Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090712.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
7. God's Exalting His Great Power In The Plague Of Hail
(Exodus 9:13-35)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

A numbing, frustrating sense of powerlessness exists for many people in today's world, a fact we can demonstrate as follows:

(1) Investors are unusually cautious about the stock market due to a feeling of helplessness from the economic crisis. Rachel Beck's business column in the July 6, 2009 issue of the Republican-American , p. 1D ("Cash is king for investors") noted "the shock of the financial crisis" with all of its effects has led investors to keep an unusually high 45 % of their total investments, $3.7 trillion , in money market funds versus depositing it back into stocks, Ibid.

(2) Last Wednesday, CNSNEWS.COM reported in its story, "Democratic Leader Laughs At Idea That House Members Would Actually Read Health-Care Bill Before Voting On It" that few if any congressmen had read the 1,550-page American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009, known as the "energy cap-and-trade bill," or the 1,071-page $790 billion American Recovery And Reinvestment Act of 2009, known as "the stimulus bill". Indeed, a Democratic leader in the House actually laughed at the idea that any voting congressman would be expected to read all of either of these bills before voting on them!

Thus, many voters feel powerless to guard themselves from irresponsible legislation that invariably gets passed into law!

(3) In Honduras last June 28th, President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly removed from his nation by his army for befriending Venezuela's dictator, Hugo Chavez, and for trying to create an illegal referendum to let him run for another term. The coupe was condemned by many world rulers, but Hondurans, fearing dictators like Chavez, felt they had no choice but to guard themselves by this unconstitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya, The Economist, July 4th-10th, 2009, p. 6, 31.

(4) This past week, two people who attended our services spoke with me about feelings of helplessness they or another party was feeling over the problem of the death of a beloved associate, or with pressures in the angelic conflict.



Need: "It is easy to feel a numbing or even a frustrating sense of helplessness in today's world, so how may I effectively deal with it?!"

  1. In the Exodus 9:13-35 plague of hail, God displayed His raw divine POWER that far surpassed the powers that afflicted His people:
    1. To urge Pharaoh to let Israel go, after warning the Egyptians to take cover, God sent the worst hail storm in Egypt's history, with pouring rain and constant thunder, lightning and hail that destroyed all of Egypt's exposed plant, livestock and human life, and thus critiquing Egypt's gods of the weather (Shu, Tefnut and Nut, the gods of air, moisture and the sky) and of vegetation, agriculture and harvest (e. g. Geb and Seth), Ex. 9:13-25; Russell Grigg, "The Ten Plagues Of Egypt," Creation (Vol. 27, No. 1), Dec.-Feb. 2005, p. 37.
    2. However, the hail did not fall in Goshen where Israel lived, Ex. 9:26.
    3. God sent this plague specially to demonstrate His power, Ex. 9:16-18.
    4. So harmful and fearful was this event that, for the first time, Pharaoh said he had sinned, and that Israel could unconditionally go, 9:27-28.
  2. However, after Moses asked God to end the storm, Pharaoh and his men hardened their hearts against letting Israel go, Ex. 9:33-35.
  3. [Greta Hort's view that many evangelicals have adopted (Ibid., p. 34) offers a natural explanation for this plague versus belief that it was a miracle, but scientific facts and Scripture counter her view:
    1. Hort held the storm "was a coincidental local weather feature," Ibid.
    2. Yet, hailstorms are rare in Egypt (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 9:23), and as this storm led Pharaoh to confess he had sinned (Ex. 9:25-28), an act not to be done in his religion to avoid eternal judgment (Bib. Kno. Com., O. T., p. 114), this was no natural storm!]
  4. The WAY this plague occurred shows God used an UNUSUAL AMOUNT of DIVINE POWER to HELP His PEOPLE Israel:
    1. Normally, thunderstorms occur when the sun heats humid air, making it rise and cool, Comp. Ency., 1973, vol. 19, p. 457. A thunderstorm that drops an inch of rain over 10 sq. mi. takes 36 million horsepower to produce (Ibid.), and a lightning stroke is up to 54,000 degrees F., and has "many billions of kilowatts of power", Ibid., vol. 12, p. 274.
    2. In view of these facts, the Exodus 9 hailstorm was unusually strong:
      1. The hailstorm came at the least likely time of day, Ex. 9:13, 18:
        1. Since solar energy fuels hailstorms, they occur after humid air has been heating moist air for the necessary number of hours.
        2. Thus, the early morning when the sun has not heated the air in the night is the least likely time for an ongoing, lethal hailstorm!
      2. The hailstorm came at the least likely time of year, Ex. 9:31-32:
        1. Exodus 9:31-32 ESV states the storm came after the barley was in ear and the flax was in bloom, but before the wheat and spelt would be vulnerable to hail. In Egypt, barley and flax bloom in January and are harvested in March-April while wheat and spelt ripen in April and are harvested in June-July, so this storm came in February, in midwinter, Ibid., Bib. Kno. Com., O. T., p. 124.
        2. However, though it rains in winter along the seacoast, Egypt as a nation has "a mild winter from November to April" that is low in humidity with temperatures from the mid 40s to the low 70s F., certainly no fuel for hailstorms! (www.touregypt.net/climate)
        3. Thus, what rare hailstorms Egypt might naturally see would occur in summer when the sun heats the 77 % relative humidity air mass that can then at times hover over the Nile delta! (Ibid.)
      3. The hailstorm came at the least likely place: though it can rain in spots in Egypt, "[h]ailstorms are a rarity in Egypt" no matter where you go in the country, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Exodus 9:23!
      4. However, the Exodus 9 hailstorm had catastrophic power:
        1. It constantly poured down rain, and thunder and lightning kept shaking the countryside as lethal hail kept falling, killing all exposed Egyptian plant, animal and human life, Ex. 9:23-25, 33.
        2. The Exodus 9:25 Hebrew text holds the hail actually "shattered" (shiber) all of the trees (B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of O. T. , p. 990-991), so this hailstorm was horrifically devastating!
        3. Yet, in Goshen where Israel lived, there was no hail, Ex. 9:26!
      5. If the storm lasted just eight hours, it would have taken billions of horsepower to drop this kind of hail over most of Egypt and many millions more to restrict it from dropping on the land of Goshen.
Application: If feeling helpless in a situation, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) Then, as (a) God loves to help His people achieve His will for them, may we (b) TRY to HEED His will though feeling helpless (c) and TRUST Him to HELP us ACHIEVE it with His raw divine power!

Lesson: God's plague of hail that led Pharaoh unconditionally to agree to let Israel go showed God will use His power to help His people obey Him.

Thus, we may ask, "In view of the numbing or frustrating sense of helplessness many face, how are we to handle it?!" Conclusion:

 God's great power was abundantly evident in our efforts to serve Him last week, and that on a variety of fronts (as follows):

(1) When we arrived Monday morning at the Church to prepare for the VBS program, we found the felt banner that had been hung over the stage had fallen down! The Velcro system set to hold the sign to the elevated pole had failed, so it had to be reattached, and soon!

Well, the Lord came to our rescue! One of our workers found several feet of wire in the Church tool box that someone just happened to have left there, so he cut it into estimated 5-inch sections and, joined by others, began reattaching the banner to the pole at randomly chosen but equal intervals before the VBS opening was set to begin! One side of the flexible felt banner overlaps the pole by one inch at one end and by 1/4 of an inch at the other end, all by way of broad estimation, and all the wire in the tool box was used up! God was certainly with us!

(2) Our VBS director received a request from a girl who was really too old to be qualified to attend the VBS program! At first, she was hesitant about allowing the girl into the program, but, since she was unchurched and unsaved and really wanted to come, she wisely made an exception and let her come! God provided the wisdom there!

(3) I sat in on an opening program one day, and looked back at some of the mothers outside our Church who had sent their children to our program, and was amazed to see them singing and doing the sign language of the songs! God was influencing even the adults!

(4) Then, while I was typing the first draft of these conclusion notes Tuesday afternoon, a hailstorm hit the Church, so I turned off the computer to avoid electrical problems until it had passed! It was a strong cloudburst from large, dark, churning clouds with driving rain, marble-sized hail and loud thunder! It was a moving display of power!

When I later drove home to Torrington, my wife said it had only lightly showered there! The hailstorm was a local event at the Church like the hailstorm in Egypt had been local, and that apparently for my benefit, that I might refer to it in these notes as God's approval of this sermon on His demonstration of power in the plague of hail!

God wants to work in OUR behalf as He did for Moses and Israel in Egypt! May we then trust in Christ as Savior to receive eternal life, and STEP OUT in faith to DO His will, and SEE Him really HELP us FULFILL His assignments for us!