-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Welcome to the cafe today. Good to be here.
00:40 I love God’s Word. I know you love God’s Word. You’re listening to the show.
00:45 You love God’s Word. We’re gonna dive into God’s Word today. We’re gonna spend a lot of time in God’s Word today because I think that’s a great use of airtime.
00:52 Probably the best use of airtime there is is to let God’s Word preach His power. We’re in the book of Exodus: 7 is where we’re gonna start. This is the 10 plagues in Exodus and we’re just going to look at these plagues because it demonstrates God is demonstrating His power in so many unique ways.
01:15 And if you took each bit of this, each plague, and you said well how did God do that? How did He orchestrate it? It shows fully just how in control God is and just how powerful He is and how much He can do when He wants to judge a country, a nation, a group. And I’m just gonna dive right in here starting in Exodus 7. It’s a wonderful passage of Scripture as it shows God’s love for His people, His protection for His people, and His judgment.
01:45 Exodus 7, And the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies and my peoplethe children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
02:20 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore yearsold, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
02:41 And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you. Then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaronwent in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded.
03:02 And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now the magicians ofEgypt. They also did in like manner with their enchantments.
03:16 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said.
03:24 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning. Lo, he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come.
03:44 And the rod, which was turned to a serpent, shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.
04:03 Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loathe todrink the water of the river.
04:22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, upon their ponds, upon their pools of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded. And he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants.
04:54 And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river. And there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
05:06 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.
05:20 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled after the Lord had smitten the river. Exodus chapter 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
05:43 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs. And the frog shallcome up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
06:11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause the frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
06:36 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people, and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me! When shall I entreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee, and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word, that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God.
07:07 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people, and they shall remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried unto the Lord, because of the frogs which he had brought againstPharaoh.
07:23 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, and out of the village, and out of the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank.
07:34 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so.
07:51 For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, to bring forth lice.
08:07 But they could not. So there was lice upon man and upon beast. And then the magicians said unto Pharaoh,This is the finger of God.
08:15 And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that we may serve him.
08:31 Else if thou will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. To the end thou may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth, and I will put a division between my people and thy people.
09:04 Tomorrow this sign shall be. And the Lord did so. And there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants house, and into all the land of Egypt.
09:17 The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet so to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God.
09:33 Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes? And will they not stone us? We will go three days journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to our Lord our God, as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. Only ye shall not go very far away.
09:56 Entreat from me. And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people, tomorrow. But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
10:12 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. And he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people.
10:24 There remained not one. And Pharaoh hardenedhis heart at this time also. Neither would he let the people go.
10:34 Amen. I wish I could keep reading these chapters, but that was Exodus 7 and 8, and we’re getting into the thick of things with these plagues, amen? And for the sake of time, I have to just preach a little bit on this, because if I were to move over to Exodus 9, I think it would take too long before the program was over. But I’ll tell you this, our God is a powerful God, Amen. Our God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely sovereign.
11:01 And what do you see in these first two chapters? There is so much in there to preach on. There’s so much to teach on. There’s so much to think about.
11:10 How about the idea that God is hardening Pharaoh’s heart, because his heart is already hard. And so some people may look and say, well that’s cruel of God to harden his heart. But we must understand that Pharaoh had already hardened his heart to Moses a long time ago, and not just to Moses, but to the Israelites, Amen? He hardened his heart because the Israelites were slaves.
11:30 They were in bondage, and they were an asset. They were making money and materials for Pharaoh, and for his country, and for his people. Why would he want to let them go? And that grip that greed has on him is no different than the grip that greed has on people today.
11:50 And I believe that at some point, as the Lord tries to work on people’s hearts, and have them see the truth of the gospel message, the truth of making him king of their hearts, and Lord, and accepting him as Savior, and Word, and Indeed, and then living for him, and he works on them, and he works on them, and they won’t budge, and they’re just stuck in their ways like Pharaoh is. Then he says, fine, you can have at it, and you can let your heart be cold, and I’ll give you over to that reprobate mind, and you go ahead and live for the world, and let’s see how that ends. How did it end for Pharaoh? Well, we know that he was, you know, obviously taken out, all his armies taken out, everything drowned in the Red Sea.
12:34 He was absolutely ruined, and the ruining started with the hardness of his heart. So where is your heart today? Is your heart soft for the things of the Lord? When you hear scripture like this read over the air, does it excite you? Do you want to turn it up? Do you want to listen to it and study it? Or are you bothered by it? Are you disturbed by it? Are you annoyed by it? Be honest here today. We need soft hearts for God’s Word.
12:59 We need to understand the amount of power that God has is absolutely limitless. God is able, Amen. As I was reading this passage of scripture recently, I just kept thinking, wow, this is so detailed in the way that God is sending these plagues, in the way that God understands the future, in what God is communicating through each of these plagues.
13:20 I mean, God knows the most irritating things to send to someone. It’s not like he’s playing with Pharaoh, but in a way he kind of is just schooling him, you know, on all things by saying, I’m gonna send frogs your way, and lice, and later on he ends up sending locusts, and all these things that are just so irritating and so difficult. But when we realize that God’s doing that for a reason, that today we can still apply this to our hearts and our minds, and make sure our hearts are soft for the ways of God before we end up in spiritual death.
13:51 We need to get on fire for God. We need to align ourselves with God so we’re on the winning side of an all-powerful God, not on the side of his wrath. We are in the last days.
14:02 I challenge you to get close to God, to grow close to God, to tune in next time as we go through the rest of these seven plagues in the book of Exodus. Thank you for joining me. Take care.
14:11 God bless and Amen.