"We see, in many a land, the proudest dynasties and tyrannies still crushing, with their mountain weight, every free motion of the Consciences and hearts of men. We see, on the other hand, the truest heroism for the right and the greatest devotion to the Truth in hearts that God has touched. We have a work to do, as great as our forefathers and, perhaps, far greater. The enemies of Truth are more numerous and subtle than ever and the needs of the Church are greater than at any preceding time. If we are not debtors to the present, then men were never debtors to their age and their time. Brethren, we are debtors to the hour in which we live. Oh, that we might stamp it with Truth and that God might help us to impress upon its wings some proof that it has not flown by neglected and unheeded." -- C.H. Spurgeon . . . "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31, 32 . . . . .

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Wednesday, December 2, 2020

EXODUS – GOD’s MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE of ISRAEL FROM EGYPT – Chapter TEN

Contributing commentaries by pastors Sonny Islas, Albert Lopez and James Fire


EXODUS 10: “Every Holy Hoof” – by James Fire, Facebook video.

INTRODUCTION: We are nearing the time of the Exodus of Israel, the very act of GOD that delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, that has become the name of this book: Exodus., “departure”.
When we became Christians, we were sanctified and set apart; we were baptized into the body of Christ and became part of the church – the ekklesia, who are the separated ones. We had a spiritual exodus – a departure from the spirit of this dark, sinful, rebellious world that is an enemy to GOD. As it says in:
EPHESIANS 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others
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I want to share something with you, that I’m sure you can relate with, because I think we’ve all had this experience when we first came to Christ:

You’ve committed your life to the LORD, by faith you received salvation through Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross – you were born again and became GOD’s new creation!
Then the next day, the devil gets in your ear and says, “Ok, Ok, so you’re a Christian now. That’s fine – just do yourself a favor, and don’t go overboard with it all, alright? You can go to church, you can do your little prayer meeting, that’s fine, but don’t abandon your entire life to the LORD!
Keep something for yourself; you know that favorite sin that you thought about when you considered committing your life to GOD and wondered how you would live without it? You don’t have to! Keep that pet sin as your own private pleasure – no one need know about it!

We’ll see something similar in this chapter with Pharaoh (a type for Satan) when he is confronted by Moses about leaving Egypt (a type of the world system of sin) and Moses’ response must be, and will be, our response to the glory of GOD!

EXODUS 10:1
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him
:

By now Moses is fully onboard with how GOD is leading this. Note that; the prophet and Law giver of Israel is not arguing at the LORD’s command, he isn’t disputing with GOD, he isn’t making excuses about his own inabilities or doubts about doing the work of the LORD. 

We will find Moses protesting to the LORD a bit later in this book, but with entirely different motivation. Previously, we saw him arguing to GOD about his own inabilities and about GOD’s apparent lack of success in delivering Egypt. Pastor Albert brought that up in EXODUS Chapter 5, that Moses said, “LORD! What are you doing? Now matters are worse than before You stepped in!

Later we will see in EXODUS 32:9-13 Moses is protesting, but then, it’s about a desire to protect the LORD’s honor!

Moses is growing in faith, and his faith is rewarded by GOD answering him, and GOD’s answers to his prayers are giving Moses experience and strengthening his faith so that he comes to expect GOD to come through, according to His Word.

It’s very much as Paul stated in ROMANS:
ROMANS 5:3-5
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us
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GOD enables us to be patient in trials, and as we endure, GOD reveals His hand, in working things out for His glory and our blessing, which produces experience, and that creates in us hope, that is, an expectation and a confidence towards GOD, and as we experience these things, this hope in GOD never disappoints, because GOD is always true to His Word and true to those who love Him and cannot disappoint us if we have a heart towards GOD to seek and please Him!

Now we see that GOD not only hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but also the hearts of his servants. How true that is, that when you hang around with hard hearted people, it tends to rub off; their jaded and cynical thinking starts to invade your own mind, creeps into your heart, and soon you find yourself acting and believing just like them!

This is why it’s important to stand apart and let the mind of Christ lead us away from unbelief, sin, and rebellion:
2 TIMOTHY 2:19
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity
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The rebellious of this world, who seek to interfere or prevent GOD’s people from accomplishing the LORD’s will, the LORD will deal with; just as He is dealing with, and will deal with Pharaoh and his servants who are refusing to let the LORD’s people go, so that they may serve Him. 

Are we seeing such interference from the world today – trying to keep the church of Jesus Christ from gathering together for the purpose of fellowship? Let’s remember that the battle is the LORD's and He will fight for us, as He always has for the saints, throughout the entire testimony of Scripture.

EXODUS 10:2
2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord
.

GOD has brought victory time and time again to Israel, and parents were to declare the mighty acts of the LORD to their children and their children to their children, one generation declaring the glory of GOD to the next!
PSALM 78:5-7
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: 6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: 7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments
:
It is because Israel failed in this holy commission to instill in their children the knowledge of GOD that led to the nation eventually falling away from the LORD and they began to worship false gods of the pagan nations around them.

It’s the same way today, when parents (no one here, thank the LORD) expect the Sunday School teacher or the Youth pastor to raise their kids in the faith, when it’s the ministry of the parents, and especially the fathers – to teach their children the faith of the Bible. 

Entire generations of students have been lost because they never received such instruction – not only what to believe, but why, and instead go on to university, learn about evolution, have no answer against that false science, and adopt such ungodly ideas as their own – and leads to their destruction, and that of this nation!


EXODUS 10:3-6
3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. 4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: 5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: 6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself and went out from Pharaoh
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Leaven (what we call yeast) in the Scripture is seen as false doctrine (MATT 16:11-15); leaven is also seen as pride, because leaven (yeast) puffs up the dough, but is actually a form of corruption of the grain (thus the command of GOD to the children of Israel to eat “unleavened bread” which represents uncorrupted, sanctified and holy living). You will notice that people given to pride – such as the Pharisees and Sadducees, are also fertile ground for false teaching, specifically because of their pride!

Consider the Word-Faith teachers, who pride themselves in the belief that they are ‘gods’ - and look at how they overflow with false teaching. The same can be said about New Apostolic Reformation, for the Emergent Church and Progressive Movement, for the Hebrew Roots movement – and others. When there is esteem for the doctrines of men over the Word of GOD, the motive is pride, to exalt self and self-improvement over the truth of GOD, and this will prevent souls from believing the true Gospel (MATT 15:7-9; JOHN 5:44).

We see here that Pharaoh is given over to the worship of these false gods, and even receiving worship from his servants as a god in his own right, and in pride that is both the cause and the effect, he refuses to humble himself and this will lead to ruin, as pride always leads to ruin.

Lucifer is a prime example: he once held the office of the anointed, overseer of all cherubim, and because he exalted himself, he did not worship the LORD then, and because of this, because of pride, he will be the supreme prisoner of hellfire and damnation in everlasting ruin!

The LORD is bringing judgment in the form of locusts (as He often does; 1 KINGS 8:28-37; JOEL 1:4) that will devour everything in the land of Egypt – all because of prideful, rebellious, disobedience to the LORD.
It makes you wonder, why all the terrible locust plagues that have swept over northern Africa, the Middle East and India – I think we know the reason why. Judgment. A sign of the times. Preparation for the upcoming scenario – nations gathered to attack Israel as spoken of in EZEK 38 & 39.

Thus far we have seen GOD’s judgment upon such false gods of Egypt like Hapi the god of the Nile, Heqet the frog-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, the false god named Geb, the god of earth; also Kheper the god of beetles and flies, then Apis the sacred bull god, and Isis (along with Serapis and Thoth); the sky god called Nut and now Seth:

8. Plague of Locust– The eighth plague was swarms of locusts sent out to devour any remaining crops in Egypt. This plague again focused a direct assault against the false god, Seth (god of crops). The locusts ate everything in sight, destroying all the Egyptian’s crops. 

EXODUS 10:7
7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

What does it say in
PROVERBS 16:18?
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall

And we will see the fall of this false-god worshiping Pharaoh, very, very soon! These servants of Pharaoh refer to Moses as “a snare” – when they have it backwards; Egypt is being a snare to GOD’s people: very much like King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were with Israel and Elijah:

1 KINGS 18:17-18
17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? 18 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim
.

Now here we see an example of false repentance from Pharaoh:

EXODUS 10:8-11
8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go? 9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. 10 And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. 11 Not so: go now ye that are men and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence
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Pharaoh here seems to repent as he tells Moses and Aaron to “go, serve the LORD your God” but then asks who is going with them, and Moses essentially says, “Everyone and everything!”
Pharaoh tells him “to see to it but beware, you’re headed for trouble (“for evil is before you”). 

Then he changes his mind in mid-sentence it seems and says, “only your men will go and serve the LORD as you originally requested”, but notice he doesn’t give leave to Moses to bring their flocks and herds; seeing how Egypt’s own livestock are all but destroyed, perhaps he has a spoil in mind? Which is ironic seeing how in a couple more chapters, the LORD will see to it that Israel takes a spoil from Egypt!

But this warning about a plague of locusts from GOD came before the plague and since Pharaoh refused, then the LORD brings it on:

EXODUS 10:12-16
12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. 13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14 And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. 15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through ALL the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you
.

Note that: “in haste” – this teeny god of Egypt is seeing that the GOD of these Hebrew slaves means business as these locusts literally decimate everything that grows! He not only confesses sin against “the LORD GOD” but also “against [Moses]”!

EXODUS 10:17-19
17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only. 18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord. 19 And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt
.

When the hail came and destroyed the crops growing at that time (the flax and barley; EXOD 9:31), Pharaoh knew that the time for the wheat and rye weren’t yet grown up, so Egypt could still survive, but with the coming of these locusts, even this latter crop was wiped out! This explains Pharaoh’s “in haste” motivation and his seemingly sincere repentance, though it isn’t!
The LORD ups the stakes, hardens Pharaoh’s heart and lets the locusts fly and devour!

EXODUS 10:20-23
20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. 21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. 22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: 23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings
.

9. Plague of Darkness-The ninth plague was a direct judgment against the very popular sun god Ra. God sent darkness to cover the land for 3 days. The darkness that descended on Egypt was unlike nightfall experienced here on earth. This darkness was different, it was as if everything it touched had been swallowed up by the blackness. However, the Israelites did not suffer through the 3 days of darkness. God ensured that the homes of his people had light.

For an outline of GOD’s Judgment of plagues against the gods of Egypt, check out this site
Even after the severity of this plague, Pharaoh is relentless in his determination to hold the Hebrews back from worshiping the Holy One!

You remember in the book of GENESIS that when GOD created the world in six days, and at the end of each day, it was stated: “And the evening and the morning were the first day. (GEN 1:5)”

“Evening” (ereb) doesn’t only refer to dark, and night, and the setting of the sun; it also refers to disorder; in the same but opposite way, “morning” (boker) can mean ‘order’. So at the end of each day, GOD’s creation took on more and more order. Thus these two words ereb and boker can refer to disorder and order respectively.

Disorder is another way of saying lawlessness, randomness, also iniquity (2 THESS 2:7 which speaks of “the mystery of iniquity” that was already at work in the days of the apostle Paul).
So when you read about darkness – like “the children of darkness” (EPH 5:8) you can think of iniquity, rebellion, disorder.

This is what happens to any society that rejects the law of the LORD, the Word of GOD: they fall away from the GOD-ordained order that He created, and it results in chaos and confusion, sinful man striving against his Maker: just look what’s become of America and Western Society as a whole!
JAMES 3:16
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work
.
EXODUS 10:24-26
24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you. 25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. 26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither
.

I love the heart of Moses here, when Pharaoh demands that he keep the Hebrew’s flocks and herds behind, all the while offering to let the children go – a vain compromise that really amounts to nothing – but did you hear what Moses said?

“…there shall not a hoof be left behind…”

Saints: this is the attitude of a true, blood bought child of GOD who says, “the world has had a hold of me all those years before I came to Christ, and I am sick and tired of the compromise in my life in letting the ways of this Rebel Planet into my mind, into my actions and I have had enough! This is where I draw the line, and the world isn’t going to have its way with me any longer!
I am committed to the LORD Jesus Christ, and from here on out, I am going to give all of me, all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength in my love and devotion to my LORD and Savior – because He gave His all for me on the cross, I can do no less than to give all of me to Him, for He is worthy!

The cross is not a casual way of execution; there was nothing ordinary about that kind of death; it was the most excruciating method of torture that could literally drive people insane with that kind of pain.

Yet JESUS gave His all for us out of His love for us: saints, how can we settle for plain, ordinary, mediocre, indifferent, lukewarm Christianity? Is that what Jesus died on the cross for? So we can be ordinary, run-of-the-mill Christians?

Jesus left the holy halls of heaven to come to this stinking, sin-drenched, spiritually foul smelling world out of a love for us, and there are some Christians today who can’t spend 15 minutes in the Word? Who can’t take 30 minutes out of 56 hrs. of free time we have each week? Who can’t find the time to get to fellowship every Sunday each week?

It’s time that the true saints of GOD show themselves different than those who only claim to be Christian and are not – and say with Moses, “I will not leave a single part of me – 'not a hoof' or not a finger or a toe behind in this world! I am giving myself completely, totally, radically to JESUS and if the world calls me a Jesus Freak, I will take that as a badge of honor!"

All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give!
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live!
I surrender all, I surrender all!
All to thee my Blessed Savior, I surrender all!

We find that the more we surrender to the LORD, the freer we are, the sweeter our life is, the lighter the load we carry, the deeper our experience is in the presence of the LORD!

EXODUS 10:27-29
27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. 29 And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more
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ALSO: see this special message by Dr. Gregory Reid, entitled DANIEL PEOPLE, as taught at Family Life Christian Center in Spring, Texas; this message is about being God's people in a dark hour, who make a difference for the Kingdom of God.

DANIEL PEOPLE by Greg Reid




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