24th April 2024

24th April 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 11:1-10 focus v4-8)


Message (Alan Burke)


In the book of Job we hear the words “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). It comes just after Job hears of the loss of everything, his family and his possessions. They are words that I say all too often at grave sides but here we are reminded in what the Lord foretold Pharaoh what would befall on Egypt through Moses we are reminded that the Lord is sovereign over our lives. 


Now Moses tells Pharaoh what the Lord had said, about midnight the Lord would go throughout Egypt and take the life of all the firstborn. There is no distinction between rich or poor, power and influence, how many good works the Egyptians had done and how little others had done, or how much they had given to charity compared to those who hadn’t. No, none of these things are taken into account, there is only one reason for the distinction and that is between those who are the Lord and those who are not. 


This was a day of judgement that came upon the Egyptians, not even a dog would bark the Lord himself would muzzle their mouths, the God in all of this was making it clear that he treats his people differently than those who are not. While Egypt did not know the Lord they now would, they had attacked his people, they had subjected them to life long slavery, they had thrown the firstborn sons of the Israelites in the Nile and now the Lord was bringing his judgment on them and they would know who the God of the Israelites is.  


What the Lord was about to do is show that the gods of the Egyptians were powerless over life and death and the one who was suppose to rule Egypt as a god the son of pharaoh himself would be struck down. In all of this Pharaoh was unmoved, he had just heard how his own son would die and there is nothing from Pharaoh other than his obstinance. This is what caused Moses to be filled with anger in v8 as left Pharaoh. The Lord through Moses had gave Pharaoh the warning or what was to come. 


You would think that after all that pharaoh had seen and heard, how he had heard the warnings, saw the reality of how the prayers of Moses worked, been told by his magicians that this was the work of god, had been given opportunity after opportunity, how his own officials had urged him to listen and act and how the Lord had distinguished between his people and the Egyptians, you would think that he would have been moved at least a little by this warning but there was nothing. 


Pharaoh still refused to hear the word of the Lord. Back in chapter one we learn of a different Pharaoh  who decreed that the first born of the Israelite were to be thrown into the nile he did not realise what he was doing. Those who attack the people of God are not just attacking his people, and it doesn’t matter if they are only attacking one of his people or many they are through their actions attacking God himself. God holds those who persecute his people, who attack them, kill them accountable for what they have done, he will have recompense whether in this life or the next. The Lord is sovereign over all of life. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.
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