One More Plague, Part 5

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12, and we have been studying one last plague for many weeks, and today we're going to bring that one last plague to a conclusion. We've already looked at the prediction about this plague, and we'll go back and look at that a little bit today because what happens, particularly in our text, helps us understand what was forewarned in the past.

And so we've looked at the prediction about the plague. We also looked at the rejection of that plague, where Pharaoh outright rejected what God was going to do through the hand of Moses and through the hand of Aaron. And then we looked at the protection from that plague, how God had designed a way in which his people would be protected from the death angel. and that was through the blood that would be shed by the Lamb and put upon the doorpost and the lentil of each and every house there Goshen.

And so now today we've come to the last part, and that's the consummation of the plague. Now everything is going to come down upon Egypt because of their rejection of God's holy word. And let me remind you of a verse.

That we have shared with you many times, Proverbs chapter 29, verse number 1. A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy. When God instructs you through His Word, and when you have been warned through His Word about what is true and what you need to do, and you stiffen your neck against that. And you harden your heart against the truth of God, the Bible warns that you will soon be broken beyond remedy. A continued rejection of God by man leads to man being rejected by God, and the remedy available to man is no longer available.

And that's the case with Pharaoh. He hardened his heart against the truth of God. And on this night, in Exodus chapter 12, he would face the most devastating and severe blow. this ruler would ever face. Let me read it to you.

Exod chapter twelve, verses twenty nine down through verse number thirty six. Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not some one dead. Then he called from Moses.

And Aaron at night and said, Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go. Worship the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go and bless me also. And the Egyptians urged the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver, and articles of gold and clothing.

And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. So that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. As we look at the consummation of this plague, notice with me four things.

Number one is the death of the firstborn. Number two is the despair of the people. Number three is the deliverance of Israel.

And number four is the despoiling of the Egyptians. Those are our four points this morning. Point number one is the death of the first.

Notice what the text says. There was not one home left with someone dead. Except of course in the land of Goshen, because that's where the nation of Israel lived. And the death angel would pass over them and their firstborn would survive. But not here. You know, death is no respecter of persons, is it? It doesn't make a difference if you're the king or you're a slave girl. If you had a home with a son, he died. Because you didn't obey the word of the Lord. Because you didn't heed the warning. You didn't do what God said.

And so death came upon your home. Death also came upon the firstborn of the livestock, the firstborn of the animals, the firstborn of the cattle. Death spread. through the land of Egypt. God was serious about what he said he was going to do. Because it says in Revelation chapter 1, verse number 18, that God holds the keys to death in Hades. He 's in charge. He's in complete control of who lives and who dies. And notice, it was the firstborn.

That's important. Why? Several reasons. One is because it was their strength. The firstborn son was called the here crown prince. The firstborn son was the hope of the family. The firstborn son was the protector of the family. He would take the place of the father, so Pharaoh's son would be the next Pharaoh. Those who had positions of leadership, their sons would fall right into line. And what God was doing was slowly but surely tearing down. Their whole structure. Now, I want you to notice something.

Israel. Israel was God's firstborn. Go back if you would to Exodus chapter 4, verse number 22. Remember it. The burning bush, what God said. He says in verse number 22: You shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son. I will kill your first.

It's the same story that permeates all the plagues. What goes around comes around. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And Israel, God's firstborn son, was treated with great cruelty for 400 years. They were in slavery. They were in bondage. And they were treated with no respect. God started the nation of Israel through a man called Abraham, who was, first of all, a Gentile, until he crossed over the great river Euphrates.

Which made him now a Hebrew person, which means to cross over the river. And so Abraham became that first Jew, and from him became a multitude of people.

And God birthed that nation. They were his firstborn. And God says, if you won't let my people go, I will kill your firstborn son.

It was almost as if to reiterate. Your firstborn will die, but mine will live forever. Mine won't die. I'll protect mine, but you won't protect yours. You can't protect yours. Unless, of course. You do what I say. And Pharaoh wasn't about to do anything of the sort. And God would protect his own people. And yet, for those in Egypt, they would face a sorrow that knew no bounds. It was a terrible night in the land of Egypt. Over in Hebrews chapter 10, listen to the warning that God gives in verse number 2.

2 For if we go on sinning will after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment. And the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy in the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe a punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sacrificed?

Sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands. Of the living God. You see, we just think that God really isn't going to do what He said. And you think that Egypt would understand that after all, they've had nine previous plagues and it happened just like God said. But for some reason, they didn't think that the firstborn son would die. But he did.

And so we realize that God is true to his word. And with the death of the firstborn came the despair of the people. That's point number two.

The despair of the people. Look to what the text says in verse number 30. And Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great Cry in Egypt. For there was no home where there was not someone dead. This is the despair of the people. What caused them to get up in the middle of the night to check on their sons? What prompted him to get up? Could it be that they were thinking, maybe this is going to happen? What was it that caused these sons to die? Was there a screaming out because these boys were dying?

Or did they just happen to? Pass off into a criseless eternity in their sleep. And their parents find them unable to wake them, realizing that the death angel had passed. Upon them and killed their firstborn. I don't know. The text doesn't say. But the text does tell us that there was a great cry in Egypt. That night. A great cry. The moaning, the weeping over a tremendous tragedy. Now, I want you to notice something.

Go back to chapter 11. In chapter 11, as you recall, Moses had a conversation with Pharaoh. And he said in verse number 6, there shall be a great Cry in the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before, and such as shall never be again. Moses warned Pharaoh. About this great cry because of the death of the firstborn. There was a warning. This was a severe tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of boys died. Because of their disobedience to the word of the Lord. Thinking about this, I was thinking about the fact that Moses went to Pharaoh and told him about impending judgment.

This is the way it's going to be. You know what the sad thing about that is? Is that Moses gave Pharaoh the opportunity, one more opportunity, to repent of his sins. And he didn't do it. And now it's too late. Now it's too late. For what God said came to pass. And I think about that in our lives. You know, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 11: Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Knowing what God Himself can do, knowing who He is, what He's about, and knowing that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, we need to warn man.

And that's not a very popular message. You know, we don't find many preachers today. You preach on hell. You start talking about hell, and the Bible talks about. The furnace of fire and the weeping and gn of teeth, and you talk about the torment and the agony forever and ever. And you start talking about the place where the worm never dies, and that doesn't really draw a crowd of people, and yet. Our Lord would speak more about hell than he ever spoke about heaven. He didn't have to tell about the good part.

He just had to warn people about impending judgment in the bad part because he didn't want them to go there. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, does he? And God doesn't want man to go to hell. He doesn't want man to burn in hell because the Bible tells us that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It wasn't prepared for man, it was prepared for the devil and his angels. But Because he rejects the truth. And that's a sad thing. And yet, we want to preach messages that talk about.

Marriage and family, and love, and encouragement, and rel, and all that kind of stuff. And you know what? All that has a part. It does. And yet, what people need to hear is the truth, right? So, Christ preached about hell because it was the truth. And Pharaoh was warned of the impending judgment. Was it a popular message? No. Was it the right message? Yes. Somebody had to deliver it. Moses did. You will note that there was a great cry. There was great weeping in Egypt. Again, all the plagues are warning signs of God's impending judgment of the future.

And the weeping on the part of these people was as a result of the great loss they experienced. But there will be no greater loss than to wake up and find out. That there is a hell, and you missed heaven because you rejected the gospel. Because there will be crying, there will be weeping. Sometimes I'm not too convinced. That we as Christians think there's a hell. Because it doesn't really motivate us, does it? Maybe because we've escaped it, that we think it's all hunky-dory and we can just move on with life.

But at the depths of our evangelistic motivation is to save people from the depths of hell. That's why we preach the gospel. So they know the truth. Because that's the essence of the gospel, right? It's not, we don't preach the gospel because we want you to have a better marriage. We don't preach the gospel because we want you to have a better life. Although you will. We don't preach the gospel because we want you to feel good about yourself, or we don't preach the gospel because things in your job aren't going so good.

We preach the gospel because if you don't respond, You'll burn in hell, right? That's the bottom line. Because the sin issue needs to be dealt with. And Christ dealt with the sin issue. And if we don't accept what Christ did, then we will pay for our own sins away from Christ forever. And so you see the despair of the people. It was great. There was a great cry because the firstborn son died just like God said. The third thing I want you to see is the deliverance of Israel.

The deliverance of Israel. I guess the sad thing is it didn't have to be that way, did it? They didn't have to go that far. All they had to do was believe in what God said. All they had to do was to submit to the Lord God Jehovah. That's all they had to do. But they refused because they rejected the word of the Lord. They died in their unbelief. And so then comes the deliverance of Israel. While one nation is in despair, the other nation will be delivered, not only from that despair, but from that bondage.

Because God promised. And so it says in verse number 31, and this is so unique: it says, Then he called from Moses and Aaron at night and said, Rise up, get out! Get out! The first thing I want you to notice about this deliverance is that God was in control of all that took place.

You know, this is remarkable. For God had told Moses. Way back in chapter 6, verse number 1, these words. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. And under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land. Now for Moses to think about that in terms of its full reality had to be mind-boggling. How is Pharaoh going to drive us out? He wants to keep us here. And God was in complete control of the deliverance. He is going to move you out.

He's going to thrust you out. He's going to drive you out. Pharaoh says, get out of Egypt. Get out of here. You must leave. See that? See, God brought him to that breaking point. And although he would not submit, To what God had said. At this point, he was left with no other option because he was in such great despair. And God moved him. To right where he wanted him to be, that he would thrust out Israel from their bondage. You know, I think about that and realize that God is in complete control of everything, didn't he?

Even the people, even the Egyptians said, leave, lest we die too. They cooperated. With Pharaoh. They cooperated with the plan of God because God was moving in their lives as well. And they too wanted Israel to leave before. Before, it was not that way. And not only did God control this whole situation, but you will notice that in Pharaoh's compliance.

To all that God said, it shows us the magnitude of how God was in control of every detail. God can move in the heart of the most rebellious person alive. Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget that. Don't think that someone is so far gone that God can't move in their hearts. God can move in anybody's heart he wants to move. Remember what the book of Proverbs says? The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he moves it wherever he wills. And here he was. Take the women, take the children, take the livestock.

Just like you said, just take them all. Just leave. And then notice: what does he say? And bless me also. What is that? But isn't that not true of so many people? They want to be blessed by God, but they never want to meet the conditions for blessing. They want God to bless them in spite of their rejection. They want God to bless them in spite of their unbelief. Just bless me too. You know, you can't expect to live a shoddy life, a sinful life, and expect God to bless you. Now, it is true that God blesses in spite of us and not because of us.

But the Bible also speaks about the fact that when we honor God, And we are obedient to him, there is great blessing and reward that comes. Read Psalm chapter 1. And God wants to bless a person's life, but you can't expect to be blessed if you live in disobedience, right? And yet, so many people, even in the church, say, wow, I wish God blessed my life like He blesses their lives. Well, maybe there's something about your life that's hindering God's blessing. You know, the Bible speaks about that if we don't confess our transgressions before him, if we conceal them, we will not prosper.

But the man who confesses and forsakes them, that's the one who finds the blessing of God, right? But if you want to hold on to your sin, conceal it, God says you're not going to prosper.

And here was Pharaoh saying, You know what? Can you give me a blessing? He had his chance. And yet, in spite of that, he was still un to repent of his sins. Oh, yes. He submitted because there was nothing else he could do, but there was no repentance on his part. There was no turning from the sin at all. And lastly, notice with me the despoiling of the Egyptians.

Look what it says. Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold and of clothing. And then it says, And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let them have their request. That's amazing. We've talked to you about this before. I like to have that silver goblet. Can I have that? Yes, you can have it. Take it. I love that dress. Can I take that? Sure, it's yours.

Take it. Can you imagine that? God grant their requests. And notice something. They asked for exactly what God told Moses to tell the people to ask for. You know, we ask God for the wrong things because God never told us to ask for. But when you ask for what God says you need to ask for, guess what?

You receive. Ask, and you shall receive. James tells us you have not because you don't ask. Sometimes, you know, God wants to do some things in our lives, but because we're so foolish and stubborn that we don't ask Him. And James says, we don't have because we don't ask. And then he says, sometimes we ask to consume it upon our own lusts. And that's wrong, too. We ask for the wrong reasons. We ask because we want it, not because God wants to give it to us. And so, therefore, we need to know what the Word of the Lord says so that we know what to ask God for, right?

And these people asked. Now, it might sound a little weird to us. To ask for this? See, just leave. Who cares what you have? But for 400 years, they were treated as slaves. They didn't get what they worked for, but now God was going to give them. All this was prophesied. All this was told to Abraham by God. They will be enslaved for 400 years, but when they come out, they're going to come out with a plethora of possessions. All kind of treasures. Exodus chapter 3, verse number 20. We'll go back to the burning bush.

So I will stretch out my hand. and strike Egypt with all my miracles, and I shall do in the midst of it, and after that he that is Pharaoh will let you go, and I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. and it shall be that when you go you will not go empty handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and the woman who lives in her house articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians.

God told Moses, this is how it's going to happen. And thus they plundered the Egyptians. Now, why was it important for them to have all this gold and all this silver? Were they going to spend it? In the mall? God had a plan. God gives to you for one reason, so you'll give back to Him. Did you know that? Every time you get your paycheck, it's a gift from the Lord. So you'll give back to him. Why did God give him all those treasures? Because in the wilderness there was going to be a tabernacle that one day would become a temple.

But right now it was going to be a tabernacle. And it was going to be used in the construction of that tabernacle. And they would bring the materials that God had given to them to build what God had said he wanted to have built. And they came every morning, and they just kept giving and giving and giving. And the people said, Moses, you've got to tell them to stop giving. You're giving too much. We got more than we need. So Moses issued a command. Here it was: stop giving. We have enough. We need no more.

And the text says they had to be restrained from giving. Wouldn't it be great if every week the ushers had to hold you back? They did that because God gave them what they had. They had nothing for 400 years, and now they had their freedom as well as all kinds of material goods. They set their journey into the wilderness. And now it was time for them to give back to God. And they just kept on giving. I read that and I think, you know, for us as a believer, that's the way we should be, right? We've come from nothing.

And what do we have? We have everything. We have our Lord, His kingdom, a future with Him, and God gives us that we might give back to Him. And I'll be the first to admit that God has blessed this church over and over again because the people, for the most part, in this church, understand that principle.

And they give. And may it be that all of us would be that way, right? And I think of this whole story in the consummation of this plague and think of the fact that God gave the warning. Everything he said happened just like he said it was going to happen. Pharaoh will thrust you out, his firstborn son will die, my firstborn son will be protected. The nation itself will give to you once you ask them. So you go and ask them, and sure enough, they did, and they gave, just like God said. Everything happens just like God said.

And I want to let you know that whatever God said will happen because He said it. And as we go out to preach the gospel, God said that if you don't believe, you will perish. That's the truth. And because of our love for people and our love for God, we should tell man about impending judgment. Because what God said is true, and we believe it because we're his children. Let's pray.