Exodus 11 Explained

well hey everybody i hope your tuesday is off to a great start pastor steve with you we're continuing our daily devotions that are part of our bible reading plan here at first baptist church in rock hill today we are in exodus chapter 11. i hope you've already read the chapter and written in your journal what god has said to you but if not you can do that following the devotion thank you for being with me um this is the the chapter in which god begins speaking to moses about the tenth and final plague that he's going to send on egypt the death of the firstborn sons and the firstborn of the livestock and so on but what i want to focus on are the opening verses of the chapter starting with verse 1 where the bible says now the lord said to moses one more plague i will bring referring to the death of the firstborn one more plague i will bring on pharaoh and on egypt and then after that he'll let the people go but notice that phrase on pharaoh and on egypt the pharaoh was the one refusing to obey god and do what god was directing him to do through god's spokesman moses so it was pharaoh's sin now the people were sinning in the sense that they enjoyed the benefits of the slavery of the hebrew people but it was pharaoh who was the leader but notice the plagues were sent on both pharaoh and egypt in other words it wasn't just pharaoh and his family his advisors his government officials who suffered it was the people the people of the land the people of egypt and the truth is that leaders always have an impact on the people they lead the people who for whom they are responsible that that's true in any in any institution in any field is true in the nation it's true as with pharaoh and the egyptian people with presidents and the american people um and the impact that leaders can have that presidents can have on a people is is can be both good and bad positive and negative i can personally look at some of the things that president biden has done and is currently doing and i can see some good things that come because of that and i can see bad things that come to the american people because of that i can look back at the previous four years of president trump's administration and i can see some really good things that happened because of his leadership and i can see some really bad things that happened because of his leadership and in particular his personality in the way he treated people i can look back to the eight years before that with president obama and see under his leadership good things that came to the american people and i can see a lot of bad things that came to the american people eight years before that with the second president bush i can see some good things that you know happened to us as a people because of his leadership and then i can see some unfortunate things that happened to us because of his leadership that is true of all leaders good and bad some more good others more bad but it's the reason the bible tells us as the people of god to pray for our leaders to pray for those who are in authority whether it's on a local level state level or national level to pray for our president that is also why it's important that we vote and we vote for people that we think will be the best leaders but i also want you to look at verse 3 as we think about this issue a little more closely in verse 3 the bible says the lord gave the people this is referring to the hebrew people the slaves gave them favor in the sight of the egyptians furthermore the man moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of egypt both in the side of pharaoh's servants his government officials if you will and in the sight of the people um it's interesting that the egyptian people for the most part viewed moses and the hebrew people differently than pharaoh did they looked at them with favor [Music] we are to serve god and not worry about trying to please everybody if we try to please everybody we'll make bad decisions but at the same time we we should desire that people look at us with favor and see us as a people of love and compassion see us as followers of christ as as people who genuinely love jesus and love them and unfortunately in america today not many unchurched people look at the church at large maybe local churches some local churches differently but the church at large and particularly evangelical christianity with favor and i think one of the reasons is moses just stayed true to god and the people stay true to god but if we're not careful those of us who are bible-believing christians it can come across to people like we're more true to a particular political party than we are to the kingdom of god that we love politics more than we love jesus now none of us would intentionally go there but unfortunately i think some of the things we've said and some of the ways we've behaved over the last many years have sent the message to many in america today that political party matters more than the kingdom of god and that presidents matter more than jesus people need to see us as loving jesus serving jesus and being true to him above everything and anything and they need to know that we are a people of compassion who care about them i pray for the day when god gives us great leaders i pray for the day when god gives us uh favor gives us as the people of god favor with the people in this world who are lost and going to hell i pray for the day when we talk more about jesus in his work than we do about america and what's going on in the country because it is the kingdom of god that is to be preeminent in our lives and in our thoughts that's the word for today thank you for being with me look forward to sharing with you tomorrow

Channel: First Baptist Church of Rock Hill

Views: 224

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: exodus 11 explained, exodus 11, bible, church, rock hill, steve hogg, devotion

Id: 7qNmu8iGfeQ

Length: 6min 37sec (397 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021