’re not equipped. The task is more than you can handle…”
- Instead, listen to Christ, who says in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
III.) God can make the Enemy powerless- Vs 18-19
- One of my favorite things to read about in military history is cavalry charges where mounted soldiers on horseback rush toward the enemy to inflict as much damage as possible.
- According to history.com, in 1942, what many consider the last cavalry charge in history took place in the Soviet Union.
- The era of large-scale clashes between mounted fighters, which stretched back to ancient times, had finally come to an end.
- With sabers drawn, about 600 Italian cavalrymen yelled out their traditional battle cry of “Savoia!” and galloped headlong toward 2,000 Soviet foot soldiers armed with machine guns and mortars.
- They were part of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during WW2.
- On August 23, 1942 the cavalrymen were attempting to close a gap that had opened up between the Italian and German armies along the Don River.
- It was to be the end of an era.
- In a closely packed formation, the Italian cavalrymen hurled themselves at the left flank and rear of the Soviet line, tossing hand grenades and slashing with their sabers.
- Despite heavy losses, they then passed through the line in a reverse direction and helped to dislodge the Soviets from their position.
- Obviously, machine guns, missiles, tanks, and all the other examples of weapons used in modern warfare made the horse-mounted cavalry obsolete.
- The more powerful weapons made the horse Cavalry powerless and helpless before their enemies on the battlefield.
- That’s kind of like what happens with the Egyptian magicians here.
- In vs 18, they attempt to use their magic to bring forth lice, but this time, they can’t.
- It’s kind of weird that they would want to make any more lice appear, since they were suffering already, but Pharaoh wanted them to, so they tried.
- But just like we said in the first point that God can do things the way He wants to, that’s what happens here.
- Instead of allowing the magicians and the demonic forces behind them to copy this plague like they did the others, He instead stops them and makes them powerless and helpless.
- This causes them to respond by giving God the credit He deserved…
- “This is the finger of God!”
- They realize that the God of Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites had more power than them, or their false gods.
- It’s amazing to me that this is only the 3rd plague, and they’re now coming to this conclusion, which is the right one…
- God did do this, through His power…
- Yet they still have 7 plagues to go because they won’t repent and worship God Almighty.
- You’d think that they would have realized that God had the True Power, and they had none…
- You’d think they would have repented and honored and served the One True God instead of Pharaoh and the false gods of Egypt.
- Instead, they turned to Pharaoh, who we’re told in vs 19, would not heed them, and his heart grew hard.
- Basically, his magicians are telling him that they’re useless and can no longer compete with the God of the Israelites, yet just like God said, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.
- What about you and me?
- In what ways is the enemy powerless against God and His people?
- First of all, he’s fighting a losing battle…
- He lost the day he was filled with pride and fell from Heaven…
- The book of Revelation tells us that the enemy, Satan, will be spending eternity in the lake of fire.
- Yet today, he continues to fight.
- And you and I, as God’s people, have targets on our back.
- Yet Satan only has the power that God allows him to have.
- In the story of Job, Satan had to ask God for permission before he could afflict Job…
- That’s because Job belonged to God, and Satan had no power over him.
- Ephesians 6 tells us about the armor of God that He has given us to stand against the devil and his minions.
- In James, He tells us to submit to God, who gives us the strength to resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
- The enemy’s also powerless against God and His people because He can’t steal our salvation.
- In the book of 1 Peter, we’re told that we’re kept by the power of God through faith.
- Jesus tells us in John that those who come to Him will not be cast out…no one can snatch us out of His hand, especially not Satan!
- The Mighty hand of God makes the Enemy powerless against believers.
- But what about those who are without Christ?
- Aren’t they blinded by Satan?
- Yes, they are.
- Aren’t they dead in their trespasses and sin?
- Yes, they are.
- Isn’t Satan called their father, the devil?
- Yes, he is.
- So how does God have the power in that case, if Satan has so many people deceived and on their way to hell?
- The answer is that Satan only has the power that God allows him to have.
- In 1 John, we’re told that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, as the atoning sacrifice.
- So He paid the penalty for every lost person’s sin, just like He paid the penalty for believers…He died for the sin of the world.
- Now, they have a choice to make…choose Christ, or reject Him.
- Rejection of Christ means an eternity in hell…
- But Satan doesn’t get to claim unbelievers for himself…
- Of course not!
- Every single person who walks this earth has the opportunity to turn to Christ and become part of His family.
- God’s Mighty Hand of Power defeated Satan and sin and death when He died on the Cross.
- So when a person rejects Christ today, yes, Satan has influence over them in this world, but he is not their god, and he never will be!
- He won’t even be their god in the lake of fire because he will be there being judged, just like them.
- No, Satan’s not their god…
- God is their God…
- Their rejection of God is between them and God, and Satan doesn’t have the authority to pull someone away before they have a chance to turn to Christ.
- No…he can blind their minds, he can feed them lies, he can give them the things they lust for and try to keep them away from God…
- But God is the True One who has the power.
- You say, “Then why doesn’t God step in and save that person?”
- The answer is because He didn’t create robots…
- We all have to make a decision, just like Adam and Eve made their choice to disobey God and eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden.
- God gave us all free will, and Satan can’t take that away.
- So if you’re here today or watching on the tv, and you’ve never given your life to Jesus, I encourage you to do so today.
- The Mighty Hand of God has defeated Satan.
- The Mighty Hand of God has paid the penalty on the Cross for your sin and my sin, and the offer of salvation is His free gift to us.
- Turn to Him today and receive His forgiveness.
- Let’s pray.
