Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Exodus 9.

If you’re able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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There’s something going on in the plagues that really jumped out to me as I was reading and studying Plagues 5 and 6.

This is not unique to these two plagues—certainly, this is true in every plague—but some of the language in this chapter of Exodus really highlights this truth:

v. 3— the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock

v. 4—the Lord will make a distinction

v. 5—the Lord set a time

v. 6—the next day, the Lord did it

v. 12—the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart

The Lord is at work

This is certainly clear in all the other plagues, but this truth—that the Lord is at work—seems to me to be highlighted in these verses.

The repetition—verses 3, 4, 5, 6, 12 are there to grab our attention and make us think about what, rather WHO is causing all these miracles in Egypt.

We’re halfway through the plagues and we’ve seen, with each plague, the two-part reason for the plagues.

God does everything for:

His glory, and

The good of His people

The plagues we’ve seen so far—blood, frogs, gnats, and flies—all serve these two purposes.

The Lord is at work to secure the unconditional freedom of His people from slavery in Egypt so that they might worship Him (His glory) and so that they might be free from the cruel oppression of Pharaoh and the Egyptians (the good of His people).

As they go on, the plagues become more severe; a little more unbearable, each one.

The Lord is at work in this, to be sure.

He’s systematically tearing-down the Egyptians and their false gods.

He’s using Pharaoh’s pride and stubborn heard-heartedness to make His point.

He’s revealing that He is Lord over all creation and is the One who holds all things together.

He’s making it clear that none of the gods the Egyptians worship have any power whatsoever.

The Lord is at work, of this, there is no doubt.

v. 3— the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock

v. 4—the Lord will make a distinction

v. 5—the Lord set a time

v. 6—the next day, the Lord did it

v. 12—the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart

The Lord is at work, and

The work of the Lord is UNMISTAKABLE

None of the prior plagues is announced by Moses as the work of the hand of the Lord.

Pharaoh’s magicians said the plague of gnats was courtesy the finger of God, but this was merely their general idea that what was happening was supernatural, divine, above them.

The magicians were not expressing belief in or confessing anything about the Lord Yahweh, the God of the enslaved Jewish people.

It was, according to them, the finger of God.

But here, well...here the Lord says to Pharaoh (through Moses):

The hand of the Lord...

This phrase makes clear what all the events of the plagues are meant to show Egypt, Israel, and us: it is the Lord who is at work to bring His people out of slavery.

The might and strength of God’s hand is the means by which He will bring Israel out of Egypt.

God’s power is working in the world to save His people; this recurs throughout the story of the plagues and the Exodus—the hand of the Lord.

This image—the hand of the Lord—is an anthropomorphism: giving human characteristics to a non-human.

God is not like us.

He has no body; He has no hand.

This phrase is a way of setting-up a comparison between God and Pharaoh.

Ancient Egyptian texts often describe the power of Pharaoh by saying that he had “a strong hand, a strong arm” with which he would destroy his enemies.

Here in the plagues, it’s not the strong hand of Pharaoh; it’s the hand of the Lord.

The hand of God is the only power there is.

Pharaoh has no power, no strength, no might.

By speaking of His hand, this is God Himself announcing that the plague is coming directly from Him—there can be no mistaking what’s happening.

This isn’t the finger of some unknown higher power; this is the very hand of God.

And it’s unmistakable.

This plague is as miraculous as it is unmistakable.

The timing of the whole thing was set by the Lord.

Moses was able to say when this great and dreadful plague was going to occur, not because Moses was a good guesser, but because God had revealed in advance the time of His intervention.

The Lord set a time when this would happen and the next day the Lord did it.

The work of the Lord is UNMISTAKABLE

Once again, the Lord’s at work and He’s making a distinction between His people and the people of Israel.

Each time He does this, each time the Lord makes it so that the Egyptians suffer from the plague and the Israelites don’t have to suffer any part of the plague—each time the Lord does this, He makes an unmistakable impression on the Egyptians and the Israelites.

In the previous plague, flies came on all the Egyptians, but the Lord said:

Now, in this plague:

This plague will kill all the Egyptian livestock in the fields; all the Egyptian horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats.

All the Egyptian animals living in the field are d-e-a-d, dead.

In an unmistakable distinction: not one animal belonging to the Israelites is touched.

Something unmistakable is taking place.

Let’s talk bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

You know, BSE? Or, we could call it “mad cow disease” as it is commonly known.

It was 1985 when English ranchers first noticed they had a problem.

Some of their cattle were sick.

They were weakened physically and mentally—a very strange disease.

The infected cattle behaved erratically; they’d become either fearful or aggressive.

They seemed to be going mad (hence “mad cow disease”).

As the disease progressed, the cattle staggered around the farm until they’d stumble to the ground and die.

There was no treatment, no cure.

It rightly caused a panic across Europe, becoming one of the most terrifying plagues of the last century.

Now imagine a disease like this comes to Bates County.

And imagine if only cattle owned by Butler and Hume residents were affected; all the cattle owned by Rich Hill-ians were just fine, enjoying good health with no issues.

Cattle on bordering farmland are distinguished from one another based on who owns them.

Those cattle die; these don’t.

That would be odd, wouldn’t it?

Everyone would have to say something unmistakable was taking place.

Here in Egypt, that’s exactly what’s happening—the plague from the hand of the Lord affects only the Egyptian livestock: (v. 6) All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.

So odd, so unmistakably odd this is, that Pharaoh investigates it.

It’s as if Pharaoh couldn’t believe his own eyes and ears; as if the reports of the death of all the Egyptian livestock living in the field were fabricated, made up, exaggerated, false.

Pharaoh sees the effects of the plague.

His investigation turns up the only possible verdict: the hand of the Lord brought this plague upon his people’s livestock with the promised result.

And still Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding and would not let the people go.

This—even this (Pharaoh’s unyielding heart)—even this is the unmistakable work of the Lord.

The work of the Lord is UNMISTAKABLE

The Lord continues His systematic dismantling of the Egyptian worldview and Pharaoh’s entire program.

Plague #6 is introduced in verse 8 with the same words the rest of the plagues are introduced: Then the Lord said to Moses...

Pharaoh doesn’t get it.

5 plagues in and Pharaoh remains unyielding.

What’s it going to take?

First, God turned the river into blood.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not listen.

Then came the frogs.

Pharaoh asked for prayer, but as soon as he got some relief, he hardened his heart.

Next, gnats swarmed all over Egypt.