SHOWDOWN

PART ONE:  PHARAOH @ OK CORRAL

Ever pretend you've slipped into God's shoes?  I'm ashamed to say I've done that.  But what if you ACTUALLY made the world and put lifebreath in man, only for man to turn and bow to an inanimate piece of wood?  No wonder the Almighty began His commandments "you are to have no other gods before Me".

One of the best visuals for that first commandment is in the epic movie, The Ten Commandments.  Remember the part when Pharaoh was busy saying NO to the Israelite exodus and God was responding with plagues?  I can still see Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston going toe to toe.  But the story was about more than just their conflict.  God paints His narrative with exquisite layers.

First and foremost, Moses and Pharaoh settle the question "are there many gods?"  God records a story in chapters 7-13 of Exodus that clearly illustrates the truth that there are many posers, but there is only ONE true God.  This story is particularly appropriate for our generation because men lift high tolerance and open-mindedness...and they assume inclusivity equals righteousness.  But God will not share His glory, so men should tread carefully in endorsing something the Lord does not endorse.

Pharaoh's showdown is also a tender picture of the Father's heart to faithfully pursue man.  Max Lucado says "we hide and God seeks".  Since the garden, God has continually offered Himself to mankind.  The Egypt of that day was an advanced and affluent culture much like America today.  Along with her progress came other familiar influences:  "alternate spirituality" and a fascination with the supernatural.  God is ever the consumate Teacher; He considered the audience and empowered His prophet Moses to come with miracles and signs.  He desires that Israelites AND Egyptians respond to the truth of who He is.  And so as Moses spoke, God authenticated with some great powerpoint presentations.

God's Egyptian classroom was also meant to communicate that His power is supreme.  Remember when Aaron's rod became a snake?  Court magicians are able to duplicate the supernatural with their snake, but then Aaron's snake swallows theirs.  God trumps the supernatural.  And when He reveals Himself as Almighty, the ball is then in man's court to respond.  Did Yul have the responsive gene?  That bald guy was pretty stiff-necked.  Lord, give me a teachable heart.

I know from my life that I listen better when I'm in hot water...and Pharaoh was in some pretty hot water.  But you know what they say about the sun.  The same sun that softens butter, hardens clay.  So adversity doesn't cause the condition of my heart, but it DOES reveal my heart condition.  God sends His word and at the point when Pharaoh has had his last chance, the Book says God hardened the king's heart.  Think of that.  God is so merciful.  He knew Pharaoh's heart and He knew Pharaoh would never change his heart.  But that didn't stop the Deliverer from sending Pharaoh and all of Egypt a lifeline.

As this story unfolds,  it might be compared to a National Geographic special on eagles.  Right before the mama eagle forces her babies from the nest, she hovers over her nest, suspended.  That is her way to demonstrate power and to build trust in her babies.  Similarly, God is hovering over His Israelites and Pharaoh in the Exodus story.  He is showing His power and asking for their trust as He prepares to jettison His people from their bondage.  So let's watch our God build trust as we consider the plagues one at a time.  Remember, this story happens over a period of nine-twelve months.  God was giving people lots of time to chew on His truth.

PART TWO:  BATTLE OF THE GODS

The First Tier of Plagues (1-3)

Discomfort Arrives for Everyone

#1  WATER TO BLOOD

What is it that we all need daily besides a Charlie Sheen report?  We need water, the most basic of God's good gifts.  We find out just how important water really is when it is in short supply.  Can you imagine how horrific it would be to look out and see your water supply running red?  The only thing worse than seeing a crimson Nile would be smelling it.  Know how long this plague lasted?  Seven days.  Think you'd be thirsty at the end of that week in a hot land?  The fish in the river died and THAT had to stink.  The Nile ran throughout the whole country, so this is an amazing demonstration of God's power.  The Egyptians had stained the river years before with the blood of the Hebrew children (Exodus 1.22) and now God answers in all blood.

Egyptians worshipped the Nile River because it was their provider in the desert around them.  If there was no Nile, there was no crop, or commerce, or drinking water.  They sacrificed one to two young people a year to the river.  God was about to show them that they worshipped the creation above the Creator.

So God told Moses and Aaron to station themselves along the bank of the Nile in the morning when Pharaoh went down to bathe.  They were to take a little memory jogger, the staff that had earlier turned into a snake.  Moses was to say to Pharaoh "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.  The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water."  Exodus 7.15-18

Bet THAT news traveled fast when it came to pass.  And what was the response from Pharaoh's court?  The king's magicians pulled a similar trick (more blood) out of their secret arts bag.  Wonder why it wouldn't seem logical to prove their power by UNDOING what had been done?  Surely they tried.  Pharaoh's response?  "And he did not listen...Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he take even this to heart."  Exodus 7.23

Bottom Line?  God is greater than Khnum (the ram's head god who guarded the Nile), Osiris (the underworld god whose bloodstream was supposed to be the Nile), and Hapi (the spirit of the Nile who brought the floods that watered crops).  None of those gods answered the 911 call from the people of Egypt.

#2 FROGS

Moses gives fair warning and then the Lord sends Pharaoh frogs.  Why?  Frogs were common along the river, but they were protected and worshipped as divine.  Their goddess Heqt was pictured with the head of a frog.  Heqt was thought to be the wife of the creator of the world, and goddess of birth.  Women thought Heqt protected them in childbirth and fertility.  Ironic, then, that God uses frogs to make His point.  Exodus 8.3 says "The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs."  Eeeeuuu.

Egyptian magicians then duplicated the plague.   Exodus 8.7 says "the magicians did the same thing with their enchantments and secret arts, and brought up more frogs upon the land of Egypt".  More?  Hey guys, why not get rid of the slimy amphibians?  But the magicians cannot reverse God's hand outstretched in judgment.  

Pharaoh begs Moses to get God to take 'em away and Moses agreed IF Pharaoh would name the time.  Moses explains that if God showed up on time, then Pharaoh would know it was God who had done it.  Pharaoh picks "tomorrow", God keeps His part of the bargain, the frogs died, they were piled in heaps, and the dead frogs fouled the land.  

What was Pharaoh's response?  "But when Pharaoh saw that there was temporary relief, he made his heart stubborn and hard, and he would not listen or heed them."  Exodus 8.14

Bottom Line?  Neither divine frogs nor the goddess Heqt were a match for the Lord God Almighty.

#3  FLIES THROUGHOUT THE LAND   

These could have been gnats or mosquitoes or sand fleas or lice.  Have you ever stood in a spot with sand fleas?  All of a sudden you realize you are being eaten alive, ankles first.   Exodus said these little buggers were biting man and beast.  God humbles this mighty monarch with a "fly in the ointment".  What army would Pharaoh call out against these?  All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't win against this tiny enemy. 

The insects would have been an embarrassment to Geb, the god of the earth, because it was from this dust of the earth that the flies (sand fleas/lice) would have originated.  And it ruined the priests, who shaved their bodies daily to be able to serve in their temple without physical impurity.  So in this plague, the land is infested with lice and the priests are covered in bites and cannot even ENTER their temple to entreat their god to help them.

We notice that God adds something new with this plague.  Exodus 8.18 says the magicians tried, but couldn't replicate this plague.  In fact, listen to their assesment... "then the magicians said to Pharaoh, THIS is the finger of God!"  The magicians were getting a whiff of truth!   But Scripture says Pharaoh's heart was strong and hardened and he would not listen to them.  

Bottom Line?  It's God over Geb. 

Now God has demonstrated His power through the first three plagues, which brought discomfort to people.  God takes no pleasure in people's grief. He would have been overjoyed if the people turned from idolatry.  But they did not turn and the next tier of plagues comes along.

The Second Tier of Plagues (4-6)

Discomfort Becomes Destruction

#4  BLOODSUCKING GADFLIES

In Matthew Henry's commentary it says that in some parts of Upper Egypt, swarms of these insects prevail so as to drive cattle to madness.  The poor old cows run wildly till they die from exhaustion.

Plague number four has several interesting aspects.  First, it was sent in winter, an unnatural time.  Also, for the first time in the list of plagues, the plague was specific in target.  The plagues previously had affected everyone and the Israelites had suffered alongside Egyptians.  Now everyone is listening, so God starts to show the people that He knows who are His.  Listen to Exodus 8.22,23: "But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow."

Sure enough, the next day gadflies were everywhere but Goshen.  Pharaoh falls back into treaty-making with Moses.  "OK, go out of town a short way, but don't leave Egypt."  Moses says NO.CAN.DO.  Pharaoh relents and says OK, but just call off these swarms.  So Moses entreats the Lord, and the Lord removed swarms of attacking gadflies.  But with Pharaoh's motivation gone, so is his willingness to keep a bargain.  Pharaoh's response was to again harden his heart and he refused to let the captives go.

Bottom Line?  God is greater than Beelzbul, Egypt's god of the air, who was unable to enforce a "no fly zone" in his supposed territory.

#5  LIVESTOCK PLAGUE

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me.  If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats."  Exodus 9.1-3

Horses and cattle were highly valued in Egypt and Egyptians also worshipped them.  They used bulls and bull calves as sacrifices to their many animal-headed gods.   Hathor was the cow-headed goddess of the desert and was the symbolic mother of Pharaoh.  This particular plague was an insult to these gods, as well as a direct insult to Khnum, the ram-god, and to Bast, the cat goddess of love. 

Perhaps the flies in the last plague carried a highly infectious bacterial infection that had already killed the fish/frogs and now found it's way to the livestock.  The death of the beasts was a devastating economic blow since wealth was measured in cattle and sheep.  Again, the plague was only applicable to the Egyptian livestock.  The Hebrews' livestock that breathed the same air and drank the same water...were exempt from the judgment. 

This fifth plague on the livestock renders the Egyptian gods lifeless and useless.   God declared when the plague would happen and it happened right on time.  But still, Pharaoh's heart was like stone. 

# 6 BOILS

When the Egyptians did not repent about their cattle, God now sends a plague that afflicts their own body.  He instructs Moses to take handfuls of ashes from the furnace and sprinkle it toward heaven in front of Pharaoh and announce boils throughout the land on man and beast.  

I read that in several cities of Egypt, it was customary to sacrifice men by burning them alive in a furnace and then scattering their ashes in the land, believing that would promote blessing and fertility.  God, the Author of Life, is answering that pagan practice. 

Egyptians worshipped Sekhmet, a lion-headed goddess with power over disease.  There was also a pestilence god named Sunu...and Isis, the goddess of healing.  Note the irony in the fact that the magicians were unable to rid Egypt of the boils.  And because they too were afflicted, they are not even able to show up to stand before Moses.  It brings new meaning to "Physician, heal thyself".

With this plague, God now hardens Pharaoh's heart.  Matthew Henry says "Willful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness.  If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes."

Third Tier of Plagues (7-9)

Destruction Becomes Dread

#7  HAIL

Exodus 9.13-18 says "then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no-one like me in all the earth...Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now."  (Note:  Cairo gets an annual rainfall of between 1-2 inches.  This hail would have been very unusual.)

God continues..."Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.  Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.  But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field."  Exodus 9.19-21

That is a beautiful example of God's justice and mercy happening at the same time.  Pharaoh's heart is hard, but God took care to provide for those who have regard for His Word.  There must have been some in Pharaoh's household who believed and avoided damage.  But those in defiance to the warning could only blame themselves.

Moses stretched his rod to heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire unlike anything Egypt had seen since it's founding.  All the trees were broken except in the land of Goshen where there was no hail.  Pharaoh mustered some faux repentance, Moses came and appealed to God, God stopped the hail, but Pharaoh still would not let the children of Israel go.  

Since this plague came from the sky, it would have been an insult to Nut, the sky goddess who was considered to be the mother of five other gods.  But during all this hail, do you think the Egyptians wondered where Shu (the wind god) was?  Or Horus, the hawk-headed sky god of Upper Egypt?  Or Isis and Seth, the crop protectors?  The hail proved them all powerless.

#8  LOCUSTS

Now locusts will answer Pharaoh's eighth refusal to give the Hebrews freedom.  And finally, the Scripture records Pharaoh's servants find the nerve to say to him "how long will this man Moses be a snare to us?  Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God.  Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" (Exodus 10.7)

Pharaoh attempts another insincere "mea culpa" and bargains for the release of "men only".  Talk about someone unclear on the concept!  So Moses stretches out his staff and the Lord directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night.  In the morning, the east wind brought the locusts.  What poor trees had not been broken completely by the hail are now stripped.

Then did we hear from Nepri (the god of grain)...or Ermutet, (the goddess of childbirth/crops)...or Thermuthis, (the goddess of fertility/harvest)...or Seth, (another god of the crops)?  

No.  Jehovah doesn't even have to push the mute button.

#9  DARKNESS

God is stunning in clarity in this ninth plague that struck dread in the hearts of the Egyptians.  He gave Pharaoh one last chance, and then brings a "thick darkness in all the land of Egypt" for three days.  It was so thick that Egyptians could not see one another.  No one got out of bed for three days.  But as Exodus 10.23 said..."All the children of Israel had light in their dwellings."

Just as it is today, the difference in the one true God...and the "alternative spirituality"...is the difference between light and darkness.  

Egyptians worshipped the two great lights, the sun and the moon.  Their god of light (Horus or Ra) was a falcon-headed man's body wearing a sun disk as a crown.  The kings of Egypt were believed to be incarnations of this god.  But Ra/Horus was quiet, as were Ptah (chief god who created the sun/moon/earth), and Atum (the sun god), and Tem (the god of the sunset) and Shu, the god of sunlight and air).  Their gig was up.

This plague (like the third/sixth plagues) came upon the Egyptians without warning.  They couldn't prepare either physically or psychologically.  Pharaoh first offers to let the slaves go, but says their cattle must remain behind.  That offer rejected, Pharaoh hotly warns Moses that he should leave the kings presence, and if Moses returned, it would be his death.  Moses says "You are right; I shall never see your face again!"  

The stage is set for the final plague.

#10 DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORNS

Before the Pharaoh that Yul Brynner played in the movie...was HIS father, the Pharaoh who ordered Israel's baby boys be thrown into the Nile.  Punishment is now coming in kind.  After many graphic audio-visuals, and as a result of the king's complete unresponsiveness, the tenth plague requires the life of Egypt's first born.  Harsh?  Yes.  But I thought about how many chances Mike and I gave our children to obey...how many times we "counted to three" before acting.  I don't remember ever counting to ten.  

In Exodus 11:4-5, God says "About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the beasts."   

This dreadful plague is selective because God gave a covering for those who would take Him up on the offer.  But it is also potentially more devastating than all the other plagues together. In Middle Eastern culture, the firstborn received a double portion of his father's inheritance, as well as a certain quality of life (Genesis 49.3).  The major portion of the family estate would be inherited by that firstborn son when the father died.  So the death of the firstborn son would cripple a family legally and emotionally.

The plague was directed against "all the gods of Egypt" (Exodus 12.12), and it shows the total inability of the Egyptian gods to protect their subjects.  Where was Meskhenet, the goddess who presided at the birth of children?  Where was Hathor, one of seven deities who attended the birth of children?  Where was Min, the god of procreation?  Or Isis, the goddess of fertility?  Or Selket, the guardian of life?  Or ESPECIALLY, where was Renenutet, the cobra-goddess guardian of Pharaoh?  Nowhere.

Nobody rejoices in Egypt's loss because everyone knows what it is to put their will above God's will.  Therefore, we all tremble at this story.  I tremble when I remember how stiff-necked and far from God I was for thirty years.  God's mercy is deep and wide.  But ultimately, God will not be mocked.

PART THREE:  THE EXIT DOOR

The Lord used the plagues of Egypt for five different purposes:

1.  Judgment on the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12.12)

2.  Demonstrate God's existence and power (Exodus 7.5)

3.  Judge Pharaoh/Egyptians for their cruelty and harshness (Genesis 15.14)

4.  Force Pharaoh to release Israel from Egypt (Exodus 3.19,20)

5.  Picture God's future judgment 

(The book of Revelation tells of plagues poured out on the earth in the last days.)

It is recorded in Exodus that Moses led God's people out of Egypt and God gave them favor with the Egyptians.  The Israelites were given silver, gold, clothing, and livestock as they left.  (At this point, my Daddy would have said "here's your hat, what's your hurry?")  

Exodus 12.38 describes a "mixed multitude" that left Egypt with the Israelites.  Some may have been Egyptians desperate for the exit door, but others were souls who had come to true faith and were following Israel's God's.  God doesn't miss a soul.  Leaving the ninety-nine to go for the one, God's heart is for the lost.  He's gotten every soul who has ever reached for Him. 

And in this case, they reached for Him because God was so clearly defining Himself.  Each of the plagues that the Lord sent...in effect posted a sign over every Egyptian god.  The sign read "IMPOTENT". 

Last month you and I watched Egypt go through another sort of showdown as the crowds in Tahrir Square demanded that another Egyptian tyrant be removed from leadership.  We know Mubarek was the big loser in that struggle, but we are not sure who emerged victorious to lead Egypt.  But there is no confusion about the victor in the clash between Moses and Pharaoh.  Our God was the Victor!  Here are some of God's names that He demonstrated in the Exodus passage:

El Roi (the God who sees) saw Israel's bondage and answered her cry

Jehovah Roi (God is my Shepherd) led Israel's shepherd, Moses

El Shaddai (the Almighty God) showed His sovereignty and strength

Jehovah (YHWH, the promised name of God) the one true God

Now the ball is in our court.  How will we respond to this revelation of the one true God?  Will we continue to think of ourselves as righteous because we include everyone's god in the equation?  Will we figure out what our idols are...the things that we trust more than God?  Will we tremble at God's awesome power?

Psalm 83.18

"So that men may see that you only,

whose name is Yahweh,

are Most High over all the earth."