Under The Mighty Hand Of God

I invite you to turn in the Bible this morning to the second book of the Bible. If you're a visitor, we're working through the book of Exodus. And this morning we come to the fifth plague on the Egyptian livestock. We'll read verses 1 through 7 this morning of Exodus chapter 9. This is the word of the Lord, Exodus chapter 9 at verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of israel and the livestock of egypt so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of israel shall die and the lord set a time saying tomorrow the lord will do this thing in the land and the next day the lord did this thing all the livestock of the egyptians died but not one of the livestock of the people of israel died and pharaoh sent and behold not one of the livestock of Israel was dead, but the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. One of the real blessings of studying Exodus and looking at these plagues is that we really are getting a full treatment here of what spiritual bondage is and what slavery looks like in spiritual terms. This is the way the New Testament applies this and wants us to understand this. This has moved me to see how gripped, as we look at this, people are in bondage. Romans 6 explains that for us, of course. It explains, do you not know that whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves no one is truly free in the proper sense of the term the bondage is so great the bondage is so gripping over people's lives only the power of god can shatter it and that's what we're learning here only the great power of god can shatter it and release us into a life of freedom and a life of true joy joy in serving a king who is kind joy in serving a god who is for us and not against us. A God who is caring and compassionate and his loving kindness endures forever to us. We will never believe that about him until we're free. The lie perpetuated by those held in Satan's hand is that God's way is burdensome. God's way is hard. God's way is restricting god's way is miserable and there's a whole path out there that's much more freeing than that that's the the lie of the devil that's the lie that's perpetuated and until the lord comes and as i read with calen breaks those bolts until he shatters those chains you'll never know his love and you'll never believe his gospel but that's his desire for his people that you know that love, that you know that freedom. I believe that's really emphasized in the fifth plague here this morning. As we have seen, there's something that's highlighted in each plague, something that's given to us that Moses wanted us to say, okay, that's the point. That's what the Lord wants us to focus on. That's what the Lord wants us to see. And here you notice in this particular plague, in verse 3, we read, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall, will come. I want you to think a minute about the imagery provided about God's delivering hand. I'm amazed if you were to go through and do a search on how many times the Psalms used the hand of the Lord to deliver over and over and over and over. The question is really challenging us to see, that statement is really challenging us to ask the question this morning about whose hands we are in. Whose hands? The plague is about the powerful hand of the Lord to release us and take us into His arms of freedom. And that is right, at His right hand, as the Psalms say, you can think of Psalm 16, At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. I want to consider this morning this plague in light of that statement, the hand of the Lord shall come. In Numbers 33, when Moses wrote down for Israel for future generations and he was explaining the deliverance, he said something that was intended for future generations to understand the plagues. when they went back and they read the plagues, how they were to understand the plagues. And he wants you, this is what Moses said, I want you to know Israel, that also on their gods, the Lord executed judgment. And that tells you that we're supposed to read the plagues as hitting gods, the gods of Egypt. It was right in Scripture. The Lord executed judgments on their gods. The way you understand the plagues is to remember here that the Lord had strategically and systematically, he was humiliating and pummeling the gods of Egypt like a bowling ball running through there. And that means that the plagues were intended for Israel to always look and to understand the power of idolatry and the power of God to shatter it in people's lives as He did in their lives. That God desired to free them. That God desired to set them free. So the entire message of the Exodus had become very clear for them and we can use the very language of Colossians 1 for us. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son in love in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. That really does capture it. That's the larger story. That's the story of Exodus. Last time He showed them that story in the fourth plague, He gave us the whole gospel model right there in the fourth plague. The whole gospel plan where in between Goshen And in between Egypt, literally in the space between, he set up a ransom. Right after he had said, the Lord will come down and be in your midst. That was the mission declared in the fourth plague. They needed to be bought back. They needed to be set free. They needed to be released from, as we say in the Heidelberg, the tyranny of the devil. and that the ransom payment anticipated there in the fourth plague all spoke of the cross of Christ. There on the other side of Goshen, which meant drawing near, those people who were in Christ had come near. They had the ability to draw near, as Hebrews tells us. The fourth plague was an anticipation and display of that gospel program that outside of that ransom, outside of Goshen, people were plagued under the judgment of god and that's why revelation 21 picked up on that very imagery of inside outside well the fifth plague is building now an intensity to accomplish this and show us this developing in the fifth plague we come into pharaoh's house that's the second cycle second plague remember first cycles out by the river first plague in each cycle three cycles then the 10th, first plague's by the river, second plague's in the house, third plague is an unannounced blow. And as we come back into Pharaoh's house this morning, we pick up in verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and tell him, thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me, may worship me. Relentless, isn't he? Over and over, let him go. I thought about how much we fail the Lord, never giving much back to him. And the thought that fills our minds that he must say in the midst of our departures, I'm done, I'm turning my back. The reality is, is that as we look at this this morning, He just keeps coming back demanding release and explaining for us the importance of delivering us, showing us how deep the bondage is and the warfare that you are in. You don't think about that enough. You don't think about the warfare enough. We don't think about what is the nature of our enemy and we don't think a lot about the world, flesh and the devil and how much they assault and what's really going on behind the scenes if we could only see if we only knew that's what exodus is helping us with and and then we think about god when we depart that he's he becomes the enemy against us if he's become the enemy against us we have no hope in the world we're done he doesn't say i'm tired of these people he doesn't say i give up on these people he doesn't say i'm done they don't love me very much i'm going to show you in a minute how much that means in light of what israel would do he steps forward back to pharaoh's house and the visual is of christ coming and saying openly when he got here on the scene of history i have come i have come to seek and to save that which is lost I'm not losing one. I've come that they may have life. I've come to set them free. I've come that they may know the truth and the truth may set them free. Let them go. Again. Over and over and over, he says it. Let him go. Let Kalen go. You must believe that's his intention. You must believe it's his intention for you. every time you run to sin and are tempted to discouragement to go elsewhere for an answer. That's his goal. Let them go. I'm bringing him home. God be thanked, though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, having been set free, you became slaves of righteousness. That's beautifully captured of God's releasing power in verse two. If you refuse to let them go, and notice the inclusion there that we haven't seen so far, and still hold them. If you still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague on your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds and the flocks. if you still refuse and you still hold them. Now, that is imagery that's already been given to us in Exodus back in chapter 3. This was one of the things that the Lord said to Moses about the reason he had come down to get them. Listen to this. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because they're taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. To bring them up out of a land to good, a good and broad land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Did you catch it? Their hand is around my people and their necks. That's the imagery. Now think about that for a moment. What does that mean to us? Well, a guy in prison might understand that. A guy in prison might understand that. I remember visiting years ago Alcatraz and I went into that black isolation chamber and they turned off the lights. And I didn't last really five minutes in there. I was ready to get out. I cannot imagine being confined into that. And I actually started panicking. Five minutes. I think it's the ninth plague. They say the darkness that they're going to have on the land of Egypt was felt. I felt it. You know that's how people live? The imagery here that we have is Satan is holding these people in solitary confinement. Satan has his hands around their necks. That's the imagery. He's got a key to the jail door. And they can't get out. They're totally bound up. That's what sin is like. It's like giant hands around our hearts. And the devil stands there with giant hands around people's lives who think they're free. That's the craziness of it all. Who think they're free. I fully understand why people say today, well, I was born with this behavior. I was born as a homosexual as we hear today. I don't have any other choice. That grips my life. I understand that. Bruce Jenner has giant hands around his heart. Bruce Jenner's own heart is against him. And he can't see any differently. He's bolted. He's in the chamber. Addiction is like that. They're giant hands around lives, holding down, keeping people, thinking that they're free, which is the madness of it all. But it doesn't achieve happiness. If you don't stop holding my people, my hand's coming. You feel that? It was a known proverb, and I mean this, it was a known proverb in Egypt that when Pharaoh raised his strong hand, his power was being put on display. In fact, 2 Kings tells us that Israel was under the hand of Pharaoh. Under his hand. Everyone knew throughout Egypt, Pharaoh's hand held Egypt. Can you imagine, before Pharaoh, Moses comes in, and he stands in the palace, and there's the hand of Pharaoh, and the Lord says, if you don't take your hands off my people, my hand's falling on you. You've got to feel that. If you don't take your hands off their necks, you're going to meet God's hand. And then this emphatic word is given in the Hebrew right in front of it, and it wants to make the case. Watch out, buddy. Behold, the hand is falling on your cattle, on your horses, on your donkeys, on your camels, on your oxen and your sheep. A very severe pestilence of the highest degree. Thus says the Lord, my hand will be on you. To which all of us should stop and say this morning, isn't He wonderful? isn't He wonderful? He could have left you there. He could have left you in the darkness of your misery that you chose. I can give you the imagery of the hand. Remember, these are all building. It started with the finger of God. The finger of God is against you. And now the hand's coming against you. And by the time it's done, He will redeem them with an outstretched arm. He's going to pull them all in. I mean, that's the imagery of God's power coming upon Egypt and pulling them out. Deuteronomy, when they started thinking about all that God had done for them, Moses wanted to make sure it was put down in Scripture for all the generations to read. And this is what we get in Deuteronomy 4. Has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials by signs by wonders and by war by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror all which the lord your god did for you before the eyes of the egyptians and before your eye i've often said if we only knew and could only see right now when Elijah's servant was scared and Elijah said open his eyes and then his eyes were opened and all around him was the mountain the glory mountain and there were chariots of horses all around God's horses all around the chariots of fire all around his people surrounding them from the enemy if you could only see that right now if only your eyes could be opened right now and you could see what's surrounding you you know what moses sings at exodus 15 he sings this right after the red sea right after egyptians are pummeled and drowned and dropped into the red sea exodus 15 your right hand oh lord glorious in power your right hand oh lord shatters the enemy in the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries you send out your fury it consumes them like stubble the enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide. My desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them. Now you're ready to sing those imprecatory psalms, aren't you? There's a greater story to them, isn't there? There's a greater story to the spiritual reality all around us that we don't pay any attention to or think very seriously about. Think of it. Hands were around your children. Hands were around you and your children. And he put his hands on them. What imagery? The right hand of curse fell on them. I'm striking your cow. If I could give some kind of imagery, it would be like this. Here's Goshen. All of God's people are shielded in Goshen. And he now stands right in the middle as Pharaoh's trying to reach over and grab them. He puts his hand on all of them. And here's what you get. Here's what you get. I will strike your cattle. Why cattle? Then the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, Because you've put your hands on my sheep, cursed are you above all cattle. Interesting that the first thing he associated, the first animal associated with the curse, was cattle. That Satan's more cursed. Are you seeing the spiritual dialogue going on behind this here? The Egyptian gods and goddesses were most characterized as cattle. Keep in mind, cattle were used for everything. The land depended on cattle for everything. We don't have that as much in Southern California. But most of you know how it used to be. Cattle for agriculture, for travel, maybe not for travel, maybe some of you, but travel, milk, you name it. Look how dependent we still are on cattle. In Egypt, cattle were for everything. The bull particularly was the great beast of fertility. And remember, Egyptians were obsessed with the bull. A massive, powerful animal full of potency and life. When I first moved up to Linden years ago, I stayed on a little farm where they were getting ready the parsonage and there was this giant bull out in the field. And I remember how he just ran that field. I'd just go out there in the morning. Darcy thought I was strange. I would watch this bull just direct everyone around the field, all the cows. Power, I thought, a symbol of power. The Egyptian viewed these bulls, and I quote, as the great inseminator endued with potency and vitality of life. They had worship centers for the bulls. A few of them in particular were known as the gods Ta and Ra. Isis, strangely enough, is the queen of the gods who was often known as having cow heads, cow horns on her head. You'll see that in the picture. Hathor was represented with the head of a cow. She was a symbol of beauty. Amazing. I doubt many of you farmers look at cows as a symbol of beauty. Maybe they were jerseys. The greatest, of course, was Apis. They worshipped him. In fact, in 1856, a team of archaeologists were digging over there and they came across 64 burial chambers. And in each of these burial chambers was a succession. Satan has a doctrine of succession. It's a bulls, by the way. A succession of bulls, apis bulls. And all of them had been worshipped as the great God of Egypt. The Lord strikes them all. The Lord strikes them all out in the field and they drop. Maybe some of you remember in 1986 to 2001, there was the British outbreak of mad cow disease that affected 180,000 cattle in the farming communities. And everyone was nervous about it here. I do remember that. And in the last stages of that disease, the cows, would run and stagger aggressively out of control until they hit the ground and died. And the thing that puzzled everyone was that these individuals who ate the meat from the mad cows lost their minds. It was one of the worst terrible plagues of the time. Our mad cow disease pales in comparison. when the Lord says this was a severe pestilence, it was one like no other. They dropped in the field. Can you imagine the upheaval in society if all the cattle and all of this that are mentioned here, if they died, all the food, all the milk, all the beef. Imagine the upheaval. The Lord even sets a time. The Lord set a time. The Lord determined a time. Tomorrow, it's going to happen. Verse 6 says, on the next day, all of them died. But none of Israel's died. All of theirs were living. Pharaoh sends to inspect Goshen. Not one cow, not one animal had died. Now, what is all this saying to us this morning? Well, Israel should have learned something here. Israel should have learned something powerful about the heart. Do you know what the Egyptians believed about the heart? I haven't got much to this yet, and I'm going to start opening that now because I think it's so important in this context. We find in their writings that the conditions of your heart was the factor determining whether you would enter the afterlife or not. Their gods would weigh the hearts. If the hearts were found as heavy, they would not enter. Whose heart do you think was rendered as pure in Egypt? Pharaoh's. A spotless heart, they said. a glorious heart. His was the pinnacle of a pure heart. Think of what's being communicated for generations of Israelites who knew in Egypt what they knew about the heart, what they thought about the heart. To the Egyptians, if the heart was not pure, if Pharaoh's heart was not pure, no one's was pure. And since Pharaoh could not do anything before Yahweh and refused to bow to him, the text chooses a word that is rather difficult for us we haven't we've translated it hard but the text chooses a word purposely moses chose a word purposely to convey this his heart is heavy pharaoh's heart became heavy a heavy heart which just condemned him why does that matter well in their writings if the heart was heavy laden with evil deeds and heavy laden their judgment would be meted out according to the hardness of the heart if the heart was filled with integrity and truth and good acts it would be escorted to heavenly bliss it sounds a lot like the american view of the heart doesn't it we hear almost universally today. Your heart's good. Listen to your heart. Follow your heart. Exodus 9.3, but the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague. Same word, heavy. The same word to describe Pharaoh's heart, the Lord chooses to say, I'm hitting him with a heavy plague. Every Israelite would have caught that meaning the problem ultimately that people need to have dealt with is that something's wrong with the heart it's heavy before the one who controls the heart god is putting on display the human heart giving these heavy plagues to show how hard hearts are in heaviness to him god even sets a time here time for repentance think of it if god said tomorrow i'm coming to judge if god said to you guys tomorrow i'll be here i'm coming tomorrow one would think everyone would drop to their knees right one would think everyone would say i've seen enough i'm dropping i'm going to turn think about the judgment tomorrow just on cattle what if that were happening we'd lose our economy it'd be done be done one little strike one day one day but if you repent this tragedy this judgment can be averted however people call why did israel need to learn this why do we need to understand this not only are we held in a prison under satan's domain with hands around our necks and hearts but the lord wanted us to understand something the very same heart that filled pharaoh fills us israel needed to learn that when Israel gets out in the wilderness and things are hard they come to the foot of Sinai and as Moses is up on the mountain getting the law what is Israel doing at the bottom of the mountain? Come, says Aaron make us, they say to Aaron make us gods that shall go before us we want a God just like the Egyptians had we want the powerful god of the egyptians verse 4 says of exodus 32 and he received the gold from their hands and fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf you know what that was don't you it was apis they had just created they had just fashioned apis in all of egyptian glory and said this is yahweh of all the gods he could have made it's this one a bull calf moses intercedes oh lord why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand. Do you see the story? Until you're free, you're held in the prison of Satan's darkness with hands around you, with hands around your neck until God shatters that. But you still carry the same heavy heart, the same kind of heart, And God is not only committed, this is the message this morning, God is not only committed to bring you out, but He's committed to something else. Your hearts are the problem. And what did the Lord teach Israel in the wilderness? What did, through Moses, Moses keeps saying to Israel in the wilderness, it's the great promise in the wilderness. Here it is. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. and the hearts of your offspring so that you will love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. A great deliverance was needed not just out of Egypt, but out of the old Adam. Understand that? A great deliverance was needed not just out of Egypt, but out of the old Adam. from a lying heart so that when Jesus said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you must be born again, he was saying, I've got to implant the principle of life. I've got to give life to your hearts. The Lord has come to do it. Pharaoh hardens his heavy heart. Even when he saw the evidence, listen to this, even when he saw the evidence, he still would not believe because God had to deal with the heart. Revelation picks this up and says, By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed. But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders and their sorceries or their sexual morality or their thefts, there comes a point when all the calls come. You either come or you remain outside in your sins and you die. But the Lord wants you to be encouraged today that He has the power and the power, His power and in the lives of our children to bring us there. In Exodus 13, This is so wonderful. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, when your children want to know about this. What is this? You shall say to him, by the strength of the hand of the Lord, he brought us up out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Exodus 15, your right hand, O Lord, dash the enemies to pieces. when we come to the new testament this was the message right out of the gates when christ came zachariah when he was announced that the savior was coming he said this the oath which he swore to our father abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might worship him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. It's come. It's come. The time has come when he shattered the hand of the enemy on your life and he set your hearts free to enjoy him in worship. And now, how much does this language mean to you and i give them eternal life says jesus and they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand i don't know how many times the gospel speak of jesus's hand but i can't get away from this one and peter answered him and said lord if it's you command me to come to you on the water so he said come and when peter had come down out of the boat he walked on the water to go to Jesus but when he saw that the wind was boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out saying Lord save me and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand that's not coincidental and he caught him and said to him oh you of little faith why do you doubt and when they got into the boat the wind ceased the hand that saves you is the hand of christ and he wants you to know that all who come to him you'll never be pulled away from his hand he promises to give you help and aid this is your god but i plead with everyone here today don't buy into the lie of the devil. You're not free with his hands around your neck. In Christ there's freedom. And that's why Peter says, therefore humble yourselves. Listen to this. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your cares upon him. Why? because he cares for you that's the god you serve humble yourselves under his mighty hand for at that right hand says psalm 16 are pleasures forevermore let's pray to him this morning oh lord jesus christ you've come to set us free would you set your hand to strike down idols would you set your hand to break that hold of satan in people's lives and we're not just asking for that we're asking as you do that that you would put your hand on our hearts and strike our hearts too as david said when he didn't confess his sin day and night your hand was heavy upon him. Strike it so that we would have an understanding heart, not like a mule, not like cursed cattle, but an understanding heart to love you. That we would come out and be separate. Let us not stay in Egypt. Bring us out to you into the land the good land with a new heart that loves the lord our god with all of our heart soul mind and strength in jesus name we pray and by his powerful hand amen