Exodus 8 Bible Study (Second, Third & Fourth Plagues: Frogs/Gnats/Flies) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

And,

Lord, we believe that you are real. And your word says that if we have faith, you are pleased and that we must believe that you exist and that you reward those who diligently seek you. And tonight, we choose to be here to seek you through your word. And so we ask that your word would do what it does best, to convict, to challenge, to conform, to encourage, to build up, to stir. Lord, you know what every single person in this place is going through.

Some might put on a smile, but we don't know what's going on in their hearts. Some might be challenging some area of their life, a sin, a besetting sin, a weight. Lord, whatever it may be, would you set people free? Would you do what only you can do in each person's life? And so, Lord, we submit to the authority of the scriptures believing that it is true without error error, infallible, and life giving.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter eight. Exodus chapter eight. If you're here for the first time, welcome.

We are going through as much as we can as the Bible, especially the Old Testament. So we're taking it book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and we finished the book of Genesis, and now we are in the book of Exodus. And we've been exploring now the plagues, and here we are in the second plague in chapter eight. And we're gonna see a lot of repetition in certain application, but this is a very specific and a very special chapter because it covers three different plagues, and it covers a lot concerning how we respond to when God tries to reach out to us. And so let's read from verse one down to verse seven, and then we'll continue from there.

Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go. We've heard that. We're gonna see that way more. That they may serve me, but if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people and into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Now we have to read on.

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice the Lord. Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, and the frogs to be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile. And he said, tomorrow. Moses said, be it is as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the lord our god. What can we say about these verses here?

Yes, Sofia.

I I I kinda like how when the like, the magicians could do the same harm, but they have no idea how to take it away. It's almost like they made it worse. Like or at least that's how I understand. Like, they wanted to show that, oh, you can do that. We can do it too.

But they had no idea how to take it out.

They have no idea how to reverse the plague, but they knew how to imitate it. Sure. And they're making things worse. Okay? Any other observation?

Yeah. Evan?

The nature of this this curse, you know, the way that it, you know, is going into this house, the service is going into everything, it's something that you can't escape. Like, the first curse is, like, okay. You could avoid the waterways if you want to. This one, you cannot escape because it says that it covers the whole land

of Egypt. Did you

guys hear that? The Nile and everything else, the water being turned into blood was something that you can escape from. But here we see the plague now coming into your personal space. This is something that you can't necessarily walk away from. And so there's this increase of intensity concerning the affliction that God wants to bring upon the Egyptians.

Great observation. Yes, Gil.

I love that that Pharaoh recognizes immediately that only the Lord, so Moses and Aaron can actually revert like, reverse this. He'd like the Bible doesn't say that the magicians said that they couldn't make it go away. Mhmm. But the pharaoh knew that he had to ask for the God of Moses to reverse the fraud.

Sure. So you knew plead with the Lord for me. Absolutely. He knew that Moses carried the authority because God had given Moses that authority by calling him what? You will be as what to to me.

God, and Aaron will be your prophet. So he has that authority to move in these powers to represent God. Yes. Any other observations? Look at verse eight.

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. It only went up to the second plague for pharaoh to finally say, okay, I give up. I give up. Go. Just cut these frogs off.

Let's get this over with. This is too much for me. Let's move forward. Up to the second plague. And God uses painful circumstances to reach us.

You know that, right? God uses discomforting, unfortunate, overpowering circumstances in life. For what purpose? To get your attention. Why?

Because you probably wouldn't give him your attention otherwise. Does God speak through these things? Yes. And we're gonna be covering a lot of scripture today, so hold on to your Bibles tight. Here is an incredible scripture from the book of Job in Job 33 verse 14.

Now side note, you have to be very careful to pull out truths from the book of Job. Does anybody know why? Yes, Phoebe?

It's the some of the things that his friends were saying about God, they're not true.

Right. And how do we know that? At the end of the book, God's like, yeah. You know your three buddies? They didn't get it too right.

But we don't necessarily see that with the fourth individual. Who's that? The younger one, Elihu. Even though with Elihu though, you have to be very careful to pull certain truths because some of the things throughout the book of Job might be true, and some of them might be a little bit off. That's the whole point.

The point of the book of Job is that his friends had bad theology concerning suffering. You're suffering because you have sin in your life, Job. Cough it up. That's not necessarily true. The righteous do suffer, but we see something here in verse 14 through the lips of Elihu.

Look what it says here. For God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds. Stop. Stop. What is the main way God speaks to us?

I hope you know that it is through this, this book. It's it's not through dreams. It's not through visions. It's not through experiences. The main way God has instituted to speak to his people and to all of humanity is through the written word of God.

Don't you ever forget that. It is only and mainly through that. But God can't, in a way, personally reach out to specific individuals, And you and I need to develop the maturity and the wisdom and the discernment and have the counsel in our lives to make sure to know whether God does speak to us outside of this, whether in a certain dream or a warning or a circumstance. Why? Because it could be God or it could be the shawarma that you ate at 02:00 in the morning.

So you and I need to develop some kind of a discernment and be careful. God does here speak in a personalized way, but for what purpose? Verse 16, Then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings. So God speaks in a personalized way to terrify people with warnings. Verse 17.

That he may turn man aside from his deed. Hey. If you're walking towards a certain direction, God will get your attention. If you're gonna adopt a certain thing in your life, if you're gonna try to walk into a dangerous thing, if you're trying to adopt a certain sin, yes, God mainly speaks through this. Yes, God mainly speaks through the pulpit.

But he'll also get your attention if you're really getting close to that line. He'll say, you know you're headed into dangerous territory. Right? I am sparing you with this warning, and God will whisper into your ear to terrify you and conceal pride from a man. He keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

Look at verse 19. Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed. Do you see that in your Bibles? I want you to see it in your Bibles. Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite, the choice is food.

Meaning, he will so afflict you to the point where you don't even have an appetite. The So God will even bring a man to the line of death itself to rebuke him. For what purpose? Verse 23. If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom.

Let his flesh become fresh with youth. Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor. Verse 26, then man prays to God and he accepts him. He sees his face with a shout of joy and he restores to man his righteousness. So what is all that saying?

This is what it's saying. God will literally bring a man at some point to the point of so much pain, to the point where they reach the line of death itself so that they would call upon God. They would finally humble themselves and call upon Him. Why does God do that? Because He enjoys it?

Is He sadistic? Does He have pleasure in bringing pain upon humanity? No. It's for the purpose of verse 27. He sings before men and says, I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.

He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light. God will so bring a man to the physical place of of affliction and pain and hurt and harm and even to the point where they can smell death itself for the ultimate purpose of delivering him from going down to the pit. Because it's better to go into heaven with one hand than to hell with two. It's better to go into heaven maimed than to go to hell with everything. Look at verse 29.

Behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man to bring his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life. God can do that. God can do that. Bring a man to the place where he is so stricken with disease for the purpose of saving his soul. This is flesh.

This is your earth suit. You know that. Right? It's the soul that God is after. Even when they brought that man who was paralyzed on that bed, the four friends, you know what Jesus said?

Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. And then He says, get up and walk. Why? Because He's more concerned about your soul than your body.

And so even in His sovereignty and in His wisdom concerning your life or or somebody else's life, he will even allow circumstances to be so painful in somebody that's rejecting God so they can come to the place of acknowledging him even on their deathbed. Now does everybody get that opportunity? Not really. It's in God's wisdom and sovereignty. And so he does communicate one way.

Here he is communicating to Pharaoh. I'm trying to get your attention. And Pharaoh's kinda getting it, unfortunately, for just a little bit. So we go back to Exodus eight. He says, would you would you plead to the Lord for me and cut off these frogs?

This startles me. This is kind of amazing. Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile. So this is what Moses is saying. You want the you want the frogs to be gone.

Right? You're saying you're saying plead with plead to the Lord for me. I want the frogs to go away. I'm done with this. I'm done with the discomfort.

I get it. God is speaking to me. God is convicting me. God is trying to relay his message to me. And Moses says, when do you want these frogs to stop?

When do you want me to call out to God for you? When do you're done? You're ready? You want me to call out to God? When?

And he goes, tomorrow. Think about it. How ridiculous is that? You just ask. Plead to the Lord for me.

Moses says, alright. When do you want it? Now? Half an hour? Like, what do you want?

You wanna hang out with the frogs a little bit longer? When do you want me to do it? Tomorrow. And we go, that's absolutely ridiculous. And I make the case today that thousands of people do it every single day.

You're sitting and you hear a message, first time in church, sixth time in church. You're not saved. You're not a true Christian. You're not a follower of Jesus Christ, and you're getting convicted because the preacher is speaking as though the message was prepared just for you. There's conviction in your life, and the preacher says give your life to Jesus.

Surrender your life to Jesus. Come to the front and have somebody lead you to Jesus. See somebody after this message, and let them counsel you through the word of God until you give your life to Jesus. And what does the person say to themselves? I know this is right, but I'm not ready yet.

Maybe tomorrow. I know this is right. I know this is true. I feel something that I never felt before. It's as though this is truth, and I can even feel it in the core of my being, but I don't know.

I I think I'll wait till next Sunday. Tomorrow. I'll wait until tomorrow. A person is going through so much chaos in life, so much pain, familial strife, and discomfort. Everything is hell is breaking loose.

And they read about the Prince of Peace, and they hear about the Prince of Peace. And the Prince of Peace says, come on to me all who are weary and have you laid, and I'll give you rest. And you say, tomorrow. I think I'll do this another day because I'm not ready to give my life to Jesus. Pharaoh says tomorrow.

God says today. Now is the favorable time. Now is the time for salvation. We talked about this last week. Procrastination is a dangerous thing, especially for your soul.

And so if you are being called into giving your life wholeheartedly to Jesus Christ and you have not done it and you hear tomorrow in your conscience and you feel that tension where you know you should do it, but you don't and you think to yourself, I'll just wait till another time. Don't listen to that voice. Because tomorrow is not promised. But it's not just a non believer that says tomorrow. Who else says tomorrow?

Believers say tomorrow. How do believers say tomorrow? Keep playing with sin. Tomorrow, I'll stop. House.

I'll read my Bible. Oh, that was a good weekend with brother Keith Daniel, wasn't it? Three chapters in the morning, three chapters at night. You can read through the Bible and two twice in a year. But I'll start tomorrow.

Not this weekend when things settle down a little bit. Tomorrow. I have I have the summer. I'll do it in the summer. I'll just wait until the summertime when I have more free time.

Tomorrow, I'll read my Bible consistently. Oh, you hear a convicting message about the power of prayer, about the joys found in his presence when you go into the secret place. But tomorrow, I'll just wait until I watch this. I'll just finish this. I'll just do this, and I'll wait till tomorrow.

Usually, when you say tomorrow and tomorrow comes, you don't do tomorrow. You hear about forgiveness, and you know you need to reconcile with your brother. You know you need to reconcile with your sister. You know you need to reconcile with that person that's been way overdue anyway because the Bible says that if you know that you've sinned against somebody or vice versa, you drop that gift at the altar. You go back to wherever you came from even if it took you two days on a camel to do so, and you reconcile, then you come back and you worship.

But I'll do it tomorrow. I just like holding on to the fact that that person knows that I have bitterness against them because it's putting them in a cage right now, and I like to have that kind of ownership over them. You know, that's what unforgiveness does. It gives somebody a sense of power because the other person knows that they're not willing to forgive them, and they're in a trap, and you have this authority because you know they're not gonna be released until you say, I forgive you. But tomorrow, I'll wait till tomorrow.

What else do believers say tomorrow for? I know these things are distracting me in my life, and I know I should cut them off, but I'll wait till tomorrow. Now to the believer, your soul is saved. Praise God. But I wanna give you one picture of the danger of delay.

Let me say that again. I wanna show you one picture in the Bible of the danger of delay. For the non believer, it's the greatest danger because you cut yourself off from eternal life into eternal hell. But for the believer, there's a danger and delay. You wanna see an example?

Second Samuel chapter 20. Second Samuel chapter 20. Go to verse four. So what happened up to this point with King David is that he assigned a new commander over his army. Does anybody know who the original commander of David's army was?

I think this is Joab.

Joab. And Joab had messed up one too many times. And so David, up to this point, assigns a new commander over his army, Amasa. And what happened up to this point is that Sheba, another man, after his son Absalom has rebellion against him, this other man now Sheba is the next one in line. He wants to rebel against King David.

And so he calls his commander in chief, so to speak, as general, and he says, I want you to do what? Verse four. Then the king said to Amasa, call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself. So he says, gather the men of Judah. We have to rally up against whatever war that might come against, rebellion, whatever.

We have to get ready. So go and gather the men of Judah. You have three days to do it. That's a command. Right?

Do it. Three days, but look what happens in the next verse. So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. You have three days to do this job. It's a simple command.

Get all the men of Judah to come to prepare. Can you do it in three days? You got it, boss. But he delayed. And what happened because he delayed?

Verse six, and David said to Abishai, now Sheba the son of Bishri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord's servant and pursue him, lest he get himself to fortify cities and escape from us. Put this in the perspective of Christianity, of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and see it this way. King David gave a command to Amasa. Amasa, for whatever reason, the Bible does not tell us.

It says that he delayed. So I lean into the fact that it was his responsibility, and he kind of was apathetic with it. He was kind of lenient on it, so he delayed. And because he delayed, you know what King David did? He gave the job to somebody else.

And I read that and I say, Lord, if you ever asked me to do something, and I take it lightly and I'm flippant with it and you tell me you convict me and you say, no. Change now. I I want you to change now. I want this aspect of your life to be changed and I delay. I don't want you to not be able to trust me because I'm so light with your commands.

And I don't want you to give what you have purpose for my life to somebody else. I wanna be used by you, Lord, so I discipline myself. You and I should discipline ourselves. Be sensitive to his conviction. When he says something, when you read something, when you hear something, do it because he's watching to see how quick you will obey it.

And if we're so flippant and we wanna just delay, then he'll say, okay. I had something for you, but it seems as though you don't really care about what I say, so I'm gonna give what I had purpose for your life to somebody else. What a scary thought. Lord, far be it from us. Delay.

Tomorrow. No. Today. He says tomorrow. God says today.

Verse 11. The frog shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile. So Moses and Aaron went up from pharaohs went out from pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs as he had agreed with pharaoh, a man who prayed even for somebody that was rebelling against God. That's a powerful picture.

And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields, and they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. The funnest part about reading the Bible is when they put random details in it. When the Holy Spirit seems to put things that you would not necessarily put in, you you have to have a conversation with the Bible when you read. Why is that in there?

Why is that detailed mentioned? Why does it want to tell us that there was heaps of frogs and the land stank? So you go, why? Well, I don't understand. Does anybody have maybe a clue about these verses here?

I think maybe the nature of it is that, okay, yes, they ask for it to go away and you Some seems to be some sort of but there's consequences for those actions that you did still. Even though the frogs are gone, there's still consequences. There's still negative aspects being portrayed here within the gods.

Beautiful. Beautiful, brother. Did you guys hear that? There are still consequences because looking at this plague, I think it's healthy to look at other plagues and see how God has dealt with those plagues. Look at verse 31 with the fourth plague.

This is when the flies came in and the Lord did as Moses asked. So he asked him to remove the flies again. Moses asked and removed the swarm of flies from Pharaoh, from his servant, and from his people. Not one remained. That's in the same chapter.

So we look at the second plague, and you see that the Lord said, okay. I'll get rid of the frogs, but he could have done so many different things. He could have let all the frogs hop into the Nile. He could have let all the frogs hop to to the East and to the West. I I mean, he could have done it with he what he do, you know, with the flies.

He could have killed all the flies, and there would have been mountain heaps of flies. But then with the frog specifically, he says that he killed the frogs, and now all these heaps of mountains of frogs are there. And as brother Evan mentioned, it's because there's consequence. There are some sins that have lingering effects over other sins. That's what we need to get out of that.

There are some choices that we make. Though it's all categorized as sin, there are certain choices that we make in life. There are certain sins that have different consequences to them, and some, like the frauds, linger and they stink a little bit. In other words, there are some sins that we commit, or should not commit, but if we do commit, that have a bigger mess to clean up. So though all of it is categorized as sin, it doesn't mean that the consequences afterwards are the same.

Right? What does Paul say in first Corinthians six concerning a certain sin? Verse 18, flee from sexual morality. Every other sin a a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body. And so here we see a sin compared to different other sins.

It's all sin, but this specific sin has an effect not outside the body, but against your own body. And so, different sins have different effects, and we see this plague that there are lingering effects to this. They had to clean it all up, and it stank, and there was a little bit of residue on it. And you see the flies and it's still a bad thing. It's still an act of judgment, but there isn't this kind of prolonging afterwards.

And so we have to understand that though it's all categorized sin, it doesn't mean that the results of it are all the same. And you can't determine the results either. And this is scary in verse 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them as the Lord had said. What can we say about that one verse?

There's so much to say. Yes, Sofia.

I feel like it's almost like God's like, it's almost like us when we go through our time

and we serve me for god. Like, god just delivered me and I'll do this and I'll

do that and I'll do that. And once, like, he does deliver us, we just, like, we just go back to the way we used to. Like, nothing happened. It's, like, it's the same way even though god knew, like, I'm sure God knew, like, Pharaoh was not gonna release them, but God is faithful. And when you ask him to do something, he does it.

Like, it's the same thing with us. Like, oh, God, deliver me and I'll dedicate my life to you. And then just the minute it's over, over, it's like it never happened. They say didn't fail.

You guys all hear that? I think we're all on the same Avenue. Sofia was mentioning how when there's certain instances in our life and circumstances and turbulences in our life, we tend to cry out God to God a lot more. But once thing kinda settled down we kinda go back to our old ways, don't we? And this is exactly what's going on with pharaoh.

Once he saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart even more. And I can tell you different conversations of people that are going through so much in their family, so much through their finances, so much through their health. And in those moments, they wanna call you, they wanna talk to you, they wanna talk about God. Can you pray for me? Can we do this?

I want to get serious with God. I understand. And then once that promotion comes or once their health is fine, once everything in their family and their marriage is okay, you never hear from them again. You just they're gone. It happens all the time.

And so God uses those moments for us to cry out to him, but not just to cry out to him, to give our lives to him, to surrender to him. And so many people just they they press the eject button because God is just their 911 call. Right? But it's not only that. As Sofia even mentioned, it's also for those who sin and don't see the immediate consequences.

Oh, pay attention to this. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, get rid of the frogs. The frogs are getting rid of you know, that wasn't so bad.

God God is so merciful, isn't he? He is so gracious. So I can mess up and purposely mess up and premeditate my sin and just ask Moses to pray for me and it's just gonna all go away. You see, that's people think like that? Oh, people think like that.

Because sin so blinds you, it messes up even with your theology, especially when you're not grounded in the word. So that's it? I mean, just ask Moses to pray for the frogs and the frogs will go. I like this. So he hardened his heart even more.

There is a powerful verse, powerful verse that speaks. It's a commentary on pharaoh. It's a commentary on every person that has this kind of ideology. It's in Ecclesiastes eight verse 11. This is one worth highlighting.

This is one worth, like, framing. Because this sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set on doing evil. Ecclesiastes eight eleven. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. And what does that mean?

It means this, because there isn't an immediate consequence, an immediate justice act upon an action, an evil deed, you know what the children of men do? They say, I can do this and nothing's gonna happen. I've gotten away with it. And because of that, they set their hearts on doing even more evil. But look at verse 12 of Ecclesiastes eight.

Though a sinner does evil a 100 times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before him. So a sinner says, I can sin and sin and sin a 100 times over, and my life will be prolonged. And this is what the Bible says. Yeah. But in the end, it's gonna be really well off for those who fear God, not with that kind of mindset.

It might seem like it at first. You might get away with it for seven other plagues, but it's coming. And so the the wicked, because they don't see their evil, their sin, their compromise executed speedily, meaning right away, they say, so maybe it's not that bad. Maybe I can continue in this. Maybe I can walk in that path a little bit longer.

And Solomon, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, you can do it a 100 times over and your life still be long, but in the end it's those who fear God that reap the benefit. So you know what that tells me? Those who fear God don't think like that. Those who have the fear of God don't have that kind of mentality. Those who fear God, when they smell sin, the alarm goes off and say, I'm not even gonna take the sample off that platter.

I'm gonna run away from that as quick as I can. Those who don't fear God say, I can do this and get away with it. I've been doing it and I can get away with it. And God says, that's evidence that you don't fear me. And Pharaoh didn't have the fear of God.

So verse 16, this is the third plague down to 19. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt. And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats.

In all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.

What can we say about these verses? Yes, ma'am.

As you see, the first two plagues, they had warnings. This one just came out of line.

Yeah. This one was right there, Direct. Yes, sir.

I think an interesting observation is that okay. So maybe the secular world and Christianity has, like, a way to solve a problem. But there comes a point where the secular world is not gonna be able to answer some.

You It's gonna come to

a point where only Christ can atone and solve what you're experiencing.

Sure. So Evan was saying there comes to a point where the world can offer a remedy to certain situations or answers, but there comes a point in somebody's life where only God can give give the answer. And only God can provide a solution. Yes. Anything else?

I want you to look at the magicians compared to pharaoh. Look at the different reaction to this. Yeah, Tim.

The magicians acknowledge God Yes. While pharaoh still remained hardened with his heart.

That's it. So God moves, and here the magicians, the ones that were trying to imitate every single one of these plagues, and they realized, they at least humble themselves and says, hey, Pharaoh, we we gotta admit, this is God. This is by the finger of God. So now you have Moses, you have Aaron, you have plagues trying to get your attention. Now you have magicians, the very ones that you hired, and they're turning to you and saying, This is God.

Surely this is the living God. And Pharaoh says now look at it. It says, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened. It doesn't say he hardened his heart. It was already hardened.

Because when you go back to 15, he previously already hardened his heart. And that's the danger of hearing a message and hardening your heart because if you do that, it doesn't guarantee the next time that you hear that you'll be convicted again. It doesn't guarantee that you have that opportunity again to sense the presence and the power of God so reaching down the depths of your soul so you can repent. It doesn't guarantee that. He already hardened his heart.

So even when it came to his own, his very ones that he's hired, his henchmen so to speak, to say, this is God. He goes, oh, you're into that religious stuff too? What's wrong with you? You're into that Jesus stuff too? What's You too?

You bought into it? He's hardened. His heart is already hardened. He set himself up to come to this place. That's why there's so much urgency.

There's appeal through the bible. Don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart. Why do you think he's saying that?

Because when you harden it and harden it, it's harder for it to be softened again. That's the point. So when it remains soft, answer in that state of yours. Don't wait. He waited, and he's gonna pay for the consequences of that.

Anything else that we can say about these verses? The word of God is amazing. Word of God is amazing. Verse 20. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and 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, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses, and in the house of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. Verse 22, but on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen. What can we say about these glorious verses?

It almost seems like this is the land where this is this is God's chosen people. This is where you stand.

Yes. So he's he's in this specific plague, he's about to make a distinction here between the people of God and the people that follow follow Pharaoh. What else can we say? Yes, Sofia.

I feel like through all the plagues that God's been, like, merciful on them. Because, like, like, he can do it his way and get the people of Israel out, but he wants to show them, like, almost, like, to show them, like, he's mighty that they should let the people go. Because we see it keeps getting worse as if, like, God's give them giving them another chance. Like, okay, like, you don't like, if that didn't, like, scare you almost, that, like, let me show you what I can do. But it's almost like doing it in a way, like, it starts suddenly, like, flies.

It's still, like, not hurting, but in a way, it's like So

he's trying to get their attention, but he's not necessarily destroying them. He's trying to still grab a hold of them. Sure. Yes.

I think the choice of a

leader affects all of the Yes. Absolutely. Yes. And we're gonna find out later on that even the people of Egypt look at Pharaoh and say, hey, Pharaoh. You you nearly destroyed all of Egypt.

Can you smarten up a little bit? Can you just help us out here and just give them over to the wilderness? So leaders have a specific responsibility over the people. Yes. Yes, Gil.

Divine protection for believers.

Divine protection for believers. Sure, absolutely. What else can we say about these verses? It's very detailed. We look at verse 22, but on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen.

Rear view mirrors, we read about the land of Goshen before. Where did we see the land of Goshen? Joseph's life, where specifically? In Genesis 48. Genesis 48.

Excuse me. Genesis 45. This is when the brothers and the family of Joseph now understand that Joseph is the second in command of Egypt. Let's read from verse seven. This is so important.

This is why when you see familiar things in the Bible, when you see a place, when you see a name, you say, I've seen this before. What's the link? You go back. You make the study. Look what it says in verse seven.

And God sent me. Joseph is speaking. He's saying, hey. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

Remember, it was not you who sent me, but God sent me. This is something that God brought about in my life. I have an assignment and my assignment is this, to leave a remnant on the earth. He has made me a father to pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry.

Go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord over all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not tarry. Verse 10. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me, and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have.

Whose idea was this? Joseph or God's? God's? Do we all agree that it was God's decision? Yes.

It was God's. God sent Joseph so that he would prepare and maintain a remnant in the earth. Right? The word Goshen means drawing near. The word Goshen means drawing near.

We come back to Genesis, rather Exodus eight. I'm gonna put you in the land of Goshen. I'm gonna put you in a place where you're drawing near. And in verse 23, thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Can you put up Psalms one thirty verse seven?

Because that word division is a very specific word. It's in the second part of verse seven. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is abundant division. The word division in Exodus chapter eight verse 23 is the same word in the Hebrew redemption. You guys catching?

I'm gonna put you in the land of Goshen. I'm gonna put you in the place where you're drawing near. Remember, whose idea was this? God's. I'm gonna put you in a specific place where you will be a remnant and you will be, so to speak, drawing near.

And when you draw near, when you've dwelt in that place of drawing near, I'm gonna bring a division. I'm gonna bring redemption. And when I bring redemption, there's gonna be a distinction between you and the Egyptians. Why did God choose this plague? Out of all the plagues, he could he could have introduced this idea of Goshen and drawing near and redemption, all that in a different plague.

Why this plague? I would argue. I would argue because of second Kings one two. Second Kings one two. And these names sometimes, Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber, that was in Samaria.

And you see the second part, go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. Beelzebub, and we see that later on in the New Testament in a different language. Beelzebub, if you guys remember Maranatha, what does Beelzebub mean? Lord of the fly. Go back to Exodus eight.

I'm gonna put you in the land of Goshen and there's gonna be a distinction, redemption between you and the people of Egypt, and there will be no swarms of flies that will be able to touch you. Do you see? Out of all the plagues, He chose this one, I believe, because of

the

symbolic aspect of the flies. When you draw near, when you draw near to God, when you give yourself over to Him, He redeems you. And when He redeems you, there's a distinction. There's a distinction between your life and the world. And there's a privilege.

What's the privilege? Satan has no hold on your life any longer. Satan and his demons cannot torment you unless you allow him. You're in a place in which you have drawn near to God. You are redeemed.

You are set apart, and Satan can hold and can torment and have legal access to those who are not in Goshen, but you are in Goshen. You're set apart. The gospel in Exodus chapter eight, you cannot tell me that you get bored with the Bible. You can't. All it takes is a little bit of effort.

All it takes is you just to meditate on it, and you see how God is yelling and screaming the gospel of Jesus Christ even in the fourth plague of Exodus. The third, fourth, fourth. So what else do we see here? We see here, this sign shall happen. In verse 24, and the Lord did so, there came upon a great swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses.

Through all the land of Egypt, the land was ruined by the swarm of flies. I'm looking at the time, but we're gonna keep going to finish this chapter. Look what Pharaoh does. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, go. Sacrifice to your god within the land.

But Moses said, it would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the lord, our god, are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? I want to title this next part of this chapter, the four proposals of pharaoh. And not all four are in this chapter. There are two in this chapter, but for the sake of harmony, we're gonna talk about all four found in this and in Exodus chapter 10.

Pharaoh switches up his strategy. Pharaoh now is going to offer a little bit of compromise to the Israelites that really, really have been persistent in saying, We wanna go and leave Egypt. And I wanna make this case. Satan makes the same proposals. Satan makes the same proposals to those who wanna leave Egypt and worship God wholeheartedly.

We just read one, go sacrifice to your God within the land. Can somebody read verse 28 out loud so everybody can hear? This is his second proposal. Verse 28 of Exodus chapter eight. The first one was go, sacrifice, but do it within the land.

The second was go, but don't leave too far away. There's a third one in Exodus chapter 10 verse eight. Can somebody whoever is get gets there, can you just read it out loud so make sure everybody hears you? Exodus chapter eight. Sorry, chapter 10 verse eight.

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, go serve the lord your god, both ones are to go.

Keep going.

Moses said we will go Moses said, we will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our plots and prayers, for we must hold the feast to the Lord.

In the next verse.

But he said to them, the Lord be with you. If ever I let you and your little ones go, look. You have some evil purpose in mind. No. Go the man among you and serve the Lord, for that is what you're asking.

And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

The first one was what Without looking, what was the first proposal? Sacrifice, but where? Within the land. The second one was what? Sacrifice, but don't don't go too far.

The third one was, who wants to go with you? Well, we wanna go with our wives or children, and we wanna take our animals. Oh, really? If you wanna go sacrifice, you keep the kids here and the men only leave. There's one more in Exodus chapter 10 verse 24.

If you're there, please read it out loud.

Then Pharaoh's last notice and said, go serve

the Lord, and you let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little

ones also go with you.

You wanna really go sacrifice to this god? You really wanna leave? You you really wanna go? Go, but leave the animals back. Take your family.

Take your children. Thank you. Take it all, but don't bring your animals to sacrifice. Here are the four proposals of pharaoh. Once again, I would argue that they're the same proposals that Satan brings about people today.

Let's talk about them. Let's go back to Exodus chapter eight about the first proposal. In verse 25, worship but stay within the land. What can we say about that?

Worshiping was still having sin in your life.

Worship but still have sin in your life? Sure.

It's compromises. God wanted them to go out into the wilderness to worship.

Compromise? Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Not willing to depart from all sin and be surrounded by sin.

Not willing to turn from sin?

Somewhere to come back to.

Somewhere to come back to? Worship, but don't don't leave. Do it here. Do it within the land of Egypt. You really wanna worship God?

Oh, yeah. I wanna give everything to him. Okay. Okay. I have no problem.

I have no problem you worshiping. Just make sure that you stay in Egypt while you do it. Just just just add it to your life, but don't make it your life. Don't do that. It's a gospel that has no repentance in it.

It's a gospel that has no turn your back on Egypt and never look back to it. It's a gospel that says you really wanna be a Christian, you really wanna follow God, okay, go to church on Sunday. That's fine. You you you didn't go to church before. Go to church now, but as long as you're the same person from Monday to Saturday and you live how you want, that's fine to me.

Yeah. Stay. Go. Okay. You wanna work?

That's fine. Just don't leave Egypt. Live in Egypt. Live in Egypt, and you can worship all you want. Do it.

That's fine. This is exactly what he's saying here. Pharaoh didn't mind the Israelites adding worship to their life. He didn't mind at all. What he did mind was them leaving Egypt to do it.

And so all he says here is add it to your life. Don't repent. Don't turn back. Don't cut off. Just add it to your life.

How many people are in that category? How many Christians have bought into that proposal? Too many. Too many. And we're gonna find out there are different proposals that people have found themselves in.

But look how Moses answers in verse 26. What does he say? He goes, if we sacrifice here, it's an abomination. The Egyptians will stone us because of this sacrifice, because they held some kind of a worship towards animals. And if we're gonna kill some sheep and different animals, they're gonna see us kind of fighting with their ideology.

It's not gonna work. What is that a picture of?

Discernment. Discernment?

Discernment? Yes. But something about this idea of giving yourself to God and not staying in Egypt. If you wanna live for God, you can't stay in the world. Because the way you're gonna live now is contrary to the world.

That's the idea. The whole idea of us, Pharaoh, giving our lives to God in in the wilderness is that we don't do the same things that the Egyptians anymore. So it's just not gonna work. We're not gonna be equally yoked. We can't do that.

I appreciate the proposal, but it's not according to the word of God. There are so many people that ask this question. They hear a message and they know, okay. I gotta give everything to Jesus. And so they come up and they say, listen.

Listen. Listen. I get it. Yeah. Give everything to Jesus.

Follow Jesus. So what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to go to my worldly friends and tell them I'm a Christian now and I can't hang out with you any longer? Am I supposed to leave this conference and call up all my friends and say, listen. I gave myself wholeheartedly to Jesus Christ, and I'm sorry because you do certain things and I can't do those things anymore, so we can't talk anymore.

I'm sorry. This relationship is not gonna work. Is that what is that what you're asking me to do, brother? And this is my answer. You don't even have to do that.

If you live wholeheartedly for God, eventually, you're just gonna split ways. If you live wholeheartedly for the lord Jesus Christ, it won't take too long before you and them will not be with each other any longer. There's just gonna be this natural parting of ways. You don't even have to say a word. You just live for Jesus wholeheartedly.

You give everything to him. You seek him. You come to the meetings. You learn about him, and just watch how there'll be this natural part. You don't even have to say a word.

This is what Moses is saying. I can't live, and we can't do this here because it doesn't mingle. Doesn't work, pharaoh. I appreciate the proposal. So he goes, okay.

Alright. Alright. Alright. Go worship your God. But when you go do it, don't go too far away.

Stay close. What does that mean? Yes, Barrett?

Staying in the close of your heart is gonna be to your old life and your old ways so that you decide to turn back, you can.

There it is. Picture perfect. You wanna live for Jesus Christ? Oh, I do. Alright.

Fine. But don't go too far. Don't go too deep. I mean, stick close enough. Stay close enough where you can still hear the Egyptian music.

I might get in trouble for this one. Stay close enough. Don't go all out. I mean, mingle with the Egyptian entertainment a little bit. Come on.

Don't go too deep. Don't be like those radical ones. Oh, okay. Fine. You wanna add some morals to your life and you had this religious epiphany.

That's great. Just don't go too far because you might change your mind. So keep those contacts on your phone when you know that you shouldn't have those contacts on your phone just in case this Jesus thing doesn't work out too much, it's not what I thought, it gets a little too pressureful, it's just a little bit too hot here, I gotta go back to the way I used to live. So keep those relationships. Keep those things in your life.

Satan doesn't mind if you wanna worship the Lord and you're not going all the way. But once again, look at verse 29 of Exodus chapter eight. Look what Moses says to him at the end of verse 29. He says, okay. Yeah.

Go. And he says, can you get rid of these things? Are we good? Did you buy into the proposal? Look what he says.

Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. He's saying, okay. Don't lie to us now. You said that you want us to go, we'll go. Don't change your mind.

But what is Pharaoh doing? He's lying. What does Satan do? He offers these proposals to people in thinking that they're actually doing right and they're actually gonna be able to live this life wholeheartedly when in reality they're still in the clutches of his hand. That's the idea.

So hear me out real quick. Please pay attention. If you're worshiping the lord and you're still in the land of Egypt, if you want to worship the lord but you haven't gone all the way, you haven't gone too deep into the wilderness, you still have some association with Egypt. I'm sorry to break the news to you, but you're not really free. Because Pharaoh here is saying, do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fine. Fine.

And Moses caught on you saying, don't lie to us. Don't cheat to us. What happens at the end? Verse 32, but Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go. True freedom in Christ is not that you can worship the Lord and still live in Egypt.

That's not freedom. Nor is it freedom to stay in close proximity to the world. That's not freedom either. True freedom is that when you take the world and you nail it to a cross and you nail yourself on a cross and you say, that's what the world is to me, it's what it looks like when a man is crucified. That's what it looks like.

They didn't buy into it. So you fast forward to Exodus chapter 10 verse eight and eleven, and he goes, alright. You you're really adamant. You really wanna worship the Lord. You really wanna give yourself wholeheartedly to Yahweh.

Who wants to go with you? Well, you know, when God tells us to go, he tells us to go with everything within us. Alright. But who? The man, the woman, the children, and the livestock.

And he goes, oh, really? You think that you're gonna let the little ones go with you? You really think that that's gonna happen? This is what I'm proposing to you. You and the men go and you leave your family behind.

What does that speak of? What's that? Hostages. Hostages. Yes.

Receiving the gospel but not sharing it with others.

Receiving the gospel and not sharing with others. I think we're that's gonna might maybe fall into the fourth one a little bit more.

Leaving part of your life in the world.

Leaving part of your life in the world. Okay. It's very specific. It is very specific, and it's very true today. What is he doing here?

What's his strategy?

To keep the children asleep.

This is this is an attack on the family. This is an attack on familial worship. This is what he's saying. You take the men and you go, but don't worry about the wife. Don't worry about the children.

Focus on yourself. It's this division that he's trying to bring within the household that the fathers, hear me out, should not worry about investing spiritually into their children. Don't worry about your kids. Don't be concerned if they're reading their Bible. Don't be concerned of their prayer life.

Don't be concerned about their spiritual condition. You just move on. You live your own life, and don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. That's not a responsibility anymore.

That's so old school about, no. Don't worry about that. Life is different now. And we learn about how God has instituted the family, especially fathers, to raise up and to disciple their children. I'm gonna really shock you with this truth.

That's not all on the pastor's job. And so many people, so many parents, especially the younger youth in different ministries, they take their kids, they dump them into youth once a week, and they don't crack open the bible. They don't pray. They don't discuss the things of God throughout the week, and they just say, you take care of our our kid spiritually. Partly true.

Yes. But there is an aspect of family worship, of growing up together, of men investing in their children. And here's Satan saying, that's fine. Yeah. You wanna worship God?

It's okay. But don't invest in them. On the flip side, it's also an attack on the younger generation with church. Not to invest in the young people within the church. Not to invest in that shocks me.

That really shocks me. You know why? They're the next generation. They are literally the ones following up after you. They're the ones that are gonna you're gonna pass on the baton to them.

How much should we invest in the younger gen you're you and I are gonna come to a point in our lives where we're gonna invest in a younger generation because we're gonna pass on, and here's the young ones. They're gonna take on the baton. But Satan hates the idea of discipleship. He hates the idea of building up younger ones. He hates it.

Let me give you a quote. He who owns the youth owns the future. It's a powerful quote. Do you know who said it? Hitler.

He who owns the youth owns the future. And Hitler had that revelation. If I can get the allegiance of the young people to Egypt, I'll gain a whole generation to my purposes and my plans. So go worship, but don't worry about the little ones. I'll take care of them.

And finally, as we close with this last one, he says, alright. They kept rejecting. They said, no. God gave us a word. We're gonna do what God said, and we're gonna do it God's way.

Alright. Alright. I see it. Go worship. Take your family.

Do it all, but don't bring animal sacrifices. Don't bring the animals, lead the animals back. You go ahead, you keep those things back here. What does that speak of? Sure.

Okay. Yeah. Evan?

It could be. In a way, because it's okay. You're there, but you're not investing your resources. Well, that's well, that's time. You have to decide to sacrifice something for

There's an element of sacrifice that Satan does not want you to have. Yes, Nahum?

Is it, not worshiping God the way he wants to worship?

Sure. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. That's it right there.

There's a couple of things. That's one of them. That's a great insight. Go worship the Lord, but don't worship him the way God established that he should be approaching. The way that God wants us to be able to come into his house, and how we should live and and do certain things.

Absolutely. Don't do it God's way. Do it your way. Go fine, but don't do it according to his word. Beautiful.

Worship God, but worship the way the world worships. Do it the way the world does it. Don't be sanctified. Don't be set apart. Don't be unique.

Don't be holy. Let's adopt the world's way of worshiping God when God has given us a way to worship him. But this idea of sacrifice so you set yourself up to say, I wanna live for God. I wanna leave Egypt. Great.

Be redeemed, but don't be active. Yeah. Fine. Get saved, but don't live sacrificially. Don't live this lifestyle of sacrifice.

So come to church. Fine. You wanna you wanna stop going to those places in the world? You do it, because Satan doesn't mind us leaving Egypt as long as we're not active in the wilderness. Do you hear this?

Go to church, hear the message, but don't serve. Come to church. Yeah. Now you have something to do on Sunday or on Friday. That's great.

But don't find out a way how you can serve. Don't find out a way how you can get involved. Don't be active in your faith. Don't find out how you can use your gifts and put them on the altar for the Lord. No.

As long as you are frozen, as long as you're in that place in which you do not move, you're not a threat to me. That's fine. So go. Leave. Stop doing these things.

Fine. As long as you're not doing anything for him. I'll make this case. Many people have signed that document of proposal today, the last one more than anything. All of them, sure.

But unfortunately, many have signed that last one. Yeah. I wanna leave. I wanna get out. I wanna I wanna escape pharaoh and his judgments and his ways, but I'm not gonna bring his sacrifice.

I'm not gonna live for him. I'm not gonna find ways where I can put things on the altar continually as a lifestyle of worship to him. I'm just gonna be redeemed, and I'm just gonna go with the flow. What is God's desire? Because they rejected all these proposals.

Moses says it. He says at the end, we can't. Because if we don't bring the sacrifice, we can't worship. In other words, Moses had this revelation. Being redeemed from Egypt is not about not doing things in Egypt.

It's about doing things for God. Being saved, yes, justification by faith through grace, absolutely, but he has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has prepared before him that we should just walk in them. So I'm saved, but Moses says, yeah, but, Pharaoh, you don't get it. It's not about just coming out. It's about now being active.

It's not about just coming out. It's about good works. It's not about just being saved. It's about exercising our faith. And we're gonna find out that pharaoh gave up, and they walked into that reality.

But I wanna leave this pressing question to you. Have you signed any of those proposals? Are you the one that's in Egypt but still worshiping God? Are you the one that's not too far away from Egypt? You have some association with the you just can't let go of the way the Egyptians do certain things.

You just you've lived in that lifestyle for so long. It's just a hard habit to break. Or are you those that have been convinced that the younger generation is not important, your kids are not important, your younger siblings are not important? Or did you step out of Egypt with no intent to bring a sacrifice? With no intent with offering your life as a sacrifice, that every day would be as though a priest goes to that altar and lays down a bowl.

That's not what we do in the New Testament. We give ourselves as a sacrifice. Let's pray.