God’s Fireworks on Display
Exodus 7-11
July 4, 1999
How many of you watched some fireworks last night? We went over to Lamar
and watched their show, they had a huge crowd come out and they put on a pretty good
show. To be honest, I was surprized by how many had come out, they had come from all
over, we parked on the street and just sat by our van because it was so full, plus we had a
good veiw anyway.
What is it that you like about fireworks anyway? Why so much interest? The
power, the colors, the holiday excitement,........
I like the firepower, the ones that go real high and bang real loud.
The reason for all our Celebration is of coarse our freedom, we were once under
the rule of a King, and we were not free to worship as we pleased, we were burdened with
heavy taxes which is a form of slavery, our lives were restricted. Of coarse, if you payed
attention in your history class, the revolution was started by some great hero’s, many of
them Christian men who gave their lives for thier right to be free. You know, we hear
about revolutions today, and we think of some crazy group who has been in the woods
too long, but we should realize that we are afforded our freedoms today because of people
who were willing to go against the norm, and stand up for thier freedoms.
I’m not going to get political on you today, but I would challenge you to not take
for granted the freedoms you have, and be alert to what is going on around you, so we, or
our children are not faced with the same tyranny that our forefathers fought to overcome.
It just so happens that today we have come to the point in our journey with Moses
and the Isrealites, who are being help captive, we are to the point where God
demonstrates his ability to put on a HUGE firework display, in fact it was bigger and
better than anything you have seen, ever.
This week I’m asking you to read chapters 7-11, so you can pick up on all the
details of what is going on in this story, if you’ve never read it, it’s really amazing how
stubborn this Pharaoh really is.
This morning I’m going to briefly tell you about each plague, but more importantly
this morning, I believe God would have you notice more than just the fireworks today.
What God does in these chapters is just amazing, in fact, you can almost see some humor
in it since it’s not you living in downtown Egypt, God picks the most annoying animals he
ever created, and sent them in droves to the Egyptians as a plague. I thought about each
plague if it were to happen today, you would have found me in a rubber room after the
gnats came, Do You Know What I Mean?
But hear me today, it’s more than the fireworks, it’s more than the annoying
plagues that will be sent. God wants you and me to see, to understand what a stubborn,
what a hardened heart will cost you in life. There’s nothing more damaging in life than a
rebellious heart, it will cost you everything you ever thought was valuable.
In chapter seven Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh, and interestingly enough, it
tells us their age, as to say, See, God will still use you when you reach the Golden Years.
It says Moses was 80 years old, and Aaron was 83 when they first went to speak to
Pharoah, they probably felt alot older by the time this was all over.
The Plague of Blood---- The Nile is the mainstay, it’s what keeps Egypt from becoming
like the Saheara desert, it seems significant that God would strike the nile first.
What’s more amazing is the reaction of Pharoah, his magicians were able to
duplicate this feat, but they were unable to make the blood go away, and God allowed it
to stay for seven days. Pharoah, in his stubborn and rebellious heart must have felt that
the power of Yahweh could not possibly be stronger than his own.
Now we shouldn’t be so surprized I guess, most of us at some point in our life,
maybe before we really knew God, some of us even after we knew him and his power,
most of us have had those times where we have “turned our back, shrugged our shoulders,
and walked away going to do what we wanted to do no matter what we knew God
wanted us to do.” Friends, if you know God has made clear to you what you need to do,
or maybe say, or stop doing, whatever it might be, be obedient, don’t allow your heart to
become hardened and bring judgement upon yourself and your family.
The plague of Frogs--------can you imagine. Kermit the frog in your house, in your bed,
in your everything. This time Pharoah calls Moses and Aaron, and pleads with them to
end this plague, and they do. But as we will see as a pattern, as soon as the discomfort is
gone, Pharoah goes back to his old way of thinking.
The plague of knats----- This would be my worst nightmare without a doubt. Listen to
Pharoah’s magicians who were powerless to match this plague, “This is the finger of
God.” In other words, there’s nothing we can do, please give in, Let those people go
before we go crazy.
The plague of flies------Can you see everyone with a fly swatter in each hand, but no
matter how many they kill, thousands are there to replace it. All the while where the
Israelites lived, NO FLIES. Even the animals aren’t bothered. Those Isrealite cows were
really enjoying this, no flies around them for the first time in their life.
The plague on the livestock----
The plague of boils-----
The plague of Hail---- basically by the end of this hail storm, there was little left in Egypt.
Moses repents, admits he has sinned, but was it True repentance? No, because he
went right back and did what he had been doing again. True repentance is not just trying
to get out of a tight spot. Ture repentance is being sincere and totally walking the
opposite direction in attitude and action.
ILLUSTRATION: BERT REYNALDS MOVIE, HE’S OUT IN THE OCEAN,
WITHOUT A BOAT, POSITVE HE’S GOING TO DROWN, HE PRAYS AND
REPENTS FOR HIS SINS, HE TELLS THE LORD HOW SORRY HE IS FOR THE
WAY HE HAS LIVED HIS LIFE, AND IF HE HAD A SECOND CHANCE HE
WOULD LIVE HIS WHOLE LIFE FOR HIM, SERVING OTHERS.
HE KEEPS SWIMMING, AND HE’S GETTING WEAKER AND WEAKER,
BUT HE ALL THE SUDDEN CAN SEE LAND, SO NOW HE BEGINS TO BARGAIN
WITH GOD, “GOD IF YOU WILL ALLOW ME ONE MORE CHANCE I WILL DO
THIS AND THIS, AND WILL NEVER DO THIS, AND THIS,”
HE CONTINUES TO DO THIS, THEN HE FINALLY IS GETTING CLOSE
TO THE SHORE, AND ALL THE SUDDEN HIS DESIRE TO SERVE GOD, OR
LIVE FOR HIM HAS BECOME WHAT IT WAS BEFORE. AS HE’S GETTING OUT
OF THE WATER, HE SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT TRYING TO MAKE IT TO
CHURCH IF HE HAS TIME.
The plague of the Locusts----- Read V.7-11\
The phrase I want you to notice is found in 7, when the Pharoah’s men ask him the
quesiton, it’s obvious to everyone else, but to the hardened heart, you can’t see it. “Do
you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
When I hear about the broken families, the moms and dads who have become so
hard hearted that they don’t even realize that they are ruining thier own families.
The man or woman trapped by addiction, letting everything around them fall to
peices, to ruin, so they can satisfy their own desire.
Sin brings us to ruin. We know that. We understand what the Word teaches us.
Yet, with a rebellious heart, with a rebellious attitude, we can be watching our Egypt, our
families, our marriage, our jobs, being brought to ruin, but because of our own hard hearts
we fail to stop it. God help us to hear his voice before it’s too late.
Something that is true about the rebellious and hardened heart, it will suffer, the
wages of sin is death, and along the way is misery and heartbreak. You see, God has a
law that is to be followed, when you break his law, you bring the weight of his judgement
down on yourself. It’s like his law of gravity, you jump, you will fall. If you sin, it will
hurt and scar. There’s no getting around it, we are all scarred to some degree by sin, but
we surely don’t have to allow it to continue in our life. AMEN?
God brings his Judgement upon the house of Pharoah and all of his people and even his
livestock, you see, your individual sin has arms of destruction that will reach farther than
you could ever imagine. All of Egypt payed dearly because of the sin on it’s leader.
The Good News is this morning that God is waiting with open arms for his
rebellious children to come back, to humble themselves, and to allow their sin hard hearts
to be made new again, tender to the voice of God. Are you tender today to the voice of
God?
It doesn’t matter how long you have attended church, we can allow attitudes to
crop up in our lives that are unhealthy, that are judgemental, that are downright mean. We
need to check our spirit and allow God’s spirit to check us, and then respond, not
defensively, but in obedience.
How’s your heart today?
In this story of how God free’s the Isrealites, we see those who serve and love God being
freed, and we see those who oppose God becoming the enslaved, enslaved to their own
selfishness, their own greed, and eventually they pay a great price.
Will you be free, or will you be enslaved? It’s your choice, I challenge you on this
day that we Celebrate Freedom to choose the Freedom that will last Eternity.
