Exodus 9-10 Bible Study (5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, & 9th Plagues) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

We try every Friday to stand up to read the word of God, but because we're covering so much, we won't do that. If you have your bibles, please open up to Exodus chapter nine. If you're joining us for the first time, we've been exploring through the book of Exodus, and we've been going through the 10 plagues specifically, and we've touched on so much. But because of the continuity of these, chapters and the flow of these plagues, we're gonna try to gather chapter nine, ten, and 11, and we're gonna try to stop, perhaps at eleven or chapter 12, to focus on the last plague that hits Egypt. But for the sake of dependence on the Holy Spirit, let's pray and ask him to open our eyes.

Father, we thank you again for your presence in this place. Lord, we acknowledge that you are holy, holy, holy, and we call upon your spirit to open our eyes in greater ways. Lord, as Paul prayed to the Ephesian church for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, may you enlighten the eyes of our hearts tonight. We need you. Our hearts sometimes grow callous, Lord.

Sometimes we allow the things in our lives throughout the week to fog up our perception of who Jesus is. And Lord, we're just praying that as we enter into your word that it would clear the air and that you would reveal who you are and who we are in you, who we are without you. And we ask, Lord, for those in here that do not know you. Lord, this is your work, salvation. And we will be faithful in the proclamation of your word, but we ask that you would do what only you can do, and that is change someone's heart.

And so, Lord, would you, as we pray week by week, provide what a man needs in this place, conviction, comfort, challenge, encouragement, healing. Lord, you can do it all in a moment, and we call upon you by faith, and we pray that there would be no distraction in this place, because life and death hangs in the balance in these meetings. And Lord, though it is a Bible study, it is still your word, and those that come that do not know you must know that through your word, the promises found in this book grant us life and life eternal. May it be so tonight. And we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Exodus chapter nine. Here we are in the fifth plague. We're gonna read from verse one down to verse seven. It says here, Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me.

For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time, saying tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.

And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead, but the heart of pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. There's some details in here. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the repetition of how these plagues are being presented that we miss, we kinda just scan through the little details that are presented, but there are some important details in these verses concerning the fifth plague. But for the sake of opening it up, let's open it up right off the bat to say, okay, what do we notice in these first several verses? Can anybody share anything that they've learned?

Yes, Tim.

God keeps giving Pharaoh an opportunity to soften his heart, but Pharaoh keeps choosing to harden his heart.

Okay. That's an important point because we have to pay attention to who's hardening whose heart here. And we're gonna get into that in a moment. So all these plagues are being presented and they are, some would say, these are not God's given chances to Pharaoh to turn from his ways. This is just God wanting to display his power, and Pharaoh did not have a choice.

Okay. What else can we say How about these verses? Yes, Sofia? So it's conditional.

And also, like, he can do a whole day to, like, think about what's gonna happen. You can do to make it happen, but, literally, tomorrow this time, can you give him twenty four hours to, like, review everything

So he says tomorrow I will do this thing. That's a whole day to think about a lot. Great observation. Yes, Evan.

The nature of this play is that it's has much many more long term implications because of your cattle all dying. So, like, you get cattle that, you know, at this point, you know, you eat them, you know, you you know, use them to work the land, you know. So this has way more law to moral applications than just the day in which this curse, exists.

So we are are we seeing an intensifying of the plagues now? K. He he's striking on certain things and he's intensifying here. And so for us living in this time of history and even where we are right now, we're like, what's the big deal? Cattle?

Horses? Well, what does that mean to us? Well, back in that day, it was literally the economic center. All of that, that's the livestock, that's their food, that's their trade, that's the way they do business, that's even Some would say that's even part of their worship to some extent. So this is striking a nerve, a central nerve to Egypt.

This is not some small thing. This is very crucial. To lose all the livestock means great implications for the future. Absolutely. Yes, Aliyah.

Because of all the livestock, all the Egyptian livestock were dead, it kind of make it makes it seem like the Egyptians have to rely on the Israelites because all the Israelites, livestock are still alive.

That's an interesting observation. So there's gonna be a distinction in a moment between the livestock of Israel and Egypt and who's gonna be dependent upon who at that point. Good observation. Anything else we can say? Yeah, Tim?

God holds close to his word. When he says he's gonna do something, he he he delivers. Yeah.

And Pharaoh says, you know what, can you go check and see if what God did really did he really do it? Did he really keep his word? He says that at the end. Anything else? For the sake of reminder, look at verse one.

Then the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go. He doesn't stop there. It's not about letting the people go just because they're in bondage and he's compassionate, though that is part of it. What's the purpose of setting the people free? That they may serve me, that they may worship me, that they may adore me.

See, God's intention in saving the Israelites was to create a remnant that would love him, adore him, and represent him to all the other nations. It's no different in the new covenant. God sets us free from the grip of pharaoh for a purpose that we may serve him, and we learned that last week. That God wants to pull you out of Egypt, not for the sake of just pulling you out of Egypt. Pharaoh didn't have a problem with them necessarily worshiping as long as they stayed in Egypt.

As long as they stayed close in close proximity with the world, because if you stay close enough, he can pull you back in. But no, he wants to deliver you so that he can bring you to a place of total devotion, worship, adoration, serving, representing him completely. Let them go because I want them to serve me. And then it says in verse two, for if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, they're in the clutches of pharaoh. If you want to hold on to them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague.

So now we see a direct threat from God himself saying my hand will come upon you and I will cause a severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, and all these different animals. Look at verse four, but the Lord will make a distinction. That's an important word. Distinction. What does distinction mean?

To be distinct.

To tell apart.

To tell apart? Different? Separate? Yes. There's a separation gonna happen.

There's gonna be this mark upon them, and there's gonna be this separation between Israel and Egypt.

It's not just like a difference though, it's a separation between a higher and a lower thing though. It's to say that this is better than that, not just that something is different.

So there's a distinction in the sense perhaps of quality. If you look at Psalms four three, it's the same word here used, but know that the Lord has set apart a people for himself. That word set apart is the same word distinction. And so what he's doing here is I'm gonna cut and make a clear distinction between my people and your people, and he says here, the difference is gonna be that there's gonna be livestock that are gonna be alive, and there's gonna be no livestock. So there's this distinction, right?

Is there any different with the Christian faith? There's a distinction between us and the world. There has to be a distinction, that's God's intention. And what's the distinction? It's not our livestock.

It's not that we have better livestock than Egypt. That's not the distinction. What should be the distinction between you, believer?

That we're holy and we're set apart.

Holy, set apart? Sure. In our conduct, in our speech, in our attitude?

Let me say our lives.

Distinction, yes. What else? Well, think about the symbolism here. Think about the picture. Amongst the Israelites, there's gonna be livestock.

Amongst the Egyptians, there's gonna be death. What's this what's the difference? One has life, one doesn't have life. And it's no different for us either. Amongst us as believers, there should be life, true life.

Life, not existence. There's a difference between living and existing. Right? You can exist, but not be living per se. We as believers have life.

What did Jesus say? He says, peace I give to you. But what kind of peace? Not as the world gives to you, my peace I give to you. So the peace that Christ walked with on the earth is the peace that you and I should have in our hearts.

My peace I give to you, not as the world gives. What does he say about joy? Says you'll have joy? What kind of joy? My joy.

I'm gonna give you my joy and that you're gonna have it to the fullest. So peace, joy, look at the ninth plague. If you turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 10, verse 21. This is the ninth plague. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be a darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.

Have you ever felt darkness? So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was a pitched darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Same idea. Life, not only life, but there should be light.

We have the answers. We're not stumbling around in this world. We're not blind. We're not wondering why we're here. We're not wondering what's gonna happen after we exist or actually after we die.

We know we have the answers. I am the way, the truth, and the life. He has all the answers. He's the way we're walking, and he is he's he's he's all of it. And we as his people reflect that.

So what's the distinction? You have life. You have joy. There's a peace about you. Not only that, there's light.

When there's questions, we have answers. We're not confused, we're not stumbling around, we're not paralyzed in darkness. No. We have clarity. We have this word.

So we see that. Right? What else can we say about this this distinction here? Yes, Sarah.

Can we say, like, it's kind of like nothing will touch you if you're a child of God. So in the midst of, like, the chaos, in the midst of, like, the place, I'm sure they were scared of what's going on. But as people of God, their cattle and their livestock, everything wasn't touched. They weren't touched. Everything was just just kept

Yes. Together? Yes. Absolutely. We can say that.

And what's our doctrine of suffering if anybody does suffer suffer as a believer? What's the comfort in that? It's for our good. Say that again?

For our good.

For our good? But how how did that happen? Yes. It is for our good. It's everything is for our good.

You are right.

As Christ suffered, we should suffer.

As Christ suffered, we should suffer. But what's the understanding if somebody what's the comfort in knowing that we if we are going through any type of suffering? This is the comfort that if it happens to us, God allowed it to happen in some sense. That he gave permission to some degree, unless we have invoked that suffering upon ourselves based on stupid decisions. God has allowed it the same way that he gave Satan permission to touch Job.

And he did not give the permission for Satan to touch Peter. Right? We can take comfort in that in the midst of suffering, that there is a purpose behind our suffering, there's a refining process, there's something good coming out of this, but we have that protection as well. Like we talked about the flies last week, the swarm of flies will not touch the people who are in Goshen. That's a principle for the New Testament as well, that we have the blood of Jesus covering us.

And that what Satan can do to a person who does not have the spirit of God dwelling in them, he he cannot do to those who have the spirit of God dwelling in the temple of the Holy Spirit. And you are that temple. Yes. What else can we say? Well, look at verse seven.

Pharaoh sent, behold not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. What can we say about that? Yes, Mary?

It's a testimony he sends to see if it's true, to see if they really are different and it proves to be true.

Wonderful. Pharaoh wants to go in a little bit of an investigation here. Okay, so there's a distinction, let me see if there's really a distinction. Go and see if there really is a difference. How true is that of us?

It begs the question really, if the world were to put an investigation on our lives, would they see a distinction? I love this question. If a non believer were to spend twenty four hours with you, would they be able to say and testify that this person truly is a Christian? If a person was to wake up with you in the morning, and at the end of the day follow you home throughout that entire day, would they be able to say, yes, there is a distinction? Yes, this person does have a peace, that is supernatural.

Yes, this person does have a joy. Yes, this person is holding their conduct. Yes, this person walks to a different beat. That's what he's doing. He's he's seeing is there really a distinction?

Is there something different about those that are in Goshen? And remember remember where they're dwelling. Where are they dwelling? What place are they dwelling? What's the name of it?

Goshen. Does Does anybody remember what Goshen means? Drawing near. Drawing near. Drawing near.

So the difference is only a reality in your life, Christian, when you are dwelling in Goshen, symbolically speaking. When you are drawing near to God, when you are in the place where God wants you to be, his standard, that's the only place where there's gonna be a distinction. If you're outside of Goshen, you're no different. Oh, you can say you're an Israelite all you want, but the distinction was in Goshen. And Goshen was the set place by God.

He sent Joseph ahead of time to prepare that place, so that they would be in Goshen, symbolically speaking, drawing near to God, and in that arena of life was the distinction. Only in that place. You really want to be distinct from the world? Be close to Jesus. Stay in close proximity to him, and you will.

Not even effortlessly. The same way it was effortless for them. All they had to do Think about it. Did they have to do anything? Did they have to do anything for these things to be a reality?

No. You know what they had to do? One thing. One thing, abide. Just stay in Goshen.

Once you stay in that place, everything else will radiate off you effortlessly. You don't have to force yourself to be holy in a sense. You don't have to walk out, okay, I'm gonna walk into work. Holiness mode now. You don't have to do any of that.

You just stay in that place of abiding, and it will literally light off of you. You stay in Goshen. That's all you have to do. You abide in the vine. Abide in me.

Abide in me. That's all Jesus asked of us, and you'll bear much fruit. So he investigates, and Pharaoh sent, and behold not one of the last Okay, so it's true, there is a difference. There is a difference. But look how he reacts here.

But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. I want you to think about this. He sees the distinction, not only the distinction, he sees the goodness of God, his mercy, and the fact that he has kept the people and kept their livestock from dying. He sees what? The goodness of God.

And so what does he do? He hardened himself. So when he saw the wrath of God, he hardened himself. And when he saw the goodness of God, he still was hardened. And both are meant to lead us to repentance.

The justice of God and the fear of God is a measure and a method to bring somebody sometimes you gotta scare people into the kingdom, it's just the reality. If you don't believe me, read the book of Jude. Snatch them out of the fire with fear. And and other times, it's his compassion and his mercy and his goodness that draws us. What verse can we use for that theology?

His kindness is tremendous. Yes. Romans two four. Romans two four. What does Romans two four say?

It's a powerful verse. It says here, do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? So even when the world sees the kindness of God, and how does the world see the kindness of God? Does God dispense his kindness to the world?

His grace. How? His grace.

His grace. How? And specifically, how? Jesus, yes. Mainly Jesus' centrality is the cross, yes.

But how? How else does he dispense and display his greatness and his goodness?

Common grace.

Common grace. Go ahead. Keep going.

Rain, water, food.

Yes. All these things. When we talk about revelation, pay attention, revelation, we're talking about the idea of God unveiling himself, revealing himself, making himself known. Right? There are two types of revelation when it comes to God.

Does anybody know the two categories of revelation? One is general revelation, and two is supernatural revelation or special revelation. General revelation, special revelation. What's general revelation? What Paul just said.

General revelation is God making himself known to all people, and how does he do that? His work They are without excuse. How? Creation. Creation.

They see his actions. How? Rain, sun, crops, his common grace being displayed. That's general, and then we go to special revelation, which talks about how God has revealed himself to specific people at certain times of history, and the ultimate revelation and the sealed revelation is what? The bible.

Thank you. And the ultimate revelation of who God is is through his son Jesus Christ. The exact radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature. So, God displays his kindness, and there's a beautiful verse when he tells Christians how to love and how to be in this world. He says in Luke six thirty five, he shows his kindness to the ungrateful and the wicked.

So so even to those who are not grateful, even to those who are wicked, he still shows his kindness. But what's the purpose? So that you would be in a place where your heart is melted in his compassion. Say, I wanna follow this God. I wanna live for this God.

But Pharaoh couldn't take either one. The wrath of God? The kindness of God? No, don't want it. That's a dangerous place to be.

If neither side convinces you, what else is left? Well, we're gonna find out. Is there anything else we can say about this? We read on to the next plague. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.

It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. So they took suit from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians, and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. And he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Very short description of a plague, but there are a couple of things that we can touch on. What does it say here?

One of the things that I noticed reading this is that in the previous plagues, you're seeing a god or you're seeing god using plagues through nature, through the water, through animals, and things of that nature. But here you're looking at something that comes from the eternal, these boils, like the sickness. And you're looking thinking back on, like, Egypt, you're looking at, like, pagan gods, you know, who had that of, like, of the sun, god of this. So it shows god's power, his all encompassing power, that's not just limited to nature, but it's, you know, it spans to other to many other aspects of life.

So he's not just lord over nature. You know what he's what else he's lord over? Your body. Your body. God is really trying to show who he is, that's what the whole purpose of these plagues are.

Every plague has a message. And what is he saying here? I'm even control of your body. Not just nature, not just the waves, not just water, not just the frogs, not the flies, your blood cells, your heartbeat, your nerves, your eyes. I believe this is so important for us because we have lost the sense of the bigness of God.

We really have. We think he's distant, though we wouldn't admit it. We feel like he's distant, and we would kind of categorize him as far, even the way we speak about him, but he is closer to you than your skin is to your bone. He is. And so he's about to show right now, I am Lord over your body, which is comforting.

It shouldn't be something that we're scared of, it should be comforting. This is a small detail, but look at the verse that we talked on verse eight here, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot of the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air. Why is that significant? When we read the plagues before, many of the times, who is doing this stuff?

Aaron.

Aaron. Say to Aaron, take your staff and do something with it. And now we hear we see Moses taking something and he's throwing it in the air. And here's just a simple practical little thing. God has an assignment for each of us in his kingdom.

For Aaron, for specific things. For Moses, for specific things. For God, he did specific things on his own. But here's the comfort, in this grand plan of God to bring glory to himself, every person has an assignment, and every person is a part of it to some degree. So Aaron was doing it up to the up to this point, he was being commanded, but here Moses himself is getting his hands dirty, so to speak.

I take comfort in that because it it shows me that we all have a part in what God wants to do for the cause of Christ. Let Moses do this, and now afflict their bodies. So he takes this black dust almost and he throws it in the air, and it was like dust over all the land and boils start popping out, and there's irritation. Is there a purpose behind this really? Does sickness have a purpose for the unbeliever?

What's the message behind sickness really? What's one message that sickness brings to all of us actually?

Our mortality?

That is it. Our mortality. Sickness reminds us we're human. Sickness reminds us, hey, you're gonna die one day. You're all gonna die.

Your body is frail. In one moment, everything can change. So sickness really puts life into perspective. And you probably know somebody that didn't really start thinking about their life and eternity until they were afflicted with the disease, until they got that doctor's report, until they realized, Oh, I'm not gonna live what I thought to be 80, 90 years comfortably. It looks like I might expire a little earlier.

Sickness does that. It really humbles men because we when we're healthy And it's amazing, don't we all think when we hear a story about somebody dying early, we just automatically we think it's never gonna happen to me. Majority of the people will say, wow that's a sad story. Thank God I'm gonna live ninety years. How do you know?

How do you know? Nobody in here knows. No Not one place, not one person rather in here knows when they're leaving, when this body will give up on them. And God is sovereign all over all of that because it says that every breath of living things are in the palm of his hand. He knows, but we don't know.

But when sickness on any level is afflicted to us, we realize how weak we are. We realize how short this life is. We really get a perspective on eternity at that point. And perhaps this is what the Lord is trying to say, okay, everything else was external up to a point, but And yeah, it was It did affect them, but this is, as Evan said, now source from from them. It's coming out of them.

And in verse 12 it says, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to them. Why is that verse significant?

Because in chapter seven it said that God would harden Pharaoh's heart, and here we see it come to pass.

Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time that it mentions that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. The first. What plague number are we at? Six.

So what did he say beforehand?

Pharaoh hardened his heart.

Pharaoh hardened his heart. And whenever the Lord mentioned anything with him to do with hardening, you know what he said? I will harden his heart. I will harden his heart. I will harden his heart.

And he hardens his heart long enough, and he sealed his fate. And God says, okay, I will speed up the process. If you really wanna cross that line, I'll seal that process and I'll seal that condition for you, and we'll work with that. That's what he does. For the first time it mentions here, the sixth plague, don't get it twisted, that the Lord now directly hardens Pharaoh's heart.

That's important for us to understand. Yes?

It's also interesting that the Lord hardened his heart of the sixth plague, and Moses in the area did not ask Pharaoh to let them go. You know, this is this is the Lord just doing action. This is not there's no preemptiveness about it. This is just, you know, Moses taking soot, you know, essentially garbage out of the kiln and throwing it in the air.

Right.

Just strike fear in a way.

Right. Yeah. Aliyah?

I just wanted to say this is the first. In the first place where the magicians tried to do something, but they can't even stand up

to Moses and Aaron.

Now it's they can't even try to replicate what they've done.

Yeah. They can't even stand. Never mind do anything. Yes, spirit.

I think part of the reason they can't stand before Moses is, probably shame. They're ashamed of, their inability and also their rebellion. But instead of coming to Moses or coming to God and saying, you know, help us, we don't want to do this, say hide instead.

Right.

All of this is trying to provoke a humility and a humbleness in the magicians and pharaoh, but there's just this continuous resistance and hardening. That is a terrible way to respond either to God's discipline or God's compassion. When you run the other way, it's a terrible decision to make. Now we come to the seventh plague, which is a very significant plague. If you notice in your Bibles how long the introduction to this plague is and how long it's really happening for, we see the length here of time.

It's very significant. Let's read from verse 13, the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning. Rise up early in the morning. There's some new mercies for you, Pharaoh, in the morning. And present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go.

How many times do you need to hear the same sermon, Pharaoh? That they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you, yourself and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now, for by now, I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been seen in Egypt from the day it was found until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safer shelter. For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. What can we say about these powerful statements, as as as though every verse is a is a sucker punch to a truth about who God is.

What can we say? Yes, Sofia? I have

a question

actually. Sure. Well we don't know necessarily why, it doesn't say why. Perhaps not all of the livestock died. Perhaps we're gonna find out a little bit even when he does this disaster, not all of the the plants die either.

So there is a possibility that a little bit were left or there was some hidden. We don't necessarily know, but that's a good observation. Here, Gail.

God's mercy.

God's mercy? Listen, if there's anything we're gonna learn tonight, if there's anything in the midst of all these judgments and plagues and disasters, we're gonna find out some interesting facts about the the the mercy of God in the midst of his judgments. Yes. Specifically where though? It says,

I could have struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth.

I could have cut you off in one blow, but I didn't. Yes. What else can we say? Yes, Marfil.

To add on to his mercy, he adds a way of escape in, where he says, by this time tomorrow, let gather your livestock, bring them in, and whoever's out will feel.

The God of the Old Testament is a bully, a tyrant, a monster. If anybody ever says that to you, I can guarantee they did not read the Old Testament for themselves. They just read some article of an angry atheist somewhere. What else can we say?

In the first verse, God is basically giving Pharaoh grace again.

Yes. Absolutely. Rise up early in the morning. It's a new day. There's something for you, and it could be mercy if you're willing to embrace it.

Mhmm. Yes, sir.

Okay. If God already hardened Pharaoh's heart, is he talking to Pharaoh or is he doing all this stuff for the Egyptians?

Well, good question. His heart is hardened, but now God has a different purpose. God has a different purpose. We're gonna talk about this in a moment. We're gonna talk about how you can glorify God in your obedience and you can glorify God in your disobedience.

Did you know you can do that? You can do that. And he's about to receive glory in a way that I would not recommend one person to give glory in an indirect way, and we're gonna find that out. So now, from this moment on, we're gonna see that he has a different purpose. He says it in verse 16, right, he has a purpose, and he knew it beforehand, that I may display my power to you, and that I may have a name for myself amongst the nations.

So now Pharaoh has set himself in a place in which he has a new mission concerning how God is going to use him and speak to him and do things to him and through him. What else can we say? Mhmm. Sandy? Sure.

So then, would pharaoh be able, let's say, that since his heart is hardened, would he have been able in this instance to turn back?

That's a good question. People debate that as well. Is it now did he cross that line where he's hardened his neck so many times where he can't now come to that place of repentance? Perhaps, perhaps not, but I would say this. Up to this point, what we do know is that he is about to be used in a way in which he will glorify God through wrath and not through mercy.

Because people debate, what was the point where he crossed the line? What was the point? Because now we're gonna see this this back and forth, he harden his heart, God harden his heart. All we can say is this, is that he made that choice long enough for God to seal that choice and to say, okay, I'll work with this. That moment where it happened, that's up for debate.

Yeah. Brianna, yeah.

Along with that, we read, in verse 27, that he there's some sort of repentance there where it says this time I have sinned. So I feel like even after God did do that, when he hardened his heart, I feel like he's we still have a free choice. And in this case, he did repent, but then he, like, went back.

Yeah. And we're gonna talk about that in a moment. That's a very important verse where he says he acknowledges his sin.

I feel like in this plague, there's a kind of an invitation for the Egyptians to accept God as their own. Whereas like in the other plagues, it's like, okay, here's the Israelites, here's the Egyptians. Now he's reaching out to the Egyptians like, come to me. Come

to me. Beautiful. Now he's including the Egyptians. Anybody that's willing to come and to receive my mercy, It is in abundance. Here, drink from the rivers of my mercy.

Absolutely. He says in verse 14, for this time I will send all my plagues. Here is the third set, so to speak, of all the plagues. We have the first set, the first three, the second set. We just finished, now we come to the third set where it's very intense, and he says, now I'm gonna bow I'm gonna pour it all out on you now.

That's it. I'm gonna pour it out. And he says here, for by now I could have put out my hand and struck all the he says, I could have done it from the beginning. You know, God had the ability. He could have made that book of Exodus very short.

Deliver my people. Alright. Let's do this. Pharaoh, you wanna turn? No.

Alright. And he could have picked all the Israelites up and dropped them into the promised land, but he doesn't. Why did God relent? We talked about why 10 plagues? Why a 10 lesson curriculum about who God is instead of a one day thing?

What does it speak about God? Yes, Isaac?

So that he can reveal himself.

He can reveal himself in a specific way? What does he say here? He says that I may show you my power, so I'm gonna do this in a way where you will undeniably know that I am God over all creation, I am God over all your little gods, I am the true and living God. I'm gonna show that with a 10 round fight with all your deities. Sure, absolutely.

Go ahead, Baron, and then leave it there.

Yeah, he's a he's a long suffering god.

Long suffering. Second Peter three nine, you were gonna say the same thing, right? His mercy, that he is not slow to fulfill his promise, but he relents, he holds back. Why? All, so that all may reach repentance.

So he says, you know, I could have done it all in one moment, but I chose to do it in a way in which perhaps by the fourth one at least, you would have said, this is the living God. Let's just give up. But no, you don't. Okay. But here's my mercy, my mercy is displayed in the midst of my judgments.

So we're seeing something here. This is important because it's gonna say a lot about this plague. If there's one plague that you don't wanna fall asleep on, it's this one. So this is very important. Yeah.

I wanted to add on verse 14 that, Evan was talking about. About. The Hebrew on on yourself is on your heart. So what he holds dear. Mhmm.

I don't know. I just wanted to add that.

Yeah. He says he says his heart. Maybe if you have the King James, perhaps it says heart. So I'm gonna reach your heart. I'm gonna really touch the citadel of your being.

And he says here, verse 16, but for this purpose I have raised you up. The reason why you have stayed up to this point where you have not been annihilated from the plagues before is for this reason, that I may display my power. And we go back to that point. Listen, you and I, every person in this world has the opportunity to glorify God in two ways, through our obedience or through our disobedience. God is able to display his power both through a man's obedience or through a man's disobedience.

Guess what? This is so exciting. I love it. No matter what, God's gonna be glorified. In the end, Jesus Christ is going to receive all the glory.

All of it. Every knee is going to bow, right? And every tongue is going to confess. No matter who you are, how no matter what you wrote about Jesus, how you mocked Jesus, how you did a comedy show again, no matter what who you are, politician, peasant, you're gonna end up glorifying God one way or another. And it's based on our response to the sovereignty of God, whether I wanna be the recipient of his blessing or his judgment in him receiving glory in either one of those things.

So this is a new testament principle. So Paul the Apostle did mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, preach the gospel. And God was glorified through his ministry, and he was a recipient of God's blessing, and it was an extension of God's blessing. Or we can be like an Ananias and Sapphira, where we walk into church and because we want to impress people, we want to say, hey, look how much I gave to the church. And they put it at the apostles' feet and God says, are you serious?

And killed them both. And guess what? God got glory out of that. Because out of those two and their deaths, it says that this news spread abroad and all feared God when they heard about these things. God got glory anyway.

So either a man's obedience or a man's disobedience will end up to the same destination. God is gonna receive all the glory. I wanna be the one who walks in obedience. Because he's gonna show himself strong here, and Pharaoh has set himself up as a canvas for God to paint his power upon. That's what's about to happen.

Now these precious verses, is there anything else we can say about these things here?

It says that, he kept exalting himself, Pharaoh kept exalting himself, so it's like either there's something to say about that, either you're gonna insult

God. Absolutely. It's either

God is God or you're making yourself God.

Yes. Absolutely. And we come into this, as Aaliyah pointed out, verse 19. Look at this. Now therefore send like, I'm about to do this, but I'm gonna give you a sliver here.

Therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into a safer shelter for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. So he says, listen, you have an opportunity to avoid this disaster. What does that say about God? Even in the midst of his righteous judgment, what does his heart delight in? Obedience?

Fear? Yes. Repentance? Yes. This Well, let me frame it this way.

Does God delight in the death of the wicked? Ezekiel eighteen twenty three tells us that he does not. He does not find joy, so to speak, when the wicked are annihilated. And it says, as somebody mentioned, he delights when there's repentance and they find life. And so what we're seeing here, this is important, what we're seeing in the seventh plague are two attributes of God simultaneously being expressed.

We have what? The justice of God? He's he's doing this out of justice, and he's doing something else. He's expressing what? His mercy.

His justice, his mercy. His justice, his mercy. So much so that it is expressed Now pay attention in a very detailed way. You fast forward down to verse 22. The Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven.

Now let's pause. What's the plague here? What's the plague that's about to happen? Hail. Okay?

Remember that. So that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast, and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his side toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Right? And fire ran down to the earth.

And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. Okay. Yeah. Hail. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail.

Very heavy hail. Such had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. I thought the plague was hail, but there's fire. Remember this? Do you remember the question that we talked about a long time ago?

No? Okay, maybe I'm just thinking. Hail and fire. I saw and I read somebody comment on this. It says, in a mocking way, unfortunately, Yahweh doesn't seem to know his physics.

Because if there's fire, it would warm up the rain. If there was fire, it would cancel out the water or vice versa. It would, in a sense, disqualify what he intended to do. But we see here in verse 25, the hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. So the purpose was fulfilled.

Hail did come and do what it needed to do, to destroy. And so what would seem to be a contradiction was in fact compatible. What would seem to be not making sense, actually fulfilled its purse purpose. We don't see the fire cancel out the hail, nor do we see the hail canceling out the fire. We see both elements being expressed and being displayed with harmony, just like God's justice and his mercy.

Just like his justice and his mercy. Because because people have this question, how can God be just, and how can God be merciful, and those things be compatible? Because we know by definition that justice is giving what one deserves concerning punishment, and we know that what mercy is, is not in doing unto somebody what they have done For what they have done concerning breaking the law or whatever. So we we see these two almost apparent contradicting attributes, but in fact are not especially concerning God, because we see God's justice and his mercy expressed at the same time on the cross. We see the fullness of his justice, and we see the fullness of his mercy being expressed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

God's wrath was poured out fully, and God's mercy was extended fully to all mankind. Hail and fire, though it seems like it cannot work together, in fact do work together. God's justice and mercy do not contradict one another, they work compatibly, And he's able to walk in both. And I believe that it is expressed even in the miracle within himself. There's a miracle within the miracle.

There's a message behind even the elements that were being shown here. And in verse 20, there's really, once again, two responses to the word of God. There's two responses. There's really two answers to the word of God. In verse 20, then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses.

Number one, when you hear the word of God when you hear the word of God, you fear it. I hope so. You should fear it. And the evidence of a person who fears the word of the Lord is that when they hear the word of the Lord, they answer hurry with hurry. They don't hesitate, so to speak.

They are quick to action. They are not just hearers of the word, they are doers of the word. Those who fear the word of the Lord, when they hear a message on Sunday, when they come to bible study, they know what they have to do when they leave, they know what they have to do immediately, and they do it. That is the evidence of somebody who fears the word of God, who trembles at the word of God. That is the difference.

And what's the second one? But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord did not do it. Two answers, two responses, two postures, and you see it in church services even in bible study every week. You see those who fear the word of the god word of the Lord, and you see those who don't even pay attention to the word of the Lord. Just the bible.

Oh, look at that, look what she's wearing,

wow. Oh.

See, you don't pay attention to something that you don't care about, nor do you don't pay attention to something that you don't take seriously. They did not pay attention to the word of the Lord, so they did not act upon it. And it wasn't that they didn't hear it, it's that they did not act upon it. When they heard it, they weren't quickened. When they heard it, they weren't moved.

When they heard it, they were just like, whatever. This is just Moses speaking again. It's not a big deal. Don't let your heart get to that place ever, ever, ever. May your heart and my heart remain soft continually, ready to respond, that every time we sit in these chairs and whoever stands behind this pulpit, trusting that they have soaked whatever they have studied in prayer, God will speak.

Fear the word of the Lord or did not pay attention to the word of the Lord, led as slaves and they let them die. We come to verse 26. Only in the land of Goshen where the people of Israel were was there no hail. Then pharaoh sent and called Moses, and Aaron said to them, this time I have sinned, the Lord is in the right, and I, my people are in the wrong. What does that sound like?

That's a pretty good altar call right there to me. No? That's a pretty good altar call. I have sinned. I mean he's never said this before.

This time I have sinned. I've done wrong, and God is in the right, and I, my people are in the wrong. That is powerful. So can you relent? Can you, can you, can you pray and these things would stop now?

I get it. I'm a sinner. I get it. I'm in the wrong. Look what he says here in the end of verse 29, and this is what we've been talking about.

Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the Lord to make all of this cease, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. That's the whole purpose, that that they would know that everything in the world belongs to God. But look what he says in verse 30. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord.

That is so judgmental, Moses. Did you not hear what he just said? He said that he sinned. He said that he was in the wrong and that God was in the right. How can you say that they do not yet fear the Lord?

That gives us a wonderful insight about the fear of the Lord, doesn't it? What insight does it give us? Because look at verse 34 35. So the heart of pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the lord had spoken through Moses. So what does that say about the fear of God?

It's not spoken. It's what?

Powerful. It's not about what you say, it's about how you live. You can say all the right things all you want, you can confess all you want, but true evidence of the fear of the Lord is how you respond in action, not what you say with your lips. That's the whole point of this. He's saying the right things, and he's trying to just escape this season of turbulence.

And Moses, you don't fear God yet. I I know because I know the moment this ceases, you're just gonna go back and do the things that you were doing earlier. And he was right. He was right. And we see even in verse 31 this random detail.

Have you guys read this verse? The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in the butt, but the wheat and emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up. Bible just wants to give us a little sliver of insight. Why? Evan?

Because, again, this land, you know, was was struck down, but you're picking out a specific type of wheat that's still to come up. So that way, there's still a a chance for the Egyptians to have food later on. It's not like a complete annihilation. It's not a complete, like, you know, disappearance of, like, the cattle originally. This is still, you know, provide this is still God providing security for us.

So we see this rebuke, we see this harshness, we see disaster upon disaster. And the Bible just wants to remind us here, even in with nature, he's merciful. He didn't destroy all of the food. There was still a little bit of food left yet to grow for them to survive on and to eat off of. So we're seeing God's justice and mercy, we're seeing that theme throughout all of this, specifically with this plague.

So Moses, what does he do? He goes out, he stretches out his hands, he intercedes, and it ceases, and he hardens his heart again. Then we come to chapter 10. We're almost done. It says, Go to Moses again.

I've hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of mine among them. He tells them that I'm doing this so that my plagues can be known so that your children would hear of them. But now look at how they would address Moses. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may serve me.

What a liberating verse for us to know the core issue of Pharaoh's resistance. Pride. Pride. Why is all of this hardening happening? Because this man is plagued, no pun intended, with pride.

He's gripped by it. He can't humble himself. Even when he comes close to wanting to agree with letting the people go, he always puts a condition on it. He says, okay, you wanna go, but stay in here. You wanna go, don't go too far.

You wanna go, let the children go stay rather and the men go. He never wants to give full control to God. That is pride. That is pride. A man that's not willing to submit wholeheartedly to the commands and the the standard of the word of God.

What else can we say about this verse here? This is the core issue about pharaoh. You wanna know you wanna just escape all of this. I mean, the the conversation is important. I don't wanna dismiss it.

Who, when, how that's very important. It's it's it is. We when we talked about it briefly. But this is an important highlight of Pharaoh's character. He's proud.

He's proud. The whole from the beginning, he had pride. And this led to his demise. This led to his destruction because pride, there's a universal law with pride. You touch the glory, you step into that place where you want to be above God, there is no end to the depth of where you will find yourself in destruction.

That's the law of pride. It doesn't matter who you are. So we see here that this is the key ingredient to Pharaoh's demise, his pride. So he says now I'm gonna send locusts, and these locusts are gonna eat after the things that weren't touched by the hail. Says here in verse five, after the hail.

All the things after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the house of all your servants and all the Egyptians. So he says it's gonna be really bad. In verse seven, then Pharaoh's servant said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. What can we say about that? Yes.

People are turning against Pharaoh.

People are now turning against Pharaoh. You know, the thing about pride is when you have it, eventually you push out a lot of people in your life. It's very hard for a person that has pride to have genuine friends in their life, unless they're proud too, and you're just a big pride posse. But they're like, do you not realize that you're literally destroying this entire nation?

Even, Pharaoh's servants have recognized God as the Lord.

Yes. On more than one occasion. This is not the first time. Yes, Cindy?

I think it's not ironic that they use a snare to us, and that's kind of connected in public with pride. So they're they're like blaming Moses as being the snare when it's there was pride that's kind of put down.

Absolutely. Yeah. Is Moses really the snare or are they themselves the snare? They're the ones that are doing this to themselves. And here's pharaoh, because when you have pride, when you really are you have full blown pride, you are more willing to literally destroy the lives of so many around you, including your yours, instead of submitting wholeheartedly to God.

When a person has full blown pride, they're willing to die before they submit their lives to Christ. When a person has pride, full blown pride, they are willing to go to hell before submitting their life to Christ. I will never forget this comment I read. A real person said this, quote, I rather go to hell than to go to a heaven where your god is. And so I quote CS Lewis, in the end there are only two types of people.

The one says, thy will be done towards God, and the other is God saying to man, thy will be done. Because in the end, every man has a choice, and where they end up for eternity, God says to them, your will be done. Either you say to God, your will be done, or God says to you, my friend, your will be done. You ending up in hell for all eternity. Any person that does is a person who has already decided I don't wanna live in heaven with this God.

I don't wanna spend eternity in his presence. So Moses is not Moses rather, Pharaoh is bringing himself, not only himself, his nation, his family, his son, to destruction because he's just not willing to cement. And even when he comes close, we talked about this, he says who will go with you? And he says all of us are going. It's a full package deal.

He says in verse 11, no, go the men among you and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. See, a person who has pride puts conditions on the commands of God. When God says everything, you say something, it's because a person just wants some kind of control over their lives. So when a person gives their life to Christ, when you really say yes to Jesus, you are saying goodbye to your life.

It's his will, it's his commands, it's his word over mine. That's it. But pharaoh can't let go of that. He wants a little bit of control over his life. So what happens?

He does it. He says go, he goes, and he performs this plague. And I was on the phone the other day with Benjamin, my youngest brother. I don't know if he's going through Exodus, but he said, hey, you have your bible on yours? Yeah, Exodus chapter 10.

Okay. He goes look at verse 13. So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. He says, do you see that? I say, what?

He says, do you see that? It says, he brought an east wind? I said, yeah. He goes, now go look for verse 19. And when Pharaoh repents and asks them to relent and to to remove it, it says here, and the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea.

What an insight. And he says, listen, when it came to judgment, God was slower. When it came to mercy, he brought a very strong wind. Mercy. And then I got on the phone again with my dad, not knowing that we had this conversation.

Daniel, hey. How are you? Good. I'm just driving. Had a headset on though.

You have a bible on you? No. No. I'm driving. Okay.

Talking, talking, different things. You know, the bible is fun to talk about. And when you're in the word of God, really in the word of God, you wanna share about what God's showing you. He goes, I have a question for you. Yes?

He goes, in the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, what did God first do? What did God first do? He walked. Yes, he walked. That's right.

Now, the prodigal son, are you listening? Yes, I'm listening. When he turned back to the father, what did the father do? He ran. Yes.

Because he's slow to judgment and he's quick to mercy. This is what God is trying to reveal about himself in these verses. From the moment we were introduced to this plague, even from before, God, yes, he's just, but he desires to extend mercy. He delights in the repentance of man, but he must execute his judgment because he is holy. And so even here when we see this wind that brought the locust, it was different from the wind that removed the locust.

We're gonna end on that note. Because tonight at this bible study, you might be sitting here and you do not know Jesus Christ. But through this study alone, God wants to let you know that he wants you to fully give yourself over to him, and he desires to lavish his love and his mercy upon you. Because he is holy, if you choose to reject him, he will honor that choice, and if you reject him long enough, you might cross that line in which you will spend eternity in Hell apart from God. Not because God intended it, it's because you chose.

You so love your sin, you so love the way you live, you so love to be in control of your life, That God honors that choice and he says, if you really want it, I'll seal it for all eternity. But God wants you to have eternal life. That is his desire, so much so that he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross, that he might experience the wrath that you and I deserved. And when he experienced that wrath, it wasn't just to experience wrath, it was so you and I can experience mercy. And that mercy is available for you tonight, that tonight can be the night where it is the turning point of your life.

You thought on an ordinary Friday in October, you were just gonna come because somebody invited you, but in reality, God set this up because he wants you to give your life to him. And the moment you even open your heart to him, watch how he will take way more steps towards you. You make that first step. All it requires is humility. God repels the proud.

Those who say, I don't need God, I don't want God, it's very hard for God to work with something like that. But for somebody who says, I need God, watch how God will open the floodgates of mercy upon you, because he desires to do so, but he will not violate your free will. Make that choice tonight as we pray. Let's pray. Would you bow your heads?