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[0:00] We're in Exodus chapter 9 where we were last week.

[0:19] ! Remember that in last week's lesson, we began to see the next plague, the sixth plague that God brought upon the people of Egypt.! Remember what He did.

[0:29] And how He did that now, that was associated with the burden of Israel in the bondage of Egypt. Remember, He uses the ashes out of the kilns that were used to build or make the stones, to fire them, to make the monuments, the buildings and so forth that Pharaoh desired to have as a monument or a memorial to himself.

[0:58] Israel was the one that did the labor, the harsh labor to produce all of those. And the fire kilns were part of the instruments that were used to do that.

[1:10] They were attacked man to the point that it could bring death to him.

[1:44] So, again, recognize that these things are getting more and more severe as they go along. Even the magicians, remember now, that had done their best to imitate the other plagues and were successful to some degree, were not able to stand against Moses or stand up to Moses and Aaron in this particular plague of the boils.

[2:10] They were not able to shelter.

[2:40] Of none effect. They don't even show up on the scene any longer. So, keep that in mind, if you will. So, that brings us to verses 13 through 16 of chapter 9, where we left off last week.

[2:59] Now, what is it? Six plagues that we've been through to this point. And Pharaoh has not been amused by them whatsoever, nor has he been impressed by what God has done.

[3:15] And we begin to see, we begin to see toward the last few, we begin to see the heart and mind of Pharaoh coming to a point of recognition in his own heart.

[3:26] It has to have been that Jehovah God of Israel really is the one that's doing this and that he has tremendous power because not even the gods of Egypt can withstand him.

[3:39] And so, he's still hardening his heart. But God's not done yet. These other three plagues that are about to come upon him are just going to begin to be a foreshadowing of the death really that is about to come upon him before too long.

[4:05] Each of these next three are becoming even more and more terrible experiences for Pharaoh and for the people of Egypt.

[4:16] Now, verse 13 through 16, Scripture says, The Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

[4:33] For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

[4:44] For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence. Thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And the very deed for this cause have I raised thee up.

[4:55] For to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all of the earth. Now we'll revisit that here in just a moment.

[5:06] But notice this time, God said from this point forward, Everything I bring upon you is going to strike right at your heart. As I deal with you, your servants and your people, it's going to strike mightily at your heart.

[5:20] And as we begin to look at those, we're going to see that it does. But still, what a hard-headed guy Pharaoh had to have been.

[5:31] And all of the things that God does, more and more severe, he still is adamant to reject and resist what God is doing.

[5:42] But he's going to strike at the heart of Pharaoh and his people as he begins to warn them. And verse 15 again, For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence.

[5:55] Thou shalt be cut off from the earth. That's King James' version of it. But let me read you the amplified version because it makes it a more clear picture of what he's really saying to him here. For by now, because he's dealing with the past tense here is what he's doing.

[6:10] For now, I could have put forth my hand and I've struck you and your people with pestilence. And you would have been cut off from the earth. So God is saying, to this point, back in the past, I could have done that right back from the get-go.

[6:25] Right back from the beginning. But he didn't do that because he said, For this very purpose have I let you live, that I might show you my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

[6:41] So there's a perfect picture of what God's intent here is in all of these plagues that he's bringing upon hard-headed Pharaoh and hard-hearted Pharaoh and his people.

[6:54] God is going to be glorified as God. Amen? And Scripture says, God's not going to share his glory with anything or anyone.

[7:06] He's going to be glorified as rightfully so. He's due that glory. And God is saying to Pharaoh, I could have cut you off way back yonder, but I'm continuing to do this and use you that I may be glorified in all of the earth and that people everywhere from all of the earth might know my name.

[7:32] Remember the name. Okay? It's the name Jehovah. That's the name. He said, that is my name forever. The almighty, eternally existent God that manifests and reveals himself to man.

[7:55] Remember that, if you will. Now, God says, I could have done this through all of the plagues that I have done, but I'm going to use all of those to make my name known.

[8:07] And to know, look at it again, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. My power and my name be declared throughout all of the earth.

[8:22] And so to know, literally, that there is none like him in all of the earth. Not even the gods that the Egyptians worshipped. The pagan, false gods that Egypt worshipped.

[8:35] Can't compare. Because they're not real. Okay? Jehovah God is God. And there's none like him. The only one and true God.

[8:48] Now, the reason God had not destroyed Pharaoh at once, again, was twofold. First of all, God wanted Pharaoh to experience for himself who God is.

[9:03] All right? Well, they say there's nothing like experience to teach us what we need to learn. He wanted Pharaoh to experience the might of Jehovah because, you know, after all, he's been compelled more than one time to give glory to Jehovah under the direction of Moses, if you will.

[9:26] And the second thing is that the name of Jehovah, again, might be declared throughout all the earth. Now, there's a picture for us here. Tell me, what does all of this picture for you in this contest, if you will, between God and Pharaoh, what's it a picture of?

[9:45] What's a picture here? Think about it just a moment. There's a good picture painted for us here. And all this going on between Pharaoh and God. And, it's a picture of the natural man.

[9:59] All right? Well, you didn't say that. So, you get no candy for a month. I really meant to bring that down here tonight, and I forgot all about it.

[10:15] Yeah. And the joke about that is, in my Sunday school class, if they get an answer correct, they get a piece of candy. So, yeah. Just like little kids. If you get it wrong, he takes it away from me.

[10:27] Yeah. I have to look up the record. He gets none for three weeks. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a picture of the natural man.

[10:38] But secondly, it's also a picture of that contest that goes on from a creation, from the sin of Adam to the present day. And that is the contest between the world powers or the evil of the world and God.

[10:54] All right? That's a contest that's been going on forever and will until the Lord comes and after the tribulation period and new heaven and new earth are ushered in.

[11:06] All right? So, there's the picture that you get there. So, it's no wonder that God does all of these things without Pharaoh having the grace of God or the power of God that would nullify his obstinance.

[11:25] All right? It's because it's a good picture of that for us and we'll see what happens as a result of that. All right.

[11:36] Now, there's something else. There's something else pictured in that. What else would it be? Think about what's happened.

[11:49] Think about what God has done. Time and time again after Pharaoh again has hardened his heart not let the people go.

[12:05] What does God do to this point? What does God do? What did he do time after time? It gives him another chance.

[12:16] Mercy. How did he do that? How did he give him another chance? What did he do in giving them another chance? Yeah. What did God do in giving them another chance?

[12:28] How did he do it? How did he do it? That's more to what I want to know. Tell him. Tell him. He gave him a warning. How did he give him a warning?

[12:39] Well, in this one he says, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down. Who said that? God. Who said that? God. Who literally, yeah.

[12:50] But who said it to Pharaoh? Oh, Moses. Thank you. Thank you. You would get a piece of candy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He sent time after time he would sin.

[13:00] Okay. Pharaoh hardened his heart once again even though he said he'd let people go. He, that God knew he wouldn't. So he says to Moses and Aaron, you go back and, you know, be the bulldog that we looked at last week and say this to Pharaoh.

[13:18] He uses Moses and Aaron to go time after time to give Pharaoh another chance and the bottom line statement would be let my people go.

[13:30] Let them go or else here's what I'm going to do. So it's a picture of God's judgment but yeah, it's a picture of his mercy and grace in the midst of that judgment.

[13:44] Always remember that's the heart and mind of God. All right. He'll bring judgment but why does he bring judgment? To draw the heart and mind of people to himself.

[13:58] So he can extend mercy and grace to them. All right. That's what happened to Israel's judgments that brought them into captivity to draw their heart to him.

[14:11] All right. And so that's what he's doing here with Pharaoh as well. That they may know that God is a God of mercy and he's a God of grace as well as a God of long suffering.

[14:24] Now he does the same thing for us today. Amen. Yeah. To draw the sinner to himself and bring him to saving grace.

[14:38] All right. Now it's amazing. It's amazing how all of this that God has done with Egypt and continues to do becomes so well known worldwide.

[14:56] It's even picked up in the New Testament when we see in particular the book of Romans being spoken about there about what God did with the Egyptians.

[15:09] A picture again of mercy and grace in the midst of judgment. Now verse 17 as yet exaltest thou thyself against my people that thou will not let them go.

[15:23] That was a question. You exalt yourself that is to oppose to set oneself as a dam literally to heap up earth as a dam or a rampart is the idea here.

[15:37] So you become like a dam against me and against my people is what he's saying. All right? You're just really building it up against yourself here.

[15:50] Verse 18 now. We come to the seventh plague. Behold tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

[16:10] So to break down his opposition more and more God's determined to send that type of hail or hail that has never been seen before in all of Egypt.

[16:22] Egypt had hail but their fathers forefathers have not seen anything since the founding of the country or the kingdom. It's going to be hail that's accompanied by thunder and fire that's going to destroy every man and every beast that is left out in the field.

[16:42] Now notice he said tomorrow about this time we've looked at time elements here the last few plagues now God already just tells him about this time tomorrow this is what's going to happen.

[16:56] Why does he give him that time frame? Why does he tell him that? Why does he tell him? Okay.

[17:07] Give him time to think about this thing. Alright. Things are getting quite serious. Wasn't it last week or am I getting ahead of myself here where the servants of Pharaoh said we need to let these people go?

[17:23] Yeah. Yeah. Things are getting desperate here. His servants and the people of the land are getting tired of this. Alright. And so God says this time tomorrow here's what I'm going to do.

[17:37] I'm going to bring a hail storm the likes of which this world has never seen. Now give him time to reflect consider and think about what he's going to do. Now God knows he's not going to repent at that point at that moment but he wants Pharaoh to realize that what's coming is coming from the hands of Jehovah God.

[17:58] Verse 19 Yeah. Yeah. This time tomorrow. Okay. Set your time X. This time tomorrow. Alright.

[18:10] Verse 19 Send therefore now. Talk about mercy. Here you go. Here's what I'm going to do. But send send therefore now and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die.

[18:34] New statement there. Okay. Other plagues were going to affect men and beasts but here if they're left out in the field they're going to die.

[18:50] Now again in the midst of judgment God remembers mercy. Remember what the definition of the word mercy is.

[19:03] I know we use the term giving us what we don't deserve. But literally the definition in the Hebrew and the Greek for mercy here is the word pitiful.

[19:19] And it's the idea of God looking at lost man in a sinful state and seeing him as a pitiful creature.

[19:30] but it's not just the idea of seeing him as something pitiful. It's the idea of having a longing and desire to do something about it.

[19:43] To change that. All right. And so God did. God knew men in a sinful state was pitiful.

[19:54] No hope. Can't help himself. But he just didn't want to leave him that way. So eternity passed.

[20:05] He laid out the plan of salvation with the Godhead and sent Christ the Son to die for the sins of the world. That's what he does here.

[20:18] Mercy extended in the judgment. All right. God looks down and sees the Egyptian Pharaoh and the Egyptians as pitiful.

[20:31] All right. So now he's going to send a plague. It will surely hopefully come to the point where they might know that he was indeed Jehovah.

[20:46] Now think about it just a moment. All of the cattle all of the men could have and would have been spared had they taken the warning of God and his mercy to heart.

[21:05] But not all of them did. All right. even in Pharaoh's case that possibility existed by submitting to the will of God here. But hardening of his heart was not yet complete.

[21:19] Verses 20 and 21. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses. He that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

[21:37] So get the picture there. There are some that have gotten the picture right here. They knew this was from Jehovah God and whatever God said they better do.

[21:51] And so there were those that took it to heart brought their cattle and their servants out from the field and brought them into cover. But again there were some that did not harden just the way that Pharaoh was as well.

[22:09] The sternness of the warning here. If you're out in the field man or cattle you're going to die. Plain and simple.

[22:22] Why is it you suppose that there were some that would not and did not take that to heart? Unbelief is one aspect of it.

[22:33] You're right. But you would think after all they've been through with that stern of warning they would realize we better do this.

[22:47] But what else? They don't want to not attain that God under the universe. Well you're probably right in what you're saying but think about it just a moment.

[23:02] Look what they've been through flies locusts in their houses and everywhere. You ever realize how accustomed to things we get?

[23:17] Yeah even hard things and harsh things. Yeah. You know this storm that went through Tulsa the other day that hundred mile an hour wind.

[23:27] I mean even got to the point where I heard that people are driving up here to Bartlesville to get their gas. I went to Quick Trip the other day yesterday day before yesterday and to get gas at Quick Trip and all the plumps had the little yellow tag on them you know out of order.

[23:48] No gas. They must have just run out because people were coming up. Yeah.

[23:58] Yeah. That reminded me of back in the 70s. Remember that? Back in the 70s when gas went gas rationing you know.

[24:12] Remember that? Long lines to get you too young to remember that. You were still pedaling your bicycle. You were still pedaling your bicycle. Yeah. Yeah.

[24:29] Yeah. But but how quickly how quickly we adjusted to that right? Then gasoline prices through the years shot up. How many remember 25 cents a gallon gasoline?

[24:42] How many yeah how many remember the price wars the gas wars? Yeah. I've seen a 15 cents a gallon down southern Oklahoma. Yeah. But I remember the time that I was traveling where was I going?

[24:58] I was going back to Las Vegas where we were living. I was stationed in the Air Force and I stopped at a gas station in New Mexico before it was it was just before you head toward Albuquerque you know last chance gas till you get there.

[25:16] So I stopped in there and pulled up to the pump 45 cents a gallon. Oh I said told my wife there ain't no way I'm paying 45 cents a gallon.

[25:31] If I run out of gas so be it. I took on up to down the highway. Yeah. Made it to Albuquerque. I don't know how much we paid for it but yeah 45 cents a gallon.

[25:43] I remember that quite often. Now it's over three dollars a gallon. Yeah. Yeah. How we adjust to that. I think the people of Egypt adjusted to these plagues too.

[25:55] Oh they were terrifying but they came and they went. Yeah. Don't know again don't know how long between each plague there that much time there was.

[26:06] You know whether they had time to recuperate from that plague before the other one came. Don't know. But they adjusted it. And now as God declares to them if you're out in the field I'm going to send hail like you've never seen before.

[26:22] There's never been before like this. You'll die because you won't be able to withstand the power of the hail that falls. Many of them believe but many of them didn't.

[26:36] And what's going to be just like everything else? You know. Now verse 22 through 26 look at that. And the Lord said unto Moses stretch forth thine hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt upon man and upon beast and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt.

[26:59] And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and the fire ran along the ground upon the ground and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

[27:10] So there was hail and fire mingled with hail very grievous such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout the land of Egypt all that was in the field both man and beast.

[27:25] And the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field. Last phrase only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were there was no hail.

[27:39] Hmm. hello. Don't you get it? Yeah. Yeah. It's not that hail was uncommon but nothing to this point.

[27:56] Nothing that they've ever seen before has now come upon them. Now two ideas here.

[28:08] Supernatural character of this plague was first of all that it was predicted by Moses. Okay. And what would be the second one? What would be the second one that showed that this is a miraculous event here?

[28:24] That the land of Goshen where the people of Israel lived had no hail. No hail whatsoever. All right. Now you know I don't know what their thinking would be.

[28:45] You know how thunderstorms are. You could have rain pouring down right here and nothing across the street. Okay. Same thing with hail. Yeah.

[28:56] Yeah. But it's just strange that was the land of Goshen. It's not the first time. Remember they were exempt from some of these things? Yeah. So.

[29:11] Any reasonable person should be able to figure it out. That this was indeed the hand of God. Now. Also the fact of how terrible and how furious the hail storm was.

[29:30] and it makes now makes it an even stronger impression upon Pharaoh than the previous plagues did.

[29:40] Verses 27 and 28. Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them. This is interesting. Isn't it? Yeah. Called for Aaron and Moses to come.

[29:52] Says to them, I have sinned this time. Whoa. I have sinned this time. You know, before, a couple of times he's said, I want you to entreat Jehovah for us that this will stop and I'll let the people go.

[30:10] This time he said, I have sinned this time. The Lord, that is Jehovah is righteous and I and my people are wicked.

[30:22] Entreat the Lord for it is enough that there be no more thunderings and hail and I will let you go and ye shall stay no longer. Wow. How do you determine what's genuine repentance and what's not?

[30:41] two little words that he includes in that that gives us the idea here.

[31:01] This time as if this is the only time I sinned. Yeah. this time I really have sinned and Jehovah is righteous.

[31:13] You know that indicates here this is not a genuine repentance here. But also it gives us the idea of what effect now this is beginning to have upon Pharaoh.

[31:27] God told him I'm going to strike you at your heart. It's going to be deep. And so we begin to see the reality of that here.

[31:38] Because he sins for Moses and Aaron and gives some sense of repentance. This time I have sinned. Now pray for me and let it be enough.

[31:55] You know that same word that same phrase it is enough is used back in Genesis 45 in verse 28. Remember Lee when he was teaching through the life of Joseph looked at this and the idea is remember when the brothers finally discovered that he was Joseph the right hand man of Pharaoh and they were going to send and tell their father Jacob.

[32:34] and they tell him he's alive. Joseph is alive and he was so overthrilled and they were telling him about all that Joseph as Pharaoh's right hand man had done and Jacob said it is enough you've told me enough here it's enough I can't take anymore let's go I want to see it's the same kind of thing here that Pharaoh says it is enough as if to say I can't take any more all right it's the idea here of it being the voice of God the thunder and the hail the mighty thunders is the phrase is in the original the idea of a word that means the voices of God all right this is the voice of God it's not Jehovah it's Elohim by the way all right now same thing that Psalm 49 verses 3 and 4 say the voice of the

[33:43] Lord is upon the waters the God of glory thundereth the Lord is upon many waters the voice of Jehovah is powerful the voice of Jehovah is full of majesty now look at verses 29 and 30 Moses said unto him as soon as I am gone out of the city I will spread abroad my hands unto Jehovah and the thunder shall cease neither shall there be any more hail that thou mayest know that the earth is Jehovah's but as for thee and thy servants I know that you will not yet fear Jehovah Elohim or the Lord God yeah he could see right through him and he knows that yeah now want you to know he said that the land belongs to Jehovah all right the earth is Jehovah's that includes the land of Egypt all right he's wanting him to know that declares that to them even

[34:53] Egypt belongs to the Lord he is Lord over all of Egypt now so he says I know you will not yet fear Jehovah that is the idea of true fear that you don't really truly fear God because a true fear is the idea of having a voluntary subjection to the will of God which Pharaoh does not yet have now verses 31 and 32 and the flax and the barley was smitten for the barley was in the ear and the flax was bold but the wheat and the rye were not smitten for they were not yet grown up now the things that were important to their food is pictured here of course not all of it had been lost but a lot of it was because of the hail because of the continued refusal of obeying

[36:07] God verses 33 and 35 and Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh spread about his hands unto the Lord and the thunder and hail ceased the rain was not poured upon the earth and when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart he and his servants and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened neither would he let the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses in other ways just as God said would happen here now the consequence of continuing his sinful way by hardening his own heart against God both in the judgments and the mercies of God as well that's the important aspect here he's not just he's not just disobeying the will of God and letting

[37:12] Israel go but he's disobeying or neglecting rejecting the mercy of God that's been poured out to him time and time again now so more and more severe plagues are on the horizon here for him Pharaoh's gonna see Pharaoh's gonna know as if he doesn't already the power and the might of Jehovah the God of Israel now remember what Genesis 6 3 says the Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for he also is flesh yet his days shall be 120 years then in Romans 1 verses 28 and 29 and so since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of him or consider him worth the knowing

[38:14] God gave them up now notice what he says there here's the reason why God gave them up they did not see fit to acknowledge God the knowledge that he is God or approve of him or consider him worth the knowing all right God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome until they were filled permeated and saturated with every kind of unrighteousness iniquity grasping and covetous greed and malice why did God send the flood in Noah's day all the sins turn away from God sin had come to its fullness you know a holy and a righteous

[39:16] God abhors sin but he's a merciful God he's a long suffering God and let sin go to a certain extent in the day of Noah they had come to the point where they could no longer go any further in sin without the holiness of God doing something about that okay that's what's happening to Pharaoh here I think and of course that's what's happening to this generation as well yeah yeah yeah doesn't take much to amaze me but but I am amazed at how quickly things are transpiring but more so more so how sucked into it all that people are getting yeah yeah yeah major corporations yeah major corporations sports organizations and the reason they're getting involved in all of this is because they're being threatened you know that's become the big deal since

[40:33] Jesse Jackson started his stuff of threatening the rainbow coalition threatening corporations if they don't do such and such same thing happening today all right but that's going to continue on one day Jesus is going to come for his redeemed for the church rapture us out tribulation period will begin you think things are getting bad now wait till the second three and a half years of the tribulation period it's going to be vile like we've never considered before yeah and some of this stuff is a good picture of that we'll see that later maybe next week let's pray father thank you again for your loving kindness and again for the time that you've given us together to fellowship in your word and so father thank you again for what you have provided for us not only in the salvation you've brought through your son but in your word that gives us indication of more and more of who you are how you operate and what you provided for us through your son in mercy and grace and forgiveness of sin so father thank you for that now pray that you will indeed enable us to recognize where we're at today in the world and and compare to what

[42:03]  God did in Egypt and enable us to put it all together and realize how close we are to the day that you're coming to receive us to yourself so we rejoice in that but keep us busy about your work until that takes place and we'll thank you for it and praise you for it now in Jesus name Amen