As I was singing that psalm, I was really moved at how much that song speaks to Exodus chapter 8. He speaks, I named you rulers, sons of the Most High God, but you shall die as mortals. Now think about this morning as we look at this text, what Pharaoh thought of himself. You shall die as mortals and perish by my rod. Let's read this morning. invite you to turn in the scriptures to Exodus chapter 8. I'm sorry, 7. Exodus chapter 7 beginning at verse 8 and we'll read through verse 13. I was going to start the first plague this morning but I realized how important this little section here of Aaron's rod is and I don't want to move too quickly through that. So this is Exodus chapter 7 beginning at verse 8 through 13. This is the word of the lord then the lord said to moses and aaron when pharaoh says to you prove yourselves by working a miracle then you shall say to aaron take your staff and cast it down before pharaoh that it may become a serpent so moses and aaron went to pharaoh did just as the lord commanded aaron cast down his staff before pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent then pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers and they the magicians of egypt also did the same by their secret arts for each man cast down his staff and they became serpents but aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs still pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the lord had said may the lord bless the hearing this morning of his work a key focal point of the biblical writers here especially in exodus was to assure the people of god throughout history when they wrote this when moses wrote this to assure the people of god throughout history of the certain victory over the kingdom of darkness and the ruler of the darkness satan certainly the certainty of our deliverance this is what their goal was the certainty of it but the scriptures also push us in that certainty as it makes that known for us to have a confidence in that deliverance, a believing and trusting that the Lord will bring that deliverance and that it will happen. What governs us today as Christians? Well, we've looked a lot at this, but I think we all would agree that what is governing us right now, what's happening to us right now is that we're starting to feel everything turn on us and we have a lot of fear that arises in our hearts about the future and i think a lot about my children's future i mean they've been saying this sexual revolution has been happening now for some time and it's running its course as everything is attempting to be redefined certain practices that at one time were in the closet are now being have been pushed to be not just tolerated. Now they are mainstream and accepted. And now what has happened is our views are not being tolerated. They are soon to be legislated against. And then we will be forced into the closet with our views. Think of the sweeping change of that. My point is, is that we feel as Christians that we're losing a lot right now. A lot of ground. and the violence that seems to be characterizing the times in which we live. I don't have to rehearse everything again that was in the news this week of ISIS. I don't have to go through all that. You know it's a changing world. It's a changing world and things are really happening. Things are moving. It's going somewhere. What do we do, though, at moments like this when the beast rises out of the sea, when things turn bestial in a nation, when things go that route, What do Christians do? Cower. Retreat. That's what we studied with Moses. We get scared. That's the goal of certain groups is to promote fear. God has been working on his servant Moses to build a confidence in what he's doing. God has been working hard on his servant Moses to build a confidence in what he's doing. It took Moses a lot of sleepless nights to get here, let me tell you. He doubted. He wanted to quit. He wanted to give up. He was frustrated with progress. He didn't understand what the Lord was doing. He didn't see any victory at all. He was confused. I mean, it has really been the Lord first and foremost in Exodus dealing with his prophet before this project went and got underway. and as we now enter into a new section of exodus what we really do see with moses is is that he has come to a place of trusting the lord he has come to a place of trusting the lord even though he doesn't fully understand or see how this is all going to go or work that's okay and that's important for us you get a sense that the work has been done at this point in preparing moses for what the lord was sending him to do here's what i love about this particular section this morning now it's as if moses letting go of the fear and trusting the lord and his word is now stepping back and watching the lord work you say moses exactly what i tell you to say i don't want you saying anything else it's what a prophet did a prophet brought the words of the lord and and you say it in boldness and you say it in confidence you remember the first encounter with pharaoh he went in with boldness pharaoh says no and he says please not the kind of confidence you should have this is a command come out this is the confidence that i want and i want you to have that kind of confidence in the midst of uncertainty and the midst of distress and this is where moses has come this is where the lord has brought him and this morning is crucial to our study because we have the lord beginning to show and reveal his supremacy as king and lord overall and the doom of pharaoh's kingdom the impending doom and we should be encouraged to know that this is just as true today. The Lord is reigning. Do you believe that? In the midst of all this? The Lord's throne is set. It's fixed in heaven, John says, I saw it. The battle is mine, says the Lord. I'll fight it. I will gain the victory I have. But what's before us this morning, and I tried to capture it with the title. I had a lot of titles I went through. I thought War of the Worlds would be a good one. But then I thought, no, no, no, no. God's picking a fight. God's picking a fight. It's time to pick a fight, Moses. It's time. And I thought about that as before launching into the first plague, which I really wanted to do. I'm ready to get to seven days of blood. That's next week. But I realized that this little confrontation, this little confrontation with the rod, It's a much greater scene than I ever understood or appreciated. When I was a child, I always thought, oh, this is neat. The rod becomes a snake and it gobbles up Pharaoh's snakes. That's really neat. And I never really understood, though, the significance of it. I guess I thought, well, it's really neat as a kid, but something greater the Lord could have done, right? It doesn't seem all that great at the outset. I mean, he could have shot a fireball at Pharaoh. A rod to a snake. Why was this the first thing he chose to do? Why did he put this on display? Why did he reveal this? And I've come to realize that this little event is absolutely important. The kind of prologue to the whole is absolutely important. It's a prophetic display of Pharaoh's defeat. In other words, you know what it is? It's a little demonstration. It's a little play, if you will. It's a little rehearsal. It's an open window. It's a microcosm, if you will, prototype of the catastrophe that's coming upon Pharaoh. It's a preview of coming attractions. There's going to be some real swallowing going on. And in that vein, this intro was meant to say, it's over before it starts. it's over before it starts you don't hold a candle pharaoh to the lord's power that's what that this little scene is this morning it's god mocking pharaoh it's psalm 2 saying you're toast let me show you how this is going to go pharaoh when pharaoh when moses had originally gone and pharaoh in his pompous reply said who is the lord that i should obey him thus says pharaoh little did he know what he just called down pharaoh had made himself to be god in egypt we know this uh exalting his throne over the stars of god this is all the language of scripture of an antichrist figure of of a man exalting himself over all that is called god or that's worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself to be God. And that's what Egypt believed about Pharaoh. It was an antichrist kingdom. It really was. The most powerful of the day. Nobody rivaled Egypt. Nobody could deal with their horses and chariots. And for 400 years, they had afflicted God's people. For 400 years, these weak little Israelites were bound up and captive by this monster we typically viewed this event as something that happened on an earthly level and that's true it's just telling us a story of deliverance on earth there's no doubt but it's also explaining for us the real spiritual battle that's going on behind the scenes Moses was the Lord said you will be as God to Pharaoh and you will have a prophet Your own prophet, Aaron. As Moses spoke, God spoke. It was God speaking. Moses was the mouthpiece. And that was why God was so concerned about what Moses would say. You have to speak just what I speak, Moses. You have to say just what I tell you to say. You are not on your own on this. You're representing me and my prophet. And we looked at last time who that prophet is. It's Christ. A prophet was promised to Moses. Here, a type, an Aaron. But what we have here is the whole display already of that event in Genesis 3 when the Lord had cursed the serpent and the Lord had said there's a warfare starting. There's two peoples on the earth. There's two seeds on the earth. And a warfare has been inaugurated. And now this warfare between the two worlds has grown to a cosmic scope and here it is now showing itself at the beginning of Exodus. The Lord's inaugurating the war. He's taking the war to Satan and his kingdom. And the bondage that he tries to hold us in as he has sway over this sad world, the Lord is fighting and assaulting. So that's what I want to consider with you this morning. It's a very simple passage. It's really just a proclamation of doom, ultimately, of Satan and his kingdom. Let's look at our text. In verse 8, we read, Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, When Pharaoh says to you, Prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent. And you'll notice in verse 10 that Moses and Aaron went in and they did just as the Lord commanded. Notice the submission there that's emphasized. The prophet is doing just as the Lord commanded. He's under the umbrella of the divine will. It's the safest place he could be even before Pharaoh. He is now representing God. So the Lord tells them exactly what to do, knowing how this is going to go, not waiting to try to figure out the future, telling them the future, telling them how this is going to go. Pharaoh is going to demand a sign. And here's what I want you to do. You speak to Aaron, speak to your prophet, it and you tell him to perform it and notice how the lord wanted it to appear that way moses was to speak to aaron aaron was to take the rod that had been handed to moses and aaron was to cast it on the ground and god wanted pharaoh to see how a prophet functions to hear the words of the prophet so this is exactly what happens he casts the serpent on the ground the rod and it becomes a serpent this is a showdown the showdown has started it's a challenge we have to see it that way it is a a provocation and a challenge to pharaoh's authority we read that aaron takes that giant rod and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. Fascinating that the first thing God chose to put on display in Egypt was a serpent. Don't you think? It's really important to understand in the Exodus. So important. You'll never appreciate it or understand its magnificence and glory of deliverance until you understand what God is doing in putting himself on display as the only true God. There is no other. And that all the disasters that are about to unfold, all the disasters, all the plagues, all the direct assaults are given with a purpose. The true God of heaven and earth is now going to hit and pick up all of their gods and blast them in front of them. The frogs, the lice, the boils, the hail were all judgments upon other claims of sovereignty of Egyptian gods in Egypt. All different parts of creation that were being worshipped, Romans 1, instead of the Creator. And he's targeting their gods purposely, directly, with intention and smashing down the idols. He starts with serpents. It's fascinating, there's a few different words that could have been chosen as a word for serpent. The word here, tannin, is a more general word that describes a giant snake or reptile. Often used to describe in the scriptures massive, venomous snakes. You need to understand a little bit the Egyptian view of snakes. I've raised that a few times, but this is where it all kind of culminates. It was the symbol of Egypt. you read through Egyptian literature and they were awestruck by snakes. They feared them. They feared them greatly. They would carry around with them amulets to protect them from bites from the snake gods. If you were ever bitten by a snake, the magicians were called in and they would perform all sorts of magic to try to cleanse the person from the bite. People really feared the snakes in Egypt. Serpent worship dominated the Nile. There were all sorts of these serpent gods in the Nile that they worshipped. Even today, temples have been found in Egypt where the Egyptians worshipped. And you have all the images, which I've captured for you, of these serpent gods. Wadjet was the serpent goddess of lower Egypt. And she was a rearing cobra who was known as the great protector of Pharaoh. Think about this. Ready to strike and to kill all his enemies. And I've said this before. When Moses walked in and they gazed upon Pharaoh, that's what they saw on his crown. Don't mess with me. Wadjet will strike you if you talk to me irreverently. They would have seen that. that massive image of Wadget right on the crown. And lo and behold, it's that that Pharaoh adopts for himself on his crown, a cobra as the symbol of his authority. This was a way not only of making people fear him, but it was a way of trying to instill all kinds of fear in any of his enemies. Remember, Pharaoh was a god in Egyptian religion. This is how the Egyptians worshiped this god as the defender of Pharaoh who would literally strike venom, put venom, death venom into his enemies. Israel knew about all these snake gods. You had Renenetet. This god was a fire-breathing cobra who was the protector of Pharaoh's clothes and in constant pursuit to instill fear into his enemies. One of the Ramses was even said to have created this serpent god. None of them was really as powerful as Apep or Apophis. He was the serpent god who personified evil and, listen to this, was known as holding the power of darkness. Represented as a giant black hole who, and I quote, swallowed his enemies into non-existence. Held the power of natural disasters, storms, earthquakes, solar eclipses. The kingdom was dominated by snake gods, one of which swallowed all the enemies. When Pharaoh took the oath of office, by the way, let me read you his oath of office, which they have dug up. Listen to this. This is what he would say in his oath of office. O great one, O magician, O fiery snake, let there be terror of me like the terror of thee. Let there be fear of me like the fear of thee. Let there be awe of me like the awe of thee. Let me rule a leader of the living. Let me be a powerful leader of spirits. An antichrist kingdom running its course, a cycle of iniquity. It helps us a little bit with something like Revelation 12, doesn't it? That serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. Interesting how Ezekiel described Pharaoh. Ezekiel 29, speak and say, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt, O great Tanin, serpent, who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, my river is my own. I have made it for myself. I'm putting hooks in your jaws. Can you picture this now? Aaron comes in the royal palace. Imagine all the servants working, bowing. He comes in the royal palace and he grabs a rod. Moses says, throw it down. And he casts the rod on the ground and there it becomes a serpent. That's a challenge. That's the greatest provocation you could give in Pharaoh's kingdom. Time to pick a fight. One pastor said it would be like walking in the White House and carrying in a bald eagle and wringing its neck. Think that'd go over? No, the environmentalists would take you down. You wouldn't have to worry about the president. At the beginning of Genesis, Satan had entered into the garden and become a serpent to Eve, deceiving her. God cursed him. Remember what he said? You are more cursed than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall lick dust all the days of your life. I remember years ago, Darcy told me that when she attended USC, one of her professors told her and they were studying the skeletal structure of the snake and one of her USC professors told her that you can tell that one day that thing walked. It has a skeletal structure so that at one time you know it had legs. God put it on the earth and made it lick dust in the curse. Now God comes into Satan's den. Think about this. God sends his prophet right on into Satan's kingdom. Think of the garden. God returns it. Walks right on into Satan's kingdom and casts down a cursed snake on the ground that licks the dust. Right in front of Pharaoh. The Lord just claimed, laid claim to whatever they believed about the power of the snake and I could have titled my message Lord of the Snakes, couldn't I have? Pharaoh had adopted this as Egypt's greatest symbol of power. God comes and assaults it. Directly assaults the whole kingdom of Pharaoh with the very symbol of his sovereignty. So what happens? Well, you could call it kind of hand-to-hand combat. Pharaoh starts speaking. Verse 11. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. Each man cast down his staff, and they became, notice the plural here, serpents. We tend to look at these and wonder about what really happened there. These were Pharaoh's prophets. Moses has his prophet. Pharaoh now calls in his. Literally his soothsayers. They were magicians in Egypt. We kind of think of them as just being able to do really neat magic tricks. They were held in such regard in Egypt. I can't emphasize that enough. They were held in such regard in Egypt by the ability to cast spells on people. They were thought to have been able to control humans and nature and even the gods. I picked up a controversial work this week called The Golden Bow. It's a comparative study of religion and magic. And I was curious what they said about Egypt, ancient Egypt. This is what they said. This is what we know about Egyptian magicians. Egyptian magicians believed they could appropriate the power of a god by possessing his name. if you possess the name of a true God. Thus, the art of the Egyptian magician consisted in obtaining from the gods a revelation of their sacred names. And then they believed they had his power. Now, does that help you see why Pharaoh had a little bit of fear of Moses? Whose name did he come with? Yahweh. Pharaoh knew in his own theology, this is why God said, I'm making you as God to Pharaoh with a prophet. Pharaoh knew in his own theology that if a man came in claiming the name of a God, it had to be validated. Watch out if it was. He came in announcing, thus says the Lord, the holy name. in that culture to possess the name of a god meant you came with the power the lord used that that's why moses wasn't so quickly struck down by the way that's why pharaoh had some amount of fear by the way kind of like pilate before jesus when he said where have you come from and jesus was silent you'll notice they did according to their enchantment or secret arts they cast down their rods they became serpents i always struggled was that real what always amazed you about magicians they didn't just do that did they that's the sense you get you're amazed at what enchanters and magicians and these these guys can do satan's a knockoff artist satan's a knockoff artist but it wasn't just a magic show what have you learned in corinthians that behind every idol is what a real god i mean a real demon not a true god a demon and this is the way the scriptures present idols throughout idols nothing and idols nothing idol can't speak and idol can't talk but what behind is behind it is real. You remember that the New Testament picks up on the names of these two prophets in Egypt as Janus and Jambres as the ones who resisted Moses. They were prophets. And what they did was they resisted the truth. How so? Men of corrupt minds disprove concerning to faith their folly will be manifest to all the way it shows up today is with false ideas that come as truth they resist the truth they present alternate ways alternate ideas alter alternate theologies and that's why we need a church generation that's willing to be bold and not cower and say that everything in the name of jesus is okay which is what we're doing today come on but here's the scene can you imagine the moment for pharaoh their gods in the form of serpents notice serpents is plural meaning probably in front of them would have been reninutet the fire-breathing cobra the protector of pharaoh's clothes watch it a coiled cobra one who was poisoned poisoned all their enemies with blindness that was another one I didn't mention the great protector of Pharaoh is right there and then the worst Apep who was said to have existed from the beginning of time who would exist forever ruthless as a black hole the embodiment of evil who literally swallowed up into a black hole all the enemies of Egypt all of a sudden this once rod become a snake I don't know what it must have looked like was it a big gulp? Was it a slow, I'm thinking just like you see on National Geographic, when these snakes open their big mouths and swallow up something and you can't believe it swallowed that, right? I'm thinking it was a slow, painful swallowing right in front of Pharaoh. And the thing went to each snake and gulped it up. What do you think Pharaoh felt? It had just been proclaimed, the Lord is God. the true God of heaven and earth, to whom all must bow, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Scriptures all over present Him as the only true God, Lord over all. Psalm 96, For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. No one is holy like the Lord, For there is none beside you, nor is there any rock like our God. By swallowing them up, something really powerful was communicated. For the Egyptians, to swallow up something as Apep could do was to assume all the power of the thing that was swallowed. It was to declare sovereignty and power over the object, the God. Now let me begin to help us with the bigger picture. Think of how the Lord is presented when they come out on the other side and Pharaoh and all of his hosts go through the middle of the Red Sea. What happened to them, boys and girls? Let me use the language of Moses when he sang a song right after. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. see why i said it's a prophetic imagery here and picture of the final story god announced the triumph he will swallow them how does it end pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the lord had said we're just getting started the bigger bigger picture is this. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Take that rod, Aaron, and cast it on the ground. And then it swallows up the enemies. There was an event in Israel's history later in Numbers that I believe directly tied to all of this that they should have known about. Remember what happened? Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and water and our soul loathes this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people. There came all the Egyptian gods that they would have seen in Egypt, biting them. And many of the people of Israel died. You really want to go back to that? Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned for we've spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take the serpents away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and put it on a big, giant rod, pole. And it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole. And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived you say what did that mean i don't have to give any better interpretation of that than john's gospel as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so also must the son of man be lift it up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God brought the battle to us, and he cast down his son to become what? Cursed. And he came and he confronted on the cross the cursed one, the cursed serpent on the cross confronted the serpent and crushed his head at Golgotha which means place of the skull by the way and has provided the remedy for whoever believes in him if the lord is your god you have no reason to fear all that's happening what are you seeing happening in this world right now yes it's hatred against christians you're seeing things turn it's ultimately hatred against him and he has brought the battle here his son came here when jesus was here he went right out of the wilderness for a purpose to be tempted by the serpent and overcome him and he stepped forward right to his death. This was a man. He went right to his death and has become the answer to all of our misery. And he will ultimately crush the head of the serpent. Now, this is the confidence that he wants us to have in that project and in this battle. There's two ways you could go. You could harden your heart like Pharaoh and do your own thing. And I'd say, what a tragedy. Or you could realize that the Lord has supplied an answer to us and our children. The Lord has come to deliver us and He put His Son through that to become the Cursed One that we might be delivered and no longer have to be bitten by these serpents. No longer have to be under their bondage. No longer have to be in this misery. You know what's the most wonderful thing that He has swallowed up? I'll close with this. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? He swallowed up your last enemy so that you will never die and you'll always be with Him if you have Jesus. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ. The battle's already over. He's won. He's reigned. And you share in that victory already. Let's live as Christians who believe that and are bold and are confident no matter what's happening in this sad world. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for encouraging us with this section of Scripture and this little entry prologue to the plagues to show us what ultimately is the big story and the victory that is ours in Christ. As the serpent was raised up in the wilderness on the pole, you said all who look to Jesus and believe will be saved. Thank you for announcing that to us. Thank you for giving us that victory and that we don't have to fear no matter what happens in this sad world the battle is yours the victory is yours and all of your promises are yes and amen so we're already reigning with the victorious one bless us and encourage us this day in your promises in jesus name amen