2011-03-27 (am) Exodus 8.

16-19 Plague of Livestock and Boils

When God spoke to Moses out of the Burning Bush, it was to tell Moses, to tell all the Israelites that he had heard their cries and was answering their prayers. God

remembered, that is, God saw their pain, their suffering, their hardship, and he began the process of rescuing them. Can we really understand how hard it was for Israel? All they were able to do was trust. Until Moses showed up, all they had were Gods promises. God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would bring them out of this foreign land and bring them to a Promised Land. They had Gods promises, but years, decades and a few hundred years had gone by. And yet, they trusted. Here we are, some 2000 years after Christ, and we still are trusting in his return. Even though Jesus said his return would be very soon, were patiently waiting for something that already has been a long time coming. We see sorrow and hardship, joy and good times, and we wait. We see the state of the world around us, the groaning of creation, the suffering of natural disasters, and we all together wait for Christs return. And like Israel we cry out, we ask God to intervene, to act, to do something to alleviate the suffering. We long for it to be over, the reunion with family that has gone before us. We long for an end to suffering. In the meantime, we trust. We comfort those who suffer and morn. We go on service projects, to alleviate the difficulty of rebuilding after everything is destroyed. We
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participate in things like the Yellowhead Growing Project, to feed the hungry. We support the work of the West Yellowhead Pregnancy Care Centre. We, as Gods

ambassadors, do Gods work, the work God has prepared for us to do in advance. Think about that! Were a part of something huge! Were doing something; God has called us to do great work. Hes called us to preach, teach, and meet the needs of those around us. We do that through projects like Habitat for Humanity, we do it through the Edson Food Bank and we do it through our worship services, our programs, Cadets, Gems, Youth and Catechism. We work hard for something we may not see in our lifetimes. We trust in God that the ripples of our effectiveness, Gods effectiveness through us, will impact and influence people for a long time afterward. After Joseph died, there were people who were faithful to God who preached, and taught and reminded people of Gods love and his commitment to them. Even when it looked like God had forgotten all about them, these people reminded Israel of what would happen. Even as the slave drivers became more and more vicious, they promised that God would win. And as Moses was meeting with Pharaoh, even as their hopes were raised and dashed repeatedly, they kept on encouraging everyone. Keep your chin up! Keep

working. Youre not working for Pharaoh; youre working for the Lord! You are not slaves; you are freedmen! God is rescuing you! He is striking your enemy with his mighty arm! Take courage, have faith, trust in God.

And thats what they did. Last week, we noticed that God graciously protected his people from the plague of flies. Only the Egyptians suffered. This would have been so encouraging to the people! They would have looked and marvelled at Gods power! Can you picture it? Walking up to the borders of the land of Goshen and seeing swarms of flies covering the Egyptian territory. What if it was so thick it was like a wall of black buzzing? What if you could stand right on the edge and extend your hand into it? You would push against the flies, theyd buzz all around, but they wouldnt be able to land upon you. Wow. Youd know then that God was up to something, right? You would realise that your waiting was ending. It had ended. God was at work. God was with Moses. The whole plan wasnt totally clear yet. But it was happening. It all depended upon Pharaoh. Pharaoh remained as stubborn as ever. Even though hed promised last time, even though hed asked Moses to pray for him, he still refused to believe in God. He held onto his own beliefs. He was resolute. God warned him. If you refuse... Pharaoh refused. We see this even today. Many people resolutely refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. They are committed to their own disbelief. They refuse to listen to teaching about heaven, hell, consequences, forgiveness, sin, love, repentance, everlasting life. Instead, they delude themselves into believing that there is nothing beyond this life, that this is all you get. Maybe Im biased, but thats a depressing answer. This is it? Sure, lifes good, but what about the injustice in the world? Who answers for that? What about death? What about suffering?
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Into the vacuum of these questions, God speaks; God acts. God answers the suffering of Israel, the injustice, death, all of it. First, he rescues his people from slavery, from the land of bondage. Then, he moves them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But along the way, we see it isnt perfect, Gods people arent perfect. They rebel. They doubt; they dont keep their promises. But this too is part of Gods plan. This paves the way for the true exodus, the arrival of Christ, who also went down into Egypt and came out. Who also suffered; who faced death and conquered it. And the people who came face to face with him doubted as well. They refused to accept his true teaching. Many, like Pharaoh, stubbornly stayed with their own beliefs. Because of Pharaohs continued stubbornness, the stakes got greater. Already impeded in worship, God struck another blow. First, he killed all the Egyptian livestock. Their feedlots became deadlots. The animals in the pasture died. Their horses, cattle, donkeys, camels, sheep and goats, everything died. Apart from the devastating economic loss, God totally removed their ability to worship their false gods. They no longer had a single animal with which to sacrifice. They were unable to please their gods. They were helpless and hopeless. Their sacred cattle were dead. How could this be? How could their gods die? They worshipped cows! We see Egypts influence in Israels false worship, the golden calf at Mt. Sinai, the idols of calves worshipped even later. But by now, the Egyptian people were aware of something else. There was a great power at work. A power was working mightily against them; but working for the
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Israelites. It was going after the heart of their worship. Listen, no sound from their sacred animal pens and paddocks. But from Goshen, there were the regular sounds of animals, people working, and people living free from Gods judgement. Finally, some of the people were beginning to understand. God was with Israel. The Israelites were worshippers of a God who was far greater than their gods were. Their gods couldnt even protect their sacrificial animals. Their gods were powerless. They couldnt do anything against the one true God. It was almost as if their gods didnt even exist at all! Dont we see this even today? Isnt God demonstrating his power? Sure, there are articles and studies that claim religion and Christianity is waning, fading, and dying out. But is it? Arent we seeing the evidence of God, even in the Middle East? Even where Christians are being put to death for their faith, there is light. Even where the false religions are trying to keep their control, theyre being revealed as hollow and useless, powerless man-made contrivances. Wheres Allah? Wheres Buddha? Wheres the gods of the Hindu religion? God is proving that they are not there. There is only one God and he is making himself known, so that everyone can know. The leaders are scrambling. They are running back and forth, trying to shore up their impossible systems. Just like Pharaoh.

The second plague under our consideration this morning, was, if anything, even worse. It struck Pharaohs core. The plague of boils rendered not only all Egyptians, but especially the magicians completely incompetent. They could hardly stand before

Pharaoh. Why were they especially tormented? Because they were agents against God. They sought to lead Pharaoh away. They were intentionally obfuscating. They were hiding the truth of God under a lie, acting like the servants of Satan always do. So, God punished them especially. There are consequences for our actions.

Sometimes in this life, sometimes not. Truthfully, God is far more gracious than most people believe. As the Psalmist testifies, God doesnt treat us as our sins deserve. What that means is humanity, in general, is in a state of grace. We deserve death, everyone, but God graciously gives life. Even when people resolutely turn away from God, he deals with them graciously. He is truly slow to anger and abounding in love. We see that here. Where? Where God punishes these magicians and Pharaoh? Well, yes. God hasnt yet killed any of them, has he? But there is an increase in the cost of sin. We see that, right? But still there is grace. God could deal with them much more harshly. Even so, he is allowing them to turn more and more to their sinfulness. The instruments of discipline, the plagues, God sent them to lead them to repentance. They were to correct. So that everyone in Egypt would know that there is no God but the Lord God. But the opposite happened.

Perhaps youve experienced a similar thing with a pet. No matter what kind of discipline you gave it, it seemed only to respond worse. No matter how hard you tried to make it understand, it simply turned mean. Finally, there was no choice but to give the pet away, or put it down. Im told that there are some people like that as well. Hardened criminals,

sociopaths, people who are unable to feel remorse, repentance. They are unable to see that their actions, their attitudes are wrong. Theyre deemed not rehabitable. Sometimes there are people who become conditioned that way. But for others, they are simply depraved. That was the spiritual condition of Pharaoh and his magicians. They were

depraved, so depraved that when grace was offered to them, they rejected it. They refused to listen to reason. They refused to believe Moses, even when God had already proved himself repeatedly. And so, here we are. Were as Israel was. Were set free from bondage, but were not entirely free. We still battle inclinations, we find ourselves, at times, like Israel in the wilderness, longing for the good food in Egypt. We know who God is, and weve seen and experienced his mighty hand at work in the world. We see it in our text, we see it throughout the Bible, we see it in the lives of Christians throughout history, and we see it in our own lives and in the lives of our friends and family. We can take great encouragement, God is faithful, and we can trust his promises. Christ will return and make everything new.
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And, so we trust God, when he calls us to speak to those around us. Like Moses, were Gods ambassadors, that through us he might reconcile others to himself. And though we might encounter resistance, as long as God provides, breath, as long as were waiting for Christs return, let us share the grace of God. Like the farmer in the parable of the sower, we share the good news, the great news of Jesus Christ, and we trust God to do the rest. Come; let us trust the Lord to grow his church, to lead his people, to answer their prayers to rescue them from slavery. Look at the mighty acts God did in Egypt. Look at the mighty acts he is doing here. Trust in Him! Amen.