Questions for Sunday: 1. Regarding the plagues against Pharaoh and the people of Egypt: Why such a drastic measure as killing all the firstborn in every part of Egypt? Why not simply take out Pharaoh? It seems too much destruction and bloodshed. 2. It seems the message of the cross stands in significant contrast to the legalism of the Old Testament – even in contrast to those seeking to have integrity in the Law. Were there prophets speaking against the legalism of the people and pointing to a different approach? 3. Of what relationship is the cross to the serpent lifted on the pole in Numbers 21? 4. Why did God stop speaking through prophets? Why did God stop “writing on the wall”? See notes on the following pages.
PLAGUE
TEXT (Exodus)
WARNING
PHAROAH’S HEART
EGYPTIAN DIETIES MOCKED
REMARKS
Water to blood
7:14-24
Yes
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart (7:3)
The Nile itself. It was sacred.
Remained 7 days. Magicians imitated it but they could not undo the damage
Frogs
8:1-15
Yes
Hardened his own heart
Ptha and Heka, frog god and goddess
To Egyptians, frogs represented human life in embryo.
Lice (fleas or gnats)
8:16-19
No
Hardened his own heart
Leb, earth god
Magicians acknowledged that, “This is the finger of God.” This was outside human control.
Flies
8:20--32
Yes
Hardened his own heart
Khepara, the beetle god
Israel was immune. Pharaoh offers a first and second “compromise.” These flies are ‘dog-bite’ flies. They bite at the edge of eyelids.
Murrain
9:1-7
Yes
Heart was hardened
Apis or Seraphis, the sacred cattle god at Memphis.
Some cattle survived. Murrain is an infectious disease affecting cattle and other animals. It means, “death.”
Boils
9:8-12
No
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart
Neit, the goddess queen of heaven.
The magiicians were so affected they were rendered unclean for worshipping Neit.
Hail
9:13-35
Yes
Hardened his own heart
Isis, water goddess and Osiris, the fire god.
Those who neglected the warning were impacted.
Locusts
10:1-20
Yes
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart
Shu, god of the air; Sebek, the insect god.
Pharaoh makes a personal plea for relief. His own court pleads with Pharaoh to let Israel go.
Darkness
10:21-22
No
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart
Ra/Atun-Ra, the sun god. Supreme Egyptian deity.
Offer from Pharaoh (the word Pharaoh means ‘sun’) – darkness remains three days.
First Born
11; 12:29-32
Yes
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart
Anubis/Osirus/Nephthys/Seker, Moses fully angered at the gods of the underworld, of Pharaoh’s refusal – no death and afterlife. matter the cost.
God was the ultimate cause of all of the hardening actions throughout Exodus 4-14 so that at no time was Pharaoh's volition independent of Yahweh's influence when he hardened his heart. This may be especially significant since the hardening may be viewed as a polemic against the Egyptian idea of Pharaoh's deity and the belief that Pharaoh's heart was the all controlling factor both in history and society. After 400 years of slavery, there was no letting go on the part of Pharaoh. The first born son carries the actions forward to yet another generation. Federal headship has consequences. There is another firstborn that will not make it out alive – Jesus Christ. Question 2: It has always been grace that redeems, not the Law. It has always been the blood of Jesus Christ that saved, not the blood of bulls or sheep or goats. Part of the inner working of the heart in the law is expressed right in the beginning with Cain’s murderous actions toward Abel. Genesis 4:6-7 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Sin begins in the heart, as does the desire to do right. In the 10 Commandments, we get another glimpse into the interior call of obedience: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17) David understood that all the sacrifices in the world meant nothing before God – only a heart condition: For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17) Sacrifices, solemn assemblies and worship were rejected by God when the outward obeidence was not backed by the inner heart: “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24) L’s QUESTION:
For our next Q&A session (whenever that might be), I'd like to ask about the following. I've just slogged my way through Leviticus, and the number of very detailed rules/rituals/offerings/sacrifices is dizzying.
But this was the Mosaic law, and being obedient to it (both in action and in heart) made the Jews right with God. But what about more modern day Jews? They are still waiting for the Messiah, so why aren't they still following these rules/rituals/offerings/sacrifices? What do they believe makes them right before God? And who gave them "permission" to cease following the rules/rituals/offerings/sacrifices laid down under the Mosaic law? I'm guessing even the most devout Jews today don't practice animal sacrifice. I understand that the temple was destroyed back in 80 BC (I think), but why didn't they rebuild it and continue to be obedient to the law? Question 3: The following is from an article by John Piper: When we look at Numbers 21 we notice a few things about the serpent situation: 1) The serpent on the pole is not preventative. It is for bitten people (verse 8). The poison is in them, and without divine intervention they will die. 2) The snakes in the camp are from the Lord. He sent them (verse 6). The wrath of God is on this people for their sin of ingratitude and murmuring and rebellion. 3) The means God chooses to rescue the people from his own curse is a picture of the curse itself. 4) All they have to do in order to be saved from God’s wrath is look at his provision hanging on a pole. We know that Jesus read the Old Testament believing that it was all pointing to him. There were pointers and types and foreshadowing’s everywhere. But we might expect him to skip this one. It is shocking to compare the Son of Man to a snake. But Jesus doesn’t skip this one. He goes out of his way to choose it to help Nicodemus. So he says (verses 14–15), And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1) Jesus Is the Son of Man Jesus is the Son of Man who is lifted up on the cross the way the snake was lifted up. He identifies himself as the Son of Man in John 9:35–37 — “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ [he asks the man he had healed.] He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’” So when Jesus speaks of the Son of Man being lifted up, he is talking about himself, and his own crucifixion. 2) Jesus Is the Source of Rescue Jesus, in the place of the snake, is the source of healing, the source of rescue from the poison of sin, and the wrath of God. Jesus is the source of eternal life. Moses lifted up the snake, but Moses is not the rescuer in the way Jesus sets up the comparison. Who lifts up the Son of Man on the cross? “The Son of Man must be lifted up” — by whom? There is only one place where the lifters are identified in John’s Gospel. They are the Pharisees. John 8:28 says, “Jesus said to them, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.’” Who is you? According to John 8:13, it’s the Pharisees. The Pharisees stand in the place of Moses. So Moses is not being treated as a rescuer, a savior. In Numbers, the one who saves is God by means of the snake. And in John, the one who saves is God by means of Jesus.
3) Jesus Is Portrayed as a Curse Jesus in the place of the snake is portrayed as evil and a curse. This is what is so shocking. The snake is evil. The snakes were killing people. The snake on the pole is a picture of God’s curse on the people. So it was with Jesus. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:2, “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And in Galatians 3:13, he said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” In becoming like the snake, he was the embodiment of our sin, and the embodiment of our curse. And in becoming sin and curse for us, he took ours away. 4) Jesus Gives Eternal Life What he gives us from the cross is eternal life. Verse 14–15: “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” When our sin and God’s wrath are taken away, God is for us totally. And if God is for us, we will never die, but live forever with him in joy. 5) Jesus Crucified Is the One We See All of this he is saying to Nicodemus, who was very confused about the new birth and how it happens. This is what you say to a person who is not born again. Why? They are dead and blind. Because God ordains to open the eyes of the blind when they have something to see — namely a compelling picture of Jesus crucified for sinners. And what should you do, Nicodemus? What should you do today? Believe in him. Verse 15: “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” What does that mean? What does it involve? What, in this comparison with the snake on a pole, does believe in him mean? It means look to him. The grace of the new birth is our seeing Christ lifted up. QUESTION 4 In the OT only the prophets, the priest and the kings would have the Holy Spirit dwell upon/within them. The everyday Israelite depended on these people to be led by God and His Spirit. Joel prophecies (2:28-29): “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And Moses mused (Numbers 11:29): But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” On the day of Pentecost, Peter claims that Joel’s prophetic word is fulfilled (Acts 2:16-21) and Moses’ hopes are brought to realization. Yet the Bible indicates that the Day of Pentecost did not eliminate the need for prophets: it was one of the gifts of the Spirit and one of the five “equipping gifts” (Ephesians 4:11-14): And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Agabus’s prophetic word of a famine caused the disciples to send relief to Believers in Judea (Acts 11:27-29). He also foretold of Paul’s imprisonment in a very visual way in Acts 21:10-11. The book of Revelation and Paul’s writings in Thessalonians are prophetic in the foretelling sense of the word. The apostle John writes: But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2:27) Yet John is teaching them! So what does this mean? Unlike the OT, each Believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. Yet not all Believers possess all the various gifts of the Holy Spirit – they are distributed at the will and purpose of the Spirit. Prophets both forthtell and foretell, and since not all are prophets, we need them. But the prophets are not to be taken without question. We are to test the prophets and the prophets themselves must submit themselves (1 Corinthians 14:29-37). Because we all possess the Holy Spirit – and His gifts in differing measure – the need for us to rely only on prophets for the illumination of the Spirit is less necessary. As to writing on the wall – the ways in which God deals with evil secular leaders is always sure in the end. Many meet the same fate they imposed on their people.