The Ten Plagues: The Plague of The Livestock

The Ten Plagues: The Plague of The Livestock

Introduction:

Good morning church! Over the last 4, now 5 weeks, we have been involved in a series entitled “The Ten Plagues”. During this series, we have learned a lot about faith, choices, consequences, and obedience. The series centers around the Exodus story of the Hebrews leaving the land of Egypt. If you remember, the Israelites have been in servitude to Egypt for roughly 400-500 years. During that period of time, much to the dismay of their captors, the Israelites have grown numerous. They vastly outnumber their oppressors. Because of their potential power, the Pharaoh enacts population control, killing any male child under the age of 2. This act is the catalyst for Moses to be adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses is raised as an adopted Prince of Egypt. As Moses grows he becomes aware of his linage and he begins to identify with their suffering. He witnesses one of his countryman being abused by an Egyptian soldier. Moses, in a fit of anger and rage, kills the Egyptian. Thinking that the Hebrews will call him a hero, Moses is mortified when they mock him as a false savior. Fearing for his life, Moses flees to the distant land of Midian where he meets a new family. His father law is a priest of Midian and during this time, the fugitive Moses learns about the God of the Hebrews. We are not sure how long Moses was away from Egypt but he traded his life as a prince for the life of a shepherd. Fast forward in the story and Moses is confronted by God through the burning bush in the desert. Moses is commanded to go back to Egypt. He is told to confront the Pharaoh. He will deliver the message to the Pharaoh that there is one God and that He wants His people to be set free. Pharaoh is offended by Moses and declines the offer. God begins to move through a series of plagues. Blood. Frogs. Gnats. Flies. Today we will learn about the plague of livestock.

Exodus 7:3-4 states the following, “but I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment…”.

“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. That is a troubling statement. I have talked about that briefly over the last few weeks. A couple of questions for us to think about this morning. First, what exactly does it mean that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Second, is it possible to have a hard heart today? Three, what is the answer to a hard heart? Is there a way to soften or bring a tender spirit to a hard heart? Is a person with a hard heart a lost cause?

I’ll tell you what folks, we often attribute people with hard hearts as enemies of God and enemies of God they are. No doubt, Pharaoh was an enemy of God and His people. However, people with a hard heart come in many different shapes and sizes. They don’t always share the same message, they are not always obvious to spot, and many times people with hard hearts can look like deeply religious people. There were lots of people in the Bible with hard hearts.

Ok, Pharaoh. Hard heart. Easy.

What about the Pharisees? Did they have hard hearts? You better believe it. The biggest problem with the Pharisees is that they disguised their hard heart under the false pretenses of piety and religion.

How about God’s very people? That’s right. The Israelites became hard hearted towards God. It took all of about 20 minutes for the people of God to turn against Him after He set them free from Egypt. They belly ached and bemoaned in the desert against Moses and God Himself.

What about the church? Oh no! Now I am hitting a little close to home right. By the way, have you ever noticed that that other fella over there is hard hearted but you are never hard hearted? Have you ever noticed that having a hard heart is a condition that everyone else has but not you. You and I are immune from hard heartedness.

I confess that I have been hard hearted my life. Do you know the primary characteristic of a hard hearted person?

They are poor listeners.

There you go. That’s it. Hard hearted people do not listen. They do not listen to wisdom. They do not listen to solid, righteous, practical advice. They certainly do not listen to God. They are know it alls. Smartie pants and show offs. They have it all figured out. There is no reasoning with a hard hearted person. Their way is always the right way.

Know anyone like that? Are you like that?

Again, let’s come back to our questions this morning. Since none of us want to be like the Pharaoh, a hard hearted man or woman.

What does it mean that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart?

Second, is it possible to have a hard heart today?

Three, what is the answer to a hard heart?

Well I may be working backwards this morning. I think that I will answer that last question first. What is the answer to having a hard heart? The Holy Spirit. Fill in the blanks under “Today’s Thought”. The Holy Spirit gives us hope for a hard heart.

Today’s Thought:

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Hope For A Hard Heart!

Oh friends, over the years I have met plenty of hard hearted people. The other day I was reading about Paul Alexander. Paul is the last human being to be living in an iron lung. He contracted Polio in the 1950’s. He is 74 years old today. At the age of 6, he went from running and playing in his backyard to being encased in an iron lung and unable to talk or communicate. He placed in a room with other children who were enduring the same tortuous state. As the years went by, those children died. With each passing day, Paul Alexander became bitter, angry, resentful and withdrawn. Paul’s parents worried for him so they called a pastor to come and read the Bible to him. That pastor answered Paul’s questions, love him, showed him compassion. Paul’s heart opened to the Gospel and Jesus took away all the pain, the internal suffering and all the anger. Paul went on to graduation from high school, then college, then law school. Paul, in an interview described himself as “hard hearted” towards God but today, he lives for Christ.

You see friends, the only cure for a hard heart is Christ. Notice that it was not a sermon. It was not a program. It was not a tweet, a Facebook post, or a quippy church sign. It was Jesus. It was the kindness of a pastor. It was the compassion and prayers of his parents.

I have heard it said that the most dangerous place to be in the world is outside of God’s will. That may very well be true. I think that the most dangerous thing to possess is a hard heart. Puritan pastor Johnathen Edwards had this to say about hard heartedness.

"A hard heart is a dangerous condition, for it not only closes itself off from the love and grace of God, but it also becomes a breeding ground for bitterness, anger, and resentment. It is a state of spiritual stagnation, where the soul becomes numb to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and resistant to the transformative power of God's Word."

Beware of the hard heart my friends.

Today’s Quote:

Today we are reading from Exodus 9:1-7. I have already given you the background of the passage so I think it is appropriate to just jump in.

Statement of Belief:

We believe the Bible to be inspired, God breathed, infallible, and authoritative. We believe the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training believer’s in righteousness. God’s Word gives life. It provides peace in trouble and protection in tribulation. It is alive, active, and cuts to the core of the human soul. Since there is no other book like it, let us stand to show our reverence and respect.

Today’s Scripture:

Exodus 9:1-7 ESV

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. [2] For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, [3] behold, the hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. [4] But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die."'" [5] And the LORD set a time, saying, "Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land." [6] And the next day the LORD did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. [7] And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

The Holy Spirit: Softening Hearts and Strengthening Faith!

I. The Holy Spirit Convicts: Illuminating Sin

Fill in our first blank this morning. The Holy Spirit convicts. It illuminates sin.

When you read through these plagues you begin to start wondering something.

“What’s the deal with the Pharaoh?”

What seems so obvious, what seems to be the clear answer, seems to dodge Pharaoh’s decision making. Why?

Is he just plain dumb? Clearly not. He was one if not the most educated man in all of Egypt. Most scholars believe that the Pharaoh of Moses’ day was King Ramses II. He is commonly known as Ramses the Great, ruler of the 19th Dynasty. In Greek culture, he is known as Ozymandis. He was a very intelligent and interesting man. He is credited in history as conducting numerous military campaigns. 15 in fact all resulting in victories. He built cities, monuments and temples across the land. So he was not a dumb man.

Still, why was he so blind to Moses’ decrees and demands? At this point, he has endured 5 plagues. Each one worse than the one that proceeded it. Some might say that he was arrogant. He was defeated by his own hubris. I actually want to argue against that this morning. Did you know that Ramses did not possess a royal bloodline? He was actually a civilian that was installed by his grandfather who was a great military leader. In fact Ramses grew up in the shadow of his grandfather which had to be a very humbling experience. He took control of Egypt when he was 11 years old. From the time he was 11 till he was in his 20, he was under a conservatorship. This meant that many of his decisions were not his own. Think about it, during the first few plagues, Ramses sought advice. He looked for wise counsel. Cleary he sought the wrong advice but advice he sought nevertheless. These actions don’t sound to me like a man eaten up with ego.

No, I don’t think that Pharaoh was dumb. I think that most men in his position are prideful, maybe arrogant, I still get the feeling that Pharaoh was willing to listen to trusted advisors and what he perceived to be wise counselors.

I want to do something this morning. At risk of being a bit graphic. So, before I show the picture I am about to show, if you are a bit squeamish at the site of mummies, divert your eyes away from the screens this morning.

Let me introduce you to Ramses the II. That’s right, this is the very man that Moses instructed to set the Hebrews free. This man had more than plagues as problems, he also fathered over 100 children. True story. That’s probably why he looks the way he does today.

Now friends, I am not joking about this next part. When I did a search for King Ramses cause of death, do you know what I discovered? I’ll tell you. Im actually going to quote for you what I discovered. Listen to this won’t you.

“By the time of his death, aged about 90 years, Ramesses was suffering from severe dental problems and was plagued by arthritis and hardening of the arteries.”

Did you hear that? I thought that was funny that it said that he was “plagued”. I thought that was a bit on the nose. But did you hear the other thing? The other phrase? He died from “hardening of the arteries”.

Ramses was not killed by a plague. He was not killed by a coupe or an overthrow of his government. He was killed by having a hard heart. Before the mummy of Ramses entered an MRI machine, before he ever had a modern day CAT scan, the Bible, thousands of years earlier, gave us his biggest problem. A hard heart.

You see friends, it was not that Ramses was dumb. It wasn’t even that he was prideful. His biggest problem was that he did not possess the Holy Spirit, revealing the hardness of his heart. He had a heart problem. He not only had a physical heart defect, he had a spiritual heart defect. He had a hard heart.

So, what does that mean? If that was Pharaoh’s downfall, what does that even mean that he had a hard heart?

First of all, the Bible speaks of our hearts as the seat of our emotions, aspirations, and beliefs. The heart is spoken of as our very souls. Jesus comments on our hearts saying, “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks”. What that means ultimately is that the condition of our hearts matters.

King Solomon in Proverbs 4:23 reminds us that “above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”.

A hard heart is a heart that is unmoved by things that other people would be naturally compassionate about. It is a heart in open rebellion against the commands of God and sets itself against the people of God.

You’ll hear me say it three times this morning. The answer to a hard heart is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the power to intercept our hard hearts, cracking the shell that surrounds it, and breathes new life into our dead hard hearts.

The reason that Pharaoh disregarded Moses’ commands was that his heart was just to hard to hear the truth. His heart affected his hearing, his vision, and his way of thinking.

Listen to Jesus’ words concerning the Holy Spirit captured in John 16.

John 16:8-9 ESV

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: [9] concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;

II. The Holy Spirit Renews: Transforming Hearts

So, our first point this morning was the Holy Spirit convicts. It illuminates sin. Our second point this morning is the Holy Spirit Renews, transforming our hearts.

Pharaoh disobeys Moses’ message from God. Another plague ensues. The plague of livestock.

There are a few things to remember, namely that God rules, reigns, and that He makes distinctions. In the first 5 verses God instructs Moses on how he…Moses…is to introduce God to the King. “Tell Pharaoh this, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews.” This is the first time God has used this phrase in an introduction. God being the God of the Hebrews. Not of the Egyptians. He is the God of the Hebrews. When Moses delivers the message to the Pharaoh, he states the following, “thus says the Lord”. Meaning that the message that is being uttered is not Moses’. It is God’s message. It is God’s message and it is not to be taken lightly. Remember that the Pharaoh has been raised since his 11th birthday that he himself is a god. He is the god of the Egyptians having to be subservient to the God of the Hebrews. This clearly does not sit well with Ramses. Here is something to remember, you cannot have two sovereign god’s. That is not how sovereignty works. If fact, there can only be one God and neither the Pharaoh or God is willing to step down from the throne. So, it’s an old fashioned battle royal.

God, in an awesome act of revelation, sends a plague to the livestock of the Egyptians and not to the Hebrews. It is worth noting that this epidemic could have been another assault on the religious beliefs and superstitions of Egypt. It is well-documented that bull cults enjoyed widespread popularity in Egypt during this period of time. The bull was revered as a symbol of fertility, and at times, animals like bulls were considered the physical embodiment of Egyptian deities. So, this plague would be interpreted as a challenge to the religious framework of Egypt, aiming to demonstrate that the Hebrew God, the Lord, is the one true deity, while the gods worshipped by the Egyptians are merely false idols whom He can overpower, conquer, and reign over.

Instead of listening, the Pharaoh does what many of us would chose to do. He digs in. He become more entrenched in his faulty and flawed opinion. His heart just grows harder. Do you know anyone like that? I see this mentality displayed on social media more than anywhere else. A person shares a religious or political statement. That statement generates a great deal of commentary. Friends share differing views. With each key stroke the temperature rises, words get more heated, and people become more and more dug in. Conversation goes out the door in favor of being right and the more right I am the more righteous I am seen in my own eyes. Oh friends, be careful that you don’t throw to many stones at our friend Pharaoh because I have seen, I have witnessed the Pharaoh’s spirit penetrate this very church.

That’s right, I have seen the effects of a hard hearted spirit before right here at Eastern Shore Baptist Church. Do you know the primary characteristic of a hard heart? It is simple. An inability to listen is a sure sign of a hard heart. You might think an inability to listen is an ear problem. Not hardly. It is a heart problem.

Here is another sign of a hard heart, a propensity to being offended by everything and everyone. You don’t have to read to hard into Scripture to see how personally offended Pharaoh became at Moses and the commands of God. We must refuse to be offended. Your emotional and spiritual maturity is measured by how you treat those who mistreat you. Consider your response when someone wrongs you: Do you seek revenge when faced with injustice? If you are struck, do you retaliate with force? When insulted, do you respond with insults of your own? That sort of behavior only places you on the same level as those who have wronged you, demonstrating a lack of personal growth and maturity.

Pharaoh was intelligent. Smart. Capable. Able. However, he showed a tremendous amount of emotional immaturity. He held grudges. He was a poor listener. He took offense at all the wrong things. Was he offended by Hebrews being brutalized in his streets? No. Was he offended by their desire to live free? Yes.

You see, Pharaoh’s heart was not just hard, it was also backward. He cared about things that he should not have cared for and had misplaced passions. Instead of freedom he craved power. Instead of advancing freedom to millions of people, he simply wanted to advance his career.

When I was younger, I really struggled in school. How many of you remember those 4th, 5th, and 6th grade years? Those are usually pretty awkward years growing up. They sure were for me. I was overweight. Not terribly athletic. Not very coordinated. I was a target during those years and I can remember coming home and crying just about every day. I remember my Dad came into my room and said these words to me. They have stuck with me forever. It was actually a prayer. “God give Stuart a tender heart and a tough hide”. Most people are just the opposite of those words. The have a tough heart and a tender hide. We are thin skinned and tough-hearted

You see friends, the Holy Spirit wants to trade our hard, backwards thinking Pharaoh heart for a new heart. A tender heart that generates a wise spirit. A tender hearts that helps our ears to hear and chances the way we see this world.

The Holy Spirit wants to renew you, renew your heart. Listen to Titus’ words captured in Titus 3:4-5.

Titus 3:4-5 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

III. The Holy Spirit Guides: Directing Hearts

So, our first point this morning was the Holy Spirit convicts. It illuminates sin. Our second point this morning is the Holy Spirit Renews, transforming our hearts. Lastly, the Holy Spirit guides, it directs our hearts.

Like I said earlier, it was not that Pharaoh was not willing to hear or listen, he just received bad direction and advice. He didnt listen.

Exodus 9:7 ESV

And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Isn’t that amazing? The plague that God sends to Pharaoh does not affect the Hebrews. Why? Is it because Pharaoh was bad and the Hebrews were good? Maybe. Is it because Pharaoh shook his fist at God and the Hebrews didn’t? Again, maybe.

Friends, I think it all comes down to obedience. The Hebrews were given instructions and they obeyed. Moses was not hiding the ball. If the Pharaoh would have listened and obeyed, the suffering of his people would have ended. If he would have listened, his animals would be alive. If he had listened, all the ramifications of the earlier plagues could have bee avoided.

The Israelites were directed to obey God, they listened. Pharaoh received the same direction and he disobeyed.

It is just that simple.

Again, why? Why didn’t Pharaoh listen to Moses? Why was he not able to see what was going on around him?

His heart was hard. He was missing a guide. He needed the Holy Spirit. Sadly, he was so busy being god that he missed the boat on the one true God. You see friends, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes for the need of God.

Friends, I will make a statement for you this morning. If you listen to the Holy Spirit and only God’s voice, you will never ever go wrong. There is nothing more satisfying than being in the will of God. Listening and following the Holy Spirit gives you confidence and assurance. Look at how confident Moses was. Gone are the nerves. Gone are the jitters. Why? He was listening.

You see friends, the Holy Spirit is a guide. It was a guide for Moses and it will be a guide for you too. Ive heard people say that the Holy Spirit is the forgotten God because we don’t talk about Him. We certainly do not refer to Him as much as we discuss Jesus or the Father. The Holy Spirit is an all important aspect to our sanctification and our salvation. If the sacrifice of Christ on the cross generates our salvation, it is the work of Holy Spirit who sustains it.

Without the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for us to understand Scripture. Without the Holy Spirit, we can receive no conviction of sin. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot partake in God’s spiritual gifts.

Are you lacking direction this morning? Needing guidance? Pray and ask God to send you His Spirit.

Are you jaded, hard hearted against the thing of God? Pray and receive the Holy Spirit. He will transform your hard heart into a tender heart. He will trade your heart of stone for a new heart. A heart of flesh.

Remember, the Spirit is calling you this morning.

Remember…

Romans 8:14 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (and daughters) of God.

The Holy Spirit Is Calling…

Websites:

https://rts.edu/resources/the-fifth-plague-death-of-livestock/

https://www.pammorrisonministries.com/blog/signs-of-a-hardened-heart/

https://madainproject.com/ramesses_ii_mummy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/26/last-iron-lung-paul-alexander-polio-coronavirus

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-harden-Pharaoh-heart.html