Alright, please turn your Bible with me to Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6. This is, I thought would be the last of my coronavirus series, but looks like it might not be right since the lockdown has been extended. Now, this morning I want to look at the Egyptian plagues- the Egyptian plagues. I want to, first of all, read from chapter 6, beginning in verse 28 right through chapter 7 and verse 7. This gives us an introduction to the plagues that were to come. Alright, Exodus 6, beginning in verse 28: “And it came to pass, on the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, that the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the LORD. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”

But Moses said before the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, now how shall Pharaoh heed me?” So the LORD said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. Now you shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply many signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgements. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the LORD commanded them, and so they did. And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.” Now we have plagues in the Bible, and here is one of the perhaps more famous ones. And today we all know the meaning of plagues, perhaps no thanks to Covid-19. I’m not sure what plagues mean to you. For some, it is just no Starbucks or no Bak Kut Teh. For others, it is the complaint of lockdown or ‘SD’- now social distancing. Now, we know that the Egyptian plagues were not the only plagues in the Bible. Now we have the other plagues, for example, recorded in Numbers 16. Numbers 16, and there in verses 46 through 49 we read here of another plague.

Numbers 16:46-49, now it says here: “So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for the wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.” Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people.”. Verse 48: “And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident.” Now we have another one recorded in Second Samuel. Second Samuel and chapter 24. 2 Samuel 24:15.

Now 2 Samuel 4 and verse 15 says: “So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.” (Mistakenly mentioned “4”, supposedly “24”). Now I refer you to this portion of Scriptures basically just to impress upon us this morning as we think about this whole matter of plagues that plagues are not foreign to the Bible. And we find them in the Bible in fact again and again. And we read of many people dying in those plagues, seventy thousand. In other words, there were tens of thousands. In relation to the population then, now those were huge numbers. Now we know that the present plague or pandemic that we are experiencing is also not the only one in history.

We can think of other plagues in the history of mankind like the Spanish flu, or the bubonic plague, and others which also killed many, many thousands, and in fact millions of people. Now the first thing I want to impress upon all of us as we consider this whole subject of plague is this, that plagues and pandemic, as we see as recorded in the Scriptures, they are from God. They are from God. Now look for a moment to Amos, to the Book of Amos in the Old Testament. Now Amos 3:6, now it clearly tells us here in this verse. Amos 3:6, and the Bible says: “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?”.

Now that is a rhetorical question, meaning to say that if there is a calamity; if there is a disaster in a city, it is because the LORD has done it. It is because it is God who brought it about. Now, this morning we want to look at, like I say, perhaps among the more famous plagues in the Bible, and that is the plagues of Egypt. And what I basically want to do is to point out to all of us here four important truths from the plagues of Egypt. Four important truths from the plagues of Egypt. Now, what can we learn? What do we see God showing to us from these plagues that He sent on the land of Egypt?

Now the first important truth that we should see in the plagues of Egypt is the display of the power of God. The display of the power of God. Or in other words, we say the first truth that God wants to impress upon the Egyptians through the plague is recorded in verse 5 of chapter 7. Exodus 7:5, now this is what God wanted to impress upon the Egyptians through the plagues. Now it says here in verse 5 of chapter 7 of Exodus: “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt”. So in other words, the first truth that God wants impress upon the Egyptian and all of us is His sovereignty, that God is sovereign.

Now you see in the account in Exodus, now the first thing that God did to impress upon or to demonstrate His sovereignty is in verses 8 through 12 of chapter 7. And so in verse 8 of chapter 7, we read here that “the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “Now when Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show (a sign or) a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’” “. In other words, God is saying that if Pharaoh challenges you, refusing to acknowledge the sovereignty of God, now God said now this is what you shall do to Pharaoh. So what were they supposed to do?

So the following verse: “So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, now just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard”. Now what we read here is a contest. Now God says that if Pharaoh asked you for a sign to show, now this is what you have to do alright. You ask Aaron to throw a rod. Now that rod will become or become a serpent.

Now we know that Pharaoh thought that he had his own magicians and they did the same. But in this whole account, we see that God overpowered all the powers as it were of Egypt. Now in order to see how God demonstrated His sovereignty, now it is important to remember that the serpent is actually the symbol of Pharaoh’s power. And that’s the reason why we might notice that even in his headgear, now there is a serpent symbolising his power or his sovereignty. Now there are many symbols of power today. Perhaps science is one of the symbols of power. Or organization, huge organization, they perhaps are also symbols of power. Or perhaps money. And like Pharaoh, now he looked to all these for his confidence. But God only needs alright to demonstrate in one act His power over all the other serpents.

Perhaps we are seeing this today that God needs only to send a virus to ground everything or to make the whole world coming to a standstill. And so that is what God is trying to do here in Egypt. He is demonstrating His power or His sovereignty over everything. Now then, in the ten plagues. Now the ten plagues, therefore, were also God’s way of showing His sovereignty over all the gods of Egypt. Just as Aaron’s snake overpowered all the snakes of the magicians’, now God now sends the ten plagues to show His sovereignty over all the gods of Egypt. Now we know that the Egyptians have many gods, and here we see God in a sense through the ten plagues dealing or demolishing one after another the gods of Egypt.

For example, we know that the Egyptians has a god called Isis and that is the goddess of Nile, the River Nile. And we know that they also have what we call a frog god, and that god is in charge of birth to populate the nation. They also have a god called Ra, the Sun God, to give them light. Now, what is the purpose of each of the plagues that God has sent? As I pointed out, and it is said here in verse 17 of Exodus 7. Now verse 17 says: “Thus says the LORD: “By this you shall know that I am the LORD.”. Now that is what God is wanting to show through the plagues that they may know that He is God.

“Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.”. Now you see, the Egyptians depended on their gods for many things. They depended on the god of the river Nile to supply water to irrigate the land. They depended like I say on the other gods for other things- for birth, for Sun, perhaps for rain. Now they depended on their gods, and therefore they worshipped this god. But can they help them? Now God is showing to them that at a time when they really needed their help, they are helpless. Their gods were all helpless.

So one after another, the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians is to show them that those gods they depended upon were really no god. They could not turn to them for help. And so He demonstrated or impressed upon the people His sovereignty. I believed that is perhaps the first thing we also should see in any pandemic, in any disaster or plague that we experience. It is you see that our God is sovereign over all. Now there is a second truth that I believe we should see in the account of the Egyptian plague, and it is the justice of God. Not only we see the sovereignty of God, the power of God, but we also see the justice of God.

Now every time there is a calamity, now the justice of God is called into question. When people ask questions like: Where is God? Or when they ask: How can God allow this to happen? Or they ask: What kind of God is He to allow people to die, so many innocent people as it were dying? How can God do that? What kind of God is He? Now I say, so the justice of God, these questions reveal that people questions the justice of God whenever there is a calamity. But let us remember, the plagues of Egypt served as God’s righteous judgement upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. So that is the truth that we should see. When God does that, God is demonstrating His justice. Now we see that in verse 4 of chapter 7.

It says here: “But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgements.”. In other words, these are the judgements of God upon the land. And when God does that, God is altogether righteous. Now people may ask: In what way is God righteous to do that? Now, remember that the Egyptians and Pharaoh, they were cruel and merciless people. In fact, history tells us that they were among the most cruel and merciless people on earth at that time. Now we think for example in chapter 1 of Exodus. Exodus 1:22, now look at what they were capable of doing.

Exodus 1:22, we are told here that “Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”. Now what Pharaoh wanted to do in order to save himself and his power and his rule was to eliminate every rival. And he has no qualms killing newborn babies. Now that is an indication of the cruelty of Pharaoh or of the Egyptians- no qualms killing babies when they were born. And we cry out and we complain that God is not fair. We accuse God of being unjust when we all deserve the just punishment of God. Now think about it, Pharaoh had no qualms killing babies when they were born. But today, people have no qualms killing babies even before they are born.

Now that is the thing that God is impressing upon us here that when He does send a plague; when He does judge, He is acting in righteousness. Now also concerning the Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Not only they were cruel and merciless, they were godless. They had no regard for God. Look at chapter 5, the first two verses. Chapter 5 of Exodus, the first two verses. Now it says here: “Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel”. In other words, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and say this is what God says. This is the Word of God. How are we supposed to respond to the Word of God, to what God says? Now, what does God say here? He said: “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.”.

What was Pharaoh’s response after hearing the Word of God? Verse 2: “And Pharaoh said, “Who is this? Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.””. Now that was Pharaoh’s response. Who is this LORD? Who is God? Why should I obey Him? Now such was the attitude of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and perhaps such the attitude of many people today. So we ask again: Why does God allow calamities? Why plagues, if this were in a sense sent by God? Now I think the answer is clear, as we have seen just now that it is the judgement of God as the Bible tells us here in Exodus 7. Now I believe that that was in Paul’s mind when he wrote to the Romans.

Now listen to what he wrote in chapter 1 of Romans and verse 18. Romans 1:18, it says here: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. Now that is Paul’s first point in the gospel that he was proclaiming to the Romans. He said if you want to know the gospel, you want to know the good news of the gospel, you need to know the bad news, and that is that we are living in the world filled with ungodliness and unrighteousness. And what Paul is telling us here is that God is revealing His wrath through this series as it were of plagues. These are the judgements of God. So why does God allow calamities or plagues? It is the revelation of the righteous judgement of God.

The reason is amply clear in the Bible because again and again when we see a judgement being brought upon the people, the reasons were given. Whenever a judgement is brought on the people, the reasons were given. Now just two examples, one in Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Now, what does the Bible tells us here in Genesis 6:5? Now it says: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth”. Now that is the reason for judgement, God seeing the wickedness of man on earth, “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. Verse 6: “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”

And so He said in verse 7: “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them.”. Now that was an expression of the grief of God as He looked down upon this world and He sees that every intent of the thought of man’s heart was only evil continually. And that’s the reason for the flood. That’s the reason for the judgement. Or another example in Genesis chapter 19. Genesis chapter 19. Look first of all at verse 12. Genesis 19:12-13. Verse 12: “Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place!”.

Now here are the angels warning Lot, saying get out of this place! Do you have any of your loved ones? Son, son-in-law, and daughter? Verse 13: “For we will destroy this place”. Why? “Because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” And you see here again that before judgement comes God tells them the reason. It’s because of the wicked of man. We see the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah that there was not one righteous man in those cities. And so we read in verse 24: “Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew (verse 25) those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.”.

God is unjust? No! We see all these show to us that when God does send a plague, it is to demonstrate His righteousness, His justice. That’s the reason why God did those things. And so calamities, and here we see in the case of the Egyptian plagues. The second truth, like I say, they show to us is they show to us the justice of God, that God was right. God was right to have done that. Now that leads us to the third important truth that I believe we should see in the Egyptian plagues. It’s not just to show us the sovereignty of God and the justice of God, but there is another immensely important truth here, and that is it also shows to us the mercy of God. The mercy of God.

Now note first of all that there were ten plagues in these Egyptian plagues. There were ten plagues, and there seemed to be an intensification. Meaning to say that as these plagues were sent one by one, there is an increasing severity of the judgement. First, perhaps there was some discomfort. Then it touches the skin of the people. And then it leads to the death of animals or the death of the livestock, and then there was complete darkness on the land. And finally, there was the tenth plague, and it involves human death. Now finally, it is death upon man. Now let us take note that the tenth plague or the last plague stands alone. It is the last. It is the final. It is the ultimate. It is the most severe. Now, what will that be like? When the final judgement comes, what will it be like?

Now if every one of this plague is a judgement of God, now what will it be like when it comes to the ultimate? Now the Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6. Now listen, Revelation 6:12 onwards. Verse 12 onwards of Revelation chapter 6, what will the final judgement be like? John writes in verse 12: “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”. Now the tenth plague, as I said, stands on its own. It is the final. It is the most severe and it is a picture of the Last Judgement that is described here in the book of Revelation. Make no mistake. Just as every other plague has been sent, that last one will surely come. That day will come.

Now I want to ask this question: Why so many plagues? We have here in Egypt ten plagues. And why the intensification? Why the increasing severity? Or we might ask: Why didn’t God sent the last or the tenth plague first and just finish them off? Why didn’t God send the last plague first? Well, the answer is in the Bible. Turn with me to Second Peter. 2 Peter 3:9. 2 Peter 3:9. Why didn’t God send the last plague first and just finish them off? Why send so many other plagues? The reason? Verse 9 of Second Peter 3, it is because “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish that all should come to repentance.”.

In other words, the third truth, the third important truth of the Egyptian plague is the mercy of God. Why didn’t God just send one ultimate plague? It’s because the Bible says He is patient. He is long-suffering. I say God could have sent the tenth. But remember, each plague that He sent is a warning. Each plague that He sent is a warning, and He will send one warning after another, and that is mercy. And that is mercy. But I say but the last will come, for we read in Exodus chapter 12- Exodus 12:29-30. Exodus 12:29-30, we have these solemn words: “And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.”.

Verse 30: “So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.”. There was not a house where there was not one dead. That didn’t come first; that came last. And I want to underscore, it’s because it demonstrates the great mercy of God. Now that leads us to the fourth truth and the final truth I want to bring up from the account of the Egyptian plagues. Now the fourth truth is the hardness of the human heart. Now, this account showed to us the hardness of the human heart. As I said not only in the Bible we have many plagues recorded. God has sent many plagues to warn the people.

And in the history of mankind, we have many plagues to warn us, to shake us, to make us rethink about our life, to bring us back to God. But again and again, we see this truth, the hardness of the human heart. We think that we should have learned the lesson. Pharaoh should have learned it. But no. So one thing we cannot miss throughout the whole episode, as I said again, is the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. And we find that expression “that Pharaoh hardened his heart” or “the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart” repeated many times. It is said perhaps as many as ten times in this account. The hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. And it shows to us now this is an incredibly sad truth that the human heart can be so hard. The human heart can be so hard, it is harder even than the rock.

We know rocks, a heart that’s harder than the brick or harder than the kidney stones. Now the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart is described in this account in three ways- in three ways. Now first, we see in Exodus chapter 7, Exodus 7:13. Exodus 7:13, his hardness or the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart is firstly described as “and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard”. And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard (or in some translations, it’s translated as “and Pharaoh’s heart was harden”). The word ‘harden’ means it became hard. It progressively became hard. It grew hard. Now that is the case with humans. It’s hard, and then it becomes harder and harder. Now the second way the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart is described, it’s described in chapter 8 and verse 32. Exodus 8:32, and it says here: “But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also”.

So first he has already a hard heart and it grew harder, and then there is Pharaoh hardening his own heart. And then thirdly in chapter 9 and verse 12. Chapter 9 and verse 12, the hardness of his heart is described this way: “But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh”. But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh. So Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and Pharaoh himself harden his own heart. And then finally, the LORD hardened his heart. Now here is the warning for all of us. Now if we are stubborn, stiff-necked; if we stubbornly hardened our heart and resist against God, resist the warnings of God, you face the danger of God abandoning you to your wishes. Now that is what we should see here in the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart.

And we see that truth also pointed out to us in Paul’s letter to the Romans. So if you flip back to Romans chapter 1 as Paul speaks of the wickedness of mankind and the judgement of God, he tells us in Romans 1:24- “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves”. Now here’s the warning Paul puts here that if we harden our heart and stubbornly resisting God’s warning, now we face the danger of God giving us up. Verse 26: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.”. Verse 28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind”. Now these are solemn warnings- solemn warnings to people like Pharaoh who continually, stubbornly resists the warning of God.

Now, these are the truths of the Egyptian plagues. It teaches us the sovereignty of God, the justice of God, the mercy of God. But, it also showed to us the hardness of the human heart, and we need to beware. Now let me bring this to a conclusion by pointing out as we face a pandemic today, now people want to attribute this to somebody or to a nation. They said perhaps Covid-19 was created by the Chinese in China. And the Chinese said that it was the US that brought it. But make no mistake as we have seen in the Bible. These were not created by humans. It was not sent by a particular country.

Ultimately, all pandemics, all plagues are sent by God. It is sent by God to say something to us, just as God tells us in Exodus through Moses that He is going to bring these plagues upon the Egyptians because He is saying something to them. So the important thing as we come to an end is to consider this. Perhaps God is saying something to us, something to the world perhaps. But is He not also saying something to us? Now I believe that during this time of lockdown when we have some time to reflect, some time to examine, now it’s important for us to ask that question as we draw near to Jesus’ feet and listen to him like Mary to ask this question: What might God be saying to me?

Perhaps for some, it is what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 55: “Seek the LORD while He may be found”. As I prepare this, I can think of people who grew up in the Christian home, even in our church, but until today have resisted to come to the Lord Jesus Christ to profess faith in Him, to repent of their sins. Perhaps that’s what God might be saying to you: “Seek the LORD while He may be found”. For others, perhaps what God is saying to you is what Jesus said to Martha. Now Jesus said to Martha in Luke 10: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.”. But what you don’t realise is this, that really finally speaking only “one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen that good part”.

Perhaps for some of us, that is what God is saying to us. In our lives, we have been busy, busy with so many things, and neglected the one thing that God wants us to give our life and time to. Now perhaps for others, it might be this. It might be what God said to the rich fool in Luke chapter 12. Remember Jesus told the parable of the rich man and at the end, God turned to this man and say: You know what? You are rich, but you are a rich fool. Why? Because He says you don’t understand that this night your life shall be required of you. You don’t understand that you might be rich in the things of this world but you’re not rich towards God.

Or perhaps for others, the things that God wants to tell us is what John writes in his first epistle, the First Letter of John chapter 2 verse 15: “Do not love the world”. Do not love the world. Perhaps that is what God is saying to some of us. Why? He says: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”. And then He says in verse 17: “And the world is passing, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”. Now we can go on and on and listen, and perhaps God is saying many things to many people.

But let us not have the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. Let us not harden our hearts. Let us not resist. Let us listen because plagues are sent by God, and they have a message for all of us. Let us listen and obey. So may God bless your day. Again I do encourage you afterward, spend some time in prayer either in your family or by yourself in your room.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.