EXODUS 7-8 lesson # 7
POWER CONFRONTATIONS
I. Greetings:
Opening Metaphor:
We are to start investigating the plagues that God used Moses to perform against Egypt, but let me set the tone with you with a metaphor: a metaphor concerning tears. There is only one manifestation physically: tears. We have all seen tears come down someone’s eyes because they are in pain, but often there are other reasons for the tears. There are tears of joy, tears of sorrow, tears of remembrance, tears of frustration. All of these different emotions use the same physical affect of tears, watering coming down our face. Only a crass person would say every time someone had tears that they had a toothache, it could be some other physical pain, it could be a headache, a stomach ache, it could be joy, sorrow, frustration.
Such is the case with seeing the “finger of God” in our physical existence. He may use one of the limited physical expressions known to us but it could be counterfeited. Let me take the example of a miracle. I know those in the occult who do acts of power, and I know Christians who have prayed and acts of power have resulted. Are they the same thing? No. To believe so, would be like saying that all tears come from the same source.
Lets see how Exodus helps us understand this.
II. Introduction:
Note: Before we go to our text for today lets turn to two verses in Exodus 22.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 22:20-21.
Q What leads to destruction according to Exodus 22:20?
An = Verse 20 clearly says that the Lord and the Lord alone is worthy of our worship. The Lord, revealed in the Bible, not the ones others make up, is to be worshipped. To worship something other leads to destruction. The community is rid itself of all foreign worship.
Q What is the message of Exodus 22:21?
An = Verse 21 clearly says the true God does not like those who pick on the weak. God does not like when the stronger push around the weaker.
Q How many of you were bullied when in school? Would you like to share an experience and your feelings associated with it?
An = As you remember when you were in school and someone pushed you around, God says remember that and never do it yourself. When employers, parents, teachers, etc. bully they are going against the God who created the heavens and the earth.
Note: Pharaoh had been confronted and was told to let Israel go. God basically said you need to learn two things Pharaoh. First, enslaving others and abusing them is wrong before heaven and second that the true God, who demands justice, is unequaled in power. To offend God either by pushing others around, or by serving another power is to go against the way reality was meant to be.
But, people, especially people like Pharaoh who hurt others are often very stupid. They often do not really know God because of their pride and they think they can hurt others and get away with it. Lets read one more verse before reading about the plagues.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 5:2.
Q How does Pharaoh score on our two verses: worshipping the Lord and not hurting the weak?
An = Notice Pharaoh strikes out on both accounts. He does not know the true God, and he refuses to free God’s people. He refuses to consider freeing the Israelites.
Q Do you know someone like a Pharaoh?
III. Prelude to the Plagues, Sticks and Snakes: a Power Confrontation. Exodus 7:8-13.
Note: Pharaoh’s are (as are many of the world’s leaders) often very religious. They are often ignorant of the true God but often very religious. Noriega, the Panama the drug Lord was deeply into religion. The Turks often went to the Mosque after they killed innocent people, those who pushed around black people in the South, often faithfully went to church. Some of my former students at APU had parents that were abusive but were very religious.
God is not fooled by religion. Thankfully, He sees the truth. He wants obedience, not mere religious observance.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 7:8-13.
Q Who anticipated that Pharaoh would ask for a sign?
An = God anticipated before the plagues began that Pharaoh was religious. Pharaoh liked seeing religious power. God anticipated this, so he instructed Moses to come prepared.
Q Was Pharaoh prepared to counter Moses and Aaron’s display?
An = Seemingly yes, he appeared to have had men ready, at his beck and call to do counterfeit miracles.
Q If we called this a “power-encounter”, who won the encounter?
An = God’s power beat their power. In fact, in Hebrew, as in English, it literally says Aaron’s staff ate their staff, Aaron’s snake ate their snake. However, it happened the one staff of Aaron was clearly more powerful. In this power-confrontation magic lost!!
Note: Both groups of men made snakes but one power making snakes was greater than the other. Two men can have tears but the one could have tears of joy and the other tears of sorrow. They look alike, but they are not the same. The Bible would claim that the power behind Moses and Aaron’ staff was the actual creative power of the One who made the Universe.
Note: It must have been amazing to watch what Pharaoh watched and yet Pharaoh does not get any wiser. Pharaoh would have lost some pride and faced some economic loss, the loss of Israelite slaves, but had he obeyed he could have spared Egypt tremendous damage. So the plagues begin….
IV. The Plagues.
A. The First Plague: Contaminated Water. Exodus 7:14-25.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 7:14-16.
Q Why only ask to let the people go worship and not go totally free?
An = Maybe Pharaoh needs t learn justice in small steps, a little at a time. Maybe the abusive husband needs to start first with not striking his wife when he does not get his way, then develop into a better husband. Maybe the nagging wife needs to stop once, and develop a different way of dealing with those around her. The alcoholic needs to start with saying no to the first drink. The goal is abstinence, but one must start with one drink.
Note: Remember we mentioned that the word “to hear” in Hebrew is the same word as to “to obey”. Look again at the last phrase in 7:16: “But until now you have not listened”, not obeyed.
>>>> Have someone read 7:17-21.
Q Though God contaminated the water supply and fish, a key source of protein, were taken from the Egyptian diet, how did Pharaoh’s response?
An = Often the Pharaoh types are not that concerned with those they rule and their comfort and/or needs.
Q Have you seen a “Pharaoh-type” do this before?
>>>> Have someone read 7:22-25.
Q Why will Pharaoh not listen?
An = He is impressed with religious power and since his boys could duplicate in minor fashion God’s great act, he becomes hardened. He refuses to see the difference behind the power. Of course, this does not catch the Lord off guard, He knows the hearts of men.
EX Many times I have heard, Oh, all religions are alike, so why listen to Jesus Christ, His ways are too hard. I have heard this many times, and it sounds so academic, when it really is academically wrong. They appear to the closed heart to be similar but in reality are not. Let me explain.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 8:1-7.
Q Could Pharaoh’s magicians duplicate the miracle?
An = Seemingly they could. We do not know, the Bible does not tell us, if they did slight of hand tricks or were using occult power.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 8:8-11.
Q Could Pharaoh’s magicians make the frogs leave?
An = No, they could make more polluted water, make more frogs, but not clean polluted water, not remove frogs. Their power was imitation. It is to Moses, God’s representative, that Pharaoh must go.
Q Moses gives Pharaoh another sign, so he would understand the miracle was not be natural chance or natural forces, what was it?
An = To prove that the removal of the frogs was not by chance or by natural means, Moses lets Pharaoh pick the time it takes it remove the frogs. Pharaoh says: “tomorrow”. God again shows Pharaoh that He cannot only make frogs, He can remove them. He can heal as well as brings plague.
Note: God warns Pharaoh in Exodus 8:1-4. Pharaoh could have avoided the nuisance but he decided not to, now he goes even further and breaks his word. Oppressors think they are above the law…. Moses learned on the way to Egypt with the circumcision episode that he was not.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 8:12-15.
Note: Pharaoh lied, he got relief and went back to his old ways. So now God does not warn, He begins the plague three without warning.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 8:16-19.
Note: The gnats, most scholars think, were the biting kind, much like mosquitoes.
Q Could the magicians duplicate this one, what did they say?
An = No, they could not. They could not keep step with the creative power of God. They ran out of gas before the end of plague 3 and God had seven more to go. They tell Pharaoh that this is really from God.
Q How come Pharaoh did not repent when even his own magicians warn him he is playing with fire?
An = I believe his pride held him back. His real god was his pride! In the long run his god was himself and his getting his own way more than religion. His own Egyptian religion told him he was wrong, but he really had another religion, like most people in power.
Note: A key thought to remember. Water supplies being temporarily wrecked, frogs, every where, biting gnats, these make life miserable but do not do permanent damage. If we repent early on, we can avoid the greater damage. The greater plagues are yet to come. It is better to repent as soon as we see our wrong.
EX I have a friend, named Xaxier who started to obey God but held out for a while and God gave Him a “plague”, he lost an eye. But He listened and now he is a pastor of a church of over a 2000 people. I listen to his tapes and so several of my friends. He has learned when God speaks you had best listen.