Exiting Egypt Chapter 9 P1

Exiting Egypt

“The Fifth Plague – Death of Livestock”

Exodus 9:1-7

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 9 P1

To say that the ancient Egyptians were idolatrous would be an understatement. They worshiped just about everything and anything, from four-footed animals, bugs that creep on the earth, inanimate objects, as well as then sun, the moon, and the stars of heaven. They believed that the spirit of some god lived in every thing and in every area of life.

And because of this, they rejected the idea of the only One and True living God, the God of the Bible, and God of the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Hebrews. And this is what the Lord needed to make known to them in this fifth plague.

Read Exodus 9:1-7

First we see the warning that Moses gave to Pharaoh of impending judgment to come if He didn’t set Israel free to worship and serve the Lord. And yet after all of this, after hardening his heart against God once again and not following through on his previous promises to Israel go, God is still extending his hand of mercy towards him.

What a merciful God we serve. We see that in how merciful God is towards us, in that while we were yet steeped in our sin, enemies with God, that Jesus came and died for us. That God in His mercy loved us and gave His only begotten Son.

And I love how many times He gave and gives us to repent. You know, we often don’t understand how Pharaoh could allow this to continue, why didn’t he just acknowledge God and his stubbornness and let the Israelites go free. But to understand Pharaoh all we have to do is to look at ourselves, and our own rebellion against God and His word.

And so through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, God let’s us know, warns us of our need to repent, to turn away from the way we are going and to turn back towards serving and worshipping Him.

And so we need to heed the warnings of God and of His impending judgment, because judgment is coming. The Bible says that we must all give an account for what we have done.

Each of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12 NKJV)

And if we refuse to repent, if we continually harden our hearts towards God, then like Pharaoh and Egypt, judgment is what we can expect as well.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God (Heb. 10:25-26 NKJV)

Therefore, it makes no sense to ignore, deny, or neglect God’s warning signs. It makes no sense for us to bring God’s judgment down upon us and to experience suffering God’s wrath against sin. Let’s then take the leading of the Holy Spirit and no longer harden ourselves to God

So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion… I was angry with that generation… I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest’ (Heb. 3:7-11 NIT)