Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090621.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 1:1-15:21
H. God's Glorifying Himself By Egypt's Plagues, Exodus 7:14-12:36
4. God's Exalting Himself As Holy In His People By The Plague Of Flies
(Exodus 8:20-32)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    We Christians face a lot of pressure to compromise our beliefs and actions in order to coexist more comfortably with others around us:

    (1) In the June 15, 2009 issue of USA TODAY, p. 11A, Andrew Newberg, associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in his article, "This is your brain on religion," about an experience he had in high school. He was dating a "born-again" Christian whose family was nice to him, but who made it clear that he "had deeply sinned by not turning to Jesus," and that, in his own words, "Oh, and because of this, I was going to hell." (Ibid.)

    Andrew explained: "It's tough enough being a teenager, but this was too much," so that even " . . . 30 years later, this episode still resonates as I conduct extensive research on religious practices and beliefs and their impact . . ." (Ibid.)

    Professor Newberg's article thus suggested that people should adopt "loving, forgiving, compassionate and supportive" ideas about God rather than the idea that He judges people to go to hell. (Ibid.)

    Articles like this pressure us to "fudge" on the Gospel, to minimize the "should not perish" clause in John 3:16 while asserting only the "God so loved the world" and "eternal life" parts of the verse!

    (2) Last week, I heard a report of a believer who had come in contact and was impressed by a religious group that emphasizes diet.

    However, Colossians 2:13-17 KJV states that, due to the cross of Christ, the Christian must "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect to an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days . . ." (verse 16). Then, Romans 14:17 NIV claims: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."

    Nevertheless, the appeal of restrictive diets by religious groups to health-conscious believers is strong regardless if Scripture claims we may eat any edible food in creation, cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-4; Acts 10:9-16.



    Thus, we may ask, "In view of the pressures for us to compromise in a compromising world, how are we to respond?!"

    Need: "In view of the many pressures we face to compromise the beliefs and practices of Scripture, how are we to respond?!"

  1. God's plague of flies exposed Egypt's GODS and PEOPLE to be in SIN and SEPARATE from ISRAEL and her HOLY GOD:
    1. God told Moses to direct Pharaoh to let Israel leave Egypt to serve Him or He would plague him and his land with a "mixture of irritating insects," Exodus 8:20-21; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV , 1978 ed., ftn. to Exodus 8:21. The Hebrew word for the KJV's and NIV's phrase "swarms of flies" is 'ereb, meaning literally a "mixture, mixed company" (B. D. B., A Hebrew-English Lexicon of the O. T. , p. 786), and it refers to vast swarms of various flying, irritating insects!
    2. This plague would have soundly critiqued Egypt's famous scarab (dung beetle) god, Khepri, for failing to bury the dung on the ground so as to stop such insects from breeding in it (Russell Grigg, "The Ten Plagues of Egypt," Creation (vol. 27, no. 1) Dec.-Feb. 2005, p. 37).
    3. However, the fact that such vast swarms of many different kinds of flying insects would plague only the Egyptians and NOT the land of Goshen where ISRAEL lived (Exodus 8:22) revealed God was in the land, and that HE was SEPARATING Himself and Israel FROM the UNHOLY EGYPTIANS and their FALSE GODS, Exodus 8:23!
  2. [Greta Hort's view that many evangelicals have adopted (Ibid., p. 34) offers a natural explanation for this plague that counters the belief that it was a miracle of God, but Scripture counters her view:
    1. Hort held after the Nile flooded, the "biting fly Stomoxys calcitrans" bred "in the decaying plants left by the retreating Nile," Ibid.
    2. However, the removal of all the swarms of various types of insects in one day (Ex. 8:29-31) reveals their presence was caused by a miracle!]
  3. This lesson on SEPARATION led Moses to REFUSE Pharaoh's effort at a COMPROMISE that would have HARMED ISRAEL:
    1. After the plague of flying insect swarms had greatly troubled the Egyptians (Exodus 8:21, 24), Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, offering the COMPROMISE that Israel could go and sacrifice to the Lord IN the land of EGYPT, Exodus 8:25.
    2. This offer compromised God's original call that Israel LEAVE Egypt to worship Him in the WILDERNESS, Exodus 3:18.
    3. Following God's SEPARATION of Israel from Egypt in the plague, Moses insisted Israel LEAVE Egypt for her SAFETY, Ex. 8:26-30:
      1. Moses resisted Pharaoh's compromise, claiming Israel's sacrifices to God were an abomination to the Egyptians, so worshiping God in Egypt would lead the Egyptians to stone them, Exodus 8:26.
      2. In the historical and cultural context, Moses' concern was justified: the Jews sacrificed cattle, but the bull symbolized Egypt's god, Apis (or Re), and the cow Egypt's famous goddess Hathor, so for Israel to sacrifice cattle in Egypt would have been blasphemous to the Egyptians, leading to riots, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 122.
      3. Moses thus used God's original leading of making a distinction of deliverance between the Egyptians and Israel in this plague to apply that SEPARATION to Israel's WORSHIP: he refused Pharaoh's compromise, saying Israel needed to go a three day's journey into the wilderness like God directed, Exodus 8:27; 3:18.
    4. Pharaoh offered a second compromise, that Israel might go a shorter distance than a three day's journey into the wilderness, Exodus 8:28.
    5. Moses agreed to this second compromise though it fudged on God's actual order of a three day's journey (Exodus 3:18), and he did so PROVIDING Pharaoh would stop dealing deceitfully, Exodus 8:29! This revealed that Moses had a gradually mounting and NOT a PERFECT commitment to separate from Egypt in holiness!
  4. When Moses prayed for God to end the plague, He did so in a day (Ex. 8:29-31), but Pharaoh deceitfully refused to let Israel go, 8:32!
Application: In a world that pressures us to compromise right with wrong, may we (1) trust in Christ as Savior from sin to escape hell and receive eternal life, John 3:16. (2) As believers, may we rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit for the power of God (Galatians 5:16-23) to (3) SEPARATE from SIN, to be HOLY, 1 Pet. 1:15-16. (4) To DO so WELL, may we (a) follow God's lead when tempted to compromise with the wrong, for He will offer guidance in how to proceed. (b) May we be MOTIVATED to RESIST UNGODLY COMPROMISE, recalling that UNHOLINESS brings TROUBLE and HOLINESS brings BLESSING as in the plague of flies!

Lesson: God used His plague of swarms of all sorts of flying insects to REVEAL that He and His people were SEPARATE from Egypt's GODS and thus from their UNHOLY people, a lesson MOSES APPLIED to Israel's WORSHIP in having LEARNED God's lesson on it!

Conclusion:

 This past week, the Lord used this Exodus 8:20-32 passage in today's sermon along with the Acts 20:17-38 lesson in last Sunday's Adult Sunday School Class to direct and confirm a move by one of our Church leaders not to heed a suggested course of action by an outside party, one that would have harmed the vulnerable in our body.

These sermon notes are posted on our Church web site for the whole world to see, so the welfare of the vulnerable restricts me from giving you any details on the matter here. However, I CAN report that the Acts 20 passage gave the Biblical REASON for the leader NOT to compromise with the outsider so the vulnerable would be protected!

Also, in last Sunday's Adult Sunday School Class, we heard a report from some of our members that "grievous wolves" in another Church in Connecticut had created trouble in that body, and that it had led to a traumatic Church meeting! News of that meeting at that time had set our Church leader into a frame of mind where he was bent on protecting God's flock at Nepaug from troublesome parties! Thus, God gave the guidance and the motivation for the one in leadership to heed His Word for the sake of the vulnerable in our body!

God led Moses in the plague of flies to separate Israel from Egypt for her safety in worship, and that by not compromising with Pharaoh, so we who lead others in business, church or family realms must not yield to pressures we face to compromise heeding God's Word. Only then can God truly guard the vulnerable in our midst!



May we ADHERE to SCRIPTURE and FOLLOW GOD'S LEAD to live in HOLY VICTORY and BLESSING over GODLESS COMPROMISE!