The Futility of False gods: The Seven Plague of Hailstones - Saved for the Glory of God | Studies in the book of Exodus

In 1984, American musician Ray Parker Jr.

Penned a song that would become a classic of its generation.

It was the title song of a hit movie, and that movie would be second

highest grossing movie of that year and in the uk.

And the theme song for it in many ways became the advertising

jingle of the fictional business in the movie, but quickly

caught on and is simply one of those songs that you can't get out

of your head.

So I apologize for what you're going to hear in a moment.

Its lyrics offered a service that no one else could in dealing

with paranormal Activity, a topic that was much a talking point

in the 1980s.

And this is where I need a little bit of congregational engagement,

because the song went something like this.

If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna

call?

Roastmasters.

If there's something weird and it don't look good, who you gonna

call?

Ghostbusters.

That's gonna be in your head all day and you'll see Spotify charts

going high as people go home and listen to it.

Ghostbusters.

Three movies out of it, a cartoon out of it, and now a new

invention of it if you go onto Netflix and see the latest incarnation

for a next generation.

But the Ghostbusters were offering a service to deal with things

that you simply couldn't explain happening in your homes.

And as scientists, the main characters developed a way of trapping

and storing ghosts that were bringing havoc to New York City.

Now, if it is your favorite movie, I don't want to pick holes

in it, but why just New York?

But there you go.

The film centered around the concept that if things weren't going,

or if things were going on and you just didn't know what to do,

then there was one number you could call and these guys would come

and they would sort it out.

The Ghostbusters.

When things were happening around you that you didn't know what

to do with, who were you going to call?

And they said, call us.

As we now go into the seventh plague of Egypt, we're not looking

at some fictional act from a story a long time ago.

The plagues of.

Or the plague of Hail falls on Egypt comes to them because of their

constant wickedness of heart.

And it was a wickedness of heart, not just of their ruler, Pharaoh,

but also of his people.

And of all the mighty blows that God has brought on Egypt so

far.

This plague, as I said earlier, gets the longest account

to understand what's going on.

And once again, Moses is told to go and confront Pharaoh early

in the morning, possibly again.

At the Nile.

And there he was to demand Pharaoh to let God's people go to

worship him as he had done before.

But this time, listen to what the consequences will be if Pharaoh

will refuse.

Because verse 14 tells us, 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.

Now, we could take half an hour on this verse alone of what

God is trying to do and what he's saying about himself.

Because this is now a pivotal moment in this whole account of these

plagues upon Egypt and what will eventually lead to the exodus

of his people from Egypt.

God is demonstrating that he is the one true God.

And no more so in this plague than any that have gone before.

Because what we read here in verse 14 is no empty threat from

the Lord.

He is telling Pharaoh exactly what is going to happen.

But by now, Pharaoh, his officials, and the people, they already

know the full extent of the Lord's power.

And so words like this should not be ignored.

That's what verse 15 tells us, but it also demonstrates what we

know about God.

He tells Moses to tell Pharaoh that the whole land of Egypt could

have been wiped out by now, but it hasn't been.

And so he explains the purpose for why that is.

And verse 16 says, But I have raised you up for this very purpose

that I might show you my power, and more than that, that my

name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So tie that in with verse 14.

And what God says to Pharaoh.

He now gives the reason for why Pharaoh's heart is hardened by

the way Pharaoh's heart was naturally hardened.

He believed he was divine.

So he's not going to submit to the God of Israel, as he calls him.

And what God is doing time and time again is to prove who he is

so that Pharaoh can be left without shadow of doubt that this

is the one true God.

See, in this verse 16, God is telling us that he is the one who's

put Pharaoh on his throne.

It's God who has allowed Pharaoh to stay there.

And he did this for the specific purpose of showing Pharaoh

his power.

That the Lord would demonstrate how more powerful, in

fact the only one who holds the true power of the universe.

But this was not simply for Pharaoh's benefit.

The plagues had global implications.

God wanted to be worshipped around the world.

And what better way to make that happen than to send the Egyptians

plague after plague, as the world's superpower?

And by doing so, to save his people.

This would be told and known.

The Egyptians believed that Pharaoh's heart was the foundation

of their society, and they believed his heart was the source

of all human progress.

Therefore, they were not worshiping the one true God, but

a false God of their own making.

This was not how humanity was to act.

And so this will be demonstrated now through this seventh

plague.

Well, history does show us that the plagues have achieved God's

missionary purpose, that his name would be known throughout all

the earth.

Because if there had only been one plague, well, then it might have

been forgotten.

But 10 plagues, well, 10 plagues were 10 times more likely

to be remembered.

The Israelites retold them to their children, and that's recorded

for us in Deuteronomy 6.

We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out

of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Before our eyes, the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders, great

and terrible upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.

So the children of Israel were telling this story to their people,

to their children, so that it would never be forgotten by their

people.

And this is also retold in the account of the plagues in a song

that the people would sing later by the psalmist in Psalm 78,

47 and 48, speaking of God.

He destroyed their vines with heel and their sycamore figs with

sleet.

He gave over their cattle to the heel, their livestock to bolts

of lightning.

God's people never forgot, and still do not forget God's triumph

over Pharaoh through the plagues.

And neither did the other nations, because both the gibeonites

in Joshua 9 and the Philistines in 1st Samuel chapter

4 make reference to what God has done generations before to the

Egyptians.

And so we now see that what God says in verse 16 did indeed occur

as his acts were remembered and they were feared throughout all

the earth.

Pharaoh may not see it.

In fact, Pharaoh may be choosing to ignore it.

But what God said would happen, did it would not be ignored

throughout all the earth.

And so we come to the plague of hailstones, and it's detailed

there for us in verse 18, describing it as the worst hailstorm

to have ever fallen on the land of Egypt since its foundation.

And I do want to make one comment that I read about this by

Philip Graham Ryken.

And he says the demonstration of God's praiseworthy power always

demands a response.

One is to believe that the Lord is God and to obey what he claims.

The other is to doubt God's power, refusing to praise him, and

then to wait and See what happens.

You see, that's what verse 18 is all about.

God says, this is what I'm going to do.

And Pharaoh then has the choice of how he's going to respond.

And it can only be one of two ways.

Either following God's way or rejecting God's way.

And so, in order to show how Pharaoh would respond, God devised

a test.

And this is then recorded for us in verse 19, where he says to

Pharaoh, give an order now to bring your livestock and everything

you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the heel

will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought

in and is still out in the field, and they will die.

This was not the first time God had given Pharaoh advance warning.

However, it is the first time that he had given the Egyptians a

chance to to protect themselves.

Will they listen to the word of God or will they reject it?

A killer hailstorm was on its way.

They could do nothing to stop that.

And Pharaoh's magicians had proved that they can't stop it.

They can only add to the problems.

But there was still time for these people to seek shelter.

Will Pharaoh warn his people now?

Pharaoh had every reason to follow God's advice.

He had already seen what God could do right in his own palace.

He also had a huge cattle operation to consider because his

servants specialized in the cultivation of quality livestock.

But Pharaoh was not about to take any orders from Moses, so he

refused to bring his cattle in from the fields.

But Pharaoh wasn't the only person warned, because he had his

courtiers or his advisors around him.

And verse 20 and 21 tells us of their response.

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.

And so, on hearing the warning of the plague, the Egyptians officials

had to ask themselves, who were they going to call?

One option was to take their chances with the gods of Egypt and

call on them.

And by the way, there were plenty of gods for them to call upon,

because many of the Egyptian gods and goddesses were personified

in the elements of nature.

So Pharaoh's officials could have turned round and said, we trust

in Shu, the God of the atmosphere, who held up the heavens.

He's going to sort it for us.

They could have prayed to Nut, the sky goddess who represented the

vaulting sky.

She could have sorted it for them.

They could have said.

They could depend, they thought, on Tefnut, the goddess of

moisture or unseth who was present in the wind and storm.

And maybe, just maybe, there was something that one of their gods

could do to save them.

But in reality, as we read this passage, we see that some of

Pharaoh's officials were starting to have their doubts in

the gods of Egypt.

They didn't need 10 plagues to convince them of God's power.

Six were more than enough.

So as soon as they could leave the palace without being rude, they

followed the safety instructions and ran for cover.

They were listening, even if Pharaoh wasn't.

And they decided to call on the Lord by taking God at his word.

And as we've seen before, the Lord did what he said he would do.

He stretched forth his hand and reigned.

Hail on the land of Egypt, along with lightning and thunder.

And this is confirmed for us in verse 24 and again as the worst

storm ever to fall on the land of Egypt.

And verse 25 tells us of the damage throughout Egypt.

Hail struck everything in the fields, both men and animals.

It beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped

every tree.

This was truly a harsh event that impacted Egyptian life more

than any of the other plagues so far.

The other plagues have simply been annoyances.

Frogs, gnats, flies, water turning to blood, that it went back

to being water again.

But here we have crops and livestock decimated.

And as we'll discover in a few weeks time, this was at the time

when things were growing and ready for the harvest.

So here was a year's worth of food wiped out in one hailstorm,

as well as any livestock that they were seeking to use for that

year ahead.

This is complete and utter devastation.

But notice in verse 26, where the heel does not fall, it doesn't

fall in the land of Goshen.

And this is now the second time where God sets his people apart

so that they do not suffer from the plagues because they live

in the land of Goshen.

God again protects his people.

And why is he doing this?

It's not just for their good, but he's demonstrating something

to Pharaoh that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, is,

is truly the God in the land of Egypt, where he can make hail

fall where he wants and where it won't fall where he doesn't want.

And jumping ahead to verses 31 and 32, we see to the extent of this

damage.

And we'll be coming back to this verse in a few weeks time.

We're told in brackets because it's just part of a little insert

into the stories that we know that the flax and barley were destroyed.

Since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom, this was

their time for growth.

This was the excitement of the harvest coming.

But the wheat and the spelt, however, were not destroyed because

they ripen later.

They weren't big enough to be destroyed.

But as we know, with the plagues that will come, anything

that was left will be destroyed.

So with this amount of devastation, we turn to Pharaoh and

we await his response.

And this is perhaps why.

It's one of those longer accounts of the plagues.

What is Pharaoh gonna do?

We're told everything.

Is he going to call upon the name of the Lord, or is he going

to call upon himself once again?

But he had the opportunity to call upon the Lord when the warning

was given, but he chose not to.

And now, as we return to Pharaoh, we see him humbled.

And he now says to Moses and Aaron that he has sinned.

Look what he says in verse 27.

This time I have sinned.

Pharaoh said to them, the Lord is in the right, and I and my people

are in the wrong.

What an admission.

What a confession.

I am the sinner, says Pharaoh.

Does he know what he's saying?

And we perhaps now perceive a changed Pharaoh.

His own wealth has been seriously damaged with his own livestock

being killed in the field.

And he would now have to have solutions for his people who would

be looking to him to feed them in the.

In the year ahead.

It appears now that we have a Pharaoh before us who is a broken

man, who perhaps for the first time in his life, sees through the

lie of divinity that had been told to him and that he was a proponent

of.

But this is a false confession, as we've seen before.

He only wants the plague to end.

And so he says the right words to Moses at the right time.

But Moses knows who he's dealing with.

Moses responds once again.

And prayers for the land and the plague will stop.

But Moses truly knows the heart of the Egyptian king.

And he confirms to us in verse 30.

But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord

God.

There's just been a confession that I'm the one that has sinned.

But Pharaoh's not willing to do anything about it.

His heart is still hard, and he doesn't truly fear the Lord.

In other words, he's not fully understanding who this God is.

The giver and the taker of life, now witnessed very evidently

before Pharaoh.

And again, this is confirmed then in verse 34.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped,

he sinned again, he and his officials hardened their hearts.

As we come to the end of this seventh plague, what we're left with

is a sad reality.

Given the opportunity to respond, given the opportunity to

seek forgiveness, these Egyptians throw it back in the face

of the Lord.

Instead of calling on Him.

When things happen they don't understand, they call on their false

gods to rescue them.

They of course cannot.

And it is only by the ongoing common grace of God that Pharaoh

and his hard hearted people have breath for the next moment.

They don't simply understand the basic truths of who the God of

Israel is.

And so they are left now, having rejected God from a seventh

plague, to await an eighth.

And we too once again can become like Pharaoh his officials.

We've been presented in scripture time and time again with

the truths of God.

And when we're confronted with this truth, we are confronted with

a choice to return to where we began.

With the choice.

Who are you going to call?

Are you going to call on false gods of this world?

Because they're all around us.

It's not just the false gods of Egypt or the false gods of Athens,

as the girls and boys are thinking about today.

There are false gods still around us.

We may not know them by names that are here today.

We may not even see shrines to them, as perhaps in Athens.

But the false gods of this world are money, status, title and

self.

Or will you call on the one true God and Lord of all, who time

and again has demonstrated through His Word who He is to us?

So who are you going to call upon when the times of heartache

come?

Who's it going to be when we feel deep sorrow and betrayal?

Who are you going to call upon when we have fears of the future

for ourselves and our family?

When we bear the weight of burden, as we think about money and

job security, when the unexpected moments of ill health

and death come our way, in the moments of great disappointment and

uncertainty?

To whom will you call?

It's the same response that Pharaoh was faced with.

Call on whatever gods we think around this world will save us, which

they won't.

Or to call and to look to the only living God who can indeed rescue

us.

I urge you today, each and every one of you, to set your mind

to Jesus, to call on Him.

Because that's what Paul tells us in Romans 10, 11, 13.

As the Scriptures say, anyone who trusts in him will never be put

to shame.

And then continues in verse 13.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Ultimately, that's what we all Need.

We all need saving from the gods of this world because we are

so quick at times to put our trust in them with the number one

God being self.

That's why we often use the term self righteousness.

Because we think our ways, just like Pharaoh, are better than

God's ways.

Our total salvation for all eternity and our assurance of hope

everlasting in this life is and can only be Christ.

And I want to tell you this morning, you can't fool him.

Pharaoh tried.

Pharaoh said I'm a sinner.

But did he fully know and mean what he was saying?

Of course not.

He just wanted his circumstance to change enough so

that he could just get on living his happy life as he sought.

You can't fool God.

And just as he knew the heart of Pharaoh, so he knows your heart

and he knows mine.

He knows when you say you're a Christian, but you don't live his

way.

He knows when you try to hide your sin.

He knows when you're stubborn.

He knows when you hold a grudge, and he knows when you won't

forgive.

But he does give you grace.

Grace enough to turn and to seek the forgiveness, the assurance

and the comfort we so desperately need.

He gave grace to Pharaoh and Pharaoh ignored it to his peril.

We live in a time of God's grace.

Not just common grace that gives you the very breath for this

next moment, but special grace that is saving grace, where he calls

all of us to turn from the false idols and false gods of the

world and to draw near to Him.

That's why the psalmist would write as a song for God's people.

In Psalm 145, verse 18, the Lord is near to all who call on Him.

Psalms 145:18

To all who call on him in truth, turn to the Savior.

Set your hope on him.

Call on Him.

He will see you through the harshest of storms so that you can

know his love, forgiveness and glorious hope.

Who would have thought of such a glorious sunrise this morning after

the storm of yesterday?

Yet the Lord is faithful, and he proves it to us in His Word.

And he proves it to us in the world around us.

And to ignore Him.

And to think that you can hold onto resentment, to hate and to anger

and unforgiveness means that you set your hope on yourself.

And that is no hope at all.

I am sorry to tell you there's only one place that we can go to

where.

Where we can know hope and is in Christ alone.

So to begin or to end, where we began.

Are there strange things happening in your life?

And you don't know what to do with them.

Who are you gonna call upon?

Is there something weird?

It's all out of place and things don't look good.

Good.

Who are you going to call upon?

Call to Jesus, for He is near, as Psalm 145 assures us of.

And he will truly restore your soul so that you can know his joy,

you can know his forgiveness, and you can know that glorious hope.

We started off talking about a movie that talked about the paranormal

fictional story in New York.

Our true living God, who demonstrated that he was the God

in the land of Egypt, is the God who is ruling and reigning over

all this world.

And he cares about you.

He gives you grace enough for this moment, but he gives you the

opportunity of saving grace so that you can know him fully now and

forevermore.

I urge you, call on him and he will restore.

He will save and he will keep.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, thank you that as we look to your Word, you speak

to us through it.

And these plagues of Egypt that perhaps we've simply read over

before, not recognizing their full impact on us as we see their

full impact in Exodus and on Egypt.

Lord, help us to learn.

Help us to learn of who you are and what our response should

be to you.

So.

So that indeed we will know joy, we will know a contentment in

our hearts.

We will know you as the one who is truly great over all.

So may we respond well.

As we are confronted with Jesus today, may we call on him and

know him as the one who truly brings rest for our weary souls.

And we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.