This sermon delves into the story of Moses and Aaron confronting Pharaoh in Egypt, showcasing God's power through various plagues directed at the Egyptian gods. Despite the miraculous signs, Pharaoh's heart remains hardened, illustrating the resistance to God's will. The narrative highlights the ongoing battle between God's authority and human defiance, emphasizing the need for faith and obedience amidst trials and judgments.

So we pick up this evening in the fifth chapter of Exodus and we pick up the story with Moses and Aaron having gone to the elders of Israel and you remember Moses, of course, had that encounter with God there at the burning bush. Moses was reluctant to go as the spokesman. So the Lord said, all right, I'll send Aaron with you. And then Moses and Aaron met up and they went together to the elders of Israel and they spoke to them telling them that the God of their fathers had heard their cry and that he was about to deliver them. And so that's where we pick up the story here in chapter 5 verse 1 afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus says the Lord God of Israel. Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh nor will I let Israel go. So they said the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. Then the king of Egypt said to them Moses and Aaron. Why do you take the people from their work get back to your labor? So as God had declared Pharaoh would resist his command and so we see here Pharaoh now saying who is the Lord? I don't know Yahweh. Now, of course in the Egyptian system Pharaoh was believed to be Divine. So he would have seen himself as a God much like the Caesars would later. And so this is going to become a contest really between the God of the Hebrews and the gods of Egypt. And as we go on in the story and as we see these various plagues or judgment that come upon Egypt, it's interesting that God is actually executing judgment against the gods of Egypt. And as we look at the different plagues, we're going to see that each of them was directed at the various idols that were worshipped by the Egyptians. So Pharaoh is God said is hardening his heart. He's not at all impressed with Moses and Aaron. It is interesting though to think that Moses, of course. Moses was at one time a prince in Egypt. Now just exactly which Pharaoh this is and whether Moses knew him or not. We don't know. But it could very well be and I think probably was the case that this Pharaoh recognized the name Moses. Moses was a great prince in Egypt. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians as Stephen tells us. He was mighty in word and in deed. But now he's been gone for 40 years and he comes back before Pharaoh after tending sheep for 40 years and he probably seemed a bit unimpressive to Pharaoh. And so with Moses and Aaron there as the sort of ragtag prophets. Pharaoh's looking at him saying who is the Lord? He wasn't impressed and so he. Resist he opposes their request and Pharaoh said in verse 5. Look the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor. So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers saying you shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves and you shall lay on them the quota of bricks, which they made before you shall not reduce it for they are idle. Therefore they cry out saying let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid upon the men that they may labor in it and let them not regard false words and the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people saying thus says Pharaoh. I will not give you straw go get yourself straw where you can find it yet. None of your work will be reduced. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt together stubble instead of straw. So not only is Pharaoh not let them go but things seem to be going from bad to worse. He's increased their burden and so the taskmasters forced them to hurry saying fulfill your work your daily quota as when there was straw also the officers of the children of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked. Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as before then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh saying why are you dealing thus with your servants? There is no straw given to your servants and they say to us make brick and indeed your servants are beaten but the fault is in your own people, but he said to them you are idle you're idle. Therefore I say to you therefore I say let us go. Therefore you say let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. So Pharaoh says you don't have enough work to do obviously. You're idle you want to go out and sacrifice. So that's why I am in increasing your workload now just an interesting point in the excavations of the city of Ramses. They found that the bricks on the lower level. Were made with straw but on the upper levels the bricks were not made with straw but with stubble. And of course that would be the case according to the account here. You know, there are those who want to insist that this is all mythology. These are legends that developed over a process of time. These are Hebrew myths, but they had no basis in reality or in history, but the archaeologists have disproven the skeptics over and over again. And so the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said you shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota then as they came out from Pharaoh. Now these officers were themselves Hebrews. They were the ones who were appointed over the people. They're the ones who are now protesting to Pharaoh. But now they're coming out from his presence and they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them and they said to them, let the Lord look on you and judge because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hand to kill us. Boy, can you imagine now? Remember Moses was he was apprehensive already about going to Pharaoh. He was afraid that Pharaoh wouldn't listen to him. And so it's almost like, you know, his worst fears are coming to pass. He's gone to Pharaoh Pharaoh says who's the Lord? I don't know who the Lord is. I'm not obeying him. He increases the workload of the children of Israel and now the people are looking at Moses and Aaron and they're blaming them for the situation. So Moses returned in verse 22 to the Lord and said Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it you have sent me for since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name? He has done evil to this people. Neither have you delivered your people at all. So Moses is confused to say the least Lord everything everything seems to have backfired. Everything you told me you were going to do. It's not only not happened, but things have gotten worse Lord. Why are you doing things this way? Now some people are a bit critical of Moses some of the commentators they see Moses here as grumbling, but you know, I kind of can relate to Moses. I think I would have said something like that as well. Lord, what's going on here? I thought you told me this. I thought you were going to do this particular thing, but not only does it seem you're not doing it, but just the opposite is happening. Not only are you not delivering your people, but things are getting worse for them. And you know, sometimes that even happens with us today. We sometimes see that before the Lord does a great work. There's an intense struggle that takes place and oftentimes there's an intense spiritual battle that proceeds and it looks initially like the enemy has the upper hand. I think of so many examples from the mission field where you know people have been under the the clear sense of God directing them to a place and calling them to go in and minister to people and they go in with expectation and anticipation that God is going to set the captives free and he's going to do a great work and they you know, they go in full of faith that God has sent us here and this is what's going to happen. But then they get there and everything seems to backfire. And nothing seems to go the way they thought it would go. But you know, it's just a matter of time. And even though initially it might not look like you've made the right decision or have gone in the right direction as you just hold fast to those convictions that God yeah, this is what the Lord showed us and and we're going to stick it out, you know, so many times we've seen how God has come through so wonderfully and so powerfully but you can be certain that whenever you step out to serve the Lord in whatever way you can be certain the enemy is going to confront you. And he's going to try to discourage you from the very beginning. He doesn't want you to succeed. And so he's going to come sometimes with full force initially to try to discourage you to the extent that you're just going to throw in the towel. You're just going to give up the work. You're just going to say forget it man. We tried and it just it just didn't happen. But I tell people all the time look if you are convinced that God's called you to something then you need to stick it out. You need to wait regardless of what it looks like. And that's really what we see here. See this is all preliminary. God is just in a sense. He's just developing the drama. He's building up the just this tension between Pharaoh and himself and he has a plan as we will see then the Lord said to Moses now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. Now you shall see you see God has an appointed time for things and so we have to be patient and we have to wait on the Lord and we have to by faith hold on to those things. He's shown us because at that appointed time it'll happen and here it was now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand. He will let them go and with a strong hand. He will drive them out of his land and God spoke to Moses and said to him. I am Yahweh I appeared to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty the Hebrew El Shaddai, but my name or by my name Yahweh. I was not known to them. Now this creates a little bit of a problem because when we go back to the history of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. It certainly seems that they knew him as Yahweh and they actually did but what the Lord is saying here is that they knew him primarily as El Shaddai El Shaddai means the God is the provider. God is the all-sufficient one. God is the one who has all of the power to supply his people with all that they need. They knew him primarily in that way. They also knew him as Yahweh the the self-existent one the becoming one but Israel is now going to experience God. As the becoming one in a way that Abraham Isaac and Jacob in a way that the patriarchs did not experience him. So perhaps you remember a week ago when we were looking at the name of the Lord and how we talked about there's this progressive revelation. God is the becoming one Yahweh the becoming one. And so we find out through the history of Israel that he becomes for them all that they need and that's really what the Lord is telling Moses here. Now, he's saying Abraham Isaac and Jacob didn't experience me in the fullest extent as the becoming one. But now this is going to be the case with you and with the people of Israel. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers. He's speaking of Abraham Isaac and Jacob there and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant. Now aren't there times when it seems like we're crying out to the Lord and he just doesn't hear us? And you can imagine that that was the case with them. But the Lord says I do hear their groanings. I do hear their cries and we have to take heart that even though there are those times when it doesn't seem like the Lord hears us when it doesn't seem like he's doing anything. He's still in complete control. And this is one of the hardest things to learn to learn to wait on God to learn to trust him even in the dark places to learn that he's still with us. Even though sometimes we can't see it. He's still with us. I mentioned today that I received an email late last night from one of these atheists guys who likes to banter with me and the email was sort of a you know, I told you so kind of an email and it was about the situation in Haiti. And so he's saying to me, oh, where where's your all-loving God now? And how do you in light of your view that there is a loving God? How do you explain this this tragedy? And the end of his little note was wake up Brian. So I wrote him back and I said I'm fully awake and we are working to raise support and mobilize people to get to Haiti to help in the situation there because the love of Christ is compelling us. But you know, the accusation was, you know, God your God that you believe in he obviously doesn't exist because if he did exist this wouldn't have happened. And that was the premise of his email. But you know, when we're faced with these kinds of things, we have to just retreat into faith now. I can't explain why these things happen. I mean from a practical standpoint, we know that the reason there's so much devastation was because the buildings were so poorly built. They were not up to any kind of standard to withstand an earthquake and that's why they've all collapsed. So from a practical standpoint, we could look back and say well had things been done differently here, then it the outcome here would have been different. But when it comes to well, you know, why did God allow it or so forth? We don't know but it doesn't shake our faith in a loving God. We fall back on what we know about the Lord and we trust that he knows all things and that he's going to work things out ultimately and this is part of our growth as believers learning to trust God when we don't understand the details and so believing that just as God said here, he does here are growing. He is aware of our plight. So say to the children of Israel and here are those I wills that we looked at this morning. I am the Lord. I am Yahweh. I am the self-existent one. I am the self-sufficient one. I am the becoming one and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you as a heritage. I am the Lord. Now, of course Israel was completely helpless. They had no way at all of delivering themselves from their plight. They had no power against the Egyptians at all. And so they were totally dependent on the intervention of God. If they were going to be delivered, it would have to be an act of God and God is saying to them, that's exactly what I'm going to do. And you know, the same thing is really true for everyone when it comes to the issues of sin, when it comes to the issues of bondage, to sinful behaviors, and when it comes to the reality of Satan dominating the lives of people. You know, we cannot escape from that ourselves. We cannot break free from the bondage of sin through our own efforts. We have to be liberated by a power greater than we can exert. We have to be liberated by a power greater than the power that's holding us captive. And that is the power of Christ, the power of the gospel. Remember what Paul said in writing to the Romans chapter 1 verse 16. He said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. And just as the power of God came down upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians to deliver the people from Israel out from under their burdens and that bondage, so the power of the gospel comes into our lives and sets us free from the grip that sin has upon our lives, delivers us from the power of Satan. And I personally never tire. I never tire of hearing testimonies. I love to hear the stories of people who have been set free by the power of the gospel. It's just so thrilling. I think, you know, we should just, we could write volumes. You know, people say there, you know, there is no God. There's no scientific proof that there's a God. Well, what amounts to scientific proof? Well, evidences, data, you know. To me, you get a thousand people who are saying the same thing about what God's done in their life. To me, that's that would qualify as scientific proof. And I just love the idea of a book full of testimonies. You know, just the church and probably the room here tonight is full of stories of redemption, full of stories of deliverance, full of stories of how God has brought you out from under that burden of sin and the bondage of sin. Those are great stories, aren't they? They're fantastic stories. And I never tire of hearing them because they always bless me. And you know what? They always do as well. They always encourage me and strengthen my faith. Think, wow, Lord, look what you did in that person's life. Amazing. I a few weeks ago, just prior to Christmas, I was invited to speak at a church out in Fontana. And the pastor there is a great friend and he has just one of those amazing testimonies, you know, where you just you look at him and you think, man, this guy's a walking miracle. It is amazing that, you know, God has done such a powerful work in his life. But then they're at the church and meeting some of the people in the church and listening to their stories as well. And I got to I went out to lunch with the pastor and one of his assistants and we just sat there and had a great time. But they kind of told me stories about their old days in the gang that they were in and, you know, the prison time and all of that. And, you know, here I'm sitting with two guys that just they just love Jesus. But at one time they were hardened criminals and the kind of guys you didn't want to meet on the street or anywhere at any time and how the Lord has transformed their lives. What a beautiful thing. But it's just a it's an individual sort of a, you know, it's what happened to Israel and Egypt collectively has happened to them individually. It's happened to us because we have been delivered from the burden. We have been rescued from the bondage. We have been redeemed. We have been brought into that relationship and thank God that we have. So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not heed Moses. So Moses comes with this great message. God has said that he's going to deliver you. He's going to rescue you. He's going to redeem you and they're going. Oh, come on Moses. We've heard all this before. You told us something like this previously and look things are worse than they've ever been. And so the anguish of spirit and cruel bondage just caused them to not really be able to receive and the Lord spoke to Moses saying go in tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go and Moses spoke before the Lord saying the children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me for I am of uncircumcised lips. Now Moses really had this hang-up about his inability to speak. He was so hung up on it. He said God, I can't do it. I'm not going to do it and the Lord finally remember he was exasperated with Moses and he said, all right, your brother can speak. I'll send him. But you know, it's pretty amazing to me that Moses is standing in the presence of God who says to him look, I made your mouth, but he's still saying no, I can't do it. I can't speak now. There's a there's a legitimate place to to feel our own inadequacy and we all do but there's also a place to leave our inadequacy behind and trust the Lord and poor Moses. He's just he's not able to do that. He's really got this hang-up about his inability to speak. And so he says look Pharaoh's never going to listen to me. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Now as we come to verse 14 and on through verse 27, we have a little bit of a diversion into a genealogy. And the genealogy is primarily the genealogy of Moses and Aaron and this of course is to show that Moses and Aaron were indeed descendants of the tribes of Israel. And that they happen to be descendants of Levi. So in verse 14 Reuben is mentioned verse 15 Simeon is mentioned. These are the first two sons and then verse 16. We come to Levi and then Levi had three sons and the one that's important to the genealogy here is Kohath now in verse 18 the sons of Kohath are listed and Amram is mentioned here and Amram in verse 20. We are told took for himself Jochebed his father's sister as wife and she bore him Aaron and Moses. So Amram is the father of Aaron and Moses and the years of the life of Amram were 137 years. Now in verse 23 Aaron took to himself Elisheba the daughter of Amenadab sister of Nashon his wife and she bore him Nadab Abihu Eliezer and Ithamer. So these are the four sons of Aaron will find them mentioned several times later. But then verse 25 Eliezer one of Aaron's sons took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife and she bore him Phinehas. And then verse 26. These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies. These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are the same Moses and Aaron and it came to pass on the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt that the Lord spoke to Moses saying I am the Lord speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you but Moses said before the Lord behold I am of uncircumcised lips. How shall Pharaoh heed me? So once again Moses is insisting that he's not really cut out for the job. So the Lord said to Moses chapter 7 see I have made you as God to Pharaoh and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet you shall speak all that I command you and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my Wonders in the land of Egypt, but Pharaoh will not heed you so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. Then Moses and Aaron did so just as the Lord commanded them and Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. So again, we have God saying that he will harden the heart of Pharaoh and remember as we pointed out previously what this means is that God is going to confirm Pharaoh in his position of resistance against him Pharaoh's already hardened against the Lord. The Lord is simply going to confirm the position that Pharaoh's taken don't think for a moment that Pharaoh was a man who really would have wanted to cooperate with God. He wasn't a man who wanted to let the children of Israel go wanted to turn from idolatry wanted to follow the true God, but that mean old God hardened his heart so he couldn't do it. That wasn't the case at all. The reality is Pharaoh was already entrenched in his position of opposition against God and so God is going to confirm him in that position. That's what it means and we'll see as we go through here that Pharaoh he is hardening his own heart and God saying, okay, if that's your position, then that's your position. It's a dangerous thing to harden our hearts. A hard heart is the worst thing because when our hearts grow hard, we're no longer sensitive to the conviction of the spirit. We can no longer hear the voice of the Lord and the the tendency then is for the heart to just become harder and harder and harder. So we have to be careful. How does the heart get hard? Well, the heart grows hard by resisting God. When God speaks to us, when God convicts us, when God shows us certain things that we need to deal with and we push that away or we ignore that or we say, well, that's not God or well, I'm not going to do that. Our hearts grow a little harder. We're told in Hebrews to beware lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin will harden our hearts. So we need to be obedient to the Lord. Now, Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83. Now, what do you picture in your mind? A couple of old guys hobbling up to Pharaoh. But that wasn't the case because of course people lived longer back then. So at this age, they probably were more like 50 year olds at this particular point in their lives, but this was their age 80 and 83. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying when Pharaoh speaks to you saying show a miracle for yourselves, then you shall say to Aaron take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh and let it become a serpent. Now, remember it was the rod was in the hand of Moses, right initially and Moses was the one who threw the rod down. It became a serpent. God told him to pick it up again. But now Moses is going to be in the position of God. He's going to be speaking to Aaron and Aaron's going to be doing what Moses tells him to. So now Aaron is the one who's going to carry out all of these orders here. So he is to take that rod and cast it before Pharaoh. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and they did so just as the Lord commanded and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. So the magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments. Now, this is interesting here Aaron throws down his rod and it becomes a serpent but the magicians are able to perform a similar type of a thing. And how could that be? In the New Testament Paul speaks of this incident. He says as Janice and Jambres. These were the traditional names of these magicians passed down among the Jews as Janice and Jambres resisted Moses. He's talking about false teachers. So do these men resist the truth? But these magicians these sorcerers in the court of Pharaoh now remember Egypt is a land that's filled with idols. We're going to talk more about that in a moment filled with idols filled with idolatrous temples and essentially filled with demonic worship. And so what evidently is happening here is that these sorcerers are exercising demonic power. And the the demons are able to imitate something similar to what God is doing. You see this the devil is the great imitator. He imitates what God is doing and wherever we find the enemy at work. We find so often that there's an imitation that's going on. And that's what's happening here. Paul in writing to the Thessalonians talking about the coming Antichrist. He said the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders. Wow, there's coming a time in the future when this man is going to arrive on the scene and he's going to come with supernatural power. He's going to come with miraculous power, but it's going to be satanic power. Satanic power is real. And Satan offers people power to serve him. You know, it's interesting in Satanism itself. The big draw to Satanism is power. People want power and Satanism promises that you can have power, power over other people, power to control your environment and your circumstances, power to bring yourself success. Satan offers people power. And so here the magicians are able to do in like manner as Aaron did for every man threw down his rod and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord said. So an interesting twist Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, but Pharaoh was unimpressed his heart grew hard. So the Lord said to Moses Pharaoh's heart is hard. He refuses to let the people go go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water and you shall stand by the rivers bank to meet him and the rod which was turned to a serpent. You shall take in your hand and you shall say to him the Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. But indeed until now you would not hear thus says the Lord by this you shall know that I am the Lord behold. I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand and they shall be turned to blood. Now here is the beginning of the plagues and 10 plagues are now going to be brought upon the land of Egypt. And in each one of these plagues as I said earlier, it's important to realize this. These are not just random in the sense that you know, God is just sort of looking around. How can I mess with these Egyptians? Let me see all bloody up their water all I'll send frogs their way all you know swarms will come it that's not the case at all. The reality is these plagues as was said were directed at the gods of Egypt each and every one of these plagues is a judgment upon something that the Egyptians worshipped as God and a show of Yahweh superiority over the gods of Egypt now the Nile was worshipped by the Egyptians they attributed divine. Attributes to the Nile that the Egyptians actually depicted the Nile as in the image of a man happy is the way they referred to the Nile and this image with which they depicted the Nile was a grotesque image. It was a rather fat man with the breast of a woman. Which indicated the powers of fertility and nourishment now in the temples in Egypt, they sang a hymn of happy and the hymn went something like this you water the fields that raw created now raw is the Sun God raw would have been the Supreme Egyptian God you water the fields that raw created you are the bringer of food creator of all good things you fill the storehouses you care for the poor and needy. So notice they're attributing to the Nile this divinity there. They're basically saying it's through this River that we are provided for and taking care of and they're worshipping the Nile and so God will bring his first judgment upon this River that they were worshipping now we think of that and we think boy that is crazy. How could they even have done that? Did you know that that's still going on today in many places in the world people worship things like this all over the world today. We don't necessarily do that here. We have other idols that we worship. But essentially it all comes down to the same thing and so. The fish that are in the river verse 18 shall die the river shall stink and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river. Then the Lord spoke to Moses say to Aaron take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt over their streams over their rivers over their ponds and over all their pools of water that they may become blood and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt both in the buckets of wood and in the pictures of stone and Moses and Aaron did so just as the Lord commanded so he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river in the side of Pharaoh and in the side of his servants and all the waters that were in the river turned to blood the fish that were in the river died the river stink and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river so there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt now again there are those who would look at the story of here in Exodus and they want to try to naturalize everything so they say oh well there was a particular season when the Nile would because of the soil and different you know microbes and things it would look like this and so they sort of just try to dismiss it as this was just a natural event and the people were mistaken thinking it was blood but the problem with that of course is that it happened when Aaron dipped his rod into it and it went back to normal when Moses prayed and sought the Lord so it kind of you can't really naturalize these things these are supernatural judgments that are coming and so there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt verse 22 then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments and Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said so you know this is interesting they again they did so with their enchantments now you would think that what they would have done is reversed it but they just increase the problem that's not very smart here Pharaoh watch we can do this too but because they had the ability to do this as well Pharaoh obviously thought well I'm not real impressed with Yahweh yet my own magicians can do the same thing and Pharaoh turned and went into his house neither was his heart moved by this so all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink because they could not drink the water of the river and seven days passed after the Lord had struck the river and the Lord spoke to Moses go to Pharaoh and say to him thus says the Lord let my people go that they may serve me but if you refuse to let them go behold I will smite all your territory with frogs frogs Hekka was the frog headed goddess of fertility and rebirth the patroness of midwives and one picture that was recovered from Egypt shows Hekka reciting spells to affect the resurrection of Osiris so they worship the frog worshiping a frog strange I will smite you in all your territory with frogs so the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly which shall go up and come into your house into your bedroom and on your bed into the houses of your servants on your people into your ovens and into your kneading bowls and the frog show come up on you on your people and on all your servants you know it's interesting because in a way one of the ways the Lord brings judgment is to notice take the very thing that they were worshipping and make them disgusted with it show them the insanity of it so you want to worship frogs ok I'll give you some frogs to worship they'll be everywhere and then the Lord spoke to Moses verse 5 say to Aaron stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams over the rivers over the ponds and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt so Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and cover the land of Egypt and the magicians they helped out they did so with their enchantments and they brought up frogs on the land of Egypt as though there weren't enough they needed a few more so then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said in treat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go that they may sacrifice to the Lord so Pharaoh's getting a little bit annoyed here and the frogs just you know kind of threw him over the edge so he says okay okay and treat the Lord we got to get rid of these frogs and Moses said to Pharaoh listen to this accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you for your servants and for your people to destroy the frogs from you and from your houses that they may remain in the river only so Pharaoh said tomorrow and Moses said let it be according to your word that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God so Moses says look I'm going to give you the honor you tell me when you want the frogs to leave and that's when they'll leave so you see Moses is saying I you need to know that this is the Lord this isn't some phenomenon that's taken place it isn't some freak of nature that's happened here this is a judgment from God and I'm going to give you the honor of asking God for a specific time to withdraw the judgment so you will know that the Lord is the Lord and so the frogs shall depart from you and from your houses from your servants and from your people they shall remain in the river only then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh and Moses cried out to the Lord concerning the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh so the Lord did according to the word of Moses and the frogs died out of the houses out of the courtyards and out of the fields they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank I bet it did but when Pharaoh saw that there was relief he hardened his heart and did not heed them as the Lord had said you know this is really a strange phenomenon and I've personally witnessed this where a person will be under deep conviction or or maybe even under what seems like a judgment from God and and they will cry out I remember very vividly years and years ago having a man in my office who was was crying out and just you know begging and pleading that he would be delivered from the effects he was a crystal meth addict and it was affecting his whole system in his mind he was losing his mind and he's crying out and I'm there with him and you know he's in pray for me pray for me that God will free me and oh I I never want to do this again and I'll please help you know and and there I was and I was with them and I was praying with them and God brought him deliverance but you know amazingly a short time afterward he went right back to it I couldn't believe it I was astounded I saw him I said what what are you thinking don't you remember how God had mercy on you and how he freed you from that and look what you're doing again and he just kept hardening his heart going deeper and deeper into this activity until finally he did irreparable damage to himself as a result of that and so it's hard to believe that people will continue to harden their heart but sometimes that's the case you know we tend to sometimes think that well you know if they just if we just loved him a little more or if they you know they maybe heard the message a little more clearly or something we tend to think that surely everybody if they had the chance they would believe in the Lord but you know sadly that isn't true that isn't the case as Paul would say not all men have faith there are some men that are just dead set against God it's hard to believe it's hard to understand but it's the truth and Pharaoh of course is a prime example of that so verse 16 the Lord said to Moses say to Aaron stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt it could be the lice could be a reference to mites or ticks some very small creature obviously blending in with the dust and they did so for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth and it became lice on man and beast all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt now the magician so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice but they could not so there were lice on man and beast and the magician said to Pharaoh this is the finger of God but Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them just as the Lord said so now even Pharaoh's own counselors even the magicians themselves are saying hey look this is beyond us we're out of our league here we can't contend with this power now why it was that they were unable to replicate this particular thing I don't know but some have suggested that it was because here God actually created out of the dust these these little creatures and that might very well be the case but there was something here that they were no longer able to replicate it and they recognize that there was a power beyond them that was at work through Moses but Pharaoh now this is in many ways you see it's becoming a personal contest between Pharaoh and God his own people as we're going to go on in the story his own people at a certain point are going to be saying please let them go Egypt is destroyed what are you doing but Pharaoh just keeps digging in his heels and so he did not heed them and the Lord said to Moses rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to water then say to him thus says the Lord let my people go that they may serve me or else if you will not let my people go I will send swarms the translators have added of flies but it's literally just I will send swarms on you and your servants on your people and into your homes the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms and also the ground on which they stand and in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, Goshen of course is where the Israelites lived in which my people dwell that no swarms shall be there in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land now because God is executing judgment on the gods of the land some believe that because there was a particular God called set that they saw as the God of the sort of the God of the desert they they believe that that would that would be the God that is being judged here others have suggested that the swarms are reference not the flies but to these particular beetles that were worshipped by the Egyptians and beetles that have been found the scarab that's been found in many of the Egyptian tomb so we don't know exactly what it was but again it's a it's a judgment against one of the gods of Egypt and so verse 23 the Lord said I will make a difference between my people and your people tomorrow this sign shall be and the Lord did so thick swarms came into the house of Pharaoh into his servants houses and into all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted because of the swarms then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said go sacrifice to your God in the land now notice go sacrifice go go do it but do it in the land remember the request we have to leave the land we have to go out into the wilderness three days journey so Pharaoh is saying okay you can go but stay in the land Pharaoh is calling for a compromise he's saying all right I'll let you worship that's fine but but just stay in the land Moses said it's not right to do so for that would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians you remember the shepherds and sheep were an abomination to the Egyptians if we did that before their eyes then they would stone us we will go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he will command us so Pharaoh said I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness only you shall not go very far away intercede for me so first he says no no you can sacrifice but stay in the land now he says okay well you know I'll let you go but don't go that far now as we follow through the story Pharaoh is going to come back with several compromises to Moses that here just two examples here at a certain point he's going to say okay you can go but you better be careful there's wild beast out there so leave your children behind don't take your children with you and he presents all of these compromises and you know in a sense there's a picture there of of what Satan says to us as well well you know if you want to worship God that's okay but just stay in the land what does that mean we'll stay in the land just you know here you can just still be part of the world you can still it be involved in all that everybody else is doing you can worship God you don't need to change your lifestyle at all or well you know yeah you can worship God and that's fine but hey don't take it too far you know don't go over the top don't become one of those fanatics you know you can worship God that's acceptable but just keep it to yourself similar kinds of suggestions that come our way from the enemy then Moses said indeed I am going out from you and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh from his servants and from his people but let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore and not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord so Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord and the Lord did according to the word of Moses he removed the swarms from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people not one remained but Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also neither would he let the people go astounding one final thing look how easy it would be for God to afflict us he has power over all of nature and at any moment he could call upon any aspect of nature to rise up against man and to just overwhelm us overcome us you think of how powerless we are in the face of nature of course we've just seen that with that earthquake there remember what happened with the the hurricanes a few years ago the the tsunamis a few years back the powerlessness of men being confronted with nature and it's astounding that although that's the case we still for the most part as as a people the human race still stands in obstinance and resistance to God it's like we're out of our minds were insane we don't we don't even realize that in just one second just the earth itself and the various and you know the other inhabitants of the earth that the insects and so forth we could be overtaken by all of these things the exodus and the judgment that came upon Pharaoh in Egypt is a picture of what we have detailed for us in the book of Revelation and there's coming a time when what happened there locally with Egypt and Pharaoh is going to happen universally on this planet the final judgment against all of man's idolatry and rebellion and resistance of God's will the day of wrath is coming but thank God he has not appointed us to wrath but like the children of Israel he has appointed deliverance for us as we trust him let's pray father we thank you for the opportunity to study your word together to go through these chapters and to read about your work in history among men and to learn the lessons that are applicable to us in our generation so Lord may we receive by the Spirit the things that you would have us to take with us and to apply them to our lives as we go our way so guide us and lead us this week bless us as we go out to work and to just the different things that are before us this week Lord may we go full of the Spirit and intent upon serving you living for your glory in these days Lord thank you that you haven't appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation thank you that you have saved us and may we grow deeper and deeper into all that you intended when you did save us we pray in Jesus name amen let's stand together the pastors are up front available for prayer if you need it God bless you let's close with a song tonight defender you lift us up