God's Power and Purpose

God’s Power and Purpose

Exodus 9: 13 – 35

Introduction

For the past few weeks, I have been preaching the Book of Exodus on Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. I think the Book of Exodus speaks to our individual Christian lives and to our corporate Christian life as a church.

For example, God had a plan for Moses. God wanted to use Moses to be the one to rescue God’s people out of Egyptian slavery. However, Moses thought he was a failure.

Moses had tried to liberate the Hebrew slaves through force. He could not bear to watch as an Egyptian slave master was beating Hebrew slave. So, Moses stepped in. He fought off the Egyptian and killed him. But, the Hebrews didn’t appreciate what Moses was willing to do for them. He eventually had to run away into the desert to escape Pharaoh…Because Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses.

Moses settled into a desert life. He married a girl named Zipporah and went to work for her father. Moses named their first born son, Gershom—which means stranger. Moses had accepted the fact that he was a failure and would have to live the rest of his life as a stranger in a strange land.

When you and I feel like we are failures, we have a tendency to do exactly what Moses did. We settle. We settle for being a failure. And, we accept the fact that we will never experience the very best of life. Instead, we think we will get what we deserve…not the best in life, but the second best. Other people and other churches might experience the best. We just need to get comfortable with second best.

Fortunately for us, Moses’ life did not end in the desert. Moses was willing to settle for second best. But, that wasn’t God’s plan for Moses. It’s not God’s plan for your life either. AND…Second best is not God’s plan for our church.

Most of us are very familiar with the rest of Moses’ story. We know that God sent him back to Egypt. Moses confronted Pharaoh and demanded that Pharaoh let God’s people go. Pharaoh didn’t let God’s people go…at least, not at first. God sent a series of ten plagues on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.

The tenth and final plague convinced Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The tenth plague was the death of every firstborn in the nation of Egypt. After this plague, Pharaoh couldn’t get rid of the Hebrews fast enough. But, the first nine plagues weren’t like this.

During the first nine plagues, Pharaoh was a “flip flopper.” Several times, he told Moses to take God’s people and leave Egypt, only to change his mind. This makes me wonder why God sent ten plagues.

Was God toying with Pharaoh? Were the first nine plagues necessary to wear Pharaoh down, so that God could accomplish what he wanted in the tenth plague?

If we look back to the first time Moses confronted Pharaoh, we see that God announced the death of the firstborns in the very beginning.

Exodus 4: 22 – 23, “Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

If God knew what he was doing, why were the first nine plagues even necessary? In my understanding, the first nine plagues had a purpose. They were intended to show Pharaoh, the people of Egypt and the Hebrew people something about God. They served a theological purpose.

Read Exodus 9: 13 – 35.

13 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me,

14 or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.

16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go.

18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.

19 Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.'"

20 Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.

21 But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field.

22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt-- on men and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt."

23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt;

24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

25 Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields-- both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.

26 The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.

27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. "This time I have sinned," he said to them. "The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

28 Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't have to stay any longer."

29 Moses replied, "When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD's.

30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God."

31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom.

32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)

33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.

34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts.

35 So Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

(NIV)

This is the story of the seventh plague. The Book of Exodus spends more time describing this plague than any of the first nine plagues. In some ways, this description has a lot in common with the descriptions of the earlier plagues. Moses came to Pharaoh early in the morning and announced exactly what Pharaoh could expect God to do if he refused to let God’s people go. In other ways, this description contains some new elements. For example, verses 16 gives us an understanding of God’s purpose for sending the plagues.

Exodus 9: 16, “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

I think this is supposed to remind us of the first time Moses spoke to Pharaoh. I think it certainly reminded Pharaoh.

Exodus 5: 2, “Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.’”

This is one of the theological purposes for the first nine plagues. Pharaoh did not know the LORD. So, God used the plagues to introduce himself to Pharaoh. God showed Pharaoh his power and therefore showed him the true nature of who God is.

Yahweh Is God

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at several names for God. God revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, or El Shaddai. But, God revealed himself to Moses as the LORD, or the Hebrew name Yahweh. Most English translations translate the Hebrew name Yahweh as LORD, in all capital letters.

Any time we encounter the word LORD (in all capital letters) in the Old Testament, we know it is a reference to the One, True God of Israel. It never refers to a human being or to any other god.

Yahweh is the only God we should worship, because Yahweh is the only God who has revealed himself to our spiritual ancestors. He revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.

Yahweh is the only God we should worship, because Yahweh is the God who created. We see this in the first nine plagues.

There are several ways God could have dealt with Pharaoh. God could have sent an angel from Heaven—dressed in shining armor and wielding a sword—to destroy Pharaoh. God has done that and could have done that with Pharaoh. God could have used a foreign army to destroy Egypt and let God’s people go. God has done that. God could have used Moses to rally the Hebrew people to form their own army and force Pharaoh to let the go.

Instead, God used a weapon that only God could use. He turned creation against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Only God created the universe. And, only God can use creation to accomplish his purposes.

Of course, there are some scholars who look at the plagues and explain them away as natural occurrences. Perhaps, the Nile didn’t really turn to blood. Perhaps, it was something like “red tide.” Red algae bloomed and emitted toxins into the water that killed all the fish and made it undrinkable. This “red tide” caused the frogs to leave the water and look for other homes. When the frogs died, their decaying bodies provided a perfect breeding ground for gnats and flies. These biting flies infected the livestock with a fatal disease and caused boils on the people.

I suppose this can be an attractive explanation. But it fails to take into consideration the fact that God was in control of BOTH the beginning of the plagues and the end of the plagues. In each plague, God announced ahead of time what he was going to do in creation; and God announced when the plagues would end. Therefore, God used his power over creation to prove who he really is—the one who created the universe is the only one who can use creation to accomplish his purposes.

Yahweh Is the ONLY God

Another thing the natural explanation does not take into consideration is the way the ten plagues were an attack on the false gods the Egyptians worshipped.

The Egyptians had one of the most stable economies in the ancient world, because of the dependability of the Nile River. The Nile flooded every year and brought fresh topsoil to the fertile Nile delta. Egyptian crops had rich soil and a dependable source of water. This led many Egyptians to worship the Nile River as the personification of the god Hapi. When God turned the river into blood, it was not an attack on the Egyptian people as much as it was an attack on one of their false gods.

We can make the same point about the infestation of frogs. One of the Egyptian goddesses was depicted as a human with the head of a frog. And God filled their houses with the stench of dead frogs.

The Egyptians prayed to several gods to protect their crops from insects. And God sent gnats and flies and locusts. Their false gods were powerless to protect them from the God of creation.

The Egyptians held an annual worship service at harvest time. They brought the crops in from the field and gave thanks to Isis and Min for the change in the seasons and the bountiful harvest. And, God destroyed their crops with a hailstorm and a swarm of locusts.

One of the most famous gods of Egypt goes by the name Re, or Ra. He was the sun god. Notice what happened in the eighth plague. The sun was darkened for three straight days. It was dark everywhere in Egypt…Except in Goshen, the place where the Hebrew slaves lived.

The plagues were not a contest between Moses and Pharaoh. They were not even a contest between God and Pharaoh. Instead, they were a contest between the One, True God and the many, false gods of Egypt.

In the end, the Egyptian gods could not stand up to the power of Yahweh, the God of creation and the One, True God.

This is one of those places where the Bible makes an exclusive claim about God. Our God is not one choice among many. Our God is not one expression of a universal reality. No. God does not reveal himself to different people in different ways. There is only one true God. He has revealed himself as Yahweh. He is the God who created the universe and uses creation to accomplish his purposes. He is the God who redeemed the Hebrew people from slavery, established them as the Nation of Israel, and used Israel to bring his only Son, Jesus, into the world.

The One, True God is the God of creation and the God of salvation.

Yahweh Is the ONLY God for ALL the Earth

I suppose there are a couple of ways we could interpret God’s power in the plagues. It’s possible to read the plagues and come to the conclusion that Egypt had its own gods, therefore God needed his people to leave the land of Egypt and go live in a region where Yahweh was Lord. But that view fails to take into account that Yahweh was exercising his power and authority in the land of Egypt.

The plagues prove that Yahweh is God, even in the land of Egypt. Therefore, God is not limited by geographical boundaries. Yahweh is the God of Egypt just as much as he is the God of Israel.

Notice that this is exactly what God tells Pharaoh in Exodus 9: 16, “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

God’s purpose is bigger than the Nation of Israel. God’s purpose includes the Nation of Egypt…But only because Egypt is a part of “all the earth.” God used the plagues to prove that Yahweh is the ONLY God in all the earth.

The plagues show us the power of God. But, we need to keep in mind…God didn’t show his power in secret. He did it in a way that all the world may know. Therefore, we are not supposed to think of God’s power as a secret to keep from others.

Just as the Hebrew people were to tell their children, we are supposed to tell our children. Just as the Nation of Israel was to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, so we are to tell the world about the God of creation and the God of salvation.

We should not think of the plagues as a local phenomenon. Instead, we should recognize the plagues as a part of God’s worldwide purpose. In the plagues, God proved he is the ONLY God for all the earth. He used these plagues to establish the Nation of Israel, who would one day bring about the birth of Jesus—the Savior for people of all races.

Conclusion

If we were to go through each of the plagues individually, we would probably have a hard time trying to find application for our Twenty-First Century lives. After all, I have never lived through an infestation of frogs or a swarm of locusts.

However, when we look at all the plagues together, we can stand back and say “WOW! Look at what God can do.”

This is the first step of worship. We stand in awe of God’s power and God’s purpose. He has power over all creation. His purpose is to be known in all the earth—not just in Israel…not just in Lufkin, Texas. My salvation is only a part of what God is doing throughout all the earth.

And if my salvation is only a part of what God is doing in all the earth, then maybe God has a plan to use me. Maybe I am not such a failure after all.

If God’s plans are for all the earth, then God’s plans are bigger than our church. Our church is only part of what God is doing. Maybe our church is not a failure…God has a plan for us…A plan to reach the city of Lufkin, the state of Texas, the United States of America and all the earth.