November 24, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 2 Peter

Weekly Memory Verse: 2 Timothy 2:2

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 10:29-11:10 (NASB95)
²⁹ Moses said, “You are right; I shall never see your face again!” ¹ Now the Lord said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely. ² “Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.” ³ The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. ⁴ Moses said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ⁶ ‘Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. ⁷ ‘But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ ⁸ “All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.^[1]

One thing that puzzled me about this passage at first was that in the last verse of chapter 10, Moses said that he would never see Pharaoh again.  The chapter break falls in an inconvenient spot.  The scene did not change, Moses was still standing in front of Pharaoh while the Lord was speaking to him. 

I don't think we really see the true picture until verse 8 is taken into consideration.  Moses was furious, he was in "hot anger", this could also be translated as "burning with anger" according to the Word Biblical Commentary.  Try to picture the scene, Moses was acting as a mouthpiece for God, but he couldn't help but take the constant rejection of his message as personal. 

I can't imagine what Pharaoh thought about his message, it was obvious that Pharaoh did not consider the ramifications of the plague that was about to happen.  Perhaps he thought he was exempt from judgment. 

God said that this would be the last plague, and it was. In the next few days, with the exception of Thanksgiving, we will cover the preparation and the final plague.  One point to take into account, God instructed the people to request articles of silver and gold.  The people of Egypt would be glad to give away their precious stuff, God not only plundered the land, He plundered the people. 

God continued to hit the foreign gods proving that they were ineffective.  The god attacked by this one may have been Isis, who was the god that protected children.

Romans 1:18-23 (NASB95)
¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Psalm 115:3 (NASB95)
³ But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. ^[2]

Some people are under the illusion that God is a good God and does not bring calamity to man.  They try to say that God couldn't possible allow little ones to be sick, to die, etcetera, etcetera.  God is a just God, and He brings judgment which does not make since to us.  Remember, God's effort here was not just to punish the Egyptians, but also to convince the Jews that He is all powerful.  This was to give the Hebrews a solid experiential knowledge of His protecting and delivering them.  As a result of this, a great slaughter hovered on the horizon, Pharaoh knew it and refused to allow Israel to go free.  The consequences of his actions were obvious, in the previous days Moses had a perfect hit rate.  When Moses spoke about God's word, it happened.  Pharaoh should have been aware of the consequences of his hard heart. 

In the end, God proved His presence to Israel.  They had forgotten who God was over the 400 years of captivity.  God methodically demonstrated that He was all powerful by squashing all the Egyptian gods as if they were nothing.  Remember, proof of presence was not for the unbeliever, it was for Israel.  This is further established by the fact that none in Israel will die, and none of their livestock will die.  The Lord made a clear distinction between His people an those who were not.

We will cover more in the coming days, I am looking forward to studying the symbols and history that is to come.  I hope that as we look at it, we are able to draw strength from it, and knowledge that we can all broaden our base of understanding with.  Once we complete the discussion on the Passover, the pace will pick up again.

One other note of interest, I am going to be changing web servers soon.  When I do change servers, I may be off-line for a few days as the transition is being made.  The current server is kicking back emails every day due to filters that they put in place to protect against spammers.  I understand their desire to protect themselves against spammers, and will be finding another avenue to follow.  The server that I am looking at is IInet.com, it looks very good, they will be able to transfer my domain name over and there shouldn't be any changes in email or web address.

Father, as we consider the final plague, enlighten us so that we can understand and apply the scriptures to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.