19th April 2024

19th April 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 10:21- 29)


Message (Alan Burke)


Maybe my memory is wrong but back in the 80’s and 90’s it felt like there were a lot more power cuts than there are today. I use to like a power cut as a wain. It was like camping in the house with a big fire on and having to get camping stove out to cook something and candles that you had a hard time finding to give you some light. These days things are very different, our houses have hundreds of candles about that are decorative and you dare not light them. Anyway I digress about candles, we are so use to electric light and even the candles that are just for show that we don’t really know what darkness is like. In this the ninth plague the Lord was turning the lights off and the darkness would become very dark. 


Egypt was complete, in a land where the sun shines to loose it likely as with the rest of the plagues early in the morning, not knowing what was going to happen, when the sun would rise again would have been terrifying. It was we are told a darkness that could be felt. God was in each of these plagues showing that there was no God but him in all the earth. Pharaoh was believed to be the son of Amon-Re the sun god and that the sun could go out, that darkness came showed that all the gods of Egypt were powerless before the God of Israel. The Israelites though were spared this darkness (23). 


Again Pharaoh summoned Moses, telling him to Go, worship the Lord. It seems Pharaoh has relented, but he was wanting to make a deal with God, he had no footing to negotiate but still tries to cut a deal, they could worship but they must leave the flocks and herds behind. Pharaoh hadn’t understood who the Lord is and what he requires. The Lord cannot be bargained with. That is important for us to understand, the Lord is not in the business of having only part of us as his people, he doesn’t want us just on the Lord’s day for an hour he wants our entire lives, public lives, private lives, at home at work, money, time the lot. 


In the end Pharaoh reneged just as before but this time he sends Moses’ out of his sight and warning him if he appeared again he would die. Pharaoh had every chance to turn from his sin, he had heard the words of life, he had seen how the Lord makes a distinction between his people and those who are not and yet there was nothing. Pharaoh chose to walk in his spiritual darkness and face the eternal consequences of that. 


The Lord still makes a distinction, between those who are his people and those who are not, Jesus came and said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8:12). Jesus is the light of life for us, he guides us through darkness for he experienced the darkness of the cross for our sin that we might know the light, he calls us to leave behind the darkness, give our all and follow him. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q17 Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. (Rom. 5:12)
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