I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to the second book of the Bible, Exodus. As we're continuing our study, if you're a visitor, we're preaching through the plagues at this time. And this morning we come to the third plague in Exodus chapter 8. A short section here, verses 16 through 19, will be our consideration this morning. This is the word of the Lord. This is Exodus 8 verse 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt. And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them. As the Lord had said, there is the reading of God's word and may the Lord bless that reading. We really do live in a day where our standard of living, it really is. I don't know if we, maybe just because we're so used to it, don't think a lot about the daily things that we enjoy and the blessings of living here in the United States. But it really is a standard of living that is unparalleled in history. I mean, really, I don't know that kings in history, even pharaoh, lived as well as the average American. All of the things that we enjoy, we can get into cars and go from point A to B. We have everything under the sun. And then think of all the other blessings that we enjoy living here. We have one of the strongest militaries the world has ever known. Even if it's scaled way back, it's still, nothing touches it. The best of luxuries, the best of medicines, the best of foods. When earthquakes happen, generally speaking, compared with the poor countries, our buildings still stand we are food stocked at the grocery stores you know and so that we can just go there and get whatever we need we don't farm it ourselves that's remarkable have you ever thought about how remarkable that is we can go to faucets and turn on water we have toilets in our homes. Years ago, they were outhouses. I guess as I thought about all this this week, what kind of spirit has all of that created? What kind of spirit? It's not hard to figure out. We've really developed a spirit of autonomy, haven't we? We want nothing that will threaten our security and our happiness. I mean we've come to enjoy it we've got a taste of it we really have got a taste of it and it's a it'd be a painful thing to see it ripped away the common mantra of our culture is and think of it because of all that we've accomplished and all that we've done the common mantra of our culture is if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything nothing should get in the way of you fulfilling your aspirations and dreams nothing whatever makes you happy don't let anyone get in the way of anyone who would step on your little dreams we enjoy a platform in our society it really does fulfill i think it's the old army slogan you can be all that you can be and whatever you want, that's the American spirit. You know, that's not new. That's not new. Have you ever noticed that kind of happiness is never really accomplished? Have you ever felt that the great threat ultimately to our happiness is actually a lot closer to home than we realize? I'm not talking about a threat of a foreign invasion. I'm talking about the fact that at any given moment, creation can turn on us. At the end of the day, at any moment, we are rendered powerless to what everyone says is Mother Nature's fury. At any given time, an earthquake, a flood, a tsunami, a drought, a storm, a tornado, it can change everything. I mean, have we forgotten New Orleans? Have we forgotten that people live that? Are we really autonomous at any given time? Can we really achieve all that we want to achieve if you just set your mind to it? Can't everything unravel in a minute? Can't the Titanic sink? If you understand this, I think we get really close today to the third meaning of the third plague in Egypt. And really, to some degree, every plague is showing us this. but I believe it's really captured in this third plague that God's judgments often strike in the areas of people's confidences and idolatries and that they're directly given in proportion to them. But especially in this great idolatry that we really don't see a lot or we don't admit a lot, but the great idolatry of a desire to control our lives. This plague is an assault on an idolatry that wants to control your life. And God is showing us here His great power to reverse creation when the earth becomes the object of our worship. When our own lives and successes and happinesses become the object of our worship. As with last time, there's one little statement that each plague gives us. It gives us a nugget of window into the meaning of the plague. And you'll notice it there, and this time it comes out of the mouths of the magicians, which is really fascinating to show that he even controls the hearts of the magicians. But they say there, in the middle of the section, after this one, that they could not duplicate. They go to Pharaoh, and they say, this one, this is the finger of God. I love that. And that's where we're going to end today, on the meaning of that. That God is showing us who controls order in the universe and that his power is so great. I mean, I often think about this. I think how big is this God to know every thought, word, and deed of every single person that ever existed? How big is he? He is so great, so powerful. He controls every bit of this universe and how it functions and works. and just with the lifting of his finger, all creation submits and does his will. That was what we just sung out about. His finger alone. All he has to do is this. And here come an army of frogs. God alone, that knowledge and that understanding, that understanding of who this God is and how great he is should make us cry out as with last time, Who is like the Lord our God? Who is like him? I hope in our short study of these plagues that you have been moved to see that he alone is God, how prevalent idolatry is in our lives, what it looks like. That's why I want to go through each plague this morning. I wish I could do all of them this morning, but in the next week so that we understand clearly what God is assaulting and what idolatry looks like and that our security would be in him. uh it's important to see that the structure of the plagues here god is has been and i've made the case that god is assaulting strategically uh specifically the gods of egypt and the first two plagues attacked really the large body of water that sat in front of them that giant river that they worship the nile river a body of water god turned that whole thing into blood and then all their gods that they worshiped are being assaulted. Last week we looked at the assault on Hecate, the frog goddess who controlled fertility, and we saw that God was specifically dealing with the very problem that began this whole thing when they held them in bondage, the throwing of their babies to Hapai, the god of the Nile, and then to Hecate, the god who controlled population, and he just plundered them well in verse 16 we now have the beginning of the lord striking the land gods there's a structure to this that i'll go through a little later of how it comes in three sets of three and then the 10th plague so you have three sets of three and then the 10th plague in this this third one in each third one it comes unannounced it's a direct blow but look at um look at verse 16 then the lord said to moses say to aaron stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the earth in all the land of egypt excuse me and they did so aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth and there were gnats on man and beast all the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. That's not fun. There's some debate as to just what this was. You have two choices. The translations seem to go back and forth. Ours, you'll notice, says gnats. The NIV says gnats. And I think that's a fair choice here if you were picking between these two. A gnats would be a good choice. I hate gnats. I can't stand them. When they're flying around me, I swing and I get very irritated. But the modern Hebrew word means lice. Many old commentators understood this to be lice. Some translations use lice or fleas. The most natural understanding is that these were lice or fleas because it keeps emphasizing that these whatever they were these little bugs came on them they weren't hovering around them they went on them and i find that fascinating i don't know if you've ever been had problems with lice or fleas i know fleas bite um we know the reaction to these gnats are just annoying and irritating lice roam in our hair they make a home in your head just tell mom a mom a child has lice and the house becomes a war zone heads are shaved the once peaceful home is now turned into chaos real quick we've had it happen by the way and that's just from the report even today to get rid of them you got to go through all sorts of rinsings and solutions it's really an awful experience isn't it we need to consider this for a moment what a plague Aaron I want you to go and I don't want you to even announce it to Pharaoh you don't even have to go in this time you take that staff you lift it up and you give a blow to the earth You strike the earth. You hit the dust. No warning for Pharaoh. God is giving a message in that, isn't He? That He comes and He warns and warns and warns and warns and He says, turn, turn, turn, turn. But there is in these final blows in these cycles of three a time where He just strikes because people won't listen. He had been saying, let them go. he had been saying god had been saying let my people go pharaoh wouldn't let him go so now god just strikes aaron strike the dust of the earth and it's going to become lice all over them of course as with all the plagues we need to get into the significance of this the third plague the lord sent lice that came upon their bodies philo said an early writer that these insects creeped in the people's noses and into their ears. Another wrote, they were nagging, annoying pests that swarmed all over Egypt, molesting every living, breathing creature. What makes this plague even more fascinating is how obsessed Egyptians were with cleanliness. Yes, cleanliness. The Egyptians, especially the religious leaders, prided themselves on physical beauty and purity before all of their religious observances the priests would bathe their bodies thoroughly and shave off all their hair and some of those images of them as bald was absolutely correct they shaved off all hair they had a whole priestly system and the priests would dress in beautiful linen robes and and it's fascinating because they actually had a holy of holies and the priests would go in and bolt the door behind them and then they would present their robes to the gods, purified garments to the gods. And it was believed that by doing this, the priests could control the hearts and minds of people. Israel knew about this stuff, of course. The great problem the Egyptians dealt with and hated and loathed was impurity. especially with regard to insects. The Nile area, Egypt, was full of insects. And they had all these elaborate devices to get rid of them. They would put an ostrich plume on the end of a stick and wave it to keep away the insects. They even have discerned that certain greases were used to keep away the fleas. God comes unannounced and here comes his army of fleas. He strikes the dust. which of course has some significance for us because it's what Satan has been licking the whole time since the curse. He strikes the dust and turns the dust into lice and we read that it came up upon all of them. I think it's important at this point to remember the specific gods and the very strategic approach the Lord is taking to these plagues. You remember we've looked at Hapi and Hecate, what would he have been going after with this one? Well, if you look, and I've captured this for you, but you know that there were about two or three different gods of the earth that the Egyptians believed in. Geb was the earth god. He is seen as lying upon the ground with one hand stretched upon it and the other would extend up to heaven. And Geb was worshipped as the God who was known as protecting the earth. He was the God who kept balance and harmony between earth and heaven. A kind of mediator. The other was Ptah, the God of creation, and believed that he was the creator of heavens and earth. He created the universe, they said, by speaking the words through his tongue. Fascinating, because no other nation at the time believed in a single creator, Egypt did. One of the hymns of Egypt, we find that this God was creating all that exists and then He rested after He created. Creating every divine Word. All cattle, all creeping things. Everything that lives by thinking and commanding everything that He wished. Wow. I want you to listen, though, to what they believed. They believed that he was in every body, in every mouth, in all men, in all cattle, in all creeping things. You getting the point? God is sending the fleas or the lice upon them. He was the third most important God in Egypt. Now, probably what matters the most is that Pharaoh was given the responsibility to preserve the goddess's principle of ma'at. Ma'at was the force of the harmony in the universe. In other words, it was the belief that Pharaoh and Geb controlled stability. He controlled order in the earth. It was a principle. To the ancient Egyptians, ma'at, everlasting and powerful, bound everything together in order. Ma'at established truth, right, justice, world order, stability, continuity. Ma'at represents, and I quote, harmony and unending cycles, Nile flooding, and the king of Egypt preserved it. There was a principle of chaos, they believe, called ist. Maat was crediting with defeating the principle of chaos. They've uncovered a document called the prophecy of Nefertai, which says when kings reign in Egypt, then order will come to its place. And chaos will be driven out. If he failed, the Pharaoh, then they believe Egypt would return back to chaos and be destroyed. Now that's relevant. That's really relevant for this. They believe they could control the universe. You understand that? They were desperately trying to control creation for their glory. All chaos they believe they could control. They were desperately trying to control order and universe to keep everything in balance, harmony, and promote their fulfilled happiness and their bodies, cleanliness. Everything was to be perfect. Everything for the maintenance of a happy, fulfilled, prosperous, healthy life in Egypt. Does any of this sound familiar? They were obsessed with this. We know this. What is one of the greatest threats to our happiness? Disorder. Disorder in the universe. This is an obsession in our day. We're all trying to maintain ma'at, the principle of it, with a great desire that we would have a platform to fulfill happiness and contribute to the common good. I couldn't believe the other day, and I mean this, I couldn't believe the other day that I read somebody who is trying to live the principle of ma'at. And she used the term ma'at. Personally, she says, I see living in ma'at as trying to keep everything in balance in my life. Tell me if this sounds any bit familiar. I see it as true, being true to myself. I see it as the ability to make a compromise in a particular situation just so everyone's happy and content. To me, keeping ma'at can boil down to doing simple things for a greater good. I want to emphasize that. Greater good. That's what ma'at really emphasized. I can do small things to ensure good things are being maintained and flourish. To me, things like injustice and oppression are agents of isfit. I can always fight these things. They happen all over the world. and I may not even know where or when it's happening. But hardships can happen to people I know and care for, or they can happen to me. That's where I can and most likely will do something about it. That's where my personal battle is. That's what I can say. That's it, Isfet. I'm going to execrate the daylights out of you. Let me give you just a bit of, and I'm not assaulting here the desire and right desire for order. I'm not assaulting the right desire for things to be calm and peaceful. We all want that. We all really want that. I want that for my children. I want a society that's that. But I'm going after spirit. Here's the spirit. Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it. and her part to lift America's graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades. An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup and did her part, there it is, to add to the more than 8 million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years. An auto worker fine-tuned some of the best, most efficient cars in the world and did his part to help America wean itself off foreign oil. A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone tired, but dreaming big dreams for his son. Here are the results of your efforts. The lowest unemployment rate in over five years. A rebounding housing market. A manufacturing sector that's adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. More oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world. The first time that's happened in nearly 20 years. Our deficits cut by more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world's number one place to invest. America is. That's what most Americans want. For all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. This is the America we want for our kids. A rising America where honest work is plentiful and communities are strong. Where prosperity is widely shared. An opportunity for us lets us go as far as our dreams and toil will take us. But if we work together, if we summon what is best in us, with all our feet planted firmly in today, but our eyes cast towards tomorrow, I know it's within our reach. That's our presidential address. The common good, fulfill your dreams, it's all within our reach. Mott, we can achieve it. I want to say to the young people, because I hear it all the time, don't buy into it. Christians are taught to say something entirely different. If the Lord wills, we will do this or that. We will build this or that. And this principle so dominates society. In some way, we're all desperately fighting for ma'at, here and now, the glory now. We're trying to control the order of things to maintain our happiness. Egyptians were obsessed with this. It's hedonism. You see what God was doing here now. All of a sudden, He sends upon them lice. He unleashed creation back on them. It was confronting, and he was confronting, their basic understanding of who controlled the world. We don't control the world. He was confronting their basic understanding of who keeps the universe in order, who lets the oceans and assigns to the oceans their bounds so that they can't go further. Who does that? They say that a volcano, when it erupts, releases thousands of cubic feet of greenhouse gases. Over the past 250 years, humans have added just one part of CO2 in 10,000 to the atmosphere. One volcano cough can do this in a day. This would be like a volcano erupting on Earth Day. Oh wait, it just happened. Calbuco Mountain in Chile erupted on Earth Day and unleashed thousands of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It's just an example. We're not in control. We're not in control. Their gods were said to keep harmony in the universe and Pharaoh controlled stability as their leader. And isn't it something that the Lord has control over all creation? That in a minute, In just a finger, he can reverse things and pull out the carpet from under our paper palace, and it falls. Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? Surely you know, or who stretched the line upon it to what were its foundations fastened or who laid its cornerstone who determines our days when we live where we go the boundaries of our dwellings you know even act says the boundaries of where you live you don't decide your life and your days are all numbered you don't have control of much of anything creation was an entire polemic against these gods did you know that that's that's why creation is read so incorrectly today we want to make it a debate about days and things and you just wreck the beauty of it it's a polemic against all the false gods saying your god made these things and it should lead you in the psalms to the praise of his name your god formed your god fashioned your god made these things your god spoke and it was your god gave you life your god The Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt who loves you. You're God. The lie of the devil in Genesis 3 was you can be your own and you can fulfill your great determinations for yourself. Be your own God. Here comes chaos. His people need to be freed because the reality is here, dear Christians, we have no continuing city. We don't belong here. We've got to get out. The lie is that you do have a city here. And Satan will give you a glorious one. I found an account of a secular writer that stunned me this week. Listen to this. Once upon a time, there lived a man who wanted to achieve everything he was capable of achieving. He was obsessed with this desire. He ate, slept, walked with one and one only dream. To die, having accomplished every single thing he was able to accomplish. There were so many things he could do. He felt like the whole world could be his. If only he set his mind to it. He was certain, in fact. He knew that his potential had no limits. Time went by and he grew older. One day, a sudden chest pain made him come home early. He dragged his feet into the bathroom. There, feeling weak and empty, he looked in the mirror. A worn-out, gray-haired man stared back at him. But his eyes, though red and tired, were still full of unrealized potential. He peered into these eyes and all of a sudden realized one simple truth. The next moment, the pain pierced his heart again. and it stopped. The truth that came upon him was rather simple. People only flatter themselves by thinking they could have achieved this or that, if not for such and such circumstances. At any given moment, as long as you've been healthy and haven't been thrown into the midst of war, crime, or forces of nature, you always achieve everything you can. You simply lack something that is necessary for achieving that goal you never reached, a talent, a skill, willpower, a set of priorities, or something else. Like it or not. Realize it or not. Believe it or not. But you simply lack it. You just think you've got what it takes. And only these insurmountable difficulties have prevented you from reaching the ultimate heights. There it is. But in reality, what you don't achieve is something you were never capable of achieving. That's tough. A tough pill for the world to swallow because they're driven by ma'at. That idolatry. Now what's interesting is that for the first time, the magicians realize it. They are powerless to recreate this one. I don't believe it was recreation, by the way, ever. In verse 18, Now the magicians so worked their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast. Isn't it interesting which plague puts an end to their enchantments and their magic tricks? Their plague having to do with dust. Dust. God said something about the dust, didn't He? From dust you were taken to dust you shall return. They, when it came to the dust, can do nothing. God's telling us something. God is telling us that not only do we go back to the dust, but little specks of dust can never fight against God. Have you noticed that they say this? They look at Pharaoh and they say, Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. they just conceded that what they are dealing with is so far above them in power, they can no longer contend with it. They confess whatever they are in the presence of, it's too powerful for them, and Pharaoh, it's his finger. How remarkable they chose the little phrase, finger of God, isn't it? You say, well, what did that mean? What did that mean? What is the finger of God in this context? It's this. Some of them said, he's casting out demons by bells above the ruler of demons. Others testing him, saw it from him as sign from heaven. Give us something. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say, I cast out demons by Beelzebub, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come on you. There he is in Pharaoh's kingdom. He's marched into his palace, cast down a snake. and he lifts his finger to say one message when we put the whole story together. The kingdom of God just came upon Pharaoh's kingdom. And by that finger, the finger of Christ that day who was there, he lifted his finger and there came the lies. By that finger, all creation is upheld. Do you understand that? Colossians tells us all things were created through Jesus Christ and for him, and he is before all things and him in all things and holds all things together. Do you hear that? The principle of Maat is his principle. He holds it. He controls it. He's the one holding the world right now with his finger. But there's even more to this. When Moses received the law of God and God had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, two tablets of testimony were handed to him. And you know what it said? Israel would have picked this up. They were written with the finger of God. He's the lawgiver. David was so moved by this in Psalm 8 that he says, and I consider the works of your fingers. He says, think about Psalm 8. The stars, all those were your finger you created. And then I think that you gave a law. It's his finger that says what is so. And it's with that finger that he wrote down in the first commandment. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. you shall have no other gods before me. No other gods. I made it. I command your lives. No other gods. Here was Egypt trying to erect a kingdom of false gods and control the universe. Do you see it? Do you see what the kingdoms of this world do? God says, I want you free. the other night i read this passage to my children and i said to him i said well you guys when you hear the finger of god what do you think and my son said dad god could even defeat his enemies with his finger you got it you got it that finger upholds all things it's that finger that judges all things and when he wrote his law he said that he should be your god if he's not your god that finger casts into hell but if he's your god that finger invites you to come to him and have life and enjoy his preserving care in your lives you understand that his preserving care. Our president, our kingdom, the United States can't do that for us. With that finger, he raised up a multitude no man can number like the dust of the earth, like he promised to Abraham. Dust. I love this. That gives me such perspective in life that Christ has all creation at his disposal to do with it what he wants, and it is absolutely true boys and girls you can sing he's got that whole world in his hand you were created for his glory and how much has he loved you he's not waving that finger in judgment to you today he's waving that finger and he's turned it saying come in kindness god is pictured here as reversing creation on those who don't believe but he wants you to know today that that's what this plague is about and for those who don't have him that's what the plagues in Revelation tell us he's doing against those who take a stand against the Lord and against his anointed. Christ is Lord over all and today all of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of you the sons of God to come in. Where have you put your trust? Who have you bowed to? We don't control that. You're not in control of your life. You're not in control of what you're going to do, how successful you're going to be. Don't buy into that lie that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. That stuff is from the pit of hell. Your days are numbered. He determines how many breaths you have. He put a ticker in your chest that'll stop one day. And in the time that you live, he says, come to me and I'm going to raise up that body brand new at the new creation and the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell forever. I'm going to do that for you. Understand that this suffering, which is but for a moment, is working in us a far more exceeding weight of eternal glory. The sons of God are going to be revealed. The tragedy of this is that Pharaoh, seeing the finger of God, his heart grew hard. I hope no one's heart grows hard hearing this. But that they seeing the powerful finger of Christ have turned to him and know him and love him and have come to understand that when you come to him, he says, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you. What better hands could you ever be in than those? Let's pray. Lord, we have for a long time put our trust in princes. For a long time put our trust in kings. Wanting a kingdom of this world to supply our happiness. And while we're thankful that you rule through men, while we're thankful that you do preserve order and harmony, we say that it's you that preserves those things. We can't do that. Our greatness is fading. Our greatness is gone tomorrow like a flower in the field. But you, O Lord, live and endure forever. And Your Word lives and endures forever. And today, O Christ, we're so thankful that You uphold all things. That You, with Your powerful hand and finger, control creation. And that one day You will renew all things. Let us put our confidence in You. Forgive us for the idolatry of trying to control our lives. May we come to You, O Lord. Take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow. and enjoy the peaceful life that you give us, knowing, as we heard from Colossians, all of our sins are forgiven. And knowing, as you said, you've canceled the record of death so that our joy can be fulfilled. And in that confidence, to our great sovereign creator and redeemer, we pray today in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's rise together and sing to him. Number 315. O worship the King all-glorious above.