The Bible from 30,000 Feet-- Soaring Through the Scripture
from Genesis to Revelation. Let's turn to the
Book of Exodus. Are you there? Good. Because we're going
to move quickly. We're flying over it, remember? So every group of
people desire freedom. America was built
on that concept of freedom-- life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. We broke from England because
we wanted the freedom to worship God according to the
dictates of our own heart and not be under the
oppression of a King. So it is with the
children of Israel. When we open up Exodus, we see
a bondage that they are in. Now if you can remember,
God promised to Abram back in Genesis chapter 15-- He said go look at the stars. And I want you to know that as
the stars are in the heaven-- and you can't count them--
so will your descendants be. In other words, you
are going to grow. You are going to be prolific. You're going to spread out. You're going to
be a great nation. But in that same chapter,
He said that your progeny-- those that you birth and when
that nation gets sizable-- they're going to be
in a foreign land. And they're going to
be there for 400 years, and they're going
to be oppressed. But I'm going to bring them
out with a strong hand. That was a setup for the book
that we are considering now, the book of Exodus. So Genesis was about four great
events and four great people. You remember them, right? The four events-- formation
of the heavens and the earth, the fall of man,
the flood of Noah-- universal flood-- the fallout
because of man's rebellion. And then for great people-- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and then finally, Joseph. Joseph, if you remember, became
the second most powerful man in the world at that time--
the prime minister of Egypt. He had a plan to save the
world during desperate times. In chapter 47 of
Genesis in verse 11, Joseph situated his
father and brothers, gave them a possession
in the land of Egypt, in the best of
the land, the land of Ramesses, as
Pharaoh had commanded. Then Joseph provided
his father, brothers, and all of his father's
household with bread according to the number
of their families. Awesome. The book closes. Years pass. 350 years pass. Joseph dies at age 110. His dad is long gone. His brothers die. Joseph's sons die. His sons' sons die. The pharaohs from that era die. And after three and a half
centuries, nobody in Egypt can remember the great
things that Joseph had done as a deliverer at one time. So when we get to Exodus
chapter one 350 years later, we are immediately confronted
with two problems-- increased population and
decreased popularity. The children of Israel
have grown immensely. They started with 70 people. Now they're up to
about 2 million people in a few centuries time. They have just filled
the land of Egypt. With the increased population
comes a decreased popularity. It threatens the stability
in Pharaoh's mind of the land of Egypt. So in Exodus chapter 1 verse 7-- "But the children of
Israel were fruitful and increased
abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty. The land of Egypt was
filled with them." Verse 8-- "Now there
arose a new king in Egypt who did not know Joseph." Now the problem begins. Ever had a job where your
first boss leaves the company? A new company buys
the company you're in. So now you have a new boss. You stay, and you
think everything's going to be the same. I'm indispensable. The first boss-- he
was so good to me. He treated me with
special favors. Now you have a new boss. He didn't care about
the old relationship you had with boss number one. It's a whole new day, right? There's a whole new company. And you're not all
that special anymore. This is happening
on a national level with the children of Israel. Now in the Book of Exodus,
we are witnessing a birth. It is the birth of a nation. The delivery room is
the land of Egypt. Births are exciting. But they're also very painful. Births are very, very painful. You know, I'll tell you. The thrill of my life was
watching my wife Lenya grow and glow with that
pregnancy of our first born and only born, our
only begotten son Nate. But what I remember--
just that growth. And it was so awesome. But the birth was painful. Not only did I see it, but I
felt that because there was one time that she punched me. She still denies it to this day. But I was in the right
state of mind, I believe. I think I remember that. So birth is painful. This birth is an exodus. The word exodus means to go out
and outgoing, a going forth. Israel entered
Egypt as a family. They are going to go out-- exodus, exit-- as a nation. Now the theme of
this book could be summed up with these two words-- redemption, revelation. Redemption and revelation
are the two grand themes of the entire book. But I'm going divide it up
for you into four parts. I'm going to give
you four words-- just like I gave you four great
events in Genesis and four great people-- four words that sum
up the book of Exodus. Domination, liberation,
revelation, identification. Now we'll get those
again next week. We're going to cover the first
two in the next few minutes. First of all,
chapters 1 through 12 is the first section
of the book of Genesis. It is domination--
domination by Egypt. Domination by Egypt. Chapters 13 through 18
is liberation from Egypt. Chapters 19 through
31 is the revelation God gives them after Egypt. He takes them to
Mount Sinai, reveals the laws they are to live by. Then finally, chapters
32 through 40-- identification, away from
Egypt or apart from Egypt. Now they are God's people. Now they identify themselves
as God's unique people, trusting only in Him. A whole new nation develops. Now those four words
describe your testimony. You were once in bondage. You were delivered
by the Savior. He forgave you of your sins. He revealed His word to you. You and I are growing in our
faith as we read His word. The revelation of God as
part of our ongoing process. And identification--
we see ourselves as children of
God, a new kingdom. We're under the kingship
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Exodus, though it
is 350 years later, it begins by showing us that
this is not a new story. This is the continuation
of an old story. So it begins-- even though
I went into verse 7 and 8-- if you just glance back
at verse 1, it says "And" or "Now" in the New King James. But in Hebrew it's
the word "and." "And these are the names-- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
is the Hebrew. In fact, that is the name
of the book in Hebrew. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And you
go, well, what does that mean? It means "and these
are the names." So if we were in a synagogue,
I would say let's turn to the book of And
These are the Names. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] But we call it Exodus because
that is the Septuagint name. And it has stuck. And it's a better
name, I think-- the book of Exodus. "So these are the names
of the children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man in his household
came with Jacob." Now let's jump to the heart of
the problem, verse 9, chapter 1. "He, Pharaoh, said
to his people, look, the people of
the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal
shrewdly with them lest they multiply, and it
happen in the event of war that they also join our
enemies and fight against us and so go up out of the land-- or have an exodus. Therefore, they set
task masters over them to afflict them
with their burdens." There are, we believe, about
2 million conservatively Jews in the land of
Israel at this time. They started out with 70. There's about 2 million. How do we know this? Because the number
600,000 men is mentioned in the book of Exodus. 600,000 men were counted
apart from their wives, apart from their children. So conservatively, we
can say a good number-- about 2 million people probably. So Pharaoh comes up with
a plan to deal with this. How do you deal-- he thought. How do you deal with
the Jewish problem? Does that phrase ring a bell? That is what Adolf Hitler
called the proliferation of Jews in Europe at his time--
the Jewish problem. And Pharoh's approach was not
dissimilar to Adolf Hitler's approach. First of all, he thought,
let's oppress them. Let's make life hard for them. So verse 13-- it
says, "The Egyptians made the children of
Israel serve with rigor." Now into chapter 2-- again, these 70 descendants
have become 600,000 men, or 2 million people. He oppresses them, making
them serve with rigor. But his second approach besides
just oppressing them is let's just eliminate them. Let's kill them
when they're born. It's perhaps the first-- at least biblical-- example
of state-sponsored genocide. Every male child that is born,
he commands the midwives, toss them in the Nile River. Get rid of them, so that the
population won't increase. So that is the command. Now what the Holy Spirit
does is interesting. As the story
continues and you have all of these people
in the land of Egypt, the lens of the Holy Spirit
focuses on a single couple, a single Jewish couple. Their names are
Amram and Jochebed. They are the parents of a little
baby that is born called Moses. And the Holy Spirit is setting
us up for a deliverance. Before there is a
deliverance, the deliverer is seen in these chapters. So these next couple
chapters are about that. The baby is born in verse 2. It says, "When she-- that is Mama-- saw that
he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months." It's interesting
that Moses appearance is described in this verse. It says, he was a
beautiful child. Now what's
fascinating about that is you know who the author
of this book is, right? [LAUGHTER] Not knocking it. I just think it's
kind of interesting. Oh, by the way, I was
a beautiful child. My mama said so. So she hid him three
months in the reeds. Let that little boat
go down the river. You know the story. It's so familiar. Pharaoh's daughter
was out bathing with her handmaidens,
picked up that little baby, got Hebrews to raise him. The Hebrews that
she got to raise him were Moses's own mother. And she was I paid for
it by the government. Verse 9-- "Pharaoh's
daughter said to her, take this child away. Nurse him for me, and I
will give you your wages. So the woman took the
child and nursed him. And the child grew,
and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son." This is legally became her son. "So she called his name
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]"--"-- that's the Hebrew term,
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]---- "Moses"-- it was the name
given by Pharaoh's daughter to the baby,
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] means 'to draw out-- "saying because I drew
him out of the water." Moses is perhaps the
most remarkable man who has ever lived next to Christ. There's a book that was written
several years ago called The Jewish 100. I've referred to it
Before Michael Shapiro, a Jewish author, was its author. And he writes about 100 of
the most influential Jews. And he ranks them. Number one in his book is Moses. Now it wouldn't be in our book. The most influential Jew
to us wouldn't be Moses. He might rank second or third. But Jesus would be. In Shapiro's book--
he's unconverted. He is Jewish. Moses ranks number one. He was the law giver. But interesting in
his book, he ranks Jesus Christ as number
two and Albert Einstein as number three. Also, just FYI, Paul the Apostle
makes the list at number six followed by Karl
Marx at number 7. And for sports fans, pitching
great left-handed Dodger pitcher Sandy
Koufax at number 98. Man, I'd have ranked him
a lot higher than that. That's because I grew
up watching him pitch, and he was awesome. It has nothing to
do with the text. Chapters 2 and 4-- 2, 3, and 4 of Exodus are
all about Moses's upbringing in that household of Pharaoh's
daughter and Pharaoh himself. It would not be an
overestimate to say that Moses was a
child who grew up with a golden
spoon in his mouth. I mean, he was
rich and powerful. The book of Hebrews
says that he enjoyed all the riches of Egypt. That is, the wealth
of Pharaoh's household was at his own disposal. If you know anything
about Egypt, you know that the culture,
even at that time, was a very progressive culture. The theory of the round
earth-- you know, the earth was thought to be
flat for a long time. Way back thousands
of years ago, one of the first groups that
believe the earth was round were Egyptians. That was their theory. They also interestingly
calculated-- and were almost exactly
accurate-- the distance of the earth to the
sun way back then. And they were
advanced in chemistry. Witness their
embalming procedures. If you go to world
class museums, you'll be able to
see the sarcophagi with inside the remains
of those who were buried, like the ancient pharaohs. And you can still see their
hair and their skin preserved by Egyptian embalming. Egypt was known for
its famous university. Maybe even Moses went to that. It was called the University,
or the Temple, of the Sun. It was the Harvard
of the ancient world. So Moses becomes
the adopted grandson of the pharaoh who is
in power at that time-- meaning, according to
Josephus, the Jewish historian, Moses would have been next
in line for the throne. Why? Because according to
Josephus, this pharaoh had no sons, only daughters. So this adopted grandson would
place him in prime position for being the next
pharaoh of Egypt. But something happened. He, Moses, found out
that he was Jewish. And one day, he's out, and
he's watching Egyptians beating a Jewish person. And so he kills the Egyptian
and buries him in the sand, thinking that no one has seen. It's interesting. It says he looked this way,
and he looked that way, and then he killed the Egyptian. His problem is he looked
this way and that way, but he didn't look that way. God saw the whole thing. And Moses didn't know this. But somebody else
saw it as well. Because the next
day, after he buries the evidence of his murdered
victim, he's walking, and he notices to
Hebrews arguing. And he says, hey, what
are you arguing about? And one of them said, what? You want to be lord over us? Are you going to
kill us like you killed the Egyptian yesterday? Now, this stopped Moses
dead in his tracks. He didn't know that they knew. And because they
knew, others knew. And eventually,
Pharaoh got wind of it. So Moses had to run
away from Egypt to flee. And he flees-- I mean, he runs. He runs all the way
across the desert into the Arabian Peninsula
to a land called Midian. Exodus 2:23-- "It happened
in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned
because of the bondage, and they cried out. And their cry came up to
God because of the bondage." So here's what I
want you to notice. There's a lot of them. They're numerous. The population is increased. But they are not strong. They are weak. They are feeling oppressed. They are helpless. They are hopeless. So, verse 24, "God heard"-- I love this-- "God heard their groaning. God remembered His covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob. And God looked upon
the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them." Meanwhile, Moses,
far away from Egypt in Midian, that Arabian desert,
finds a girl, falls in love. Her name is Zipporah. Zipporah is the daughter of one
Jethro, the priest of Midian. So for the next 40 years,
Moses, the favorite son of Pharaoh at one time,
is now out in the desert punching a clock for a shepherd. He's just a shepherd guy
working for a guy who has a bunch of flocks, his
father-in-law named Jethro. It's been well said that you
could divide Moses's life up into segments of 40 since he
lived to be 120 years old. For the first 40 years, Moses
went to school, got famous, got wealthy, and
tried to be something. For the next 40
years, God took him to the backside of the
desert where he finally realized he was nothing. And the next 40 years,
God showed Moses that he could take nothing
and make something out of him. And that's what He does. That's the story of
his life personally. So the time of
deliverance has come. They cry out to the Lord. What does God do? Does he send the angel Gabriel? Nope. He sends an 80-year-old failure,
an ex-murderer, an ex-con, who's washed up and
has spent 40 years as a shepherd in the
middle of nowhere. Now when Moses least
expected it, God interrupts, through what? A talking bush, a burning bush. You know, the
burning bush story. But this is a very
interesting bush because it knows Moses's name. And whenever you have a bush
yelling at you, you stop. And you pay attention,
especially when that bush is burning but not being consumed. So Moses turns aside to see it. Now according to
rabbinic tradition, it was the acacia bush, or
the thornbush of the desert. To me, that's just suggestive. Because remember when
God cursed the earth? He said, thorns and thistles
it will bring forth. It was emblematic. Thorns are emblematic
of the curse. So here's a thornbush
burning as God gets a deliverer ready
to deliver people from their bondage into freedom. And now I'm going to
fast forward a couple thousand years to
the New Testament when Jesus our
lamb had a thorn-- a crown of thorns on his
head, emblematic of the curse that he would come
to deliver us from. Exodus 3, verse 10-- "Come now"-- the Lord
says through this burning encounter-- "Come now, therefore, and
I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Now those are the last words
Moses ever wanted to hear. He's been away 40
years from Egypt. Now God says, you're going back. Now you're a failure shepherd. Now you're 80 years old. You're going back, and
you're the deliverer. He never wanted to hear that. He's probably going I
don't want to go back. Did you notice the two
words in that verse? "Bring"-- notice
that in verse 10-- and "out." Bring out-- there's the exodus. That's what it means-- to bring
out, to go out, to go forth. Verse 11-- "Moses
said to God, who am I that I should go
to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children
of Israel out of Egypt." I want you to mark those
words because those are words some of you have said. You have yearned
for God to use you. But then you get all worried
about your own failures and your own incompetence
and your own lack of courage. And you go, who am I? Some of you are
Moses in the making. And God has great
things for you. You just need to let him take
you through that encounter. Now Moses asks a very
natural question. In verse 13, "Moses
said to God, indeed, when I come to the children
of Israel and say to them the God of your fathers has sent
me to you, and they say to me, well, what's his name,
who shall I say to them? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses,
I AM WHO I AM. And He said, thus you shall
say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. Moreover, the Lord
said to Moses, thus you shall say to
the children of Israel, the Lord God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham-- patriarch-- the God of Isaac-- patriarch-- and
the God of Jacob-- patriarch. The first three of the
four figures of Genesis. The God of Abraham, God
of Isaac, God of Jacob has sent me to you." He's reminding Moses of the
covenant he made back then. "He says, this is
my name forever. This is my memorial
to all generations." What name? I AM that I AM, probably
best translated Yahweh. Yahweh is the Hebrew word
that means I AM WHO I AM. Yahweh-- we think it's
pronounced that way. We're not exactly sure
because we're only left with four consonants
in the Hebrew texts. The four letters
called tetra-- four-- gramaton, the four letters. The YHWH. But we think it's the
name of God as Yahweh. Now the name Yahweh-- He introduces Himself
I AM WHO I AM. Maybe a good way to look at it
is it means the Becoming One-- the Becoming One. That is, God will become to you
whatever your greatest need is. God is so big, God is so
powerful, God is so vast, that He will become
to you who He is but in your time
of greatest need. For example, in the Bible, He is
sometimes called Yahweh Yireh-- or as they used to say
it in the King James. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord-- Yahweh-- the Lord is our provider. The Lord provides. He will become your provision
when you need provision. Also He is called
Yahweh Tsidkenu, which means righteousness. The Lord will become
your righteousness when you are unrighteous. When you feel weak
and you need a banner, He will become Yahweh
Shammah, the Lord our banner, our strength. Something else about this name-- in John 8, Jesus lays
claim to this name when he says before Abraham was, I AM. Not I was, I AM. He assumes the divine name
of God in that chapter. Well, God calls him. Chapter 4 are Moses's excuses. Excuse number one? What if they don't
believe me, God? That's a fair argument. What if they don't believe me? God says, OK. What's in your hand? Moses said, a staff, a stick. He goes throw it on the ground. It becomes a snake when he does. Then he is instructed to
bend down and touch its tail and grab it by the tail. As soon as he does, it
turns back into a stick. Now that's a cool trick. I'd like a snake that did that. I'd like a walking
stick that did that. So what if they
don't believe me? You got this cool snake stick. Pull that baby out. But he has another excuse. He goes, who? M-m-m-m-m-m-me? That's essentially what he says. He goes, I can't talk. He says, in this chapter,
I am slow of speech. Those are his words here. I never went to high school
or college speech class. He probably stuttered. So God says, Moses,
who made man's mouth? I did. If I made your mouth, I can
make words to put in your mouth. Go. But Moses is not done. He has yet another
excuse, same chapter. He just says, send
somebody else. Now that's the real problem. Now we're dealing with
the heart of Moses. Send somebody else. So Aaron becomes
the spokesperson, and the contest begins. Chapter 5 through
11 is the contest, the great confrontation
between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh, the leader of that
part of the world, especially Egypt. Moses confronts Pharaoh. And the confrontation
includes 10 incredible, miraculous
plagues of Egypt. Why 10 plagues? What is God up to with these 10
incredible, miraculous plagues? God is executing judgment on
the false religious system of Egypt. I know that because in
chapter 12, verse 12, it said, "Against all
the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord." Now we're not there yet. So in chapter 5,
look at chapter 5. Look at one verse-- verse 2. This is the setup for the
plagues you'll understand why. Verse 2-- "Pharaoh
said, who is the Lord?" You see, Moses comes to him
and says, thus says the Lord, let my people have an exodus. Let them exit. And his question--
"Who is the Lord that I should obey his
voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord-- Yahweh-- nor will
I let Israel go." So his question is,
who is the Lord? And it's like Moses said,
well, since you asked, here is your answer. And plague after
plague after plague after plague hammer
the nation of Egypt to answer the question,
who is the Lord? Oh, He's that Lord. Oh, He can do that stuff. Oh, you don't want to
mess with that guy. And it is a judgment
on the false gods-- as you will see-- and
goddesses of Egypt. So Moses asks nicely. The response is,
who is the Lord? Now Pharaoh turns up the heat. Pharaoh responds to
the request to go by upping the quota that
these Hebrew slaves-- that's what they were in Egypt,
these 600,000 men and wives and kids-- he ups the quota of bricks
that they are to produce. And then he cuts
out the straw that was meant to fortify
the adobe bricks. By the way, adobe is such
a terrific built building material. You know, it's pretty
common in this state. And I don't know if you've ever
been in the middle of summer in a real adobe house,
it's like don't need AC. It's just like, wow, it's
amazingly cool and resilient. So so much of the building--
the temples, the graves, some of the tombs, not
the fancy Pharaoh tomb, but some of them-- were
all made out of adobe. So the fortification
of the straw made those bricks heftier. Now he cuts out the straw. He makes the quota
of bricks larger. And by the way, archeologists
have discovered-- if you know anything
about the Middle East, you can see these brick
walls in several sections-- they have found brick walls
from this time period. And the bottom layer is
pretty hefty adobe bricks laced with full length
pieces of straw. But as you go up the
wall, there is no longer straw but stubble
weeds that they had to pick up and
put into that mud. And then as you go up higher,
there's nothing at all but mud. So it corroborates what
the biblical text says. Now the 10 plagues that are
in the next few chapters. Let me just go
through them quickly. Number one-- water
turns to blood. What's that all about? It's about the Nile River. The Nile River was the
source of life to them. It was the greatest
natural resource. And the god Osiris
was over the Nile. He was called the
father of life-- the father of life. There was even a hymn sung
to the god of the Nile. Hail to thee, O Nile,
that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive. So this was a judgment on
Osiris, the god of the Nile. Second one-- now
that's chapter 7. Chapter 8-- frogs
cover the land. Pretty gross. I like frogs but not everywhere. And that's where they
were-- everywhere. Remember the song
Jeremiah was a bullfrog? Well, he wasn't. Heqet was the bullfrog. Heqet was the goddess of
Egypt who embodied the frog. There was even a special
temple to Heqet in Memphis to her worship. And here's what made
the plague worse. It was a major offense
to kill a frog. So you think, oh, I got frogs. Easy. I'll just bat them. I'll play baseball. I'll play golf with them. No, you won't. You won't touch them. If you're an Egyptian,
it was a major offense. Also, in chapter 8,
the dust becomes lice. This was a judgment
on Geb the earth god. In verse 17, it says
the dust became lice throughout the land of Egypt. Plague number four--
a swarm of flies. Some scholars believe the
flies were the scarab beatles. And they were found in many of
the tombs, the graves of Egypt. It was a symbol of
Egyptian eternal life. So at this point, plague
after plague after plague, Pharaoh's attention
has been gotten. And Pharaoh now
wants to negotiate-- chapter 8, verse 25. He says, go. Go sacrifice. But don't leave the land. Do it in the land of Egypt. That's his first negotiation. Then verse 28, he says,
go out into the wilderness but don't go very far. And he also adds this footnote
in verse 28, pray for me. Intercede for me. When we get to chapter
9, the plagues continue. Plague number five is disease,
sometimes translated murrain-- a disease that affects
livestock, especially cattle. This was aimed at the
god Apis, the bull. Now keep that in mind-- Apis the bull because
the children of Israel are going to build a
golden what later on? Calf. Probably reminiscent
of this god of Egypt. Apis the bull, called
Mnevis in Greek culture-- the judgment was to show
the ineptness of that god. Also in chapter 9, boils. Ashes were thrown into the
air, turned into sores. By the way, Egyptian
priests used to throw soot in the
air, ashes in the air, as a means of blessing people. Now the blessing
turns into a curse. Also, number seven in that
same chapter, hail and fire mingled with hail that
fell from the sky. Why? To demonstrate God's
power over the sky goddess called, get this, Nut. N-U-T. It's
appropriate in my view. It's a nut job god. Can't do anything. Chapter 9, verse 27. Pharaoh sent and called for
Moses and Aaron and said to them, I-- now, watch this-- I have sinned this time. What? I sinned this time. This is called selective
memory disorder. You sinned every time. I've sinned this time. I've really blown it. And then he says, the
Lord is righteous. And my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord that there may
be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go. And you shall stay no longer. That's good news. Man, this is repentance. No, it is not. It's an emotional reaction. Because down in verse
34, when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail,
and the thunder ceased, he sinned yet more. And he hardened his heart,
he and his servants. Verse 35, so the heart
of Pharaoh was hard. Neither would he let
the children of Israel go, as the Lord had
spoken by Moses. OK, so he almost did,
but now he didn't. So the Lord's answer,
two more plagues. Chapter 10, locusts. Locusts come in
and eat everything left by the hail that
was mingled with fire. Now, most experts
in the field believe that this locust was called
the short horned grasshopper. These particular grasshoppers
breed in deserts. They reproduce rapidly. They migrate long distances. They can travel in columns
of hundreds of feet. And the swarm can last
for about four miles. Imagine a four mile,
100-plus foot column of dark cloud coming at you. That's the swarm of locusts. When they appear, it looks like
there's an eclipse of the sun, things get so dark. When they leave, the
trees have been stripped and the land looks like it
has been scorched with fire. A couple of examples of this. 1866, locusts invaded
Algiers, Northern Africa. That's the capital of Algeria. 200,000 people
died in the famine that ensued after the plague of
locusts in the following days. The worst on record, the
worst locust plague on record, is 1951 in the
Middle East, in Iran. Every green thing was devoured
for hundreds of thousands of square miles. It is still considered
the worst in history. Plague number nine was darkness. As the chapter
continues, the darkness came not on Israel, but on
Egypt, on the Egyptians. God is very selective
in these plagues. Now, the darkness isn't just
like the cloud cover over the sun like we had today. It was a darkness, it says,
that can be felt. The text says, darkness that can be felt.
This was aimed at Ra, R-A, Ra, the sun god, one of the
principal deities of Egypt. According to the Babylonian
Talmud-- interesting tidbit-- the Babylonian Talmud
said that God sometimes reserves the
judgment of darkness on particularly evil events
or on historic evils of epic proportions. God will reserve the
judgment of darkness for unusually wicked sin. Now, to me, that's interesting. Because the Bible speaks
of another darkness when probably the worst
thing ever happened, when people decided to reject
the Savior of the world and put him on a cross
and get rid of him. Darkness covered the land. That is found in other
historical records besides the Bible,
three hours of darkness. Chapter 10, verse 27. But the Lord-- watch this--
but the Lord hardened pharaoh's heart. And he would not let them go. Now, this is worth remarking. For the first five plagues,
the first five plagues, the text says, pharaoh
hardened his heart. He hardened his heart. He just dug his heels
in, rebelled against God. But in the sixth
plague, and not until, we are told that God
hardened his heart. Now, the word for God
hardening his heart is the Hebrew word [HEBREW]. It means to strengthen
or to make firm. So it's just like
God saying, OK, that's the position
you're going to take? I'm going to confirm or
make firm your hardness. Now, I believe
that God does that. I believe that if you make
a choice away from the Lord, and you dig your heels in,
and you harden your heart, God will harden that,
confirm that, enable that. If you make a step toward
him to soften your heart, God will make firm that. God will help you in that. God will enable that to happen. And that's what we see here,
God responding to the decisions that pharaoh is making. Now, these plagues,
all of them totaled, probably lasted between
three and six months. But we're not done yet. There is an ultimate plague. And that is plague number 10,
the death of the firstborn. That takes us to chapter 12. This is the climax of
the Book of Exodus. On this night, it
was the splattering of lamb's blood on
lentils and door posts of homes that caused the death
angel to pass by or pass over. Chapter 12, verse 1, now the
Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
this month, this month, shall be your
beginning of months. It shall be the first
month of the year to you. So the calendar is now changed
to correspond to the new season of life called redemption. And can I just say that the
term born again perfectly sums up what happens
when a person gives his or her life to Christ. You get a whole new life. And you reorient your
life accordingly. Redemption changes your
calendar, so to speak. Clears everything up. It's the beginning of days
to you, as it was for them. Speak, verse 3, to the
congregation of Israel, saying on the 10th day of
this month every man shall take for himself a lamb-- according to the house of his
father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is
too small for the lamb, then let his neighbor
next to his house take it according to the
number of the persons. According to each man's need
you shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb, verse 5,
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the
sheep or from the goats. Now, I want you to just
notice what we just read. Verse 3, a lamb. Verse 4, the lamb. Verse 5, your lamb. To some people Jesus--
oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a lamb. I've heard about
what He has done. I know many people believe
that He died on a cross. But then, for some people,
they get a little more serious. No, no, He's the lamb. There's nobody like Jesus. But it's not until
He becomes your lamb, where you personally
receive Him as your Savior-- not your dad's, not your
mom's, not your brother's, not your sister's, not
your kid's, your lamb-- is He your lamb? Has He redeemed you of your sin? Do you have your own personal
relationship with Him? Down to verse 40. I think it sums it up. Now, the sojourn of the children
of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. Back in Genesis, it
said, your descendants will be in this land 400 years. That was round number. Now, it's a specific
number, 430 years total. It came to pass at the
end of the 430 years. On the very same
day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord
went out-- notice those words. Went out, exodus--
from the land of Egypt. Now, this 10th plague. The people in the house were
protected by one thing, blood. Blood. They weren't protected by race. Well, I'm Jewish. So what? If you don't have lamb's
blood on, you're dead. Your firstborn are going to die. And if you were
Egyptian, but you're having dinner at a
Jewish person's house that night and blood gets
applied, you get spared. It's the blood that
made the difference. Not the race, not the genealogy,
not how good you were. It's only blood. Verse 24, back up
there it says, and you shall observe this
thing that is Passover as an ordinance for you
and your sons forever. So it is-- Passover has two roles,
commemorative and predictive. You commemorate the deliverance
from Egypt, if you're Jewish. But also it is predictive of-- behold the Lamb of God,
Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world. 1 Corinthians 5, Christ our
Passover was slain for us. So it's prophetic of
our deliverance as well. Now, the rest of
chapter 12 and 13-- they pack their bags, and
they get ready to leave. And it says, they
plundered the Egyptians. They plundered them. Remember God said,
Abram, when they go out-- they're going to be
slaves for 100 years. When they go out,
they're going to go out with great possessions,
great plunder. Here it is. They plundered the Egyptians. Now, at this point,
pharaoh changes his mind. The very guy who said,
go out, says, come back. And God is arranging it all. Look at chapter 14, verse 4. God said, then I will
harden pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over
pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may
know that I am the Lord. Now, down in
chapter 13, verse 21 is the mention of
this odd pillar that goes before them,
and then behind them, and then accompanies
them for the next 40 years in the wilderness. It's a pillar of cloud by day
for shade in the desert sun. If you don't have
shade in a desert, especially with 120 degrees
as your ambient temperature, you're not going to
make it 40-- you're not going to make it four months. So God gave them, graciously,
a cloud cover during the day and a pillar of fire by night,
God's flashlight by night. Chapter 14 and 15 is the
epic crossing of the Red Sea. Some people have
trouble with this. But some people have trouble
with everything in the Bible, every story in the Bible. Again, if you can believe
Genesis 1 verse 1, the rest is easy. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the Earth. If he can do that,
clearing up a Red Sea, or stopping it up, or
damming it up, not a problem. Am I right? Chapter 14, verse 29. But the children of Israel
had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea. And the waters were
a wall to them. Notice that, a wall. There has got to be
substantial body of water on their right hand
and on their left. So the Lord saved
Israel on that day out of the hands of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead on the sea shore. All sorts of naturalistic
explanations. I have studied them
and taught them when we were in
Exodus last time. All of them, in my
view, fall short of an adequate explanation
other than it was a miracle. Chapter 16 and 17 is
their trek to Mount Sinai, which we're going to pick up
next time in chapter 19 onward. But 16 and 17, they
travel to Sinai. And a shift takes place in
the heart of redeemed people. And see if this
mirrors some of us. They go from glory to groaning. They saw the glory of God. But you know what? That was then. I'm walking every
day in this desert. And it's hot. And I need water. And I need food. So they start complaining. And every time I read
this, I reminisce. I had three brothers, mom
and dad and four boys. And my dad would drive us from
Southern California to New Ulm, Minnesota sometimes. He didn't like to
stop for hotels. Too expensive. So he'd just gas up
and drive through. A rambler station
wagon, no air condition, four boys in the back. Does that spell trouble? Oh, with a capital T. So that happened
on a grand scale. So God feeds them with manna
from heaven, bread from heaven, water from a rock. Chapter 16, verse 14,
and when the layer of dew lifted there on the
surface of the wilderness was a round, small
substance, as fine as the frost on the ground. And when the children
of Israel saw it they said to one
another, what is it? For they did not
know what it was. That's what you say when you
don't know what something is. What is it? Moses said to
them, this is bread which the Lord has given you. We believe the word man,
M-A-N, was an Egyptian word-- in fact, Arabs to this
day have the word man, referring to a
sweet, sticky juice from a shrub in the desert. Maybe that little
white juice was reminiscent from the
lore that is passed down from the manna in the desert. Verse 31. Let's move along. Verse 31, the house of
Israel called its name manna. And it was like
white coriander seed. The taste of it was like
wafers made with honey. Man, this was God's baklava. [LAUGHTER] This was God's
Krispy Kreme donuts. And if it's in the desert,
it's hot now all the time. So according to Numbers
31, just a little preview, they fixed it a number of ways. And Mrs. Moses
probably had 1,001 ways to cook manna for all the wives
in the desert for those years. Chapter 17, water
came from the rock. And though there was bread
from heaven and water from a rock, all miraculous, the
children of Israel complained. They complained. God fed them. They complained. God gave them water. They complained. It takes a heavenly appetite
to enjoy heavenly food. And if you don't have
a heavenly appetite, you will complain when
heavenly food is given. It takes a heavenly appetite
to enjoy heavenly food. And so the question is
always, how hungry are you? You're hungry. I know you. I mean, look at-- this
is Wednesday night. Look at this place,
filled with hungry people. Takes a heavenly appetite
to enjoy heavenly food. Chapter 18, where
we're going to close. Moses has a meeting
back in Midian, back with Jethro, his
father-in-law, who he had spent 40 years working as a shepherd. Now, he wants to let Jethro
know what God has done. He thinks Jethro,
his dad-in-law, is going to be really proud. Verse 13, so it
was on the next day that Moses sat to
judge the people. And the people stood
before Moses from morning until evening. Jethro is watching this. When Moses' father-in-law saw
all that he did for the people, he said, 'atta boy, Mo. You are awesome. You work harder
than anybody I know. He said, what is this thing
you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit,
and all the people stand before you from
morning until evening. And Moses said to
his father-in-law, because the people come
to me to inquire of God. I'm awesome. And when they have a
difficulty, they come to me. And I judge between
one and the other. And I make known the
statues of God and his laws. And Moses' father-in-law
said to him, the thing that you do, not good. Both you and these people
who are with you will surely wear yourselves out, for this
thing is too much for you, and you are not able
to perform it yourself. One person, no
matter how gifted-- one person can't
do ministry alone. I don't care how
awesome he or she is. It takes a team. It takes others
that you invest in. And you give ministry away. What Jethro saw bothered
him, because Moses turned into a problem shuffler. He was the executive
branch, the judiciary, and the legislative branch all
rolled into a single person. It would kill him. Verse 19, listen to my voice. I'll give you counsel. And God will be with you. Stand before God for
the people, that you may bring the difficulties to God. You will teach
them the statutes. You'll teach them
the word, the laws, and show them the way
in which they must walk, the work they must do. Moreover, you shall select
from all the people able men such as fear God, men of
truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be
rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, rulers of tens. Verse 23, if you do this
thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure. All this people will go
to their place in peace. So Moses heeded the voice
of his father-in-law and did what he said. Now, I'm closing. We're done reading. Why the drama? Why all the drama with
the children of Israel? Why all the persecution? Why were they almost
destroyed by Egypt? Please note this. It is part of spiritual warfare. This is the drama played out
from Genesis to Revelation. Here's the premise. If God's plan of
redemption required the existence of a nation and
the continuance of that nation, if you can destroy
that nation, you will destroy God's
plan for the world. That's the warfare played
out in the panorama of biblical history. The first move to
exterminate the seed that would crush the head
of Satan, Genesis 3:15, was Cain killing Abel. God bypasses those two,
goes right to Seth. But then the world gets wicked. God judges the whole world
it was so bad at one time. Except Noah. Noah found grace or
favor in the eyes of God. But third, Satan motivated
Esau to kill Jacob. Why? Because he was the
son of promise-- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. The younger will be
served by the older. Esau didn't like that. Tries to kill him. Now, pharaoh wants to destroy
all the male babies born who are Jewish. It won't be the last time. Herod is going to try it again. Why? To exterminate the
seed, the nation, that brings forth the deliverer. Not Moses, Jesus. It's all a spiritual warfare,
punch and counterpunch, to destroy the Jews. Because God's plan of
salvation and redemption requires the existence
of the nation and the continuation
of that nation. Enough said. Let's pray together. Father, how we thank you
for our own personal exodus. Thank you, Lord, that you
raised up a deliverer. And when we were in bondage,
we needed liberation, Jesus was revealed to us by a
friend, or through a sermon, or at a concert,
or at a crusade. And we have been
freed from that. And then, Lord, you
revealed to us who you are. And you still do that. And now we identify
as people of God, sons and daughters
of the living God, royalty who will rule and
reign with you forever. Lord, thank you for
your story of redemption that has been woven
into our story of our own personal redemption. Lord, we don't just want
to commemorate the Lamb. We want to commemorate
and honor our Lamb. And I pray that everyone
here will have a relationship with Him in Jesus' name. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit CalvaryNM.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from the Bible from 30,000 feet.
