OPENING: Tell me, what Sport is this:
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that’s on the side that’s in goes out and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.
When 3 men are out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When both sides have been in and out nine times including the not outs, that’s the end of the game.
(get audience to reply) Of course… It’s baseball. But how did you know? What gave it away? Of course. You knew what game it was, because baseball has a distinctiveness about it that sets it apart from other sports. So also, God’s handiwork has a distinctiveness that sets it apart. Notice the comment of Magicians as they surrender: They said what had occurred was a result of the "Finger of God."
I. What made these magicians believe that? Why would they suddenly believe that God had acted in this miracle?
After all they had duplicated all the previous miracles. They had turned their staffs into snakes, the waters of the Nile into blood, materialized frogs from dust… But frankly, these were all parlor tricks for them. Slight of hand and misdirection was their stock in trade. This was the first miracle they realize they couldn’t duplicate.
After this miracle, and from this time on, the magicians join the voices warning Pharaoh: "Get rid of Israelites!"
II. The Magicians become troubled... BUT Pharaoh becomes hardened... Why was there a difference in how they responded?
The gods of Egypt were personifications of forces that helped them explain their human experience. Were the Cows dry? Was the rain not falling? Crops not growing?
If so, it was time to appease the gods.
The Priests and magicians of Egypt were the scientists of the day. They interpreted why things happened the way they did and they reported their findings as scientific fact. Part of the reason Pharaoh’s heart became hardened, was that if he acknowledged what these "scientists" were NOW saying, he would have to admit that he had been wrong.
People don’t like to do that.
Even scientists don’t like to do that.
III. Such attitudes even prevail in much of what passes for "science" today.
The reason this happens is because, for many scientists, there is a basic underlying philosophy that rejects God as a possible force in world.
Back in 1987, the National Academy of Science was speaking as a Friend of the Court in a Louisiana Creation case. The representative of the Academy rejected Creationism because: "It fails to display the most basic characteristic of science: reliance upon naturalistic explanations."
ILLUS: I once read about a young woman who was studying in a college science class. They were discussing one of the facets of theory of man’s evolution As the class considered how each part of the human anatomy must have evolved, they began talking about the human eye. A great deal of time was spent discussing the development of the eye because its components and their interaction are so complicated that it was difficult to explain its evolving in a simplistic fashion. Though the student I read about was not a Christian, it seemed to her that perhaps Evolution might not be the best way of explaining this phenomenon and said so. The teacher became irritated as he responded: "Young lady, we’re not here to talk about God!"
Although the existence of God had never entered her mind in this discussion, she realized that without evolution, God was required.
The Bible tells us that the result of removing God from our lives (and our science) is chaos and impurity. Romans 1:18-25 tells us:
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 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 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images (made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles).
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen."
ILLUS: Time Magazine (August 15, 1994 pp. 45ff ) had an article about how this rejection of God has led to the type of impurity described in Romans:
"An excuse for adultery is available now at the hands of a supposedly scientific discipline known as "evolutionary biology" which goes from the premise that we are "human animals" and can look to the realm of other animals for reasonable models for the underlying rational for how we behave. According to the Time article, "it is to man’s evolutionary advantage to sow his seeds far and wide. Women instead seek mates with the best genes and the most to invest in offspring. These strategies can put the sexes in conflict and undermine love." As an example, these scientists point to the ape culture: "Among Apes, the greater the difference in size between Male and Female, the less monogamous the Male." This then forms the basis for understanding infidelity and promiscuity in the human race - thus understandable to a race of animals that have evolved into its present higher form."
II. What changed the minds of Pharaoh’s scientists?
They saw God’s power and recognized their own weakness. When they declared that the miracle was the "Finger of God," that was their way of saying that they had finally seen the direct involvement of God and it scared them. It revealed their own weaknesses and underscored their sinfulness in opposing this God, Jehovah.
When men encounter the "Finger of God" they are called to account for their sins.
The 10 commandments were written by the finger of God.
The words: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN" were written by the finger of God. In that incident Belshazzar (son of Nebuchadnezzar) was having a banquet when these words occurred on the walls. We’re told the king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked and his legs gave way." (Daniel 5:5-6)
Daniel was summoned and told them:
"This is what these words mean:
Then, of course there’s the time Jesus wrote in the sand. When a woman caught in adultery was brought to Him for judgment and he knelt, scratching something into the dirt at His feet. I believe it was the names of her accusers and the deeds of which they’d be ashamed if it were publicly known. Nonetheless, when Jesus instructed that the one with no sin should be the one to cast the 1st stone, the crowd melted away.
The finger of God has always confronted us with our weaknesses and called upon us to account for our sins.
III. False science ignores God, but true Science has always recognized God’s involvement.
ILLUS: In the Western world, early science grew out of a decidedly religious impulse: to understand God and his relationship with man. The biblical picture of an orderly creation by a dependable God gave impetus to scientific inquiry. The universe "made sense" because it was overseen by a Supreme Intelligence who made mathematical description and prediction possible. Throughout Christianity’s early history, theologians like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas did most of the scientific pondering, and their inquiries were seen as a religious quest. Numerous Scientists and Inventors and were led to believe in the all encompassing finger of God: Copernicus, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, James Newton (anesthesia), S.F.B. Morse, Michael Faraday (dynamo), George Washington Carver.
Job 38:1-21 "The LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
’Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man: I will question you, & you will answer me
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me if you know all this.
What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years.’"
IV. One last thought: the Plagues were seen by these magicians as the finger of God
Why did God bring the plagues in the 1st place? Why did God bring judgment upon Egypt?
He did it primarily because He had made a promise: A promise to stretch forth his hand and rescue His people. Where ever God shows His power He has 2 purposes:
1. to make us humble
2. to give us hope
Psalm 8:3-4 declares "When I consider your heavens, the work of your FINGERS, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"
The psalmist found comfort in the observing the Heavens and realizing these were merely the finger prints of God.
But perhaps the most impressive finger print of God was when He became flesh and dwelt amongst us. It is when we look to Him on the cross that we see the full evidence of His power and His love for us.
CLOSE: In the movie "Jesus of Nazareth," Robert Powell played Jesus. In a guidepost interview, Ernest Borgnine (who played the centurion at the foot of the cross) related an incident that shook him to his bones.
The were shooting Borgnine’s part on a dreary overcast day, with a minimal crew and an director who was in a bad mood. Robert Powell was not able to be on location that day and Borgnine was having difficulty getting into his part. "I just can’t visualize Jesus on that cross without Powell being here," he complained. "I can’t even imagine where Jesus head would have been."
The director irritably grabbed a ladder and leaned it against the cross, climbed up, and with a piece of chalk scratched an "x" declaring "There, that’s where his head is."
Trying again, Borgnine still balked explaining that it would help if he heard the setting again before he said his lines. The director called for a Bible and began to read the passion scene up through the quote that preceded Borgnine’s line: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
As the camera focused on him, Ernest Borgnine was required to be looking away from the cross as this line was said. But, as he heard those words, the voice changed from the director’s to someone else’s. Looking up at the cross he couldn’t see the "x" because a man’s head obscured it, a man nailed to the cross. Borgnine says he’s not sure whether anyone would believe him, but that head turned toward him and the man’s eyes were filled with a love that reached out to him. It was at this point that the actor uttered his line: "Surely this was the Son of God."
The fingerprint of God should bring us to the cross and compel us to utter "Surely this is the Son of God."
OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Whose Will Be Done? = Exodus 4:19-4:26
The Fingerprint of God = Exodus 8:16-8:19
Stand Firm = Exodus 14:5-14:31
Thirst Quencher = Exodus 15:22-15:27
Strike the Rock = Exodus 17:1-17:7
Get Real = Exodus 34:29-34:35
Of Pride and Prejudice = Numbers 12:1-12:16
