1st April 2024

1st April 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ex 7:14-25 focus v14-18)


Message (Alan Burke) 


In the main there is an assumption in this culture that seems to think science either knows everything or that it can know everything if we only ask the right questions and willing to fund the research accordingly. It is a belief system that is sometimes daubed as Scientism and is an excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques. Partly because of this there have been many who have came to the plagues in Egypt and dismissed outright that they are miracles or have sought to explain them from a scientific point of view but there was nothing natural about the plagues, they were supernatural, a miraculous accordance at the Lord’s command. We still find ourselves trying to explain God and his word by our own finite nature and our finite understanding of the universe. We think that the creator God is somehow subject to the same limitations that we ourselves experience, the laws of nature are not chains which the divine legislator has laid upon himself, instead they are threads which he holds in his hand and which he shortens or lengthens at will, he has power over all.


Here the Lord speaks once more to Moses. We don’t know where, when or how but the Lord spoke to Moses and gives him instructions to go meet Pharaoh. Here we are told that Pharaoh heart was unyielding, the ESV and the KJV says hardened. Why? Well the Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart in judgement against him for refusing to listen. Back when Moses and Aaron had first went to Pharaoh, and he mocked them, in derision asking ‘Who is the Lord’ (5:2). The Lord in his judgment had hardened the heart of Pharaoh further for he had suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, he had been given opportunity but would not hear or listen now he was by the work of the Lord know, indeed all of Egypt would know who the Lord is. 


What God was about to do and in each one of these miracles, would be an invitation for the Egyptians to believe in the LORD the God of the Israelites. The Lord would make himself known to them, the miraculous events were for that purpose, (7:5; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 16, 29; 14:4, 18) and through them God would bring his people out about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children as well as many other people who went up with them (Ex 12:37-38). The Lord God was going to make his power and glory known and bring out his people, the children of Israel. So that they could serve him, that they could worship him. The Lord was redeeming his people to serve and to worship him. You could ask what is the chief end of the Israelites, to glorify God and enjoy him forever, as they serve and worship him. Pharaoh though refused to listen to the request, he was warned of the consequences if he did not let them go. 


The Lord was going to turn this river to blood, Moses with the staff in his hand was to strike the water and it would be changed to blood, the fish in the Nile would die, the river would stink and not be able to drink it’s water. All so that they would know that the Lord is God. For all of Egypt, this would have been unmistakable, their god, their water of life, their most precious natural resource was turned to blood. The Lord was turning water to blood, he was bringing judgement upon the Egyptians so that they would know that the Lord is God. This was only the beginning, they could try to ignore it, they could try to explain it away but the Lord is the one who is God alone. All people on this earth are without excuse because God has revealed himself to all people, the Egyptians may have had the plagues, we all see it as the heavens themselves declare God’s glory, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Ro 1:19–20).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q1 What is the chief end of man?
Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, (1 Cor. 10:31, Rom. 11:36) and to enjoy him for ever. (Ps. 73:25–28)
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