Prologue to the 10 Plagues
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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And it came to pass on the day when the Lord spake unto Moses in the land of Egypt, That the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I am the Lord: speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee. And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?
And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they.
And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
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Struggle Against the Flesh
Look at the hardships tat Moses has not only endured thus far, but would have to continue to endure
not only Moses, but so many others in the Bible
doing the good things will sometimes cause us to have to put in some good work of the flesh, perhaps not being easy
if you think about carrying our cross, that can be a physical thing which involves the flesh, among other aspects
but God is there to help ease our burdens if we do carry our cross
God is there with Moses in Egypt to show His great power over the false gods of Egypt - Moses challenging the priests
not only to show His power over the false gods, but to show His power over nature and the elements - many of the plagues
later on, Jesus walking on the water
but finally, through all of this, God shows His power over the corruption of man
where does this come in to play? - with the Israelites themselves
the Israelites put their faith in God, and God not only showed His power over nature and the Gods of Egypt, but of the corruption of man
when we put our faith in God, and allow Him to work in us, He shows His power over the elements of us - the flesh, the mind, the heart
with our faith in God, He molds us, allowing us, through God, to conquer the sortcomings of our flesh
our flesh may not always want to do what it takes to be doing the right thing
you think about the apostles, who spent their whole life after Jesus ministering to various places - the natural flesh without God would want to do what THEY wanted to do
but yet look how drastic of a change for the better their life had because of their faith in God
Should we put our faith in God, God will overcome our sinful desires, He will conquer them, just as He showed His dominion over the false gods of Egypt and of nature itself
so whether it be sins of laziness, lusts of the flesh, sins regarding our speech, or any other physical sin, with our faith in God, God will conquer these things in our lives
Struggle Against the Mind
Sometimes we tend to think we know better, or we make excuses for not doing things
maybe there is something we know we should be doing, but we come up with justifications for not doing what we should be doing
look at moses earlier saying that he couldn’t speak well, so he COULDN”T be the one to go to Egypt and speak to Pharoah
We, as imperfect, fallen people, can often lead ourselves astray by thinking WE know better
think of what the Parisees did, they thought they knew best how to follow God - but instead they were following what THEY thougt and came up with instead of what God had said
people, many times, like to think that they know best, and that they know best where to take their lives
but often times this leads people to the wrong place, a place of self-destruction
our minds, often driven by the heart and the flesh, take us in the wrong direction
The Israelites many times along this journey murmured and said things like “Moses is just trying to get us killed” or “Moses made us look bad in the eyes of Pharoah” and other things - at certain points, if it was up to what they thought, they may never have been freed
but ultimately, GOD KNOWS BETTER, and we must account for that in our lives
so we need to turn ourselves over to God, and let God renew our minds
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
So God has the power to not only overcome and change the desires of our flesh, but to renew our mind
if only we turn ourselves over to Him, He will show His power over the evil and fallen nature of not only this world, but of the fallen self
If we think of the Israelites, had they continued to think that they knew best, they’d have never made it out of their slavery
and we talked about how their slavery is imagery of our slavery to sin
so if we don’t let God take over and renew the fallen nature of our minds, how will we ever escape our slavery to sin?
We must let go, and let God show His power over not only our flesh, but of our mind, and through this, God shows us life instead of us being on our path to death
Struggle Against the Heart/Spirit
this is the biggest obstacle we all have in our lives, as before we turn ourselves over to God completely, our heart drives both the mind and the flesh
adam and eve - they wanted to be like God and ate the fruit in the Garden, this was a problem of the heart
had their heart been completely and totally turned over to God - they would have experienced life
however, they followed their own hearts, which led to death, and brought sin and death into the world
Cain and abel - cain had an issue of the heart, he wasn’t serious, he hadn’t turned himself completely over to God
which led him to kill abel - his following his own fleshly heart led him to kill abel
we all lived our own lives, living after our own hearts, leading us to places we should not have been, and put us on a path to damnation
we cannot by ourselves overcome this, just like the Israelites could not have saved their own selves from the slavery that they were in
we are dead in our trespasses and sins, we are headed to nowhere
but the miracle of God is that He gives us new life, right?
he breathes new life into our dry bones
if we think about where our fallen nature comes from, it comes right from the devil, as it started in eden
our fallen hearts pursue directly after evil, which is a very powerful force in this world
if we just look around us, we can see just how much power evil holds in this world
just as Pharoah was playing the part of the power of evil in the story of the exodus
but God shows His power over Pharoah, God shows His power over all the forces of this world
and as the Israelites turned themselves over to God, God overcame all forces of evil that opposed them
God overcame the path to death they were on, and gave them a path to life
and so we, in our life, if we just turn everything in our lives over to God, God can overcome ANYTHING in our lives
but we have to turn it over to Him
The Israelites overcame incredible odds in Egypt, by TURNING IT OVER TO GOD
we in our lives face many similar problems, we may be in situations where the odds are just completely working against us
it could be anything in our lives, seemingly impossible to overcome problems with our flesh, with our mind, with our heart, or just in situations in our lives
God can overcome it ALL
if we think about what Christ wants from us, He wants our faith, He wants our belief, and He wants us to follow what He lays out for us
and He out and out tells us, that if we do these things, our lives will be changed, we will be renewed, we will be given life
He tells us to have joy, because He has overcome the world
and so, if we have faith in Christ, ANYTHING in this world can be overcome
we can have encouragement in the face of overwhelming odds
we can have encouragement in the face of seemingly impossible to fix problems
we can move forward in the toughest problems of our lives
not through us, but through God
The Israelites did not escape Egypt, show dominion over Egypts gods, and nature itself because of themselves or their power
they did it completely through God’s power
all they did was walk forward, and God did absolutely everything else
So if we just walk by faith, if we just live by faith, we can move forward with God working in our lives as well
they key is just to walk by this faith, and God will perform powerful works from our inside to the outside
WE MUST LET GOD WORK OVERCOME ON THE INSIDE FIRST AND FOREMOST