Why the LORD judges - Exodus 9:13-10:29

Good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church, and may this day be a blessing for you, and may our praise be a blessing as we lift it up to the

Lord today. Have a few announcements. We want to mention, as we usually do, the week's happenings, that we have an adult

Bible study in the morning on Sunday morning at 930. It's been a very good blessing, and next week should be

Psalms 21, so you have a chance to read it and go over it and input because it's informal, but it's been a very good blessing from the

Lord as we study the Word. And as usually, we have the 11 o 'clock service each Sunday, and Sunday night at 6 o 'clock we have a prayer time, and come out and join us there at that time.

And also we want to mention that we have a men's Bible study at 330 each

Saturday, unless otherwise, but usually each Saturday we have a men's Bible study.

But we also want to mention that we were talking in our elders or board meeting this past week, the fact that we would like to start a men's prayer breakfast or Bible study breakfast once a month, but we thought the first time that we have it will probably be the first Saturday in March, so kind of put that on your calendars, and we debated about what time we should have it, whether 4 o 'clock in the morning, or 8 or 8 .30,

so you might let pastor know what's best time for you, what do you like to do for Saturday, just kind of let him know, so we'll let you know at that time what time we'll have, but we look forward to a blessing from the

Lord in doing that. And also we want to mention we normally have an annual business meeting on the last

Thursday of January, but for convenience sake, we have decided to have it just like we did last year, following the

Sunday morning service for a little bit on February the 13th.

So February the 13th, following the morning service, we're going to have an annual church business meeting to let you know about that.

And as we prepare our hearts for the Lord this morning, in my reading in Romans 6, if you look at Romans 6, and we'll just spend a second there, it starts off by saying,

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the question is, you're a Christian, and the

Lord's forgiven your sins, should you continue in sin? The whole chapter, as you go through it, there's a debate back and forth, who you're going to give yourself as a servant, or as a slave to, to sin, or to God?

And it just struck me, as sometimes I skip over words and don't even think about them, but this time you go to verse 10, and it says,

God, Jesus Christ died once for all, for sin, and he says, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Then in verse 11, it says, likewise, in other words, now it's transferring to you and I.

Likewise, we reckon yourselves to be dead, and it's kind of interesting, you know, you don't use the word,

I reckon so, you know, you hear that, but in this case, reckon is, you count yourself.

I reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but here's the phrase I want to emphasize, the positive, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And then it's the next verse, it says, don't let sin rule in our lives. We're talking to Christians now, we're not talking about salvation, but it says, don't let sin rule in your life, then verse 13, don't present your members as instruments to unrighteousness, but this is the phrase that really struck me, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and, and I'm going to add the word, but present your members as instruments of righteousness, and the one word, present, now being in the military, present arms, you know, we'd have to, it means a show of respect to whoever was a leader or something, but in this case, the word present means give a gift, you know, present yourself as a gift to God, now we're not talking about salvation, we're talking about as a

Christian, and present your body or your members as a gift to God to live a righteous and holy life, and I thought that just struck me, present, and then in verse,

I believe it's 19, it says, again, so present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness, and so it should be a time that we come into our life, we need to talk to ourselves, and I've said this many times, my brother always said,

I said to myself, self, and this is a time to say to self, I'm going to present myself to the

Lord, and dedicate myself to live a righteous life, and even

Pastor mentioned this morning the fact of being, presenting ourselves to the

Lord in Sunday school, and since I'm up here and you have to put up with me,

I wanted to, there is a song that Barb has played many times on the piano, and I think this song portrays well what that scripture was saying about presenting your life to God, I'm not going to sing it, but she's going to play it maybe, and I'm going to read the words to you, and it was written by Johnny Peterson, and he's a songwriter from the 40s up to the 60s, and he was a fighter pilot in the war, and I realized when a lot of these young men came back from World War II, they wanted to dedicate their life to the

Lord, and this man did dedicate his life to the Lord in songs and so forth, and it was a real blessing in that respect, so I just want to read the words to you as she plays.

Go ahead and play it. Yes, yes, yes. She didn't know

I was going to do that. Here's my life. I lay it on the altar, here's my life.

No more to wait or falter, here's my life. Lord divine,

I heard your voice so tender, that calls to full surrender.

I can no longer disobey. I've made the great decision, eyes have caught the vision, gladly yield my all today.

Here's my life.

No more to wait or falter, here's my life.

Lord divine, I've heard your voice so tender, that calls to full surrender.

I can no longer disobey. I've made the great decision, eyes have caught the vision, gladly yield my all today.

Here's my life. And may that be our prayer, that we present ourselves to the

Lord, to the Lord to live a righteous and holy life, as a gift to the Lord. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to you today, thanking you for the blessings that you do give to us.

Thank you for the forgiveness of sin that you give us. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that you have said you desire a gift from us, a holy life,

Lord. May that be our prayer. May you give us the strength to do such, and we would thank you for it.

Lord, we lift up our city, our state, and our nation to you today.

We would realize that we have fallen so far from where we have stood before you. We would pray,

Heavenly Father, that you would even raise up godly men to lead us, and we would thank you for that,

Lord. We would pray for this service today, as we continue to praise you in all that we say, all that we do, the songs that we sing.

May they be a sweet aroma to you. We pray that you would be with Pastor Ilgen as he brings your word.

May you touch each of our hearts with your word today, through what he gives to us, and we will thank you for it.

We'd uphold also Audrey before you. Pray, Heavenly Father, that you might have your will and way in her life, and touch her and raise her up.

She's been such a blessing to this church for many years, and we thank you for that, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, let's worship the Lord in song, and let's stand. Scripture reading this morning is from Psalms 105, 32 through 36.

Psalm 105, 32 through 36.

He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.

He struck their vines also, and their fig trees, and splintered the trees of their territory.

He spoke, and locusts came, young locusts without number, and ate up all the vegetation in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.

He also destroyed all the firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength.

May the Lord add his blessing to the hearing of this holy word. Let's continue in worship, in song, and please stand.

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 9, verse 13, through Exodus chapter 10, verse 29.

Exodus chapter 9, verse 13, to chapter 10, verse 29.

Then the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, thus says the

Lord God of Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me. For at this time

I will send all my plagues to your very heart, and on your servants, and on your people, that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth.

But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

As yet you exalt yourself against my people, in that you will not let them go.

Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now.

Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field. For the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home, and they shall die.

He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses.

But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt.

And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground, and the

Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast.

And the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have sinned this time.

The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the

Lord that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough.

I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. So Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city,

I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the

Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the

Lord God. Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head, and the flax was in bud.

But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to the

Lord. Then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.

And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunders had ceased, he sinned yet more.

And he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard, neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the

Lord had spoken by Moses. Now the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine before him, and that you may tell him in the hearing of your son and your son's son, the mighty things

I have done in Egypt and my signs, which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the

Lord. So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the

Lord God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory, and they shall cover the face of the earth so that no one will be able to see the earth.

And they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.

They shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the

Egyptians, which neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.

And he turned and went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh's servants said to him,

How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their

God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed? So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them,

Go serve the Lord your God. Who are the ones that are going? And Moses said,

We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the

Lord. Then he said to them, The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go.

Beware, for evil is ahead of you. Not so. Go now, you who are men, and serve the

Lord, for that is what you desired. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Then the

Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, all that the hail has left.

So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night.

When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts, and the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt.

They were very severe. Previously there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them.

For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened. And they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left.

So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord your

God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the

Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only. So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the

Lord, and the Lord turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them into the

Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt, but the

Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the children of Israel go. Then the

Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven and there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt.

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, go serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be kept back.

Let your little ones also go with you. But Moses said, you must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the

Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind, but we must take some of them to serve the

Lord our God. And even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, get away from me, take heed to yourself and see my face no more.

For in the day you see my face, you shall die. So Moses said, you have spoken well.

I will never see your face again. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.

Father, we come before you at the last stretch of the 10 plagues.

Father, we pray that you would stir our hearts to hear your word and take your word to heart so that we may be aware and alert whenever your judgments come.

Father, I pray that we would be all made right with you through the sacrifice of your son

Jesus. Father, we even pray for this city as it deserves a severe judgment from you, but has been blessed and experienced your mercy thus far.

Father, we pray that the city would repent of all its evil doing. And Father, use us as you've used

Moses to speak truth into this city. In Jesus name. Amen.

We are at the last triad, the last group of three of the judgments.

And the last group of three is in fact the longest group of three as you have experienced just now.

The point of this last three is that the judgments have so much intensified because the

Pharaoh and Egypt, they hardened their hearts.

God actually tells us that these plagues were unprecedented.

There was nothing like it before. And for one of them, there was nothing like it after.

This is important today because the text tells us what God does through the plagues.

With the severe plagues, God is not just, God is not having an anger tantrum.

That's not what he's doing here. Each plague has a purpose in how

God delivers his people out of the wicked nation.

So the main point of this text is that the Lord judges a wicked nation with unprecedented manner in order that the world may know who he is.

The Lord judges a wicked nation with unprecedented manner in order that the world may know who he is.

First, the Lord judges in an unprecedented manner in order to show his power to the whole world.

The Lord judges in unprecedented manner in order to show his power to the whole world.

Following the pattern, the last triad of the plagues starts in the morning.

Verse 13 starts out with the usual command from the Lord. Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the

Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. However, unlike the usual command, the

Lord discloses the purpose of the plagues from verses 14 through 16.

First, verse 14 discloses the general purpose. For at this time,

I will send all my plagues to your very heart and all your servants and all your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

The plagues in Egypt are so that the world may know that there's no one like the

Lord. The Lord is one and only. There is no comparable deities to the

Lord. There are no deities in Egypt who compares, who even comes close to the

Lord. And here we see a glimpse of the

Lord's global reign of the world. It is not just Egypt and it is not just the promised land, but it's the whole world.

By striking Egypt, the ancient global superpower, the Lord is proclaiming his power to the whole world.

By striking the strongest enemy, he does not need to strike every other one.

Just get the number one. Verses 15 through 16 disclose why

God has not completely destroyed Egypt by now. Now, if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth.

You would not have existed if I wanted you to not exist. But indeed for this purpose,

I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

The reason why Egypt is still standing is not because God is incapable.

It's not because God has to warm up to it. It's not because God has to wait for help, but rather in order to fulfill his own purpose.

It would have been easy for the Lord to completely crush Egypt as a man stomps on an ant.

But God patiently spared Pharaoh to fulfill his purpose of making himself known to the whole world.

And in fact, when Israel gets out of Egypt, the surrounding regions are struck with fear.

Now, how will God proclaim himself to the world? God will send a plague so extreme that it would make history.

Verse 18 describes it as hailstorms so huge that such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now.

This is important because any hailstorm could be disastrous. Any hailstorm can cause damage, casualty.

However, God promises an unprecedented hailstorm that the world is so big that the world will hear of this.

Despite this, God actually graciously warns Egypt to take shelter in verse 19.

Therefore, send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home and they shall die.

This plague is the first plague that will kill both man and beasts.

Up to now, only animals died. Up to now, humans were inflicted with a disease.

Humans were inflicted with various animals living with them, but none were killed.

However, this plague will prove to be lethal, but God graciously provides a way for both humans and animals to live.

They just have to obey what he said. They have to actually take God's word seriously.

This shows that the plague's main purpose here is not for God's enjoyment of killing

Egyptians, but rather the plague is to show God's power to the Egyptians and they can actually live.

There is a way for them to live. Just listen to what he said. And verses 20 to 21 actually show the two different responses to the word of God.

First, verse 20, he who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses.

Now, this is not to say that Pharaoh's servants started worshiping the

Lord. This is not the saving faith that we see in the New Testament or in the

Old Testament with the occasional pagans who come to faith like Rahab and people of Nineveh.

No, but they feared the word enough. They took the word seriously enough to take precautions.

After all, they have experienced a handful of plagues already that came true in every detail.

It would have been almost foolish to ignore this warning as well. Verse 30 clarifies that Egyptians in the end did not fear the

Lord, right? As Moses says, you and your servants do not fear the Lord. Now, verse 21 shows us the second group, but he who did not regard the word of the

Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field. Still, there were

Egyptians who had no regard for the word of the Lord. There were

Egyptians who firmly believed that their deities were better than the

Hebrew God. And this is important for us today because we often think, man, only if people around me who are non -believers, maybe if they see the signs, maybe if they see miracles, maybe if they experience something big in their lives, maybe they'll take the

Lord seriously. Maybe they'll believe in Christ, right? But we see that human heart is so hard and so difficult that even miracles, even plagues that the

Egyptians have experienced until now, did not convince them to take the word of the

Lord seriously. In fact, Jesus himself says this when he said, if you do not believe the law and the prophets, you wouldn't believe me.

Even if someone rises from the dead, you would not believe him, right?

In the parable. But also we even saw that in the early church, even when there were over 500 witnesses of the resurrected

Christ, there are still unbelievers. Verses 22 to 26 show us the extent of the seventh plague.

Verse 22 shows us what was impacted by the hail on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt.

This plague will not discriminate. Man, beast, and herb will all be crushed by the hail if they are left out.

Those who did not take the Lord seriously will be struck by the hailstorm.

And verse 24 echoes the fact that this hailstorm was not a normal natural disaster, but it was extraordinary.

There was none like it before. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

This is so important because the Lord who judges a nation in an unprecedented way, which shows that there was no plague like it before, is the

Lord whom there is no competition. There's none like him.

There's no deity that can come even close to what the Lord can do.

The hailstorm was so severe that Pharaoh, for the first time, confesses his sin in verses 27 through 28.

I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the

Lord that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.

Now, this may seem promising at first, but Moses knew it was not a genuine act of repentance.

Verse 29 tells us that the Lord, stopping the judgment, will declare the earth belongs to him.

Not only the plague starting would declare that the earth, that there's no one like the

Lord on the whole wide world, but the Lord stopping the judgment will declare that the earth belongs to the

Lord. As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the

Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail that you may know that the earth is the

Lord's. There is no square inch on this whole wide world that does not belong to the

Lord. It doesn't matter whether the majority of that country believes in the

Lord or not. It still belongs to the Lord, whether they want that or not. However, Moses knew that Pharaoh's confession was not a genuine repentance, but he only wanted the judgment to stop.

As he had said before, he had no interest in reconciling with the Lord. Hence, in verse 30,

Moses comments, but as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the

Lord God. Moses knows that Pharaoh and his servants are not interested in obeying the

Lord, but rather avoiding the wrath of the Lord. And this is what we need to be aware of.

There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians, and they just say it in words, but in practice, they live just like pagans.

A lot of Christians who point back to that one prayer they had 30 years ago, but they, they have no love for the saints in the church and they have no obedience for the

Lord. They have no regard for scripture. That's the type of confession

Pharaoh is practicing here. I just want to avoid the wrath.

I just want what's convenient for me. Verses 31 and 32 show us the damage done by the hailstorm.

Flax and barley are two crops that would get harvested around January and February. Flax was used for making yarn and for clothing, and barley was for food.

It was their top three main grain for food, eating. So because this is so close to the

Passover, we know that it was around January and February in which these plants were budding, they were blooming.

So when the hailstorm occurred, it devastated the crop yield that year, right?

However, spelt, spelt, I had to look that up. It's a type of wheat. It's a, it's another grain crop for food.

Spelt was not affected too much because they're actually harvested later.

They're harvested in the early summer. So they were not harmed. However, this analysis of crop damage would set up for the next plague when there would be no mercy because for their disobedience.

So after Moses intercedes for Pharaoh, God graciously ceases the plague.

Yet instead of repenting and letting God's people go, verses 34 through 35 tell us once again that Pharaoh hardened his heart.

Pharaoh's confession was not based upon his fear of the Lord, but rather a lip service to escape judgment.

Very manipulative. I'll just say whatever you want me to hear, what you want to hear.

So you'll do what I want you to do, right? It's using Moses and it's using

God, but we will know no matter how much Pharaoh tried to manipulate

Moses and God, he will not be used. He's still using

Pharaoh for his own purpose, to bring his people out completely.

And we will see this in the next two plagues. Here we see a glimpse of the global acknowledgement of the

Lord that starts in the Old Testament and it blossoms in the

New Testament. It is important to see that the Lord is not just another local deity.

So back in the ancient days, all these little countries and Egypt being a big country, they believed that their deity had power over their local province.

So there were gods of cities, there were gods of countries, and whatever nation was the strongest, they would claim, we have the strongest

God. Or how can you explain that we've just conquered all of you, right?

But here we see the God of the

Hebrew slaves declaring his sovereign rule over all the world.

God's sovereignty is not dependent on his people's livelihood.

It does not matter whether his people are slaves or conquered or exiled or losers.

It doesn't matter. God is supreme. And that's what he declares here.

My plagues will show that there's no one like me in all the earth.

And my power is supreme. There's no deity that these pagans serve that can even compete, come even close to it.

And this is so important that we capture this in the Old Testament, because a lot of liberal thinkers claimed that this idea of global kingdom of Christ is a

New Testament idea. It's what the early church decided so that they have reasons to share the gospel.

However, that's not the case. The Lord has claimed to be supreme over all the earth since the

Old Testament. And we are just continuing on worshiping that same

God. And in the end, when Jesus comes back for his millennial kingdom, all the nations will have to bow to him.

And in the end, on the judgment day, all the nations will have to stand before him in judgment, and they'll have to give account for what they've done.

That global reign of the Lord, we see this in Exodus. Second, the

Lord judges the wicked nation in order that his people may remember his great acts of deliverance.

The Lord judges the wicked nation in order that his people may remember his great acts of deliverance.

The eighth plague starts with the Lord sending Moses to deliver a message to Pharaoh about the next plague.

In verse two, we find yet another purpose of the plagues. And that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son, the mighty things

I have done in Egypt and my signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the

Lord. Here, the word for the mighty things can be best understood as humiliating things.

And I think the NASB translation renders it really well. You may tell in the presence of your son and your grandson how

I made a mockery of the Egyptians. This idea that God challenged the superpower and their deities, and they were helpless, and they could not do anything, and they had to beg.

They had to plead to the Hebrew slave to have mercy.

That's mockery. And the Lord wanted his people to remember that.

Not just one generation, right? This is not a Super Bowl win, but multiple generations.

Son and the son's son, the grandsons, this has to be passed down. And in the similar manner,

Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh to deliver the Lord's message. Thus says the

Lord God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me.

This question, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me, is a turn.

It shows that in order to properly relate to the

Lord, you got to show humility. This is a clear sign that Pharaoh, even

Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, the only appropriate response for the ruler of Egypt is that he has to humble himself before the

Lord. It doesn't matter who you are. If you're going to relate to the Lord in any way, you got to show humility.

The Lord does not find Pharaoh's continuous defiance cute.

The Lord does not find Pharaoh's stubbornly hardened heart acceptable.

Toward the God of all creation, humility is the only acceptable posture.

If Pharaoh disobeys again, verses four through six tell us in detail of the eighth plague, what that would entail.

This time God will send locusts. Verses five through six describe the damage to be expected, and they shall cover the face of the earth so that no one will be able to see the earth.

It is so numerous, the locusts will be so many, it would be swarming that even the ground would not be seen because it's covered.

And they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.

They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the

Egyptians, which neither your father nor your father's father have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.

This is more than just a swarm of insects we've seen earlier. This is more than just being gross, but a total economic collapse of the agricultural industry of Egypt.

The hail had a huge impact, but God graciously left some about so that hopefully they could grow.

Maybe there was some chance, there was some hope of recovery, right?

The stock market didn't completely crash, it was maybe 50 % crash. Still alarming, but there was hope.

But here we see that nothing green will remain when after God is done with Egypt.

Verse six echoes the same sentiment, that this plague too will be unprecedented.

There was none like this before. For God, who is utterly unique and there's none like him, he judges in a manner that is unprecedented.

None like it before. Verse seven shows us something unprecedented.

This time Pharaoh's servants intervenes. How long shall this man be a snare to us?

Let the man go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?

The first question is full of irony. Because the Lord's plagues has devastated

Egypt so much that Pharaoh's servants feel like they're entrapped.

It's their word. How long will this man be a snare to us, a trap to us?

Moses is a snare to them. Ironically, by continuing to snare

God's people in Egypt, the Lord has entrapped or snared

Egypt in Egypt. The Egyptians are entrapped because they refuse to let

Israel go from their entrapment. That's this beautiful irony we see here.

Pharaoh's very servants, the ministers, the magicians, the priests, the higher ups, the powerful ones, they suddenly feel threatened by one

Hebrew slave who's around 80. That's ironic.

And because of the intervention, Pharaoh brings Aaron and Moses back to his throne in verses 8 through 11.

However, when Moses shares that every one of Israel will have to go to worship the

Lord, Pharaoh violently rejects their offer and drive them out of the presence.

And upon Pharaoh's disobedience, the Lord sends an east wind to bring about the locusts.

It's important to know that the Lord doesn't just create locusts out of thin air, which he could have, but rather he uses his creation.

He has full command over even winds, and he knows what to use to bring about his intended end.

So the Lord uses his creation as an agent of judgment, and we have seen this over and over again.

Verses 14 through 15 tell us the intensity of the plague. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt.

They dwelt there. The word is to dwell. Again, another irony, because Egypt is making, forcibly making

Israel dwell in Egypt. Now the locusts will dwell in Egypt. And it says they were very severe.

Previously, there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them.

For they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left.

So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants on the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

This is not only unprecedented, but it will be unsurpassable. This type of plague will not be seen in the land of Egypt again, because it was so disastrous.

It was not a natural disaster, but a supernatural judgment on a wicked nation.

That day, the agricultural market crashed completely with no hope of rebounding back.

And to imagine what this could have looked like, I did some research and one commentator describes what kind of plague a locust plague looks like.

And he says this, an area of one square kilometer can contain up to 50 million locusts.

I don't know about you, I've never seen 50 million of anything. But an area of one, a square kilometer, right?

That's less than a square mile. 50 million locusts.

And here's what they can do in damage. A single night can devour 100 ,000 tons of vegetation.

A single night, they can eat 100 ,000 tons of vegetation.

This was not a local disaster, but a national crisis.

This was not just impacting a little part of the capital city, but this was a call for FEMA.

Therefore, Pharaoh confesses his sin once again before Moses and Aaron.

He can't stand it. I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the

Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only. It's so bad, he describes it as death.

In a limited sense, Pharaoh realizes that every time he sins against the

Lord, it leads to death. His continual disobedience against the

Lord is costing real human lives. And as New Testament people, we do know that the wages of sin is death.

Pharaoh got a glimpse of that truth, that every time we sin against the

Lord, sin leads to death. And every time we sin against the

Lord, we race toward death. And that's what makes the gospel so beautiful.

And again, this confession would prove to be a disingenuous confession of Pharaoh as he, as the moment the plague stopped, he refused to let

Israel go. This point shows that God's judgment is not just for the outsiders to experience and see his power, just like the first point.

But God's judgment is for his own people to remember him and his track record.

They were to remember and to find comfort in how their God delivered them out of Egypt, the global superpower.

How the Lord would wreak havoc in Egypt without hurting his people.

For Israel, they looked back to their redemptive history, Exodus, to remember what kind of God they serve.

God who saves them from bondage when they themselves are powerless to do so.

Right? These are Hebrew slaves. They're not armed. They're not trained. God who does not flinch at any global superpower.

Israel wasn't rescued from just any country, just any nation.

They were rescued from a global superpower and they themselves had no chance against them.

And this is why the Old Testament saints often look back to these chapters of Exodus that we're reading right now and hope in their

God. After all, we even see the judgments and plagues that God had on Egypt in the book of Psalms.

They sang about this. They meditated about this because it was so important for them to remember what kind of God they had by seeing how

God judges. In fact, during the

Babylonian exile, prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel often bring up God's deliverance of his people from Egypt to give his people hope that the

Lord will do it again. God is often titled as the one who brought you out of Egypt.

You will read this over and over again in the prophets. That's because they looked back to hope for the future.

Maybe God will do it again. He did it before. He can do it again. And this is how the faithful exiles like Daniel remained hopeful in the very palace of a pagan king or multiple pagan kings.

That God would free his people once again. That God's hand is not too short.

And this is crucial for Christians today as America is becoming less friendly toward Christianity.

While it would have been socially advantageous to claim that you're Christian, maybe 30 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago.

However, such an identity, your Christian identity is detrimental to your social life.

Now, the moment you claim to be

Christian, you will get nasty looks. You will be called names and you may even lose friends or family over your identity in Christ.

And what do Christians do when it becomes harder and harder to live as Christians?

Well, I know what we have to do. We have to remember the Lord's mighty acts of judgments. We don't budge an inch of what the

Lord proclaims in scripture, but rather we remember the

Lord's acts of judgment, previous acts, previous acts of deliverance.

And in fact, compared to the ancient Israelites in the

Old Testament, God has given us more historical events to remember what he is capable of since Exodus.

After Moses, God delivered his people from Assyria, Babylon, and Persia.

After Moses, God used people like Mordecai to deliver his whole people from a massive genocide to come.

God is that capable. And ultimately, God delivered his people from the biggest enemy of all, the strongest enemy that enslaved everyone in human history since the rebellion of Adam and Eve, sin.

In order to deliver his people, God entered the world as a human.

He lived a sinless life and took on our sin to take the judgment for sin that we deserved.

God himself took on the judgment that we deserved. This is what

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 .21, for God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus bore, he was treated as sin itself on the cross.

The cross was the judgment of God that we deserved. And we get to remember that judgment.

When God judges, his people remembers to find hope and comfort. And we find our ultimate hope in Jesus because he dealt away with sin.

For Christians, there's hope of being sinless, not just when you're in heaven, but when you're resurrected, when you have physical body, you will one day be sinless in your own physical body.

And you will live a perfect life that you were meant to. That's the hope you see by looking back at the judgment that Christ faced.

Mm. That's the second purpose of God's judgment for people, for his people to remember him, to remember who he is and what he's done.

Third, the Lord judges a wicked nation in order to humiliate their supreme deity.

The Lord judges a wicked nation in order to humiliate their supreme deity.

The ninth plague starts abruptly in verse 21. No confrontation, just a command, stretch out your hand toward heaven.

And that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness, which must maybe even be felt here.

Darkness, which may even be felt means that it is so dark that people have to be feeling around to get around.

They have to grope around to even go somewhere or be feel safe because they can't even see what's right in front of their eyes.

It's that dark. And verse 22 tells us that this supernatural darkness lasted for three days.

This is an ironic, ironic twist because the darkness enveloped

Egypt because Pharaoh refused to let Israel go on their three day journey to worship the

Lord. I think this is so crazy how

God uses so much irony in his judgment. When God judges, he does it with style.

It makes sense. Every detail is intentionally written that way.

Every detail is intentionally chosen that way to remind those who are being judged.

Remember last time you heard the word three days? Well, you're going to see darkness for the next three days.

It's a teaching experience. For modern culture, darkness doesn't sound so threatening because we have artificial light everywhere.

It's always a light switch away. Even our electronic devices have light, right?

Whether it's your phone, even your watch, your watch illuminates and there are buttons now to show it, right?

In fact, modern people complain about the opposite, light pollution, right?

However, in ancient civilizations, darkness was extremely dangerous.

In those days, bandits and thieves could strike at any moment to strike you or your family when it was dark and without witnesses who could help.

Without people seeing it happen, you would just be vandalized or even attacked.

Wild animals came out in the night, right? Such a darkness would have kept

Egypt on guard constantly, hyper alert at all times, psychologically, mentally very draining.

In fact, it says here they could not even go anywhere. Not only that, darkness had a significant spiritual impact.

In ancient Egypt, their chief god was their sun god. Their sun god was the supreme deity of their land.

Egypt may not be able to depend on the river for their crops, right? Maybe there's a huge flood and crops all die.

Or even their crop god who provided all the crops because there could be famine any day.

But they could always depend on the sun god to bring the sun every morning from east to west.

They, in fact, believed that their sun god would defeat his enemy when it got dark to come back conquering victoriously every morning.

And they would know that's our god. He's always strong. He's always victorious. He comes back every morning.

They were proud of that god. They worshiped such god. However, because of the lord, the god of the

Hebrew slaves, even the most dependable sun deity failed to show up.

Not just one day. Not just two days. But three days.

And this isn't the cloud cover the sun. It was pitch dark. Something we have not experienced before.

And even when the sun is covered, however, we see that the lord was able to provide light for people in Goshen, Israel.

And this had a huge psychological defeat on Egypt.

The god of the Hebrew slaves darkened our strongest god for three days, yet provided light for his people, no problem.

God who is light. God who's source, who is the ultimate source of light.

That's our god. Therefore, Pharaoh even relents in verse 24.

Go serve the lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones go also with you.

Right? This is the biggest concession yet. He's actually letting every living human

Israelite to go. This was not even the case in the last plague.

Right? He got angry at the suggestion that the young ones have to go too. However, Pharaoh wants to keep back

Israel's livestock. So that they would come back to Egypt. Right?

If you're leaving your livestock in Egypt, there would be people who are tempted to go back to get it back.

Not only that, you cannot expect to survive in the wilderness without livestock.

Where are you going to get your food? Right? It would be a journey to die without the livestock.

What are you going to sacrifice? And Moses cannot accept the deal.

He boldly claims, you must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings.

That we may sacrifice to the lord our god. Our livestock also shall go with us.

Not a hoof shall be left behind. But we must take some of them to serve the lord our god.

And even we do not know with what we must serve the lord until we arrive there.

There is nothing that belongs to Israel that will remain in Egypt. The lord does not deliver partially, but completely.

Even the things that his people owns, the lord will take care, make sure would come out with them.

Right? This is the type of God, this is a glimpse into God's heart.

God cares for his people so much that nothing that belongs to them, he will let them leave behind.

You can't even imagine a caring father who's looking everywhere before a trip to find a teddy bear for his daughter because she's so worried.

Although the teddy bear will not really add too much to the trip. And at Moses's bold response,

Pharaoh kicks Moses out. Get away from me. Take heed to yourself and see my face no more.

For in the day you see my face, you shall die. And Moses answers back to the death threat.

You have spoken well. I will never see your face again. Whether Pharaoh knows it or not, his word will soon come true.

That Israel will be completely delivered out of Egypt. And at that moment, Pharaoh will not see

Moses's face again. In fact, we can see how much

Moses even transformed. He changed from chapter two. Last time

Moses's life was threatened by another Pharaoh. In chapter two, he fled.

He fled to the land of Midian. This time he confidently exits the throne room of Pharaoh knowing that God will deliver

Israel out. The past nine plagues had a huge impact on even

Moses's spiritual development. Remember the cowardly Moses who said, how can

I speak before Pharaoh? I'm a slow of speech. But he confidently answers back to Pharaoh.

Even our livestock will have to go. That belongs to the

Lord. He no longer fears Pharaoh, but stands up against the injustice of Pharaoh.

He no longer hides behind his brother, Aaron. We don't even see Aaron in this, but addresses

Pharaoh directly. This is because Moses knows that the

Lord is greater than any other Egyptian deities. The Lord of hosts is stronger than Pharaoh and all of his hosts.

And Moses himself has learned it through seeing the Lord judge the wicked nation from the front row seat over and over again.

The past nine times the judgments have taught Moses to become a bold man of God that he is right now.

He didn't start out this way. He started out cowering behind his brother, right?

He started out pleading with Pharaoh even.

But now Moses boldly stands before Pharaoh and it does not matter what

Pharaoh does to him. Another death threat, so be it. And that is the kind of God we have.

God who transforms his people through his acts.

God who does not cower at any enemy. God who relentlessly brings down any rivals who stands in his way, not just once, not just twice, but nine times.

And that kind of God transforms his people who reflect who he is.

Through the nine plagues, God has humiliated not just Pharaoh, but every deity of Egypt.

And with the second to the last plague, the current one, the Lord has utterly humiliated

Egypt's supreme God, the son. And Moses had learned there's nothing to fear when the

Lord is on our side. And that's the same Lord who is on your side today,

Christians. It's the same Lord who can darken the sun of Egypt for three days.

It's the same Lord who can transform a feeble 80 -year -old man who fled to Midian, but came back hesitantly at the promise of his brother by his side.

But when God worked in the land of Egypt, even

Moses changed. And so can you. Remember what

God has done. Read about what God has done.

And that will transform you. Let us pray. Father, we thank you that we can learn of what you have done in the history of mankind, because you have given your word to us.

And Father, we pray that we would go to your word every day to be transformed, to know what kind of God we serve so that we can confidently stand tall despite any challenges that this world,

Satan, or even our flesh throw at us. Father, I pray that we would represent you well, that we would reflect the deity whom we serve.