Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: If I’m going into battle I would want the best weapons, armor and battle plan available to me.

Then on top of that I would want commanders that were fierce in the face of adversity with a confidence that we will win the day regardless of the odds against us.

I would want someone like “Patton” leading the charge!

Unfortunately, Israel didn’t have a commander like that in Moses.

God sends him to Pharaoh and requests that he let God’s people go and worship Him in the wilderness and Pharaoh simply laughed in his face and made the task of brick-making harder on Israel by them gathering their own straw for the bricks without reducing the quota of bricks being made daily.

This then turned the people against Moses and Aaron.

But thank the Lord that Jehovah is the true Commander In Chief.

He sent Moses and Aaron back with the full assurance that He would win the victory and that Pharaoh really doesn’t understand who he’s going to war with, but he will soon find out!

1. Aaron’s Rod swallows Pharaohs snakes; 7:8-13

This miracle is one that God had already shown Moses when God called him in Midian.

It was symbolic to Moses that the power of God is greater than the power of men, even Pharaoh.

Serpents, more than likely a cobra, was a special creature of Egyptian religion.

It was a symbol of immorality.

Here we see the moral God overcoming the immorality of men.

How do you think these magicians duplicated Aarons miracle of turning a rod into snakes?

Sleight of hand or by the powers of darkness.

That’s why Paul tells we need to be prepared for battle everyday!

Now God is going to begin a series of battle maneuvers [plagues]that will bring Pharaoh to his knees and let Israel go.

But these plagues are not just to win the victory over Pharaoh, but the Lord was revealing Himself to both the Israelites and the Egyptians and proving that He alone is God.

Every plague is God’s way of judging the gods of Egypt proving them to be false gods.

There were more than eighty different gods worshiped in Egypt, but they had no power to deliver Egypt from the One true God, Jehovah!

1. Plague of Blood; 7:14-21

The Nile River was essential to Egyptian life for without it Egypt would be nothing but a barren desert.

[The overflown Nile brought silt from the river to fertilize the land]

This judgment on the Nile River, which was treated like a god, judged Hapi, the god of the Nile, and Isis, the goddess of the Nile.

Not only was it on the Nile but also upon all the water reservoirs in Egypt and in their houses [v.19].

[22-25] The magicians did a similar trick by taking well water and turning it to blood, which impressed Pharoah, but they could not reverse the plague of God.

They had to dig wells to find fresh water.

This plague lasted a week.

And imagine the smell of dead fish for a week.

This first plague is a precursor to the final plague from God. Egypt would run red with the blood of their firstborn because of the hardness of Pharaohs heart.

Eighty years earlier the Nile ran red with the blood of Jewish baby boys.

God is confronting Egypt with her sin!

Anything that becomes a god [idol] to us is sin, and the only way to cover that sin is through the “blood” of Jesus Christ!

2. Plague of Frogs; 8:1-6

This plague is directed against the Egyptian goddess Heqet, the goddess of fertility, birth and rebirth, who was pictured with the head of a frog.

Could you imagine your kid looking like a toad!! Yule Brenner/Pharoah

This was a most unusual plague upon the Egyptians.

Because frogs were sacred in Egypt, they could not be killed.

So God brings a plague that would annoy them to the point of detesting them and becoming a burden in their lives.

Frogs were everywhere when they cooked, walked, ate, bathed, slept.

Everything was contaminated with frogs.

That’s what an idol is, a burden.

Anything that gets between us and God is an idol and will contaminate your soul and become a burden in your life!

[7] The magicians again duplicate this miracle with their enchantments [witchcraft, sorcery].

Witchcraft and sorcery is the practice of magic [sleight of hand or influence from powers of darkness] for the purpose of evil.

[8-14] Pharoah gets tired of the croaking and asks Moses to entreat God to remove the frogs and he will let Israel go and sacrifice to the Lord.

But I want you to look at the strange request of Pharoah, “tomorrow” [9-10]

Why in the world would Pharoah put off till tomorrow what he could have been relieved from today?

Procrastination and Pride!

He thought maybe his problems would go away before he had to submit that Moses God was greater than he was in the morning.

Procrastination and Pride is one of Satan’s most effective weapons in destroying the souls of men and the service of Christians.

* I’ll be saved tomorrow.

* I’ll get right with God tomorrow.

* I’ll serve the Lord when I get older.

The story is told of a family that moved into a new community.

They were promptly visited by two men and the pastor of a nearby church who cordially invited them to attend the services on the Lord’s Day.

The man assured them that he would come just as soon as he got straightened out.

Several months passed, and he still hadn’t put in an appearance, so the pastor called again and repeated his invitation, but he received the same reply.

The fellow hadn’t yet gotten everything straightened out, but he’d be there just as soon as he did.

A few weeks later he died, and his widow asked to have the funeral services in the church.

The preacher graciously agreed.

It was indeed a sad affair.

Later when a member of the congregation asked the pastor if the man was a Christian, he answered, “He never attended services here, and no one can recall ever hearing him give a testimony of his faith in Christ, so I can’t say.

I only know he was a man of his word.

He promised to come to church just as soon as he got straightened out—and he did!”

Mattoon, R. (2007).

Treasures from Exodus (Vol. 1, p. 161).

Rod Mattoon.

Just like Pharaoh, many people today harden their hearts and abuse the kindness and longsuffering of the Lord.

But one day that longsuffering will come to an end.