We are now in the desert of Israel, in that direction is Mount Sinai. That is the place where one of the most dramatic events of the Bible took place; when Moses met with God and received the Ten Commandments. We'll use this as our outline in our flight path over Exodus; dominion, liberation, and revelation. Now, let's take off.

That is one of the remarkable stories we find in the book of Exodus and that is the next book in our flight path in "The Bible From 30 Thousand Feet."

Well, tonight in the book of Exodus, we're going to witness the birth of a nation. You know, births are always exciting but they are also very painful; ask anyone who's delivered a baby. It's very exciting, but right before it's very difficult. Now, we only have one son, but I remember vividly when my wife, Lenya, was pregnant and then when we took her to the hospital. And, there's this period they call "transition." Ever heard of that? Every woman knows what that is. Yes, ok that is, I have another name for it, "an altered state of consciousness." [Laughter] Women are not in their right mind during transition; they're apt to say and do anything.

Now, we went through these classes where they teach you to breath - they're worthless! [Laughter] I'm just going to say that right now. We did all those classes but when it came time for transition here I was going ok breath, and Lenya went into her altered state of consciousness; transition, and she was sort of polite but she just said, "Be quiet," and then she hit me! Now, you don't see it quite that way my feelings have been very hurt by this event; I'm thinking. I'm just kidding.

We're going to see a very painful but exciting birth of the nation of Israel. Now, the word Exodus means "going out." Remember, they have come into Egypt as 70 people; as just a family. They are going to go out of Egypt as a nation because they have been there now for so long. Now, you will remember and we read it last week in Genesis chapter 15, God had told Abraham these words, "Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and they will afflict them for 400 years," but it goes on to say, "And the nation whom they serve I will judge and they [the children of Israel] will come out with great possessions."

So, we're going to see that in part tonight, where an entire race will dispose of its shackles of slavery and be led out into the wilderness by God to inherit a new land. So the theme of this book, I'm going to give it to you in one fell swoop, two words, the whole theme of the book: redemption and revelation, that's the theme of this book: redemption and revelation. You could slice this book in two with those two words: chapters 1 through 18 - redemption, chapters 19 through 40 - revelation.

But, since we're going to cover the redemption tonight and the revelation next week, let me further divide that first one into two further categories: Not just redemption, but I'm going to give it in two fell swoops. First of all, chapters 1 through 12, let's call domination in Egypt, chapters 13 through 18 - liberation from Egypt, and then finally, the rest of the book, 19 through 40 - revelation after Egypt.

Now, if you think about it, the theme of the book of Exodus is the theme of your life. If I asked you to give your testimony you would tell me how you had been redeemed and how God has revealed Himself to you after your redemption. You got saved, you made Jesus your Lord and Savior, He took away your sin and the guilt; there's been redemption. But you're here tonight and you're here on Sundays and you're here every week because you are hungry for the revelation that comes throughout your whole life after you've been redeemed, and that's the theme of this book.

Well, in chapter 1, we understand there has been a population explosion of a minority group in Egypt; the children of Israel. The Jews have grown and because of that, they're going to be oppressed, verse 1: "Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt, each man and his household came with Jacob." Right off the bat we understand that this is not the beginning of a new story but rather, it's the continuation of an old story: it's God's work through his people going on because the first word, it says "Now", in our Bible but in Hebrew it's the word 'and' - "and these are the names." In fact, the Hebrew title for the book of Exodus is not Exodus, it's the Hebrew, Ve-eleh shemoth, which simply means, and these are the names. So, we have right off the bat, the understanding that God has begun a work; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes, Joseph - and He's continuing His work.

So, here they are in Egypt and we'll understand that they will be groaning and calling out to God for deliverance. God delivers them so they go from groaning to grumbling. That's right, they get delivered in a mighty, miraculous way, and you think they're going to be forever satisfied. Guess what? Think again, they're not. They go from groaning to grumbling but the book ends in glory because God manifests His glory even in the midst of that, and brings them to the border of the Promised Land. It has been 350 years since Genesis ends, that's where we pick it up; after Joseph's death, there's a 350 year gap, long enough for any nation to forget its roots, its history.

It happens all of the time, it happens in this nation. We are re-writing history, we're writing God out of our national history. It can also happen with individuals and it can happen with churches and organizations that are Christian that were once founded on the right principles but slowly, after a period of time, they forget how they were founded. Go down to verse 7: "But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty and the land was filled with them." It's been estimated that one out of every three people, at this time, that lived in Egypt were foreigners. In fact, if you know your history, you know that there was a period of time known as the Hyksos Period where there were Hyksos Kings that is foreign kings that were ruling over Egypt as pharaoh. One out of three were foreign at this time.

"Now there arose a king, a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph and he said to his people, 'Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we, come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and it happens in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of the land. Therefore, they set task masters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses, [these were treasure cities: food was stored there, supplies, arms] but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage - in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor."

Archeologists have discovered, over in Egypt, bricks - some made with straw and some made without straw, I'll make more mention of in a moment - but we're getting the picture. They came into Egypt as 70 people, the family of Jacob. They were there for a period of 350 and then 400 years total, and at this point they are over two million people strong, from 70 to two million; there has been an incredible population explosion among this group of people. Now, after four centuries of slavery, they cry out to God for deliverance. So, God raises up a guy named Moses - the Great Deliverer. We're going to learn about him in the next several weeks because he is the guy who wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, he wrote it all. Now Pharaoh, to solve the Jewish problem in his own country, decided that he would give a command: any Hebrews had children - if it's a boy kill it, if it's a girl let it live, they make good slaves. The midwives, the Bible says, feared God and refused to do that. This upset Pharaoh and so he honed his commandment even more: when these gals have babies, if it's a boy, throw it in the river, let it die, let it drown; as an offering to Osiris, the god of the Nile. If it's a girl let it live.

So we come to chapter 2 which is really the age old story of boy meets girl, they fall in love, they get married, they have a baby, Moses. Moses' parents are named Amram and Jochebed; I would not suggest those names for your children. Moses was hidden for three months and we're told why in verse 2 noticed: "When she saw that he was a beautiful child." Now, who wrote this book? Moses [Laughter] - just keep that in mind! He wrote this and in his autobiography just wanted to make mention, "Oh, by the way, I was a pretty baby!" So, they laid Moses in the reeds and Pharaoh's daughter found this child and one of the maids of the Pharaoh's daughter, (by the way, we have her name in history, it's just hard for me to pronounce,) when the baby was found, one of the maidens said, "Would you like me to call for a Hebrew woman to raise this baby since it's a Hebrew baby?" The Princess said, "Great idea!" And they brought it just so happened, Moses' own mother.

So look at this, verse 9: "Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.' So the woman took the child and nursed him." Isn't that a cool deal? The government pays you to raise your own baby! That is awesome! The child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son so she called his name 'Moshe' - Moses - 'drawn out', the word means saying, "Because I drew him out of the water." Moses is one of the most amazing men in all of the Bible. Amazing in character, amazing in what he withstood. Oh yes, he had his flaws, but he was an amazing and excellent human being. Of course the greatest was the Lord Jesus Christ, but there are times when Moses is a type of Christ. Of course not everyone agrees; there is a book out called "The Jewish 100," by Michael Shapiro, who ranks Moses as the number one most influential Jewish person of all time. Number two on Shapiro's list is Jesus Christ. And, then goes on, Albert Einstein is number three, Paul the apostle is number six, Carl Marx is number seven, and down at number 98 is pitching great - Sandy Kuofax. So for all of you sports trivia people, he made it.

Ok, chapters 2 through 4 highlight, for us, this baby's upbringing in the land of Egypt; how Moses as a baby comes into the court of Pharaoh and exerts great influence and has great wealth in this country. In fact it's called, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 26, all of the treasures of Egypt that Moses made a deliberate choice to say 'no' to all of the treasures that he had at his disposal in Egypt to follow God out in the desert. Now just a thumbnail sketch here, Egypt was a progressive culture. The idea of the earth being round was believed by the Egyptians. The distance from the earth to the sun, which is 93 million miles, they made a pretty good estimation of it back then. Inside of Egypt there was a famous university called the Temple of the Sun, sort of like the modern day Harvard University. Of course, it's known for its architecture and building those great Pyramids; 80 pyramids, at least, had been built by the Egyptians and have been found, at least in pieces. Incredible! If you have ever gone to Egypt, I've stood at the Great Pyramid in Giza, 482 feet tall. It took they say 100,000 slaves 30 years to build that one, and there were 80 in the land of Egypt.

Now, Moses becomes, we notice, the adopted grandson of Pharaoh. She, the daughter adopts him, Moses; brings him into the court which would make Moses - now this is important - the next in line to be Pharaoh; that's what Josephus tells us. The historian Josephus says that this Pharaoh at the time had no boys, only daughters. And so this daughter officially bringing Moses into the household would mean that Moses would have been next in line as possible a Pharaoh of Egypt. Well, it doesn't last all that long even though I'm sure he reveled in his wealth; he probably had his private boat on the Nile River, private chariot you know with a personalized license plate - "Pharaoh II." It might have read, "Come see my crib," he could have said to people - he was famous; he was a "big dog."

But one day there was an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man and he had come to discover hay I am of Hebrew origin. So he looked one way, he looked the other way, (he didn't look up, unfortunately), and he killed the Egyptian, thinking he was doing his brothers a favor. The next day he went out there and saw two Hebrews fighting each other. And he said, "Brothers, why are you fighting?" And one of them said, "What are you going to kill us like you did the Egyptian yesterday?" Then Moses knew his secret was out and that Pharaoh would find out about it and because this Hebrew, even though he was next in line for the throne, killed an Egyptian, that he himself would be killed. So he flees; he runs away and he goes way out in the middle of nowhere. Now listen, Egypt, for the most part, looks like the middle of nowhere, but he goes more out in the middle of nowhere than the middle of nowhere, to a place called Midian where he spends many, many days.

Exodus chapter 2, verse 23: "It happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them." In the middle of nowhere, he spends 40 years of his life. He gets married, marries a girl by the name of Zipporah, children are born to them. But you can take Moses' live, by the way, he lives to be 120 years young and you could divide 120 years into three equal segments of 40 years: 40 years in Egypt, 40 years in Midian, and then the next 40 years leading the children of Israel through the desert.

It's been well said that Moses spent 40 years of his life trying to be something, the next 40 years of his life Moses discovered he was really nothing, but God took the final 40 years and showed that he can take nothing and make something out of it. And that's really the great joy of Moses' life, because by the time God gets a hold of him, he recognizes he is feeble and weak; not a mighty Egyptian. He didn't walk like an Egyptian and talk like an Egyptian anymore. He knew that he was a poor outcast; an 80 year old failure and God thought, "I can use you," and He did.

So, now God reveals Himself to Moses in chapter 3 through a talking bush - you know the story. The bush looks like it's burning but is not consumed, Moses, gets his attention and goes over to see it, verse 4 of chapter 3: " When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, 'Moses, Moses!' And he said, 'Here I am.' Then He said, 'Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.'" I'm sorry I laughed there but, you've got to put yourself in Moses' predicament; he's probably not at an Oasis, he's in the middle of nowhere and God says, "You're on holy ground," and Moses thought, "This place is holy ground?"

Now what made it holy? God said it was holy - that's it. It was a place where God connected with a person and because God connected with a person, and set it apart for that purpose, it was holy. Any place where you meet with God, anytime you intersect with God, that is a holy moment and a holy place. God set that aside and talked to him. "Moreover He said, 'I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. The Lord said: 'I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.'" Of course there were the uptights, and the outasites, and the termites [Laughter] they were all there together! Now all these "ites" are simply designations of people groups who lived in the Land of Canaan that they were about to go in to.

There is a rabbinic tradition that says that bush that was out in the desert was an acacia bush; an acacia bush is a thorn bush of the desert. So if the rabbis are correct - that Moses walked by and saw a thorn bush burning - it would certainly been emblematic of the curse that had come upon the Earth. Remember Genesis chapter 3? After God curses the Earth, he says, "Cursed is the ground; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." Now I'm going to tie that together with a very special crown that was made for our Savior and placed upon His head before His crucifixion; a crown of thorns, emblematic of the mission he had come to accomplish to remove the curse of sin and eventually, even remove the curse that had fell upon the Earth because of Adam's sin.

Exodus chapter 3, verse 13: "Then Moses said to God, 'Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?' And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And He said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' Moreover God said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'" God's name forever; not Buddha, not Allah, not the ground of all being, but this name - "I AM that I AM."

Now I gotta confess to you, we don't exactly know how to say that name. It's been kept from us. All we have left from the ancient text is a four letter word called a tetragrammaton - four consonants in Hebrew - that could be pronounced a number of ways. Typically, I say Yahweh. The old pronunciation was Jehovah, it could be Ya'Hova, Ya'Howa, there's a number of different ways to look at it. But it's the translation of "I AM that I AM," as if to describe the self sufficiency and self containment and all powerful nature of God: "I AM that I AM, eternal in power, immutable in character."

Some suggest that it could be translated, "the Becoming One," and some even translate it, "I will Be that I will Be," because it just doesn't mean present tense, but it's all inclusive. So that the idea is that whatever you need in your life, God will become that for you; that's how sufficient He is. So, if you need provision, He becomes Jehovah, or Yahweh-Jireh - the Lord will provide. You need righteousness, he will become to you Jehovah-Tsidkenu - the Lord our Righteousness. You need a strong covering, He will become to you Jehovah, or Yahweh-Shammah - the Lord our Banner. God will become to you whatever it is that you need.

Now, you know Jesus Christ will come along and lay claim to this name, won't He, in John chapter 8. You know the story - He's confronting the leadership and He says, you know, Jesus says, "Abraham rejoiced to see My day. And he saw it and he was glad." And they said, "Wait a minute, you're not even 50 years old yet, and you have seen Abraham? How is that possible?" Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." You know what they did? They picked up stones to kill Him because they knew what He was claiming and they said, "This is blasphemy! How can a mere man claim to be God?"

Ok, God calls Moses. Moses has been out in the desert a long time; he doesn't feel ready, and Moses comes up with several excuses. Excuse number one, he says, "What if they don't believe me?" So God says, ok, "What's that in your hand? A walking stick? Throw it down and it turns into a snake. Pretty good isn't it Moses? Now grab it by the tail." I don't know if I would want to do that, but when he did, it turned back into a walking stick. Then God said, "Take your hand and put it into your coat." And he brought it out it was white like leprosy was all over it; he put it back in and it was healed again. So God said basically hay, "Do those two tricks and that will get their attention!"

That wasn't enough for Moses. Moses should have gone, "Wow! Cool! I've never seen! They've never seen anything. Done deal!" He comes up with another excuse. He ok, "Well God, I've never spoken to anybody; I never took speech in high school; I'm not a good public speaker." God says, "Don't worry about it - Who made man's mouth? Who made people to see? Who made the deaf? Who made the blind? Have not I, says the Lord?" I'll be with you, then we uncover the real truth. The final excuse is really not an excuse, he just says, "Send somebody else!" That's the real Moses, "I don't want to do it. Look, I'm 80 years old, I haven't had speech classes in high school, I'm gonna be walking around with sticks that turn into snake; look, just send somebody else." So Moses says that and Aaron, his brother, becomes the spokesman. I just want to say something to you; I don't believe that the Lord is necessarily looking for the smartest or the most talented person to use. He's not always looking for the most able, but the most AVAIL-able; those who will say, "I'll do it! Send me!" "Well, what are your qualifications?" "I love God and I want to be used." "Done!" Moses felt he couldn't do it - that's a good thing, but the truth is, when God is with you, you can do all things.

Now we look at chapters 5 through 11, briefly. This is the Great Confrontation, I call it. The Great Confrontation, this is where Moses, now as the leader; the spokesperson with Aaron; will confront the king of Egypt himself. And it will be "mano-i-mano," Moses confronts Pharaoh. And, what we see in this Great Confrontation is a series of 10 plagues that fall upon Egypt. Have you ever wondered why God sent plagues? What is all this about? I mean this is a huge display that probably lasted, historically, anywhere from three to six months in Egypt. What is the idea behind the plagues? Well, it will tell you, verse 1, "Afterward, chapter 5, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.' And Pharaoh said, 'Who is the Lord that I should obey Him that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.'"

Oh really? You want to know Who God is, do you? Well, you're about to find out in a very dramatic way. God revealed Himself to Moses; now God is going to reveal Himself to Pharaoh, and to the entire people of Egypt, through these plagues. Now, these plagues are tailor made judgments designed to attack their belief system. They had a pantheon; they had a whole host of gods and goddesses that they worshiped. If you remember, Sunday we talked about Polytheism, Henotheism, and all that stuff. All of these plagues were designed to attack their false belief system and their false gods; I know that from chapter 12 verse 12, it says: "...against all the gods of Egypt I will execute My judgment: I am the Lord." We are dealing with a very powerful Egyptian Dynasty, it's called or known as the 18th Dynasty of the Pharaohs; very advanced in economics, very advanced in military prowess. So it would make sense that somebody would say, "Who is the Lord?" So he's a powerful guy with a powerful Dynasty, up against the almighty God; that's really the show-down.

Ok, Moses says, "Let my people go," or he probably nudges Aaron since he's the spokesman, "Hey, tell 'em, tell 'em!" Ok, Moses says, that God says, "Let my people go". That's probably how it went; kind of awkward, I know, but it worked. Pharaoh reacts; he makes them produce more of the bricks that these slaves were making and he takes away the very thing that they needed to make them with the straw. Now, archeologists have made some interesting discoveries: first of all, it's hard to make archeological discoveries with mud; right we understand that, we're talking adobe here - adobe lasts a couple of hundred years, but it's hard today, after 1,000's of years, to find a mud brick intact.

But they have found certain instances where they've looked at buildings and by the way; these adobe bricks were made for homes, made for towers, made for tombs, they have found on the bottom, beautifully formed with cut equidistant pieces of straw placed within them. As they went up a little higher, they found weeds - stubble - as if they didn't have the right stuff to put in the bricks. And then as the building structure goes up, nothing at all except mud, as if they couldn't even find any more weeds to stick in there. Now, these bricks were formed and the name of the dynasty, or the king, was stamped on them, and some of these have been found preserved quite well. Then they were placed in forms - the reason for straw with the mud was so that the brick wouldn't stick to the forms and would last longer over time, but now they have to make more of them without this material. So, we have these ten plagues that we're going to quickly go through in the next few chapters.

Plague number one: the water of the Nile River turns to blood, this is in chapter 7. The Nile River turns to blood, a huge deal because the Nile River was considered the source of all life; the principle resource of Egypt. Worshiped under the name, "Osiris - the great father of life," he was called. There was even a hymn to the Nile River - here's part of that hymn, "Hail to thee, O Nile that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive." So this was an attack against part of their worship system of a false god, worshiping the river god, Osiris.

Also, in chapter 8, the second plague is frogs covered the land. And, they worshiped a goddess by the name of Heka, the frog goddess Heka was worshipped. Her temple was in Memphis, (not Tennessee, but Egypt), where she was worshiped. And, it was a major offense to kill a frog in Egypt, did you know that, so when the plague came and there were frogs everywhere, you couldn't kill them! It's a major offense. I mean, it was a riveting crime. Ok some of you are listening that's good, that's good. [Laughter] See this is my straw in the mud brick, to see if it would stick.

Also in chapter 8, the third plague is where the dust becomes like lice - it's translated lice, these could be sand flies and there was the "god of the earth" that was worshiped called Geb. Verse 17 says, "The dust became lice throughout all of Egypt." Same chapter, fourth plague - a swarm of flies. Now we don't know for sure. This could have been a reference to the scarab beetle. If you've ever studied Egyptology or been to any tombs or been to any museums where they host Egyptian mummies in tombs, the scarab beetle was always the symbol of eternal life. It was worshiped and scarab beetles were placed in the sarcophagi, the sarcophagus of mummies or upon the linen of mummies to symbolize eternal life, again God is judging their false belief system.

Now, down in chapter 8 verse 25, let's see how this get Pharaoh's attention. "Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.' And Moses said, 'It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God and He will command us.'" See you get the picture, he says, "Okay, go. But don't go out of the land, stay in the land; do your sacrifice in the land." Moses said, "What good is that going to do? We're going to worship oxen. I mean, we're going to sacrifice cows and oxen - the very things that would be an abomination to the Egyptians because they worship these animals - they're gonna kill us if we do that, they're gonna see it. We want to go out of the land."

"Pharaoh said, verse 28, "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." Now you'll notice, as we quickly fly over this, that these are negotiations that are taking place: "Thus says the Lord - we're going." "Well, stay in the land." "No, we want to go out of the land." "Okay, but don't go very far." And, and these negotiations go back and forth. Moses is really not a good negotiator, neither is Aaron. "Nope, not going to do it", thus says the Lord. Be careful, well I'll rephrase that, don't negotiate with your enemy, don't negotiate with him, don't negotiate with temptation. Don't say, "Oh, I can handle it," you can't. Oh, I can get up the devil, come on devil, don't even, that's stupid, don't even bother. "Flee from the devil", the Bible says.

You hear about the hunter with his gun? In the forest he sees a bear and he gets the bear in his sight and he's about to pull the trigger well this bear was very crafty and he could speak English. He said to the hunter, "Just a minute kind sir. Put your gun down, let's talk this over, let's negotiate, I think we can come to a common agreement. What is it you'd like? The hunter said, "I want a fur coat that is what I'd like." The bear said, "Well, we have talking room then, because all I want is a good meal." So they went out in the woods and had a negotiation. The bear came back alone licking its chops. The negotiations were successful: the man got his fur coat, the bear got his meal. [laughter] So, don't mess with the enemy; he'll eat you alive.

Chapter 9 the plagues continue. The fifth plague is disease, called pestilence in the New King James. At Passover every year it's called Murrain. Livestock are afflicted with the disease but only the Egyptians' livestock, none of the Jews'. Why the livestock? There were two gods that were worshiped: Apis the bull god - the god of Egyptian strength, and Mnevis, the cow, was worshiped, what Moses referred to a few verses back.

And, the sixth plague boils, same chapter, chapter 9. Interesting, because Moses would take a handful of dust, soot, and throw it in the air and when that settled, boils broke out on humans and animals alike. I say it's interesting because the Egyptian priests used to take a handful of soot and throw it in the air and speak a blessing to the people. God was turning the false pagan blessing into a curse so that they could see it for what it really is. And, then seventh plague, same chapter, chapter 9, hail and fire together fall from the sky to demonstrate God's power over the sky. Now the goddess of the sky was called, Nut; N-U-T, Nut and she really was a nut-case, cuz she had no power at all, because she didn't exist. So again, a judgment upon them.

Well, chapter 9, verse 27, again Pharaoh calls "uncle." He's had enough, sort of. "And Pharaoh, chapter 9 verse 27, sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned, [watch this], I have sinned this time." Hello Pharaoh, What? I've sinned this time. This is called "Selective Memory Disorder." [Laughter] We can all fall prey to it, can't we? We remember certain things but not the whole. He has been sinning all the way along. He's the one who said, "Who is the Lord?" Ok, you are going to find out plague, plague, plague, plague; ok go, don't go too far. Then he said, "I've sinned this time."

"'The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.'" Oh, this sounds pretty good! In fact, if I were just reading this alone, I could say, "This guy has been touched by God. This is repentance." No it's not; it's an emotional eruption due to a physical affliction. Remove the affliction, the emotional eruption goes away, and his heart will become hard once again. Don't mistake an emotional outburst for genuine repentance. Verse 34: "When Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses."

Now chapter 10 there are two more plagues that are mentioned. One is a plague of locusts that come in, swarm, and destroy whatever the fire and the hail have left behind. Now, we don't know for sure, but we figure that this is a specific reference to what is called the short horned grasshopper. It breeds in desert areas, it, it reproduces very rapidly, it spreads, they spread quite extensively and when they swarm, they come in clouds about 100 feet thick, 100 feet deep column, four miles wide. It is said when they come, that it looks like an eclipse of the sun, when they come in during the day. It just blacken everything. And, they absolutely decimate every green living thing. It is said that when you have a plague of locusts, and there are a couple on record, I'll make mention of in a moment, when they cover the ground and they do their duty and they are all done, it looks as if the ground has been scorched by a fire, or blackened, by a fire. So it's quite a plague. Back in 1866 there was a plague of locusts that invaded Algiers and from the famine that resulted in the days following, get this, two hundred thousand people died as a result of the plague of locusts. This is a serious plague. It's not like; it's a little bug bit, get the spray; not going to help. 1951 is the worse in recent history on record, in the Middle East; after that locust plague hit a specific area, every green thing was devoured in hundreds of thousands of square miles.

The ninth plague, we are almost at the end of the plagues. The ninth plague was a darkness over the land, interesting darkness over the land, it covered the entire land except in the Jewish homes, there was light in their homes. Now, Josephus in his writing of Jewish history points out what we read here in that verse 21 of chapter 10, that it was a darkness that could be felt; it was palpable. I don't exactly know what that means, but it was so oppressive of darkness that it was if you could feel it in your body. What is going on here? God is judging progressively and now touching one of the chief gods of Egypt, the sun god. There is so much sun in Egypt and Ra was worshiped as the sun god; now it's blackened. In the Babylonian Talmud, there are rabbinical writings that state, "God reserves darkness as a judgment for the worst of sins." If there is an unusually wicked sin in a country, God will judge it with a plague of darkness. It's an interesting reading, especially in light of the fact that when you get to the New Testament and we find out that when Jesus died on the cross, for a few hours, the entire land was darkened; it was a judgment that has been written about even in secular history. Why? Because the worst of all crimes was committed, as Steven says in Acts chapter 7: "And you killed the Prince of Life, and judgment fell."

Chapter 10, verse 27, I want to draw your attention to this very unique phrase, "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let him go." And some people don't like that. "Well no wonder he did that, God hardened his heart, he had no choice." Oh, no, no listen, for the first five plagues, five plagues the Bible specifically says, "And Pharaoh hardened his heart." It's not until the sixth plague that we start reading about God hardening his heart - 'Hatsan' is the Hebrew word. It simply means to confirm, or to make stiff, to, to confirm would be a good word. As if to say, "Look, you hardened your heart, you made that choice, I'm gonna firm you up in that choice; if that's where you want to be, that's where you want to live, I'm gonna make your choice rock solid and He strengthen his heart."

Now let's look at the tenth plague, during the Passover - the death of the first born. I take you now to chapter 12, verse 1. This is the final crushing blow; this is the night of all nights. This is where a lamb was slain and its blood splattered on the lintels and doorposts. Verse 1: "Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, 'This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, 'On the tenth of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And a household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need, he shall make your count for the Lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats." Now I've just got to show you something: Look at verse 3, notice the words, "a lamb." Go to verse 4, "the lamb, "verse 5," your lamb." First it's a generic lamb, then it's a specific lamb, then it is your personal lamb. That's how it is when a person encounters the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus, for so many, is a way, a guy who came in sacrifice, a lamb. Then they discover in reading what he says about Himself, that He is The Way, The Truth, The Life, He's the Lamb. But when they receive Christ into their hearts, He becomes their own personal Lord and Savior, their Lamb.

Verse 12 of chapter 12:"'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; [that's where we get the term 'Passover'], I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

Understand something important, if your kill the lamb, you will die, unless you take the lamb and you put it on the lintels and doorposts, on the top, on the sides, in the form of a cross, it's been pointed out, a bloody cross. And they were saved not because they were Jews, but because of the blood of an innocent lamb. If you were Jewish and you put blood on the doorposts, and stayed outside of the house and didn't apply it by being inside like God said, you'd die. If you're an Egyptian but you happen to be inside an Israeli home where they said, "Come into my house, there's gonna be a huge plague tonight." You would be saved by that obedience, by the blood of an innocent victim, a vicarious or substitutionary atonement.

Verse 24: "Now you should observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever." Now the rest of chapter 12 and 13, they pack their bags. They prepare to leave and they leave. Verse 33: it says "The Egyptians urged the people to go." "PLEASE - go, go, go!" They didn't want any part of them anymore. In fact, they started giving them their own stuff; jewelry. Verse 36: "Thus they plundered the Egyptians." It all sounds good right? No, the wildcard is still out there - Pharaoh. That's right, he changes his mind yet again, chapter 14, verse 4, notice God is arranging this whole thing: "Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord."

Now, we don't have to read on, but I'll tell you that as they go, a monumental sign happens from here and stays with them through the entire wilderness wandering until they get into Canaan. It's called the 'Shechinah' or we say the 'Shekinah', cuz we're Americans, the 'Shekinah Glory' [Laughter]. Brother, you got the 'Shekinah Glory', hallelujah. But it's the 'Shechinah', the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire; pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night; emblematic, representative, of the presence of God amongst His people. Here, it's their rear guard, so that as the Red Sea opens and they go through the Red Sea, it guards the Egyptians so they can't go any further, until the children of Israel are through, the cloud, then the fire lifts and they get into the Red Sea and, "Bye, bye," they're dead.

Ok, let's go look at it, chapter 14, verse 29 - the crossing of the Red Sea: "But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left, so the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore." Some people naturalize this miracle. They say, "Probably what happened was a great earthquake shook the land just at that moment." Okay, God can use an earthquake, He made the earth. Others say, "That's not it, what it really was, was the Reed Sea, not the Red Sea. It's called the Yam Suph in Hebrew and it means the Sea of Reeds, it's a shallow body of water and they could wade through." It says dry land, however, and water standing up in a heap, like a wall. A wall this tall? That's kind of weird. Anyway, they say they waded through, anybody could get through it. You still have a miracle: how do you drown the entire Egyptian army in 18 inches of water? That's a bigger miracle! [Laughter]

Chapters 16 and 17, they travel to Mount Sinai and as they go now, as they hit the desert and start wandering through that vast Sinai peninsula, there's a recurrent theme, please don't miss it because it really applies to every human being: they grumbled and they complained. You remember going on family vacations? Well you still take them but I tell you; I remember my family vacations: Mom and Dad, four boys, white Rambler Station Wagon, no air conditioning, from California to Minnesota. We were like a microcosm of the children of Israel in the back of; we were at each other's throats, we hated each other! Well, there's a lot of sibling rivalry that goes on among the children of Israel as they go out.

Ok, here's the short story - as they go out they have no provision. They need water, they need food. God brings water of the ground, out of a rock; God brings a thing called 'manna' out of heaven. Look at chapter 16 verse 14: "And the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. [It's a good question when you don't know. What it is?] And Moses said to them, 'This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat." "This is your breakfast boys!" "What is it?" "This is your lunch, people." "What is it?" "This is dinner." And then tomorrow breakfast, lunch, and din, breakfast. This is for 40 years of this stuff.

Now 'manna', they said "What is it?" If this was a modern Hebrew, "What is it?" would be 'maze' not 'manna', 'maze' is "What is it?" Some think that an ancient form of the question in Hebrew would have been 'manna' or that this was an Egyptian word, since the Arabs today still have a word called 'man', M-A-N, 'man' or man, that refers to a white sticky substance out in the desert on certain plants. So it could be that they called it "What is it?" Hay, what is it? I don't know but that's a good name. Good enough, we are going to eat "What is it?" for 40 years.

Look at verse 31: "The house of Israel called its name manna." Get this description - I want you to really think about this because it is going to be very important in just a few minutes. "And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." So think of thin flat layers with honey, come on sounds good doesn't it? Now Numbers 11, when we get there, tells us they could prepare it in many ways; they could bake it, they could cook it, they could make it into little cakes so they could fry it up. Manna soufflé, manna-burgers, manna-roni and cheese perhaps, [Laughter] manna soufflé, manna-cotti, of course. In fact, Mrs. Moses may have had, "1001 Ways to Prepare Manna," they had it everyday. Chapter 17, water comes from the rock; we will study more about that later.

Finally, chapter 18 -- Look, we are here already. Ok, the final chapter in our study tonight. Now, chapter 18 I brought you here. It's a classic story about a man and his father-in-law. I am so glad that I have a Godly father-in-law, who is actually sitting right up in the front tonight, [Applause] but I've discovered that father-in-laws sometimes want to give advice, and you know what, sometimes it's the best advice in the world. He's given me great advice over the years. Jethro was Moses' father-in-law and Moses needed some advice because Moses wanted to show off what he was all about. Every son would like to show the father-in-law how he's taking care of the daughter.

So, verse 13, chapter 18: "So it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, 'What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?' Moses said to his father-in-law, 'Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.' So Moses' father-in-law said to him, 'The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.'"

What Jethro saw, don't think Jethro Bodine right now, see you probably wouldn't of an else I said that, that is where my minds goes. I think of Beverly Hillbillies---forget it---anyway. Where was I? See, what happens, aren't you glad you are not me. What Jethro saw, bothered him because he essentially saw his son-in-law as being a "problem-shuffler" it says from morning until evening. This is what it was like, Moses had to hear this, "He stole my sheep!" Ok, this is what you got to do 'da,da,da,da...', "She snores all night and the people in the next tent can hear her!" Ok, this is what you got to go to the next. He had to do that all day long. Moses' father-in-law said, you know "You're going to get tired of that and frankly, they're going to get tired of you, because they're not all going to get their turn to see you. You need to multiply yourself; you need to get several leaders and spread out the load because one person, as a leader - no matter how gifted or no matter how talented - was ever designed by God even to bear the burden alone." So a beautiful lesson is given here for delegation.

Verse 19: "Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.[You pray, you prepare, you talk to God]. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, rulers of tens. And let them judge, [verse 22], the people at all times. And it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to his father-in-law, [you might want to write a line under that], Moses the man listened to his father-in-law, and did all that he had said."

Ok, let me close with a couple of thoughts. We are done now but I want you to piece things together, now in the Bible. I want you to start looking at the big picture since we're doing the 30K thing. Here's my premise, with Genesis and Exodus in mind: If God's plan for redemption required the existence of a nation and the continuation of that nation, if you can destroy that nation, you'll defeat God. Makes sense. The first time Satan heard that the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15, would one day arise and crush his head, he had a counter plan. And as the Righteous Seed gets revealed, ok, (Cain kills Abel but you've still got Seth, now he's the Righteous Seed), and then since the Righteous Seed can't be extinguished, lets ruin the whole earth, so that God had to judge the whole world and kill them all; can't fulfill His promise. But God saves eight people - Noah and his family, and the genealogy continues all the way through. But, we start seeing this nation develop: the Jewish nation. And once we see the plan of God revealed through the tribe of Judah, et cetera, et cetera, through the Bible, we see Satan's counter attack against the plan of God and we start understanding something about Anti-Semitism - it's not just another prejudice; it's demonically inspired prejudice because God had a plan to choose a people, not because they were great, just cuz He loved them, and preserve them to bring His Scriptures through; to bring His Messiah and the plan of salvation.

We're starting to see, throughout this book now, the scarlet thread of redemption. Remember that term we're going to bring it up again. We're piecing the threads of the Bible together already. Next week we'll have finished Exodus and we see the scarlet thread being woven; this promise of God. We see that Joseph is such a type of Christ, we see this deliverance in the Passover, and we understand that it's not emblematic of past deliverance, but it's prophetic. John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." Paul will say, "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." So we see that one speaks of something local but one speaks of something further out. And it all points, once again, to one person will be clearly revealed book, by book, through the Old Testament.