If you open your Bible, please, as we turn to the Word of God and to a most interesting portion of Scripture in the book of Exodus. Most people find the Word of God occasionally difficult to understand. How much more so do we find the silence of God difficult to understand? If you have ever struggled with the apparent lack of God's response to your trouble and to your prayers, perhaps you can sympathize with the Israelites in their time of bondage in Egypt.
They cried unto God, and for long years God seemed to do nothing at all. Even an announcement from Moses and Aaron regarding their eminent deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh in the end seemed empty to them. After delivering God's ultimatum to Pharaoh, the bondage of the Israelites under the Egyptians became even more severe. They felt that they would have been better off if Moses had said nothing.
Even Moses wondered what God was doing in the fifth chapter in the twenty-second verse as we read last week. He went before the Lord and he said, Why? Why hast thou brought harm to this people? And why didst thou ever send me? The Israelites would not listen to Moses even when Moses brought them a fresh word from God. Their response was one of turning him off, not listening to him.
Moses then in verse twelve of chapter six spoke to the Lord again and he said, Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. And now his concern is further spoken as he says, How then will Pharaoh listen to me? For I am unskilled in speech. Already once he has gone before Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, Forget it. Now we know that this is a major concern on his heart because again he repeats this in verse thirty. Behold I am unskillful in speech. How then will Pharaoh listen to me?
Moses has a deep concern. What is going to get the attention of Pharaoh? Beginning in chapter seven God responds to that. That question opens the door for God to bring forth upon Egypt the plagues as we call them. You and I must be careful never to misinterpret the silence of God as the disinterest of God. You and I must be careful not to think that the patience of God is in action on his part because that is not the case.
When God seems to be silent it is because he has nothing more to say and it is time for his people then to trust. Israelites were not doing a very good job of that at this point. Moses and Aaron again are dispatched by the Lord to confront Pharaoh which they do. Begin in verse eight of chapter seven. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying when Pharaoh speaks to you saying, Work a miracle.
Then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. How did they do that?
A lot of suggestions have been given. I think the best one is simply that they were empowered by the devil to do this. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs showing the superiority of God. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. That set the stage my friend for God to send his plagues upon Egypt. Observe with me the plagues. We will look at nine of them today and reserve the tenth for next week. The first plague was water changed to blood.
Begins in verse fourteen on through the end of chapter seven. Look at verse nineteen. Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, their pools, their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood. There shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And so Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded.
And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. And the fish that were in the Nile died. And the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt. The Nile was sacred to the Egyptians. They considered it to be the bloodstream of Osiris, their god of crops and fertility.
Isn't it interesting that God chose to change the bloodstream as they looked at it into blood? The judgment of God upon the Nile was a judgment upon the deity, actually several deities associated with the Nile, in the false theology of the Egyptians. Its annual flooding provided abundant crops for them. And of course they looked upon this as the blessing of their gods. It was customary that each summer Pharaoh would lead ceremonies in honor of the river and the river's deities.
It is thought that perhaps it was at one of these very ceremonies that Moses and Aaron appeared. And thus in the sight of everyone gathered for the ceremony in honor of the river, the god of the Hebrews smote the river so that in their sight it became blood. Whatever the chemical change that occurred in the river, it caused the death of all the fish. You can only imagine the stench that was involved in that. And it says in verse 22 that the magicians duplicated this very miracle.
The magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts and Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. It is wondered where they got their fresh water. It appears that they may have gotten it from natural springs of water which perhaps were not affected by this miracle. The reservoirs where the large or even pots and pans certainly were affected. The Nile was affected. But perhaps natural springs were not.
Or perhaps they gathered the water in the way that is suggested in verse 24. The water may have been filtered through the sand so that as they dug down they were able to dig into pits where water eventually then drained purely and without the blood. But the magicians were able to come up with some water and they changed that water into blood by their secret arts. It did not change Pharaoh. He only hardened his heart further. This plague lasted seven days.
And then another plague was brought upon the Egyptians. This one was a plague of frogs, chapter 8, verses 1 through 15. There was always an abundance of frogs when the river receded in the fall from its flood stage. But not at this time of the year. For this was summertime. This was July and August, the very time of the year in which we are right now. At this time of year frogs were not normally in abundance.
But here God causes the frogs to be in such abundance that they were in their beds, they were in their ovens, they were in the food, in their kitchen pots and pans, everywhere there were frogs. Frogs even crawled on their persons. Now this was especially problematic to the Egyptians because the frogs were not to be killed. They were objects of worship. I think God is rather humorous here. The very gods that they worshiped became a plague to them.
One of their goddesses, whose name was Hecate, was a goddess of birth. She supposedly gave help to women in childbirth. It was she who was depicted with a woman's body and with the head of a frog. Now their god, Hecate, became a curse. Now the magicians got involved in the act once more. But they could not deliver them from the frogs. They could only add frogs to the problem already. They were really of no help. The death of the frogs eventually then polluted the land.
After an initial effect on Pharaoh, in the end his heart was only hardened more by this plague. And so God brought another plague, this one unannounced. It was a plague of some kind of insect, of lice perhaps, or of gnats. It seems to have been a stinging insect that was a great bother to them. Some people have suggested that these may have been mosquitoes. Being from Minnesota, I rather think that's probably what they were. These biting, flying insects infected the whole land.
And here the magicians were unable to duplicate the plague. And they acknowledged that this was the finger of God. They said that this is from God. And yet even that acknowledgement on the part of the magicians did not change the heart of Pharaoh. It only hardened more. And so then God sent flies. Chapter 8, verses 20 through 32, swarms of flies with what was apparently a very painful bite.
It may be that these flies were especially attracted by the decaying fish and frogs that had polluted the whole land. The flies were bothersome and tormenting, both to man and to beast. It's very interesting to notice though in verse 23 of chapter 8 that God did something here. He said, I will put a division between my people and your people. In other words, God made a difference with this plague and the succeeding ones between the Egyptians and His people, the Israelites.
This point on the plagues did not affect the Israelites at all in their part of Egypt, that area called Goshen. This plague was so severe that Pharaoh offered a compromise, an initial one, but then again in the end his heart was only hardened further. God then brought disease upon the cattle, the livestock of Egypt, beginning in chapter 9, verse 1 through verse 7. Some of thought perhaps this was the very infectious and deadly disease that we call anthrax.
It affected all of the animals in the field according to verse 3, which suggests to us that those animals that were in sheds may not have been affected. There were various gods of the Egyptians associated with livestock. Apus, for example, was their god of fertility and was represented by a bull. Bather was their goddess of love and beauty and was represented by a woman with a cow's head.
Again this plague did not affect Goshen as Pharaoh discovered and the result of it again was hardness of heart in this man. God is pouring upon the Egyptians supernatural acts of fury, indicating He was serious that He wanted His people released. But all the plagues only caused Pharaoh's heart to be more calloused. God then struck with boils, chapter 9, verses 8 through 12. These boils were on people and animals. They were putrefying sores. They were festering and painful.
If you've ever had a boil, you know what one boil feels like. Can you imagine many of them on your body? The Egyptians' gods of disease and of healing were here proved impotent. The gods which they called upon in cases like this could do nothing about it. Their gods were proved false and yet Pharaoh only hardened his heart further against the god of the Jews. From that then God brought upon them a plague of hail, a truly historic storm revealing the destructive capability of God in His wrath.
It apparently occurred in the early part of the year. Now several months have gone by. We're probably looking at something like the month of January. The cattle were outdoors, those cattle still living. There were a number of crops that were due to be harvested at this season of the year. This hail which was so severe destroyed the animals and the crops everywhere in the land of Egypt except in Goshen. Severe economic hardship, even disaster came upon the Egyptians through the hail.
It was so severe that Pharaoh seemed to relent and he offered another one of his compromises to the people. And yet in the end when it came right down to it he would not yield and his heart was further hardened. God then brought upon the land a plague of locusts. In chapter 10 we read about that beginning in verse 3, Moses and Aaron went to 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 locusts into your territory, and they shall cover the surface of the land so that no one shall be able to see the land. They shall also eat the rest of what is escaped, what is left to you from the hail. And they shall eat every tree which sprouts for you in the field.
Then your houses shall be filled, and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, something which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day that they came upon the earth until this day. Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. What was Pharaoh's response? It was only a hardness of heart.
Verse 12, the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts that they may come up on the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the field, even all that the hail has left. And so Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt. And the Lord directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt, and they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was darkened. And they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field, even worse than Minnesota this year of drought.
Nothing green was left through all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Ah! Finally! Now, after this plague, we see Pharaoh's heart softened, right? He says, now therefore please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to the Lord your God that he would only remove this death from me. And he went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the Lord.
So the Lord shifted the wind to a very strong west wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. The fish had a very good meal. Not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the sons of Israel go. Does this seem unjust of God? Not at all. It only exposes the temporary and superficial nature of Pharaoh's confession of sin. He did not mean that.
He is only doing again what he has done before, trying to get relief from these plagues. But he did not want to repent, to have a change of mind and heart to allow the people of Israel to go and God to cease the plagues. Therefore God brought upon him a ninth plague, one of darkness. Beginning in verse 21 we read about that. The Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.
Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. I would take that to be even a supernatural light that God provided. Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, Go and serve the Lord. And again his heart seems to be softened only to be proved in the end to be hardened.
This particular plague struck at the chief, or at least one of the chief deities of the Egyptians, the sun god, Re, whom they worshiped. There God was unable to deliver them from the plague of darkness for three days that God brought upon the land. Now what caused this darkness? Well, God is certainly capable of pulling the shade over any part of the earth he wants to whenever he wants to.
The way that it's written, it can be understood that there may have been a tremendous sand storm that God caused to come upon the land. A sand storm that was so severe that it was just pitch black out except in the land of Goshen where God did not cause the sand storm. We'll reserve the last and most severe of the plagues to study in one session together.
But I think it's important for us as we look at these plagues upon Egypt to see them not only as historical events, which they were, but to see them also as object lessons for us. God has recorded this for us that we might have an example, that we might be instructed in the way that he dealt with the Egyptians as well as with his people. What lessons can we learn from the plagues upon Egypt? Let me suggest several of them.
Number one, God is able to intervene in human events and history as he purposes to do so. God is able to intervene today in human history as it pleases him to do so. That is the exception. God does not normally intervene in supernatural ways like this. Why is that? I believe that in part it's because God wishes the human heart to be exposed.
The only way for the wickedness of the human heart, the unregenerate heart, to be exposed is to allow man to live out his life and for history to go on for several generations. You see around the world that when there is not judgment brought upon a nation, that degeneration occurs. That has occurred in the last 200 plus years of this nation. This nation is not the great moral leader of the earth that it used to be. That is the natural tendency of the human heart.
God allows the wickedness of the human heart to be expressed. He does not normally intervene, but God does intervene and sometimes does so with amazing results as here in the case of the plagues. When he does intervene it is always with a purpose. When he intervenes it is according to his divine plan. God is not capricious. God is not arbitrary. He has a plan that is on a grand scale that you and I cannot appreciate. When it's time for him to intervene he will.
You say, will God ever do things like this again? The answer to that is absolutely yes. Just as these plagues were predicted and then came to pass, so God has predicted a similar time not just upon Egypt but upon the whole earth. And it will too come to pass. I speak of that time in the tribulation period that God describes to us, especially in chapters 8, 9, and 16 of the book of the Revelation.
In the opening of the seals, in the blowing of the trumpets, in the pouring out of the vials of His wrath upon the earth, at that time water will be changed to blood. Not just in the Nile River but in a third of the seas in chapter 8 and even more than that in chapter 16.
The stench, the devastation, the foulness, the pollution that was in Egypt for that period of time will be the experience of the whole earth in the days of the tribulation as God causes the seas and the rivers and the springs of the earth to be turned to blood. It also predicts a time when there will be frog-like demonic creatures released upon the earth. It predicts a time when there will be physical disease and boils, perhaps very similar to what happened to the Egyptians, upon humankind.
It predicts a tremendous hail storm in the eighth chapter of the book of the Revelation. God tells us that He will send upon the earth a plague of locust-like creatures. Some understand those creatures to be demonic and I think that that is the only proper understanding of them myself as you read about them in Revelation chapter 9. And then there will be a supernatural darkness upon the earth that God will cause. In fact, there are many parallels to the plagues upon Egypt.
At that time again in the future, the focus of the hatred of that day's Pharaoh, whom we call Antichrist, will be upon the Jewish people and in a broader sense all of those who worship the true and living God. And He will seek to destroy them. And yet God at that time again will intervene in human history with supernatural judgments upon a God-rejecting, Christ-rejecting, hardened world of citizens. And so God is able to intervene in human events and history as He purposes.
And it's not always with judgment. There are times when God intervenes to deliver. God intervenes to save. A second lesson that I see as we look at the plagues is that God is merciful and long-suffering, but there is an end to His patience. To those that fear Him, His mercy is higher than the heavens. As far as the east is from the west, so great does He have compassion and kindness upon those who fear Him, says the psalmist.
But to those who reject Him, there is an end to His mercy and long-suffering. I've had people ask me, well, why are people like Madeline Murray O'Hare allowed to live when they get on television and they blaspheme God? And why does God allow a movie company to produce a blasphemous, filthy film about the life of Jesus Christ? Why doesn't He just zap them and be done with them? Because God is merciful. God is long-suffering with sinners. And why? For the sake of salvation.
Give them time to repent. But there is an end. There is an end to the patience of God. The hardening of the heart is a dangerous and deadly act. It is foolish to attempt to negotiate with God, as Sparrow attempted to do with his compromises four times. He said, yes, but. That doesn't make it with God. There are no buts with God. It's all or nothing. Human-made gods today are as powerless as they were in the day of Pharaoh to deliver the unregenerate from God's justice.
Today, as then, to reject the Word of God is to make oneself an object of God's judgment and His wrath. As the writer of Romans says in the first chapter, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all those who suppress the truth. Now the fact that that wrath has not yet reached them does not mean that it's not on the way. God is patient. God is long-suffering. God is merciful, but there's an end to that, and there is a day of judgment.
I may be speaking with someone here today who's attempted to compromise with God. You said yes to God, but. Or you have actually hardened your heart, perhaps, toward the Word of God in your life. That is very dangerous. Do not allow your heart to become callous toward God. Do not believe that His delay in judgment means that He does not notice. God is just and righteous, as well as merciful and patient. Then I see a third very wonderful lesson for those of us who are God's children.
It is this, that God puts a division, as we read in chapter 8 verse 23, God puts a division between His people and the citizens of the world in general. God dealt with Israel in that day by grace, as He deals with us today. There was nothing in the Jewish people that called upon Him, because of their inherent goodness, to be kind. God dealt with them by grace, based upon the covenant that He had made with their forefathers.
Therefore God put a division, an invisible partition, a wall between the whole land of Egypt and that northern prosperous area called Goshen, where His people lived. Today God still deals with humankind in the same way. If He deals with you and with me as His children, in kindness and patience and mercy, it is not because there is something inherent in us that makes us better than anyone else in the world.
God deals with us in grace, simply because we have been related to Him now on the basis of the new covenant, established in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But because of that covenant, because of His grace toward us and saving us and making us His own, God does put a difference between us and the world at large. That is not to say that we shall never experience suffering or tribulation, of course. Indeed, those things are promised to us for the very fact that we do belong to Christ.
The fact is that when God begins to pour out His judgments upon the world, He puts a difference between His people and the people at large. It is interesting to note that that word division in chapter 8 verse 23 in the Hebrew is also translated redemption. God has put a redemption between His people and the people of the world, and so it is today. God deals with us in grace because of redemption through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only reason.
May I say furthermore that I believe this is part of the basis for arguing that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be raptured out of the world before the tribulation period. For that time to come upon the earth is the official designated time when His wrath and fury will be poured upon a Christ-rejecting world. You and I who are saved by God's grace are not appointed to wrath, He says, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I understand that salvation to include not only our present salvation from our guilt of sin, but that day our salvation in the sense of the rapture. We may well go through a time of suffering before our Lord takes us out, but you mark it down, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, indeed none of those who belong to Him can experience His wrath and judgment because that wrath, my friend, has already been poured out for our sake upon the person of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He having absorbed the fullness of God's wrath, which we deserve because of our sin, has delivered us from any future experience of the wrath of God. God makes a difference, a redemption, between His people and the citizens of the world in general. Then the fourth lesson that I want to point out is this, that God is worthy of our total worship. We who are redeemed are objects of His mercy. And dearly beloved, we should live that way. We should live as grateful recipients of the mercy of God.
We should seek to live lives of holiness, lives of obedience, for the very fact that God has been so good to us. God has not given us what we deserve and has given us what we do not deserve. Therefore, let us make Him alone the object of our worship. Let's not get involved in gods that we make with our own hands or our own heads. Let's put away those deities, those false deities, which absorb our time, our energy, our resources in place of the one true God of heaven.
And let's give to Him the priority and the preeminence that He alone deserves, because He alone is the true God. And He has acted toward us with such favor and such grace. And then finally, God may seem to be silent to you, my friend, but I want you to know that if you belong to Him through faith in His Son, that He is ever working on your behalf. This message today may catch you in the slew of despond. You're in a real pit in your life because of circumstances that have come upon you.
And you feel oppressed and afflicted or in bondage. Will you understand that God has heard your prayers? Will you truly believe that God knows your affliction? He does. And if indeed He seems to be silent, it is not because He is not interested in you, because He loves you. Indeed, He says that you are engraved upon the palms of His hands. You are ever before Him. If God seems to be inactive on your behalf, it is not that He is inactive. It's just that His time has not come.
His purpose has not been realized. What do you do when God seems to be silent and when God doesn't seem to come through? Those are the very times that God has ordained that you and I should trust Him. Trust Him. And that's what I want to call upon you to do. If you have been unbelieving and complaining, as were the Israelites in Egypt, I want to ask you today to repent of that. And like the prodigal came home, so you come home.
And know afresh today the embrace of your Heavenly Father, and how the angels of heaven rejoice to see you come, and how the heart of God will be delighted and thrilled that instead of turning from Him, you come to Him and you trust Him. And you say, Father, I may not see your hand, but I trust your heart. And I believe that you are for me and not against me. Let's bow together in prayer. We have looked upon the actions of God in centuries long ago.
But though that is ancient history, my friend, it's relevant for us today that God has not changed. I wonder if you need to come to the Lord afresh. You need to acknowledge Him anew in your life. Will you do that? Has there been some God that has usurped His place? Have you worshipped yourself, your desires? What of Him making Jesus Christ preeminent? Has God seemed silent and you've been angry at God because of that? Will you repent and trust Him today?
Speak to the Lord about it right now in the quietness of these closing moments. Let's sing together that song the choir sang earlier. Just quietly sing with me. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals He's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Firmly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home.
With our heads bowed, may I say to you that I and others of our staff and elders will be available after the service. And if you have a spiritual need that lingers, you have questions you need to ask and you want someone to pray with you, would you seek out one of our leaders in the church? We'll be glad to find a spot somewhere to spend some time with you. Let's stand together now as we close.
Great God and Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father of each one who believes in the Son, we stand before you in awesome worship. There is none like you. You alone are the true God. I pray that you will work in our lives, that we might walk with you this week in faith and not by sight. May we represent you well in the Egypt where we live.
Make us men and women of God who will stand courageously and fearlessly for you in this generation. Father, thank you for making a difference, a redemption, through the blood of your Son, and for making us whole and complete in Him. And we pray in His name as we are dismissed for this blessing. Amen.