Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, good morning. It's good to be back with you guys. It's been a couple weeks. I was with my dad. He was being ordained as a deacon up in Oklahoma. And so I got the privilege of being a part of that service. And then this last week, I was in the Dominican Republic with a small team from here. And so just super exciting, many of you gave generously towards the project of being able to establish a school in neighbor in the Dominican Republic. And so we were just there and got to see they're digging the foundation of that in preparation for it to be ready to. To go in August. We got to walk the streets and see the kids that will be going to that preschool nutrition center, which will then allow them to gain nutrition and to begin being taught. And then it will also provide a safe place for them to be while their parents can go and work. And so just an incredible reality, we were there with this high school team from La Vega, which is where the original work had begun 30 years ago. And so we got to bring a high school team. We got to be there with them. They take a mission trip for their seniors. And so we got to be there with them and see the work which they're doing. And so it's just this cool picture of like, these are kids who have grown up in a school where they were being discipled and taught the Word and they were being taught incredible education. And then we got to see them loving on people in another community, which is the hope of through these schools and through much of your generosity. It was just incredible picture of that. We do have another trip coming up in June, and so if you'd like to go see it for yourself, I'd love to for you to come with me. And June, it's the last week of June 22nd through the 26th, I believe. And so we'll be taking a trip down there. And I'd love for you to come with me and just meet some of these incredible people and just get to be in their homes and hear about businesses and spend time with them and see what God's doing down there. So it's been fun, but I have missed y' all and I've missed being able to talk and preach the word of God. And so I've decided that we'll cover like three chapters today.
[00:02:04] Incredible passage that we see. It's one that's very familiar to many of us. It's the plagues.
[00:02:11] It's God's acts of judgment in one sense on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, because they will not obey what God has said they should do. And so that's the setup for all of this. It's that we've seen God has told Pharaoh to let Israel go. And in order that they could worship him, in order that they can do what they were created to do, let them go so that they can come and worship me. And Pharaoh, in response to God's command, said, who are you and why should I obey you? That's what he said in chapter five. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? And so what the plagues are doing is they are showing off who God is. He's saying, let me introduce you myself.
[00:03:00] That he's. He's really doing three things, I think, as we see through each one of these plagues. Let me give these to you up front. That the first thing he's doing is he's exposing false gods, that he's exposing these idols that the Egyptian people and that Pharaoh have placed their trust in. They've placed their trust in it for security, for economic gain, for. For wealth, for prestige. He has placed his trust in these various different things. And so each one of these plagues is addressing one of those.
[00:03:35] The second thing that it's doing is each one of these plagues is actually peeling back and letting us, the reader, see a hard heart that it's revealing. It's exposing not only false gods, but it's exposing Pharaoh's hard heart.
[00:03:54] The third thing that we're going to see in each one of these plagues is that it's putting on display the character of God, or to use the language that's used throughout this text, it's making him known that each one of these plagues is exposing a false God. It's revealing Pharaoh's hard heart and it's putting on display who God is, His character, his goodness, his patience, his kindness, his power, his covenant keeping, care, his promise keeping. It's putting him on display so that Pharaoh might know him, the Egyptians might know him, Israel might know him, that all the world might know him, but then that you and I might know him. It was recorded and written down for us and it actually says this later in the text. And then we see that Psalm 78 and Psalm 105 actually record this so. So that the people of Israel would remember. But then it's written for us that we would know who the Lord is.
[00:04:55] We get to a text like this and sometimes it's hard for us because we get caught in the story. Maybe in your Bible reading plan, you read this and then you're like, I don't know what to do with that.
[00:05:05] Right? Like, what do I do with this? There's not a command for me to obey necessarily. I'm not. If you're keeping Israelites captive, then you should let them go. I'll just tell you that that's the application, if you're doing that.
[00:05:18] But if you're not, then it's like, what do I do with this?
[00:05:23] And again, it's to that last point that it puts on display who God is, that we would know him. And then in light of who he is, we would begin to order our life. We begin to make our decisions. We would begin to act according to what is good and right and true, that we would act according to knowing him. And so that's my hope and my prayer for us. We'll pull out some of those applications towards the end. But would you bow and pray with me as we begin our service?
[00:05:54] God, by your spirit, would you help us, Lord, that as we read your word and as we look into what your word says, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, Lord, that you would give us a mind to perceive what is true, Lord, that you would begin to expose these false gods in our life and these idols in our life, that you would begin to expose areas of our own heart that maybe we've hardened our heart towards you and in light of seeing you act, we've rebelled against that, Lord. But would you just remind us of your character, that you're patient and kind, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, who in no way will turn away those who are repentant. That you will not turn us away if we come to you, Lord, but that your forgiving and loving, that you're powerful and sovereign, Lord, that we would know you, Lord, help us this morning we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:59] So since I can't cover all of this text, what I'd like to do is walk through the first three plagues as a template. I believe that these plagues actually fit a template, that they're grouped in threes. And so in each grouping of three, they follow this outline. And so the first. First one, what you're gonna see is you're gonna see this dialogue between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh. And they come to him, typically in the morning by the Nile, and they have this dialogue. It's normally the longest dialogue. And then out of that comes this response. And then the second plague, what happens is, typically Moses and Aaron are Showing up to talk to Pharaoh in his palace, in his court. And so they show up there and they have this dialogue. And you hear God speak to Moses and Aaron, and then they speak to Pharaoh. And then you see Pharaoh's response, and then you see what happens. And then lastly, the third plague. In each one of these little couplets here, the third plague, you don't get any dialogue. There's not a speech between Moses and Pharaoh. There's no dialogue happening there. You just hear God tells Moses and Aaron this, and they do it. And then you see the response. And so that's how each one of these breaks down. But then each one of these adds just a little bit. The narrator of this has given us incredible insight that it's not boring, it's not so structured that it's boring. And you just go, okay, wash, rinse, repeat. It's not just that he pulls out these different elements as we go. And so I want to expose these as we go, but I want us to look at, at these first three as a model for us. So what I'd like to do, Starting in verse 14 of chapter 7, we're going to read a big chunk.
[00:08:50] Because a lot of times we can get lost in a text like this and just look at something very small and we lose the context.
[00:08:57] And yet these plagues are to be read in a totality so that we understand the context. There's these themes that we see as it repeats over and over and over and over and over. We see this repetition and we begin to get the point of what's happening here. So let's begin. Verse 14. Stick with me as we read all the way through chapter eight, verse 19.
[00:09:20] Here we go.
[00:09:22] Then the Lord said to Moses, pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go.
[00:09:30] So go to Pharaoh in the morning as he's going out to the water, and stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews sent me to you, saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.
[00:09:52] But so far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord.
[00:09:56] By this you shall know that I am the Lord.
[00:10:01] Behold, with the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water that is in the Nile and it shall turn into blood.
[00:10:08] The fish in the Nile shall die, the Nile will stink. And the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.
[00:10:15] And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take Your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the rivers, their canals and their ponds and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt. Even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.
[00:10:35] Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up his staff and he struck the water of the Nile. And all the water of the Nile turned to blood. And the fish in the Nile died and the Nile stank. So that the Egyptians could not drink the water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts.
[00:11:01] So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and he went into his house. And he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
[00:11:21] Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.
[00:11:25] Then the Lord said to Moses, go in to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.
[00:11:34] But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. That Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come upon you and on your people and on all of your servants.
[00:11:59] And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with the staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up onto the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. And the frogs came up and they covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts. And they made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
[00:12:22] Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron. And he said, plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people.
[00:12:30] And I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
[00:12:35] So Moses says to Aaron, be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.
[00:12:49] And he said, tomorrow. So Moses said, be it as you say so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord, our God.
[00:12:58] The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people, and they shall be left only in the Nile. So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. And the Lord did, according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, in the courtyards, in the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank.
[00:13:24] But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
[00:13:34] 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.
[00:13:44] And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and he struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast.
[00:13:52] All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.
[00:13:56] The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.
[00:14:03] So there were gnats on man and beast.
[00:14:07] Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God.
[00:14:11] But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Okay, so we see this first grouping, and there's a few things I just want to walk through. Kind of this outline that. First, this exposes false gods.
[00:14:27] Why did God choose these demonstrations?
[00:14:33] Well, it was because it addressed these false gods that Egypt had clung to, that the Nile was a God to Egypt, that the Nile provided this water, that it was something that was outside of their power. So the Nile was this source that nobody could control, and yet they worshiped it.
[00:14:51] So they worshiped the Nile.
[00:14:53] And so God is exposing that the Nile, this thing that they are worshiping, is not sufficient to hold that it's insufficient to base your life upon. And so God exposes that it's false. By his sovereignty, he turns the Nile into blood.
[00:15:16] That this Nile was a place where Pharaoh had sacrificed children of Israel to the Nile in order to appease this, the Nile, this false God. And yet God then turns this. And he turns it into blood.
[00:15:32] He reveals to Egypt his sovereignty and his power. That this thing which they worship now has become a curse to them.
[00:15:39] That we saw Pharaoh, that then he.
[00:15:43] He sees this, and yet he. He is not turned in repentance.
[00:15:48] He then goes, okay, he summons these magicians.
[00:15:53] He brings them. And it's interesting that as the text shows here, it's building this case that we would read this and go, whoa, wait a minute. This is A little interesting that these magicians do the same thing.
[00:16:06] Now it's ironic because if you do have clean water, when all of your water has been turned bad, then why would you want to turn more clean water bad?
[00:16:17] See, they can't undo God's judgment.
[00:16:21] They can only mimic his judgment that they turn this water into blood as well. And so Pharaoh looks at that and goes, God, you're not that impressive.
[00:16:33] His heart is hardened. Now it's interesting the way that this text sets up that up until this point, then it has, God has, has prophesied and foretold that Pharaoh will harden his heart, that his heart is hard. And yet as we read this text, it's very clear from chapter seven on that for five times through these first five plagues, it's very clear to say that Pharaoh is hardening his heart. God has said Pharaoh will harden his heart. And now we're seeing Pharaoh act and harden his heart. How is he hardening his heart?
[00:17:07] He's continuing to say no to God.
[00:17:10] I think this is one of the applications that we can get that, that there's two paths.
[00:17:15] And as you make a step down one of those paths, the next step gets easier.
[00:17:21] When you say no to God, the next no is actually easier to say to God because you've already said one.
[00:17:28] And so we see Pharaoh continue to walk down this path of saying no to God and hardening his own heart. But the opposite is also true.
[00:17:38] When you say yes to God and you, you take steps of faith, the next yes is actually easier because you've already said yes to God and you've walked by faith and you've trusted him. And so I just want to encourage us that, that as you walk down these paths, that's one of the things that this text actually shows is Pharaoh is going to continue to say no to God. And, and it gets to a point where you're like, why is he doing this?
[00:18:06] Because he's so dug in his heart is so hard that he's hardened and hardened and hardened and hardened. Maybe you've seen that in your own life or you've seen that in friends lives. We often see it easier in other people's lives than we do our own.
[00:18:19] Like why do they keep doing that?
[00:18:22] It only brings destruction to them.
[00:18:25] It only brings about pain and suffering.
[00:18:28] And yet we see in our own life or our friends lives that we continue to walk down those paths that are not God's design.
[00:18:36] And that's one of the things that this narrative does so well, is you just read this over and over. And you're like, at some point, you just gotta go, why? And we actually see that in Pharaoh's life, but it does this.
[00:18:50] It actually exposes his hard heart.
[00:18:54] Because Pharaoh only wants his circumstances to change.
[00:18:58] He doesn't want to change.
[00:18:59] He just wants his circumstances to change.
[00:19:02] So he's willing to do whatever, say whatever, if it will change the circumstances. But then he goes, just kidding. I want to keep doing my own life. I want to keep living how I am. I don't want actually to bow in repentance. I don't actually want to change and humble myself before God. I just want my circumstances to change. It's one of the themes that we see in this. And so we see that.
[00:19:26] That this Nile turns into blood. The magicians come, they do the same thing. Pharaoh hardens his heart. The next thing, these frogs. Why did God choose frogs? Well, frogs, according to the Egyptians, were this idol of infertility. Maybe you've heard about rabbits, that they multiply. The same thing Egyptians thought about frogs. And yet then they do multiply, right? That these frogs start multiplying everywhere.
[00:19:53] That they come out of the Nile and they come up into everything. And in a kind of comical way, the narrator tells us, like, listen, Pharaoh was able to go back into his house and kind of ignore the first curse, but he can't on this one.
[00:20:09] He's caught up in this, too. You just imagine walking home, going home today. You open your door and you, like, step in, and you're like, ugh.
[00:20:17] Stepped on frog. It's like, gross.
[00:20:20] You know, how are they getting in here? You go to open your cabinet and get a bowl or a plate out, and it's like, ribbit. Like, wah.
[00:20:29] You go to open the oven, you're like, are you kidding me? There's frogs everywhere. Listen, I know we're in Louisiana. Some of y' all are like, that sounds like me. Frog legs, right? No, frogs everywhere.
[00:20:47] You finally are like. You put stuff in front of all the doors. You try to board up everything, and you're like, okay, I just want to go to bed. You crawl in bed, you're like, more frogs trying to go to sleep. One jumps on you. You're like, just frogs everywhere. They've become a curse.
[00:21:08] They're multiplying.
[00:21:10] They become this curse.
[00:21:12] The text actually sets up and says it. It points us back to Genesis in some of the language that it uses. When Genesis, when God creates. And he said that the sea teemed with fish.
[00:21:24] Here it says that Egypt teemed with frogs.
[00:21:28] Like, God has created them, that this is an act of God in his power and it's exposing a false God.
[00:21:38] And then it's revealing this hard heart. Pharaoh comes to Moses. He says, hey, how about you ask God and pray to God and get these frogs to leave. Moses is like, okay, so that you'll know that God is the one doing this. This isn't just some cosmic act. It's not just some weird thing that happens coincidence that you'll know that this is God acting. He goes, when do you want me to do it? He says, tomorrow.
[00:22:03] He's like, okay.
[00:22:06] God in his patience, he answers Moses plea.
[00:22:10] All the frogs die.
[00:22:12] Now they become a stench again. Using some of this language that's already been used before that the Israelites had gone to Moses and said, you've made us stink to Pharaoh.
[00:22:26] And so he's using the same language that now it's not just the Israelites that stink to Pharaoh, it's the frogs.
[00:22:35] This stink to Pharaoh, that this stench has become a judgment, an act of God, a curse that exposes these false gods, but it exposes Pharaoh's heart. Now God acts and so it's like, this isn't a coincidence. And Pharaoh goes, just kidding, right?
[00:22:52] He changes. It's this false repentance. He doesn't actually want to change his heart. He just wants his circumstances to change.
[00:22:59] And yet in this, we've seen the character of God put on display in order that God would be known.
[00:23:05] He wants to make himself known.
[00:23:09] Chapter verse 17 and chapter 7 specifically, by this you shall know that I am the Lord.
[00:23:16] So Pharaoh knows, and yet he rejects it.
[00:23:21] Then we continue to this third plague.
[00:23:26] In this third plague, then we see that Israel moved to Egypt because there was a famine. And so Egypt was a place where you could have food and you could grow food. This was partially because of the Nile. And so many countries would come because Egypt could grow food. And so this land was fertile and produced that which was beneficial.
[00:23:51] And so God says, aaron, hold out that staff, strike the dirt.
[00:23:57] This thing which they've put their hope and security and trust in, strike the dirt.
[00:24:02] And the dirt comes alive with these gnats.
[00:24:07] Now, we don't know exactly, that's the translation for a very small bug.
[00:24:12] I think it might have been mosquitoes, because those little dudes are.
[00:24:16] I don't know if you've ever been trying to do something.
[00:24:19] Trying to focus on something is.
[00:24:23] You're like, they're just everywhere.
[00:24:29] One of those little jokers gets up your nose or something. People start thinking you're freaking out, right? Like these things were just everywhere.
[00:24:37] Such a pest, such an annoyance.
[00:24:40] But an act of God to expose a false idol, a false God to reveal that they're not in control of what they think they're in control of, to expose this hard heart that, that again, Pharaoh says, make it go away.
[00:25:02] And then when the circumstances are gone, Pharaoh goes right back to the hard heart which is there.
[00:25:10] See, we oftentimes can pull out this hard heart aspect and we lose the context that this is not God forcing an innocent man into rebellion.
[00:25:23] This is God giving Pharaoh over to the rebellion that has already, that he's chosen. He's chosen that God reveals himself. And Pharaoh goes, oh, I see you, I don't want it. He rejects it, he rebels against it, and so God then gives him over. Actually, as you walk through this text, that six times Pharaoh hardens his heart, and not until chapter nine, verse twelve does it then put these two things right in conjunction together, that it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart, and then it shifts and it says, now God's going to use the hardness of his heart in order to display who God is to the entire world.
[00:26:09] He's going to then not be thwarted by Pharaoh's rejection and rebellion, but he's going to use it for his purposes.
[00:26:16] And so we see throughout this whole text, God's exposing false gods, he's exposing a hard heart, and then he's putting his character on display. One of the aspects of his character that we see in this is that as he's so patient throughout this, right?
[00:26:38] First plague, magicians do it.
[00:26:43] God's not threatened, he's not frantic. He's like, okay, second plague happens. Magicians do it again. Pharaoh hardens his heart. He's not threatened, he's not frantic. In that third one happens, the magicians come and they're like, hey, we can't mimic this. There's like a little crack that begins to show where God reveals that, that he's different, that he's sovereign, that he's not just this magician manipulating things. No, he's a sovereign God of the universe.
[00:27:16] And then as it begins to go the 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th actually in all of those, the flies and the livestock, and then it moves to these boils and hail and locusts and darkness. That as it moves through this, we actually see another theme begin to show up, that God's character, he begins to make distinctions that as these plagues come, then he protects Israel, that it talks about it of that in Israel, in Goshen, for the Israelites, they didn't experience the flies which come next. God protects them. There's no flies.
[00:27:54] Pharaoh then goes like he sends people to see, and it's again God showing who he is. He goes, listen, I can keep those who rebel against me under judgment, and I can protect those who are mine.
[00:28:07] It's his character, the livestock, which then die. He says, every livestock that's in the field is going to die, but not in Goshen.
[00:28:21] So Israel, all of their livestock continue to live.
[00:28:26] These boils show up on mankind. And it's the same language that we see actually in Job. That Job faces these boils, which is a curse from Satan that comes upon him in order that he would curse God. And these boils, the same word there that Job used a pot to scrape his skin with. It shows up on the people. And yet Pharaoh, he says, please make this go away.
[00:28:50] And then when the circumstances change, he goes right back. He says, nope.
[00:28:55] Hail. A hailstorm like none other that has ever happened before or will ever happen again. This cosmic hailstorm from God, he begins to then offer a path that even the Egyptians who feared God and came into the houses, they were protected, that if they walked in obedience and if they listened to the voice of God, then they experienced the blessings of God.
[00:29:24] That these hail storms come, but not in Goshen.
[00:29:28] Then these locusts, and this is a setup that God uses the wind to bring these locusts into Egypt, which then eat up everything that was left that wasn't destroyed by the hailstorm. He uses this east wind to come in.
[00:29:41] It's the same east wind that he's going to use to stand up the Red Sea.
[00:29:47] And then he uses a west wind to blow the locusts out.
[00:29:51] When Pharaoh cries out and says, moses, pray to your God that he will give us some relief. I'll let you go.
[00:30:00] As we progress through this, we see Pharaoh becomes more and more animated, and he becomes more and more what looks like repentance. He said, I've sinned. Forgive me. And yet, when the circumstances change, he goes right back to who he was.
[00:30:16] It just reveals his hard heart.
[00:30:20] The last plague that we see in this, the ninth plague in our text, is actually darkness.
[00:30:26] Many commentators say that this is actually an undoing of creation, that God has been shown himself sovereign over creation, his power, his covenant care, his patience.
[00:30:39] But that he's undoing creation, that the first thing God did was he spoke light into existence.
[00:30:47] In this ninth plague, God causes a darkness which the narrator tells us, which was felt.
[00:30:53] This is not Just an eclipse.
[00:30:56] This is a darkness which comes and sits upon Egypt. In order that they might feel the darkness of the absence of God, they would sit in their own rebellion.
[00:31:10] And yet the text tells us that in Goshen the light still shines.
[00:31:15] That there is a distinction between those who rebelled against God and those who walked in obedience to Him.
[00:31:23] That darkness actually casts us forward to that day on the cross when Jesus cries out, it's finished, and darkness comes.
[00:31:37] That this darkness is a picture of God's judgment, that it's this final warning for the people of Egypt to repent, to come back to the Lord.
[00:31:51] That God's revealing his character. He's been so patient all along, and yet they've continued to choose their rebellion.
[00:31:59] So what do we do with a text like this?
[00:32:03] There's actually three questions that I'd like to maybe just ask us that as you look at a text like this. Then maybe there's the question of what false gods need to be exposed in your life.
[00:32:16] What would it look like for God to expose some false gods to you through various different circumstances because of his kindness and his goodness? That for us to trust in something which is insufficient for us, it's not good for us to continue in that. And so if God were to expose that in your life, maybe it's finances, maybe it's a reputation, maybe it's work.
[00:32:45] That if God were to expose those false gods, how would you respond?
[00:32:52] Would you harden your heart? Why God? Why me?
[00:32:56] Would you. Would you harden yourself to that, knowing that who the Lord is, and yet not walking in obedience to him?
[00:33:06] Maybe he's been calling you in obedience and you said, no, can't do that. Not gonna do that. No. The circumstances begin to come up, and you're like, okay, okay, okay, I'll do it. If you'll change the circumstances. Circumstances change and then kind of resemble Pharaoh. I know I do sometimes. And I'm like, just kidding.
[00:33:30] I just wanted my circumstances to change. I didn't want to actually change my heart.
[00:33:35] What areas of your heart have become hard, that they've just become callous to the Lord.
[00:33:44] Third, how is God making himself known to you?
[00:33:49] How is he showing himself?
[00:33:52] You see, don't miss that God was showing himself to Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to the Israelites in his patience.
[00:34:01] Don't miss this.
[00:34:03] Think of how patient he was.
[00:34:05] Over and over and over he goes, okay, I'll go again.
[00:34:12] Okay. You cried out to me, okay, like, will you come to me? Will you walk in obedience?
[00:34:19] Or do you just want the circumstances to change.
[00:34:22] How's God making himself known to you? He.
[00:34:25] He's revealed himself, and he's revealed himself in his word that we would know him.
[00:34:30] Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. You see, it's not God's power and wrath and judgment that brings us to repentance.
[00:34:41] Scripture actually says it's his kindness that brings us to repentance.
[00:34:45] That we don't change our heart because God's powerful and can make us. We change our heart because he's been so kind and because he's made a way for us in Christ to be forgiven, adopted, set free.
[00:35:00] That he did that on the cross in order that we might walk a path of obedience, not a path of rebellion.
[00:35:09] Would you pray with me, Lord, as we just come face to face with your character as you do show off your power, as you show off your sovereignty over all things in this text, as you show off who you are in your character, we also see your patience, we see your covenant keeping, that you always keep your promise, that you protected your people from these plagues, that you're kind of. Lord, I pray that that might move us to repentance rather than rebellion.
[00:35:52] Lord, that you would soften those areas of our heart which have become hard.
[00:35:57] That we might see you clearly for who you are and that we might willingly bow our hearts to you.
[00:36:05] We ask it in Jesus name.
