We are in Exodus chapter 8 this morning, and we're actually going to go through chapter 11, so you'll want to order a pizza. I'll try to get any of you out of here by five o'clock this evening; it's going to be a long one. Alright, now we'll try and keep it short, but what we are going to do is work through the plagues that God sends upon the people of Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go. Just to backtrack with you, this story isn't really about Moses, it's not really about the Israelites, and it's not really about the Egyptians; it's about God revealing himself to men and it's about God dealing with the condition of men's hearts.
If you remember the story, Moses grew up in Pharaoh's household. At age 40, he realized that his people, the Israelites, were under persecution and bondage, and he wanted to do something about it. So, he thought, having grown up in Pharaoh's household, he was the perfect guy to do that. Unfortunately, it didn't work out well, and so for the next 40 years, he is wandering, waiting for whatever the next assignment might be. That comes to him through a burning bush. God tells him, "Moses, you're my guy. I'm sending you to Pharaoh. I want my people to be free, and you're my person." Moses begins to tell him all the reasons why he's not the person. "I'm 80 years old, I don't speak well," amongst a whole lot of other things, and God says, "You are my person. I'm equipping you, I'm sending Aaron, your brother, with you. I'm going to set my people free, and you're the person I've chosen."
And so, we went through last week the fact that Moses and Aaron had gone to Pharaoh initially, and Pharaoh basically threw them out, questioning, "Well, who is this God who sent you?" Last week, he asked the question, "Well, if that's the God that sent you, prove it." So the proof was, Aaron threw down his staff and it became a serpent. And Pharaoh said, "Well, I got magicians. I think they can do the same thing." So he brings the magicians in, the magicians throw down their staffs, and they all become serpents, but then Aaron's staff swallows the other staffs, or the other serpents. So, what we start to see is a pattern that the magicians are able to replicate some of the things that God is doing through Moses and Aaron, but they can't overcome what God is doing through Moses and Aaron, and you'll see more of that pattern.
The final thing that we ended on was the first plague, where Pharaoh is told, "You need to let my people go, and if you don't, I'm gonna turn the Nile to blood," and that's exactly what happens. He turns the Nile to blood, and any open pools of water become blood as well. Well, Pharaoh goes, "You know what? I think my magicians can do the same thing." So they dig for water, they find fresh water, they turn it to blood, but here's the problem: they can replicate, but they can't reverse. So for seven days, the Nile stays blood, and everything in it dies, just to get Pharaoh's attention.
Now, what we need to understand is God will even use a hard-hearted man to bring glory to his name. He will use a hard-hearted man to reveal himself to others who are more open, and we're gonna see that happen with Pharaoh. So, beginning in chapter 8, verse 1, then the Lord said to Moses, "Go into Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me.'" And I want you to just walk into that, that is the instruction. "Pharaoh, let my people go, that they may serve me," that's what's being asked of him.
Verse 2, "But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs." Now we need to understand something really important with this plague. The Egyptian culture is what we call polytheistic, meaning they serve lots of gods, and their gods were represented generally by things from the natural world. One of their gods was a frog, and there was a rule: you don't kill frogs because that's a representation of your deity. And so, this plague is really fascinating because what God is going to torment them with is their own god. Don't lose sight of that.
"Thus says the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me, but if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague your country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs. They'll come into your house, into your bedroom, they'll be on your bed, into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come upon you and your people, and on all your servants. Frogs everywhere! Can you imagine? Come on, hard day from work, you're ready to crawl into bed... frogs! Pop open the microwave... frogs! Open the pantry... frogs! Open the oven... frogs! Everywhere you go... frogs, frogs are everywhere! And because they're your god, you can't kill them, so they just torment you."
Let's keep going here, verse 6, so Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt, but the magicians did the same thing by their secret arts and made frogs come up from the land of Egypt. Now again, this is a test of faith for Moses and Aaron. "Oh, these guys are able to replicate what we're doing." But because they were obedient, because they stood fast, what they saw was the magicians couldn't undo what was happening. They could replicate; they couldn't send the frogs back. So notice what happens, Pharaoh in verse 8, called Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs for me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." So he makes a commitment, "Hey, if you will cry out to your God and make these frogs go away, I'll let the people go."
Now there's something I want you to recognize that's happening with Pharaoh. When we started, Pharaoh says, "Who's this unknown God? I don't even know who you're talking about." And then last week, Pharaoh said, "Okay, if there's a God that truly sent you, prove it. Show me some miracles." And now God's favor was saying, "Cry out to your God and ask him to knock this off." So he's beginning to acknowledge that God is truly there. God is truly dealing with him in his land.
So here's what Moses says to him in verse 10, he says, "Okay, Pharaoh, you tell me when you'd like the frogs to go away because I want you to know it's my God that makes it happen." And Pharaoh says, "Okay, tomorrow." And so Pharaoh states the date, and Moses said, "Let it be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God." So you tell me the time and the date, and I'm gonna pray, and that's what's going to happen, so that there's no mistaking that you will know the Lord is God.
Verse 11, "The frogs should go away from you and your houses, and your servants, and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile." So here's the proof. You name the date, here's what's going to happen. So what we find out, verse 13, the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields, and they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. So would that be fun? Dead frogs smell everywhere. There are some smells that once you smell them, you never forget them, right? And they become a mental anchor for you. So what the Egyptian people now have is a mental anchor. Every time they smell frogs, they know they've encountered a God unlike anything they've ever seen before. It's a mental anchor, a place to remind them. But not Pharaoh.
When Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. So let's talk openly and honestly here for a minute. There are people who come into churches every week because life has gotten difficult, the pressure has gotten tough, and they decide, "You know what? I'm gonna cry out to God, and I'm gonna come to church, and I'm gonna do all the things I think God wants me to do." And as soon as there's a little respite, a little relief, you don't see them again because they weren't fully surrendered; they just wanted the pressure off. And that's exactly where Pharaoh is: "Cry out to your God so he'll leave me alone, but I'm not about to surrender. I'm not about to put my pride aside."
And so the thing I want to challenge you with is, if you've been in that pattern, stop running on the hamster wheel and surrender because you're going to see with Pharaoh what happens is the pressure increases. It doesn't get better; it gets worse because God wants your heart. He wants all of you. He doesn't want lip service in attendance when you're in trouble. He wants your commitment.
Let's keep going here, verse 16, we get to the third plague, gnats. And by the way, the Egyptians had a gnat god as well, so that pattern's going to remain. God is going to torment them with their gods. Let me say this truth to you: whatever you make a god in your life, and it's not the Lord, God often will become a source of torment. If your career is your god, your career will become a torment to you. If relationships are your god, relationships will torment you. If money is your god, money will torment you. God does not contend with other gods. When you say, "I'm Yours, Lord Jesus, you can have my life," he takes you at your word. Don't lose sight of that.
So the Lord, verse 16, says to Aaron, "Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in the land of Egypt." Now I want you to notice something that happens here. Pharaoh doesn't get a warning on this one. He got a warning on the first two; he doesn't get a warning on this one. "Stretch out your hands, stretch out your staff, strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in the land of Egypt." And they did. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on men and beasts. So something you can relate to, this some of you can't, as a bald guy, if there are gnats anywhere around, they just love bald, and so whenever the gnats come around, I'm wax on, wax off until I can get it in the car or in the house; they just love me.
Can you imagine living in that, everywhere you go, the gnats are on you, they're on your animals, you can't shake them? All the dust of the earth became gnats in the land of Egypt. Now notice what happens, verse 18, the magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So up till now, the magicians have been able to reproduce the sign, if you will, but they couldn't reverse it; now they can't even reproduce the sign. So notice what the magicians begin to tell Pharaoh, verse 19, then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." Even the magicians are saying, "Pharaoh, Pharaoh, don't be stupid. This is bigger than you are. We can't keep up with this. Pharaoh, pay attention."
But what do we find? He hardened his heart and would not listen to them. And you know, I don't know about you, and I first read this, I go, "What an idiot." And now I look at my own life and go, "What an idiot," because how many times do I do that, where God says, "You know what, you need to go apologize to someone," and because I'm so prideful, I go, "No," and then I guess what happens? The pressure builds, and then it builds and it builds some more, and then finally, I go, "Okay, fine, I give, I give, I give. I'll go make it right." But I do the same thing. So as much as I want to fault Pharaoh for being an idiot, I can look in the mirror and see the same idiot who does the same thing. So let's keep going, verse 20, flies.
I guess what, the Egyptians had a fly god too, right? So Lord said, "Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me.'" The instruction doesn't change. "Pharaoh, let them go so that they can serve me, or else if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies."
So there's a couple of things that stand out here in this one. Number one, God gives fair warning. They wrote, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. If you don't, here's what's going to happen." Here's what I find in life: is that God gives me pretty fair, pretty fair warning on almost everything. So when I'm being an idiot, and I don't want to forgive, and I don't want to love, and I don't want to humble myself, I generally know the warnings are coming. It's, do I choose to do anything about it, or am I gonna let the pain ramp up and ramp up and ramp up until I do something about it?
So Pharaoh has fair warning. He's able to consider the consequence of his decision, as are most of us. So a lot of times, we like to say, "I stumbled into something." No, you didn't stumble into it; you chose along the way. You just kept going; you wouldn't yield. And that's what's happening here with Pharaoh.
Now the thing that I always like to visualize things, so I used to live outside of Dodge City, and my work would sometimes take me into the feed yards. Flies love feed yards; they were all over the place, and that's the closest thing I can liken this plague to. And that's what God is threatening him with, is, "I'm gonna fill the land with flies, and I'm gonna fill the houses with flies." But notice something else he does, verse 22, "But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know I am the Lord in the midst of the earth."
So remember, God is gonna use Pharaoh's hard heart, not just to deal with Pharaoh, but to reveal his love for his people and to reveal his power to the people of Egypt. And so, this is where you begin to see that happen. He says, "Here's what's gonna happen, where my people dwell in Goshen, there aren't going to be any flies there. Flyswatter will still be hanging on the wall, while those of you in Egypt won't be able to swat fast enough to get rid of them." That's the promise.
Notice, verse 23, "Thus I will put a division between my people and your people." This is a promise for us because as you study scripture, you go into the New Testament, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, one of the things that is said in Scripture is you are sealed with the Holy Spirit, set apart, which means there's a limit to what the devil can do to you. There are boundaries in place, and this is a preview of what that looks like. It doesn't matter how horrid it gets for the Egyptians, the people of Israel are going to be safe.
So let's keep going as we move forward down into verse 24, we find at the end, the land of Egypt was ruined by swarms of flies. So Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron in verse 25 and says, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." I want you to notice something; the instruction was, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." Faint Rowe is trying to compromise. "Okay, you guys go worship, but you have to stay in the county. You don't get to leave." So now what he's doing is he's trying to bargain with God, and we need to understand that partial obedience is still disobedience, delayed obedience is still disobedience. What God was asking Pharaoh for was complete obedience, but Pharaoh's only willing to give a little bit. "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."
But Moses said, "It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us."
So then Pharaoh says, "Okay, I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only you must not go very far." So he's still not going to be fully obedient; he's still putting restraints on the obedience, but he's not liking the plague, and so he tells Moses, "Plead for me. I'm only gonna let you go so far. In my mind, I'm being obedient, but I'm really not. But plead for me because I want this plague to stop."
So we read on, verse 29, then Moses said, "Behold, I'm going out from you, and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." So he gives him a warning: "If you cheat on your word, if you go back on your word, things are not going to go well for you."
So Moses leaves Pharaoh, verse 32, but Pharaoh hardened his heart this time and did not let the people go. So the plague stops; the pressure's off for the moment. Pharaoh says, "Now they got to stay."
So we come into chapter 9, fifth plague, the Egyptian livestock died. So one of the things you need to understand about these plagues is that God first of all deals with their lifestyle. "I'm gonna pollute your river. I'm gonna fill your house with frogs. I'm gonna send flies and gnats on you." Now he's gonna start to deal with their livelihood. "I'm gonna deal with your crops. I'm going to deal with your livestock, all the things you make money with." And then we're gonna see, he's gonna start to deal with their own lives.
So chapter 9, verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, "Go into Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me.'" So the instruction hasn't changed; the instruction is still the same. "For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks."
"But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die." So he's telling him, "Pharaoh, if you do this, if you continue to be hard-hearted, all of your livestock is going to die, but you can go to Goshen, and all of the Israelites' livestock will be fine and well. I'm going to show you again my power and my favor."
Now, continuing on, starting in verse six, the next day, the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. So what he did is he sent one of his servants to verify, "Hey, go to Goshen and come back and tell me, are their animals still alive?" And his servant comes back and says, "Pharaoh, it is just as you asked. Their animals are alive."
But Pharaoh, his heart was hardened, and he did not let the people go. So even in spite of that, he's not willing to relent; his pride will not let him surrender.
So now we come to the sixth plague, boils. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils, breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt."
So again, Pharaoh gets no fair warning on this one. He hardens his heart; he doesn't listen on the previous plague, and so Moses goes out in front of him and throws the dust in the air, or the sitting here, and it becomes boils on the people in the animals. No warning.
So as we see this progression, it's going from their livelihood or their lifestyle to their livelihood, and now their very lives. The boils broke out on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt. Now we get into verse 11, and the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
Again, we look at Pharaoh and go, "What an idiot." And I look in the mirror and go, "What an idiot." How many times has my family suffered because of my stubbornness? How many times have relationships suffered because of my stubbornness? It's easy for us to do; it's easy to understand why Pharaoh is where he's at, but it's also cautionary to look at our own lives.
Now let's keep going, 7th plague, hail. Starting in verse 13, then the Lord said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time, I will send all my plagues on you yourself, so not just on your land, Pharaoh. I'm going to begin to affect you with these plagues, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know there is none like me in all the earth.'"
Remember, God is using the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to show Pharaoh there is a God in heaven, there is a God who is king of kings and Lord of lords. And so you need to eat, gives him this warning, "I will cause very heavy hail to fall. Get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and has not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."
Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. Notice this, even though Pharaoh is not listening, his servants are listening. "Hey, this god of the Israelites is getting ready to unleash some real destruction. Make sure all the herd is, make sure all of our animals are in, make sure everybody's indoors. We don't want to be a part of that." So even though Pharaoh is not willing to surrender and acknowledge, his servants are beginning to open their heart to God, and that's what we want to see.
So as we keep going here, then whoever feared the word of the Lord, verse 20, among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field."
We skipped down a little further; the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been seen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field and in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
So again, there's a distinction. God is separating out his people; he is protecting them; he is covering them, and it's very visible how he's doing it.
Verse 27, then Pharaoh sinned and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "This time, I have sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong." So I want you to see the progression with Pharaoh. He started with, "What God are we even talking about?" Then he moved on to, "All right, if he's real, show me. Show me proof." Then he moved on to, "Please, cry out to your God and tell him to take all this stuff away." Now he's at a place of saying, "I and my people have sinned. We're in the wrong."
But look at what happened. He continues on to say, in verse 28, "I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." So it sounds like he's ready to relent, but then what we find is, in verse 4, Moses says this to him, "But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God." The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in the bud, but the wheat and emmer were not struck down, for they were late and coming up. So Moses went out from the city, from Pharaoh, and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and hail ceased.
So the premise here is, although the hail is wiping out all the crops, the wheat and the emmer still have not come up yet, so they were not destroyed by the hail, and Moses knows that because Pharaoh realizes, though I still have crops in the ground, he's not gonna relent. But yet he cries out for the hail to stop, and then here's what we find, verse 34, "But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants."
So he still doesn't change; he still doesn't surrender. So let's keep going, chapter 10, now eighth plague, locust. By the way, the Egyptians had a locust god too, just in case you were wondering. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I've done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord."
I did a funeral on Friday, and as I was driving out of the cemetery, I was looking at some of the gravestones. Some of them are probably close to a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty years old. And that was a question that was kind of in my mind, is what do the generations behind those individuals know about them? More importantly, if there is a legacy of faith, what's been passed down from generation to generation? And the real question became, do my children know the stories of my faith? Do my children know how the God that I serve has been there for me time and time again?
And one of the things that has been a challenge to me in my prayer life over the years is praying not just for my children but for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and the generations I'll never see because I want them to know the legacy of faith. I want my household to be established as a legacy of faith. When I pray for my children and their spouses to be, I always pray that the man who will marry my daughter and the young woman who will marry my sons love Jesus more than they even love my kids. That's the legacy I want to pass.
Now, I want our name to be known throughout the generations for the God we serve. Well, that's part of what God is telling Moses here, "Hey, don't let this stuff die with you. Make sure you are telling it to your children and your grandchildren throughout the generations." And obviously, it was recorded; it was written down, and that's why we're talking about it today. But that's the challenge: are you creating a legacy of faith? Do your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, are they going to know about the God you serve?
So notice what happens here in verse three, so Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring the locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land."
So he's gonna darken the land with locusts, and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field. So basically, Pharaoh's master plan, "Oh, I still have wheat in the field." No, the locusts are gonna take care of that. They're gonna wipe it out.
So we come down to verse 7, as the locusts are going to fill the houses of the Egyptians, then Pharaoh's servants even said to him, "How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God." Pharaoh, are you stupid? Stop putting us through this. Let these people go; get them out of here. Let their men go.
But even the servants aren't to the place of full obedience because the instruction is let my people go, not just let the men go. But the advisors are hoping to appease the God of Israel by letting the men go.
So verse 8, Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?" Moses said, "We'll go with our young and our old. We'll go with our sons, our daughters, with our flocks and our herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord." Pharaoh said to them, "The Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No, go just the men among you and serve the Lord, for that's what you're asking." And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Again, partial obedience is still disobedience because the instruction wasn't just let the men go; it was let my people go. So let's keep going here, verse 14, because he's hardened his heart, because he's not surrendered, the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt. Such a dense swarm of locusts had never been seen before, nor ever will be again.
Then, because not a green thing is left, in verse 16, Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, "I've sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me." If you notice what Pharaoh's real request is, it's not that I've sinned against God and I want to be whole before him; it's, "I want the locusts to go away. I just want the pain to stop. I want the pressure to be released."
So here's what happens, verse 18, he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. It's a very interesting statement; the question often arises, did Pharaoh have a choice? And once you really find his Pharaoh chose, and God reinforced his decision, and that's the place you have to land. If you're already committed to not listening, God will certainly support you in that decision because he's going to reveal his glory to everyone else around you. And that's what's happening with Pharaoh.
Now we get to the ninth plague, darkness. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt." So Pharaoh doesn't get a warning on this one either. Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from the place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
Now I want you to think about this; if you've ever been into a cave hiking or into even like a photographic darkroom before they turn the lights on, you immediately get disoriented because you have no point of reference. So for three days, the Egyptians are in total darkness. But the thing that's happening is in Goshen, they've got light. And when you really read deeper into that, if they have no light, that also means they couldn't light candles; they couldn't manufacture a source of light. It's pitch dark, and yet in the distance, just like being out in the country here in Kansas, you can tell where the next town is because there's a glow. And what the Egyptians see is there's a glow coming from Goshen where the Israelites live. How come we're in the darkness, and they have light?
So they are thrown into utter darkness. So verse 24, Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go, serve the Lord, but your little ones also may go with you. Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind." So he calls them in and says, "Hello, okay, here's the deal. You and your families can go, but all your livestock has to stay." So he's putting conditions on it; he's still not obedient; he's still not surrendered.
Moses said, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there."
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me. Take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you shall die." Moses said, "As you say, I will not see your face again."
Make no mistake, God won't contend with a man forever. And so when we are praying for people, we need to pray with real seriousness because there comes a point where God says, "I'm not gonna contend with you anymore." In fact, the term from Scripture is Ichabod; it means the glory has departed. The witness has been removed, and this is the place Pharaoh's at. He doesn't have an option at this point; everything's been removed. He has set his fate by his decisions, which brings us into chapter 11, the final plague.
The Lord said to Moses, "Yep, one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here." So God tells Moses, "I'm gonna break him. I'm gonna break him, and he's gonna surrender." But notice what else, "When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely."
Now first, to speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor for silver and gold and jewelry. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
So remember, other people are watching. God says, "Moses, instruct your people to go to their neighbor and ask for whatever they want. Ask for gold, ask for silver, ask for the big-screen television, whatever they want to take with them, ask for it." And here's where the Egyptians are at, "We've seen your God. Get out of here. We please, what do you want? You want my wallet? You want my car? You can have it all. Just leave, please."
So God had gotten the attention of the people. The thing we find is that when it came to Moses, he was very great in the land of Egypt. God's ways are so amazing. Moses had grown up in Pharaoh's house, and yet that's not where he found his greatness. His greatness was found in following God's plan, and God did the work to where not only was Moses respected by his own people, but even Pharaoh's servants and the people of Egypt held him in high regard. "Moses, yes, please, get out of here and take our stuff with us."
Here's the thing I want you to understand, and you're gonna see this next week. God was giving the Israelites the wealth of Egypt. They were going to plunder the land without ever fighting about it; it was going to be handed over willingly. "Yes, please, get out of here."
Verse 4, Moses said, "Thus saith the Lord, about midnight, I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who's behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There will be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt, such as has never been or ever will be again. Not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."
And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, "Get out, you and all the people who follow you." And after that, I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
And so I was thinking about that. What was he mad about? I think what he was really mad about was that one man could be so hard-hearted that he would make so many people suffer. Moses realized what he was speaking to Pharaoh, unlike, "I'm just ticked that you're that stubborn, that you would put that many people under pressure, you would make that many people suffer because of your stubbornness."
So Moses left in anger. We keep going here, verse 9, then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt." Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
So as we closed today, God may be dealing with your heart. I don't know where you stand today; there are some of you in this room that you know God's asking you to surrender; you're just not willing to. You've been bargaining, and the pressure comes, and you cry out to him until it lets off, and then you repeat the cycle again. What I'm going to invite you to do today is, God made us an offer at the cross. Jesus said, "If you'll come to me and give me your life, I'll give you everything, but the cost is, it costs everything. It's not a partial obedience; it's not a partial surrender. It's, 'Jesus, you can have my life.'" But what you'll find is, in return, he gives you the very Spirit of God, and you get to walk and see and experience life in a whole new way. That's the good news.
Maybe you've given your life to Jesus, but there are just some things that he's dealing with you on. You need to surrender. Don't let the pressure build; just surrender. Let him have it all. He's got a better plan, just like with the Israelites and the Egyptians. There are lots of things that he has in store for you, but he's going to do it his way and not yours.
