From His Heart

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Are you ready to rumble? Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, it's God versus the Devil.

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There is tremendous truth. There is love. There is hope that you always dreaming of. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real world. From his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. As today he continues his series, Faithful and Introducing the One and Only God, it's a study of the book of Exodus. We're going to be introduced to the third, fourth, and fifth plagues that God sent upon Egypt. These plagues were designed to crush Pharaoh and the false gods of Egypt. Through this, the Lord shows the children of Israel and us that he alone is the one and only God.

Now, in today's message from Pastor Jeff, we'll discover three key indictments that God, capital G, makes on the gods in Egypt. The one true God sends the next round of plagues. The message today is entitled God versus the Devil.

If you missed any of the previous lessons from this series that we've aired, go to promiseheart.org and click the Listen link there. You can download a free MP3 of this broadcast as well as the sermon outline notes from Pastor Jeff.

Right now, open your Bible to the eighth chapter of the book of Exodus. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve to begin the lesson.

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Well, in Egypt in 1445 BC, there was the main event: God versus Pharaoh and all the false gods of Egypt. The God of the Hebrews and the Hebrews were slaves. So, in the mindset of a person living back at that time period, if my nation beats your nation, then my God beat your God. My dog's better than your dog. That's the kind of mentality they had.

When Pharaoh hears from Moses, "Thus says Yahweh, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness," Pharaoh responds, "Who is Yahweh? Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I do not know Yahweh. I do not know the Lord. Neither shall I let Israel go. Israel belongs to me. We have defeated you. You are slaves to us. The gods of Egypt are greater than whatever puny little God you call Yahweh." That's in his head, that's in the minds of the Egyptians. So he asks that question.

We built this series, "Faithful and True," introducing the one and only God, and we've built it on Exodus, chapter 5, verse 2: "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" Pharaoh throws down the gauntlet against God, and God is going toe to toe with Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. The Lord says this in Exodus, chapter 10, verse 2. He tells Moses that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.

That is a theme of Exodus: that I am the Lord. That you may know that the Hebrews would know and that the Egyptians would know, that Pharaoh would know that I am the Lord. And so He brings plagues upon Egypt and their gods. Now, there are 10 plagues, but what's interesting about the plagues is that they're in series of threes. The 10th plague is the death angel; that's kind of a standalone plague because it's tied into the Passover and a visual picture of what's going to happen when the Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world.

But the three groupings of plagues are significant. The God of the Nile was a god named Hapi (H-A-P-I), and one of their chief gods was a god named Osiris. The Egyptians said that the Nile was the blood of Osiris, one of their chief gods, and God turned that to blood. The second plague was the plague of the frogs. They worshiped frogs in Egypt; they had a goddess named Hecat, who had a frog face. God says, "You like frogs? I'm gonna give you frogs. I'm gonna have frogs come out your ears." Pharaoh says, "I'll let you go if you get rid of the frogs." He gets rid of the frogs but doesn't let them go.

Then, the third plague comes without warning: "Boom, here it comes. Stretch out your hand over the sand, and the sand becomes gnats." This was a plague against their god of the earth, the god of the sand, Geb (G-E-B). But Pharaoh's heart was hardened; he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Here come the next group of plagues, and we have swarms, pestilence, and boils. So, what do we see from the next round of plagues? Three key indictments that God makes on three more gods or goddesses in Egypt. Exodus, chapter 8, verse 20: "Now, the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord. Thus says Yahweh, let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of insects on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of insects, and also the ground on which they dwell."

Verse 24: "Then the Lord did so, and there came great swarms of insects into the houses of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants. The land was laid waste because of the swarms of insects in all the land of Egypt." The first indictment in this next plague is that God is indicting their worship of flies and beetles. God makes a mockery of their worship of flies and beetles. You think how pagan these people are; they worship flies and beetles, particularly the scarab.

Now, the goddess over the marshlands and over the flies was a goddess named Uatchet. She's over the marshlands where the insects live. So God is going to bring insects. It says a swarm of flies, but it's more than just flies. The word "swarms" means mixture. God's got all sorts of stuff in there that you don't want.

In a very interesting little play on words, He says in verse 20, "Thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you will not let my people go, behold, if you don't release them, then I'm going to release my swarms on you." It's the same word that's used. You don't release them; I'm going to release my swarms on you, and you're not going to like it. They liked to worship Uatchet.

Did you know that in Egypt, if you did something courageous and valiant on the battlefield, you would get a gift? That gift was called the Order of the Golden Necklace—a necklace of flies. That's a big thing for them. God sent flies. What kind of flies? Most commentators said they're dog flies or stable flies. They're the flies that bite you.

You also had the ichneumon fly, which is more like a wasp. Those little things are mean, and they go after the eyes. Well, you also had the beetles because it's a swarm of stuff. It's all kinds of insects, and they're going to come in swarms. You're going to get stung by the flies, the ichneumon flies, and then we have beetles. You guys like beetles; you worship beetles. These scarabs are just fancy names for dung beetles.

It's amazing to think that the Egyptians worshiped it. This reminds me of Romans 1:22-23: "Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."

The interesting thing about this plague is that it was designed to show who is God and who belongs to God. Moses told Pharaoh beginning in verse 22, "But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen," where the Hebrews lived, "so that no swarms of insects will be there. In order that you may know that I, the Lord, am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall occur."

Oh, you worship Uatchet, who is over all the insects? Well, she's going to be powerless to help you because I'm going to send insects like you've never seen before. I make the distinction between my people and Pharaoh's people. This is my land. You might think this is your land, but I'm in the midst of the land, and I make the rules around here, Pharaoh.

This is the main event, and God is just crushing Pharaoh. Pharaoh doesn't have anything. He's got these crummy little magicians that can turn a stick into a snake, and then God's snake eats theirs. They can make frogs; they can cause the Nile to turn to blood. If you're Pharaoh, you're kind of thinking, "Hey guys, can you do something to reverse these things? We don't want you making more frogs; we already have a lot of frogs." But that's what they would do, and God is just crushing him.

He's showing Pharaoh, he's showing the people who is the Lord. He is the Lord and who belongs to God. He makes the distinction between my people and your people. When you think about classifications of people, think about the Titanic. You would have people that traveled on the Titanic, and some were the upper, upper high class—money to burn. Then you had some that were kind of maybe lower upper class, and then you had some that were upper middle class and some that were lower middle class.

You had some that were upper lower class and some that were lower lower class, some that were in steerage, and they just barely could buy a ticket. You have all these classifications of people on the Titanic. But when the Titanic went down, you had two classes of people: saved and lost. That's the way God looks at it. There are two classes of people: my people who have come to me in repentance and faith, and the devil's crowd.

God makes a distinction between his people and the devil's people, and nothing is going to happen to God's people. None of those dog flies, none of those ichneumon flies, none of those dung beetles are coming to Goshen. They know exactly, "Okay, here's our border. That's the only place we can go."

So the plague showed who is God and who belongs to God. This is interesting: the plague was countered with a demonic compromise. Remember, Pharaoh is a picture of the devil. What does Satan do in his battle with God, and namely with you and me, with God's people? Because Satan can't do anything to God, but he can do stuff to you and me.

These swarms are bad, and this gets Pharaoh's attention. It says in verse 24 that the land was laid waste. Psalm 78:45 says, "He sent swarms among them, swarms of flies which devoured them." They were blood suckers; it was awful. In verse 25, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Go sacrifice to your God within the land."

But Moses said, "It's not right to do so, for we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God what is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We can't sacrifice bulls and goats before the Egyptians. They see that as an abomination, and that's going to start a riot."

He says in verse 27, "We must go a three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he commands us." Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make supplication for me."

Then Moses said, "Behold, I am going out from you, and I shall make supplication to the Lord that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord."

He told them with the frogs, "Hey, if you get rid of the frogs, then you can go." And so he's telling them again. In verse 31, "The Lord did as Moses asked and removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go."

What is Pharaoh trying to do? He tells Moses, "Hey, listen, I'll let you go, and you can sacrifice, but do it in the land. You just stay in the land." That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I mean, let's negotiate here. Moses, we can do that.

But you can't compromise with the devil. Moses wouldn't do it. He said, "No, we must do what God has commanded." In the Christian life, if you compromise and you live out your Christian life in the land, so to speak, spiritually in the land, you're not obeying the Lord.

The Lord says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 17, "Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. You're salt and light. What are we as Christians? God saves us out of this world, and he sends us back to this world as his citizens, as his ambassadors, to be a witness in this world.

When the world starts to become like the church and they can't see a difference, that's a big, big problem. Compromise will wreck and ruin your testimony. There was a question some years ago that was very popular: "If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

Just because you come to church on Sunday, maybe twice a month, you come on Sunday, maybe come on Wednesday night, maybe you come to a Bible study or something like that—well, that's good. But if people look at your life and follow you, do they see that there's something different about you, or do you live just like they live?

If you live just like they live, you're sacrificing in the land, so to speak, and you're making no difference because the world doesn't need to see another hypocritical Christian. Moses knew that, saying, "No, we can't do this in the land."

Then Pharaoh says, "Just don't go very far. You can leave the land, but don't go very far." Some people have that idea in the Christian life: "Well, don't go crazy with this stuff. Don't become a fanatic." Typically, you have that with new believers.

Somebody trusts Christ, and it's like, "Well, okay, now just be careful here. Don't go too crazy," because new believers are on fire for the Lord, and they take God at his word. They want to do what the scripture says to do, and they have trouble with compromise. The devil comes at us with compromise.

We must be the people of God. The second indictment: not only does God make a mockery of their worship of the flies and the beetles, but God makes a mockery of their worship of livestock. Chapter nine: "Then the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh."

See the pattern? The first group goes to him in the morning when he's at the water. Now, just go to Pharaoh when he's on his throne, when he's acting as king, and speak to him. "Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks."

"But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel." The Lord set a definite time, saying, "Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land," to preclude any kind of, "Well, it's just a coincidence." God would tell them when this is coming.

So the Lord did this thing on the morrow, and all the livestock of Egypt died—all the livestock in the field, like he said—not all the livestock, because some weren't in the field, but all those in the field. But of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not even one of the livestock of Israel dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

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Well, we're going to pause right there in the lesson today called "God versus The Devil," a sobering message that should bring us assured hope knowing that God is God over all. But we will be back tomorrow, and after a brief review, Pastor Jeff will continue this message called "God versus the Devil." God is God and the devil is the devil, and the Lord has been faithful and true to us by continuing to show us that He alone is the one and only God.

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Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be here tomorrow for part two of our lesson today, "God versus the Devil." Here's just a bit of what's to come.

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God is reaching out to people and constantly drawing and drawing and drawing by his spirit. If you say, no, no, no, no, no, finally you cross a point of no return and then you can't come because the Lord says, that's it.

I'm not speaking to you anymore. You've made your choice. You hardened your heart, hardened your heart, hardened your heart. Now I'm hardening your heart. That's what he did to Pharaoh.

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We'll look for you on Wednesday when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open God's word and share real truth, real love and real hope from God's heart. Here on. From his heart.

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There is tremendous truth There is hope that you always dream love he can heal every scars of truth Real love, real hope from his heart.

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From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more when you go to fromisheart.org.