Exodus 7-11

God wants to be famous

Why does God do the things He does in the world?

I mean let’s be honest, there many things God does in the world that surprise us.

The unbelieving family member who rejects the gospel. Why doesn’t God save him?

The faithful church in India that gets burnt down and the pastor gets killed. Why doesn’t God protect them?

The influential atheist like Richard Dawkins who rises to a prominent position and writes influential books. Why does God raise him?

I mean just for a moment put yourself in God’s shoes. Wouldn’t you run the world a bit differently?

What is God doing in the world? What motivates Him? Why does He do the things that He does?

 

Well that’s the question we going to be looking at this morning. And we gona do that by focusing on the plagues.

 

Just to bring you up to speed,

God’s people the Israelites are slaves in Egypt. God sends Moses to go and rescue them. But last week we saw Moses goes to the king of Egypt, but he refuses to listen.Chapter 5 verse 1. Moses goes to Pharoah and says: This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.”Verse 2. Pharoah 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.”Now I wonder if uv ever picked a fight with someone who’s bigger and stronger than you. It’s generally not a good idea. You probably gona

lose. Especially if that person’s God. God’s much bigger and much stronger than any of us.And yet in these chapters Pharoah picks a fight with God. It’s not a good idea. Pharoah’s gona lose. And in chapters 7-11 God smashes him with 10 powerful plagues.

And so I just wanna take you on a quick tour of the plagues and show you the different aspects of God’s power.

 

If you read these plagues carefully, you’ll see they’ve been carefully written. They’ve been arranged into three groups of three, with the Passover as the climax at the end. And in each of these groups of three, God shows His power in a slightly different way.

 

So if you just look at the first 3 plagues in chapters 7 to 8. God shows the superiority of His power.

I dunno if you know this. But in our church we’ve got some pretty impressive dancers. A guy like Wakile Mnana. I’m telling you, watch that name. This guy can dance. Get his autograph while you can.

 

Well on Thursday night after Bible study we had a bit of a dance off in our lounge. I dunno if uv ever witnessed a dance off?

The first dancer gets up, does all his moves. Everyone cheers. Then the 2nd dancer takes the floor. tries to do everything that the first dancer did. Maybe even a few extra moves. And then its the 1st dancer again. He tries its do even better. And it goes on and on and on. And eventually its clear, the one guy or girl is superior. Well in these first three plagues it’s almost like we’ve a dance-off between God and the Egyptian sorcerers and magicians.

 

Even before the plagues even begin, there’s a bit of a curtain raiser. Chapter 7 verse 10. God tells Aaron to throw his staff on the ground in front of Pharoah and it becomes a snake on the ground.  But look at verse 11. Pharoah summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the

Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake.”

And we already get a hint that this might not be such a close match, because at the end of verse 12 Aaron’s staff swallows their staffs.

And so we already begin to think: ooh this might be a bit one sided.

 

But anyway, we come to plague 1 chapter 7 verse 20. God turns the Nile into blood. The fish die. The river smells. Blood is everywhere. But look at chapter 7:22. The Egyptian magicians do the same things by their secret arts,”

 

And so the 2nd plague God makes frogs cover the land. Chapter 8 verse 3 - they go into people’s houses. They go into people’s beds. They even go into people’s ovens. Just imagine, you pull out your food out of the oven and there’s cooked frog mixed in. But if you look down to chapter 8 verse 7, what do the magicians do? Chapter 8 verse 7. They do the same thing by their secret arts; they also make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”

 

And so its almost like uv got this dance off. It’s God versus the Egyptians. But in the third plague it becomes clear. Here’s our winner. 

 

Chapter 8 verse 16 - God sends a plague of little insects called gnats. And just look at verse 18. “But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.” Verse 19: “The magicians said to Pharoah: “This is the finger of God”.

 

By the end of the 6th plague, the magicians can’t even stand in Moses’ presence.

 

And so this is the first aspect of God’s power that’s displayed. His power is superior to any other power. And maybe that’s a great comfort to you if you living in fear of evil powers: whether it’s the power of witch doctors or sangoma’s or the ancestors or any evil power. Don’t fear them if uv got God on your side. His power is superior to any power.

 

But then in the next three plagues, there’s a different emphasis. Now God shows the accuracy of His power.

Apparently the US government have been spending millions of dollars trying to develop specialized bombs with a gps or a laser guidance system so that when they send this bomb, it hits the exact target. it only takes out the enemy. It doesn’t wipe out the primary school across the road. Well in a similar way, when God judges His enemies, He’s able to be accurate. He’s able to protect His people.

Look at chapter 8 verse 22: God sends flies upon the land of Egypt. But in verse 22 He says: “on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people.”

Look at the next plague. chapter 9:6. God kills all the Egyptian livestock: But verse 6 “all the livestock of theEgyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharoah sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died.”

 

And so this is a comfort for God’s people. When God judges the world, He never misses His target. He’s accurate. And He’s selective. He only strikes His enemies. He’s able to protect His people.

 

And then the third group of plagues show the destructive force of God’s power.

 

When God’s judges the world, He’s able to bring worse destruction than anything we’ve ever experienced.

 

 

Look at chapter 9:18. God sends a hailstorm. And notice what He says about it. Verse 18: “At this time tomorrow I’ll send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, Verse 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.” Then jump to chapter 10. God sends a plague of locusts. Chapter 10:14 – “they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.

 

And so this is a warning for us. If you think about it: Normally we only fear something if we’ve experienced it before. So if there was a flood or a tsunami that wiped out Summerstrand previously, then we might fear it happening again.

But here we see when judges the world, He can bring unprecedented destruction. He can bring things worse than we’ve ever experienced before.

 

And so this is a warning for us. there might be different theories about hell and different interpretations about what its gona be like. We dunno all the details.

But one thing we can know for sure. It’s gona be bad.

Don’t underestimate God’s judgment. It’ll be worse than we can imagine.

 And so that’s just a quick tour of the first 9 plagues. We’ll focus on the 10th plague next week.But the big question I want us to ask this morning is, “why?”… Why does God send the plagues? What motivates Him to do this?And I suppose, if you asked most people that question they’d say: it’s to punish Pharoah or its to punish the Egyptians. Or maybe some people would say it’s to rescue the Israelites. And those are both good answers: Two sides of the same coin: punish the Egyptians. Rescue the Israelites. But I wonder if you can see the problem with that answer.

 If God’s main purpose is to rescue His people and to judge the Egyptians then why does He send 10 plagues rather than 1?I mean surely 1 plague would be enough. This is God we talking about. He’s got the power. He could just zap the Egyptians and wipe them out and His people would be free.

This is the problem: If all God wants to do is to punish His enemies and rescue His people, then surely one plague is enough. Why does He send 10 rather than 1?

 

And so that’s the question.

 

And here’s one possible answer.

 

We’ll call it the Plan J theory.

 

You know if you try and do something and plan A fails, then you try plan B. And if plan B fails you try plan C. Eventually if you go on and on you’ll get to plan J. That’ll be your 10th plan.

And so this the Plan J theory

Basically it goes like this: Pharoah’s really a stubborn guy. I mean if you just look through these verses its amazing how stubborn Pharoah actually is. There’s a phrase that comes up 18 times in the book of Exodus and you can see it over and over again in these verses. Just look at chapter 7 verse 13: “Pharoah’s heart became hard and he wouldn’t listen to them.

Chapter 7 verse 22 (halfway through ) Pharoah’s heart became hard; he would not listen…”

Chapter 8 verse 15: when Pharoah saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen…”

Over and over again, in fact at the end of each plague there’s this reference to the hardness of Pharoah’s heart.

 

 

And so maybe this is the explanation: Pharoah’s so hard. He’s such a stubborn guy. And maybe God just underestimates his stubbornness.

 

 

I dunno about you, but I like doing things with a minimum amount of effort. Maybe I’m just lazy, but I don’t like to spend more effort on something than I need to. I don’t feel like driving all the way to the hardware So I’ll just do a patch job with what I’v got in my garage. And sometimes that works. But sometimes I just make more work for myself.

 

And so He starts with plan A: surely all I need is blood. If I just turn the Nile into blood that’ll scare Pharoah and he’ll let the people go. But in fact Pharoah’s more stubborn than God realizes. And so He steps it up. Plan B He sends frogs. That doesn’t work either. So plan C he sends gnats. Then He sends flies. Then He sends hail. Then He sends locusts. Each time He underestimates Pharoah stubbornness. And so eventually plan J. He kills Pharoah’s son. Finally Pharoah’s resistance is broken. He let’s the people go.  

 

Thats the plan J theory.

 

But I wonder if you can see the problem with this theory. Just look at all those verses again. Each time it talks about the hardness of Pharoah, just notice the little phrase that gets added each time.

Chapter 7 verse 13

Pharoah’s heart became hard and he wouldn’t listen to them, just as the LORD had said.”

Chapter 7 verse 22 Pharoah wouldn’t listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

chapter 8 verse 15, same thing – just as the LORD had said

Same thing chapter 8 verse 19.

 

Over and over again we told: the hardness of Pharoah’s heart doesn’t take God by surprise. Rather it’s something He Himself has predicted.

 

And so clearly the 10 plagues aren’t 10 plans. Plan A fails so you go to plan B. Plan B fails so you go to plan C.

No, this is all one big plan. And God predicted it right at the start.

 

 

But in fact there’s an even bigger problem with the plan J theory.

You see, Not only does God predict Pharoah’s hardness. Even more than that, God’s the one Who produces it.

 

And this might be a bit of a shock for you. But look at chapter 9 verse 12. Again we see the hardness of Pharoah. But notice in verse 12 Who is it Who makes him so hard? Chapter 9 verse 12.

“But the LORD hardened Pharoah’s heart and he wouldn’t listen to Moses..

 

Same thing in chapter 10 verse 20. “But the LORD hardened Pharoah’s heart,

 

Chapter 10 verse 27. “But the LORD hardened Pharoah’s heart…”

 

And so this might be a shock to you. Why would God do this? Why would He harden Pharoah’s heart?

 

Well you can see the answer if you look at chapter 10 verse 1. Why does God harden Pharoah? Chapter 10 verse 1.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharoah, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials” why?... “so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them.

 

Dyou see the logic in that verse?

 

 

It’s not that God’s forced to use 10 plagues because Pharoah’s so stubborn. No. God wants to use 10 plagues. And so He raises Phaorah up. He makes him stubborn in order to send more plagues.

 

And so goodbye plan J theory!

 

 

Look at chapter 11 verse 9. The same thing. “The LORD had said to Moses, “Pharoah will refuse to listen to you” why?  “– so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.”

 

You see God doesn’t want to just send one plague. He wants to multiply His wonders.

 

And so now we getting to the answer to our question. Why does God send the plagues? Is it just to punish the Egyptians? Is it just to rescue His people? Well Surely that’s part of the purpose. But then surely He could have just used one plague. And so surely there’s a deeper purpose. What’s the main motivation for the plagues? Well chapter 9 verse 15 puts it very clearly. It’s printed on our bulletins. It should be up on the screen. It’s the key verse for this section. Please look at it. Chapter 9 verse 15. God’s speaking to Pharoah.

 

 “For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, And look at these words: that I might show you my power and my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

 

Pause

 

Why does God send the plagues? Its because He wants to be famous. He wants His power to be displayed. He wants His Name to be proclaimed. This is the main motivation of God in this world: He wants to be famous.

 

 

 

On the screen there’s a picture of Roger Federer. Probably the most famous tennis player who’s ever lived. Surely the greatest tennis player of all time. 18 grand slam titles, more than any other male tennis player. But if you think back over his career - all the matches he’s played. What are the games that really demonstrate his greatness. Surely its not the games against the weak players where he won in straight sets: 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Those games didn’t give him the opportunity to display his talent.

 

No Surely the greatest proof of his greatness were the games against Rafael Nadal. Rafael Nadal was resistant. The games went to five sets. That’s where we saw Federer’s best shots, his amazing fitness, his big match temperment. The best display of Federer’s greatness was when he had resistance.

 

And in a similar way, God could have softened Pharoah’s heart.

 

Proverbs 21 verse 1 says “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it… …wherever He pleases.”

And so God could’ve softened Pharoah and made him give up straight away..

But then he wouldn’t have the opportunity to show off power. And so He raises Pharoah up. He hardens him. He makes him resistant… in order to show His power.

 

And so I wanna ask you: Do you realize that even if ur against God, He will still use you to make Himself famous. That’s what He does to Pharoah. I wonder if you realize that? God doesn’t need you to become a Christian in order for Him to use you. Of course in one sense God loves us. He longs for all of us to repent and be saved. And I hope that none of us will fail to do that. But don’t think that God needs you to become a Christian. If you choose to become a Christian, God’ll glorify Himself by showing mercy to you. But if you reject God and harden your heart, He’ll stillglorify Himself by bringing judgment against you. Either way God will use you to make Himself famous.

 

But maybe you think this is very unfair. I mean How can God judge Pharoah for not listening to Him, when God’s the One Who’s hardening his heart?

 

Well the important thing to notice throughout these chapters is that it doesn’t only say, “God hardened Pharoah’s heart. It also says that Pharoah hardened his own heart”. Both statements appear equally often. In other words, both statements are equally true. God hardens Pharoah’s heart. At the same time, Pharoah hardens his own heart

And so we see even though God’s hardening Pharoah, Pharoah’s also making the decision himself. He’s guilty of hardening himself.

 

And this is something we see throughout the Bible. Even though God is in control of our hearts, He’s able to exercise His control in a way that doesn’t remove our own choice and our responsibility for our decisions.

 

And this is also true in our experience. If you trying to make a decision. You never sit there saying: Aah I really wantto follow Jesus, but I just can’t cause God’s hardening my heart.

No. that’s ridiculous. You have the choice.

 Or Aah I really wanna go to church, But I can’t cause God is hardening my heart. No. you’ve got the choice.

And God will hold us responsible for our choices.

And of course there’s mystery here. There things we can’t understand about God. God’s ways are above our ways. But this is what the Bible teaches:

 

God’s sovereignty doesn’t take away human responsibility.

Human responsibility doesn’t take away God’s sovereignty.

God is sovereign over every choice we make. He knew it. He planned it. He ordained it.

But at the same time we are responsible for our decisions.

 

And so dyou wanna be sure that God isn’t hardening your heart? There’s only one way to be sure. Make sure thatyou aren’t hardening your own heart. If you listening to God’s Word. If you repenting of your sin. If you seeking to obey. Those are all signs of God’s mercy to you… that He isn’t hardening your heart.

 

And so let me just give you 3 lessons that we can learn here from Pharoah so that we won’t be like him.

No. 1 - beware of comfortable circumstances. Whenever God sends a plague on Pharoah and he’s suffering because of the plague. That’s when he confesses his sin and he cries out to God and he promises that he’ll repent. But as soon as God removes the plague and things become comfortable again. That’s when he hardens his heart. And in the same way, when we suffer, it’s much easier to confess our sin and to realize our need and to cry out to God. It’s when He removes all our troubles. That’s when we need to watch out. That’s when we in danger of becoming hard.

 

Secondly, don’t get comfortable with God’s warnings. Pharoah’s given so many warnings of God’s judgment. He’s given so many opportunities to repent. And maybe he gets comfortable with these warnings. Maybe he thinks he’ll always get another chance. But eventually his chances run out. Eventually God does wipe him out.

 

And in the same way, we live in the time of God’s warnings. We live before the final judgment. And each day is a new opportunity to repent. But don’t get comfortable with God’s warnings. Don’t expect to always get another chance. The day will come. And the warnings will run out.

 

And thirdly, don’t get comfortable with your sin. Sin’s like cement. If you just leave it, it becomes rock hard. Even if its just a small sin like a thought or an attitude. Don’t just leave it to solidify and become hardened in your heart.[1] 

 

Sin grows. It hardens. It seeks to master our lives.

 

And so please examine your life. Are you comfortable with your sin? Is there any sin that’s becoming rooted in your heart? Will you make a decision today to drive it out?

And so these are 3 lessons to learn from Pharoah. Comfortable with his circumstances, comfortable with God’s warnings, comfortable with his sin. He hardened his own heart. But at the same time in the great sovereignty of God, this was God’s plan. In one sense He desired it, for the glory of His Name.

 

 

 

And so that’s the answer to our question: why did God send the plagues?  Yes to rescue His people. Yes to judge His enemies. But ultimately for the glory of His Name

 

And so here’s another question, as we close: why did Jesus die on the cross? Please look at John chapter 12:27. It should be up on the screen. Jesus is about to die. He’s predicting the hour of His death. look at what He says: Chapter 12 verse 27: “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father glorify Your Name!”

 

Why did Jesus die on the cross? It was for the glory of God’s name.

 

And If you think of all the things God has done to make Himself famous, there’s nothing as great as the cross.

 

That’s where He met His greatest resistance. That’s where He showed His greatest strength. All the aspects of His power: His holiness. His judgment. His justice. His mercy. His love.

 

This is what’s moved people to travel the world to proclaim God’s Name. This is what’s drawn Multitudes of people to worship God’s Name. Its all because of the cross.

 

 

There’s a well known song called Above all Powers. And I love that song. But there’s one line I don’t like. Right at the end it says Jesus was like a rose, trampled on the ground. He took the fall and thought of me above all.” I don’t like those final words: “He thought of me above all.” Its true that when Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of us. He was doing it out of love for us. But that wasn’t His main motivation. Above all, He was thinking of His Father. And the glory of His Name.

 

 

Why does God do the things that He does in the world? What’s His main motivation? Its for the glory of His Name

 

And so if you can just close your eyes.

 

Just take a few moments to think about your own life in the light of what uv heard

If God’s main purpose is to glorify His Name, what role will you play in that purpose? What type of instrument will you be?Will you be hardened as an instrument of wrath?Or will you be softened as an instrument of grace? Will you cry out to Him for mercy this morning. Will you be moved to worship? Will you proclaim His Name in the world.

Father not to us, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory. Won’t You please use us for Your glory, not as instruments of wrath, but as instruments of Your grace.Amen