The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 27th July by Robin Hawkins
Reading: Exodus 7:8 to 10:29 (could read 7:8-24 & 10:21-29)
Today is when the action starts to warm up. We've seen the first faltering footsteps of the meekly merging Moses. We've watched him flat on his face as he tried to do it his way. But Moses was teachable, and he learnt fast. God was patient with him, building up his faith one step at a time. We'll see as we go through this passage that Moses gradually gets bolder until by the second plague, he seems to be almost enjoying himself (8:9).
What we have in the ten plagues is a power clash between the KOG and the KOD, the like of which had never been seen before, nor would be seen again until Jesus fought his lonely battle against satan on the cross.
There were a number of purposes behind the plagues. Certainly they were the means God used to Israel out of Egypt, but there was far more to it than that. He could have done that with much less fanfare. What we really have here is an earth-shaking revelation of the awesome, sovereign power of Almighty God. This was El Shaddai, the Almighty, bursting onto the pages of history in a way that no-one would ever forget. Apart from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (known as the patriarchs), there were very few that had known God. Now, the whole world would hear about Him, and would realise that Yahweh was no local deity. He had destroyed the most powerful nation on earth. That made Him God over all the earth, and you messed with Him at your peril.
Through the plagues, Yahweh challenged each of the so-called gods worshipped in Egypt, and each was found to be impotent before Him. Thus He established Himself as the God above all gods. These so-called gods were, in fact demons; and the secret arts practised by the Egyptian magicians were more than conjuring tricks. They used occult powers obtained through the worship of demonic idols and false gods. Paul confirms this in 1Cor 10:19-20. "The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God..."
So the plagues were also a visitation of divine wrath upon these gods, and upon Egypt's treatment of God's people. It must be said that God preceded this judgement with mercy. He gave Pharaoh every opportunity to repent, but Pharaoh just dug his heels in.
Lastly, they were acts of God done to build up the faith of the Israelites. Most of them had heard of the God of Abraham only by what had been passed down the generations of his promises to Abraham. It must have seemed irrelevant as they laboured under the slavedriver's lash. Where was God and His promises now?
Yet now they had to change from being a nation of slaves - nobodies - to that of a people who could hold their heads up high as the people of Yahweh. They had to have their own experience of God. They had to know He was mighty to deliver and well-able to protect them. Why else would they want to enter a covenant of obedience in exchange for his provision and protection?
So let's go on and look at the plagues in a bit more detail:
Although God gave Moses three signs to perform it is recorded that he did only one of them - and this was immediately imitated by Pharaoh's magicians. It must have been an embarrassing moment when Moses snake swallowed up the others! We need to know the snake was among the animals worshipped in Egypt; but in this simple and graphic way, God shows His absolute supremacy and contempt of such worship. It's worth noting that the snake is still worshipped today in Hinduism - and Yahweh is still sovereign over that too!
Now there is a natural sequence to the subsequent plagues. Certainly they progress in intensity. Turning Nile to blood was a direct attack on the gods of the Nile. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile calling it "The Father of Life", but Yahweh turned it into a river of death, an abhorrent stinking mess - which is what He thinks of such worship.
It's ironic that the Egyptian magicians managed to do the same thing - which only goes to show that satan is able only to counterfeit and copy what he sees God doing. A more useful expression of their powers would have been to turn the blood back to water, but they were like children determined not to be outdone!
From there, the plagues progressed, each one striking at something else of importance to the Egyptians. Frogs were worshipped as a symbol of fertility. The knats that followed illustrated the impotence of the insect god to protect them. Up to now the magicians had been able to copy what Moses did, but they couldn't produce the knats.
We learn from this that satan's power is very limited. He would like us to think that he is as powerful as God Himself. That's an utter lie. He couldn't make it past the first two plagues. Let me tell you something about satan. Rev 20:1-2 tells us that all it takes is one nameless angel to lock satan up in the abyss. Let's not give him too much place.
Meanwhile the magicians conceded that the gnats were produced by the finger of God. But Pharaoh's authority was being challenged. He couldn't give way to anybody without losing face. How true that pride come before a fall.
The next plague - the swarm of flies - was a challenge to Beelzebub, the Lord of the flies. Anyone who's lived in a hot country will know what a hassle flies are anyway. So they used to pray to Beelzebub to protect them from flies. But Beelzebub was powerless before Yahweh. Notice this was the first plague not to affect the Israelites. From now on they were protected from the rest of the plagues. Yahweh was making a clear distinction between Egypt and His people.
The fifth plague on the livestock continued the attack on the religious beliefs and practices of the Egyptians, but now it also attacked the economy as well. Their wealth was in livestock, but there were Egyptian gods represented by cows and bulls. More than that they believed in reincarnation - that after death, we come back inanother life form. So they would never kill an animal lest they ended up killing a relative! Hence the death of their livestock was an economic and spiritual catastrophe. But again their gods were unable to protect the livestock.
Is this starting to sound familiar? There is a lot of similarity between Egyptian religion and religions around us today - especially Hinduism & New Age. Pharaoh's people worshipped almost every form of nature, the sun, the moon, the stars, planets, animals, and even vegetation. Reincarnation is found today at the heart of Hinduism and some other eastern religions. In the West, New Age philosophy has taken a major hold on our culture. But anyone who has done a study of New Age thinking will realise it is anything but new. In a nutshell, it is re-packaged Hinduism. This means that the New Age heresy that is permeating so much of our society embraces many of the practices and beliefs of ancient Egypt.
Here are some of the things it embraces:
1. Universalism - all roads lead to God.
2. Pantheism - God is in everything - plants animals, mankind, earth, universe. This means you and I are God.
3. Spiritualism - "Channelling" sounds better using mediums to contact spirits.
4. Relative Morality - No absolute standards. Therefore no sin.
5. Reincarnation - When we die, we'll return in some other life-form.
My point is that many of these things that God judged in ancient Egypt, are prevalent in our own society, but dressed up in more socially acceptable forms. So we might talk now of a "No blame" culture, which actually means, no-one's sinned! We hear much of inter-faith worship because it's held that all roads lead to God. These are heresies, and we need to be really on our guard against them. The plagues show us what God thought of them then, and He not changed His view since then.
The plague of boils followed next. This challenged Imhotep, their god of medicine. They must have been humiliating to the Egyptians, who placed so much store on physical appearance, gloried in good looks and fine physique. Nothing changes, does it? Hail and locusts followed, shattering what remained of the Egyptian economy. The darkness that followed the hail and locusts was a challenge to Ra their sun-god. Perhaps it also symbolised the spiritual darkness and bankruptcy of the now-ruined Egypt.
Next week Stephen will start to explore the final plague. For now I want to leave one thing with you.
We must learn to let God be God. When He chooses to act in sovereign power, no-one can withstand Him. It was His sovereign will to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. They were an essential part of His plan of salvation. Nothing and no-one was going to stop Him. I want us pause for a moment and consider that the great God, I AM, had you and I in His mind when He did it.
This rescue of God's people from Egypt was a pre-cursor to God's ultimate rescue plan when Jesus would come and rescue those enslaved by satan and lead them forth into the eternal Promised Land of Heaven. If you can imagine the devastation of Egypt during this time, I believe it was nothing compared with the devastation caused in the spiritual realms when the righteous Son of God went through the gateway of death into satan's domain, wrested from him the keys of Death and Hades, then led forth in triumph those formerly held captive by satan.
The slavery of God's people in Egypt is a picture of our slavery to sin and death. Moses is a shadow of Jesus - the ultimate Deliverer. The invitation is before us this morning to be set free. Anybody who wanted to was able to go with Moses out of Egypt. Anybody who wants to, this morning, can be rescued by Jesus from the slavery of sin and death. Just as Yahweh defeated Pharaoh, Jesus has defeated your slavemaster satan. You're free to choose freedom this morning.
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1