Plagues that Preach
Exodus: Plagues That Preach • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsThe judgement of God poured out on Egypt, will one day be poured out on all who refuse to yield to God.
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You Are God Alone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOargNFiDd4
You Are God Alone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOargNFiDd4
1 The Lord is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth. 2 Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve. 3 How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? 4 They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. 5 They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance. 6 They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. 7 They say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.” 8 Take notice, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? 9 Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? 10 Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? 11 The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile. 12 Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law; 13 you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.
Opening Hymn
Announcements
1 That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate. 3 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. 4 Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him. 5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?” 7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. 8 Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”
1 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. 2 The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.
Worship Set
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Prayer chorus
Prayer
Worship Through the Word:
Plagues That Preach!
Plagues That Preach!
I wish I could tell you that the title of this sermon was original with me. The truth is, I am not sure. It popped into my head and I think it is because I heard it somewhere once upon a time. But it fits.
The plagues are not “once upon a time tales.” In fact, I saw a video this week that said recently scholars sat and compared Egyptian historical records with the holy scriptures. In so doing, they found 91 accounts that were in sync. Several were references to the plagues and there were even records regarding the seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife. This is quite amazing! It gets more and more difficult for people to say the Bible isn’t true because archeologists are finding more proof of the accounts in the Bible all the time.
The plagues God sent against Egypt are historical events, the which our world has never seen since, but unfortunately, will see again and I believe it will be within our lifetime. Of course, just because I believe it will be in our lifetime, doesn’t mean I believe we will be here. I believe the rapture will occur before these events.
I wish to open us with the same text we had last week. I am reading from Exodus 7:1-6.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” 6 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them.
The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
Pray
I. Plagues That Preach!
I. Plagues That Preach!
The first two books of the Bible are essential to the entire rest of the Bible.
In Genesis you have the foundational information. It is the back drop of everything else that takes place. God created everything. God made humankind unique in that we were made in His image and He breathed life into us. We were given dominion over the earth and all was good!
Then Satan showed up. He lured humankind to believe we too could become like God. We fell into the same desire that cost Satan his own place of honor before God’s throne. Sin entered this world and now it was no longer good. Death entered and everything that had been created was effected. The earth began to age, stars began to age, plants would live and die, animals and people as well.
It all seems pretty bleak except for one verse in Genesis.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
So, Genesis gives us the backdrop for scripture and Exodus gives us the theme. The Theme is deliverance and salvation. But there is also another theme; judgement. Judgement is the tool that brings final separation of all that is good from all that is evil.
When God brought the plagues on Egypt, He was bringing His charges and judgement against them, therefore freeing Israel from their bondage.
“Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.” 7:4
But have you ever wondered why so many plagues? Why did God not just wipe Egypt out and free the Israelites right off?
A. Why so many plagues?
A. Why so many plagues?
In our minds, we see the plagues as God’s means of freeing Israel, but God had a purpose far beyond what we see at face value. So, let us dig a little and find what God was trying to achieve with these plagues.
1. God was declaring His sovereignty. Numbers 33:3, 4
1. God was declaring His sovereignty. Numbers 33:3, 4
3 The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians, 4 who were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them; for the Lord had brought judgment on their gods.
It is interesting that with the first 9 plagues, there is a pattern that ensues. Moses meets Pharaoh at the Nile the first time, at the palace the second time, and the 3rd plague in the sequence is always unannounced. This happens three times until we come to that tenth plague which is also unannounced.
I do not want to spend a great deal of time here, but it will take time to look at each of these. So, I will not give a great deal of detail.
a. Water to blood Exodus 7:14-25
The Nile was the Egyptian’s lifeblood of their society. They ate from it, bathed in it, traveled on it, and conducted commerce from it.
Now, Egypt worshipped approximately 80 gods and there was a fair amount of crossover between their representations, so I cannot name them all. I can tell you that they revolved around three natural forces.
The Nile River
The land
The sky
Since there are so many, most scholars identify one main god or goddess for each plague, many of whom you have probably heard of somewhere along the line.
The word translated into plague means “a blow or wound”. So, each plague was a blow or wound to Egypt by showing how ineffective their worship was. There was no god behind these images and only God is sovereign. By the time the 10 plagues were completed, no god of Egypt was left unscathed.
Now, back to the Nile turned to blood. People that have been in places where there is lots of spilled blood say it smells really bad. If that were not enough, you have fish and who knows what that dies under these conditions then wrought. The stench across the land was unbearable. They lived under this noxious condition for 7 days, though it probably took longer for the stench to subside. If God had allowed this to continue, this alone would have killed everyone. There was no water for anyone to drink.
The main god attached with the Nile was Osiris.
Next, we have...
b. Plague of frogs Exodus 7:26-8:11
I cannot say I relate to many of these plagues, but this one I think I have some kind of idea. When I was a kid growing up on the dairy farm, our farm was along the banks of the Snake River. There was a time of year, every year, when the frogs would get so thick, it took concentration not to step on one. We would come home from church every Wednesday night and we had to be careful where we stepped if we didn’t want to track frog guts into the house on our shoes, not to mention the nasty squish of it under your foot. We would go swimming in our pool at night and one end was lit by a large yard lamp, but the deep end was dark. You would be swimming along and would practically bump face-to-face with a big bullfrog. Now, my story is humorous. However, Egypt’s situation was not. It was not the driveway or swimming pool where they found frogs, but in their beds and cooking pots. Surely even in their pantries.
The god of Egypt associated here was Heqt. She was a goddess of fertility and was often depicted with the face of a frog.
The blood and the frog plagues were face-offs with any god associated with the Nile River.
What I think is funny about this one is that Pharaoh asks Moses to pray for the frogs to be gone. Moses asked when Pharaoh wanted him to pray for them to be gone. Pharaoh for some crazy reason said, “tomorrow.” Maybe he felt God was not good enough of acting faster. However, the frogs did not just hop away. After Moses prayed, they all just died
right where they were and left another stinking mess for the Egyptians to deal with.
c. Plague of gnats Exodus 8:12-15
This plague is often misunderstood. We understand gnats to be small (or large) swarms of tiny flying bugs. They are an annoyance, but harmless. However, the gnats mentioned here were not harmless and probably represented a variety of sorts. Things like lice, fleas, biting flies, or mosquitoes. Lice and fleas fit best as they are described as burrowing and climbing into ears and noses. If you have ever been infected by lice, you have some idea of the annoyance this was.
These gnats were a blow to gods of the land. The most prominent one was Geb the earth god. Now, Moses had warned Pharaoh about the frogs, but there was no announcement of these gnats. They just came on like a vengeance when Pharaoh reneged on his agreement to let the Israelites go like he said he would when he requested an end to the frogs.
d. Plague of flies Exodus 8:16-28
Now, up to this point, Israel as experienced these plagues along with Egypt. Now however, God says He will distinguish Israel so that Pharaoh will know they are His people. There will be no flies in the land of Goshen where the Israelites have lived since the days of Joseph.
Let me step back a moment and direct you to something we spoke of several weeks ago when we started this series. We watched the video that showed how all these plagues could have been related to the Santorini volcanic eruption. I am not going to argue for or against such suggestions. You may feel like God just spoke and these things happened. That may be true. It is also true that God is the God who created all things and uses creation to His purposes (such as volcanic eruptions to deliver these plagues). No matter which way you believe, it does not take the miraculous element out of them. Exodus 7:20 seems to suggest the Nile was real blood, not just something that looked like blood. God could have used the irons that turn red as a catalyst to become real blood. We have no way to know for sure, but neither negates God’s involvement. Goshen experienced the first three plagues, yet God performed a miracle in that they did not experience any after that first three, which is amazing since Goshen is a central part of Egypt. The timing of an eruption cannot explain the perfect timing of plagues coming and going so perfectly.
Whether God used natural effects to achieve His purpose or not, they still were full of miracles.
I think flies is one plague we can understand. Flies are plagues to us as well, even when not in mass existence. However, the flies spoken of here were biting flies. This makes this even more uncomfortable aside from the incessant distraction.
The land god of Egypt that was under fire here, was Khepri, the bug god. Can you imagine having bug god? Anyway, he was depicted with a scarab face and was connected with creation and life.
We see Pharaoh beginning to consider letting them go at this point, but he tries to bargain. You can go, but only as far as the desert and not to far at that. However, Pharaoh had nothing to bargain with. God owed Pharaoh nothing. God was not going to share His sovereignty with Pharaoh. The children of Israel were not to be shared, they were God’s people, and God’s alone.
Next we have...
e. The plague on livestock Exodus 9:1-7
In the old west, anthrax was the terror. It had nothing on this one. This disease on the livestock was an economic hardship, but it hit Pharaoh the hardest. Most of the cattle were under Pharaoh’s control, so this brought destruction on Pharaoh’s personal property.
The goddess represented here is Hathor. She was depicted with bovine-like horns. Like other cultures, cattle were venerated, so these were objects of worship. This is also why Moses told Pharaoh they could not worship God in the midst of Egyptians. They Egyptians would have been horrified over the Hebrew animal sacrifices and would probably have killed the Hebrews on the spot.
After the animal pandemic ended, Pharaoh’s response was to send informants to see if Goshen had dead cattle, but they quickly reported that not one cattle was dead among the cattle of the Hebrews.
f. The plague of boils Exodus 9:8-12
At this point, we are told that the magicians that were always hovering nearby throughout these exchanges could no longer stand and from here on out, there is no other word from them.
The boils are a direct assault against the Egyptian goddess Isis as she was to provide their health. This plague came without warning. Instead of telling Pharaoh what was coming, he just took action of throwing soot into the air and they instantly broke out with boils.
At this point, the plagues will move from targeting the gods of the land to the Egyptian gods of the sky.
g. The plague of hail and fire Exodus 9:13-35
At this point, the account begins to rev up. We find more details regarding this and the follow plagues. You can feel things building to the ultimate climax.
This is also the first time we begin to see some faltering in the trust of Pharaoh’s people. Moses warns Pharaoh to bring in the crops in the field, the livestock and the people to be saved from the hail storm that will come. However, Pharaoh gives no order, yet some of the people listen and obey. Those who obeyed the word of Moses were saved from the loss while those who were not told or had not listened, lost crops, herds, and servants.
The god of Egypt targeted this time is Nut, the sky goddess. The sky goddess was to provide protection from such things like this storm.
On this occasion, we find Pharaoh begging Moses to make it stop. Pharaoh even cries out that he and his people have sinned, yet there is something still not right. First, he says he has sinned “this time.” He is qualifying it and limited the offense. Second, he still makes no attempt to personally know God. He asks Moses to pray for him. He will not humble himself before God.
If that doesn’t speak for itself, we find that as soon as it all stopped, Pharaoh once again refuses Israel’s exodus.
h. The plague of locusts Exodus 10:1-20
The hail would destroy the crops still growing in the field, but the locusts would destroy all that was already harvested. Here again, this plague comes from the sky. Locusts are a blight all their own. Even in our modern society with our science and technology knowledge, we have no means of preventing large swarms of locust from wiping entire areas out. I just recently watched a short report where they shared concerns of destruction from locust. An entire nation can be wiped out from locust swarms.
The locust were attacking the goddess Nepri who was the goddess of grain.
Pharaoh now begins to get some push back from his officials.
7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
Once again Pharaoh tries to bargain. He says he will let the men go, but the women and children must stay. Pharaoh is determined to keep them under his thumb of slavery. The request has been for them to go worship. Some believe this was deceptive of Moses, but I do not believe so. God has requested they go free to worship, however, in Pharaoh’s denial of such, God now has an open door to remove His people completely.
It was always God’s right and prerogative to have His people free. But here again, as I shared last week, God is giving Pharaoh every chance to do the right thing first. No one can ever say, that God did not give Pharaoh every chance to do so. This is a testimony to all of God’s justice and goodness.
i. The plague of darkness Exodus 10:21-29
If you have ever been in a deep cave and turned off the lights, you will understand this plague. It is really disconcerting. The air feels heavy. You begin to get disoriented and you cannot tell if you are standing upright or leaning. There may be a lot of people in the room, but unless they are talking or rustling about, you have no sense of their presence.
I experienced this a few years before I came here when I was in a cave in Kentucky. The tour guide had everyone promise to stand absolutely still and not to talk so you could see how oppressive the darkness is.
When I was young, I had seen an episode of Wagon Train where a man was injured in a cave that had Saber-tooth tigers in it. The other two men with him went back to get help. When they finally got back, his light had gone out and he had been in the dark with those fearsome cries of the tiger. In the short amount of time they had been gone, his terror was so high, that his hair had turned absolutely white and their appearance caused him to draw back and he fell off the precipice he was lying on. I never forgot that episode. The idea that terror could change a man so fast. Of course, it was fiction, but I have been told that such things do happen. Terror is a powerful thing. Terror is exactly what the Egyptians would have experienced in this palpable darkness.
That is what the Egyptians felt for 3 days. They could not eat, drink, go the bathroom, or move. They probably quickly found themselves on the floor and then laid there in their own waste until it ended. Yet, in Goshen, they had lights in their homes.
I wondered if they could see a far off flicker of light from homes in Goshen, and I have decided they could not. Even one tiny light prick in the distance brings a sense of hope, yet the scriptures give a sense of complete and thorough darkness like what I experienced in that cave.
The god attached to this darkness was Ra, the sun god.
You would think that would be enough. Remember, this was the third in the cycle of plagues, so there was no warning. It would have come on instantly like someone pulling the lamp cord, so they had no time to prepare. Yet, Pharaoh still did not yield. He tried to bargain again. Go, but leave your livestock, he said. When Moses declared all must go, Pharaoh becomes angry and threatens to take Moses’ life if he sees him again.
Moses also response in anger?
29 “Just as you say,” Moses replied. “I will never appear before you again.”
You know what comes next.
j. The first-born death plague Exodus 11:1-12:36
This plague was a direct attack on every god of Egypt and even on Pharaoh himself, because it was an attack against their belief in Amon-Ra. He was believed to be the almighty creator. Pharaoh was believed to be the incarnation of this god. He was the pre-eminent god of all gods of Egypt.
This plague demonstrated the impotence of Pharaoh and all their man-made gods.
I am not going to say anything further on this as we will talk more on this plague next week. However, I need to emphasize that Pharaoh was in a battle that he never had any chance of winning. He could try to bargain until he was blue in the face, but he had nothing to bargain with. No authority, no ownership, no power, no nothing. He had no right to be offended, but God had every right to be offended by Pharaoh. Pharaoh was declaring himself god. He was trying to usurp God’s identity and throne, and God put Pharaoh in his place and it wasn’t a throne.
God just re-asserted His sovereignty over Pharaoh and all the gods of this earth. They are empty vessels with no substance.
4 But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
So, God was declaring His sovereignty, but that was not the only thing He was doing.
2. God was revealing Himself. Exodus 6:7; 7:5, 17; 9:14, 16, 29
2. God was revealing Himself. Exodus 6:7; 7:5, 17; 9:14, 16, 29
Who was he revealing Himself to? Well He tells us.
In Exodus 6:7, God says by these things Israel would know Him (God) and that He is their God.
Last week, in Exodus 7:5, God says “so that Egypt will know” and in 7:17, so Pharaoh will know that He is God.
In this week’s verses we find...
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.
Egypt for one.
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.
Everyone throughout the entire earth for another.
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.
And this is just further affirmation of the above. God wants people to know Him. God wants people to worship the right source of their creation and circumstances. God created us to have a relationship with Him and He continues to reveal Himself to any who are willing to see and listen. We are blind to it without His aiding us to see it.
There are 5 attributes of God revealed through these events, all of which we have talked about, but allow me to quickly recap.
1) God is Almighty. There is none like Him.
2) God is jealous and will not share His glory with anyone.
3) God is just, therefore punishing for wrongdoing.
4) God is merciful, and willing to forgive when someone repents.
5) God is sovereign, there are no other gods but Him.
God wants us to know Him.
For this reason, God has another purpose for all these plagues. They will be greater than anything experienced in the past or the future, at least up to the end of days, because...
3. God is giving a historical record that will stand through time. (Psalm 78:3-4)
3. God is giving a historical record that will stand through time. (Psalm 78:3-4)
3 things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
And they did. The events were so incredible, that they were told about again and again. When Israel would enter various countries, the people would declare, “we have heard what your God has done for you to deliver you from the Egyptians.
The story of the plagues preach the word of God. And it was not only for the days of the Bible. It still preaches and declares God’s existence among people today.
One of, if not the most acclaimed movie of our day, is Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” It amazes me that as old as it is, it is still seen on major television channels at least once if not more times a year.
It pours forth the events in grand fashion detailing Moses’ deliverance from infanticide, to the rise of Moses as a prophet and deliverer, the plagues the crossing of the Red Sea, and the receiving of the Ten Commandments.
We have the purpose, but let us also look at...
B. What is the intended outcome?
B. What is the intended outcome?
That we would know and serve God, but there is more. God wants us to understand so we realize we need to repent.
1. Repentance opens the door for God to save us. (Exodus 6:7; 1 John 1:9; 2 Cor 6:16, 18)
1. Repentance opens the door for God to save us. (Exodus 6:7; 1 John 1:9; 2 Cor 6:16, 18)
God said to Israel...
7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
He gives us the same promise but takes it a step further.
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
For God to be our God, we need to acknowledge the sin that separates us and repent of it, showing our true desire to make God our God.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God is holy and cannot blend with sin. Our sin creates a chasm that divides us from God. But once we acknowledge the sin and a desire to turn from it, we open a door for God to fix it. Because we are in bondage to that sin, just like the Hebrews were in bondage to Pharaoh.
So, the first outcome God wants from these events is our repentance so He can provide our...
2. Salvation (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:13-14)
2. Salvation (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:13-14)
We are in bondage to sin, but once we are aware of this, we can turn to God for deliverance. God had a plan to deliver and free the Hebrews, and he also had a plan to provide for our salvation.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Jesus’ death on the cross created a bridge that allows us to cross the chasminto God’s presence. His death provides purification and cleansing from the sin. That purification becomes ours when we repent, declaring our devotion to Him. We move from the desert of Egypt to the luscious land of Canaan.
However, not everyone chooses this path. Pharaoh and most of the people’s of Egypt did not. So,
C. What is the alternative? Revelation 8-9
C. What is the alternative? Revelation 8-9
When we do not choose God, it is not without consequences. Sooner or later, the judgement of God will catch up with those who deny God.
I have mentioned before the parallels between events of the past and those of the future. God uses the past to help us to see what is to come.
In the Exodus account we see bondage, judgement, and the need for deliverance and salvation. We too, are in bondage and face judgement. We too, need saved and delivered from bondage, the bondage of sin. The events of Exodus point to our own needs, and the danger of our coming judgement.
The judgement plagues of Egypt were incredible in that there had never been such an outpouring of so many disasters in so short a period. Nor have there been any since at that level of intensity. There are plagues from time to time. But never have there been ten plagues that hit with such tragic results one right after another like that time in Egypt. That is why the account continues to be told.
Yet, in the book of Revelation, it tells of a time when there will be a similar occurrence where the entire earth will experience something like that in Egypt.
A man will come and will eventually set himself up as God, much like Pharaoh believed himself to be God.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 NIV
4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Many will be deceived during those days and will worship this antichrist. They will be deceived because they have hard hearts that do not believe in the true God. They will fall prey to this man of lawlessness because he will feed them what they want to hear, and God will give them up to their hardness of hearts. (You can read more about this in 2 Thes 2). Then the plagues will come just before the end.
Boils, Seas and rivers turned to blood, locust, and a devastating hailstorm are just some of the plagues that come on those who will be sealed with the mark of the beast.
However, God’s people will not suffer any of these because these are the plagues of judgement. We will reap our inheritance as the children of God instead.
Conclusion:
I believe for those of us who are Christians, our time is very short here on earth. I believe the days of tribulation are quickly advancing. The week before last I saw a news report on how Israel has purchased red heifers from Texas in preparation of consecrating a new order of priests to serve in the new tabernacle that is to be established. This tabernacle has been ready for many years. It was prefabricated and just waiting to be set up. When the time comes, this tabernacle will be erected very quickly. This is yet one more prophecy that is about to be fulfilled and my understanding is that this takes place in the beginning of the tribulation. These calves are 1 year old calves, and they are to be sacrificed at 2 years of age. That means Israel is only one year away from establishing this new line of priests. They must feel confident that the new tabernacle will be erected soon.
I do not share these things to scare anyone. But I am saying, do not delay. Time is short. I believe people will still be saved after the rapture, but they will live through the tribulation. No one wants to experience that.
There are also many gods in our world that we need to be careful that we have not given our allegiance to. They may not be gods such as Geb, Isis, or Amon-Ra, but they are gods like, wealth, fame, independence, sexual or sensual appetites, etc.… just to name a few. We can fall into that trap so easily. Even I get pulled in from time to time and when I realize it, I have to back up, ask for God’s forgiveness and help to readjust my priorities.
I am not saying we stop living life. We still do not know exactly when that time will come, even if it is close. We need to continue our day to day lives, but we need to also be focused on spiritual readiness.
Take time to do an inventory of your life this week. Who are you serving? If the rapture were to happen tonight, would you be ready? When that time comes, do not be like Lot’s wife who when leaving Sodom, looked back with concern for what she was leaving behind, but keep your eyes on Christ.
Pray