“God vs. gods” – Exodus 5-10

 Have you ever said anything that you regretted saying? Has something ever come out of your mouth that came back to bite you?

“Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility--a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.” -Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube.

“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”- Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM.

“We don't think the Beatles will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out.” - Recording company expert, 1962.

A bishop of a century ago pronounced from his pulpit and in the periodical he edited that heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God. Oh, the irony that Bishop Wright had two sons, Orville and Wilbur! Wright was wrong. Sure of himself, but wrong.  - Robert P. Dungan, Jr., Winning the New Civil War, p. 38.

In Exodus chapter 5, we see Pharoah, the king of Egypt say these words: "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go." This was in response to Moses and Aaron going to Pharoah and telling him that the Lord said to let his people go. They are words that will definitely come back to haunt him.

Do you think God was shocked at Pharoah’s words? Do you think God clutched His pearls, fanned Himself and said, “Well, I never!” Haha! No, I think God smiled and said, “Well, now let me introduce myself!” And for the next nine chapters or so, God showed Pharoah and all of Egypt, not to mention the Hebrews – and us -who He really was.

It wasn’t that Pharoah didn’t believe in god (little g). In fact, he believed in a whole bunch of gods. That was the problem. When Moses mentioned the one true God, Jehovah, Yahweh, the IAM WHO I AM and said His name was the LORD, Pharoah probably scratched his head and said, “Now, which one is he? I don’t recall the name.”

Egypt had gods for everything, every day, every celebration, every phase of the moon, the stars, everything outside, most things inside and every different thing that was real or imagined. This is exactly what Paul found when he went to Athens. You remember in Acts 17 where Paul found a monument to “an unknown god” and said he was now declaring that God to them.

Egypt had lots of gods. Almost as many as we do in our world today. And when we worship those other gods, we can expect Jehovah God to attack those gods and show us who He really is just like He did with Pharoah.

The passage I want to tackle this morning stretches all the way from Exodus 5 through Exodus 10. So, I thought we could take turn reading a few verses a piece until we get through. I hope you’re not in a hurry. You’re now in a hurry? Okay, maybe we don’t read the whole thing but just parts of it.

You remember where we are in Exodus. Moses has heard from God and God has revealed to Moses who He is. God’s name and title and character are all wrapped up in I AM WHO I AM. He is Jehovah, Yahweh, the LORD and He is sovereign, all powerful and all-knowing. He is able to cause or allow even bad things to accomplish His will and He does not ask for our permission or apologize for hurting our tender feelings. And yet, He does all this in great passionate love for us all the time like only He can.

Now, He just needs to show Pharoah who He is and He does that by confronting each of Egypt’s biggest little g gods and exposing them for the false idols they are and to show how powerless they are and how powerful He is.

We started already by reading a verse from chapter 5 where Pharoah tells Moses he doesn’t know God. In chapter 6, as we read last week, God promises Israel to bring them out of Egyptian slavery. He promises to free them and redeem them and make them His own people and if you have never read this story before, here’s a spoiler. God does it. He pulls it off and the Israelites are in their own land even today as a free people.

And while we continue to pray for the peace of Israel today as rockets have been raining down on them for many days now, just know this. The Palestinian people, led by the terrorist group Hamas, may launch every bomb they have but Israel will always be specially protected by Jehovah God even today as His special people.

Nothing has changed since God gave these words to Abraham from Genesis 12. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I just wish somebody would tell those traitorous democrat squad members in Congress that nothing has changed, least of all Jehovah God and the day that the United States quits being a friend to Israel is a big step down a slippery slope that leads to destruction.

But Pharoah didn’t know Jehovah God. He didn’t know His name or His character or anything about Him and so God gave him a life lesson. This would be an impressive show of God’s power if you didn’t know anything else but when you understand about Egypt’s gods, it is much more meaningful.

Before we get into the plagues, I want to touch on something that some people can easily get hung up on and it’s found in chapter 7. God again tells Moses and his brother Aaron to go to Pharoah and tell him that God has said to let His people go. But in verse 3 God says, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you.” Some people read that and think, “Well, if God hardened his heart, then Pharoah didn’t have a choice. That’s just mean.”

But in my studies, I have found that word that is used there for “harden” actually means…harden…but in a different way. The Hebrew word is “chazaq” (khaw-zak’) and it means to strain or twist or strengthen and it is used like you would pull a rope tight or push down on a wet sponge. If you push down on a wet sponge, what happens? What is inside comes out, right?

God hardened Pharoah’s heart by pushing down on it, making what was in it come out. God made things happen that would force Pharoah to show his true colors. Pharoah could have decided at any point to let the people go, but he resisted because his heart was already hardened. God just forced him to do what he really wanted to do. (J. Vernon McGee, Exodus pg. 64)

Now, I’m going to hit these plagues quickly for the sake of time but I want you to see that every plague that God causes is a direct assault on one of Egypt’s so-called gods. The first plague is turning the Nile River into blood and He did that because the Nile itself was a god to them. It brought life to a dry land and so they sacrificed to it and worshiped it and trusted this river to protect and provide for them.

Real quickly, I have to say I find it fascinating that even in my trusted commentaries, some of the writers want to try to explain away the miracle. In Exodus 7:14-19, it says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, ‘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 wilderness. But until now you have not listened. 17 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. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”

One of my commentaries said that probably what happened was that God caused the muddy Nile River to get stirred up and the red clay on bottom made it look like blood. Really? C’mon. God said it was blood. I’m going with blood. Don’t try to diminish the miracle.

Anyway, the next plague, in chapter 8, was to cause frogs to invade the land. And when it says frogs, it doesn’t mean a bunch of frogs. It means a solid sheet of frogs. Frogs everywhere, every square inch. Frogs in the street. Frogs in the house. Frogs in the kitchen. Frogs in the tub, the oven, the bed, the palace here a frog, there a frog, everywhere a frog frog! And Heka, the frog-headed goddess who they worshiped, was powerless to do anything. You know why? Because she was powerless to do ANYTHING because she was a man-made idol with a frog head. But they worshiped her and so God decided to challenge her and their worship of her.

Pharoah was unfazed by all this so far so God continued, still in chapter 8, with a plague of maybe lice, gnats or mosquitoes, depending on your translation. You can imagine that any of them would have enjoyed a land filled with dead frogs but the earth god Geb would be highly insulted.

Then came the flies which were sacred to some of the gods and at this point, Pharoah is starting to weaken and trying to make some concessions to Moses but Moses isn’t having it. Look at chapter 9 where Moses is told by God to tell Pharoah, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” And do you know what Moses said to Pharoah? “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”’

And every time, Pharoah says no. He starts to give in a little here and there and actually asks Moses and Aaron to pray for him but his heart is hard and he will not let the people go. So, God continues to show Himself by killing their livestock that they worshiped, giving them boils that caused their false prophets and priests to be in such pain, they went out of business. He caused it to hail massive hailstones that wiped out their crops that was directed against the goddess Isis, the goddess of fertility.

In chapter 10 the locusts show up and wipe out what is left of any crop that might still be growing. A plague of locusts is used several times in scripture as a picture of judgment. A plague of locusts is one of the worst things that people can endure. They eat everything and get into everything. They are nasty and horrible and what the book of Revelation mentions will come upon the earth again someday after the rapture.

Lastly, God attacks their sun god Ra by causing complete and utter darkness. It is the kind of absolute darkness that you can feel like I’m told it’s like being in Carlsbad Caverns when they turn the lights off. Can you imagine how helpless they were to do anything, find anything, even each other?

There is one more plague that we will probably touch on next week but today I just want to say how glad I am and how proud I am that we don’t worship any idols any more. Isn’t that the stupidest thing ever, to bow down in front of a man-made article of wood or stone and expect it to bring peace or joy or wisdom?

How sad and empty such pursuits must be! How disappointing it must be when you spend so much time and effort and money devoting yourself to something that, in the end, is powerless to help you. Aren’t you glad we are not so foolish as to do something like…uh oh, excuse me. My phone is giving me an alert about my bank account. Hang on. Let me just fix this.

Okay, so I was saying that aren’t you proud that we don’t do that anymore? 😊 Pastor Tim Keller said this about idol worship ~ “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” That is what you worship.

Oh great! Thanks a lot, Tim! Now, I can’t make fun of the Egyptians for having idols when I could very well be standing here with as many idols as they ever had! We do that with so many things, we get pulled into idol worship without realizing it, and before we know it, we’re worshiping something which is not good, that which is not God.

So, let me ask you, what determines your happiness? Your mood? What gives life meaning? What worries you? Our answers can show the symptoms of idol worship. Here’s the deeper question, if you had something taken away from you this morning, other than God, would you lose your sense of meaning? Would your life no longer be worth living? Family, money, health, job, your home . . . if it were gone, would your life still have meaning?

We have all sorts of idols. Pride, ego, entertainment, our bodies, money, work, addictions, lust, children, families, hobbies and more. What about being in control? Does that bring you pleasure more than God? (Michael Deutsch on Aug 12, 2014) Is it something you eat or drink or smoke? If you lost those things, would you still be content, as Paul said in Philippians?

Remember in Philippians 4, Paul said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

If you have to add anything to that last sentence, then that thing may be an idol for you. If you say I can do all things through Christ and coffee, then that’s a problem. I can do all things through Christ and my job, my wife, my money, my position…

You need to figure out what it is in your life right now or God will help you figure it out and it probably won’t go well. God is a jealous God. He tells us later on in Exodus 20, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...” Notice that God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him.

When your peace, joy, contentment or fulfillment come from something else, God will step in and take those sources away from you just like He did with the Egyptians. Don’t believe me? Just watch.

In the April 25, 1994 news section of Christianity Today, it was reported that some Elvis Presley fans were actually revering Elvis as a god. People in New York, Colorado and Indiana were actually getting together and chanting, singing, holding hands and praying to Elvis. No kidding. In fact, at the Church of the Risen Elvis in Denver they had a look-alike doll of Elvis at their altar and burned candles there. (750 Engaging Illustrations, page 261)

Now, is that the dumbest thing you have ever heard of? Or is the dumbest thing you have ever heard of replacing Jehovah God with anything this life has to offer. Let’s replace the Creator with something created. Let’s focus more on our family or our job or our health than Almighty God, IAM WHO I AM. Yeah, that’s dumb. And until you are sure that there are no idols coming before God in your life, don’t rag on the Elvis worshippers. Well, maybe a little bit but don’t overdo it, okay? 😊

How do you know if something is coming between you and God? Start with Psalm 139:23 where David said, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” If you have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus then just ask Him. And then just listen. Don’t try to justify anything. Just listen. Be quiet. Be still. Let Him tell you what is coming between you.

If you don’t do it that way then it won’t be long before He will harden your own heart and force you to face the truth and He will take that stuff away from you. Don’t let it come to that.

If you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus then start today by asking Him to forgive you of all your many sins. Then repent of those sins and turn away from that lifestyle. Surrender to Him and allow Him to come into your life and change you. Quit trying to be good enough or earn your way to Heaven. There is no peace and joy in this life doing that and there is no path to Heaven except through Jesus. Make that decision right now as the music plays.