EXODUS 1-82012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 1-8

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012.

Looking at chapters 1 through 8 this evening, looking at the chapters that we've read this week in the Bible in three years. Once again, just to throw out the general exhortation, if you've fallen behind, if you never started, if you've given up, it's a great opportunity to just pick up today what God has given you today, given us to read today. Just start with today's reading.

chapter 8 today and I would encourage you just start there or start tomorrow morning with chapter 9 and just pick up right now right here and don't worry about trying to catch up or the things that you missed because we really want to just encourage you just to go forward and not get bogged down not get discouraged and

not give up because of things that you've missed in the past. That's not God's heart. He doesn't want to beat you down for, you know, missing and then encourage you to quit. God wants to encourage you, just pick it up again, start today, and there's new fresh things that he wants to speak to your heart today. So I want to encourage you with that, and it's still not too late to get back in the race or to start the race and walking through the Bible in three years along with us.

Exodus

Much like you and I look back to the cross very often and frequently, and that's our salvation, that's our deliverance, it's the work that God did for us. The nation of Israel would look back at the exodus of how God brought them out of Egypt and established them as a nation. And so we are looking at things that are going to be foundational for many generations.

months to come as we're reading through the Bible in three years, because we'll often be referring back to this time that God brought them out of Egypt. Well, Moses is the author of the book of Exodus. He wrote it as they were out in the wilderness around 1446 through 1406 BC, somewhere in that time frame. And it covers the time period of 1526 to 1446, roughly the

Dates are kind of estimated. And the purpose is to record God's covenant with the Hebrew nation. So we're seeing them brought out of Egypt and also the covenant being established. As we'll see in the wilderness, they meet with God at Mount Horeb and God reveals himself and delivers to them the law. And we'll be looking at that in the coming weeks.

Well, on our timeline, we've covered quite a bit of territory already with the book of Genesis. Genesis covers about 2,000 years of history just in that one book. In the book of Exodus, we're kind of slowing down. We're looking at a smaller portion of history, except for chapter 1 kind of begins where Genesis left off. We fast forward about 300 years, and then we pick it up with the life of Moses, and

and we'll be following the life of Moses throughout the rest of the book of Exodus. So we're looking at a much shorter period of history in the book of Exodus and focusing, zooming in and seeing what God is doing through this man Moses to establish the children of Israel as a people, as a nation, as his people, and then lead them into the promised land.

The geography of Exodus, just to kind of give you a visual of where things are located, we're talking about Egypt, which is there on the left. That's, of course, where the children of Israel went. If you back up into the book of Genesis, you have Joseph, who was sold into slavery. He was sold as a slave into Egypt. And then you have the children of Israel, which is there on the left.

And then because of the famine, his whole family migrated from Canaan to Egypt. And so they're all in Egypt now, and they're now being established as a nation. And then they're going to be led out of Egypt through Moses. And so we're talking a lot about Egypt. We're going to be heading into the wilderness in Sinai, the land of Midian. Those are things that we'll be looking at this evening a little bit, and then in the coming weeks as well.

Of course, the land of Canaan there right on the coast of the Mediterranean is the land that God had promised to Abraham and then continued on promising that to Isaac and then continued on promising that to Jacob, also known as Israel. So that's the land that God has promised to his people. And we're going to be watching him deliver them from Egypt and then carry them over to the land of Canaan in the coming days.

in the coming weeks in Exodus and then Deuteronomy and then finally in the book of Joshua when they enter into the promised land. Here you have the tribes of Israel because remember the way that

Israel became a nation was, well, you had Jacob. Remember Jacob and Esau. God selected Jacob to be the one who would carry on the line of the Messiah. And Jacob had 12 sons, but he took Joseph's two sons as his own. So it ends up being 13 tribes that make up Israel.

Jacob, the son of Jacob, was born in the land of Israel.

who become heads of tribes or heads of large families within the people, within the group, and those become the tribes of Israel, which make up the nation of Israel, which we'll be looking at throughout the Old Testament. So

These tribes of Israel are being established. And again, as I've said, oftentimes we're seeing the formation and the foundation being laid for the nation of Israel as we get to see these events and the lives of these different people that we're studying here in the book of Genesis and then now on into Exodus.

Well, this evening we pick it up in Exodus chapter 1, beginning it off with verse 7, which is the key verse. It says, Here in chapter 1, we are looking at somewhat of a summary of Israel.

estimating about 300 years of time. We ended up, Genesis, with Joseph being there in Egypt and Jacob moving his family, all those sons we just talked about, and it counted that there was 70 of them all together who moved into the land of Egypt.

And so what we're seeing happen here in chapter 1 is we're going from a people, a family that is 70 men large, and it's now increasing into, well, when we see them do the census, when they leave...

the land of Egypt, there's about 600,000 men. So we're going from about 70 men to 600,000 men over this span of time while they're in Egypt. And that's what we have being explained to us here in chapter 1 verse 7. They're fruitful, they're increasing abundantly, they're growing exceedingly. And so there's this great population explosion of

among the family of Jacob. And so they go from these 70 people. Now they become a great multitude and they are exceedingly mighty.

Well, in this great population explosion, Egypt becomes a little bit nervous because these guys are foreigners. And so they're not liking what's happening because now they're starting to outnumber the Egyptians. And so what they do is they make them slaves. They put them to forced labor and cause them to be put to work under harsh conditions.

And so there's this persecution, this oppression of the children of Israel there in Egypt as they multiply and grow. But it's interesting, the scriptures say that as they increase the severity of the oppression and the slavery, that the children of Israel grow even faster, they grow even more. And so they're continuing to grow into a large people, a great nation that God is going to bring out of the land of Egypt.

Well, because of this population explosion, verses 15 through 22 tells us that Pharaoh commands that every son who is born to the Hebrews should be killed. He's trying to slow down their rate of growth. And so he gives the command, all the sons have to be killed. Cast him into the Nile River. Don't let him survive because this people is going to overtake us.

Now, last week we talked a little bit about this move into the land of Egypt for the family of Jacob. And I refer to it as an incubation period for the nation of Israel. Because instead of staying in Canaan, where they could have very easily become integrated with the surrounding nations and assimilated into their cultures and just kind of, you know, non-existent as a people.

Here in Egypt, they were in a land where the people, well, they considered it an abomination to eat with them. So they didn't want to socialize with them. They didn't want to be with them. Shepherds were considered an abomination. And so they were kept separate within this land, kind of protected and cared for by the Lord, really. And they grow into this mighty nation there in Goshen.

because they're kept separate from the land of Egypt. But now this oppression comes upon them because Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt are fearful of this people that is there in their midst. It tells us that there's a new king who knew nothing of Joseph, and so he begins to fear Israel and oppress them and put them into slavery. Now as we look at Exodus chapter 1 and talk about the Pharaoh, here is...

a list of some of the Pharaohs that we see in Genesis and Exodus. This is based on the research done with the guys at Answers in Genesis. So we're down in Exodus chapter 1 verse 8. The Pharaoh who oppressed Israel was probably Cessostris III. And so he was the one who came to power, who didn't really care about Joseph and what he'd done for the people. He only knew that there's this mighty people among us that

And well, if our enemies attack us, what if they join with them? And so they would overtake us. Or what if they abandon us and then we have to fight on our own? And so Cessus Trist III is the one who begins to put them to forced labor and deal so harshly with the people. Later on in Exodus chapter 5, which we'll get to, it's a different Pharaoh that Moses will be dealing with and that we'll see taking place with all the plagues and things like that.

Exodus chapter 2, verse 24 is the key verse. It says, so God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

So as you would expect, as this oppression has come upon the children of Israel, they begin to cry out to the Lord. They begin to groan and complain about the harsh conditions in which they're living. And so now God is listening to their cries, and now he is working the plan of action to deliver them from this oppression and from the land of Egypt. And he's going to do that by a man named Moses.

And so in verses 1 through 10 here, we see Moses being born and then adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. Now this is interesting to consider because Pharaoh's daughter was there at the Nile River. It says that she was bathing.

But it's interesting to consider, why was she bathing at the Nile River? Is that something that would be common for the daughter of Pharaoh? Wouldn't she have better accommodations, you know, at her own palace? And so what we see actually, as you look into this, is it's very possible that this is a daughter of Pharaoh known as

I'm going to mess up the name, but Sobekneferu. Beautiful name, I'm sure, in Egyptian, but in English it's a little bit awkward. But she is known to be barren. She was known in the historical archives that she did not have any kids, and she was

And so the Nile River was part of the worship system of the Egyptians. And it's very possible that she is there at the Nile River, not taking a bath to, you know, just stop the stink, but to perform religious rituals to these gods that they worship. It was related to the god of fertility. So she could be, you know, there worshiping

through a cleansing ritual or some kind of ritual in order to pray and to worship this God of fertility because she has no children. And so as she's praying, then she hears Moses cry and there's Moses and she very easily could have seen that as the

the answer to the prayer to the God that she was worshiping there at the Nile River. And so that's one possibility. I think it's pretty interesting that she is there at the river. She hears Moses. She thinks he's the answer to her prayers. So she takes him and adopts him as her own and raises him there in Pharaoh's palace. Well, in verses 11 through 15, we see Moses now abandons Egypt. He flees to Midian.

This happens because, well, he knows that he is not of Egyptian descent. He knows he is Hebrew. And he sees...

One of the Egyptians beating the Hebrews in this oppressive slavery that they were in. And so Moses takes matters into his own hands and he kills the Egyptian that's beating him. And then he figures out, oh no, Pharaoh knows about this. And so he gets afraid and he takes off. He flees to Midian there in verses 11 through 15.

There in Midian, he kind of gives up on his life back in Egypt. He's not trying to get back, and so he settles down. He gets married. There in verses 16 through 22, we see that he gets married. He has a son. He ends up having two sons. And then at the end there, verse of chapter 2, we see the groanings of the children of Israel and God hearing them. So now Moses is off in Midian, which, again, if you'll look at the map, is over there to the right.

So Moses would have fled out of Egypt and then crossed over the wilderness or the desert to the land of Midian. And there is where he's settled now. It's probably about 300 miles away, 250 to 300, depending on the route. Very similar to taking off to the land of Canaan, as we've seen over the past few weeks. And so he would have fled there to Midian, where he...

Ended up meeting his future wife and had kids with her, and he spends the next 40 years in the land of Midian. Now, as I've been doing for the past few weeks, I'd like to just give you a little perspective on Moses and his lifetime. In Exodus chapter 2, verse 2, when he's found by Pharaoh's daughter, he's three months old.

They kept him hidden for three months, but it was becoming more and more difficult. And so what an incredible step of faith for the parents to, you know, put him in the basket, put him in the Nile River and kind of just entrust him to the Lord. And so Pharaoh's daughter finds him, adopts him. And for the next 40 years, he's trained in all the Egyptian ways.

There's some evidence to suggest that perhaps he was the next pharaoh. He was, you know, in line to be the next pharaoh. That's what Josephus says. He was heir to the throne. And Josephus also records that during that time, he would lead the armies of Egypt into battle. And so they would be fighting against Ethiopians and other armies, and pharaoh would lead them into battle. So there was a lot going on in this time period as he's there trained up in the Egyptian ways.

But then he kills the Egyptian there at 40 years old. We know the age from Acts chapter 7 verse 23 where Stephen gives us a great summary of Moses' life. And so he kills the Egyptian. He flees to Midian and he spends the next 40 years there in Midian establishing a family, just being a shepherd, being out in the desert.

and then we jump down to the burning bush which we'll look at in the next chapter and when that happens he's about 80 years old so 40 years in egypt being trained up 40 years in the wilderness being a shepherd and now he's 80 years old when the lord appears to him and sends him back to the land of egypt

Well, when he goes back to the land of Egypt, he's going to ultimately bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and lead them in the wilderness for another 40 years. And so ultimately he dies being 120 years old. And you can see those scripture references for the different ages of Moses. So it's kind of divided into three 40-year segments of Moses's life in Egypt, in

In Midian and then in the wilderness with the children of Israel. Well, that brings us to chapter 3 of Exodus. The key verse is verse 2. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Here's Moses is out in the wilderness. He's tending the flock and this burning bush appears.

catches his attention. Here in verses 1 through 6, God is now appearing to Moses in this burning bush. And he sees this bush and he says, that's interesting. The bush is on fire, but it's not being consumed. It's in perfect condition, but it's on fire. That doesn't make any sense. Let me go check it out. And so as he goes to check it out, God begins to speak to him and reveal himself to Moses. And

And there in verses 7 through 12, God tells Moses that he is going to go to the Pharaoh and deliver the children of Israel. In verses 13 through 22, God gives Moses basically an overview of the whole events that are about to transpire. He tells him, you're going to go. Pharaoh's not going to like it. And so I'm going to do signs and wonders. And then ultimately, they're going to be led out

You're going to lead out the children of Israel and they're going to be given gifts by the Egyptians. They're going to go out with much goods. They're going to go out from Egypt with blessing. And so God gives him an overview of the whole thing.

They're in the latter part of Exodus chapter 3, rather. And even that Pharaoh will not heed him. Even that Pharaoh will harden his heart, and God will have to do signs and wonders. And so several times God's going to tell him, look, this is what I want you to do. It's not going to be exactly easy. It's not going to just happen all together. There's going to be some obstacles. But he tells him in advance, this is what's going to happen, and I'm going to overcome it.

Well, as we see God appear to Moses here in the burning bush, it says there in verse 2 that it's the angel of the Lord that appeared to him.

The angel of the Lord is an interesting phrase that we've seen already in the book of Genesis, and we'll see again in Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament. The angel of the Lord really seems to be a very specific reference to an appearance of God in the Old Testament, and we would identify these appearances of God as Jesus Christ.

The angel of the Lord who appeared to Hagar, Abraham, Moses here in Exodus chapter 3, is Jesus appearing to these people there in the Old Testament. You might remember in the book of John chapter 8, Jesus is having a discussion with some religious leaders, and he tells them, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad.

And the Jews are confused. They say, well, you're not even 50 years old. How is it that you can say you've seen Abraham? So Jesus said, look, I was there with Abraham. Abraham saw me. He saw my day. He rejoiced. And they said, you're only, you're less than 50. How could you have seen Abraham? That was many, many years ago. But Jesus says in John chapter 8 verse 58, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Now God will identify himself as I am here in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14. 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. And so God identifies himself to Moses as I am. He says, when you go to speak to the children of Israel, tell them I am sent you.

This is very important because when Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am, he's saying, look, I am the angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses, that appeared to Abraham. I am the God who appeared to his people in the Old Testament. And John makes it clear that

The Jews understood what Jesus was saying because in John chapter 8 verse 59, it says they immediately took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them so he passed by.

So they understood that he was claiming to be God, and that's why they sought to stone him immediately. And so what we see here in Exodus chapter 3 is an appearance of the Lord, an appearance of Jesus to Moses there in the burning bush, where he identifies himself as the I Am. He is truly God. Exodus chapter 4, the key verse is verse 28.

It says, so Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him. Now in Exodus chapter 4, God is continuing to work with Moses. As I'm sure you saw as we read through the portions together this week, Moses wasn't exactly really excited about this work.

call that God had given to him. Now, 40 years earlier, he was pretty excited about it. He thought, hey, I'm going to deliver the Hebrews. And that's why he killed the Egyptian that was beating the other Hebrew. You can see this in Acts chapter 7, where we get a little bit more insight into what Moses was thinking at the time. So he thought, hey, I'm the deliverer. So I'm going to kill this guy and deliver this Hebrew from his oppression. And

But now, 40 years after that event, as he's spent some time now in the wilderness being a shepherd, his perspective is different. And so he, well, he's reluctant to go back and be the deliverer that God is calling him to be. And so he's asking a lot of questions. Well, what if this and what if that? What if they don't believe that you really sent me? How can I prove to them? And so God gives him

a couple signs to show to the children of Israel, to prove to them, no, no, I mean it really. God has appeared to me. And so he gives them the sign of his rod. God says, throw it down. He throws it down and immediately the rod becomes a snake. And I love how it says Moses fled from it.

I was kind of thinking, you know, what if I had similar questions? And, you know, God, well, how can I know for sure? He says, well, take your keys and throw them down, and then they become a spider, and then I flee from it, right? Moses was freaked out. Oh, no, a snake. I can relate, I think. And so he has this

This sign that God gives him. And then the other sign is he puts his hand into the cloak and he pulls it out. And now his hand is covered in leprosy. All these leprous sores on his hand. And then he puts it back in and brings it out. And his hand is cleansed. And so by these signs, he is to go to the children of Israel and say, look, God really is with me. He really did call me to do this. And so I am has set me.

But we see there in verses 10 through 17, again, even though Moses has these signs, even though God's doing this work, he's still reluctant. And he's saying, God, can't you just send somebody else? I mean, wouldn't it be easier just to use someone besides me? And so God gives him Aaron as a spokesman. And so now Aaron is, instead of God speaking directly through Moses, he's going to speak through Moses to Aaron, to the people, and to Pharaoh.

And so that is described there in verses 10 through 17. And so now Moses begins his journey, verses 18 through 23. He leaves Midian and he begins his trek back to the land of Egypt. Well, here in chapter 4, we also have this

very curious account in verses 24 through 31 of the circumcision of Moses's son. Because it tells us there's, they're headed back, they're going to Egypt, and then it says that God came against Moses and sought to kill him. Now we don't know exactly how this was happening or what God was doing. You know, it's hard to picture or understand exactly what the circumstances were and how

They knew that God was, you know, seeking to kill Moses. Some suggest maybe it was like a heart attack or a stroke or something like that. We really don't know, but however it was, God is coming against Moses and Zipporah, who is Moses' wife, responds to this situation by circumcising her son. So the moral of the story is if you have a heart attack, no, I'm just kidding, if

What's going on here? It's kind of curious. One of the questions that was sent in this week, it said it was out of the blue, and it does seem to be out of the blue. And because it's out of the blue for us, we have to understand there's more to the story that we don't know. There's some context there that is not given to us. And so it seems out of the blue to us, but just imagine with me for a moment...

Well, first of all, let me back up a little bit. Circumcision was something that God had given to Abraham as a sign. It was a covenant between him and his people. And it was a command that all the males of the Hebrew people were to be circumcised. And so as Moses is heading back and is circumcised,

son is not circumcised, this is a real issue for God. This is a real issue of disobedience, and he's not part of the covenant that God has made with Abraham because he's not been circumcised. We don't know why Moses' son was not circumcised, but we get the impression from this account that it was something that Zipporah was not a big fan of.

And if I would imagine this account in my own head, this is my own imagination, this is not biblical, it's not scriptural, but I would imagine it this way. As they're journeying back to Egypt, Moses and Zipporah are having some long conversations and Moses is kind of catching her up.

this is who God is. Let's go back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Let's, let me, let me let you know more of the family history. Let me tell you about, you know, who God is, how he's revealed himself, the way that he's worked, the covenants that he's made with us. And one of those covenants is circumcision. And Zipporah, we really need to circumcise, you know, our boy. And she says, no way, I'm not doing that. I'm not having none of that. Nope. And the way I visualize it in my head, maybe you can visualize it differently. That's fine.

But they're having that conversation, and that's when God comes against Moses. That's why she knows, this is the issue, this is the problem, this is what God is dealing with, and this is why she, not in a real excited manner, circumcises her son and says, you're a husband of bloodshed to me, I don't want to be part of this anymore.

And so what we see is she actually departs from Moses and she'll join up with him later on when his father-in-law brings her out to him. And so there's this confrontation here over this issue of circumcision there in Exodus chapter 4. Interesting possibilities. There's other ways that you can imagine it, I'm sure, but it's interesting to consider.

what took place. But the whole point is, it was important for Moses to be obedient to the Lord, to circumcise his son, to include him in the covenant that God made with Abraham. And so Moses is journeying back to Egypt. And again, he's crossing the desert, heading back into the land of Egypt. And there we're going to now see these confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh.

That brings us to Exodus chapter 5, verse 2. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. So in chapter 5, we have the first occurrence now, or the first appearance of Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. They're in verses 1 through 9. And they stand before Pharaoh and they make the announcement. Hey, God's spoken to us.

He wants us, the Hebrews, his people, to go out into the wilderness and to hold a feast, to sacrifice to him, to worship him there in the wilderness. The original request that God instructs Moses and Aaron to give to Pharaoh is not for a full departure, not, hey, free all the slaves, let them go forever. The original request is for...

A three-day journey into the wilderness to have a feast, to worship God and to sacrifice before him there. And so this is the request that they bring to Pharaoh. It's much less of a request than...

hey, let this multitude of, you know, 600,000 men, we kind of guesstimate two to three million people based on the 600,000 men, let this multitude just forever go and be released. That's a much steeper demand than let us go out into the wilderness, let's worship God, and then we'll come back. So God is giving Pharaoh an opportunity here to have a soft heart.

to respond to a reasonable request. Hey, God's revealed himself to us. He wants us to go worship him in the wilderness, and then we'll come back. But Pharaoh, of course, responds there in verse 2, I don't know the Lord. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this guy. I don't think I got to listen to him. And so he says, I will not let Israel go. Instead, we see there in verses 10 through 23 that Pharaoh makes...

things more difficult for the children of Israel. He says, hey, you guys have time to dream up sacrifices and feasts that you want to go do. I guess you're not busy enough. So he says, take away their straw. They're making bricks and they would give them straw to put in the clay so that

Well, they would have some stability to the bricks. They would be stronger. And so they were giving them the straw. He says, okay, take away the straw, but make them have the same quota. So they got to find their own straw and they got to make these same amount of bricks. He increases the work that they have to do.

Haley, in his Bible handbook, points out two archaeologists in the late 1800s, early 1900s, actually find some buildings and structures that have some evidence of this, where the bottom layer of brick have evenly cut straw and things that you would expect, and then

Up a little bit higher is all this stubble, and it's not even. It's just, you know, looks like something you would just gather. And then on top of that is even bricks with no straw or stubble in them at all. And so there's some, you know, evidence archaeologically to support, you know, what we're reading about here in the scriptures, that Pharaoh took away their straw and required them to produce the same amount of bricks.

Exodus chapter 6, key verses, verse 7. It says, I will take you as my people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. So here in verses 1 through 13, we see God promising to deliver his people. He's promising, look, I am going to do this even though Pharaoh says no. He says, I'm going to give you the land of Canaan.

God renews his promise. Again, going back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had promised them this land of Canaan that was there off the coast of the Mediterranean, there around the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, that whole region God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And now he reiterates that promise to his people here in verses 1 through 13.

Then we see the genealogy of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. And we specifically focus on Levi in the latter portion, verses 20 through 27. We have the lineage of Moses and Aaron through Levi. So here we have it.

visually. So Levi had three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. These guys we'll revisit again later on when we look at the service of the tabernacle, because the descendants of Levi become the Levites. So when you talk about the Levites in the rest of scripture, you're talking about those who descended from Levi, who was the third son of Jacob.

Well, Levi had a particular son named Kohath who had a son named Amram who had sons named Moses and Aaron. So we're seeing the lineage of Moses and Aaron and how it's traced back to Levi. Of course, they also have a sister named Miriam and she's the one who...

Pharaoh's daughter, hey, you want me to find a Hebrew lady to nurse Moses for you? And she finds Moses' mom and Moses' mom gets paid to take care of Moses and then she gives him to Pharaoh's daughter,

And he gets raised in Egyptian's ways. Okay, so, and then you have Aaron there. So Aaron also has recorded his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar, and then Eleazar has Phinehas. Now, these names will become very significant later on because the descendants of Aaron become the priesthood

for the nation of Israel. And so again, as I've been saying, we're seeing the establishing, the foundation of Israel being established here in the book of Genesis and Exodus. As we see, you know, the Levites later on are the descendants of Levi, the descendants of Aaron become the priests of the nation. And so we'll see all of this happening in the coming chapters and in the coming weeks.

Phineas becomes very prominent later on. We'll deal with that when we get there. But remember those names because they're important. And remember you heard about them back in Exodus chapter 6. Okay. So there's the genealogy, the lineage. And now we go on to chapter 7. And here's where it starts to get real exciting. Exodus chapter 7 verse 5. It says, And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel among them.

And so God is declaring that he is going to do some signs and wonders. He's going to stretch out his hand. He's going to do mighty wonders. And he's going to bring out the children of Israel. And so he tells Moses what's going to happen again in verses 1 through 7.

So over and over he's telling Moses, look, it's going to be more difficult than just, hey, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, okay, and they all go. There's going to be some, well, there's going to be a process of things that are going to take place in order for God to deliver his people. There in verses 8 through 13, as they appear before Moses, we see Aaron's rod become a snake. And so Aaron throws down his rod to prove to Pharaoh, look, God really did send us.

But Pharaoh has his magicians that he trusts in, and the magicians all have rods, and they cast their rods down as well. And he says, well, see, look, our guys can make rods into snakes too. So your power is not that great. It doesn't really prove that God sent you. But then, of course, I love how

Aaron's rod, Aaron's snake, ate up all the other snakes. And God says, no, I really am God. I really am on the throne. And I really am saying, let my people go. But Pharaoh's heart grows hard. And he says, no, I'm not going to let your people go. I think verse 5 of chapter 7 is really, really important because Pharaoh,

We see here God's purpose. He says, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt. The judgments that we're about to see, the plagues that happen upon Egypt, God declares ahead of time. There's a purpose to this. It's not just to, you know, give them a hard time. It's not just to, you know, make things miserable for them. But God is going to be revealing himself to the Egyptians.

He's also going to be revealing himself through this to the Hebrews, but specifically here he says, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And as we read through these chapters, something we need to remember and hold on to is the reality that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? Second Peter chapter 3, Peter tells us, I'm not willing that any should perish.

God is never excited about bringing judgment. He doesn't, you know, get giddy over it or start to giggle a little bit. He doesn't get happy about that. What God desires to do is save the people of Egypt. And so these plagues, these judgments that God brings are not just because he wants to make them miserable or make them, you know, in agony and pain, but because he wants them to know that he is the Lord so that they could turn to him and be saved.

That's God's desire. That's God's heart. Not only in this case, but all throughout the Old Testament as we'll be studying. And so we look at judgment oftentimes as God, you know, just upset and just wanting to hurt people. But the reality is God brings judgment. He brings plagues. He brings these things that people might know that he is the Lord, that they would realize he's on the throne and that they would turn to him for salvation.

Well, here in chapter 7, we also see God declaring ahead of time that he will harden Pharaoh's heart. And this is often a subject of conversation when we look at the book of Exodus, because it seems unfair that God would harden Pharaoh's heart, in the sense that, you know,

the idea would be that God did not give Pharaoh a choice. But what we see happening in chapter 7 and the previous chapters is God is declaring that he will harden Pharaoh's heart. It's something he says he is going to do. God is definitely involved in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

But it's not against Pharaoh's will. It's not as though, you know, Pharaoh is like, man, I really want to be soft-hearted towards the Hebrews and towards God and let them go. I wish I had that opportunity. That's not what Pharaoh was saying. Pharaoh did not want to be soft-hearted. He did not want to be tender-hearted.

And so in Exodus chapter 7 verse 13, and Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them. He's refusing. He's saying no. He is hardening his own heart. And we'll see

A couple more times through the next couple of plagues that Pharaoh hardens his heart and he hardens his heart. Then in Exodus chapter 9, we'll read about it in tomorrow's portion, verse 12, it says, "...but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not heed them just as the Lord had spoken to Moses."

And so we don't, we see that in Exodus chapter 9, God finally hardens Pharaoh's heart, but Pharaoh has been hardening it as well. So it's his desire, it's Pharaoh's desire to say no, to harden his heart. So God's not forcing him against his will. Instead, and this is something important to consider, God is strengthening him in his decision. He's strengthening him in his choice.

And that's a reality that, well, is important for us to consider about God, that God helps us in our decisions and in our choices. And if we say, no, God, I don't want to listen to you, God says, okay, I'll help you with that. If we say, yes, God, I want to listen to you, I want to respond to you, I want to draw near to you, God says, I'll draw near to you then, I'll help you in that decision, I'll strengthen you.

He gives us the choice. He gives us free will. And then he strengthens us in that choice. God, well, David Guzik says, God confirmed Pharaoh in his wicked inclination against Israel. God strengthened the inclination of his heart, what he already desired to do. And that's why he said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

And so what we see happening now is the plagues begin to come upon the land of Egypt. The first plague comes in verses 14 through 25, which is where God turns the Nile River to blood. Now, many people in looking at the plagues work really hard to explain the plagues with natural occurrences.

Some people do so in order to say, you know, God didn't really do anything. It wasn't supernatural. There is no God. These are just natural occurrences and things that happen. Others approach the same type of thing from a different perspective and say, no, God was using these natural events for telling them, telling them in advance to accomplish his purposes. I think as we look, though, at the plagues of Egypt...

It's very clear that this is more than just, you know, a very stormy season. It's more than just an El Nino, you know, or just, you know, just a strange collision of different weather patterns or something like that. It's not just crazy weather. And I think God proves that when he protects the children of Israel from the plagues that come upon the nation of Egypt.

The last, I think it's seven plagues, Israel is distinct and set apart. And although all around them, these plagues are happening in Egypt, where the Israelites dwell in the land of Goshen, the plagues aren't happening.

And so God is showing, he's revealing, this is not just, you know, some natural phenomenon. This is a supernatural work of God. He's really proving that he is God, that he is the creator, that he is in control of these things that are going on. And so they bring this first plague upon the nation of Egypt, which is Israel.

Now, another aspect of the plagues that is interesting to consider, you were given a handout this evening, this little yellow page. There's a lot of different, you know, renderings of this type of thing, but what it does is it breaks out the different plagues that were given to the land of Egypt and how it relates to different gods that Egypt worshiped.

Egypt did not just believe in one particular god, but Egypt believed in a whole multitude of gods, and they would worship all of these different gods. And in Numbers chapter 33 verse 4, it tells us at the end of the verse there, it says, Also in Exodus chapter 12, we'll get there this week, in verse 12, it says,

It says, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And so God is declaring as he brings these plagues upon the land of Egypt, it's not just, you know, random things. He thought, well, let me be creative and think about, you know, what strange thing can I make to happen? But he's really revealing that the gods that they worship are not gods at all. And so he's bringing these plagues upon them that,

demonstrate that the gods that they worship are not gods. And so the Nile River is related to the god Hopi, as well as a couple other gods, the god Osiris, and so on and so forth. And so as he is working these great miracles and turning the Nile River to blood, it's demonstrating that the gods that they worship of the Nile River are not really gods at all. That God is

Almighty reigns on high, that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And you can see that through all the rest of the plagues as well. There's a lot of information there that you could look further into if you'd like. But the first plague now is the water being turned into blood. And that's the Nile River. Here's a map of the Egyptian empire. The Nile River is the river that runs all the way basically from top to bottom.

It was really the life source of the land of Egypt in many ways. It's how they survived. It's how they were able to exist as a people. It's what made the land fertile because the Nile River would overflow its banks and water all of their fields and things like that. And so it was a very important and central thing for the nation of Egypt. And so it would be very devastating now for the river to be turned to blood.

So what they ended up having to do, it explains there in the chapter, is that they had to dig around the Nile and dig these wells in order to get fresh water.

Sometimes people ask, well, how did the Egyptian magicians turn water to blood if it was already turned to blood? But that's probably what they did. They dug these wells, they got the fresh water, and then they also turned that to blood. And so they had to dig those wells around the Nile River in order to have fresh water to be able to survive. But the land already with just this first plague would have been very devastated by this effect on the Nile River.

One other thing in Exodus chapter 7 verse 7, it tells us that Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. So again, Moses sees the burning bush. He's 80 years old at that time. He appears before Pharaoh. He's 80 years old and he's been in the wilderness for 40 years, but now he's back in Egypt to lead his people out of Egypt and into the promised land.

Well, that brings us to Exodus chapter 8 to finish off the evening. Verse 32 is the key verse. It says, And so again, we see the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. He hardens his heart. He says no. And he continues to do that through these disciples.

the process of these different plagues that come. There in verses 1 through 15, we see the second plague that God brings upon the land of Egypt, and that is an abundance of frogs. And so all these frogs come in. God says they're going to be all over. They're going to be, you know, in your underwear drawer, in your sock drawer, in your bed, in your oven, all over the place underneath you. Now, frogs were something that, you know, the Egyptians worshipped. And so God says, well, you want to worship them? You want to revere them? Well, here, have a bunch.

and really to cause them to be a stench, to be an abomination to them. Again, to show that that really is not a God at all. Now, when I go through the book of Exodus and I look at the plagues, I don't know about you, but for some reason in my mind, I have reruns of Fear Factor in my head going on. You guys ever watch that show a long time ago? You know, like they would lay the people, okay, you got to lay here for five minutes in this, you know,

this big coffin of, you know, all these crazy creatures and let them crawl all over you and I go, ah, no, no, no, no, I can't do that. That's what it would have been like for them. I would not have done well with these plagues. Can you imagine just frogs all over the place? You just, they're on you, they're all over, you can't get away from them, you're stepping on them, they're squishy, you know, just...

It's yucky, right? And so this is something, again, it's not just, oh, you know, a couple frogs. Well, that's amazing. You know, sometimes you ever see where, you know, you're driving down the road or you're walking down the road and all of a sudden you just see this big host of butterflies, right? And it's like, oh, wow, that's cool. It's not like that where you just like see all these frogs go by like, oh, that's interesting. I mean, this was something, it was invasive. It was personal. It was all over them. They couldn't get away from it.

God is right in their face saying, look, I am the Lord. This is very clearly God revealing himself, saying, I am the Lord. Well, we see now Pharaoh responds to this. He begins to make promises to let the people go, but then he doesn't follow through. And he begins to repeat this with each of the plagues that go on. He says, okay, okay, okay, enough. I can't take the frogs. I'll let the people go. Just get rid of the frogs. And then Pharaoh,

God says, okay, I'll get rid of the frogs. And Pharaoh says, no, no, never mind. I'm not going to let the people go. And so we begin to see this pattern take place through the next plagues as well. So the third plague now comes. It's lice that's brought up out of the dust. It's interesting there in verse 18 and 19, you see the first couple plagues, the magicians of Egypt were

They're duplicating it. They get the buckets of water. They turn it to blood. They say, look, Pharaoh, we can do that too. So, you know, God's not that powerful. We can do it. Then we have the frogs and the magicians say, well, we can bring frogs. And so they bring more frogs to the already abundant frogs that are in the land.

But now God brings lice out of the dust of the ground. And it says that they're trying. And I can imagine them, you know, just being frustrated, like, you know, leaving their wand at the dirt, like, come on, lice, go, you know, whatever they were doing. I don't know. But they're trying to produce it and they're unable to. And they conclude this must be the hand of God. And so again, you see, God is in their face. He's saying, look, I am the Lord.

I am God. He's saying, this is so that they may know that I am the Lord. And Pharaoh, this is why what Pharaoh does is so wicked because God is right there in his face saying, I am the Lord. And he's saying, I don't care. I'm not letting the people go. And so the plague of lice goes through. Then we have the plague of flies there. Also, it could be gnats. It's not actually...

clear what insect God is meaning. It basically is saying there's swarms of insects. Verses 16 through 19, I'm sorry, verses 20 through 32 talk about the swarms of insects or flies that come. And Pharaoh does the same thing. This time though, he offers a compromise. He says, okay, okay, okay, okay. How about you go sacrifice, but you stay within the land of Egypt. Remember the request back in chapter 5, verse 1.

We're going to go out three days into the wilderness, have our feast to God, and then we'll come back. Pharaoh said no. Now, after this fourth plague, he says, okay, how about you go sacrifice to your God, have your feast, but don't go out into the wilderness. Just stay here within the land. He's offering a compromise. Now, there's many cases where compromise is good. Oftentimes in a marriage, you know, you need to learn how to compromise.

But when it comes to God saying, this is what I want you to do, there's no room for compromise. I mean, it's like two out of three, right? Okay, we get a go and we get a sacrifice. We just can't do it out in the wilderness. Well, that's pretty good. Two out of three. God would understand that, right? No, Moses knows this is not of the Lord. God, we need to do what God told us to do. And so he says, no, we're not going to do that, Pharaoh. He says, okay, okay, I'll let you go. Just take away these swarms.

And then, of course, God takes it away. And Pharaoh says, never mind. I take it back. I had my fingers crossed. I'm not going to let you go. So we see the first four plagues of God upon Egypt here this evening. The water turned to blood. The frogs, the lice, the flies. The rest we're going to see in the next couple of days as we go on chapters 9 through 12. And we'll see God continuing to give them opportunity. Look, I'm here. I'm real. Turn to me.

And Pharaoh will continue to resist and resist and resist. You know, as we finish up this evening, I think it's important to remember that these plagues and these things were going on because God was wanting the Egyptians and the Hebrews to know that he really is God. And the way that he was revealing himself, the way that he was doing that was he, well, he's bringing judgment upon their false gods.

There's a lot of lessons that we could learn and take personally here in the book of Exodus, but that's the one that really stands out as I share with you this evening. And that is that, listen, you and I, we may not worship frogs, but we still have the same tendency to worship a multitude of gods. Where our hearts are devoted to things or people or places other than God.

And God does not have the role of number one in our hearts, that he's not our primary passion, our first love, our first devotion, that other things take priority before him. And that is idolatry. That is the worship of false gods. Whatever it is that we're pursuing after and chasing after, it takes the place of God in our life. And it might be a multitude of gods like Egypt, or it might be one thing that we pursue after instead of God. Amen.

And here's what will always happen. Just like we see in Egypt, God dealing with their false gods. You will find in your life, when you put other things in the place of God, God will bring judgment to reveal that is not something that's worthy of your devotion and passion in place of God. One way that God judges our false gods is to give us an abundance of what we worship.

Hey, you want to worship frogs? All right. You're going to have frogs coming out your ears. God says, you want to worship your job? You want to worship your career? All right. I'll lay it on you. I'll give you an abundance so that you'll come to the point where you're sick. You're fed up with that job that you coveted, that you worship, that you pursued instead of God. Your God is a relationship. God says, all right. I'll give you an abundance of it.

To the point that you're sick, that you can't wait to get rid of, to disgust you, to show you that's not worthy of your devotion and passion in the way that God is. Now sometimes he judges our gods by taking them away. And so you're going to worship your job, alright, I'm going to take it from you. But other times he gives it

He brings judgment by giving the abundance to make us sick of it, to make us overwhelmed by it. It's just everywhere we look, we just can't run away from it. Instead of pursuing it, now we can't get away from it. That's one of the ways that God uses to reveal to us, there's an idol in your heart and you need to repent of that and you need to get right with me. You need to put me back in the right place. So I want to encourage you this evening to make sure that you're not like Pharaoh.

To make sure that you're not hardening your heart. That you have God in his rightful place. That he's first. That he's foremost. Your commitment to him is before anything else. He is more important to you than anything else in your life. That's the place he deserves. If that's not the place he has, buckle up. The plagues are coming. God will not stand for other gods. He'll deal with them. So make sure you cast him down and grasp hold of him.

Let's pray. God, I pray for our hearts, Lord, that you would help us to identify those things that have taken your place. God, I pray that you would help us to cast them down, to not continue to pursue them. But Lord, to put you first and foremost, that we would be obedient to you, that we would listen to you. God, that we would be passionate about you and devoted to you above all other things in our life. Lord, that you'll meet our needs. You'll provide for us as we seek you first.

And so, God, I pray that you would consume us with more of you. Help us, God, to put you first. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.