More Plagues

Exod 8:1-7

1 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.

2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

3 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 kneadingtroughs:

4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

5 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 frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.(KJV)

This second plague had to do with another one of their gods, and this time instead of frogs being a blessing to the Egyptians, who probably even ate them on a regular basis, they overwhelmed the people. There were so many that it was unreal. Look at where the frogs showed up. And then too, look at what the Pharaoh’s magicians or witches did in verse 7. They too were able to duplicate the miracle. Of course they couldn’t get rid of them once they did that. With each plague Moses announced, he was also able to rescind the plague by prayer to God. So the Pharaoh calls Moses in to get rid of the frogs and Moses says,

Exod 8:10-11

10 And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.

11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.(KJV)

So God kills off the frogs that were not in the river and

Exod 8:13-14

13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.(KJV)

Can you imagine the smell that was throughout the land with all these frogs not only dying but decaying in heaps? First they had to endure stinky dead fish and blood that decayed, now they get to smell these dead frogs.

Well the Pharaoh decides still he is not going to let the people go. Now we have had 2 plagues that both the Egyptians and people of Israel up in Goshen experienced. The next one God sends is the plague of gnats or lice. KJV calls them lice, other translations say gnats. Aaron is given instruction to strike the dust of the ground and these gnats or lice result from the dust from all over the country. Now this time the magicians cannot duplicate the miracle. These bugs got all over everyone and also all over the livestock. I imagine it was as bad as getting small ticks all over you. And I am sure everyone and every animal itched terribly. Well, when the magicians could not duplicate this, they realized that only God could have done this and they tell the Pharaoh so, but the Pharaoh continued in his stubborness, as God knew he would.

Now Pharaoh had a habit of going down to the Nile in the mornings for his daily worship and ablutions and God told Moses to meet him there and tell him about the next plague. If you notice, with the last plague we do not see the Pharaoh asking for the lifting of that previous plague. At any rate, Moses meets him there and tells him that the next plague from God is going to be flies. And this time only the Egyptians will be afflicted, not the Israelites in Goshen. This will not only prove to the Egyptians, but also to the Israeli’s God’s power, as well as His favor toward the people of Israel.

Exod 8:22

22 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 mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.(KJV)

So the next day the flies appear. Again the judgment against another god. This time the god of the flies. Did you know that the Baalzebub, the god of the Philistines at Ekron was considered the Lord of the flies. If this Pharaoh in power was a Hyksos king as many scholars think, then some of these gods in this Pharaoh’s reign could have been brought in as deities to worship by these Hyksos kings. Well, God brings judgment now through the flies and they swarmed all over the Egyptian territory. The Israelis, on the other hand, had no flies to deal with. Finally Pharaoh ok’s the release of the people to worship in the desert nearby but after Moses prays for the removal of the flies, this king changes his mind again.

Now, all through these experiences, the plagues get worse and worse. God judges the Egyptians next with a pestilence on the Egyptian livestock, and you must remember these folks worshipped all kinds of animals, then judges the people and animals with boils (boils are very painful), then God sent hail, and hail with fire, thunderstorms, all this would kill all livestock if they were not brought indoors. And the hail not only killed livestock, but most of the plants in the fields. Probably much of it was really big hail, maybe even baseball size. Next God sends a locust plague-another animal they worshipped, and these swarm everywhere eating every plant in site and filling up people’s houses, etc. Finally after this plague, the Pharaoh relents yet after the plague is lifted, he again changes his mind.

The next plague was a real doosy.

Exod 10:21-23

21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.(KJV)

Notice how long that plague lasts–3 days. There is the number 3 again. (Remember Jonah was in the darkness of the belly of a huge fish for 3 days, and remember that Jesus was in the tomb which of course is also dark for about 3 days?) And as usual the Israelites had no problem with darkness. The Egyptians worshipped a sun god named Re and at one time they worshipped a god named Ammon as a sun god, and in varying periods of history this god was known as Ammon Re as well as maybe by a couple of other names, but those were 2 names that were in the Egyptian pantheon for the name of their sun god. This had to be proof to the Egyptians that God had power even over their supreme sun god, which meant their god was not surpreme over the God of Israel, but the God of Israel was supreme over even their sun god.

Well, the Pharaoh gives in a little, but not enough, so Pharaoh again has to face another plague, the final one, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Before God brings that plague on, God gives the people of Israel instructions to go ask the Egyptians-all of them-for all their jewelry, gold, silver, and though it isn’t mentioned, I believe they also received from these folks, flax and linen material, hides, precious stones, yarn and thread, and much more. So the people do this and the Egyptians are only too glad to give it to them, they hope to get rid of them. Then Moses has to give the people the instructions regarding the final plague, which is the death of the first born.

Now with this plague, a death angel was going to be passing through all the land including Goshen and the people had to prepare themselves for the protection they needed. Here we see an instance where God requires the people to play a part in their salvation, their deliverance from Egypt. It took faith for them to believe what Moses told them to do. They had to believe that blood on their doorposts would protect them from the death angel that would be coming. Those that did believe Moses and as a result believed God, they did as instructed and the door lintels and posts were painted with the blood of a lamb. The family members were all to stay inside their houses and partake of the special meal now given by the name "Passover".

I won’t get into all the details of the Passover here, but I do want to point out several things. We have already seen that the Egyptians were treated differently than the Israelis for 7 of the plagues. What is that number again? 7–the number of completion. 3 Plagues were experienced by all-3 representing God the Trinity. You see God had to teach everyone that He really was real and could do things. The Israelites had heard of God and His wonders from Adam on to Joseph, but after that there was about close to 400 years where the people of Israel suffered under these Egyptian kings and it seemed that God was powerless to do anything for them, and now they were finding out God was not powerless at all. Let’s take a look at why they were in captivity to the Egyptians so long.

Gen 15:13-14

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.(KJV)

You see, once Joseph went down there and became prominent in the court of Pharaoh, he lived a bit longer, brought his family down into Egypt, and actually it was 430 years later that God sent Moses to Egypt. God gave Abraham only generalities. He didn’t even tell Abraham that Egypt was going to be involved. But once Joseph died, a king came to power that did not know Joseph and started putting the Israelis into servitude. Even though these people had to have heard of God’s promise to Abraham, it seems that they had a hard time believing God once all this started taking place. Jesus would have said to them, "Oh, ye of little faith."

But God had not forgotten His promise to Abraham made 400 something years before and Moses came along at the right time and of course God planned it that way.

Now let me ask you. Have you ever prayed to God regarding a specific thing you know He has told you He would give you or you just have known because of His promises that it is something He would give you? I would bet all of you have. What was God’s promise to Abraham when he was 75 years old? That he would have an heir. On top of that the heir would be through him and Sarah. How old was Abraham when Issac was born? He was 100 years old, wasn’t he? How long did he wait for the promise to be fulfilled, an impossible one really, yet it happened. 25 years he waited. How long were the people of Israel to wait before being redeemed from Egypt. Over 400 years. Did God keep His promises? He sure did. Does He today keep His promises? He sure does. Do we get discouraged because the prayers are not answered when we think they should be? Many times. Is that right? No. Why? Because God is in charge of when and where and how and how soon, that’s why. Have you had people break their word to you? I am sure everyone has experienced that. People do break their word-and especially even more so in this society today, but God never breaks His Word. Never, Never, Never. So today, just as Moses and Abraham and many others before us believed God would answer prayers and fulfill promises, we need to also.

Last week was a really blessed week. I got time to spend more time in the Word and practice faith at the same time. I had to literally believe God would give me what I was asking-which was to catch lots of fish and some big ones too. I put my faith into the fact that God was saying yes to my request and operated on the faith that He was directing me and also using others to direct me how to have the success. And it happened. The first night fish were biting like crazy off of the pier and I even caught a 15 speckled trout, and almost a large red fish which succeeded in breaking the line. The other nights I caught quite a few fish, not many as large as I wanted, but caught enough, but on Friday night was able to go out on the bay (actually this was in a ship channel connected to the bays) and I caught 2 keeper Red Drums, one oversized black drum, and something awfully huge broke my line by swimming under the boat and the people who run that boat figured it must have been at least 50 to 60 pounds. On this trip I have also found a more effective bait to use. We brought home quite a lot of fish filets. I was also given an extra large drum since I had the tag for it as the one who caught it didn’t have the necessary tag-I think this was a fish caught by a fellow who lives out of state and didn’t have the yearly license, so didn’t get the oversize tag. That fish was a 40" critter. That was another blessing from the Lord. Now I knew before we even went down there that this trip was meant to be there instead of where we had originally planned our vacation but it was not working out at all as to all the details. So instead we went to our usual spot. But you see, it took faith in God that He would give me those fish. He answered my faith with a "yea". I had to believe, for instance that my husband was right about the fact that I should go out on this party boat that evening and that I would be coming back with a lot of fish. I had to believe God was speaking to me through him. And on the boat I had to believe that when one of the fellows running the boat told me to fish with whole fish for bait that God was telling him to tell me this, even though he didn’t know he was speaking what God wanted me to hear. And it was those whole fish that caught the fish I caught. And each time I had prayed to catch big fish, God granted it. Now this kind of thing has not happened every trip we have made down to the coast, but it sure did this time. Perhaps because I was not as in tune with God on previous trips. I don’t know. But faith brings about what God wants brought about, and when you know God is behind it, it makes it easy to have faith. Faith, my dear friends, is a decision. It is not a feeling inside you all the time. As a matter of fact, most of the time faith is just the decision and willingness to trust God, and then often the feelings will result, but not every time. Sometimes God will give you the feeling of faith and you just have no doubts, but most of the time you have to make the conscious decision to believe God as did Moses, and his faith was rewarded. Abraham had to do the same thing. He had to decided that even with being called to sacrifice his own son to God, that somehow someway God would still bring about descendants through Isaac. He probably expected Isaac to get resurrected. I doubt he expected God to prevent him from killing his own son as a sacrifice. But he just knew God was going to, inspite of this strange command, give him descendants through Isaac.

Gen 22:2-5

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.(KJV)

Notice how long it took to get to Mt. Moriah. They got there on the 3rd day. There is that number 3 again. Look at verse 5 again. Abraham tells the servants -stay here for the lad and I will go worship and then come back to you. Abraham was sure that Isaac would be returning with him to the servants who were to wait for them with the animals. That, my friends, is faith. He believed the promises of God and continued to believe them despite what circumstances were saying.

How can you have faith like that? By choosing to believe God above all, above what the circumstances seem to say. And it happens by practice, practice, practice. And God stretches your faith more and more each time. One other point, one way to damage your faith is to act in disobedience to God, so make obedience, which is your proof of love for Him, a primary goal in your life. Another way to damage your faith is to just not believe him, which is what unbelief is. Both disobedience and unbelief by the way are sin. This morning I challenge you to believe God for what you know have been His promises to you, and decide He is telling you the truth and that He will fulfill whatever promise it is in His own timing and not yours. May God bless you abundantly as you grow in faith.

This Week’s Bible Trivia Question: What happened as a result of the next rumor about Paul?

Acts 21:27-33

27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

30 And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.

31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.(KJV)

So thanks to the rumor that Paul had taken a Gentile into the temple courts with him, a lynch mob was formed and took Paul captive and they were planning to kill him when the sheriff arrived with his deputies, putting this in Western Cowboy talk. The chief captain of a bunch of Roman soldiers arrived just in time to restore order and take Paul away from them. And of course this Jewish mob was not a lynch mob, but a stoning mob. Meanwhile, once Paul is taken from the Jews, the captain tries to get to the bottom of this.

This week’s Bible Trivia Question: What does Paul do that surprises the man in charge?

That should cover it for today. God bless you and may you learn much from God’s Word and put as much as possible into practice. The Good News Lady

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem even more so now. "They shall prosper that love thee." Psalm 122:6 Pray also for wisdom for President Bush as enjoined us by I Timothy 2:1-03 and pray for our troops. Continue especially to pray God’s protection around our soldiers that are still in Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.

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