Three More Strikes
Opening Song:
Lord, Have Mercy (chorus)
Call to Worship:
Pastor Bobby Owens
Mattew 8.14-17, 23-27
Historical Reading:
Pastor Brett Eckel
Nicene Creed
Song:
Behold our God
Confession & Pardon:
Pastor Andrew Loginow
Song:
Doxology
Song:
Something Greater
Sermon:
Dr. Alex Loginow
Exodus 9
Three More Strikes
The Exodus story has been dramatized in film and TV. OGs will immediately think of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, released in 1956. Most recently Christian Bale starred as Moses in 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. Us 90s kids will remember Tommy Pickles and the rest of the Rugrats acting out the Exodus in their Passover episode. Nestled in there as well is the 1998 animated feature The Prince of Egypt.
Like other animated movies, The Prince of Egypt is a musical and one of the songs is entitled, “The Plagues.” The scene featuring this song begins with the second plague of frogs that Pastor Kevin preached on last week and extends through the ninth plague of darkness, which Pastor Kevin will preach on next week. The song is primarily about Moses’ relationship with Pharaoh, which is more speculation than biblical. Not to mention that in The Prince of Egypt Moses looks 35 and not 80. Moses and Pharaoh are singing to each other while frogs crawl into people’s bed and fire falls from the sky and people are looking scared.
Because the film is made for kids the depiction of the plagues is mild to say the least. In reality it’s hard to overstate the social, economic, religious, and personal destruction that YHWH was raining down on the Egyptian culture. When thinking about these plagues, if you’re imagining The Prince of Egypt, or Rugrats, or Veggie Tales, or a Sunday school flannel graph, you are neutering this narrative. Through these plagues the Egyptian economy is collapsing, the religious system is being decimated, and people start dying. With each of the plagues or strikes, as Pastor Kevin enlightened us last week, YHWH is judging the idols of Egypt. YHWH is striking Egypt for their idolatry and their oppression of the Hebrews – the Egyptians have not loved God and neighbor.
In Exodus 9 we read of the fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues. Last week Pastor Kevin listed four themes that are consistent throughout all of the plagues or strikes: (1) let my people go; (2) knowing God; (3) Pharaoh’s hard heart; and (4) signs and wonders. And once again we see that because of their idolatry and oppression Egypt like all of the kingdoms of this world is a kingdom of death. The Kingdom of Christ is the only kingdom that is a kingdom of life.
Death of Livestock (vs. 1-7)
Let’s start with the fifth plague in verses 1-7. The fifth plague is technically the only plague. That’s why it was so helpful last week when Pastor Kevin explained that Jewish historians referred to the plagues as strikes. YHWH was striking Egypt in judgment. The fifth strike is the only plague: YHWH sent a plague that killed all of the Egyptian livestock.
One truth the fifth plague reveals is that YHWH is sovereign over all of the animals on earth. He slaughters the Egyptians livestock and preserves the Hebrew livestock. Genesis 1 tells us that God created all of the animals in the world. In Psalm 50.10 YHWH says, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. The Egyptians may worship the livestock but God created them and he will do with them as he pleases.
And the Egyptians did worship the livestock. The ancient Egyptians had several gods imaged by livestock: Hathor was the goddess of love and protection; pictured by a woman’s body with a cow head; Apis, the bull god, was a symbol of fertility, Osiris, who was associated with fertility, agriculture, and resurrection, among others. In this fifth strike YHWH is once again revealing that idolatry yields death. This has proved true for all of human history – the variety of idolatry spanning world history always results in the same destination: you will surely die.
YHWH’s destruction of the Egyptian livestock and preservation of the Hebrew livestock and his protection of the Hebrew area called Goshen during the seventh plague of hail is a shadow of the coming final judgment. The Hebrew animals are saved because God pours his grace out on his people and he destroys the Egyptian livestock because the Egyptians don't have faith in him. In Matthew 25 Christ tells us of the final judgment and he describes believers as sheep and unbelievers as goats. The goats inherit eternal punishment and the sheep eternal life in the Kingdom of Christ. Those who believe the gospel will live forever in the new earth with Jesus; those who reject the gospel will receive eternal conscious punishment in a place called hell.
The gospel is the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is only good news because there is bad news. The bad news is that God is your holy creator and that you rebelled against him in sin. Because you’re a sinner you deserve God’s holy wrath. Pastor Brett read earlier from the Nicene Creed, which says that Jesus Christ is “of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made human.”
Jesus lived without sin (Heb 4.15), died on a Roman cross bearing God’s wrath for the sins of his people. He was buried and on the third day he resurrected from the dead, proving that he is indeed the Christ and that God had accepted his righteous life and substitutionary death. Now the Holy Spirit changes people’s heart so that they repent and believe in Christ alone. To repent means to turn from your sin. Faith in Christ entails three facets: (1) knowledge of who Jesus is and what Jesus did; (2) ascent to the validity of those truth claims; and (3) transferring your trust to Christ alone.
Repentance and faith are more than mere remorse for sin. We see a clear biblical example of this concept in Pharaoh who once again acknowledges that he is a sinner. In verse 27 Pharaoh says, “This time I have sinned; YHWH is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.” But Pharaoh is not trusting in the name of the Lord. He has remorse for sin but no genuine repentance. Verse 34 says that once the hail ended Pharaoh sinned again and hardened his heart.
Pharaoh didn’t understand genuine repentance. He had remorse for the damage his sin caused but he did not want to turn from his sin. Repentance can only genuinely happen when the Holy Spirit changes your heart and then you turn from your sin, as you transfer your trust to Christ. Repentance is not the preparation for regeneration; repentance is the result of regeneration. Pharaoh’s heart had not been changed.
The heart of the issue is an issue of the heart – we need a new heart. This is a consistent theme through the Exodus narrative with Pharaoh. Over and over again Scripture says that both YHWH and Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In verse 14 the text says, I will send my plagues on you yourself. Notice the ESV footnote, which notes that the Hebrew literally reads I will send my plagues on your heart.
Verse 21 says but whoever did not pay attention to the word of YWHW... The Hebrew literally reads whoever did not set his heart on the word of YHWH. Our most fundamental problem is that our heart is spiritually dead and it needs resurrection. Scripture says we are born with a heart of stone and need a heart of flesh. We need a spiritual heart transplant as Joseph van der Harst reminded us last month at our men’s breakfast. This only happens when the Holy Spirit works regeneration in our hearts and that opens our eyes so that we can repent and believe.
And repentance is not a one-time act but a lifelong act. Justification is a one-time act; repentance is life-long. That’s why every week here at Christ Community Church we practice a time of corporate confession and pardon. Pastor Andrew led us in it earlier. We are people who continue to sin even after we’re saved and so we must be people who continue to repent after we’re saved. We do it every week together at church and we must be confessing and repenting every day on our own.
Those who trust in Christ alone are the sheep of Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25. They inherit eternal life. Those who reject Christ are the goats and they inherit eternal punishment. Have you transferred your trust to Christ? Have you repented and believed? Are you harboring sin today? Are you hardening your heart? Repent. Turn from your sin and look to Christ. If not, you will face Christ in judgment and you will be condemned to eternal conscious punishment in a place called hell. Take Christ by faith this morning and you will be saved.
Boils (vs. 8-12)
The sixth plague or strike is boils. YHWH commands Moses to take handfuls of soot from the kiln and throw them in the air. The result is that boils broke out into sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. Even the magicians could no longer stand before Moses because of the boils. Pharaoh thought he could keep up with YHWH through his magicians but YHWH just made them tap out.
Once again the Egyptians had several gods or idols associated with health. Sekhmet was the goddess over disease. Sunu was the pestilence god and Isis was the healing goddess. But where are these gods when the boils break out? They are nowhere to be found as YHWH once again humiliates the Egyptian pantheon.
These boils are a tangible parable revealing that idolatry, oppression, and sin are like a disease that only Christ can heal. In our call to worship Pastor Bob read from one of the many occasion in the Gospels where Christ heals the sick. Isaiah prophesied that when the world was made new disease would be eradicated. Jesus came healing the sick as a declaration that the Kingdom of God had arrived. This past week in our summer Bible reading we started the book of Acts. The Apostles do the same thing in Acts. They heal the sick announcing that the Kingdom of God had been inaugurated. Because sickness is a result of sin and is a picture of sin, Jesus is revealing that he has come to heal us from our greatest infirmity – to save us from our sin.
That’s not to say that we should not pray for those suffering with sickness and disease, we should. Many of you have shared with me how you have been praying for my mom for these last six months. We prayed for Renee Ross, we prayed for Christian Owens as he was struggling recently, we can and should pray for the sick. But let us not fall into the trap of thinking that physical healing is one’s greatest need. The greatest need of every individual who has ever lived is to be right with God by receiving forgiveness of sins in Christ alone.
Hail (vs. 13-35)
The seventh plague or strike is hail and fire falling from the sky. Nut was the sky goddess of Egypt. The Egyptians also used fire as part of their idolatrous worship. In the seventh plague YHWH uses their idols against them; the Egyptians die by means of the idols they’re worshipping. Idolatry yields death.
This was true for the Egyptians and it is still true for us today. We may not be tempted to worship the same exact idols as the ancient Egyptians but don't be fooled our modern western culture worships idols. Mostly we’re tempted to worship ourselves; whether it’s politics, money, sex, power, education, fame or the like, we make idols of our own desires and autonomy. An idol is anything other than Christ that you think you can’t live without. Tim Keller gives us a good test to use on ourselves: if you look at anything in your life other than Jesus and you say, “life is not worth living without this,” then it is an idol and idolatry yields death.
It is in Jesus Christ that we see the great reversal of the seventh plague. Not only did Pastor Bob read about Christ healing the sick in our call to worship but he also read about when Christ calmed the storm. YHWH brings the storm of judgment in Egypt but hundreds of years later Christ comes and calms the storm. This reveals two truths about Jesus to us: (1) Jesus Christ is sovereign God who holds authority over nature. There is no such thing as “mother nature;” Christ is sovereign over nature.
(2) Jesus has come to calm the storm of God’s wrath for those who believe. It hailed in Egypt but not in Goshen where the Hebrews lived. God shows grace and mercy to his people and pours his wrath out on those who reject his Son. This is what Christ accomplished on the cross. He was our penal substitutionary atonement – he atoned for our sins as a substitute paying the penalty for sin. We sing “on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I live.”
In this text also YHWH tells us the purpose of the plagues. The purpose of the plagues is the same purpose of the death of Christ; it is the same purpose of all of human history – soli deo Gloria – to the glory of God alone! YHWH declares that he is continuing the plagues for the fame of his name. In verse 14 God says he’s striking them so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. Verse 16 says, but for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. The Word of the Lord did not return void. By the time that Joshua and the Israelites arrive in Jericho 40 years later the inhabitants of that land are still talking about what YHWH did to the Egyptians. We’re still talking about it this morning.
The New Testament reveals to us that the name of God is finally and fully exalted in the name of Jesus Christ.
God has highly exalted Jesus Christ and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2.9-11).
Later Israel itself will be condemned when the Apostle Peter declares,
“Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4.10-12).
God has revealed and glorified his name finally and fully in the person and work of Lord Jesus Christ. It is the only name through which God offers salvation.
Conclusion
We don’t want to get too comfortable with the Exodus narrative sterilizing it with cartoons and Sunday school flannel graphs. The Egyptian plagues were a gruesome scene. They caused economic upheaval, decimated their religious system, and cost the Egyptians lives. That’s because Egypt was a kingdom of death. Their idolatry and oppression led to death.
But the Kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of life. Jesus is sovereign God over animals, disease, and nature. Jesus came to reverse the curse. He lived, died, and was resurrected for us and for our salvation. Do not harden your heart. Trust in Christ.