Exodus 13:17-15:21 – God Saves His People through His Power

The song sung by Moses and the people of Israel in Exodus 15 recalls the power of God and work in saving his people from certain death at the hands of the Egyptian army.  It reveals the futility of all those who stand opposed to the power of God and it provides a wonderful opportunity to reflect on who God is, what he has done in the past and what he has promised to do for his redeemed people!

The great work that Moses and the people of Israel responded to in song is found in the passages we are focusing our attention on this morning on the end of Exodus 13 and into chapter 14.

S0, turn in your Bible with me to the middle of Exodus chapter 13.

We are now six weeks in to our study of this Old Testament book penned by Moses, which records God’s great, Fatherly love in action to rescue and redeem his children.

Last week we looked at the 10th and final plague the LORD brought upon the Egyptians, the killing of the firstborn.  And we saw how God saved his people from his divine judgment through the death of a substitute.

Death came to every household in the land, either the death of the firstborn in judgment or the death of the lamb as the substitute for those who were protected under the blood of the lamb.

After the death of their firstborn, the Egyptians couldn’t act fast enough to send the Israelites out of their land.

When Israel entered Egypt, 430 years earlier, Exodus 1:5 tells us there were 70 people in their family clan.

When Israel finally left Egypt 430 years later, the middle of Exodus chapter 12 tells us there were over 600 thousand men, just grown men.  So, by the time you count the women and children there would have been between somewhere between 2 and 4 million people involved in this mass Exodus from Egypt.

That is a huge amount of people to move and coordinate but as we’ll see here at the end of chapter 13, God himself was leading them on this journey!  

Let’s look at the text.

Exodus 13:17-22 - 17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did nnot lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people ochange their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God pled the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph1 had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, q“God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And rthey moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And sthe LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Pharaoh finally let the people of Israel go after striking Egypt with plague after plague after plague, just as God decreed would happened back in Exodus 3:20.  Now the nation of Israel is on their way to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

But the Lord didn’t take them on the most direct path.   Rather than taking the shorter route that would bring them into a military conflict with the Philistines, he sends them on the long path down toward the Red Sea.

The LORD knew that if they were immediately confronted with the reality of war, the nation would change their minds about leaving Egypt.

The LORD, in His perfect knowledge, knew that the people weren’t ready for the challenges they would face on the way to the Promised Land and given the opportunity to turn back, they would.

The end of verse 18 in the ESV says Israel was “equipped for battle.”  This phrase may seem out of place given that the Lord was leading them away from war with the Philistines but the people knew a battle was coming.  They knew that they would face many enemies along the way to the Promised Land but only the Lord knew how severe such battles would become.

The people were expecting battle but the Lord knew it would be too much for them. The Lord had other plans to show his power in salvation.

Rather than the direct route, God led them in another direction, a direction that would ultimately prove itself even more challenging than confronting the Philistines in war. But in this new path, there would be no option of retreat, no way for them to escape.

It was a divine setup!  God was intentionally leading them into an impossible situation so that Israel would see that nothing is impossible for God and they would deepen their dependence upon him!

As the nation marched out of Egypt, they not only took with them the riches of Egypt, but verse 19 tells us that Moses took the 400 year-old bones of Joseph with him.  Even as the nation was looking to the future, it was important that they be reminded of the past.

Back in Genesis 50:24-25 “And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

Verse 19 of chapter 13 is reminding us that God is faithful to his people!  God didn’t deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt because they deserved it but because he is faithful to his covenant promises. He had promised Abraham a land, descendants, blessing.  Joseph had faith in that covenantal promise of God.

Verse 19 reminds us that God isn’t reacting or responding to situations in this world, he divinely orchestrates them for his purposes.

As I pointed out back in the beginning of our journey through the book of Exodus, it is a recalling of God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises.  The book of Exodus is like the continual ringing of a bell that is struck again and again and again to call our attention to God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises.

And in order to fulfill his promises God’s power continues to work for his people. The nation of Israel wasn’t just wandering around aimlessly as they left Egypt, God himself was leading them!

Our first point is from the end of chapter 13.

I. God’s powerful presence guides His people (13:17-22)

During the day, a pillar of cloud led God’s people.  At night, a pillar of fire which continually provided light for their journey.

Fire and Cloud, often representative of God’s presence.  Just as God revealed himself in fiery holiness from the burning bush to Moses, now he led the entire nation from the cloud and fire.

What an incredibly compassionate act by God to allow his people to see his presence with them, to see that his presence never left his people.   They knew that God was with them wherever they went.

Brother and sister in Christ, we have the same compassionate promise of God’s enduring presence today!  Jesus said, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  God continues to dwell among his people today.  In fact, through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, he dwells in his people!

One of the reasons why the 23rd Psalm is so well-known and resonates with us so deeply is because it speaks of God’s powerful presence that continues to guide His people – “I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

God’s powerful presence guided his people out of Egypt.  He guided them away from war with the philistines and toward an even more impossible situation. Look at chapter 14 with me now. I’m going to read from verse 1 down through 29.

Exodus 14:1-29 - Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to tturn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between uMigdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 4 And vI will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will wget glory over Pharaoh and all his host, xand the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so. 5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the ymind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took zsix hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And vthe LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while athe people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The bEgyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them cencamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel dcried out to the LORD. 11 They esaid to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what fwe said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, g“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For hthe Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 iThe LORD will fight for you, and you have only jto be silent.” 15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 kLift up your staff, and kstretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And lI will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and mI will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians nshall know that I am the LORD, mwhen I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19 oThen the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night1 without one coming near the other all night. 21 Then Moses kstretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by pa strong east wind all night and qmade the sea dry land, and the waters were rdivided. 22 And sthe people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being ta wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging2 their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the uLORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, v“Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 wSo Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea xreturned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD ythrew3 the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The zwaters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, anot one of them remained. 29 But the bpeople of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Just when we think we’ve heard the last of the Egyptians, the Lord sets a trap that Pharaoh cannot ignore.  The Lord did what, by the world’s standards, would have been a futile and foolish movement.  He led Israel in a round about path to a dead-end camped along the Red Sea.

The Lord even told Moses in verse three exactly how Pharaoh would respond and what he would say!  The Lord knew what words were on Pharaoh’s tongue before he even spoke!

Pharaoh would hear of Israel wandering around.  The Lord would again harden Pharaoh’s heart and Pharaoh would pursue Israel.

God lead his beloved children to this dead-end, deathtrap and then he enticed Pharaoh to pursue Israel with his army.   This makes zero sense, there’s no rational explanation.

But the ultimate purpose is there in the middle of verse four, The Lord said, “I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.”

Point #2

II. God positions people to promote His glory (14:1-29)

This is a key truth of Exodus. Back in chapter two, the people groaned because of their slavery.  There was absolutely nothing they could do to deliver themselves, yet God had them right where he wanted them. He’s the one that led Israel to Egypt 400 years earlier and promised to Abraham that they would be slaves.

Here God led the nation to this dead-end path up against the shore of the Red Sea and he had them right where he wanted them so that they would know he was the Lord. So that they would learn what it means to trust in Him for salvation. So that even the Egyptians who stood against the Lord would know that he alone is God and ultimately so that the Lord would get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts.

As the Israelites approached the Red Sea God did, indeed, hardened Pharaoh’s heart and Pharaoh realized letting their entire slave force go really wasn’t such a great thing.  There was no one to cook the food and serve it.  There was no one to build the palaces and clean them. So he gathered his chariot army and went after the Israelites.

The fast chariots quickly caught up with the Israelites who were camped on the edge of the Red Sea and when the people of Israel saw the Egyptians — to say it mildly, the people freaked out.

The end of verse 10 says they “feared greatly” and they “cried out to the LORD.”

They went on a bitter rant in verses 11-12 against Moses as they again allowed their circumstances to derail their focus on the goodness and faithfulness of God.

They people cried out!  They were bitter!  Resentment had set in.  They wanted to be back under bondage. They feared because they were doubting God’s goodness, his covenant faithfulness!

God was about to bring about one of the greatest acts of deliverance in the entire Old Testament and his people were full of nothing but distrust and fear.

As we saw a couple weeks ago with the plagues, the clear truth of the Bible is that God’s plan is never contingent upon nor determined by the circumstances that happen in this world.

God’s plan is perfect and his perfect plan determines the circumstances in this world.

It was God who led the Israelites to this impossible position so that he could save them and receive all the glory that is due to his name alone!

Even in the most confusing situations in life, God is working.

What could the Israelites do?  Could they pull themselves together and work harder to get out of this jam?  No!  Could they think positively about the situation and try to be a better person?  No!  There was nothing they could do to save themselves.

God positions his people to promote his glory and he does this in two ways.

First -
(1) by working salvation for His people 

The people were paralyzed in fear. In verse 13, Moses simply states “FEAR NOT!”

The people wanted to know what they need to do, Moses succinctly says “STAND FIRM”

The people had seen all that God had done to get them to this current position but now MOoses says, “See the salvation of the Lord!”

God was about to do all the work required to save his people from this seemingly impossible situation.

This is perhaps the grandest picture of God’s salvation of sinners in all the Old Testament.

The bitter, resentful, complaining Israelites were backed into a corner; they could do nothing to save themselves.

The same is true of every single one of us apart from the divine intervention of God.

We were all born in a dead-end, literally dead in our trespasses and sin, but God! God intervened to work the salvation of His people by sending his Son Jesus who would set the captives free and lead us in a new Exodus.

Look at how significant this truth of Exodus is. In John 5, Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews who were seeking to kill him and he said, John 5:46-47 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

If you do not believe that Exodus is important today; if you do not believe in the truth of Exodus; then you cannot believe in Jesus!  Moses wrote Exodus to point us ultimately to Jesus!

On the mount of transfiguration when Jesus allowed Peter, James, and John to see a preview of His glory, there were two other men who joined them, Moses and Elijah.

Luke 9:30-31 says, “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

That word, departure, is the same word used of the Exodus. Moses and Elijah spoke of Jesus’ exodus which Jesus was about to accomplish through His substitutionary death as the lamb of God and his resurrection unto life.

The means by which Jesus would accomplish this new Exodus was through His death, burial, and resurrection in Jerusalem!

Jesus would take sinners who are trapped against the sea and he would bring them safely to the new life on the other side.

And there is only one way we can participate in the divine Exodus today!  How do we get from dead in our trespasses and sin safely to life on the other side?

Jesus gives us the answer in John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Another way to translate “passed” is “crossed over.”  The one who does not come into judgment but crosses over from death to life, is the one who hears the truth of Jesus and believes in Him.

Believe in Jesus today and let him take you from death to life by trusting in the God who works salvation for his people to save you from your untenable slavery to sin.

It may sound too easy because it is!  You can’t contribute one sliver of your salvation because God doesn’t share one sliver of his glory.

In his New Testament letter to the church at Ephesus right after the apostle Paul said we were all dead in our trespasses and sins, he said God made us (Christians) alive, solely by his grace, not by works, so that no one may boast!

God, through the death of his perfect sacrificial lamb, has made us alive with Christ. He’s raised us up with Christ and he has seated us with Christ!

And the reason why he did this: Ephesians 2:7 “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

God saves wretched, despicable sinners like me and like you who are completely undeserving so that we can be trophies of his grace.  So that, in the coming ages of eternity, God can hold us up and say, “look at what I did with such a horrible mess.”

Back in chapter one of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul used a similar phrase three times in the same Greek sentence, when describing the saving work of Jesus to bring dead sinners to new life. He said it’s all “to the praise of his glorious grace” … “To the praise of his glory.” …  “To the praise of his glory”

Back in Exodus 14:4, The Lord told Moses that he would get glory over Pharaoh!

God works the salvation of his people so that he gets the glory which is most prominently seen and evidenced in his immeasurable grace toward us sinners!

As the Egyptian army drew near to Israel’s camp, Exodus 14:19-20 tells us that the Lord put himself between Israel and the Egyptians.  God himself in the pillar of cloud and fire was protecting them.

Moses lifted up his hands and God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites passed over to the other side on dry ground.

God positions his people to promote His glory by working salvation for His people and second —

(2) By working judgment for those opposed to Him

This is the same truth we looked at in depth two weeks ago with the plagues but it continues to be a prominent theme throughout the book.

Look at verse 23.

Exodus 14:23-24 - 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,

The Lord, who was himself in the pillar of fire, looked down on the Egyptian forces and instantly – panic.

Now, when the Lord looked down on His people he brought salvation but here, when he looks down on those who stand opposed to him, he comes in judgment.

God is sovereign even over their chariot wheels getting stuck in the mud!

The 10 plagues that the Lord brought upon the Egyptians were a preview of the Lord’s ultimate judgment.

The killing of Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army is merely a preview of what will someday befall all those who continue to live in rebellion against the all-powerful God!

In Revelation 20, the apostle John described a time yet to come when the Lord will look down on all of those who died in opposition to Him and he will judge them according to what they had done!

For those who continue to try and cross the sea on their own, the water will come crashing in.  Praise be to God he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Here’s how Peter says it -

2 Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

You do not know when your time on this earth will draw to a close but when it does, that’s it, your eternal destiny is sealed.

God will be glorified and you will showcase his glory, either as a trophy of his grace or an object of his wrath.

When confronted with such an awesome truth of Exodus, how can we possibly respond appropriately?  We must be careful to not reduce the amazing truth of God parting the Red Sea into a pithy moral lesson like: “Be still and let God fight for you” or “Stand firm and see the salvation God will bring you.”

While those are good things to remember they are not primarily the point of Exodus.  Exodus is not a motivational story to remind us that God will win our battles when we are facing difficult circumstances in life!  The trying circumstance you’re staring down may not turn out the way you hope it will.

The message of Exodus is that God has already won the battle and his grand Exodus already accomplished in Christ enables us to face our daily battles with confidence and hope! The truth of Exodus enables us to say “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

So what is an appropriate response to the truth of Exodus?  

Look at the end of Exodus 14

Exodus 14:30-31- 30 Thus the LORD csaved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 dIsrael saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they ebelieved in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Here we see the Israelites respond to God’s great power.

Point number 3 -

III. Respond to God’s “great power” (14:30-31)

When the waves calmed and the sea returned to normal.  They looked and saw all the dead bodies of the Egyptians scattered across the shoreline and they had a three-fold response and each of these three are woven together.

First, respond to God’s “great power” by

(1) fearing the Lord

When the Israelites saw the Egyptian army approaching back up in verse 10 they “feared greatly.”

Are you kidding me?  After all the Israelites just witnessed back in Egypt!

But this exactly what happens to us.  Nearly ever time something doesn’t go the way we think it should go.  We shouldn’t have received that test result!?!?  We shouldn’t have to deal with that broken relationship!?!?

Fear distorts our memories!

We must fear God alone who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Your circumstance has not changed God.

Back up in verse 13, the command “fear not” referring to the situation with the Egyptian army approaching.

Here in verse 31, fear God!

To Fear God means to trust him.  It’s humbling yourself before him in reverence, in awe.

We fear God because of who he is, because of what he has done, and because of what he will do.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Respond to God’s “great power” by fearing the Lord,  secondly -

(2) by believing in the LORD

Believe in the Lord means trusting that he is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do.

That trust in the Lord was broken back up in verses 10-12 when they cried out against God by saying they’d rather just be back in Egypt.

At times, our trust in the Lord may be shaken, but return to the truth that when we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge him, that he will make straight our paths.

The Lord alone is worthy of our trust!

Respond to God’s “great power” by fearing the Lord. Believing in the Lord

(3) by believing in the Lord’s Servant

The people of Israel followed Moses’ direction and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground safely through the Sea to the other side.

In that monumental event, we get a breathtaking glimpse of the ultimate sea that would be parted. The sea of sin that we were drowning in would be miraculously parted in the body of Christ himself, rescuing and redeeming us from the depths of sin.

John 14:1 Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Respond to God’s great power by believing in his servant Jesus!

Just as Moses and the people of Israel sang of the great triumph of the Lord who threw the horse and his rider into the sea, so too, those who believe in Jesus will one day sing of the great triumph of the Lord when God’s ultimate judgment comes upon the sinful rebellion of the world, which is described in Revelation 18 like a great millstone being thrown into the Sea.

After which the great multitude of heaven will cry out: Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, (Rev. 19:1)









Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

© Geist Community Church
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Exodus 11:1-13:16 – God’s Lamb is the Solution to Your Sin Problem

Today is week five in our continued study of the Old Testament book of Exodus so it marks the halfway point in our nine-week series.

After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, we’ve finally come to the point in the narrative when God’s chosen people leave the land of Egypt for the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.

But before the Israelites leave Egypt, God has one final plague, the 10th plague to bring upon the Egyptians. God’s power to save his people through the judgment of this final plague and His redemption from slavery was so profound He gave his people two feasts, two observances that were to forever memorialize this grand work of God.

We’ll focus our attention this morning on these two feasts found in Exodus chapter 12 and see the vital role they play in our lives today. So take your Bible and turn with me to Exodus 12:1-20.

If you’re taking notes in the Exodus series study guide, week five is found on page 23.

Last week we saw the power of God revealed through the first nine plagues and in the continual hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

• The Nile River into blood – but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (7:14, 22)
• Frogs invaded the land of Egypt - Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15)
• Gnats swarmed - Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (8:19)
• Flies - Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:32)
• The livestock died - the heart of Pharaoh was hardened (9:7)
• Boils – the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh (9:12)
• Hail - Pharaoh seemed to repent but it wasn’t real and his heart was again hardened
• Locusts – the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart
• Darkness – the Lord, again, hardened Pharaoh’s heart

By the time you get to Exodus chapter 11 Pharaoh’s heart is still hard but the Lord tells Moses that it will only take one more plague.  One more horrific, unimaginable plague.

The Lord himself will go out in the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land, from the household of Pharaoh to the lowest of slave, even the firstborn of the cattle, will die.

Just as the Lord had decreed to Moses when he was still back in Midian at the end of chapter four!  The Lord told Moses to say to Pharaoh “Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’” (Exodus 4:22b-23)

The Lord himself would judge the sin of Egypt by killing the firstborn sons of Egypt.

But not among the people of Israel because God had a plan in place to save them.

That plan is in Exodus chapter 12. Let’s look at the text.  Follow along while I read and then I’ll pray.

Exodus 12:1-20 - The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 f“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb gaccording to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be hwithout blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the ifourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.1 7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the jtwo doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with kunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but lroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And myou shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with nyour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. oIt is the LORD's Passover. 12 For pI will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on qall the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: rI am the LORD. 13 sThe blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 “This day shall be tfor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a ustatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 vSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, wthat person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a xholy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for yon this very day I brought your zhosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 aIn the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 bFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, bthat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, cwhether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

The events of Exodus 12 were so pivotal in the nation of Israel that God gave them a new calendar centered on His redemption of Israel!

The deliverance of God’s children from bondage in Egypt would be the beginning month for the their nation’s calendar.  A new beginning, a new “age” in the history of Israel, symbolized by the new calendar.

Central to the new calendar were two new feasts that were to be observed by God’s people that would proclaim both the means by which God’s people are saved and the manner in which God’s people are to live.

So we are going to look at both of these feasts.  The first feast describes the means by which God’s people are saved from God’s judgment upon the land of Egypt.

And what we see in verses 1-14 is our first point:

I. God’s people are saved from judgment through the death of a substitute

In the middle of verse three, the Lord told Moses and Aaron that each Israelite household was to select a lamb on the 10th day of the first month, according to their new calendar.

One lamb for one household.  If it was a small household then they could combine households with their nearest neighbor for this first feast.

Verse five tells us that the lamb that was selected had to be without blemish and it had to be a male that was a year old, so it had some size to it.

Each household would take that cute, cuddly, unblemished lamb and keep it with them until the 14th day of the month.  After a few days of really beginning to bond with this little lamb, every household was to kill their lamb at twilight.

This was a costly sacrifice with eternal significance!

After the lamb was killed they were to take some of the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorframe of the house, symbolizing that all of the people in the house had to pass through the blood and were under the protection of the blood.

They had to roast the lamb, whole, and then eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, bread without yeast.  All of the lamb had to be eaten before morning and any remaining portions had to be burned.

Everyone who was gathered in the home to eat the meal hat to eat it with their belt fashioned, sandals on their feet, and staff in their hand – ready to move quickly.

And just as they are ready to be on the move quickly, they are to eat quickly.  Why?  Look at the end of verse 11 “It is the Lord’s passover.”

This first feast is known as the Passover feast because as the Lord passed through the land of Egypt to kill the firstborn, he would passover the houses where the blood covered the house.

Death came to every household in the land, either the death of the firstborn in judgment or the death of the lamb as the substitute for those who are in the house.

Why a lamb?

The theme is replete through Scripture.

Beginning in Genesis, Able brought the offering of the firstborn of his flock to God as a sacrifice to the Lord.

In Genesis 22, Abraham was called by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God (which seemed to go against everything the Lord had decreed.)  Nevertheless, Abraham obeyed and told his son, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:8)

Here in Exodus, God made provision for one Lamb to be sacrificed for one household.  Later in Exodus, God gives instructions for the Day of Atonement when one lamb would be sacrificed for the sins of the whole nation!

The picture of the whole Bible is that the only pathway to being right with God comes through the blood of the lamb that God provides!  It may sound strange, it’s difficult to believe that the blood of the lamb spread on the doorframe would save the life of the first born but the Israelites experienced it firsthand to show us the concept of substitution!

Either the lamb dies or we die!

God used the sacrifice of lambs in the Old Testament to prepare his people for the perfect sacrifice He would later provide in his own Son as we’ll soon see.

It’s so important that God’s people remember that salvation comes through the death of a substitute lamb that in verse 14 we see the decree by the Lord that this Passover meal is to be a memorial day, a feast to the Lord throughout successive generations as a statue forever.

Because it is a continual reminder of the truth that God’s people are saved from judgment through the death of a substitute.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

2 Kings 23:21-23. Josiah, one of the last kings to reign over the southern kingdom of Judah before it was destroyed in 586 BC.  He restored the Passover after it has not been kept for over 400 years.  Since the days of Samuel, before King Saul, even King David didn’t fully keep the Passover feast!

On to the second feast decreed by God in this section..

In verses 15-20 we are introduced to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins with the Passover Meal. The two go hand-in-hand and are sometimes referred to as a singular feast because they are so irrevocably linked.

All Israelite homes were to remove all leaven from the home beginning with the Passover Feast on the 14th day of the month. The Israelites were to then continue The Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven more days until the 21st of the month.  No one was to eat any leaven during this time or they would be cut off from God’s people!

This seems like a really strong penalty for eating leaven, but again, we have to look at what it symbolized!

When the blood was placed on the doorposts symbolizing the saving work of God, the leaven was also removed from the home and it was cleansed, the Israelites were to continue living in their cleansed state for seven more days, eating no leaven.
Cleansing out the leaven and abstaining from the leaven was so important because leaven, throughout the Bible, almost always represents sin.

When God’s people were saved from the judgment they deserve because of the work of the substitute lamb, they were free from the corruption of sin and they had a responsibility to live in a holy manner (symbolized by no leaven)

Which brings us to our second point that deals with the manner in which God’s people are to live revealed in the feast of the unleavened bread:

II. God’s people are identified by their holiness

God would make the importance of holy living abundantly clear to the Israelites later in the book of Leviticus.

It is God who makes his people holy by the blood of the lamb but once we have been made holy by God, then God’s people are to be holy as the Lord who saved us is holy!

See why the Passover Feast and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are so closely tied?  You can’t be holy apart from the substitutionary work of the lamb and you can’t be made holy by the lamb without responding in holy living!

That’s why in verse 17 the Lord decreed that the Feast of Unleavened Bread, like the Passover, was to be observed throughout the generations as a statue forever.   The two are irrevocably linked.  To forget the festivals was to forget and deny God!

So as one of you brothers astutely asked while we were studying this passage in the men’s Bible study Tuesday morning – Why don’t we as God’s people observe this today?

The answer is found in the NT.

Although there are several missteps and failures along the way from Moses up to the time of Jesus and even beyond, at least a few Israelites celebrated the Passover each year.

Then, when Jesus began his earthly ministry, he was about to be baptized by John the Baptist.  And in John 1:29 – when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Right from the beginning of his ministry Jesus is introduced as the Lamb of God who doesn’t just cover over the sin, he takes away the sin!

Fast foreward three and half years or so…

…probably around AD 33. Thousands of Israelites were traveling to Jerusalem from all over the region to celebrate the Passover feast.  The stories were spreading among the crowds of this “Jesus” healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, even raising the dead to life.  Could he be the promised Messiah who would free the Jews from the Roman oppression.

As the Passover crowds swelled in Jerusalem so did the anticipation of a deliverer who would remove the stranglehold of Roman rule from the throats of God’s chosen people!

Jesus too was on the way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast for the last time.  His Triumphal entry into Jerusalem is recorded for us in all four gospel accounts (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19)

As the people were throwing their garments on the ground and waving the branches in the air they were shouting!!!  And in their loud pronouncement they reveal the identity of Jesus. First, they said, “Hosanna!”

 “HOSANNA!” A Greek word, that finds it’s roots in the Hebrew. It was originally a prayer addressed to God meaning “save us now”

Then they used language of Psalm 118:25-26a “Save us, we pray, O Lord! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

It’s no coincidence that Psalm 118 was part of the liturgy used by the Jews during the Passover, but now the people were seeing its literal fulfillment before their very eyes!  As the Lamb of God who takes away sin, made his way to Jerusalem to save his people.

Jeusu, as the lamb of God, rode into Jerusalem on Sunday (the 10th day of the month) presenting Himself at the same time the Jews were selecting the Passover lamb for themselves.

Think about that for a minute! God in flesh, walked into the temple — into his house — to present himself and the people passed by, overlooked, the Lamb of God as they searched for their own Passover Lamb!

Jesus walked into the temple – the Lord’s house — and looked around and walked out. Nothing happened. I wonder what the disciples must have been thinking.  Certainly, they must have been wondering “why don’t you do something?!”

Mark 11:11, simply and blandly tells us that Jesus just walked in, looked around, and then left the city to spend the night in Bethany.

It was rather anti-climactic.

But just a few days later, on the 14th day of the month, something spectacular happened.

Turn in your Bible with me to Luke 22.  This is the first of two New Testament passages we are going to look at to see how Jesus fulfills both the Passover Feast and Feast of the Unleavened Bread.

Luke is the 3rd gospel account in the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke.
Luke 22, look at verse seven.

Luke 22:7-8 - 7 zThen came athe day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus1 sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”

Peter and John prepared the lamb so Jesus could gather indoors with his disciples for the Passover lamb. Now skip down to verse 14.

Luke 22:14-20 - 14 fAnd when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it2 guntil it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and hwhen he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 iFor I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine guntil the kingdom of God comes.” 19 jAnd he took bread, and hwhen he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, k“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, k“This cup that is poured out for you is lthe new mcovenant in my blood.3

Jesus knew what was coming but his opening words to his disciples there in verse 15 “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Even though he knew he was about to suffer and die, Jesus couldn’t wait to eat this Passover meal with his disciples.  Why?  Because Jesus, as the God-man, fully-God, took this divine dinner for Israel and applied it to his own sacrifice that he was about to make on the cross!

Exodus 12:5 tells us the Passover Lamb was free of all defects (blemish).

Listen to these words in 1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Jesus took the bread, the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, and he gave the bread new meaning.

The bread represents the body of Christ, which he voluntarily took on and unselfishly gave on the cross for the benefit of others.

A little later in 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”

God’s people are saved from judgment through the death of a substitute…. And Jesus became our substitute!

As the Lord spoke through Jeremiah, the New Covenant now provides forgiveness of sin because God provided a substitute to pay the penalty required because of sin —  His own son, Jesus.

In Luke 22:19, the disciples probably expected Jesus to pick up the bread and say something like – “this is the bread of slavery that our people ate in slavery in Egypt.”  Instead, Jesus speaks specifically of his body given “for you”, a remark that could have a sacrificial and substitution tone to it.  Jesus is the sacrifice.  Once for all.

Then as he was still sitting there in the upper room, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

The cup was a symbol of Jesus’ blood, the lambs blood, that would soon be shed to provide cleansing from sin.

Perhaps today you’re struggling to understand how the blood of Jesus, shed almost 2,000 years ago, can have any saving power. Let me assure you, the Israelites on the eve of the Passover struggled to understand how that blood brushed on a doorframe could save them from the judgment of God.

Yet, those who took God at his word  knew that judgment was coming and protection was provided under the blood of the lamb. Those who had faith in what God said, they were saved!

And it is the same for us.  If we take God at his word, that judgment is coming, and that salvation is found in Jesus alone, we will be saved by grace through faith because are lives are then marked by the blood of Jesus, our substitute!

A Christian isn’t someone who just believes there is a God and tries to be good or someone who tries to live by the Ten Commandments, none of that makes you a Christian!  A “Christian is someone who recognizes that he or she is a sinner deserving nothing less than the terrifying judgment of God and takes refuge in nothing other than the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.” (Nancy Guthrie, The Lamb of God, pg. 82)

Ask God to save you today.  You need not fear the day when we will all stand before God!  You can know that you are safe, protected by the blood of the Lamb.

But know this!

While God passed over the sins of the people in the Old Testament and He continues to be patient waiting for others to believe in Jesus, He cannot look past your sin forever!

As we read earlier as a congregation in Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

And for those who have not believed in Jesus, by faith, God will demonstrate His righteous justice.  John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

I urge you today.  Believe in Jesus and be cleansed through the work of the great High Priest, the perfect sacrifice, Jesus!

Perhaps this morning you are thinking, “but you don’t know what I’ve done, there must be something I need to do, the debt is to great.”  Perhaps you’re attempting to pay off your debt through good behavior, religious behavior, or even wallowing in your shame in a type of “self- punishment.”  But let me tell you that only ends in misery and greater debt.  We simoly cannot repay what we owe!

Praise be to God, Jesus, the spotless Passover Lamb has paid it all!!!

As I already said, the picture of the whole Bible is that the only pathway to being right with God comes through the blood of the lamb that God provides!

Why don’t we as God’s people observe the Passover today?

Because we have something new, something better!

Jesus gave the Passover Feast new meaning, true meaning!  The Passover Feast was always meant to point us to the perfect Lamb.

Notice the similar wording.  In Luke 22, Jesus speaks of “doing this in my remembrance”   This is a memorial meal.

Today we have Communion, or the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper — what ever title you prefer. It reaffirms our covenant commitment and participation in the new covenant.  It is a continual sign of the New Covenant at work in us.

Brother and sister in Christ, do you protect and uphold the Lord’s table as a sacred sign of the New Covenant?  Here are some evaluation questions:  Do you confess and repent of your sin before approaching the table so as not to blaspheme the work of Christ?  Do you reconcile broken relationships with other believers before drinking the cup or eating the bread as Scripture commands you to do?  Does our church protect the Lord’s Table by limiting participation to believers who are a part of the New Covenant?

Gathering around the table must never become mundane or boring for God’s people.

So what about:

The FEAST of the Unleavened Bread…

In the New Testament it is also tied to Jesus and his work as the Passover Lamb.

Now turn to 1 Corinthians 5.  The second New Testament passage where we see both the Passover and the unleavened bread tied to the work of Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul is telling the Corinthians how important it is for the church body to guard the church from the invasive destruction that sin brings. We as the members of the church are to guard the church from bringing disgrace upon the name of Christ by allowing those who claim the name of Jesus to not continue to live in blatant, outward, unrepentant sin.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 - 6 fYour boasting is not good. Do you not know that ga little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, hnot with the old leaven, ithe leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb! 

The Passover and feast of unleavened bread were to be an lasting observance by God’s people that would symbolically remember God passing over the sin of his people.

Once they were covered by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts they were to do very specific things in the home — unleavened bread!  We as Christians, covered by the blood of the lamb, are to live in a certain way – holy!

The command of this passage is cleanse!

Are you a Christian?  Is Jesus your lamb?  Are you under the protection of the blood? Then a couple of questions for you.  If you claim to be under the blood of Jesus, when you co-worker sins against you, do you forgive?  When someone lashes out at you in anger to do you respond in anger?  Do you like to stir up arguments and really get them going?  When your spouse treats you poorly, do you do the same to get back at them?

If the blood of Jesus has truly cleansed you, then celebrate the festival! Celebrate his work in you by continuing to keep out the leaven!

We as followers of Jesus must strive to live a holy life!  Which is how we continually observe the feast of unleavened bread today!

The wonderful news for us is that the death of the Passover lamb is not the end of the story! After the substitutionary death, Jesus rose from the grave, conquering death!  He ascended into heaven and took his place at the Father’s side.  Even this very moment he upholds the universe by the power of his Word.  He is coming again, not riding on a peaceful donkey, but on a white horse as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS!  HE will judge the unbelieving world while those who believe in him will reign with Him for all eternity.  Revelation 22:17, 20 as gospel call… 17 The Spirit and mthe Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And nlet the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the owater of life without price.  20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely sI am coming soon.” Amen. tCome, Lord Jesus!

He is the perfect Lamb of God given for our sins.

Listen to the words of John in Revelation 5

Revelation 5:11-14
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

The disciples couldn’t wait for Jesus to establish his dominion and glory and kingdom.

Someday, on that great day of the Lord, he will.

Are you longing for Jesus to establish his dominion and glory and kingdom?

May we continually say, “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

And one of the key ways we do that is:

COMMUNION

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 shows the centrality of this practice in the life of the early church.  So, after I pray we will use this passage as a guide for our time of remembrance.









Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

© Geist Community Church
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the content in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Questions? Email: church@geist.org. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: by Matt Walker. © Geist Community Church—McCordsville, Indiana. www.geist.org

Exodus 7:14-10:29 – A Powerful Preview of the All-Powerful God

This week we witnessed the devastation caused by one of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the US mainland.  Thousands of people fled for their lives just before the storm struck.   Others waited and tried to ride out the storm.  Still, others drove into harm’s way to try and witness first-hand, the power of the wind and water.   They were drawn to the thrill and unknown of experiencing raw power in action.  They wanted to see the storm with their own eyes, so they could show others its power.

As we turn again to the book of Exodus this morning we will see a powerful preview of the all-powerful God!  It’s a familiar story for many, even if you don’t know the bible very well or have never stepped foot in a church building, you’ve probably heard at least a portion of this story at some point in your life.

It’s a story that is meant to be rehearsed from generation to generation to generation so that we never lose site of God’s power, which continues to work today, to save his people from the snare of sin.

The power of God at work in the book of Exodus shows us God’s great, Fatherly love in action to rescue and redeem his children and it is a preview of His power at work in us, through his Son, Jesus.

Turn in your Bible with me to the end of Exodus chapter seven.

We are going to cover a lot of ground today. Around three and a half chapters so it’s going to be a little different than our normal Sunday mornings. I’m going to quickly highlight the end of chapter seven through the middle of chapter nine and then we’ll eventually camp in chapter nine and the first part of ten for a little while.

While you’re turning to Exodus seven let me provide some context because we are jumping into the middle of an incredible situation.

God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, have spent the past 400 years as slaves in a foreign land.  400 years of oppression, beatings, ruthless taskmasters, but God had never abandoned them. He had never forgotten them and the promises he made to them.  God was at work to bring about His perfect plan.

His perfect plan centered around a man named Moses whom God called to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt so that they could worship God in their own land.  God sent Moses and his brother Aaron to go tell Pharaoh to let the Israelite people go and God told Moses that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to him.

Think about that for a minute. God told Moses to go do something that he knew from the very beginning wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work because God had a better plan. A plan that would reveal his power to save his people.

As we saw last week, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and things didn’t go so well from their perspective.  Not only did Pharaoh not let the Israelites go (as the Lord had promised) instead, Pharaoh multiplied the work and oppression of the Israelites.

But as bad as things appeared for the Israelites, we saw how God had a purpose.

In Exodus 6:7 the Lord said to the people of Israel - “you shall know that I am the Lord your God”

God acts so that his children know that he is our Father.

God also acts so that even those who oppose him must one day submit to his judgment and power. We saw this in Exodus 7:5 “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord”

The tensions were high, the stage was set to show how God’s people and the Egyptians would know the Lord!

Here’s what we see - our first of two main points this morning:

I. People can only know the Lord through his power!  

And there are two main ways that the Lord shows his power in this section of Exodus.

A. People can only know the Lord through his power revealed through the plagues upon creation

God delivered a series of ten plagues upon the Egyptians.  Today we are going to quickly cover the first nice.

Each of these plagues seem to address a different realm of creation and perhaps a different source of pride and power among the Egyptians.

Some theologians have connected each of these plagues with a different false god of the Egyptians which wouldn’t be hard to do since the Egyptians worshiped almost every part of the creation rather than worshiping the Creator!

While there may be some sort of direct correlation to the false gods of the Egyptians, the main point is unmistakable – God’s power is revealed through the plagues upon creation!

Here’s a very quick overview of the first nine plagues.  Look down at the section that begins in 7:14.

Plague #1 – Exodus 7:14-25 – 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 yGo to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand zthe staff that turned into a aserpent. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The bLORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, cthat they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. 17 Thus says the LORD, “By this dyou shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and eit shall turn into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will fgrow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”’” 19 And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and gstretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”20 Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he hlifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the iwater in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians jcould not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But kthe magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So lPharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as mthe LORD had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.25 Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.

The water of the Nile was turned to blood, even the water that was stored in containers, blood!  The life of the Egyptian people flowed directly out of the people and now the Lord turns their source of life to blood. Perhaps an allusion to what He’s about to teach the Israelites, that the life is in the blood!

Plague #2 – Exodus 8:1-15 – 1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that nthey may serve me. 2 But if you orefuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with pfrogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into qyour bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people,2 and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4 The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”’” 5 3 And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, r‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and sthe frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But tthe magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, u“Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and vI will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when uI am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” 10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so wthat you may know that xthere is no one like the LORD our God. 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” 12 So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh.4 13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. 14 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a yrespite, he zhardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Frogs cover the land of Egypt!  Can you imagine frogs in your bed, in your kitchen, jumping on your food!  “There a hop, here a hop, everywhere a hop hop!”

Plague #3 – Exodus 8:16-19 – 16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, a‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” 17 And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and bthere were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. 18 The cmagicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is dthe finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.


Gnats cover man and beast.  We aren’t sure exactly what these gnats are but it’s pretty clear it wasn’t a fun thing to endure.

It’s important to note that Pharaoh’s magicians admitted in 8:19, “This is the finger of God.” This same phrase is found in other places (Exod. 31:18; Deut. 9:10; Ps. 8:3; Luke 11:20), where it refers primarily to the power of God, directly intervening in the affairs of men.

Plague #4 – Exodus 8:20-32 – 20 Then the LORD said to Moses, e“Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, f“Let my people go, that they may serve me. 21 Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. 22 But on that day gI will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, hthat you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.5 23 Thus I will put a division6 between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” 24 And the LORD did so. iThere came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies. 25 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” 26 But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the LORD our God are an jabomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings jabominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? 27 We must go kthree days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God las he tells us.” 28 So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. mPlead for me.” 29 Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh ncheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” 30 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. 31 And the LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. 32 But Pharaoh ohardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

Swarms of Flies! Covered everything in Egypt but not among the Israelites! Verse 23 of chapter eight tells us this signaled God making a division between his people and the people of Egypt!  This plague was bad enough that Moses seemed to counteroffer by saying that the people of Israel could go into the desert but not very far.  Although, he quickly withdrew that offer once the flies were gone.

Plague #5 – Exodus 9:1-7 – Then the LORD said to Moses, p“Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says qthe LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, rthe hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. 4 sBut the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’” 5 And the LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.” 6 And the next day the LORD did this thing. tAll the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But uthe heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Livestock killed!  Again it was only the livestock of the Egyptians that were killed!  The animals of the Israelites were kept alive!

Plague #6 – Exodus 9:8-12 – 8 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become vboils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And wthe magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 xBut the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as ythe LORD had spoken to Moses.

Boils covered the Egyptians and any of their animals that remained.  It was so bad that Pharaoh’s magicians could not even stand before Moses when he came to them.

Plague #7 – Exodus 9:13-35 –13 Then the LORD said to Moses, z“Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself,1 and on your servants and your people, so athat you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 bBut for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so cthat my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 dYou are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Now therefore send, eget your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”’” 20 Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, 21 but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field. 22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be fhail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the gLORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail hstruck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 26 iOnly in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time jI have sinned; the kLORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 lPlead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, mI will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that nthe earth is the LORD's. 30 But as for you and your servants, oI know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.” 31 (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. 32 But the wheat and the emmer2 were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) 33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and mstretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and phardened his heart, qhe and his servants. 35 So rthe heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

Hail!  God caused heavy hail to fall on Egypt that was unlike anything it had ever experienced before.  Any person or animal that was not under cover died!  And yet again, no hail fell on the people of Israel!

Notice 9:14 “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.”

9:14 “my plagues”

These plagues were not “good things” from the perspective of the Egyptians yet they were God things meant to reveal His power!  So that just as we saw back up in chapter six and seven, 9:14 – “that you may know there is none like me in all the earth.”

There’s that continuing purpose of the plagues, so that everyone would know The LORD alone is GOD!

Plague #8 – Exodus 10:1-20 – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and sthat you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, tthat you may know that I am the LORD.” 3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to uhumble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. 4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring vlocusts into your country, 5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall weat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, 6 and they shall fill xyour houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. 7 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 understand that Egypt is ruined?” 8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, y“Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for zwe must hold a feast to the LORD.” 10 But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your alittle ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.1 11 No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. 12 Then the LORD said to Moses, b“Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and ceat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 dThe locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, esuch a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and fthey ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, g“I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and hplead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.” 18 So ihe went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD. 19 And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them jinto the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. 20 But the LORD khardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

Locusts – whatever was left after the hailstorm would be destroyed by the locusts.

Plague #9 – Exodus 10:21-29 – 21 Then the LORD said to Moses, l“Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be mdarkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but nall the people of Israel had light where they lived. 24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, o“Go, serve the LORD; pyour little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.” 27 But the LORD qhardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” 29 Moses said, “As you say! rI will not see your face again.”

Darkness – pitch black darkness over the land of Egypt for three days!  But Israel had light where they lived!

God brought the plagues upon the Egyptians so that they would know Him because they experienced his power in divine judgment!

As horrific as it was, the divine judgment experienced by the Egyptians was just a mild preview of what will someday be felt by those who continue to live in rebellion against the all-powerful God!

One day the saints gathered in heaven will echo the words of Moses who witnessed this amazing power of God in Exodus because they, too, will have experienced the awesome power of God in the great day of God’s wrath that is yet to come.

Revelation 15:3 “And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!”

Look at how these plagues were to be used by the Israelite people:

The Lord told Moses in Exodus 10:2 “and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

We’ve already seen in Exodus the importance of God’s people walking in obedience to Him.  And retelling the stories of God’s power was to serve as a motivation for God’s people to obey him!

The fact that the plagues of Exodus are just a preview of the coming powerful judgment of God should serve as a strong motivation for our evangelism efforts.  In Acts two, the driving motivator of those who came to faith after hearing Peter’s sermon was to avoid the coming wrath of God.

People can only know the Lord through his power revealed through the plagues upon creation!

God’s dominion is total, his power is limitless, even over the hearts of men.  Which leads us to the second way God reveals his power in this section of Exodus:

B.  The power of God revealed in the heart of people 

There’s a significant word that appears at the end of each of the first nine plagues – that word is “heart.”

Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he refused to let the people of Israel go.

This is exactly what God had promised Moses beginning all the way back in Exodus 3 when he first appeared to him in the burning bush.

Look at this progression. Flip a few pages back to chapter three.

Exodus 3:19-20 “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.”

Clearly Pharaoh was going to be stubborn.  In his eyes, he was the god of the land.

Then, last week we saw in Exodus 4:21 the Lord told Moses “I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”

God is the one who would harden the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not let the people go.  In chapter seven, before the first plague comes, we read the same language.

Exodus 7:3-4 “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.”

The mighty hand that would compel Pharaoh is now revealed as the hand of the Lord in chapter seven!

As we scan through the plagues, what do we see regarding Pharaoh’s heart?

#1 – Water turned to blood – Pharaoh’s heart is hardened (7:14 and 22)
#2 – The frog family reunion – Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15)
#3 – Gnats invade – Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (8:19)
#4 – The invasion of flies - Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:32)
#5 – The livestock die – the heart of Pharaoh was hardened (9:7)
#6 – Boils – the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh (9:12)

When we come to Plague #7 – the hail, things really get interesting in the exchange between the Lord and Pharaoh.

Turn to chapter nine verses 15-16.

Exodus 9:15-16 “For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. [you would have died] 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.”

God placed Pharaoh in this position for a purpose!  He preserved his life for this purpose. He hardened his heart for this purpose -  To show his power and see his glory spread across all the earth!

Verse 16 of Exodus nine is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter nine as an illustration of God’s divine power over the hearts of men!

Romans 9:17-18 “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.”

The sovereign control of God over the affairs of man is one of the strongest themes of the entire book of Exodus. Perhaps no clearer than with here with his power over the heart of Pharaoh.

The text continues to provide further clarification so lets keep moving through chapter nine.

The tension seems to be building to a breaking point and then after the 7th plague, there seems to be a change of Pharaoh’s heart here.  Look down to verse 27.

Exodus 9:27-35 – 27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time jI have sinned; the kLORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 lPlead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, mI will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that nthe earth is the LORD's. 30 But as for you and your servants, oI know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.” 31 (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. 32 But the wheat and the emmer2 were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) 33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and mstretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and phardened his heart, qhe and his servants. 35 So rthe heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

Plague 7 really seemed to impact Pharaoh. After the hail fell from the sky, he confessed that he had sinned against the LORD!  The Lord was in the right and he was in the wrong!

I want you to pay attention to this! The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart but there is still a sinful culpability on the part of Pharaoh!  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart but Pharaoh is also clearly responsible for his own choices!

Here there is a divine mystery!  God hardening people’s hearts, so that he might be glorified even in judgment.   Equally mysterious is the divine mercy that he chooses to freely give to his children who deserve nothing but His wrath.

From our limited human perspective there is an unexplainable tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

As we saw last week, we must conclude as Moses did -
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

We cannot know the mind of God or fully explain this mystery but the text here in Exodus is clear.  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart for a purpose.

Amazingly in the middle of chapter nine, Pharaoh seemed to repent.

Unfortunately, his confession and repentance wasn’t real.  As soon as Pharaoh saw that the hail had stopped the end of verse 34 says “he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”

This is the path tread by so many.  Difficulty arises in life, sickness, hardship. God really turns up the heat on your life to, in his mercy, try and lead you to repentance. But as soon as the difficulty is removed, as soon as the sickness is gone, you find yourself right back where you were before.

The test of genuine repentance is the fruit produced by the Spirit in your life!  If you strive to fight sin in your life and live a holy life, regardless of life’s circumstances, then it’s a good indicator that you are truly living a life of repentance!

Exodus 10:1 further reveals the tension of Divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  The end of Chapter nine says Pharaoh and his servants sinned again and hardened their hearts.  But 10:1 says “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them.”

The bible is clear! God’s plan is perfect and His perfect plan determines the circumstances in this world.  God’s plan is never contingent upon nor determined by the circumstances that happen in this world.

People can only know the Lord through his power that is revealed through the plagues on creation and revealed in the heart of people!!!

The display of God’s power is meant to drive people to him!  To believe in him – to know him!

What separated Pharaoh from the Israelites?  Were they better people?  Absolutely not.  Where they better looking? No way. Were they smarter?  No. The only difference was the sovereign grace of God given to the Israelites.

They deserved divine judgment and so do we!  We deserve God’s just judgment and wrath because of our sin.  The only thing that separates us, makes us different from those who fall under divine judgment, is God’s divine mercy.  Sovereign grace at work in us!

You have now seen the power of the Lord on display in Exodus. Here’s the second main point now:

II. Submit to the all-powerful Lord 

Either you will submit to the powerful Lord in judgment or in salvation!

These plagues in Exodus are a powerful preview of an all-powerful God but they pale in comparison to the terrifying, final judgment of God, described in great detail in the book of Revelation.

Revelation six tells us that everyone from great kings to lowly servants will cry out to the mountains and the rocks “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev. 6:16-17)

Yet there is a way! One way to escape the coming judgment — His name is Jesus!

In Acts 16 the Philippian jailer was confronted with the power of God in an earthquake that split open the jail cells, including the one that held the apostle Paul.  The Jailer figured the prisoners had all escaped on his watch so he was about to kill himself rather than face his superiors who would kill him anyway.

But the apostle Paul cried out – “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”  (Acts 16:28)

The Jailer was amazed!  He rushed in and fell down, trembling in fear before Paul and here’s what he asked Paul “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)

Paul’s response “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

Perhaps the walls have collapsed around you in your life; perhaps you feel as though there is no way out, there is no hope, why continue on?!

There is an answer!  His name is Jesus!  

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Unlike the Grinch, whose heart was two sizes too small, apart from the work of Christ, our heart is too hard!

“Hard hearts” is the dreaded disciples disease!!  No one is immune!   Everyone is a carrier.

Think about this.

Jesus spent over three years with his 12 disciples — performing amazing miracles, teaching them all they needed to know, and modeling God-honoring living for them.  Yet, on one particular occasion recorded for us in Mark six we encounter an amazing statement.

Jesus had just taken five loaves of bread and couple of fish and fed over 5,000 people in an obvious display of his Divine power.  The people recognized this display of his power, so John’s gospel tells us they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him King.  Yet, Mark 6:52 says the disciples “did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”

Everyone is born with a hard heart. We are all born dead in our trespasses and sins as Ephesians 2 reminds us.

Yet, here’s what the Lord promised through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:26-27 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

When God grants you a new heart, when he calls you by name, suddenly, the formerly foolish truth of the cross of Jesus Christ makes sense!  It becomes powerful as it is working in you to bring about your salvation!

Cry out to Jesus today! Confess to God that you need him.  Ask him to forgive you of the many times you’ve rebelled against him and you will experience the power of God in your life as his mercy flows down on your like a river.

You won’t be able to explain it, you won’t know how to describe it but here’s what the Bible says happens when you experience the saving power of God in your life.

When you submit to the powerful Lord here are four things that happen: (There are many more)

(1) God gives you hope

“hope” - “a desire, accompanied by an expectation of fulfillment.”

We are in desperate need of hope!!

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Even in the darkest despair of life we have hope in Christ!

(2) God gives you power to live for Him

The all-powerful God gives you power.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Apart from the power of God at work in and through us, you can never be a good husband or a good wife. Apart from the power of God and work in you, you cannot overcome the addiction or the anger or the bitterness in your heart.

Colossians 1:10-11 “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;”

(3) God gives you power to Endure in Suffering 

2 Timothy 1:8-9 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”

God’s power which resurrected and exalted Christ in the past is the same power at work in your life today! No matter how impossible the circumstances of life seem at the moment, God’s power is at work. Broken marriages, prodigal children, burdensome job situations — none of these things are impossible for God to work in.

How do we know?  Through our study of God’s Word!

Read the stories of Elijah and the widow. Abraham leaving his land to go to a foreign land. Moses leading the Israelites across the dry ground of the red sea. Gideon and the fleece. Esther approaching the king. Rahab and Ruth and Sarah and Samuel…

Our study of God’s Word should lead us to a bigger view of God!  You may not see a specific application to your marriage struggles, but it’s there.  You may not see a specific application on how to be a better parent, but it’s there too. Because, as you grow in your knowledge of who God is, you will learn to trust in his power.

Think of the God that promises a glimmer of hope, hope of the seed crushing the serpent in Genesis 3:15, a seed that thousands of years later comes to pass in Christ’s death and resurrection.

That is a God that can do far more than we ask or imagine! That is the God that can work in us and through us more than we can even imagine. That is the God that can work in our marriages and our children and our families and our churches.

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

It is through the knowledge of Christ that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness!

FINALLY - #4

(4) God gives you guaranteed Eternal Life (future resurrection) 

1 Corinthians 6:14 “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”

The faith of the early church rested firmly on the hope of the resurrection!!

You can have faith in a lot of things and you can be sincere in that faith!  You can you devote your life to a good cause!  You can even believe that Jesus was a real person and died on the cross.  But if you don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you have nothing but a futile faith!

When the disciples were confronted with the resurrected Jesus, they were never the same. Before they encountered the risen Jesus they were lost sheep looking for meaning in the world.

What moved Peter from denial to devotion?  The truth of the resurrection!

Here’s what Paul says in Ephesians 3:20:  (Some of his last words in the first half of the letter before transitioning from the theology to practical living)

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”

God’s power which resurrected and exalted Christ in the past is the same power at work in your life today! No matter how impossible the circumstances of life seem at the moment, God’s power is at work. Broken marriages, prodigal children, burdensome job situations, none of these things are impossible for God to work in.

Phil 3:20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”








Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

© Geist Community Church
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the content in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Questions? Email: church@geist.org. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: by Matt Walker. © Geist Community Church—McCordsville, Indiana. www.geist.org