Series: Champions Of Grace Moses Lesson 10

                                                             Plagues!

Exodus 7:14 And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refused to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning; see, he goes out to the water; and you shall stand by the river brink when he comes, and the rod which turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. And you shall say to him, "The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, 'Let my people go.' And behold, you would not hear. The Lord says, 'I will smite the waters with my rod and it shall turn to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall hate to drink from the waters of the river.'

 God delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt through plagues. He sent plague after plague until the Egyptian empire was in shambles. Through simple obedience, Moses would lift or lower his rod at God's command, and through his obedience God sent one plague after another, demolishing the most powerful empire on earth at that time.

And here is the question I want to answer today: Why all the plagues? What was the purpose of the plagues? Though there are a few answers we can give, there is only one I want to talk about. 

Exodus 18: 10, 11 And Jethro said, "Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people out of the hands of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods..." 

After such a miraculous deliverance, Jethro, in his utter amazement, says, "Now I know the Lord is greater than all gods." So in all these plagues what was the Lord doing? Destroying the credibility of the Egyptian gods. You see, when we look at the chief gods that Egypt worshipped, we see each plague was a blow showing just how powerless that false god was. For example, the Egyptians worshipped the false god, Hapi. They believed Hapi was the Nile river god, the god who blessed the Nile with fish. However, when Moses turned the Nile river into blood, it demonstrated that God was superior. 

Now we know these Egyptians gods and idols were not real; they were false. However, we have to remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 10:20 that which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons...so behind every idol is demon worship. In worshipping false idols, the people were really worshipping Satan and his kingdom. 

So here is the question: when God poured out the plagues upon Egypt, who was He really showing His power over? The Satanic kingdom. In the 10 plagues God was making this proclamation loud and clear: Satan and his kingdom is powerless to hold my people in captivity when I am ready to bring them out. 

 

Praise God! This reminds me of Romans 5:20 Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. 

It seems like every generation is more evil than the previous generation. The sin and depravity of every generation is more wicked and powerful than the preceding generation. But thank God, it doesn't matter how strong sin may be, the grace of God will always be stronger. It doesn't matter how strong bondage becomes, the grace of God will always be more powerful. Satan and his kingdom is powerless to hold people in captivity when God is ready to bring them out.