Prelude to the Plagues

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Exodus chapter 6. And we continue our Study through this great and wonderful second book of the Bible.

God had told Moses that now is the time He was going to show him His power. Now was the time for him to go to Pharaoh and he would be able to describe to Moses and display to Pharaoh His great might. Moses had already been given the mandate to go, and now he's going to be able to display the might and the power. God. Exodus chapter 6, verse number 14, is where we left off last time. These are the heads of their fathers' households, the sons of Reuben, Israel's firstborn. Hanak and Pele, Hezron and Carmi.

These are the families of Reuben and the sons of Simeon, Yem, and Yam, and Oh, and Yaak, and Zohar, and Sha, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon, and these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations Gersh, and Koath, and Merar. And the length of Levi's life was one hundred and thirty seven years. The sons of Gershon, Lib, and Sheme, according to their families. And the sons of Koh Amram and Is, and Hebron, and U, and the length of Koh's life was one hundred and thirty three years.

And the sons of Merar, Mal, and Mushi these are the families of the Levites according to their generations. And Amram married his father's sister Jac. And she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the length of Amron's life was one hundred and thirty seven years. And the sons of Is Korah, and Nephe, and Zikri, and the sons of U, Mish, and Elsaphon, and Zith. And Aaron married Elish, the daughter of Am. the sister of Nish, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleaz, and Itham. And the sons of Korah, As, and Elkanah, and Abi, these are the families of the Kor.

And Aaron's son Ele married one of the daughters of Pute, and she bore him Phineas. These are the heads of the fathers' households of the Levites according to their families. It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, according to their hosts. They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the sons of Israel from Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron. Now it came about on the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I am the Lord. Speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I speak to you. But Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I am unskilled in speech. How then will Pharaoh listen to me? Then the LORD said to Moses, See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

When Pharaoh will not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my hosts. my people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt, by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt. and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. So Moses and Aaron did it, as the LORD commanded them, thus they did. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three. when they spoke to Pharaoh. Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Work a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff, and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.

So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also the magicians of Egypt. Did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said.

This Is the prelude to the plagues. It is important for us to understand what is happening here in order that we might comprehend. The significance of all the plagues as we will go through each and every one of them, verse by verse, to understand the power of Almighty God and the plan of God in the life of the Israelites. the life of the Egyptians, the life of Moses, and the life of Pharaoh. We have three things we want to cover with you this morning. First of all, we want to look at the review before the miracles.

Then we want to look at the rendering of the miracles and then the rejection of the miracles. First of all, the review before the miracles.

And three things we want you to see into point number one. Summation. a conversation and then explanation. Now you're going to ask yourself the question, like I asked myself the question, why is it we get to Exodus 6 before we understand the genealogy of Moses And Aaron. Why wait till now? The answer: I don't know. I wish I could tell you. I don't have the foggiest idea. But remember, That to the Jewish nation, genealogies are extremely important because they verify in the mind of the Jew the place of each Jew in the family of God.

It verifies in their mind the rights and responsibilities of the Jewish people. So remember in 70 A All those genealogies were destroyed. So really, today the Jews don't necessarily know which tribe they are from. But up to this point, all these things were so important for them to understand because they need. To realize God's call upon their lives. And God is reiterating to the reader the importance of God's call on Aaron and Moses. You see, God never works in the way that we think He should work.

That's what makes God God and us not God. You know, He can do anything He wants, however, He wants to do that. And He would choose this tribe, the tribe of Levi. To bring Israel's deliverer, Moses and Aaron. And it would verify in the lives of the people, just like Jesus Christ. Do you think the Pharisees didn't check his genealogy? Sure, they did. They would go back to the temple and they would know that coming down through Joseph and through Mary, that Jesus Christ was a descendant of David. Why is it you?

Think they hated him as they did? Because they knew that what he said was true. He was a descendant of David. He was the son of David. It made them hate him all the more because the genealogy would prove where he was from. See? And so we have this summation where God gives us almost like a review of what has already taken place. He gives us the genealogy. It begins there. It goes back and tells us how God called this man Moses. And this man Aaron, he's trying to reiterate in our mind that yes, it was the call of God upon these men's life.

And point number two, you have the conversation between God and Moses. It's almost like we've heard this before. I mean, this is the third time Moses says, you, I'm unskilled in speech.

I can't speak so good. But the conversation once again reiterates to us the importance. The importance of what? That God can use a man not skilled in speech. You don't have to be a great orator to be able to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ our Lord. You just got to know God Himself to be able to tell people about the God you know. When we admit our weaknesses, when we admit that we cannot do it, God says, Now you're ready, now I can use you.

And so God is just reiterating in our minds one. More time, listen, Moses is now ready to be used by me. Are you ready to be used by me? So you move from the summation to the conversation. To the explanation in chapter 7. Okay? You with me so far? The explanation. Look what it says. Verse number one.

Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I make you as God to Pharaoh. Wow. That's amazing. Now you look at the contrast between the last verse in chapter 6 and the first verse of chapter 7.

The feebleness of the man and the forcefulness of God. You see, in m your weakness, Moses, I'm going to make you something you would have never dreamed of. I'm going to make you as God to Pharaoh. You're gonna have divine authority. Why? Because Moses was God's representative, right? And Aaron, it goes on to say, and your brother Aaron shall be your pro. The prophet is God's mouthpiece, right? Is God's spokesperson. And Aaron would be the one who would speak the words of God to Pharaoh. You see, God gave the words to Moses.

Moses gave the words to Aaron, and Aaron gave the words to Pharaoh. They were God's words. So, Moses, in essence, would be like God to Pharaoh because he'd be speaking God's words to Pharaoh. Let me tell you something.

When we go out to preach the gospel, when we When we go out and tell people about Jesus Christ and we preach the truth, we are as God to them. Not that we, quote, can become a God like the Mormon theology teaches. No, but we speak the words of God. We go out with divine authority behind us. Divine authority, divine power behind us, because God is at work. And that's why we tell you: when you preach the gospel, preach the Word of God. Don't preach your own inventions or your own ideas or your own summation of what you think the gospel is.

Preach the gospel. Preach the truth because that's where your power is. That's where the authority is. It's in God's word. It's not in you or Your presentation or your personality, it's in God's Word. God wants us to speak what He's commanded us to speak. He doesn't want us to alter the message. He wants us to speak the message. Now, you need to understand that. Why is that? Because the next verse. It's part of the message. Don't read it yet. We've already read it. Don't read it yet. Don't go. Everybody look up here.

Look up here. There we go. You all want to look ahead. You want to always get ahead. Just stay right with me here. You see, it's important to preach what God Himself has. Has commanded us to preach because we are tempted to preach other things. We are tempted not to preach things that people don't want to hear. But we need to preach the truth. And God would give Moses the truth. And God would say, You've got to let my people go. Don't let them go for three days now.

Like we said earlier, when we preach the gospel, we need to preach with courage. So now we come to verse number three.

Now you can look down at your Bible. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. God says he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart.

Now listen, we're going to have a sermon on the hardening of the heart in a couple of weeks because we want you to understand what happens there. But God said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Listen, both are true. I don't necessarily understand. I can't explain it. But if God says he's going to harden somebody's heart, God can harden whomever he wishes.

Because he's God. Let me throw it to you this way. When someone's saved, God has to soften their heart, right? I don't hear anybody complaining about that. Right? In Acts 16, when Lydia was saved, God opened her heart. And she was tender to the things of God. But God had to do that. You see, when we look at the Word of God and we see what God does, we tend to question God.

Well, you know, God, that just doesn't seem right. You can't harden somebody's heart. Really? As if we want to give counsel to God as to how He operates in the lives of people. And yet, God said, This is what I'm going do. Listen.

I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart so I can multiply my miracles so a stiff-nicked, rebellious people like the Egyptians will know that I am God. See they got to know because they got all these other gods out there see and they're not sure which one is the best one or which one is the most powerful one So I'm gonna let them know that those gods are all little G's and I'm the big G And you know what? There are some Egyptians, ready for this, that leave with the Israelites. We're going to talk about them in days ahead.

And then it says in verse number 6, I love this. So Moses and Aaron did it as the Lord commanded them. Thus they did. And then I love verse number seven. And Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh. Now, why is that in there? Does anybody really care how old they are? Well, if you're 80 years old, you do, right? You see? See, God is always pleased to employ the aged. And thus we have. The review before the miracles. Point number two, the rendering of the miracles.

Verses eight to twelve. Moses and Aaron make their way to Pharaoh a second time. Demanding more than just a sh time of worship, but in essence demand total freedom. The demand is accompanied by two miracles, and these are absolutely phenomenal. I know that most of you have seen the movie The Ten Commandments. So you've seen the whole snake thing, you know, and the rod turned into a snake, and the magicians coming into the courtyard, and they turning their rods into snakes, and then Aaron's. serp swallowing their serpents.

You know what I'm saying? But to understand the significance of this is absolutely powerful. You see, three things I want you to see. Number one, the serpent, number two, the sim, and number three, the swallowing.

The swallowing, I like that. This is called the divine gulp. And so Moses puts that rod down. I, Aaron puts that rod down, and it turns into a snake, serpent. And these men would go in with divine power. And we see that miracle of the serpent. And then you see what we call number two, the sim.

And so. Pharaoh calls over his magicians, his sorcerers. And you know what they do? They do the ex same thing. That Aaron and Moses did. Now, you think about that for a moment. Except they had a couple of more snakes. And Pharaoh's. Song was any you your God can do, my God can do better. That was Pharaoh's song, see. See, whatever you can do, we can do better. Look what we can do. We can imitate that. And that's what Satan wants to do, right? Satan is going to calculate. He's going to simulate, he's going to imitate.

That's how Satan operates. You see, Satan wants to do everything that God does, except differently. That is important for us to grasp. Because you see, we are preaching the gospel. Remember, Exodus is a book about the deliverance of people in slavery. When we preach the gospel, we are telling people about the ultimate deliverance. Who wants to redeem them from their slavery and sin, right? And so, what do we find ourselves in? We find ourselves in a spiritual warfare. Do you know that these magicians are named in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse number 8?

They're named Janice and Jambrees. Say, wow, man, how did Paul know their names? God told him. That's how he knew. But listen to what Paul says over in the book of 2 Timothy in chapter 3. Talking about the perilous times, and just as Janice and Jambrees oppose Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. men of depraved mind rejected as regards the faith. He speaks about the fact that there's going to come men in the the last days that are like Jen and Jambrees and they imitate What we are doing, but yet their imitation is a false one.

Listen, there are people out there. Churches all across America who are imitating what we are doing today. And they preach a false gospel. They don't preach the truth. You see, you know, when Christ said in Matthew chapter 7 about enter the narrow gate. For wide is the gate that leads to destruction. We told you the wide gate doesn't say this way to hell, and the narrow gate say this way to heaven. Doesn say that. Oh, hey, let's all go to hell. This is the great way. No, everybody be trying to get in the narrow gate.

The wide gate says this way to heaven. And the reason it's so wide is because you can go any way you want. That's why it's so wide. But the narrow way says Jesus is the only way. And you've got to go on his terms. That's why it's so narrow. And Satan loves to disguise what he's doing. And so Pharaoh calls in his magicians. And then you have that great big Bible butt. It says, verse 12, but Aaron's staff swallowed up there. Staffs. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 15.

Song of Redemption, which is the song of Moses. We'll study that when we get to Exodus 15. But look what it says in verse number 12. Thou didst stretch out thy right hand, the earth, what? Swallowed them. That is the destruction of Egypt in the Red Sea. You see, what God was doing right there on the courtroom floor was showing exactly what He's going to do to those people who will not repent of their sins. He is going to Swallow them up. He is utterly going to consume them. They will be utterly destroyed.

So, the prelude to the plagues. Is the perfect picture of what God was going to do to Egypt? The swallowing. I love that. God's great gulp. Which is our last point, the rejection. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. This is the rejection of the miracles. The rejection of the miracles begins with the iniquity in Pharaoh's heart. The iniquity in Pharaoh's heart. Let me help you understand something.

The same sun that hardens the clay melts the ice. Right? Whether the ice is melted or the clay is hardened, it all depends on the nature of the subject. But the same sun does both. And Moses and Aaron, fulfilling the commands of God and doing everything that God had told them to do, would spread the word. And yet Pharaoh's heart was hard. Every time you hear God's word and don't respond, you become more and more calloused to Christ. You need to respond. That's why the writer of Hebrews would say, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation.

Don't do that. Don't do that. The second thing I want you to see is not only the iniquity in Pharaoh's heart, but the veracity of God's word.

What does he say? Pharaoh's heart was hardened. He did not listen to them as the Lord had what said. The veracity of God's word, the truthfulness of God's word. God said, this is the way it's going to happen. And it happened just like God had said. For us as the people of God, we need to understand that God is always true to his word. He is. The iniquity in Pharaoh's heart. The veracity of God's word and the opportunity. The opportunity for you today. The opportunity for you today. You might be sitting there thinking, man, is my heart hard?

Has God hardened my heart? Do I have the opportunity? The answer to that is absolutely. In fact, if you're asking those questions, God is in the process of breaking that hard heart up, shattering that calloused heart. Calling you to Himself, the opportunity for you today. You need to give your life to Jesus Christ. You need to say, Lord, I'm a sinner. I've rebelled against your word, I've rebelled against your identity, and I've left. To do whatever I want to do, and I need to give my life to Jesus Christ.

You know, the Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 13 says that everything is laid bare before the eyes of God. Nothing's hidden from his sight. And you know, there are many people that come to church every week and they put on this veneer, this outer cloak of what they think is righteous and true and holy to make people think that they're going to heaven. But you know, you can't fool God. God knows what's in your heart. He knows what's truly there. And today, you need to take the opportunity to give your life to Jesus Christ.

Listen to these words. Proverbs 28, verse number 13. He who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. And then listen to verse number 14. How blessed is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity. That's what the word of the Lord says. If you're here today and you've never given your life to Christ, you need to do that today. You need to fear the Lord always. You need not to conceal your transgression, but you need to confess it and forsake it.

And the Bible says, if you don't do that and you harden your heart to the words of God, you will fall into calamity.

Or in other words, You'll be swallowed up in death. Don't go that direction. Give your life to Jesus Christ today. Let's pray.