Let me start this morning, by asking two questions. These aren't rhetorical. Feel free to answer:
Up to this point in Exodus, what plagues have we seen?
(1) The Nile, and every body of water, turn to blood.
(2) Frogs, everywhere.
(3) Flies.
(4) Gnats.
And when we focus on Yahweh, what have we seen?
Yahweh has been stubborn, and relentless, in demanding one thing-- that Pharaoh release HIS people, that they may serve (follow KJV here, not NIV) Him. He keeps saying this over and over. He keeps demanding the same thing. And He keeps working toward that end. We see God fighting for his people.
And Pharaoh, in response, has been stubborn, almost perfectly, in resisting. Armed with only a strong, and heavy, resolve, he's managed to hold out, and hold on to Israel. But it's costing him, dearly.
And so here we find ourselves, Exodus 9, verse 1. It's time for the next battle:
(1) And Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go to Pharaoh,
and tell him,
"Thus has said Yahweh the God of the Hebrews: Release my people, that they may serve me,
(2) because if refusing, you [are], to release, and still strengthening against them, LOOK! The hand of Yahweh is against your livestock that [are] in the fields, against the horses, against the donkeys, against the camels, against the herds, and against the sheep--- a very heavy pestilence/plague,"
Let's pause here. If you're reading in an English translation, verse 2 is going to sound different. [Put one in a handout: NIV: 2 If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back,]. They all say, "if you still hold on to them." But this verb, "holding," is the same verb we keep seeing for Pharaoh "strengthening" his resolve. The idea here isn't that Pharaoh is "holding" them. He's "strengthening." Yahweh is talking about Pharaoh's resolve, and stubbornness.
And the same preposition "b" that we've seen used to mean "against," also shows up here. Just like the frogs, and flies, and gnats, came "against" Egypt, so Pharaoh strengthens "against" Moses, and Yahweh.
Yahweh here warns Pharaoh about how this will play out for him, unless he turns from this. If Pharaoh keeps "strengthening" "against" his people, Yahweh will send disease "against" every domestic animal in your nation.
And I think this marks a huge escalation. Sickness and disease are a fundamentally different type of judgment than what Pharaoh's seen so far. If God sent millions of frogs, or flies, or gnats against you, it'd be overwhelming, right? But there are things you can do, to mitigate the effects. You can spear a frog to make yourself feel a little better. You can kill them, and seal a room off. With flies or gnats, you can swat them. You can make netting, to try to keep them out of your house. It's like tent camping-- eventually you've killed most of the mosquitoes that want to eat you, and you can fall asleep. Even if you know it's hopeless, overall, there are small things you can do to make life a little better.
But if God strikes your animals with some type of disease, what do you do? Today, depending on the disease, you'd probably use some type of medicine. Ivermectin, maybe. But if you don't know what the disease is, or how to fight it, all you can do, is watch your animals die.
One year at Christmas time on my wife's side of the family, they had a big extended family Christmas at her uncle's house. And her uncle farms, and ranches. Right before we were there, he lost maybe a dozen cows to some kind of disease-- maybe more, I can't remember. They weren't my cows.
And everyone there felt terrible for him. And he felt terrible. Right in the middle of this joyous time of year for most people (NOT ME!), when you're surrounded by 80 family members at your house, because you're hosting, all you want to do is grieve the loss of your cows. Not mostly because of the money they represent, and the hours, and the sweat, and investment you've made, but because you have this sense of responsibility for them, and in some way they are part of who you are. Everyone who looked at him, saw the loss on his face. It was really sad.
From a human, fleshly perspective, there is a helplessness to disease. The fact that it's internal, and mysterious, and not easily fought, can make anyone break.
Verse 4-5:
(4) and Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt,
and they will not die from any of the sons of Israel a thing,
(5) and Yahweh set a time, saying,
"Tomorrow Yahweh will do this matter in/against the land,"
(6) and Yahweh did this matter on the next day,
and all the livestock of Egypt died,
while from the livestock of the sons of Israel not one died,
Last time, Moses allowed Pharaoh to set the time when the flies would be removed from the country. He very humbly, graciously, let Pharaoh do this.
Here, all of this is gone. There's no velvet glove here. There's no kindness. Yahweh sets the time, and Yahweh sends the disease, and Yahweh kills what He promised to kill.
And when Yahweh does all of this, we should see that Yahweh is not like Pharaoh.
When Pharaoh makes a decision, and a promise, to people, his word is trash. He doesn't keep his word if it hurts.
But when God says He will do something, He does it.
And Yahweh once again makes a distinction between his people, and Pharaoh's people. Between their animals, and Egypt's.
Verse 7:
(7) and Pharaoh sent out,
and LOOK! They hadn't died from the livestock of the Israel even one,
and the heart/resolve of Pharaoh was heavy,
and he didn't release [=cause to be sent out] the people,
Verse 7, in the Hebrew, is incredibly ironic. There's a verbal link here that's hard to bring out in English, but it's the key to understanding the verse.
Let's reread Exodus 9:1:
(1) And Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go to Pharaoh,
and tell him,
"Thus has said Yahweh the God of the Hebrews: RELEASE my people, that they may serve me.
Originally, what's the one thing Yahweh wants from Pharaoh? [That he "release" Israel, so that they may serve Him.]
Here, in verse 7, in the Hebrew, Pharaoh almost does the right verb. He almost releases. Instead, he "sends out." This is same Hebrew root, just a different stem. And the difference in meaning, really, comes down to a single dot in a single letter [the tall one second from the left].
So Pharaoh doesn't "release." ????????
Instead, he "sends out." ????????????
And what Pharaoh finds, when he "sends out," is that Yahweh kept his word. Yahweh can do, and will do, what He says.
Pharaoh, though, doesn't care. His resolve is heavy. He will not be moved.
This is ridiculous, right? Imagine domestic animals dying everywhere around you. You know it's not random, or chance, because God told you when it would happen. Your nation's wealth, and means of production, disappears in front of your eyes. And you don't care. It does nothing to you.
Crazy.
So Yahweh takes this to the next level, with another plague. Exodus 9, verse 8:
(8) and Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron,
"Take for yourselves in the fullness of the hollows of your hand, soot/ash from the kiln,
and may Moses scatter it toward the heavens before the eyes of Pharaoh,
(9) and it will become fine dust upon all the land of Egypt,
and it will become upon the humans and upon the cattle a boil/sore breaking out festers in/against all the land of Egypt,"
(10) and they took the soot/ash of the kiln and they stood before Pharaoh,
and Moses scattered it toward the heavens,
and it became boils, festers breaking out against the humans and against the livestock,
(11) and the magicians weren't able to stand before Moses, before the presence of the boils,
because the festering was against the magicians and against all Egypt,
(12) and Yahweh strengthened the heart/resolve of Pharaoh,
and he didn't listen to them,
just as Yahweh said to Moses.
Let's start by looking at something in verse 10, because this really bothers some people (and it's one of the things scholars in Exodus use to say that we are working with different sources, sort of awkwardly put together by a clumsy redactor). This disease comes against the humans, and against the livestock.
Now, Exodus just told us that in the last plague, God killed all the livestock. So how can there be any livestock left? "All" isn't something that we are supposed to take completely literally. "All" apparently means, "lots." [And so Exodus is using at least some hyperbole.]
And this disease that Yahweh sends, is a terrible disease. In some ways, it's something like smallpox (one of my lexicons-- HALOT?-- suggests this). It results in puss-filled sores, that break out. Gross. Horrible. A true pandemic-- and one that affects humans and animals. The stuff of nightmares.
The other thing we are supposed to see here, is the total humiliation of the magicians. At first, the magicians could imitate God's signs. Then, they were no longer able to, but could only attest that they were seeing the "finger of God."
Here, we see that their magic can't protect them. They are helpless. And they can't even stand before Moses. There is no magic spell, or witch's brew, or magic wand, that can protect them from God. I imagine that they are like Job, off in hiding somewhere, scraping their festering boils with a broken pot. This is a total, humiliating defeat for them. They don't even dare share up anymore, because their miserable lives have become a testimony to God's power. They can't "stand" against him. They can't resist him. They're helpless.
Now, as bad as this has been, it could be worse. If we stop to think about it, there are still two ways God could escalate his judgments.
The first, is that Pharaoh isn't personally affected by this pandemic. As far as we know, he was himself spared from the disease. So Yahweh is still holding back. He's still not revealing his full power.
The second, is that this pandemic doesn't actually seem to kill anyone. Half the country might wonder if they're better off dead. But God, up to this point, hasn't taken his judgment all the way.
Still, though, this is pretty bad, right? It's not hard for most of us to remember the worst sickness we ever had in life. One winter, I got back to back waves of stomach flu, and I looked like a skeleton when I got through. Weighed 148 pounds-- I almost could've been an Olympic ski jumper. It was terrible. And I'm guessing you all have stories like mine.
Sickness is a terrible thing.
So it's remarkable that Pharaoh is still holding strong in all of this. We have an unstoppable force, against an immovable object. Who will win?
Now, I say that, but why is Pharaoh still holding strong? How is this possible? Let's reread verse 12:
(12) and Yahweh strengthened the heart/resolve of Pharaoh,
and he didn't listen to them,
just as Yahweh said to Moses.
Here, for the first time, Yahweh helps Pharaoh, perversely, by strengthening his resolve. What should happen here, is that Pharaoh realizes he's doomed.
If God can send a disease that brings your nation to its knees, that gives you horrible, erupting boils, but doesn't seem to kill anyone, then what else can God do? And what's left, at this point? How else can God make things worse for you?
The only thing left for God to do, is to start killing people. Right? What else is there? But God strengthens Pharaoh's resolve, so that he doesn't stop, and learn from what he's seeing. Instead, God makes sure that Pharaoh does the impossible-- he resists.
At this point, let's back up, and reread Exodus 9:1-2:
(1) And Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go to Pharaoh,
and tell him,
"Thus has said Yahweh the God of the Hebrews: Release my people, that they may serve me,
(2) because if refusing, you [are], to release, and still strengthening against them, LOOK! The hand of Yahweh is against your livestock that [are] in the fields, against the horses, against the donkeys, against the camels, against the herds, and against the sheep--- a very heavy pestilence/plague,"
At the start of chapter 9, Pharaoh is warned about what will happen if he keeps "strengthening" against Israel.
Yahweh commands him to stop doing this.
But he doesn't.
And now, it's too late for Pharaoh. From now on, whenever Pharaoh weakens, God will strengthen his resolve, to make sure he doesn't repent.
What we see here, is something we see throughout the Bible. The day comes, when it's too late to repent. The day comes, when the only thing left, is God's judgment. Let's read from Psalm 95:6-11:
6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
["hardening" here is "hardening," not "strengthening." Same verb found in Exodus 7:3]
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
The day to repent is "today." Because later, might be too late.
Pharaoh has hit that day.
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For an application today, let's focus on God. I will try to do my very best, to help you revel in God, and God's power.
What we see in these two plagues, is that Yahweh is The One Who Decides What Happens Next. God says, "Tomorrow," and it happens tomorrow.
We don't read anything about the magicians chanting spells to ward off evil. We don't read about Pharaoh vaccinating the animals and people to protect them. There are no masks; there is no wall; there is no defense.
When God comes against you in judgment, there's nothing you can do. All you do, if you aren't willing to repent, is take it, and suffer, and show off how stubborn you are.
If you're on the wrong end of God's judgment, it's bad. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But for those of you who are on the right end of God's judgment, this should be a great comfort. And really, all of the plagues, together, should be a great comfort.
One time, when a church was in the process of hiring a pastor, someone in the congregation asked the most brilliant question ever: "Is so-and-so a 'Big God' Pastor?"
His question stripped away every question about personality, and theology, and gifting, and fit, and experience, and seminary training. In the end, what matters?
I would say, probably, that there are two questions that really matter.
First, "Does so-and-so genuinely care for others, and their interests?" (Philippians 2:4, 20).
And second, "does so-and-so believe that God is a Big God?" And I don't mean this in an abstract, or theoretical sense. The question isn't whether God, theoretically, is able to be a Big God. I'm confident we can all answer that question correctly.
The question, really, is whether God, will be a Big God for you.
When there's a Pharaoh in your life, will God show off his power, for you? Will God bring acts of judgment and fight, for you?
That's the question for all of us. Not just for pastors. Do you believe that God will fight for you?
When we were little kids in children's church, we all knew the answer to this. Our hands would've gone up, we'd have bounced up and down, and said, "YES!" We all had childlike faith, at one time. We knew that God would fight for us, if we called on him.
But by the time we were old enough to teach children's church, we were less sure. At some point along the way, we changed.
We started to think that our enemy, was our problem.
We started to think that every hardship is God's will for us, and that we should quietly endure it.
We started noticing that sometimes, people ask for God's help in prayer, and God seemingly doesn't help.
We started to think God no longer does, what He used to reliably do.
And eventually, the Pharaohs of our life started to look bigger and bigger. And God started to look smaller, and smaller. Not theoretically, or abstractly. We could still teach children's church, and say the right things. But practically? We started thinking we serve a small God.
How do we escape this? How can we become like our kids again?
Part of the answer is found in focusing on God's word. When God makes up his mind about something-- when He has a plan-- all He has to do is speak, and his word makes it happen. God says "tomorrow," and it happens "tomorrow." When God does this, his will is done on earth, just as it is heaven.
Let's turn to Isaiah 55:6-12:
(6) Seek Yahweh while He can be found;
call him while He is near.
(7) May the evil one forsake/abandon his road,
while an evil man his thoughts/plans,
and may he return to Yahweh,
and He will have compassion on him-- and to our God--,
For/because He will forgive abundantly.
(8) For/because my plans are not your plans,
and your roads are not my roads-- utterance of Yahweh;
(9) for/because the heavens are higher than the earth, thus [are] my roads higher than your roads,
and my thoughts/plans [higher] than your thoughts/plans;
(10) for/because just as the rain comes down, with the snow, from the heavens, and to there it doesn't return,
but only soaks the earth, and makes it bring forth/give birth, and makes it sprout, and gives seed to the sower and bread to eat-- (11) thus my word shall/will be, that comes out from my mouth.
It will not return to me empty/in vain,
but only it will do what I have pleased,
and it will be successful/prosperous in what I sent it.
Isaiah isn't talking about the Bible here. Words from the Bible can go out from the pulpit, and accomplish nothing. We can read the Bible, and have it do nothing to us.
When Isaiah is talking about God's word, he's talking about God's actual speech. God has big thoughts and plans. High thoughts and plans. And He accomplishes those plans through his word-- his speech. God says "tomorrow," and that's when it happens. His word is incredibly fruitful. It is completely successful, in what He sent it out for.
[And when we think about Jesus as being "the Word" (John 1), this passage is even more amazing].
And what we see in Exodus 9, is a clear example of what all of this looks like. God is the One Who Decides What Happens Next.
So this morning, reach up, and see things from God's perspective. Think the higher thoughts. Walk the higher road. Yahweh is a big God. Claim that. Believe that. And use these plagues, to strengthen your faith. God will be ("Yahweh"), whatever God wants to be.
Translation:
(1) And Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go to Pharaoh,
and tell him,
"Thus has said Yahweh the God of the Hebrews: Release my people, that they may serve me,
(2) because if refusing, you [are], to release, and still strengthening against them, LOOK! The hand of Yahweh is against your livestock that [are] in the fields, against the horses, against the donkeys, against the camels, against the herds, and against the sheep--- a very heavy pestilence/plague,"
(4) and Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt,
and they will not die from any of the sons of Israel a thing,
(5) and Yahweh set a time, saying,
"Tomorrow Yahweh will do this matter in/against the land,"
(6) and Yahweh did this matter on the next day,
and all the livestock of Egypt died,
while from the livestock of the sons of Israel not one died,
(7) and Pharaoh sent out,
and LOOK! They hadn't died from the livestock of the Israel even one,
and the heart/resolve of Pharaoh was heavy,
and he didn't release [=cause to be sent out] the people,
(8) and Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron,
"Take for yourselves in the fullness of the hollows of your hand, soot/ash from the kiln,
and may Moses scatter it toward the heavens before the eyes of Pharaoh,
(9) and it will become fine dust upon all the land of Egypt,
and it will become upon the humans and upon the cattle a boil/sore breaking out festers in/against all the land of Egypt,"
(10) and they took the soot/ash of the kiln and they stood before Pharaoh,
and Moses scattered it toward the heavens,
and it became boils, festers breaking out against the humans and against the livestock,
(11) and the magicians weren't able to stand before Moses, before the presence of the boils,
because the festering was against the magicians and against all Egypt,
(12) and Yahweh strengthened the heart/resolve of Pharaoh,
and he didn't listen to them,
just as Yahweh said to Moses.
