Why Does God Do the Things He Does in the World?
Exodus 7-11
God wants to be famous
Why does God do the things He does in the world?
I mean let’s be honest, there many things God does in the world that surprise us.
The unbelieving family member who rejects the gospel. Why doesn’t God save him?
The faithful church in India that gets burnt down and the pastor gets killed. Why doesn’t God protect them?
The influential atheist like Richard Dawkins who rises to a prominent position and writes influential books. Why does God raise him?
I mean just for a moment put yourself in God’s shoes. Wouldn’t you run the world a bit differently?
What is God doing in the world? What motivates Him? Why does He do the things that He does?
Well that’s the question we going to be looking at this morning. And we gona do that by focusing on the plagues.
Just to bring you up to speed,
God’s people the Israelites are slaves in Egypt. God sends Moses to go and rescue them. But last week we saw Moses goes to the king of Egypt, but he refuses to listen.
Chapter 5 verse 1. Moses goes to Pharoah and says: This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.”
Verse 2. Pharoah said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I willnotlet Israel go.”
Now I wonder if uv ever picked a fight with someone who’s bigger and stronger than you. It’s generally not a good idea. You probably gonalose. Especially if that person’s God. God’s much bigger and much stronger than any of us.
And yet in these chapters Pharoah picks a fight with God. It’s not a good idea. Pharoah’sgona lose. And in chapters 7-11 God smashes him with 10 powerful plagues.
And so I just wanna take you on a quick tour of the plagues and show you the different aspects of God’s power.
If you read these plagues carefully, you’ll see they’ve been carefully written. They’ve been arranged into three groups of three, with the Passover as the climax at the end. And in each of thesegroupsof three, God shows His power in a slightly different way.
So if you just look at the first 3 plagues in chapters 7 to 8. God shows the superiority of His power.
I dunno if you know this. But in our church we’ve got some pretty impressivedancers. A guy like WakileMnana. I’m telling you, watch that name. This guy can dance. Get his autograph while you can.
Well on Thursday night after Bible study we had a bit of a dance off in our lounge. I dunno if uv ever witnessed a dance off?
The first dancer gets up, does all his moves. Everyone cheers. Then the 2nddancer takes the floor. tries to do everything that the first dancer did. Maybe even a few extra moves. And then its the 1stdancer again. He tries its do even better. And it goes on and on and on. And eventually its clear, the one guy or girl is superior. Well in these first three plagues it’s almost like we’ve a dance-off between God and the Egyptian sorcerers and magicians.
Even before the plagues even begin, there’s a bit of a curtain raiser. Chapter 7 verse 10. God tells Aaron to throw his staff on the ground in front of Pharoah and it becomes a snake on the ground. But look at verse 11. Pharoah summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake.”
And we already get a hint that this might not be such a close match, because at the end of verse 12 Aaron’s staff swallows their staffs.
And so we already begin to think: ooh this might be a bit one sided.
But anyway, we come to plague 1 chapter 7 verse 20. God turns the Nile into blood. The fish die. The river smells. Blood is everywhere. But look at chapter 7:22. The Egyptian magicians do the same things by their secret arts,”
And so the 2ndplague God makes frogs cover the land. Chapter 8 verse 3 - they go into people’s houses. They go into people’s beds. They even go into people’s ovens. Just imagine, you pull out your food out of the oven and there’s cooked frog mixed in. But if you look down to chapter 8 verse 7, what do the magicians do? Chapter 8 verse 7. They do thesamething by their secret arts; they also make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”
And so its almost like uv got this dance off. It’s God versus the Egyptians. But in the third plague it becomes clear. Here’s our winner.
Chapter 8 verse 16 - God sends a plague of little insects called gnats. And just look at verse 18. “But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.” Verse 19: “The magicians said to Pharoah: “This is the finger of God”.
By the end of the 6thplague, the magicians can’t even stand in Moses’ presence.
And so this is the first aspect of God’s power that’s displayed. His power is superior to any other power. And maybe that’s a great comfort to you if you living in fear of evil powers: whether it’s the power of witch doctors or sangoma’s or the ancestors or any evil power. Don’t fear them if uv got God on your side. His power is superior to any power.
But then in the next three plagues, there’s a different emphasis. Now God shows the accuracy of His power.
Apparently the US government have been spending millions of dollars trying to develop specialized bombs with a gps or a laser guidance system so that when they send this bomb, it hits the exact target. it only takes out the enemy. It doesn’t wipe out the primary school across the road. Well in a similar way, when God judges His enemies, He’s able to be accurate. He’s able to protect His people.
Look at chapter 8 verse 22: God sends flies upon the land of Egypt. But in verse 22 He says: “on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, wheremypeople live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people.”
Look at the next plague. chapter 9:6. God kills all the Egyptian livestock: But verse 6 “all the livestock of theEgyptiansdied, but notoneanimal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharoah sent men to investigate and found that not evenoneof the animals of the Israelites had died.”
And so this is a comfort for God’s people. When God judges the world, He never misses His target. He’s accurate. And He’s selective. He only strikes His enemies. He’s able to protect His people.
And then the third group of plagues show the destructive force of God’s power.
When God’s judges the world, He’s able to bring worse destruction than anything we’ve ever experienced.
Look at chapter 9:18. God sends a hailstorm. And notice what He says about it. Verse 18: “At this time tomorrow I’ll send theworsthailstorm that haseverfallen on Egypt, Verse 24: “hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was theworststorm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.” Then jump to chapter 10. God sends a plague of locusts. Chapter 10:14 – “they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers.Neverbefore had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will thereeverbe again.
And so this is a warning for us. If you think about it: Normally we only fear something if we’ve experienced it before. So if there was a flood or a tsunami that wiped out Summerstrand previously, then we might fear it happening again.
But here we see when judges the world, He can bring unprecedented destruction. He can bring things worse than we’ve ever experienced before.
And so this is a warning for us. there might be different theories about hell and different interpretations about what itsgona be like. We dunno all the details.
But one thing wecanknow for sure. It’sgona bebad.
Don’t underestimate God’s judgment. It’ll be worse than we can imagine.
And so that’s just a quick tour of the first 9 plagues. We’ll focus on the 10thplague next week.
But the big question I want us to ask this morning is, “why?”…Whydoes God send the plagues? What motivates Him to do this?
And I suppose, if you asked most people that question they’d say: it’s to punish Pharoah or its to punish the Egyptians. Or maybe some people would say it’s to rescue the Israelites. And those are both good answers: Two sides of the same coin: punish the Egyptians. Rescue the Israelites. But I wonder if you can see the problem with that answer.
If God’s main purpose is to rescue His people and to judge the Egyptians then why does He send10plagues rather than 1?
I mean surely 1 plague would be enough. This is God we talking about. He’s got the power. He could just zap the Egyptians and wipe them out and His people would be free.
This is the problem: If all God wants to do is to punish His enemies and rescue His people, then surely one plague is enough. Why does He send 10 rather than 1?
And so that’s the question.
And here’sonepossibleanswer.
We’ll call it the Plan J theory.
You know if you try and do something and plan A fails, then you try plan B. And if plan B fails you try plan C. Eventually if you go on and on you’ll get to plan J. That’ll be your 10thplan.
And so this the Plan J theory
Basically it goes like this: Pharoah’s really a stubborn guy. I mean if you just look through these verses its amazing how stubborn Pharoah actually is. There’s a phrase that comes up 18 times in the book of Exodus and you can see it over and over again in these verses. Just look at chapter 7 verse 13: “Pharoah’s heart becamehardand he wouldn’t listen to them.
Chapter 7 verse 22 (halfway through )Pharoah’s heart became hard; he would not listen…”
Chapter 8 verse 15: when Pharoah saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen…”
Over and over again, in fact at the end of each plague there’s this reference to the hardness of Pharoah’s heart.
And so maybe this is the explanation: Pharoah’s so hard. He’s such a stubborn guy. And maybe God just underestimates his stubbornness.
I dunno about you, but I like doing things with a minimum amount of effort. Maybe I’m just lazy, but I don’t like to spend more effort on something than I need to. I don’t feel like driving all the way to the hardware So I’ll just do a patch job with what I’v got in my garage. And sometimes that works. But sometimes I just make more work for myself.
And so He starts with plan A: surely all I need is blood. If I just turn the Nile into blood that’ll scare Pharoah and he’ll let the people go. But in fact Pharoah’s more stubborn than God realizes. And so He steps it up. Plan B He sends frogs. That doesn’t work either. So plan C he sends gnats. Then He sends flies. Then He sends hail. Then He sends locusts. Each time He underestimates Pharoah stubbornness. And so eventually plan J. He kills Pharoah’s son. Finally Pharoah’s resistance is broken. He let’s the people go.
Thats the plan J theory.
But I wonder if you can see the problem with this theory. Just look at all those verses again. Each time it talks about the hardness of Pharoah, just notice the little phrase that gets added each time.
Chapter 7 verse 13
Pharoah’s heart became hard and he wouldn’t listen to them,just as the LORD had said.”
Chapter 7 verse 22 Pharoah wouldn’t listen to Moses and Aaron,just as the LORD had said.
chapter 8 verse 15, same thing – just as the LORD had said
Same thing chapter 8 verse 19.
Over and over again we told: the hardness of Pharoah’s heart doesn’t take God bysurprise. Rather it’s something He Himself has predicted.
And so clearly the 10 plagues aren’t 10 plans. Plan A fails so you go to plan B. Plan B fails so you go to plan C.
No, this is all one big plan. And God predicted it right at the start.
But in fact there’s an even bigger problem with the plan J theory.
You see, Not only does GodpredictPharoah’s hardness. Even more than that, God’s the one Who produces it.
And this might be a bit of a shock for you. But look at chapter 9 verse 12. Again we see the hardness of Pharoah. But notice in verse 12Whois it Who makes him so hard? Chapter 9 verse 12.
“Butthe LORDhardened Pharoah’s heart and he wouldn’t listen to Moses..
Same thing in chapter 10 verse 20. “But the LORD hardened Pharoah’s heart,
Chapter 10 verse 27. “But the LORD hardened Pharoah’s heart…”
And so this might be a shock to you. Why would God do this? Why would He harden Pharoah’s heart?
Well you can see the answer if you look at chapter 10 verse 1. Why does God harden Pharoah? Chapter 10 verse 1.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharoah, forIhave hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials” why?... “so thatI may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them.
Dyou see the logic in that verse?
It’s not that God’sforcedto use 10 plaguesbecausePharoah’s so stubborn. No. Godwantsto use 10 plagues. And so He raises Phaorah up. Hemakeshim stubborn in order to send more plagues.
And so goodbye plan J theory!
Look at chapter 11 verse 9. The same thing. “The LORD had said to Moses, “Pharoahwillrefuse to listen to you” why? “–so thatmy wonders may bemultipliedin Egypt.”
You see God doesn’t want to just send one plague. He wants to multiply His wonders.
And so now we getting to the answer to our question. Why does God send the plagues? Is it just to punish the Egyptians? Is it just to rescue His people? Well Surely that’s part of the purpose. But then surely He could have just used one plague. And so surely there’s adeeperpurpose. What’s the main motivation for the plagues? Well chapter 9 verse 15 puts it very clearly. It’s printed on our bulletins. It should be up on the screen. It’s the key verse for this section. Please look at it. Chapter 9 verse 15. God’s speaking to Pharoah.
“For by now Icouldhave stretched out my hand and struck you withaplague that would have wiped you off the earth.ButI have raised you up for this very purpose, And look at these words: that I might show you my power and my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Pause
Why does God send the plagues? Its because He wants to be famous. He wants His power to be displayed. He wants His Name to be proclaimed. This is the main motivation of God in this world: He wants to be famous.
On the screen there’s a picture of Roger Federer. Probably the most famous tennis player who’s ever lived. Surely the greatest tennis player of all time. 18 grand slam titles, more than any other male tennis player. But if you think back over his career - all the matches he’s played. What are the games that really demonstrate his greatness. Surely its not the games against the weak players where he won in straight sets: 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Those games didn’t give him the opportunity to display his talent.
No Surely the greatest proof of his greatness were the games against Rafael Nadal. Rafael Nadal was resistant. The games went to five sets. That’s where we saw Federer’s best shots, his amazing fitness, his big match temperment. The best display of Federer’s greatness was when he had resistance.
And in a similar way, God could have softened Pharoah’s heart.
Proverbs 21 verse 1 says “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it… …whereverHe pleases.”
And so God could’ve softened Pharoah and made him give up straight away..
But then he wouldn’t have the opportunity to show off power. And so He raises Pharoah up. He hardens him. He makes him resistant… in order to show His power.
And so I wanna ask you: Do you realize that even if ur against God, He will still use you to make Himself famous. That’s what He does to Pharoah. I wonder if you realize that? God doesn’t need you to become a Christian in order for Him to use you. Of course in one sense God loves us. He longs for all of us to repent and be saved. And I hope that none of us will fail to do that. But don’t think that Godneedsyou to become a Christian. If you choose to become a Christian, God’ll glorify Himself by showing mercy to you. But if you reject God and harden your heart, He’llstillglorify Himself by bringing judgment against you. Either way God will use you to make Himself famous.
But maybe you think this is very unfair. I mean How can GodjudgePharoah for not listening to Him, whenGod’s the One Who’s hardening his heart?
Well the important thing to notice throughout these chapters is that it doesn’t only say, “God hardened Pharoah’s heart. It also says that Pharoah hardened his own heart”. Both statements appear equally often. In other words, both statements are equally true. God hardens Pharoah’s heart. At the same time, Pharoah hardens his own heart