1 Note: This is the sermon manuscript that Ben carried into the pulpit. Feel free to use it in any way to advance the kingdom of God. God s Stage Exodus 9:13-35 Englewood Baptist Church Sunday morning, Jan. 17, 2010 Please open your Bible to Exodus 9. It was William Shakespeare who once wrote, All the world s a stage, and all men and women merely players. The famous poet and playwright saw the world the eyes of theatre. When he surveyed the goings and comings of man, he saw a great drama being played out a story with characters and plot and purpose. When you open up your Bible, you see a similar thing. In Genesis 1, we immediately collide with the Creator God who has built Himself a platform. This platform is not made of plywood or cinder, but instead of earth and clay. And from that clay, the man and the woman are placed into a scenic setting and sin comes slithering in from stage left. The story shifts and life is never the same. The delicious fruit deceives them into thinking that they are the Main Players, that the story revolves around them. But the story is not about them. When you open up to the book of Exodus, as you have, you place yourself in the center of the Pentateuch the first 5 books of the Bible. These 5 books are also known as The Law. The first volume, Genesis, begins with spoken creation. This is the first miracle of the Bible. This Grand Storyteller has the knowhow to speak you into existence. So Adam and Eve are born, and before long, they have fallen. The snake brings the first conflict and the sin seems to destroy the storyline of God s perfect love for His people. But not so fast, for dwelling in the land of Ur, is the man who will resurrect hope. His name was Abram and he left his world to chase the God whose voice called from the distance. And to this Abram, God says, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Gen. 12:2-3 Through Abraham, God would spread his fame to the very ends of the earth. He would make it His primary passion to gather worshippers from every tribe and nation and tongue. So this story was never about one special person or even one special people, but about the nations. But every good story contains a turn, a twist, a tension. By the time this book of Beginnings, Genesis,
comes to a close, Abraham s great Grandson, Joseph, has died and is walled in by his own casket. He is buried in Egypt and God s people have been planted in the land of the Pharoah. Hence, the story of Moses is begun. (Moses Blessing Image) Most people think that Exodus is about him, an old man that was once a boy placed in a miniature ark like an infant Noah, sent out to survive the crowding waters. A little boy that was captured by a Queen and raised in a court full of money and power and affluence. A boy who grew to be a brave leader and freedom fighter for his enslaved people. But the truth is. When we lift up Moses, we see the ONE who is moving him, making him eloquent, marking out the boundaries of a divided Sea, and moving a pillar of fire through the darkness to lead his people to the next scene of the story. Moses is not the Great Deliverer depicted by DreamWorks. Moses is, in his heart, a murderer. He kills a man in chapter 2 and covers his corpse in the sand. He spends most of his life running from his past and for 80 years, he is a nobody doing nothing. But, God was writing him back into the plot. God pulls this wretch from the skeletons in his closet and burns a bush (image2) before his eyes. From that holy moment of slipped off sandals, life was forever changed for Moses. He had now received the lead part in the play, and there was nothing he could do about it. There had been no audition, and there was no desire to dance with the devil called Pharaoh and to rain down hell upon Egypt. But God had made up His mind. He was writing the story, and he had already chosen the cast. Through 10 horrors and plagues, Moses would make Him famous among all the peoples of the earth. This is God s great aim in all of human history the golden thread that runs through all the Scriptures: the Glory will fill the earth. And so we read Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. Gen. 18:18 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God." Josh. 4:24 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Psalm 2:8 I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49:6 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name. Zech. 14:9 The nations on every shore will worship him, every one in its own land. Zeph. 2:11 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2:14 2
My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. Mal. 1:11 11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Mt. 8:11 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Mt. 24:14 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Pt. 3:9 9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. Rev. 7:9 God is the main character in the story. He is committed to seeing the story through: His Name exalted from every corner of the earth, and nothing, not even the gates of hell can prevail against his purpose. In Exodus 9, we meet Moses on the flipside of the 6 th plague. These plagues are like the contractions of a pregnant woman. They are growing more intense with time. What began in the water is moving onto land. Frogs, lice, and flies, and boils, now the hail soft balls are about to drop on the heads of people. And God has appointed Moses to play the part of meteorologist. You go and tell Pharaoh, says the Lord, to get everyone under cover. A supernatural storm is coming! Look what happens. Read Exodus 9: 13-25 Exodus 9 is where God starts to show his cards about the purpose of pain. In this passage, he points out the three purposes of these plagues. Have you ever thought about this: why 10 plagues instead of one? What was God trying to accomplish with all of these theatrics? The answer is simple: missions. He tells us in these verses. The Purposes of the Plagues 1. That ALL PEOPLE might know of his power. (v.14) Egyptian people firmly believed that there was no one like Pharaoh (image) in all the earth! He was the king of the mountain. He was an absolute monarch, the supreme commander of the military, the chief justice of the court, the high priest of all religion. So revered was Pharaoh that people gauged morality by his example. Justice as defined as that which Pharaoh loves. Wrongdoing was defined as that which Pharaoh hates. It was Pharaoh, who broke a seal each morning, and that seal-breaking was believed to raise the sun to the sky. He was considered allpowerful. This is why, back in Exodus 5:2, 3
2 Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go. Ex. 5:2 But, by the time that the full force of God s hammer had hit, there would be no doubt about the omnipotence that was solely Yahweh. Through the plagues of Egypt, Pharaoh was getting a theological education, learning more about God than he ever dreamed he could know. Whether he would ever say it, Pharaoh would see it! That there is none like Him. Do you know that this is God s greatest desire for you? What God did to Pharaoh, God will do to you, should you deny His power. Your plague may not come in the form of lice, or frogs, or flies, but it might come in the form of a failed marriage, or in the form of job loss, or in the form of physical ailment. God s greatest desire is not to make you comfortable and free of pain, but to make you a wide-eyed worshipper. That you would know that there is no one like him in all the earth. What is the purpose of our struggles? What is the purpose of our problems? Why are we a plagued people? So that we might sing the Psalmist: Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Psalm 24:8 Today, I don t claim to be all-knowing, but I do know this. Some of you in this room are in the midst of a battle, and God s great aim for the warfare is that you might say, He is strong and He is mighty. These words Pharaoh would not let fall from his mouth. And so God brought the full force of his power upon Egypt. I have met many Pharaoh s in my life. People who refuse to acknowledge their lack of control. People who stubbornly resist the surrender to a Savior. People who will NOT say, Not my will, but your will, O God. Are you sitting in the place of Pharaoh? What will it take for you to sing of His might and power? Because God is coming after you with the full force of Himself. Number 2 the second purpose of the plagues 2. That ALL PEOPLE might sing His praise. (v.16) Look at v. 16 Notice he doesn t say, In all of Egypt. God wants his Name to be proclaimed in all the Earth. It wasn t just Egypt that God was after. If it was only Egypt, He could have accomplished this in much less dramatic fashion and in fewer plagues. But, no. He raised up Pharaoh, the greatest, most powerful ruler on the Earth, so that all the nations would see the stage and hear the story. Do you get that? There was a missionary motive in all this. God was going after the nations by dramatically pouncing on the supreme nation. Just one plague, and the news may not have traveled. But in dramatic fashion, God poured out His power before the eyes of people. 10 plagues were 10 times more likely to travel to neighboring lands. And this is what God 4
desires that generations would remember his faithfulness and they would share Him with all peoples. In the book of Joshua, a group of foreign people met with Joshua, and they tell him that they have already heard all about his God. 9 Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt Joshua 9:9 Many years later, when the ark of the covenant entered their camp of the Philistines, they screamed out: We re in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert (1 Sam. 4:7b, 8). The plagues had made God famous. Many times, I have heard people say, Why do we do missionary work across the Earth when there are so many needs right under our nose? Why do we travel across land and sea to win a single convert and yet we have citizens in our own city that have not surrendered to Christ? The answer is simple. God wants his name to be praised among all peoples of the Earth. God wants Eskimos and Ecuadorians to sing his praise. Guatamalans and Greeks. Haitans and Hawaiians. Brazilians and British. Africans and Asians. Colombians and Cambodians. Spaniards and Serbians. Koreans and Canadians. He wants ALL Peoples to sing and to sit in His choir loft. The plagues were part of God s missionary purpose to expand the choir to include all peoples. Number 3. The third purpose for the plagues 3. That ALL PEOPLE would know who is in control. Go with me to v. 29 Moses wanted to show Pharaoh that he could stop the storm with a single prayer; that only God has unlimited authority over the Earth. The plagues were supernatural demonstrations of God s control over creation. This is also why the worship service took place on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus told the sea to sit like a puppy in training. When he rebuked the weather, his disciples bowed down and said, Who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him? What man can control the sea? And this is why the Pharisees cringed when Jesus put a paralytic back on his feet. Jesus told that man his sins were forgiven in Mark 2. The Pharisees stood up and said 7 Why does this fellow talk like that? He s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? 5
And Jesus said, I can. And he made that man s muscles move his legs for the first time, and people said, We have never seen anything like this before. Those are the words that God wants every man, and every woman to speak over the earth. All peoples, when they see Jesus, they say, We have never seen anything like this before. God wanted Pharaoh to say it. God wanted Pilate to say it. God wanted Paul to say it. God wants YOU to say it. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26-27 God is a missionary, and HE will use the full force of His power to make you one too. 6