Kurt, what's up with Biblical separation and deliverance out of the corruption of this world? That sounds so religious. God in the Bible says...
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." 2 Corinthians 6:17 kjv
Well relax, this does not require Christians to have no contact with unbelievers. How could we win them to Jesus. Like Christ did, we should befriend the sinner without getting pulled down by them, without partaking of the sin (it destroys. See Luke 7:34).
The Apostle Paul expresses a really balanced view of separatism: “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).
We are in the world. Uh yeah, we live here, but we are not of it.
Q:
Why go on living as a slave when you don't have to? Seven times in Exodus God says to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” (See 5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3.) And His command reveals that Israel was in bondage, but God in His love wanted them to be free that they might worship and serve Him. This is the condition of every lost person (sinner): enslavement to the world-system, to the flesh and the devil (Eph. 2:1–3). Please know the Lord -- I'm a saved-sinner today and far from perfect, but I remember how horrible it felt to be lost spiritually.
Q:
We are to be light to the world without allowing the world to diminish our light. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
I say if God can turn water into wine (like He did) guess what.. I'll never have a problem with Him turning a Nile river into blood. He did it. Sure, His miracles have a purpose -- to set people free.
Muse on His word and the ten miracles he did to free the Jews before he led them safely through a sea? Reread through Exodus 7 and 8.
Fact: If people stubbornly refuse to obey God's kind words of warning, then He must speak by His works of judgment cuz He's just.
When God speaks, people either obey and submit their hearts to Him or they disobey and harden their hearts like the foolish Pharaoh did (muse on Heb. 3:7–13).
Some people wrongly see God as unfair. From the human point of view, Pharaoh resisted God’s will and thus hardened his own heart. Yes first. From the divine point of view, God then sent the judgments and therefore caused his heart to be made firm in his own decision.. stiff, or hardend (there are two Hebrew words used in the text: Hazaq H2388 and qasa H7185).
The same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay.
Pharaoh's court magicians had some secrets (see text) and they were able to imitate Aaron’s miracle from God. Satan is still a counterfeiter, and that is one way he repeatedly opposes God’s work in the earth today (see 2 Tim. 3:8–9).
Some miracles are lying wonders (2 Thess. 2:9–10). Test what you hear like from teachers.. against the Bible. The Bereans did that (even what I say, I don't mind at all. That's normal). Be sure you can discern and tell the difference (1 John 2:18–27; 4:1–6).
These plagues were God’s declaration of war against lies. The false gods of Egypt (12:12) and those who promoted these would lose. He proclaimed, “I am the LORD” (7:5).
The plagues were also a clear declaration that the Lord had put a difference between the Jews and the Egyptians (see 8:23).
Pretty wild huh, that the children of Israel watched God’s wonders in Egypt and yet did not trust in Him (Ps. 106:6–7).
Later the Jews even wanted to return to Egypt for that spicy food after they had been mightily delivered!
Listen, great spiritual experiences or other kinds of experiences are no guarantee that one has grown up to maturity.. spiritually. It all depends on what happens to your heart.
I was a slave to sin and my old idol back in the day was related to what I did out on the sea.. out on my surfboard in Dana Point. Now, I still enjoy surfing today, but it sure ain't first in my heart. I now only want to worship the Lord.
Q: What are some other contemporary idols we often see people living for today? Money, a work position, lovers, drugs, alcohol, cars, houses, self, a dead religion and the idols involved in such false worship.
In the year 2022, the spray tan industry was valued at $358 million, and is expected to reach over $450 million by the year 2028. Mind you, this is not the entire tanning industry. It only accounts for spray tans. Individual sessions range in price from $25 to $35 on average for a single treatment that lasts about 7 to 10 days. All of this would be for an industry that could only be considered in the realm of vanity.
For the modern American, personal appearance has become something of a false god from the advent of the social media age. People seek to prove their value through the approval of others, which only exacerbates the dependence on industries such as spray tanning. While this false god of American society is not personified in our minds, it still represents the same spiritual hole that the Egyptians were trying to fill in the creation of their mythology. Today, we’re looking at false gods that conquered the hearts and minds of the Egyptian people, and how the Lord refuted their existence and their importance through His mighty power.
Q: What are some other idols in American society?
1. Water to blood, 7:14–25 (warning given, 7:16)
2. Frogs, 8:1–15 (warning given, 8:1)
3. Lice, 8:16–19 (no warning, and magicians could not duplicate, 8:18–19)
4. Flies, 8:20–24 (warning given, 8:20)
5. Murrain on cattle, 9:1–7 (warning given, 9:1)
6. Boils on the people, 9:8–12 (no warning given, magicians afflicted, 9:11)
7. Hail, fire, 9:13–35 (warning given, 9:13)
8. Locusts, 10:1–20 (warning given, 10:3)
9. Thick darkness, 10:21–23 (no warning, Pharaoh refused to see Moses again, 10:27–29)
10. Death of the firstborn, 11–12 (the final judgment).
The Jews had been mistreated and oppressed for hundreds of years. During Moses and Aaron's first try, they had only made things worse it seemed. Even Moses, who had met God on the mountain, who had heard Him speak directly to him and should have trusted, was also a bit doubtful. But God assured Moses that He would rescue and redeem Israel and bring them into their own land where they could live as His people. He assured them that now they would see His power. And He was right and totally just. He always is.
The plagues - we will cover them in four lessons:
- Part 1 (plagues 1-3) Re: God's power and His victory over Egypt's "gods."
- Part 2 (plagues 4-7) Re: God set Israel apart. Those plagues affected only the Egyptians, not the Israelites..
- Part 3 (plagues 8-9) Re: Pharaoh's hardened heart.
- Part 4 (plague 10) Re: The Passover and God's rescue of His people who had the faith to put the blood of the lamb on their doorways (pointing by faith ahead in time to the cross of Christ)
“Sometimes the end God has in mind is for us to exercise our faith, so He brings us into straitened circumstances so that we might look up to Him and see His deliverance.” ~ Jerry Bridges
“Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance.” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer
God says, "I'm gonna harden (Heb. term: qāšâ H7185) the heart of Pharaoh." Now read some more through Exod 7:8 esv -> 8:19. "Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
[7:9] "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Prove yourselves by working a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'"
[7:10] So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
[7:11] Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
[12] For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
(Some people say: This was an illusion, but it's hard for one snake to eat an illusion. Some say: Those guys were snake charmers, and they just got these snakes to look stiff like sticks. Naw, don't think so.
Some folk say: It was solely a supernatural satanic kind of miracle, but remember that Mr. Lu-Cifer cannot create a living creature, only God does that. It's true, Satan is not able to turn sticks into snakes.
These magicians had undoubtedly pulled off other slight-of-hand operations like this before. Personally, I actually think real snakes did appear, and these magicians made them appear like they came from their sticks. I’ve seen magicians do tricks with sticks before. Have you?
(Remember how Paul in 2 Cor. 11:13-15 esv.. warned Christians regarding tricky counterfeiters, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.")
[7:13] Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened (h2388 ḥāzaq because he made this choice, then Lord stiffened his already hard heart. It was totally fair of God), and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
[7:14] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go...
[7:23] Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.
[7:24] And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
[7:25] Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.
(Book: "Worlds in Collision", by Immanuel Velikovsky: he tries to give an explanation for the waters turning to blood, as earth neared in approach to the planet Venus. He has a lot of conjecture in it. Some details of God’s methods we are not told, but this was miraculous and I let it go at that. I have no problems with God working miracles. If He's able to turn water into wine as He did, surely He can turn water to blood).
[8:1] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may serve me.
[8:2] But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs.
(So you like frogs Ole Pharoah? You want to worship frogs? I'll give you frogs.)
[8:3] The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls.
[8:4] The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants..."'
[8:12] So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh.
[8:13] And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields.
[8:14] And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.
(Stinking false gods. Is the Lord basically rubbing their noses in their gods? Saying, "You want to create and serve these gods? You don't know who I am? Here ya go.")
[8:15] But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
[8:16] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.'"
(Gnat types in Egypt? Fungus, Eye gnats or Buffalo? Bodega black gnat-biting midges belonging to the family Ceratopogonidae. Are these Leptoconops - lice or mosquitoes?)
[8:17] And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.
[8:18] The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast.
(The magicians weren't able to duplicate this. Now in this there's sort of a creation of life. This was their limit. They could draw frogs out of the water. They could change the water to blood. They could make serpents out of their rods, but at this point they can't follow it any further. Their abilities had been more than matched)
[8:19] Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
1. God is the one who saves the downtrodden. Yes, anyone who humbly cries out to Him in faith. He can still do miracles to save and deliver people.
2. Decern what's false from what's true, what's real from what's mere slight of hand magic etc.
3. Obey God's Word in just the right way as He says to. Yes, His way and in His timing.
4. When judged or disciplined (as His beloved child) simply repent.
5. Are you mistreated, over-worked, oppressed? Call out to Jesus who frees people from cruel bondage and slavery.
“When we see death, we see disaster. When Jesus sees death, he sees deliverance!” ~ Max Lucado
Egyptians believed that the god of the Nile was a major god, and they worshiped the god of the Nile. They even wrote hymns associated with the Nile. They had hymns of fertility, and hymns of blessing, and hymns of happiness. One of them goes, “Hail to thee oh Nile, that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive/He that waters the meadows which recreated in order to keep every kid alive/He that makes to drink the desert and the place distant from water, that is his dew coming down from heaven.” In other words, they literally extoled the Nile as a deity. The Nile provided transportation, irrigation, pasture, hunting grounds, fish, everything.
The great god by the name of Khnum was the guardian of the Nile. There was a god called Hapi who was the spirit of the Nile. They called him the dynamic essence of the Nile. And then there was the greatest of Egyptian gods, one of the greatest, called Osiris, and Osiris was known as the god of the underworld. He ruled the deities. And Osiris, it is said, had for his bloodstream the Nile River. And how appropriate that the Lord turned it to blood as if Osiris was bleeding to death.
Fish died. The place stunk! The Crocodiles were forced to leave the Nile; they must have inundated the land. You can imagine what that did. And by the way, Hapi was the god of the crocodiles; and if you ever see an image of Hapi drawn, he is drawn as a crocodile. And if you go to Egypt, you’ll find out that they mummified crocodiles, they worshiped them as deities. here’s a god Neith, who is a warlike god, and sometimes a goddess actually, who had a special task. Neith had the job of taking care of the lates, which were the largest fish in the Nile, and all of them died. There was another god, Hathor. Hathor had charge of the rest of the fish, and they all died. You see, God is literally devastating their idolatry. they had a goddess by the name of Heqt, H-e-q-t, and Heqt was a frog goddess! She was the wife of Khnum, and the symbol of fertility and resurrection. And Heqt was one of the eight primeval gods, one of the key gods.
They had another god by the name of Sunu, and Sunu was a god who had a special kind of a priesthood, and they wore amulets around their arms and legs to ward off diseases. But all of this was useless; everybody had oozing boils, a leprous kind of running sores all over their bodies. They believed in the god Serapis, who was the god of healing, and he was useless. You may have heard of their famous god, Imhotep, the Egyptian god who was suppose to be the god of medicine, but he couldn’t do anything either. Jehovah God was unstoppable. They had a god known as Nut, and Nut was the sky goddess; and they believed that Nut was the great benefactor who gave them goodness from the sky, because frankly, in Egypt the climate’s the same all year round. But all of a sudden everything went haywire.
Q: What is the most absurd thing you’ve seen someone spend money on?
Q: What are some other idols in American society?
It's true, “exodus” means departure out. It happened with God’s timing, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt marked the end of a period of oppression for Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 15:13), and the beginning of the fulfillment of the covenant promise to Abraham that his descendants would not only live in the Promised Land, but would also multiply and become a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3, 7). The purpose of the book may be expressed as tracing the rapid growth of Jacob’s descendants from Egypt to the establishment of the theocratic nation in their Promised Land.
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| Pic by Emma Van Sant |
Q: Why might God’s attacking the Nile first be a powerful statement to the Egyptians?
Q: How would Moses prove that there is no one like Yahweh?
Q: How could Pharaoh have still hardened his heart, even after tangibly seeing there is no one like God? Discuss why you think your unbelieving friends/family are stubborn about faith in God. How can you reach out to them and share the Gospel?
Q: How can you remember God every day, not just when you need something from Him?
Q: Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? What did He accomplish by that?
Q: How would the Egyptians know that Yahweh is the Lord of the universe?
Q: How have different people of the Bible responded to the power and authority of God, both good and bad? How would you respond to God in this passage?
Q: How does trusting in God’s ultimate power over all other beings affect the way you live, think, talk, and walk?
Q: What do you notice about Pharaoh’s magicians?
Q: How can you become aware of things that you lift up as more important than God?
Q: After you’ve identified idols in your own life, how do you go about destroying their influence?
THINK: Reflect on all the things people treat as “gods” in our world today. How and why do they trust in them instead of God to give them what they want? How is it connected to desiring control for ourselves instead of submitting to God’s control? How do those gods ultimately fail us? How are they less than the God of the universe?
PRAY: ..again for those whose hearts are stubbornly hard toward God and following Jesus. Dead religions can same no one. Pray for God to soften their heart. Ask Him to use people or circumstances in their lives to speak to them, to get through their hardness of heart and change their minds. Ask Him to give you the words to speak the truth in love into their lives.
ACT:
Opt to glorify God. Spend some time this week simply praising God for His power and sovereignty over all things. Sing worship songs and hymns, pray the Psalms, sing, play instruments, go for a walk, and speak words of praise as you walk. In whatever ways you can, spend time this week in worship of the Almighty God over all the earth.
