Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Story: Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Passage: Exodus 12:29-42

Characters:  Israel, Egypt, God

Summary:  The Lord struck down the firstborn of everyone in Egypt.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him to leave.  The Egyptians were urgent to get the Hebrews out of Egypt.  They feared for their lives.  The Israelites ate unleavened bread because they did not have time to fully prepare it.  They left Egypt with 600,000 men not counting women and children.  They had been in Egypt for 430 years.

Notes:  Every house in Egypt lost their firstborn.  From Pharaoh, to his lowliest servant, even to the flocks, no one was spared.  The passage says that everyone woke up in the night and Egypt was filled with wailing.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron after telling them that he would never see them again.  He tells them to leave once and for all.  Finally, the plagues became too much for him.  God had accomplished what He intended to accomplish through Pharaoh.  He had delivered the Israelites from death through the blood of a perfect lamb.  The Egyptians weren’t stupid!  Their land had been ruined!  They wanted to get the Israelites out of their country.  What impressed me the most out of this passage though is the fact that one family had become 600,000 men alone over a period of 430 years!  That is a massive slave force to lose!  And Egypt was losing their slaves right when they needed some significant work done!  By the way, that is 430 years to the day apparently!  The passage concludes by stating that it was a night of watching by the Lord, so the Passover has become a night of watching by Israel. 

Questions:  Could Egyptians have killed a lamb to be passed over?  Did any Egyptians leave with the Israelites?  Why did the Egyptians just give their gold and silver to the Hebrews?  What was the Lord watching for exactly? 

Lessons:  This is a story of deliverance.  God kept His promise and delivered Israel from the hand of Egypt.  We need to remember that even when it feels like God is distant, He never has left us and He will keep His promises!

The Passover

Story: The Passover

Passage: Exodus 12:1-28

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:

The Lord told Israel what He was about to do and what they had to do to be spared.  Each household was to take a lamb without blemish and keep it for four days and then kill it.  They were to smear the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.  Then they were to eat the lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to eat it with their shoes on, their belt buckled, and their staff in hand.  God would kill every firstborn in Egypt, but when He saw the blood, He would pass over the Israelites.  They were to celebrate tis with a feast every year.  For seven days, they would eat unleavened bread.  Now work would be done for those seven days.  Moses told the elders what to do and they obeyed.  

Notes:  I have nowhere near enough time to do Passover justice in this post, but here goes!  The feast of unleavened bread is the first celebration that God gives Israel, and it is the first aspect of the law that we see.   Since Christ fulfills the law, every time we study part of the law, I will try to show the way that Christ fulfilled it!  The Passover was a time when God showed mercy to Israel and delivered them from Egypt.  Throughout the Bible, Egypt represents sin, the flesh, and death.  God was going to deliver His people from sin and bring them to the Promised Land.  Let’s look at how He is going to accomplish this!  First, every household is supposed to find a lamb. This lamb needs to be perfect.  Interestingly, a lamb is needed for each household.  (Spoiler alert: Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb)  In order for Christ’s sacrifice to cover us, we must become part of God’s household.  Fortunately, we see this all throughout the New Testament.  We are adopted as heirs; we are the sons of God.  This lamb was not just chosen and killed, it was kept for four days by the family.  This lamb became a part of the family and lived with them for a short time before they killed it.  Likewise, Christ lived among us for a short time before we killed Him.  They were to eat it while prepared to move.  When we are saved, we need to be ready to go.  Salvation is the beginning of a journey, not the end.  God specifically says that He will execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt.  We have already seen how the plagues were a direct attack on specific Egyptian gods.  Here God states that that is what He is doing.  Egypt worshipped these false gods, so the true God attacked each one to prove that He is the only true God worth worshipping!  God is not happy when we give the glory and worship that He deserves to something we create ourselves.  We see a taste of His wrath in His treatment of Egypt.  God has done many many miracles already for Israel, but this is the first one that He wants them to commemorate with a feast forever.  During this feast, there is to be no leaven present.  Yeast is a leavening agent.  Yeast is later referred to in the New Testament.  Yeast mixing through bread is compared to sin working through our lives.  By having no leaven, the Israelites were symbolically keeping themselves pure from sin.  This was obviously important, because twice God specifies that if anyone has leaven in their possession, whether Israelite of foreigner, they are to be cut off from Israel!  This was a serious deal!  Moses specifies that this is to be celebrated even after Israel arrives in the Promised Land.  This is the most significant moment in history so far, and it is possibly one of the most significant moments in history ever up to our current place in history!  The Passover laid the groundwork for how God was going to redeem His people to Him.  This was more than foreshadowing, this established the structure and meaning of what Christ would later do for the entire world!  God is God and could have saved us in a number of ways, but He chose to save us through innocent blood taking His wrath in our place.  This is the first time we see this play out and this is the precedent for what Christ did for us!  Christ did not have to die because the Passover happened, rather, the Passover had to happen and Christ had to die, because that is how God decided to structure our redemption!  The fact that many people died in the Passover is tragic, but necessary!  For the Israelites to be saved, they had to be saved from something!  For us to be saved, we must be saved from something!  The emphasis should not be on the fact that God killed Egyptians, but rather that He spared the Israelites!  In fact, we see that that is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is for: to remind future generations of the way that God spared them.  The focus of the Feast is not on the death of the Egyptians, but on the life of the Israelites!  Likewise, our focus should not be on the fact that there are people who are not saved, but rather on the fact that there are people who are saved!  Salvation makes no sense!  Judgment on the other hand is totally logical!  We are broken and have strayed from the purpose of our design and creation.  We deserve death!  When people die, they are getting what they and we deserve!  It is the right thing for bad things to happen to us!  The illogical and strange thing that happens is that some are saved!  Grace is by definition not deserved, and if we feel we must question God, do not question His judgment, but rather His grace!  He has every right to judge us and destroy us!  If you think differently, you do not understand His holiness!  He had no conceivable reason though to judge and destroy His own son so that we are passed over.  Take some time and just worship God for His mercy and grace which He has lavished on those of us who don’t even deserve another breath!

Questions:  Why was the death of a lamb necessary?  Who exactly was going to pass over Egypt? 

Lessons:  The lessons in this passage are somewhat apparent!  This story speaks volumes about God’s mercy and grace.  Some see this as an example of a judgmental God.  I see this as a story of a merciful God full of grace!  In fact, how can there be mercy without judgment?   A life was taken in every house in Egypt, but in Goshen, that life was not the one deserving of death.  Keep in mind, that even though we have been given life, a life was still taken: a life that was infinitely undeserving of death.  Keep this in perspective, and never give in to the temptation of believing that our grace is deserved!

A Final Plague Threatened

Story: A Final Plague Threatened

Passage: Exodus 11

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God had Moses and Aaron warn Pharaoh that there would be one last plague.  The Israelites were supposed to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry and they would give it to them.  Moses warned Pharaoh that God would come down in the night and kill the firstborn of every person in Egypt from the Pharaoh to the lowliest servant.  Even animals would be affected.  After this Pharaoh will let the Israelites go.

Notes:  Not only would Pharaoh let them go, God says he will drive them out of Egypt.  Apparently, the Hebrews are not winning any popularity contests with Pharaoh.  Interestingly though, the Egyptian people seem to like them.  God says that their neighbors will just give them jewelry as they leave.  Moses is apparently a great man Egypt.  This final plague is awful.  Every firstborn child in Egypt will die.  This even affects animals.  The poor livestock in Egypt really took a hit from these plagues!  Egypt would be messed up after this is all over!  According to God though, the Israelites would not be affected.  His protection even extends to the Hebrew animals.  It is interesting to me that God lumps animals in with the people for Egypt and Israel.  I assume that this is because the animals also have the breath of life.  It appears to me that God set up a hierarchy of creation.  He set animals above many things, but under humans.  Humans were over creation in general but under God.  It is interesting that Moses was “hot with anger” after this encounter with Pharaoh.  I wonder if he inherited some of God’s frustration while delivering God’s message or if Moses himself was upset with Pharaoh. This passage concludes with a sentence which basically serves to change the direction of the narrative.  We are about to slow down and get more detail.  Any time the narrative slows down to give more detail there is a good chance that we are coming to an important part of the redemptive story of the Bible as a whole.

Questions:  Were the Israelites really immune to this final plague?  Did Pharaoh really not think that his son would die?  Hadn’t God come through on all of His other plagues?  What was the general reaction of the Egyptian people when they heard about this plague?   What have the magicians been doing for the last several plagues?

Lessons: Once again we learn that Pharaoh was not listening so that God’s wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.  This passage serves to show that God wants to be glorified.  The Egyptians elevated Pharaoh above God.  Pharaoh was considered to be a god himself.  God does what is necessary to show the Egyptian people that He alone deserves worship and glory.  He unleashes His power and judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt so that they would know that He is God.  It is vital that we understand that God is about God and that we give Him the worship and glory that He deserves.  From creation forward, we see that our purpose is to bring Him glory.  

Darkness

Story: Darkness

Passage: Exodus 10:21-29

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God told Moses to stretch out his hand and the land would be covered in darkness.  Moses obeyed and the land was dark for 3 days.  Pharaoh told Moses to go and they could take their kids with them.  But they were not allowed to take their livestock.  Moses said that they needed their livestock so that they could make sacrifices.  Pharaoh got really mad and told Moses to never show his face again or he would die.  Moses left.

Notes: This is described as a darkness to be felt!  That’s ridiculous!  For three days the people could not see each other and stayed home.   This was another plague which was unannounced.  Goshen was unaffected.  I wonder what caused this darkness.  I almost feel like the laws of physics had to change for the light to be so divided.  Pharaoh was fully aware that the Hebrews wanted to escape.  That is why he was going to allow all of the people to go without the animals.  The Israelites couldn’t escape into the desert without their livestock.  This would effectively keep them on a leash.  When Pharaoh heard Moses demand to take all of their animals he knew Moses was trying to trick him.  He was furious and vowed to kill Moses the next time he saw him.  Moses agreed and said he would never see him again.  This won’t turn out to be true, but this is one of the last times the two of them will see each other.  Once again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because of God.  God had one last display of power planned.  This last plague would prove to be significant in His redemptive plan for the world.  Because of this, we will get more description for the upcoming plague than for the previous nine.

Questions: What did the Hebrews think of this?  Were the Israelites getting any warning before the plagues?  Did the darkness confuse the Egyptians?  Did Pharaoh really think Moses would take the Israelites out of Egypt without their animals?

Lessons:  In this passage we see Moses standing his ground and easily speaking to Pharaoh on God’s behalf.   He is radically different from the Moses we saw at the burning bush.  Moses has seen the power and authority of the one he serves.  He realizes that he is on the winning side and it totally transforms him.  Are we totally transformed?  We are also on the winning side and we serve the same God with the same power.  Do we act like it?  We need to get a hold of the fact that we serve God, not some idea.  We are on the correct side and we need to let that transform the way we live our lives.

Locusts

Story: Locusts

Passage: Exodus 10:1-20

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:

God warned Pharaoh through Moses that He was going to cover the land with locusts.  Pharaoh’s servants begged him to give in to Moses’ demands.  Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron back and said he would let the men go worship. He refused to let all of the Israelites go however.  So God sent locusts into the land and they ate whatever plants survived the hail.  Pharaoh repented and asked Moses to plead on his behalf to God.  God took away the locusts.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again.

Notes: First of all, God says that He is doing these plagues so that the Israelites and their children will know that He is the Lord.  This is interesting because God is hinting at the fact that they would need some reminding.  God’s issue with Pharaoh was that Pharaoh refused to humble himself.  The root issue here is pride.  I think this is the root issue for all sin, but this was a blatant representation of it.  Pharaoh’s servants realized what was happening and begged Pharaoh to let them worship God.  They pointed out that Egypt was already ruined.   Pharaoh agreed and said that they could serve the Lord in the desert, but he wanted to know who all was going to go.  Moses told him that the adults, children and animals were all going to go.  Pharaoh was not happy and assumed that Moses was trying to trick him.  I love that he swears by saying “the Lord be with you if I let your little ones go.”  Obviously the Lord was with Moses and Pharaoh did let everyone go eventually.  Pharaoh told him to take the men and worship since that is all they need.  Moses left and God sent in locusts.  I find it interesting that the passage specifies that the locusts came in with an east wind.  Pharaoh then sounded repentant.  He admitted to sinning against God and Moses, He asked for forgiveness and asked Moses to plead to God for him.  Moses did and God blew the locusts into the Red Sea.  Interestingly, He did not have the locusts die in the land like He did with the frogs.  Pharaoh hardened his heart again though.  This story shows that you can say all the right things and sound repentant but you might not be in your heart.  Pharaoh said the right things but he did not mean it.  I just want to point out that Pharaoh’s issues stem from him worrying about his image.  As one of the most powerful men on earth, it would look terrible if he allowed his entire slave base to just walk out of the country.  If he wanted to maintain his image, he could not afford to let them go even for a short time.

Questions:  How many of Pharaoh’s servant supported Pharaoh by this point?  What did the Egyptian public think?  Was Moses surprised that Pharaoh knew that the Israelites were going to try to run for it?

Lessons:  This passage shows me the importance of being truly repentant in your heart.  As prideful humans, this is impossible unless we let the Spirit convict us of our sin an.  If we listen to the Spirit, we will see how insufficient we are compared to Christ and He will lead us to His forgiveness.  If our repentance is based in making much of God rather than making much of ourselves, Christ’s amazing grace and mercy is ready for us.  If we are not truly repentant though, we are leaving ourselves open to His punishment and judgment.  

Hail

Story: Hail

Passage: Exodus 9:13-35

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: 
God warns Pharaoh that the next plagues will be on Pharaoh’s heart.  God warns that hail will fall that will kill anyone outside. Those who feared God took cover and were spared, but those who ignored God were struck down.  It did not hail in Goshen.  Pharaoh said he had sinned and said he would let them go.  Moses doubted Pharaoh’s sincerity but he prayed and God stopped the hail.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again and did not let the people go.

Notes: I actually found a lot of interesting stuff in this passage!  First, the Lord specifies that now the plagues will be sent on Pharaoh himself, or on his heart depending on how you translate the Hebrew.  God gives the reason for this; that they may know there is none like God in all the Earth.  God actually goes into a lot of detail explaining the reason for these plagues.  He points out that He could have wiped Egypt out long ago.  The reason for all these drawn out plagues is not merely punishment, but so that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the Earth when they see His power.   In fact, God says that this is the reason He raised Pharaoh up.  I find this terrifying honestly.  I have heard it said that God is for God.  God’s ultimate will is for His own glory.  That is why He created us, that is why He saved us, for His own glory.  This is hard to accept, I prefer to think I play a bigger role in God’s plans, but this passage sure seems to support it.  It seems that we exist to bring God glory.  Pharaoh did not willingly glorify God, but God still used his life to bring Himself glory.  God’s end goal was not punishment for Pharaoh, but glory for Himself.  In fact, everything God does indeed seems to be for His own glory.  Eternal punishment seems cruel, but it is just.  God is the only perfect holy being.  He is the only one in the universe who deserves glory and worship.  When we choose not to give that glory and worship to Him but rather focus it on creation, we disqualify ourselves from eternal unity with Him.  Think about it, what is the purpose of heaven?  Is it for our enjoyment and pleasure?  No! It is for worship.  Heaven is about glorifying God for eternity because He alone deserves it!  Once we turn our worship to other things, it makes total rational sense that we are no longer able to worship Him for eternity without some change in us.  That change came through Christ.  But anyway, my point is that God’s glory comes first.  That is the reason that the Egyptian people suffered through ten agonizing plagues rather than being instantly wiped out.  God is not cruel. God just deserves the glory we are giving to other things.  He is jealous for our attention.  We find out in the next verse that Pharaoh was still exalting himself above the Israelites.  That is the core issue here.  Pharaoh was making himself god, as was the Egyptian tradition.  Pharaoh was not just denying the true God, he was blatantly trying to replace Him.
This is an interesting plague in that God allowed people who believed and feared Him to be spared.  We read that some of Pharaoh’s servants did indeed fear God and took shelter.  Some left their servants and livestock outside though.  I wonder if any Hebrew slaves were left outside.  Anyway, apparently it hailed for quite some time.  Pharaoh sounded repentant.  He claimed he had sinned against God and he was wrong.  Moses straight up told Pharaoh that God would end the hail, but Pharaoh was lying.  This ended up being true.  Pharaoh once again hardened his heart.  This is called sin by the way.  Pharaoh did nothing physical that was sinful here.  Simply hardening his heart was considered sin.  I find it interesting that some of the crops had not grown yet and were thus unaffected.  Even in God’s judgment, He provided for the Egyptian survivors.  This shows that even in His justice, He was loving.  Even as He destroyed, He provided.  This also supports the fact that His main goal is His glory.

Questions:  Were any Hebrew slaves left in the storm?  Why did God raise Pharaoh up just to destroy him?  Why was Pharaoh still not repentant?  How many Egyptians believed God and were spared?

Lessons:  This passage shows us a little bit about the character of God.  We see examples of His righteous jealousy.  While this is a little scary, it is also encouraging.  It shows us that God deserves and desires our worship.  When we give God glory with our lives, He is pleased.  This isn’t selfish because He deserves that glory.  This passage should show us how important it is to not exalt ourselves, others, or other things above God.  We need to give Him the glory He deserves.  Our whole lives need to be for His glory and not our own.  When we put our image, our finances, our comfort, etc. above Him, we are giving our affections to His creation which does not deserve our affections.  Keep your affections on the creator.

Livestock Die and Boils

Story: Livestock Die and Boils

Passage: Exodus 9:1-12

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh



Summary: Moses warned Pharaoh that if he didn’t let them worship, god would strike the Egyptian livestock with a plague.  Pharaoh ignored the warning and all of the Egyptian livestock died, but not one of the Hebrew livestock died.  Pharaoh still hardened his heart.  God told Moses to throw handfuls of soot from a kiln into the air and the people and animals would get boils.  They did it and it happened.  The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let them go.

Notes: This is the second plague which did not affect the Israelites.  The cow was considered sacred in Egypt.  To kill all of the cows was a direct attack on the Egyptian religious system.  I find it interesting that Pharaoh actually checked to see if Israel was indeed unaffected by the plague, but when he saw it was true, he did not let them go.  The next plague came without warning, just like the gnats.  These boils were painful and probably burned.  The animals were also affected by this plague.  That is the animals who were not livestock were affected.  The Egyptians had a God of medicine.  The magicians did not appear in public because they also had boils.  This showed that God was stronger than their god of medicine.  I wonder if they were required not to appear so that the Egyptian people would not know that they too were affected.  It amazes me that Pharaoh still hardened his heart!  At this point, he had to know that he would be ruined if he kept denying God.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did the boils affect Israelites as well?  Was Pharaoh affected?

Lessons:  Pharaoh looks like an idiot in this passage.  We need to careful to learn from his mistake though.  When God told him what to do and what the consequence would be if he did not obey, Pharaoh ignored and despised God.  How many times does God give us a command with a promise or a consequence?  How seriously do we take it?  Let’s be honest here, often times we don’t take it that seriously.  Aren’t we just acting like Pharaoh when we do this?  We need to take God’s word as if it was spoken by an all powerful and holy ruler and creator of the universe.  Because it was.

Flies

Story: Flies

Passage: Exodus 8:20-32

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God gave Pharaoh another chance.  This time if he didn’t obey, He would send swarms of flies into Egypt.  Houses would be filled; even the ground would be covered.  This time though, God would spare Goshen, where the Israelites lived.    This happened and Pharaoh decided the people could sacrifice within Egypt.  Moses said that wasn’t good enough so Pharaoh gave them permission to leave as long as the flies disappeared.  Moses prayed to God and the flies disappeared, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and didn’t let them leave.

Notes: This plague was the first to leave the Israelites unharmed.  God did this to show the Egyptians that He was the Lord.  The flies, just like the gnats, made the Egyptians’ sacrifices invalid.  The Hebrew actually only calls it a swarm.  It does not specify what it is a swarm of.    It could have been any insect really.  Pharaoh compromised and decided they could sacrifice in Egypt.  Moses reminded him about the social issues with them sacrificing in Egypt and then Pharaoh clearly promised that they could leave.   I find it interesting that Pharaoh wanted Moses to plead for the flies to leave.  That shows that he knew God was behind this.  He did not cry out to God himself though and he didn’t seem to actually fear God very much since he immediately took back his promise.  This time, the passage says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. I wonder if God was involved in this or if Pharaoh’s pride had taken over at this point.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did they actually believe that Pharaoh was letting them go?  Was there celebrating?

Lessons:  Sometimes we cry out to God when things are tough.  But then, when things are good we forget Him and rely on ourselves.  This is exactly what we see happen here.  I suspect that Pharaoh did not deliberately lie to Moses, but rather that he rethought things after the flies left.  As awful as this looks to us, we do the same thing.  When we are clearly insufficient, we let God be God.  But as soon as we have the slightest hint of control, we make ourselves our god and we put the true God second.  When we do this, we are just as guilty as Pharaoh was in this passage.

Frogs, Gnats

Story: Frogs, Gnats

Passage: Exodus 8:1-19

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses to go to Pharaoh again.  If Pharaoh did not listen, God would send frogs to fill the land.  Moses obeyed and Pharaoh did not listen so frogs filled the land.  Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated this as well.  Pharaoh called for Moses and told him that if he got rid of the frogs, he would let them go worship.  Moses had Pharaoh pick a time for the frogs to leave and Pharaoh picked the next day.  Moses cried out to God and the frogs died the next day and stink.  When Pharaoh saw the frogs were gone he changed his mind and didn’t let Israel go.  Then God told Moses to tell Aaron to strike the dust of the earth. The dust became gnats which covered all the people and animals.  The magicians could not duplicate this so they decided that this was done by God.  Pharaoh did not listen though. 

Notes: God chose frogs because the frog was worshipped in Egypt.  It was illegal to kill a frog.  The Egyptians soon realized how stupid it was to worship frogs.  I love that the magicians duplicated this as well.  All they did was contribute to the problem.  Pharaoh’s magicians could never solve the problem, only duplicate it.  Pharaoh was treating Moses like God.  Instead of crying to God himself, he went to Moses.  Pharaoh promised to let the people leave to worship the Lord.  Moses wanted Pharaoh to know for sure that God was responsible for the frogs though so he made him pick a time for the frogs to leave.  Pharaoh picked the next day which would have been impossible by natural causes.  But God did it.  The frogs died wherever they were, even in the houses.  The passage says that the land stank.  I’m sure that was an understatement.  They piled the dead frogs in heaps.  I wonder if there were people whose job it was to cart the heaps of frogs to the Nile and dump them in.  Pharaoh changed his mind.  He didn’t care about his promise; he just wanted to be rid of frogs!  The next plague came without warning to Pharaoh.  I find it interesting that Aaron is still doing all of the actions.  I wonder if Moses was wishing he had listened to God the first time now.  God would tell Moses what to do and Moses would then have to tell Aaron to do it.  The gnats were significant because the Egyptians were obsessed with cleanliness.  If yo had a bug issue, you weren’t allowed to worship.  The passage states that this plague also infected the livestock which means the animals couldn’t be sacrificed.  This plague put Egypt’s religion on hold.  God was showing His superiority over their idols.  Up to this point, Israel is also affected by these plagues.  The magicians can no longer imitate these plagues.  They now realize that this is God’s doing and not Moses’.  At this point, I bet they are panicking as they realize what they are up against.  Pharaoh however will not listen to logic and does not listen.  Unfortunately for Pharaoh, God’s just getting started. 

Questions:  What did the Israelites think of these plagues?  Did they get mad at Moses?  Did Moses care anymore?  How did the magicians create frogs?  Why couldn’t they produce gnats?  Were they panicking as they realized who they were up against?

Lessons:  God is more powerful than anything.  He deserves all of our attention.  When we put something ahead of God, we are making a huge mistake.  Sometimes I think we subconsciously decide something is more important than God.  We would never state that out loud, but we act like it.  God shows in this passage that He is bigger and more powerful than anything the Egyptians worshipped.  We need to make sure we don’t put creation above the creator in our hearts.  

Water Turned to Blood

Story: Water turned to Blood

Passage: Exodus 7:14-25

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.  Moses was to take his staff and go to Pharaoh in the morning when he went to the water.  Moses was to tell Pharaoh to let the people go.  To show Pharaoh that He was God, God was going to turn all the water into blood.  Moses did what God said and the Nile was turned into blood.  It smelled and the fish died.  Even water in containers turned to blood.  The people had to dig by the Nile to find clean water.  But Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated the miracle so Pharaoh did not believe.  The water was blood for seven days.

Notes:  I find it funny that God starts by saying that Pharaoh’s heart is hard.  Of course it is!  God had just told Moses that He had made his heart hard!  Anyway, God is communicating through Moses here.  God refers to the staff being in His hand.  It is obviously actually in Moses’ hand, but this shows the close relationship between God and His prophets.  The water all turned to blood.  There are people who think this occurred naturally because when the Nile would flood, it would turn red which would kill the fish.  If this were the case, why did Pharaoh find it significant?  And how were ponds and containers of water affected?  The Egyptians could drink from the Nile which also implies this was not a normal occurrence.  The magicians repeated this sign as well!  I have a couple thoughts on this.  One, how did they find fresh water?  Also, why did they not just fix the bloody water?  It appears that Satan has the power to do signs and wonders.  This is actually consistent with the rest of scripture, however whenever we see him doing a miracle, it is always destructive and never constructive.  When the passage says Pharaoh turned and went into his house, I picture him spinning on his heels and defiantly leaving the scene.  His heart was truly hardened.  IT sounds like he did not even consider that this might have come from a God.  Meanwhile, His people had to dig to find clean water for a week.  This plague directly combated the river gods that the Egyptians had.  In a desert country like Egypt, the Nile river had spiritual significance.  God showed that He had power over the Nile.

Questions:  How much of the Nile was affected?  How did the magicians duplicate this?  What did the Israelites think of this plague?  Were they affected too?

Lessons:  God is powerful and jealous.  The Egyptians had abandoned God for their own handmade idols.  God wanted them to acknowledge Him again and He did it by displaying His power.  I am convicted about the things I put before God in my life.  God is not afraid to take drastic measures to display His glory to those who choose to ignore it.  This just reinforces the importance of a constant focus on Christ and living a life with the purpose of glorifying the only God who deserves the glory.