The Antidote to death
This text is the second section of a three part post.
To read the first part, click here
After meeting with the leaders of Israel, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh about freeing the people of God. To their request, Pharaoh replied ‘’and who is your god, that I should listen to him?” (Exodus 5:6). If anything, those people are lazy, that is why they want to be free to offer sacrifice to their God. Load them down with more work (Exodus 5:6-9), ‘’ Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested.
Coping word:
There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), whatever challenges you are facing today, someone else has gone through it and survived, and so will you in Jesus’ name.
Usually when you make up your mind to properly serve God, that is when all hell will break loose. In that case, you have two options; you could give up on God, or, just like Moses, go back to the Lord and open your heart to Him.
To Moses’ discouragement, the Lord replied ‘’Listen, I will make you seem like a God to Pharaoh, and your brother will be your prophet. But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:1-3).’’ And we know that everything, good and bad, works for the good of those whose heart is attached to God, and for those who strive to live by His standards (Romans 8:28).
Beloved our God is intentional and purposeful, there’s a particular reason why He’s allowing certain things to happen in your life, learn to let go and let God.
The plagues
– First plague: ‘’listen Pharaoh!’’ said Moses ‘’I will strike the water of the Nile with the staff in my hand, and the river will turn to blood. The fish will die and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink water from the Nile’’ (Exodus 7:16-18)
The Nile represented the joy and pride of Egypt. It dignified them. Because of it the nations have access to drinkable water; it irrigates their field which supplies them with food.
The same way for hundred of years, they stole the dignity and honor of the people of God, God attacked them in their own dignity, ‘’the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it (verse 21), even the water stored in wooden bowls and stone pots turn to blood (verse 19).
– Pharaoh’s heart was still hardened, and then Aaron raised the staff in his hand, and that brought frogs over all the land. The Nile River was swarmed with frogs; they came up out of the river and into the palace, even in their bedroom and onto their bed. They were in the houses of officials and the people. Frogs jumped into their ovens, into their kneading bowls, on their dignitaries and their people (verse 3 -4).
Because of the taskmasters over them, the children of Israel were continually weary. At any given time, they could have been hit with a club. Therefore, the Lord allowed frogs to annoy the Egyptians to the point of weariness.
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, ‘’the frogs are driving us crazy, plead with the Lord to take them away from me and my people. By tomorrow, I will let the people go’’. So Moses cried to the Lord, and the frogs in the houses, the courtyards and the fields all died (verse 13-14). But when Pharaoh Soul was no longer weary from the constant nagging of the frogs, he changed his mind and refused to listen to Moses and Aaron (Exodus 8:15).
– So Moses and Aaron raised the staff and struck the ground, the dust turned into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt, it infested the entire land, covering the Egyptians and their animals.
The gnats represented shame and reproach. The same way the Egyptians took pleasure in humiliating God’s people, the Lord allowed them to be covered in insects that could both bite and not bite. Pharaoh’s magicians tried to do the same thing with their secret arts, but this time they failed. They reported to Pharaoh ‘’this is the finger of God!’’ (Verses 18-19). But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard.
– Then the Lord told Moses, Get up early in the morning and stand in Pharaoh’s way as he goes down to the river. Say to him ‘’If you refuse to let my people go, then I will send swarms of flies on you, your officials, your people and all the houses. The Egyptians homes will be filled with flies and the ground will be covered with them. But this time I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live. No flies will be found there. I will make a clear distinction between my people and your people (verses 20-23). So the next day, the whole land of Egypt was thrown into chaos by the flies (verse 23-24).
Pharaoh took pleasure toying with the Israelite’s emotions, one day he’ll declared them free, and the next he will double their work load. Flies represent spiritual oppressions and demonic attacks. Even with animals, in an effort to stop the buzzing of flies in their ears, a sheep will constantly be moving its head, at times breaking its own neck. To preserve the sheep’s life, the shepherd will anoint the sheep’s head with oil. The oil serves a bug repellent. That is ‘’you anoint my head with oil’’ (Psalms 23:5B). The antidote to flies is oil which represents the anointing. It’s absolutely impossible for demons to stay where the presence of God is, that is why, Goshen, where the Israelite lived, was free of flies.
Coping word:
You can’t afford to toy with your Christian life, preserving the anointing of God over your life is a matter of life and death.
So Pharaoh called for Moses and said to him ‘’All right! Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God, but do it here in the land (verse 25). The children of this world are wiser than the children of light (Luke 16:18). In other words Pharaoh asked for Moses to stir up the anointing so the demonic attacks on his people can stop. Moses replied ‘’Excuse you Pharaoh!!! Absolutely no, I don’t negotiate with unbelievers. First let my people go and then I’ll pray to my God on your behalf. This time you better not be messing with us again (verse 29).
So Pharaoh agreed and so Moses’ pleaded with God. The swarms of flies disappear from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. Not a single fly remained (verse 31).
– And Pharaoh again became stubborn and refused to let the people go. By God’s demands, Moses said to Pharaoh ‘’If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go, the hand of the Lord will strike all your livestock, your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats with a deadly plague. But the Lord will again make a distinction between the livestock of the Israelite and that of the Egyptians. Not a single one of Israel’s animals will die (Exodus 9:1-5).
Livestock represents wealth and valuable possessions. A slave does not have the right to own anything. Even the clothes on their back belong to their master. The same way the Egyptians refrained the Israelite from acquiring material goods; God did the same to them my destroying their valuables.
The next morning all the livestock of the Egyptians died. Pharaoh sent officials to investigate, and they discovered that the Israelite had not lost a single animal. But even so, Pharaoh refused to let the people go (verse 7).
– Then Moses took soot from a brick kiln and while Pharaoh watched, Moses threw the soot into the air, and boils broke out on the people and animals alike. Even the magicians were unable to stand before Moses because the boils had broken out on them and all the Egyptians (verses 8-11). But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
A slave is physically restricted. His whereabouts are controlled by the master. So the same way Pharaoh imposed physical restriction on God’s people, the same way God used physical sickness to restrict the mobility of Pharaoh’s people.
– Then Moses got up early in the morning and stood before Pharaoh saying’’ this is what the God of the Hebrews, says; You haven’t let my people go, by now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the face of the earth. But I have spared you for a purpose (remember I told you how our God is intentional and purposeful ), to show my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth. But you still want to control my people and refuse to let them go. So Moses lifted his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed toward the earth. The Lord sent a tremendous hailstorm against all the land of Egypt. Never in all the history of Egypt had there been a storm like that, with such devastating hail and continuous lightning. It left all of Egypt in ruins. The hail struck down everything in the open field – people, animals, and plants alike. Even the trees were destroyed. The only place without hail was the region of Goshen, where the people of Israel lived.
Thunder and hail represent hopelessness. People who are in bondage have this overwhelming sense of hopelessness. They have this sense that they don’t have any control over the circumstances of their life. The same way, God allowed the Egyptians to experience hopelessness as it’s impossible to control the destructive power of nature. At that time Egypt was one of the biggest exporters of grains. The Bible tells us in verse 31 all the flax and barley were ruined by the hail. Everything they had worked for was destroyed in one go.
Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron ‘’this time I have sinned, the Lord is the righteous one, and my people and I are wrong. Please beg the Lord to end this terrifying thunder and hail. We’ve had enough. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer (verses 27-28). So Moses left Pharaoh’s court and went out of the city. When he lifted his hands to the Lord, the thunder and hail stopped, and the downpour ceased. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail and thunder had stopped, he and his officials sinned again, he refused to let the people go just as the Lord told Moses (verses 33-35).
– So Moses raised his staff over Egypt, and the Lord caused an east wind to blow over the land all that day and through the night. When morning arrived, the east wind had brought the locusts. And the locust swarmed over the whole land of Egypt, settling in dense swarms from one end of the country to the other. The locust covered the whole country and darkened the land. They devoured every plant in the fields and all the fruit on the trees that had survived the hailstorm. Not a single leaf was left on the trees and plants throughout the land of Egypt (Exodus 10:13-15). The locust overruns the palaces and the homes of the officials and all the houses in Egypt (Exodus 10:1-6).
The swarm of locust represents despair. More than once the Egyptians taskmasters created a feeling of despair in the heart of God’s people, particularly that time when Pharaoh refused to provide the Israelite with straw but demanded that same amount of bricks be produced that day (Exodus 5:6-9). Therefore the Lord allowed the same feeling to comer over the Egyptians. That feeling was so strong in the heart of the people that the officials pleaded with Pharaoh ‘’How long will you let this man hold us hostage, don’t you realize that Egypt lies in ruins? (Exodus 10:16-17)’’. For the locust devoured every plant that survived the hailstorm.
Even Pharaoh was starting to feel it and said to Moses ‘’I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you, just this once, plead with the Lord your God to take away this death from me’’ (Exodus 10:17). The Lord answered Moses’ prayers, not a single locust remained in all the land of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart again, so he refused to let the people go.
– Then Moses lifted his hands toward heaven, and the land of Egypt was covered with darkness so thick that it could be felt. For three days the darkness was so deep that the people could not see each other, and no one moved. But there was light as usual where the people of Israel lived (Exodus 10:21-23).
Deep darkness causes paralyzing fear. Generally speaking, most people are uncomfortable in the dark. For four hundred years, the taskmaster inspired deep fear in the heart of God’s people. Therefore, the Lord, via darkness, caused such a paralyzing fear in the land of Egypt, that no one moved for three days.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart once more, ‘’get out of there’’ Pharaoh shouted at Moses, ‘’Never come back to see me again! The day you see my face, you will die!’’
‘’Very well’’, replied Moses. ‘’I will never see your face again’’ (Exodus 10:27-29).
People of God, you are a trooper for having red this far. Thank you.
Believe it or not, this was only my introduction; I’m finally getting to the point which is the origin of Passover:
For part three click here
Author: Naomie
text edited by Chine (pronounced Chee-nay)
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