I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to Exodus chapter 9 as we are in the seventh plague in our study of the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 9 verse 13 is where we will study today. I had more of you last week we considered boils and I had more of you come up and say to me, well, I had one, here's where my boil was and I didn't really want to hear about it. But it was helpful to remember that these things still happen. And the Lord is showing us in history that He used these particular things to draw people to faith and repentance in Him. So this morning, we come to the seventh plague, Exodus 9, verse 13. This is the word of the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on yourself and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now, therefore, send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter there it is for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on him then whoever feared the word of the lord among the servants of pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field then the lord said to moses stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. All the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I've sinned. The Lord is in the right. I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. The flax and the barley were struck down, For the barley was in the ear and the flax was in the bud. But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord. And the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people of Israel go just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, as we come to the seventh plague this morning, and of course seven being a very important number in Scripture, the Lord does something in that vein to really slow down our study of the plagues and give us an in-depth look into the meaning of them. That's what he's doing here. We're getting an in-depth look, a slowing down, if you will. That's why that section was so much longer than the others. And if I ask the question this morning, why is the Lord doing this? Why is the Lord continuing to keep this going? Maybe you're feeling like, let's go. Let's go. You've been studying this for a long time. We'll never get done with Exodus. We'll get done. But you might stop and say, well, why? Why? Why so long? Why did God think it best for you to inspire this and it be preached like this? Why? Well, you might say, well, we kind of know by now. We've got an answer. He's saving a people. That would be a good answer. That would be a good answer. But this plague opens up even more for you. Why all of this so long and so dragged out? Why didn't God just do this quickly and pull them out? Why all the plagues? Well, you have that answer this morning. Clearly, it seems that Pharaoh has had enough himself. Right? You saw that. You heard that. And yet, at the end of the last plague, it ended with the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. He wasn't done yet. What was to be accomplished? We have that answered in the seventh plague. It's a plague that explains the reasoning for why God is doing what He is doing and with the kind of display with which He is doing it of power. And the simple answer that we find in light of this plague, further answering His deliverance of His people, is that God is making His name known in the earth. That is so plainly said here. This plague explains that. This plague explains what's happening in the earth at about this time. This plague is explaining what the other nations are about talking about at this time, which is really fascinating. God is displaying and showing His power in Pharaoh. That all the peoples of the earth might start asking the question, who is the God of Israel? Who is the God of Israel? Who is this God? We've never seen anyone like Him. This is the purpose. that's the seventh plague and god in this particular plague uses a storm to accomplish this great goal we come to the final cycle of three here so we've had the first two cycles and now we come to the third cycle of three and then the tenth plague which is death it always moves to death and so then we see this it moves to death when there's rebellion against him but in this final cycle of plague, we come again early in the morning. God tells Moses to go out to Pharaoh and meet him. Verse 13, then the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me there it is again every time they need to come out to worship me but then the lord does something fascinating he tells moses i want you and keep in mind he's saying this to pharaoh i want you to say something very specific to pharaoh i want you to inform him of something i want you to deliver this message to pharaoh i want you to tell him verse 14 everyone look carefully at it for this time i will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people that's not the best translation i'm gonna send here it is all of my plagues all of them into your heart that's how it reads some of the older translations capture that and on your servants and on your people it's going into your heart all of them all of my plagues are coming right up on in there that's scary stuff i had to ponder that for a bit what in the world does that mean what does it mean that all the plagues are going right up on into his heart remember pharaoh was considered to be a god in egypt and remember the the great ruling principle not but but was displayed everyone knew this israel understood this by the heart of pharaoh his heart was the center of society his heart determined they thought power and rule his heart in egyptian religion was viewed as the source of israel's uh egypt's strength. His heart. We have this in writing. What did God mean? All my plagues are coming into your heart. All of them. All at once. Do you know how hard the human heart is? I have as a pastor in my time witnessed all different kinds of responses to the ministry of the word all different kinds the word the lord has told us it cuts it cuts and it cuts two ways you know this it's living and active the word of god sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and joint of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Word gets in there. God's Word. It's how powerful it is. I've been amazed at the responses. Has the ministry penetrated to the heart? What are the different responses? You have an entire parable of a sower to explain it. There are some where I've stood back and I say, has the word of God yet penetrated the heart so as to break them? In other words, where's the spiritual life? Or do they come and sit and it remains hard? And then you see the responses of faith. And you see the responses of people when you see a real humility develop in people's hearts and lives. And they are so taken by the gospel. They are just taken by the gospel. They are so in awe that Christ could ever love them because they know what they are and what they've done. And you see others, it's just nothing. The heart. What happened to Pharaoh? I'm sending them all to his heart. I think we could maybe get at that when we ask the question, what happens when you see deep blows in this life? Plagues mean blow. giving blows when you see things happen in life we're all going along we're busy with our lives and we're doing something and then some great tragedy happens our our worlds come crashing down on us everything falls apart how do you feel with what you saw last week i was so disturbed i mean it really did get to the heart how do you feel when you see a tsunami hit how do you feel when the world trade center collapse there's only so much the heart can take right what do you feel when these things happen it stops and all of a sudden there's a deep pondering that goes on and you're taking it to heart that's what we call it we're taking it to heart. It's got in there, and it's caused a real pain to occur in the heart. I have seen strong men, proud, puffed up. As with the boils, their health gets hit, and all of a sudden they are completely humble. There are certain things that break hard hearts. We know this. Such sadnesses or such hardships that the human heart can only take so much. And then what's the response to it? What's the response to it? Well, you either see one or two responses to it. People either further harden or they soften. Here's what I believe the Lord's saying. Did you catch verse 14? i am giving now this is why we're studying pharaoh he's an exception to the norm the lord is using him as an exception to teach people something about the human heart that's what paul said in romans 9 i am giving him the fullest blows of all my plagues right there to his heart i'm gonna strike that heart like nobody has ever been struck before it will be the deepest blows that a human heart can take this blow will cut deep now all of you would say well he's done i mean he's just done right anyone who has those kind of blows from god to the heart plagues means blows i'm sending them all now in the last plague you remember there was a little phrase that i really developed no one could stand before Moses notice how this one begins Moses go stand before Pharaoh but I want everyone to look at verse 16 there's a play on this word stand that again you don't pick up in your translations for this reason look at it our version says in verse 16 for this purpose I've raised you up you know that because Paul cites it in Romans 9 for this purpose I've raised you up to show my power the hebrew here reads for this purpose i have made you to stand there it is no one else could stand god enabled pharaoh to stand for a purpose here's what moses wanted us to see the heart is so incredibly hard pharaoh's been hardening at the end of this one he'll harden it himself god is keeping him standing to show you the human heart that is so important for us there's no reason there's no ability any human being could take all this and in fact everyone in the next plague is begging him what are you doing stop this we're going to be pummeled and god says it in verse 15 by now i could i could have put an end to this a long time ago pharaoh Moses, you tell him. I could have put an end to this real quick. I could have sent severe pestilence. It would have been done right away. I could have wiped you out at any time, my friend. But I want something else to happen here. I want people to study your heart and history. I want people to know about Pharaoh and history. Everyone knew that Pharaoh believed his own heart was sovereign. Okay, keep that in mind. He had taken that role to himself. But you were so hard. I want everyone to know, but I have so much power over you that I sent all my plagues against your heart and the only way you stood was because of me. When any human being by now would have been caved and died. Paul was so moved by that in Romans 9. He says, The Scripture says to Pharaoh, quoting this, For this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whom he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. God says, I'm doing this to show my power. Now, did that happen? Yeah. God saves probably two million people out of there and they travel through the wilderness and they make it to the borders of the promised land and remember what happened? Rahab, we have heard how the Lord, they're all talking about the Lord. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came up out of Egypt. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. It got to our hearts. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is, listen to this, isn't this amazing? He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. That's what people were saying in Canaan. Gibeonites said the same thing. The Philistines said the same thing. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of this God? This is the God who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Well, they all knew about the Lord. Everyone knew about the God of the Hebrews. His name was spreading everywhere. his fame i have heard more criticism in my life of god hardening the heart of pharaoh and because of that nobody has seemed to understand why he did it why did he do it i want my name known why did god want his name known to be a teaching tool for everyone one day solomon built the temple i want you to listen to the language of this this is first kings eight when he built that temple this is was his prayer of dedication blessed be the god of israel who spoke by his mouth to my father david with his hand has fulfilled it saying since the day that i brought up my people israel out of egypt then solomon stood before the altar of the lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you. Same thing. Who keep your covenant and your mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts. Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart and spreads out his hands toward this temple, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and give to everyone according to his ways whose hearts you know. For you alone know the hearts of all the sons of men. That they may, here it is, fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers. Moreover, concerning a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel, but has come from a far country, for your name, he heard about it. For they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm when he comes and prays toward this temple. Here in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you and do as do your people Israel. Why is he doing this? So that everyone would come. Everyone would hear. solomon prayed that they would come hearing that name this is how he was made famous in the earth god wanted people to know the plague of their did you catch that of their own hearts and come to him and seek forgiveness that all nations might know his name plague of the heart did you see it last week man walks into a church and shoots it up we stand back and say oh how could such evil reside in people because of the plague of hearts it's everywhere god has just restrained it but if he lift hell's lid you'd see this all the time when pharaoh's name would be mentioned in future generations everyone knew what a fool this man was the heart in his heart what a fool pharaoh was What a fool Pharaoh was. Everyone talked about what a fool Pharaoh was to harden his heart against Yahweh. And it begged the question, what's my heart like to Yahweh? I don't want to receive plagues to my heart. Pharaoh's heart is hard. Look at God's power. Now what happens at this point? As yet, you exalt yourself against my people and you won't let them go. you continue so far to do this behold tomorrow about this time i'm causing very heavy hail to rain down such has not been in egypt since its founding until now it was a known saying in egypt that the pharaoh in current office would accomplish something in egypt as such as had never been known since the founding of egypt that's why you had a constant building project and greater and greater and greater and greater they were addicted to growth that way you tell him i'm going to do something in egypt he's never seen before ever i'm going to rain down on him literally i could have titled my sermon this great balls of fire but you guys would have taken that very seriously i'm going to light the ground up everything in the field is going to be lit on fire when these balls hit it's like a cosmic gun shooting down hail fire on them it's a perfect storm that's described here nobody had ever seen it in the history of the world like this they had all sorts of gods of the sky shoe was the god of the air and sky holder of the heavens was represented as a man with his arms holding the weather think of how obsessed we are with the weather it's first thing you're going to talk about afterward by the way the weather tefnet was the goddess of moisture there was seth the god of winds and storm and evil and darkness and strength and war but do you know who probably was at least we know from history this god made its way into egypt at some point it's hard to determine exactly when you know who bale oh you know a lot about bale in history god would have a showdown with him at mount carmel bale great bale they called him the source of the winter rain storms spring mist and summer dew which nourished the crops bale was known to be the one who was the rider on the clouds which the psalms pick up by the way and direct polemic against baal most active during the storms he was known as the lord of heaven and earth he was the god of thunderstorms the most vigorous and aggressive of the gods the one whom mortals most depended they said known as most high master conquer of warriors mightiest most high supreme powerful thunder moses you go in there and you stretch out your rod toward heaven and then I'm good you're going to watch something happen Moses does it and we read the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire darted to the ground it was heavy it keeps telling us heavy heavy heavy fires everywhere the whole place is being lit up like Sodom an arsenal of meteor-sized fire hail from heaven and brimstone crashing to the ground it says it was so bad it split apart every tree even their crops were hit see the Egyptians that was everything the flax and the barley were struck but not the wheat and the spelt the reason that's added is to tell you God's saving a little bit for the next plague I wish I could capture what the storm was like something has to strike people's hearts right something has to wake them up it's remarkable to me how many times the scriptures use the storm to do it my favorite is psalm 29 you know it if you have your bibles you can look at it the psalm takes you out into the middle of a storm it's the one storm psalm it describes how awful it is the voice of the lord is you know this is over the waters the god of glory thunders the lord is over many waters the voice of the lord is powerful the voice of the lord is full of majesty these these awful storms would come up over the mediterranean sea and you'd look out over the mediterranean deep blackness pitch blackness and you see a firestorm coming we hate seeing on the news these tornadoes rip through the midwest deep within the mediterranean a storm begins to form in psalm 29 and it raises up like a black blanket of terror and it comes to the shore in a hurricane-like fury it sweeps down and it goes through the whole strip of canaan and it lays everything wasted everything is laid bare in the psalm utterly destroyed the imagery here is in the scriptures is god is riding on the storm they're hurled up in the atmosphere and the lord is riding and under his feet is black, our blackness and lightning and fire and thunder. Seven times in that psalm, the voice of the Lord is used. Job was so taken by this. Hear attentively the thunder of his voice. The only thing in nature you can understand by the voice of the Lord, boys and girls, is thunder. It's the effect. Hear attentively the thunder of his voice, the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He sends it forth unto the whole heaven his lightning to the ends of the earth after the voice roars he thunders with majestic voice god thunders marvelously with his voice he does great things in which we cannot comprehend psalm 29 says it comes on to the land and the first great foe is the cedars of lebanon i won't get into their dimensions it splits them apart and splinters them into bits the mountain hermon great mount hermon skips away like a calf at the presence of the lord and then it comes down the land the whole wilderness floor shakes everything in its path is stripped bare and the psalm has one great effect and one great thing it's doing consider his power if i could use the old word that we don't use anymore god is terrible in his holiness ascribe to the lord glory and strength ascribe to the lord the glory do his name worship the lord in the beauty of holiness the psalm ends by saying all of god's people recognize the storm and they run to the temple and they say glory and it psalm ends by saying they're sheltered with peace notice verse 26 of our text in goshen there was no storm you say if i saw a storm like that it might affect my heart right there was a storm mount sinai was completely in smoke because the lord descended upon it in fire its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace the mountain quaked the blast of the trumpet sounded long and hebrews tells us when they heard the voice of the lord they begged that the word should not be spoken anymore for they could not endure what was commanded and if so much as a beast touched the mountain it shall be stoned so terrifying was it that Moses said, I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling. What did the storm reveal? That storm was intended to show people the plague of their hearts. I believe that's the question and that's the issue of this text this morning. Verse 19 is the test. The Lord says, listen, you go tell him. Hail is going to fall on man and beast, But whoever, if you gather them from the field and bring them in, they'll be sheltered. Notice this. He who feared, verse 20, the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh. These are the ones being saved. He who feared the word of the Lord gathered up his livestock and he fled into the houses. But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and livestock in the field. You realize the greatest issue for your life is whether you are hearing and fearing the Word of the Lord when it's proclaimed to you. And not being critical, but receiving it as it is in truth. The Gospel of Jesus to save you. Some will hear the Word of the Lord and they'll run to Christ. Some are going to be really belligerent and stiff in their necks and not come in. And I think, why would you do that? Why? Crescent City, I think, is one of the worst places on earth. I went up there one time and I heard a story that when the great tsunami hit of Crescent City, I think it was in 69. Everyone was told that the storm was coming. Crescent City's full of bars. And all the people in the bar said, really? A storm's coming? They took their seats and they sat out by the water while they drank and watched the storm coming. And they were swept away. You can read about it revelation 16 then the seventh angel poured out his bowl in the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from heaven from the throne saying it's done and there were noises and thunderings and lightnings and there was a great earthquake such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth and great hail fell from heaven upon men each hell stone about the weight of a talent men then did what blaspheme god because of the plague of the hail since the plague was exceedingly great. The storm wiped out Egypt. There was only a little bit left. A little bit. The great storm in history, there was one greater storm in history. You know what it was? Golgotha. Greatest storm history had ever seen. Do you know when Golgotha, when Jesus was dying the whole thing went black there was no light and fire came down out from god and struck him so much so that he said my god my god why have you forsaken me in the midst of the worst storm of history when jesus died he did it for the plague of what our hearts sin God sent fire down and then in kindness to this world then in kindness to this lost world did what? Gave him the name of course which is above every name published that name to the ends of the earth who doesn't know the name of Jesus today? It's everywhere and he has declared that whoever comes to him will be saved from the storm pharaoh sends and calls for moses i've sinned my people and i are wicked and treat the lord there may be no more thundering and hail for it's enough moses says you don't fear the lord you don't fear the word of the lord i'm gonna go outside the city i'm gonna spread out my hands i'm gonna stop this so that you may know the earth is the lord's now imagine this The hail's coming. Moses walks out into the middle of it, puts up his hands, prays, and it stops. That you may know that the earth is the Lord's. There's only one who calms the storm. And he showed it to you in the Gospels when Peter was terrified. And he said, calm. What do we need? Well, let all the house of Israel therefore know certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said, what do we do? Repent. Turn away from your sins. Be baptized. Take the water. Have it put on you to symbolize, signify your new identity with Christ. Repent, be baptized, and you believe this gospel. He who hears my word says, Jesus, my word, and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment. Did you hear that? Whoever hears my word and believes has it, you'll never face the storm. But don't be like Pharaoh. Don't refuse him who speaks. Confess the plague of your heart. And instead of hardening it, may your prayer be like David's today because the Lord loves this prayer. Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me. And then I will tell others of the joy of your salvation. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we confess the plague of our hearts. And I fully understand that in history when gospel messages are preached, some may stiffen their hearts and get angry. But I pray that every last one who's heard your gospel has understood how good and kind you are. And today looks to Christ in the shelter and haven of rest. Lord Jesus, we come to You asking that You would shield us, comfort us, and give us peace. And we know that you said not one hail, not one piece of hail will strike your people. But instead you'll watch over them, caring for them, loving them, and bringing them home. You're so kind to us, and today we praise you and thank you for your faithfulness and your loving kindness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.