The Second Plague

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 8:1-15

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Well this morning we continue in Exodus after having spent some time last week in Colossians 1, 3 through 15.
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I won't pop quiz anyone if they still know it. It's good to refresh every now and then after you put in so much work to remember it, and certainly
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Psalm 99 is gone. I don't know about you, it is for me. So it's good to keep up with things, even every now and then bust off the rust.
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But we want to press on in the narrative this morning in Exodus chapter 8.
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We see first God giving a demand and then we see Pharaoh's response to that demand. And that'll occupy our times.
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We see not only Pharaoh's initial repentance, but then what happens after he finds relief.
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And we want to highlight that with four points of application at the end. So let's get to it.
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First we see God's demand. Exodus 8, beginning in verse 1,
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And the Lord spoke to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the
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Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold
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I will smite all your territory with frogs. So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, into your kneading bowls.
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And the frog shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.
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So the demand is given, and this is going to be a formula in the chapters to come. Let my people go.
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That will be the constant refrain, the constant challenge that rattles in Pharaoh's eardrums.
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This is going to be repeated in verse 20 in this chapter, 9 -1, 9 -13, 10 -3, and then we'll move on from there to that faithful tenth plague in the night of the
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Passover. We remember that Pharaoh's heart is hard, and you remember that was the case two weeks ago where we left off.
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His heart remains hard after all that we saw in chapter 7. We spoke of that judicial hardening of God that is upon Pharaoh, and yet does not render
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Pharaoh to be a puppet or robotic. Pharaoh's exercising his will freely in terms of the bondage of his sin, such that he is left without excuse, as every sinner is left without excuse before God.
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God exercises judicial hardening and yet in such a way that he is not the author of sin.
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Neither is the actor or the agent removed from their own responsibility or culpability.
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Aaron, unlike Pharaoh, obeys what the Lord commands. So we read verse 6,
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Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. Significant language here.
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We've already seen the detail in the first plague, with the Nile turning to blood, that the rod was to be stretched over five different descriptions of water.
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Over the river, over the pools, the streams, the ponds, all the bodies of water.
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And we're gonna see that language here again with this plague. If you remember, I mentioned this maybe a few months ago,
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Egypt is really depicted as the land of waters. We began Exodus and the only way into Egypt, as it were, into Pharaoh's court, was through water.
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And the only way the Israelites are coming out is through water. So as far as the evil empire is concerned, it's hedged in by water.
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And here, all of the waters speak to this evocative image. Of course, water is a picture of sometimes chaos in the
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Hebrew Bible, more importantly death or Sheol. And so we have, even with this plague of frogs, this imagery of Egypt being like the watery grave, the place of death, like Sheol itself.
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And yet, God exercises His power over this land of death, over this corruption among His people.
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And the frogs, we read, come up and covered the land of Egypt. We read past these things so quickly without imagining what the details would be like.
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What would it be like to experience this plague? A few weeks ago, my girls were so delighted.
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We often go to the fountain across the common to see if there's any tadpoles swimming around, with a red solo cup in hand to scoop them up.
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We haven't seen any yet. But the Lord blessed them one week where we found a poor toad hiding behind a tree.
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You can imagine that poor toad. He was having a great day until five toddlers showed up, poking at him with a stick, throwing him into the fountain.
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But with one toad, there was this fascination and delight. I wonder if that same delight would have been there if they couldn't sleep because frogs were slimely sort of crawling all over them in the middle of the night.
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And every time they opened the microwave or the refrigerator or the car door, frogs just spilled out.
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Everywhere they looked, frogs were hopping about. The term frogs, as R .A.
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Cole points out in his commentary, it's probably an onomatopoeia. In other words, a word in the original that sounds like the noise it makes.
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And so it most likely is related to croaker. That would be like the sort of translation that works.
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Every language has its own unique way of understanding the call of a frog. If you're familiar with Puerto Rico, they have the little cookies and that's how they hear ribbit.
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It's funny how that works. You could talk to other cultures. Maybe our brother could help us with Italian. I don't know what the
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Scots do for ribbits. But here we have croakers, the croakers coming out of the
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Nile. Most likely the Israelites, being those who had dwelt in Canaan, didn't have a lot of experience with frogs.
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The Egyptians certainly did. And here it's almost comical. I think God does have a sense of humor.
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And look at this plague that he sends. Here's the evil empire, the global power of the world at this time, and yet they can be set almost to the brink of a collapse just by having one creature grow too much in abundance and be out of its place.
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Think of that for a moment. God just takes one of his creatures, multiplies it exceedingly, and takes it out of its natural habitat, and that's enough to bring a world power near the brink of disaster.
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All by one creature. We're gonna see that again with lice and with gnats and with locusts, locusts covering the land.
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As Spurgeon said in his great exposition, God is never at a loss for means.
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He can use lions or he can use lice. He can use famines or he can use flies. In the armory of God there is a weapon of every kind, from the stars and all of their courses above down to the caterpillars on the ground.
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God can do whatever he wants and he can use essentially any little thing that he has made to bring the human race to knots or the evil empire to knots.
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Here he chooses frogs, frogs, frogs, and more frogs, and he's sending these frogs out of their domain in the
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Nile. Oh, the places you'll go. They come into your house, into your bed, that's the most disturbing one.
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It's one thing to throw it out of the old crock pot, but in your bed when you're trying to sleep, in the houses of your servants, on your people, on your ovens, into your kneading bowls, there's no escape from these frogs.
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And notice that this is all directed at Pharaoh personally. They're going to be in your bedroom, they're going to be in your bed, they're going to be in the houses of your servants, on your people.
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This is first beginning with Pharaoh and then from Pharaoh spreading out to affect all of the
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Egyptians. And again, notice the Israelites seem to be untouched. Just as we saw with the first plague, we don't read of Israelites digging for water, neither do we deal of God's people dealing with these frogs.
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Perhaps there's relative safety in the land of Goshen where they had been dwelling. These frogs are now finally touching
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Pharaoh in a way that the first plague hadn't. The magicians had access to clear water, apparently
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Pharaoh did as well. It was unfortunate his people had to deal with all the blood, but he didn't, so he hardened his heart.
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But here this plague is beginning to affect his private life. So we read
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Psalm 105, 29. The only time frogs is used again in Scripture seems to be in reference to this plague.
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Psalm 105 is an example. He turned their waters into blood, killed their fish, their land abounded with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.
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So now this is directly affecting Pharaoh. Now frogs in the ancient
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Egyptian mind were divinized. They were seen as semi -divine creatures and they were respected as such.
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One of the main Egyptian goddesses connected to fertility was the goddess Hekhet.
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And Hekhet was associated not only with fertility but also was seen to assist with childbirth.
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Now that's the irony. Here's their god of fertility and there's a little too much fertility going on.
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God's making what they would have seen as the blessings of Hekhet into a curse upon the land.
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And as we saw with the first plague, with the the Nile turning to blood, enigmatic or we could almost say a sort of forced memory of when the
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Israelite sons were thrown into that bloody river, even here we can see perhaps an answering of that great crime.
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As Desmond Alexander points out, by stating that the Nile will swarm or team with frogs, we have a link with Exodus chapter 1 verse 7.
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Do you remember it was then that Pharaoh said the whole land is swarming with these people, with these
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Hebrews. So then what will we do about it? We'll kill all of their newborn sons.
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And so here that particular verb swarm draws us back to Exodus 1. In both cases the land was being filled.
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Again we have God confronting Egypt with her national guilt. In this sense also this second plague points to the more devastating plague to come, the tenth plague, where God will not just enigmatically remind them of the death of the firstborn
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Hebrews, but will quite literally take away the firstborn Egyptians. Verse 7, the magicians run to the rescue, or at least they try.
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We read, they did so with their enchantments. They brought up frogs on the land of Egypt too.
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Now here, of course, the text says they did so with their enchantments. We have to let the text speak, but I would think any
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Egyptian could have made this enchantment work. If frogs are everywhere in the land, essentially all they have to do is go, ta -da, more frogs.
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Not hard to replicate. The real enchantment would have been removing the frogs, which they couldn't even get out of Pharaoh's bedsheets.
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We see again these magicians. They're about to be outgunned. They could hang for two plagues. With the third plague they completely surrender.
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We never hear from them again. And as we saw last time, they're only able to copy the plague, which in the irony of the story, actually increases the effectiveness of the plague.
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They're adding more frogs when the whole plague is more frogs. That's a problem, not a solution, which is a reminder, by the way, that in our own day we should beware of modern -day wise men, modern -day magicians, who, in trying to answer problems that most likely are direct strikes from the hand of God, often come up with greater problems rather than solutions.
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They'll often find ways to make things far worse instead of making things better.
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If this were to happen today, what would the response be? I think it would be stopped traffic in all the major cities with climate change now posters.
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I dare you. In her condescending shrill, no one would connect this to the hand of God.
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That's what makes the surprising move of Pharaoh, that he connects it to the hand of God. I don't know that that would happen in our day and age.
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We would have all of our magicians come out to speak of climate disaster in the end of civilization as we know it.
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Let's talk about this plague in light of the ten. Some see the plagues as paired. There seems to be something to say about the various ways you can connect the dots of the ten plagues, so we're not committing to any one but appreciating them all.
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The first two plagues deal specifically with the Nile. The next two plagues will deal with insects or things of the air, then things of the cattle, then things of the crops, then things of the land and the people themselves.
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So there seems to be a pairing of plagues in terms of order. There also seems to be a connection between the first and the tenth, the blood that is shed, the second and the ninth, where we have the
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Nile again producing frogs, nocturnal creatures of the night, and then the ninth plague is that darkness spreading across the land, and so on.
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They seem to be paired as well in terms of cardinal order. There also seems to be a progression with this plague.
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We begin with the water outside of their home in the first plague and now frogs in their homes, next lice upon their bodies, and so forth.
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The real key is this. Decreation is God's judgment.
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Decreation is God's judgment. I hope you remember that from Genesis 1 through 11. There we talked about God as creator and the emphasis on creation in Genesis 1 through 3, and then in the narrative from 3 forward we have man's response of rebellion to the creator, which is counter -creation.
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So you begin with creation, then you have counter -creation. God exercising judgment upon that rebellion in the form of de -creation.
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Rather than letting the waters recede, he lets the waters rise up in the form of the flood.
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That's a de -creative judgment, and all of that brings about new creation, Noah, and a new purchase on humanity, as it were.
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Well, we see the same emphasis here. God's judgment in the form of de -creation.
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You remember in the ideal pattern of creation, mankind is to exercise dominion over the creatures that God has made.
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So the animals are made in their kind with man having rule over them. To bring all of God's creation into order, to be fruitful and multiply and exercise in this capacity as vice -regent dominion over all of the creatures that God had made.
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That's the order of Genesis 120a. But here in judgment, that order is disrupted by God.
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Rather than the logic of creation, we have the judgment of de -creation. Now man is not exercising control over the animals.
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The animals are beginning to invade the man. In fact, that word swarm, we've already mentioned it.
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Exodus 1 here in Exodus 8, that's the same verb that's used in Genesis 120. When creation was swarming or teeming with creatures and God called that good.
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Some swarming is good when it's in its proper place and its proper proportion with man exercising dominion.
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But then quickly that swarming becomes something bad, becomes something destructive.
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Again, one of the only other places in the Old Testament where frogs are mentioned, Psalm 78 verse 45.
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He sent swarms of flies among them to devour them and swarms of frogs which destroyed them.
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So here we have the reversal of creation. Now all of this together leads to Pharaoh's response.
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We see initially Pharaoh is repentant, beginning in verse 8. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron.
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I just picture him flinging frogs off of his cloak as he does so. Entreat the
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Lord, that is, plea or beg or pray to the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go that they may sacrifice to the
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Lord. Second plague in and this is just frogs and Pharaoh is already showing repentance.
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Moses could unfurl the mission accomplished banner. We did it. We thought it was gonna take a lot more than frogs.
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That wasn't so bad. A bloody river and frogs and look at repentance. We're about to be freed. That's how he probably would have felt.
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This was such a surprising response. He must have been delighted. Of course, Pharaoh was unconcerned, unmoved completely with the
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Nile turned to blood. Remember what we read in chapter 7. He turned, went into his house, hardened his heart.
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No heeding of God's plague but here this little inconvenience in his own personal life.
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A few frogs between the pillow and all of a sudden he's ready to repent. It goes to show the problem with sin.
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Most people could care less about the consequences of sin until they are personally devastated, personally affected by those consequences.
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It's why our society is the way it is right now. People say, well I certainly don't condone that.
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I wouldn't do it personally but I'm completely unconcerned about the consequences of these sins.
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Why? Well they're not affecting my bottom line. They're not interrupting my personal life. So I'm okay to let people in dog costumes march down the street and have grown men twerk in front of toddlers.
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I'm okay with that because it's not affecting my personal life. Well that's a problem. It's a problem when sin has no concern from the people of God and God's people don't care about the consequences so long as they are personally unaffected by those consequences.
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Some people go on even when they're affected personally. They still have no regard for sin.
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Pharaoh is at least in that respect a leg ahead of many. He calls for Moses.
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He calls for Aaron. He knows he now is dependent upon them and for the first time he acknowledges the name of the
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Lord. We read it right? Entreat the Lord. Entreat Yahweh that he may take away the frogs from me.
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In chapter 5 he said, who is Yahweh? I don't know him. Neither will I heed him. But here,
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Pharaoh finally says, entreat Yahweh. Now I need Yahweh to remove this plague from me.
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What a contrast. In the first plague we read, Pharaoh's heart grew hard. He did not heed them.
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But now we read, entreat the Lord. I will let the people go to sacrifice to the
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Lord. That word entreat in Hebrew, it most likely comes from the verb atar, which would mean to supplicate or make supplication, to intercede.
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Pharaoh's not saying make a polite request. He's begging Moses to intercede for him.
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This is how that verb is used across the Old Testament. In other words, we have
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Pharaoh at the end of this second plague, recognizing Yahweh as Lord and asking that he would be interceded for.
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That Moses would go as his mediator and intercede for him with Yahweh.
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So we have the contest and it seems so successful. The all -powerful Pharaoh, who should be vulnerable to this invasion upon his land, who should be able to protect his people, instead cannot keep even the frogs out of his own bedchamber.
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Now he's helpless and all of Egypt is vulnerable, and so as the king who's unable to save his people, he must go to the
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God Almighty, the God who is mighty to save his own people. The most powerful man in the world is reduced to begging
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Moses to beg for the Lord. Let me say that again. The most powerful man in the world is reduced to begging
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Moses to beg for the Lord. That is the effect of the judgment of God.
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He asks for prayer to remove the plague. And what do we see here? Our prayers are more significant in the course of history than the rulers of the nations in the course of history.
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Though God's people often feel under the shadow of Babel, under the thumb of the tyrant, their prayers are more effective to the course of history than the rulers of the mightiest nations on the earth.
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Do you know that our Thursday prayer meetings have more efficacy in terms of the course of the world than any
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G7 summit that's ever taken place? Do you believe that? History is governed by God moving
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His people in and through prayer, by hearing and responding to their prayers.
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Nations rise and they fall on the basis of the prayers of God's people.
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If we see that anywhere, we see it here in the narrative of Exodus. The whole fall of Egypt was precipitated by God's people crying out.
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Well again, I say this response must have encouraged Moses. In fact, we see almost the delight in the way he responds.
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Moses says to Pharaoh, verse 9, accept the honor of saying, when
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I shall intercede for you. He shows him a certain courtesy. First of all, notice the meekness of Moses.
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As soon as Pharaoh shows any sign of relenting, Moses is all sorts of encouragement.
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Yes, I will intercede for you. Moses doesn't say, well give me some time to think about it.
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You know, frankly you've just, you've been really difficult and I don't know if I want to intercede for you.
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As soon as stubborn Pharaoh shows any sign of relenting, Moses says, yes.
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In fact, you let me know when. Let me give you the courtesy. You tell me when and that's when I'll intercede for you and that's when the plague will be removed.
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We see the meekness and almost the the joy of Moses for this response coming off of Pharaoh. We see him returning good for evil.
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We see him showing appropriate respect and this is exactly what Christians are called to do.
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We're not to be slow to give mercy, nor are we to forego praying for those that are in authority over us.
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We are to return blessing for cursing and good for evil. We see that with Moses even here.
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Pharaoh answers, tomorrow. I think he's in his own way saying as soon as possible.
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He's probably assuming that is a hard ask. Probably this will take many, many weeks.
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It will take perhaps a life cycle, some sort of natural phenomenon. Maybe there's some some doubt mixed in with this entreaty.
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He says, tomorrow. Moses replies, let it be according to your word that you may know there is no one like the
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Lord our God and the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, from your people.
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They shall remain in the river only. So this is what redemption would look like, not decreation, but rather everything being restored to its rightful order, the right amount of frogs in the right place with man exercising dominion over them.
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The Lord alone has the power to send and to relieve the plague. Moses knows this.
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Moses has enough faith to give Pharaoh the ball. You choose when to remove the plague.
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When I go to intercede, God will be able to answer that. Now this is certainly a step of faith on Moses' part, but also remember what
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God had charged Moses with. You shall be as God to Pharaoh. Essentially what you say to Pharaoh shall be.
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He's being governed according to the will of God. He knows the purpose of God. He knows the hardening intent of God and he's simply being used in this way.
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And yet it is a step of faith. He had to know that God truly was sovereign over these creatures, that God could in a moment, as soon as Pharaoh gave the time, remove the plague from him.
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And of course all of that is so that you may know. Pharaoh's already calling out for Yahweh, already calling for the plague to cease, and Moses says you still need to know
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Him more. You know that He has power to bring the plague upon you, but there's still more you need to know about this
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Lord God. I'll do this so that you may know there's no one like the Lord our God.
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This is not the God of frogs. This is the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth. That's essentially what
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Moses is saying. And if you reject it here, you'll see it in greater ways yet to come.
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You'll see it in boils. You'll see it in cattle. You'll see it in darkness. You'll see it in the next generation of Egyptians being wiped down.
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And if you reject it there, you'll see it as you watch your best soldiers drown in the
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Red Sea. All of this together demonstrates that Yahweh is the sovereign
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Lord Creator God over the heavens and the earth. That is what every ruler must come to know.
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Verse 12, Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. How do you think that went?
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They must have been high -fiving, you know. Let's go to Market Basket on the way home.
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We got to get some prime rib. This is a night to celebrate. And of course,
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Moses immediately cries out to the Lord. Moses cried out to the
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Lord concerning the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. That verb, it's a very important verb.
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We've already seen it and we'll see it again. It matches the crying out at the beginning of Exodus when the people were enslaved in misery and they cried out to God.
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They were essentially begging for His help. They were, though without an intercessor, they were interceding for themselves.
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And so we see this commonly wherever a fervent prayer, a prayer out of trouble or desperation is offered.
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It's often with this verb, it's often this form, entreaty or supplicate. We see the truth, what
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James said of the Prophet Elijah. The prayers of a righteous man are effective. Pharaoh understood that.
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Pharaoh desired that. Wouldn't that be something to see in our nation? Rulers desiring righteous men and women to pray.
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Will you please pray to your God for me? Will you please pray for me? Wouldn't that be music to our ears?
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We also see this is a further step of presenting Moses as the mediator God has appointed.
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He is now mediator as it were between Pharaoh and the Lord God and soon he'll be mediator in more deeper significant ways to God's own people and God himself.
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In fact, going on Pharaoh's behalf, though Pharaoh didn't deserve it, Pharaoh was hard and stubborn and cruel.
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It would have been like begging for mercy upon a war criminal and yet Moses swallows his own sense of pride, his own will, and he in mercy and righteousness supplicates to the
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Lord. And that's going to only prepare him and help him when he has to deal with his own stubborn, hard -hearted, cruel people.
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And he has to in righteousness, in holiness, beg God to spare them and show them mercy.
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He's learning how to do this here, even here in chapter 8. We have a long way to go through Exodus and Numbers.
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Even here in chapter 8, Moses is being strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power for all patience and long -suffering.
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And he's developing it all with an earnest, consistent, and sustained life of prayer.
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I hope we'll see this again and again as we work through Exodus. Moses, of course, according to the writer of Hebrews, was a man of faith.
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Let me go a little bit further. Moses was a man of prayer. Moses was a man of prayer.
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And these kinds of prayers from these kinds of men received this kind of answer. The Lord did according to the word of Moses.
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Isn't that amazing? Moses cried out and the Lord did according to the word of Moses.
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What a simple exchange. Pharaoh, and all of the people, and all the magicians, and all the priests are all crying out.
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And what does that crying amount to? More frogs, more misery, more plague. One righteous man goes to the
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Lord and cries out. And what's the instantaneous response? The Lord God did according to his prayer.
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All of the frogs died out of all of the houses, out of all the courtyards, all the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps and the whole land stank.
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What's worse than swarms of living frogs? Heaps of dead frogs,
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I would think. When I was in fifth or sixth grade, we had a little green tree frog.
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I don't know, I must have done something right or my parents did something really wrong that we went to Petco and came home with a frog.
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But we had this green little tree frog and we called it Elvis. And every day when I got home from middle school, I'd put a little cricket in his enclosure.
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And one day I came home and Elvis didn't seem to be too hungry. In fact, Elvis didn't seem to move at all. He seemed to be completely frozen and shriveling.
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And this was in the middle of a summer and probably didn't have enough water in his tank. And I'll never forget,
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I think to this day, what that smell was like when I removed the top lid. It was disgusting.
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And that was one little green tree frog. This is no exaggeration to say the land stank.
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And so the Ebeneezers of this plague are all around the Egyptians. Not piles of stones, but piles of frog carcasses.
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The word here, you remember in Hebrew how you emphasize things as you double it up. And the word for heap here is doubled up.
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It's komarim komarim, heaps of heaps, massive endless sites of heaps.
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Frogs everywhere, putrefying and filling the air with this noxious smell.
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Remember in chapter 5 verse 21, the foremen, the Hebrew foremen, had cried out.
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And part of their cry out was against Moses and Aaron. And what did they say? You've made us a stench in the land.
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Well now there is an actual stench in the land. And it's not Moses. It's the judgment of God upon Egypt.
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The Nile had brought this stench when it turned to blood. And now frogs everywhere turn this land which had been so abundant and lush with vegetation and produce and agriculture.
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Now it has become a stench. All of this in contrast to what God is going to draw
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His people toward. A land flowing with milk and honey. Now what does Pharaoh do?
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Last verse of our passage this morning, verse 15. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart.
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He did not heed them even as the Lord had said. So all of that repentance, all of that intercession, all of seeing
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God's hand not only bring the frogs but remove the frogs, all of that amounted to this.
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As soon as Pharaoh saw relief, he hardened his heart. As soon as some of that pressure was removed, he hardened his heart.
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The Hebrew for relief there comes from a verb that means to be wide or spacious. So the idea is as soon as he could breathe, as soon as there was room to actually move around, as soon as he was no longer bogged down with the sense of judgment or plague, in that very moment he could breathe, he used that breath to defy
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God. Four points of application.
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In fact, we see really three warnings, then I think a note of hope. Three warnings and a note of hope.
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I think we see a warning to all those who have tendencies like Pharaoh. So let me lay those out in these three warnings.
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First, we have a warning for those who do not turn to seek the Lord. Do not turn to seek the
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Lord. We start there, we always start here. A warning to those who do not turn to seek the
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Lord. Of course, Pharaoh, beginning in chapter 5, would not turn to seek the
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Lord. Isaiah 9 13 paints the predicament, for the people do not turn to him who strikes them, nor do they seek the
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Lord of hosts. Do you see why God is striking according to Isaiah 9? So that people would turn and seek.
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So this is a warning to those who do not turn and do not seek. We read that Pharaoh hardened his heart and did not heed.
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We see the response of those who heed God's Word, Moses and Aaron, and we see the response of those who do not heed
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God's Word, Pharaoh. He hardens his own heart, he looks for any excuse, he quantifies.
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This is something that's personally going to affect me, or can I wait this out? That is the response of those who do not turn, who will not seek.
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This is always the case with what we would call willful unbelief. Willful unbelief.
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John Owen, he describes a traveler going on his way, and then a violent thunderstorm, and all of this rain begins to pour out.
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What does that traveler do? Well, he immediately goes out of his way. He goes to find shelter, a tree, maybe someone's house.
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As soon as the storm has passed, he goes back to his way. And Owen says, so it is with men in bondage unto sin.
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They have a certain direction that they're going, and because judgment has come, because some calamity or distress has come upon them, now they're put out of their way.
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But as soon as it passes, they're back to their way again. That's not sin forsaken, as Owen says, that's sin interrupted.
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That's not rebellion removed, that's just rebellion paused. And many people delude themselves with the thoughts that somehow they're walking in God's mercies and graces because their rebellion has been paused.
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But unless your turning results in seeking the Lord, you should have no such assurance. So first and foremost, this is a warning to those who do not turn, to those who do not seek the
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Lord. Second, it's a warning for those who seek tomorrow, but not today.
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What does Pharaoh say? Tomorrow. I find that to be one of the most perplexing aspects of the narrative.
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You let me know when you want this plague to be removed. Wouldn't you just say now, like right now?
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Why does he want to have one more night with frogs crawling all over him? Why does he say tomorrow rather than now, today?
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Let that be a warning to you. So many people say in so many ways, tomorrow.
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And like Pharaoh, their heart hardens overnight. Eternity will likely reveal how many initial stirrings, moments of almost warming revelation, a desire, a conviction.
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I think maybe, yes, maybe I will surrender to the Lord. Maybe I will take that step of faith, the most terrifying, costly thing
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I could ever do, commit my life to the Lord, turn to Him in repentance and faith, make
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Him my Savior and my God. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
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And then their heart hardens overnight. And that scene plays out week by week by week until they just no longer come.
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Some weeks ago, Greg and I went to a conference up in Maine, a conference on Spurgeon, and one of the talks was on Spurgeon's great love and emphasis on open -air preaching, which characterized most of his early ministry.
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And then, of course, as the churches around him grew, he really had very little opportunity to do open -air preaching.
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He was so busy and often it posed some sort of public risk to gather 50 ,000 people on a street corner or, you know, on two -story buildings made in the way they were made.
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But he always encouraged his students and taught them to be open -air preachers. And Ed Roman, who gave that particular talk, gave an excerpt of one of his nightly evangelistic sermons he did early on.
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I just want you to listen again to this great emphasis coming from Spurgeon's heart and why he, too, would give a warning against those who seek tomorrow rather than now.
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Spurgeon says, "'Tonight I shall, I hope, encourage you to seek the road to heaven, and for that I must also utter some very sharp things concerning the end, the end which corresponds to the lost in the very pit of hell.
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And upon both of these I'm going to try to speak as much as God will help me. But I beseech you..."
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This is all his preface. "'As you love your souls, weigh right and wrong this night.
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See whether what I say be the truth of God. If it be not, reject it utterly, cast it away.
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But if it is at your own peril, disregard it. For as you must answer
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God, the great judge of heaven and earth, it will go ill with you if the words of His servant and of His Scripture be despised tonight.'"
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You see, no tomorrow. Today. There is a showdown that takes place every
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Sunday where God's Word confronts a Pharaoh -like sinner. And like Pharaoh here, they may be warmed, they may be stirred, they may be convicted, but none of that matters if they don't follow through.
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If they wait till tomorrow, it's already gone. It's already gone.
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Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will seek relief. Tomorrow I will change my ways. Tomorrow is when
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I will start seeking the Lord. And tomorrow never comes. It never comes. I'm convinced the wide path of hell is paved with tomorrows.
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Not with people who said never, but people who just said politely, tomorrow.
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You see the danger of making a temporary commitment to God, of making an unfulfilled vow to God. You might not have ever uttered that to anyone else, but God knows the state of your heart.
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God knows the state of your heart. God knows the measure of revelation and conviction
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He's brought to bear upon your soul. God knows what promptings you've had, what exposure you've been given, what resolutions you have made, however secretly.
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He knows. What do you think?
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A man had two sons. He came to the first and he said, son, go today, work in my vineyard.
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The son answered and said, no, I won't. But afterward, he regretted it.
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And so he went. Then the man came to the second and said, likewise.
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And he said, yes, sir, I go. But he did not go.
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Which of the two did the will of his father? And so they said to him, the first.
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Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
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John came to you in the way of righteousness. You did not believe Him, but tax collectors and prostitutes believed
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Him. And when you saw it, you did not immediately regret it and believe
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Him. Do you see what Jesus is saying in Matthew 21? There's two types of people.
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There's those who, in various ways in their life, have lived in abject corruption and defiance against God.
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And in all sorts of ways, when that opportunity, when that tract, that talk from the co -worker, that opportunity in the sermon, that little byway on the radio station, however something had come to them, they had always just said,
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I will not. But then afterward, they regretted it.
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They were moved by conviction and they went. They believed. They followed. That characterizes the life of so many within the kingdom of God.
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Jesus says, this is what the harlots, this is what the tax collectors were like. Their whole lives they'd been saying,
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I will not obey. I will not follow. But when that time of conviction came, they went. They did it.
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And so they ended up doing the will of their Father. They therefore found salvation. But what is
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Jesus saying to the scribes? You're like the sons who have all the outward show of respect.
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Oh, I go, Lord. That's in Greek, Lord. I go, Lord. Not, I will not, utter disrespect and contempt, but oh, oh
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Lord, I go. See how I'm going? It's a present active verb. Even now I'm going, even as you speak.
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And they don't go. Were they meaning to be deceptive?
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No. They probably just said, tomorrow. See, I want to, just not right now.
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Tomorrow. And so Jesus ends this parable with a warning that salvation does not belong to those who have a pretense, but those who actually repent and believe.
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Even if their whole life they had been saying no to repenting and believing, if they've come to repent and believe, they enter the kingdom of God.
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But there are many who their whole lives say, of course I believe. Of course I'll repent. Tomorrow. And they do not do the will of the
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Father. It's not those who almost enter the kingdom, not those who hope to enter the kingdom, but only those who actually enter the kingdom that will be saved.
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People crowd, pews on Sundays, and they hope to be saved. They want to be saved.
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Tomorrow. And they'll never be saved for that same reason. But notice what
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I love about Matthew 21, is there's grace for those who initially refused.
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There's grace for those who initially refused. It doesn't matter if you've said tomorrow for a decade up until this point.
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If you would but come today, you would find salvation. There's grace for those who initially refused, but there is no grace to be found for those who harden their own hearts in rebellion, saying even now, tomorrow.
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W .M. Taylor, in his commentary on this passage, this 19th century commentator, he described having an outbreak of cholera in the village where he first served in the ministry.
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And so cholera began to strike all the homes in the village, and he said for the first time the church was full of people who had never entered the church before, as they're coughing up blood and watching loved ones die, and they're being confronted with eternity and the reality and the weight of the grave.
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And then he noted, as soon as that outbreak passed, they relapsed into worse sin than ever before.
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They had one time vowed to God they would yield to him, but now they were as far from him as ever.
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Do you see the danger of saying tomorrow? So this is a warning for those who seek tomorrow but not today.
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Third, a warning for those who seek relief but not the
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Lord. A warning for those who seek relief but not the Lord. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart.
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The begging of Pharaoh was quite literally connected to the removal of the frogs. Remember what we read?
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Please intercede for me that these frogs would be taken away. And what does Moses say? I will intercede for you so that you know the
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Lord your God. You see that the different desires, the different aims?
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Moses is essentially saying, I will intercede so that you'll turn to the Lord, so that you'll know the
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Lord and walk according to the Lord and find his mercy in due time. But Pharaoh says, no, no, no, no.
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I just want the frogs taken away. I just want relief. And as soon as relief comes, he has no further interest in the
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Lord. So he hardens his heart and becomes a hypocrite against what he had said. Do you see?
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There's many people who think the plague is the problem. When Moses is recognizing the plague is not the problem, what has brought about the plague is the problem.
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The plague has come because you don't acknowledge Yahweh. Therefore, the response is not the removal of frogs, but you must bend your knee and you must soften your will to the claims of the sovereign
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God. Now let me be clear. I think Pharaoh was sincere. I don't think he was being deceptive.
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I don't have any reason to think from the text that he was being manipulative or hypocritical.
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I think when he said, I will let the Israelites go, I think he was being sincere.
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He saw the plague was truly from the hand of God, and he knew that it had to be the hand of God that removed the plague.
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So then it's almost mystifying why, having seen God's hand bring the plague, seen
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God's hand remove the plague, he hardens his heart against the Lord. Let me tell you that that's not so unique.
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That's not so unique. I personally have seen that at least three or four times in people that I know in my life, of people who saw the hand of God heavy upon them, who begged and asked others to beg on their behalf for God to intercede for there to be a relief.
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And as soon as that relief came, without perhaps anyone else detecting it, they were hardened to God.
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And this does not make them villains in my mind. The sad thing is, I think so highly of so many of these people.
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I understand God genuinely did a work, and he moved in this powerful way in their lives, and they saw that.
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And maybe they don't even realize that this is the case, but they've been led astray.
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They've been self -deceived. They're now hardened against the Lord. There's a situation right now where I wonder if that's exactly what's going on.
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It doesn't seem to be that. It seems to be very optimistic and hopeful. But I wonder, is there a hardening inside that's causing them to not be able to follow through on anything?
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And where is that going to lead? If they haven't responded in this way, were they just seeking relief?
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Or were they seeking the Lord? Now it happened as he went to Jerusalem.
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He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a certain village, there met him ten men who were lepers.
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They all stood afar off. You know how it is with lepers. Unclean.
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Can't come into contact with anyone. Can't be in the presence of anyone. Most likely, unless it was another leper, had never been touched by anyone.
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So they know the protocol. Here comes a righteous one. Here comes a holy one. Maybe in their minds as holy as the
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Pharisees. Maybe even more holy. They have to stand far away. All they can do is shout out and cry. But they all have some sense of faith.
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This is Jesus. We've heard that he's making the blind to see and the lame to walk.
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The paralytics are rolling up their bed mats. He's casting out demons. Surely he can heal us.
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They have faith. And so they lift up their voices.
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They cry out, Jesus, Lord, have mercy on us.
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And when Jesus saw them, he said to them, go, show yourselves to the priests.
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And as they went, they were cleansed. Isn't that beautiful? They had enough faith to know
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Jesus could heal. Enough faith to cry out to Jesus for healing. And because they risked that step of faith, because they sought that relief, they received it.
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They were cleansed. They finally had relief from their great plague, their uncleanness, their corruption, the misery of their lives.
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They had finally been cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned.
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And with a loud voice, with a crying voice, glorified God fell down on his face at Jesus' feet and gave him thanks.
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And he was a Samaritan. In other words, this would be the last person you'd expect this to come from.
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Okay, I was healed by this Jewish healer, but that's enough of that. Need to get back to the Samaritans now. Jesus answered and said, we're not ten cleansed.
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Why is it that you alone have returned to give glory to God? And then he said to him, arise, go.
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Your faith has made you well. If we're following the statistics of Luke 17 here, only one out of ten are actually made well by faith.
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Actually made well in such a way that the relief doesn't just come and lead them astray, it actually leads them to the
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Lord. Only one out of ten return in a God -glorifying way, thanking, knowing, and ever after following Jesus.
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Only one out of ten. That means to me that most of the people we encounter in Christianity today are not seeking the
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Lord, but seeking relief from the Lord. And we may see them cry out to Jesus, and we may see them have faith that Jesus can heal, and we may mistake that for thinking surely they know and they love and they follow
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Jesus and bring glory to his name and therefore have the salvation. They've been made well by his grace.
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And we have to look at Luke 17 a little more carefully. So many seek relief, but not the
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Lord himself. There are statistics out there that say the church has a real problem retaining believers.
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This is sort of a side, but I read these articles all the time. Churches have a real problem retaining their believers.
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Scores of younger generations are leaving their professions of faith. Scores of younger ones are no longer walking in their religion.
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And I just look at those and I say, what? You can't lose what you never had.
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We may have a problem with evangelism, we may have a problem with conversion, we may have a problem with discipleship, but we have zero problem retaining true believers.
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Because we don't lose true believers. Because true believers persevere to the end.
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They don't turn away, not returning to the Lord when relief comes. If that's the case, they're not true believers.
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Though they went out from us, they were never of us. Jesus says, of those the Father gave to me, I will lose none.
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So we don't have a problem retaining believers. We need to make that clear. We shouldn't speak as though we do.
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So many take the mercies and kindnesses of God as the very occasion to then harden their hearts to Him.
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That's what we see Pharaoh doing. God was kind to give him mercy, kind to remove the plague at a moment's notice.
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He could even choose the day and the hour when it was to be removed. And all of that kindness, instead of leading him to repentance as is the intention of God, it only served to harden his heart, make him more reprobate and spiteful.
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How could Pharaoh ever stomach to look at a frog again? I wonder. Did he say put a tarp over all the images of Chet?
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No more images of the frog goddess? I don't want to see a frog again? No frog legs on the menu? All of these stinking heaps now are heaps of forgotten vows, heaps of unfulfilled promises.
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Like the endless croaks of all of these nauseating frogs, that's the endless guilt of a sinner who has not been reconciled to Christ.
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Leaping upon him, crawling over him by the night, croaking in his ears, disturbing his rest. Do you see?
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There must be a following up. As James Orr says, if the things that often produce a trembling of a soul are not followed up, they bring about a very special hardening.
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That's probably something he had seen a lot as a minister, a parish minister in the 19th century going to deathbeds.
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This is a warning for those who seek relief but not the Lord. Spurgeon said, some folks are so big when they make a promise to God, I will do this,
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I will do that, but you cannot, my friend. You reply that you're going to have a new heart and a right spirit.
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Are you looking to create that in yourself? You talk as if you were. I think you said that you were going to turn over a new leaf, but a new leaf in a bad book might be worse than the old leaf.
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You're going to be entirely new, are you? And are you to do that all yourself? No, you are greatly mistaken.
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True conversion does never begin with this talk of what I will do. It always begins in casting oneself upon the
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Lord, begging Him to do a work in us. Do you see? And that leads us from these three warnings to a note of hope.
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There is a hope for those who cannot make a plea for themselves. A note of hope for those who cannot make a plea for themselves.
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And that's all contained in these words. Moses cried out and the
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Lord did according to the word of Moses. This crying out, of course, is not new in the book of Exodus.
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We already saw it in chapter 5 with the foreman crying out, but what did that crying out amount to without an intercessor?
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Without a mediator? They were crying out just like in chapter 1 the Israelites were crying out.
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What did that amount to? Did it relieve their suffering? Did it free them? Did it take away the bondage?
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Did it take away the cruelty? Did it liberate them in any sense at all? All of that crying out, only further exhausted, then further fill them with despair.
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That crying out, not having an intercessor, not having a mediator appointed, all of that crying out amounted to nothing.
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Just like Pharaoh's crying out, and all that he could do, all that he could bring about, all that he could command, all that he could intercede on, all of that would amount to nothing.
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He could not remove the judgment of God, no matter how much he cried, no matter what he did with his own life. He was utterly helpless.
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The Hebrew foremen were utterly helpless. God's own people, the Israelites, were utterly helpless. And my friend, you are utterly helpless.
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Unless God has appointed a mediator to cry out on your behalf, a mediator that God will hear and God will answer.
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And now, one greater than Moses has come. And as Paul writes to Timothy, he desires that you would be saved, come to a knowledge of the truth.
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There is one God, one mediator between God and man,
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Christ Jesus. And he, as the writer of Hebrews says, is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.
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Why? Why does the writer of Hebrews say that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him?
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Those who cannot cry out for themselves, cannot save themselves, cannot do anything to turn a new leaf or put a right spirit within them, utterly in bondage, utterly helpless.
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Why can Jesus not just save them in some mediocre, haphazard kind of way?
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Why can Jesus save them to the uttermost? Well, because, the writer of Hebrews says, he ever lives to make intercession for them.
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He ever lives to make intercession for them. And maybe you're not an unbeliever here, and you're sort of in tuning out saying,
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I am a weak believer, this is still very convicting, but I guess this isn't really for me, this is more a sermon for the unevangelized.
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No, no, no. Listen, you've been saved. Have you been saved to the uttermost?
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You've been saved, you've received the mercy of God, but have you been saved to the uttermost? Is there not some pinch of bondage, some stain of guilt, some corrupting influence in your life, and you feel powerless, though you've tried.
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You've covered, you've tried to self -atone for it in all these different ways, you try to mount up good and hope that it doesn't creep out at night like frogs crawling up your bedsheets.
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Have you been saved to the uttermost? Do you know that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for you?
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We don't enter in by grace and then finish by works. That was the Galatians era.
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It's all of grace, and the Christian's life is all of intercession.
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As the Israelites would come to experience, they were utterly hopeless unless there was a mediator interceding for them with God.
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They could only bring about their own misery and corruption. They could only warrant God's judgment, but the mediator could remove it.
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The mediator could deliver them. The mediator could rescue them. The mediator could convey them safely into a land flowing with goodness and promise.
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Do you know that mediator? Do you know that he's crying out for you? He's living enthroned at the right hand of the
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Father for this very purpose as our faithful high priest. Do you know, believer, he's sympathetic to your weaknesses.
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Not the weaknesses we all have, generically and abstractly. No, your weaknesses.
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He knows intimately. He sees you struggle. He cries out and ever lives to cry out if you would but turn and seek him to.
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Do you humble yourself like that leper running back to the feet of Jesus?
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Humble himself to fall down and thank you Lord. And now I commit my life in such a way,
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Lord, I want your presence to go before me, to go behind me. There's more
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I need to be cleansed from, Lord. You've cleansed my skin but I need you to cleanse my heart and my imagination and my desire.
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He always lives to make intercession. If that's not a word of hope to those who will not turn, will not seek, always say tomorrow.
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I don't know if there is a word of hope. I'll close with these words from the great hymn which
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I just came across this week by Ada Greenaway. Beautiful hymn about the intercession of our
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Savior. Listen to this. He's framing the whole hymn in terms of an intercession.
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A word. Jesus of course is the word and he's saying this word, this intercessory word is like this,
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O word of pity. Alright, the intercessor who pities us.
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O word of pity for our pardon pleading, breathed in the hour of loneliness and pain.
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O voice which through the ages interceding calls us to fellowship with God again.
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Love that contrast. This is such good poetry. Such good poetry. Word of pity for our pardon pleading, breathed in the hour of loneliness and pain.
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And what is that intercessory word doing? Jesus is completely alone in solitude on the cross and he's pleading,
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Father forgive them. He's interceding, Father forgive them. And why is he in the loneliness and solitude of that crucifixion?
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Why is he pleading? So that we would not be alone. We would not be in solitude. We would not be left destitute.
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That we would be reconciled and brought into fellowship with God. O word of hope to raise us near heaven when courage fails us, when faith is dim.
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The souls for whom Christ prays to Christ are given. Again, the souls for whom
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Christ prays to Christ are given to find their pardon and their joy in Him.
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O intercessor who are ever living to plead for dying souls that they may live.
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Teach us to know our sin which needs forgiving. Teach us to know the love which can forgive.
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Jesus is more faithful to intercede on your behalf than you are faithful to cry out to him for intercession.
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Jesus is more faithful to cry out before the Father for the sins you willingly commit and you refuse to acknowledge and repent of than you are to even examine yourself in such a way.
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Jesus ever lives to make intercession for his people. Have you turned to seek the
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Lord? Are you those who had said today whether sometime before or even today?
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Are you those who didn't just come to be relieved but you came to fall down at the feet of the
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Savior? He ever lives to make intercession for you.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for your
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Word. Thank you for our faithful Savior whom you sent to die in our place, who you rose up on the third day, whoever lives now, to intercede on our behalf.
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We thank you that, as the hymn says, five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary, they pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me.
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Thank you for the crucified Savior who cries out on our behalf. And we cry out,
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Lord, would you save those who have yet to be saved? Would you restore and strengthen those who are weak and downcast?
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Would you draw near to yourself those who are straying and prone to wander? Would you do this all for your own glory and your namesake as we pray?