Our last message was, in class number 165, you don't fear me yet, but you will. You don't fear me yet, but you will. We look at Pharaoh, and we look at the Egyptians, and we look at the Israel. You know, the thing about it is, is the Jews there, the Israel, they were fickle as all get out. And if anything went wrong, they blame Moses, And they didn't want to see that all the plagues that were going on around them were actually God leading them out and God conquering all of their little gods, so to speak. We're going to go back and review just a little bit. When Moses and Aaron went back into Egypt, Aaron was there, but he came and met his brother. When they went down into Egypt, the first miracle that they performed was the miracle of the rod turned into not serpents, but dragons, dragons, gigantic leviathans, right in the floor of Pharaoh's palace. Of course, God's dragon overcame Janice and Jambres' dragon. We know that from the book of Jasher, and we know that from Paul's writing in the New Testament. Satan did have the power to turn those rods into leviathans. Satan has supernatural powers. He is not omnipowerful. He is omnipresent. God is. God is more powerful than Satan or Lucifer. Then the next major miracle was the water of the Nile River, which was a god to them, was turned into blood. They couldn't even dig a well to the edge or out to the side of the river and get fresh water. All of it was turned to blood. Then the frogs and their frog god was overcome because he was supposed to keep all the frogs from coming in. And it was a fertility too, a god of fertility. And so God overcame that one in Exodus 8, 1 through 15. Then the people in the... Animals were infested with gnats that bit, biters, is what it said in Exodus 8, 16 through 19. Swarms of flies covered the land, Exodus 20 through 32. The disease, the anthrax, hit the animals, and anthrax affects animals and it affects people. They had staph infection with this. Now they have anthrax. These are all deadly diseases. The boils and sores, which were the staph infection, the Egyptians and their animals, the staph infection spread to all of 9-8 to 12. Then the boils and sores on there. The hail destroyed the crops. And of course, God overcame their god of the weather in Exodus 9-13 to 35. Then swarms of locusts covered the land. 10, one, two, 20, and we're right in the middle of that right now. So now, all of the gods that protected the crops of the nation of Egypt are all being conquered. Their land is being totally destroyed. Pharaoh keeps saying that he's gonna turn God's people loose, but he does not do it. He'll change his heart. He'll harden his own heart, and then God hardens his heart also. So now we're going to go to 10 and verse number 11 in this class number 166. O-Tah-Me-Eth-Pah-Nay-Pah-Roh Not that little low there that's an adverb of negation there and not so ye walk now please the man and serve Jehovah because you seeking and he drove out them from the face of Pharaoh. He drove them out from the face of Pharaoh. We're going to go back and read this in the English translation. And he said, Jehovah unto Moses, stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt. Locusts, each one of them shall come up for themselves. I'm going to call them and they're going to come up. All these locusts are going to get together. Upon the earth. That word there, that he may go up. Each and every one. God is going to call all the millions of locusts, he's going to call every one of them there. It's third person, magazine, or cow, juicy, in meaning. That's middle voice. That is volition. In Egypt, and he may eat, all the vegetation in the land which all has been left from the curse of the hail, from the plague of hail. And he stretched out Moses his staff. Where was the power? Where was the power to do all the miracles? You remember where the power was? Marilyn, you remember where the power was? In the staff. God's power was in the staff. Where did this staff originally come from? From the book of Jasher. The information that we have. God held it in his hand when he created and reconstructed the earth, both. And then he gave it to Adam. It was his staff. It was power. It was authority. and he held out God's staff over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah, he had driven a wind, an east wind, Ruach Gadim. The word east there means where the sun comes up. The east wind, the east breath, in the land, and all that day, and all that night, until the break of day came, became the wind. This east wind that had carried the locust. Now the locust got up in the air, flying, and the wind started blowing them like a storm. And God's wind blew them into the land of Egypt. And he went up, now this is third person, master of singing, or Kalawow, consecutive person. He went up and kept on going up. Each locust, each one, upon all the land of Egypt. And each one of them rested in every part, in every nook and cranny of Egypt, many exceedingly before the face, and never had become such locusts like them, and are before or afterwards, and not shall it keep on becoming so. Nothing like this ever happened. Locust plagues come around. Down there on the farm, there in the old river one time, the locusts came in there, the grasshoppers came in there. They ate everything that was alive and eating, and ate the paint off the house. 10 and verse 15, and he completely covered the whole sight, the eyes, what it says there, why cause et in. In other words, you couldn't see. You couldn't see. There was no one able to see in all the land. And the land, she became dark. And each locust, each one, kept on eating every green thing on the land and all the fruit of the trees which had been left from the hail. And not, it was left, any or all the green trees, and the plants of the field, the pasture there, Hasida, in all the land of Egypt. And again, 10 and verse 16 now. Wayon Nahar. Pedro, Lico, Moshe, Le, Le, Moshe. Yuli Haaron, Wayomer, Hatati, Lehi Zavar, Elohekin, Rilekem. And he hurried, Pharaoh, to call Moses. Now he's in a hurry. Moses, or not Moses, Joseph had made the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, in his day, the richest man in all the world. And Pharaoh, at the time of the captivity of Israel in Egypt, was still a very wealthy man. Joseph and his brothers defended the nation of Israel, or the nation of Egypt, while they were there. And then they all died. And the new Pharaoh, the different family of Pharaohs, did not know Joseph. And now, he is going to become a pauper. Pharaoh was wealthy, but now he shall become a pauper. He did not listen to God. God said, you do not fear me yet, but you will. And Aaron, and he said, I have missed the mark. Again, he said, I have missed the mark. Ha-ti-ti. I have missed the mark. That comes from cha-ta. And the equivalent in the New Testament in Romans 3.23 is astokio, not hamartia. Astokio means I missed the mark. Hamartia or hamartia means to go astray. And I have missed the mark against Jehovah. Elohim, Elohim, your creator. Now Elohim was Pharaoh's creator also, whether he knew it or not. Elohim, Jehovah Elohim was Jehovah's God, or Pharaoh's God, whether he knew it or not. And I have sinned against Jehovah, your God, and against all of you, and against all of you. verse number 17 and now please forgive me forgive my missing mark only this time and praying to Jehovah your God that he may take from upon only The death, this. Take away this death from me. Take away this death. Take away this death from me. Nothing's left. They're gonna starve to death now because they didn't listen. And he went out from with Pharaoh and he prayed unto Jehovah. And he changed Jehovah the wind of the sea, strong exceedingly. And he carried the locust. And he thrust them, as a unit, by the way, as one piece. He thrust them, literally he thrust him, each one of them, in the Sea of Reeds, Yamasuf. The Sea of Reeds is where they crossed. It says in the Septuagint, and it says in the English translation, of course, in the New American Standard, over to the side, it will say, it's not the Red Sea, but the Sea of Reeds. This is not the Red Sea, but the Sea of Reeds. It was a more shallower place where there was a lot of reeds out there. And so he cast all of these locusts, each and every one of them, in the Sea of Reeds. And not was left one locust in all the boundary of Egypt. Did God answer? Did God answer Pharaoh's prayer? Did God answer Pharaoh's prayer? Yes, he did. But now look and see what happens now. What is the effect and what is the result of a hardened heart? And he made strong Jehovah. Now Jehovah is gonna harden Pharaoh's heart. A Pharaoh, and not, he sent away the sons of Israel. And said Jehovah unto Moses, stretch out your hand unto the heavens. And he may become, the heavens may become for themselves darkness upon the land of Egypt. And he may feel darkness. He may feel darkness. Marilyn, did you go down in the Carlsbad cabins? You went down in there. Did they turn the lights out? Could you feel the darkness? I mean, that's dark, isn't it? Now, the other day, Was it yesterday, I believe. We were in the pantry together, in the smuggler's pantry that we have. You walk in there, in a door, and there's only one little window and it's blocked off. But the electricity went out and we were in the dark. You couldn't see me and I couldn't see you in there, could we? I said, just stay where you are. Don't move. And I got around you and I went out, of course, within about 10 seconds maximum, the electricity came back on because our generator came on. I don't know how long we lost electricity, but we were in the dark in there, weren't we? Yeah. Yet, I remember, I can't keep from sneezing there. That was involuntary. Probably five or six years ago. You know, there aren't a lot of city lights here in Fish Lake Valley, are there? Brett came up, and I know most of you know who Brett is. Brett came up, and he stayed down there on Wright Road in Mary Jane's little cabin down there. And he went out there at nighttime. There was no light anywhere, and he went outside, and he said it felt like the darkness was just crushing his chest. It scared him very much. He was afraid. Stillness and quiet and darkness will really terrify you One time down there they said When I was down in Carl's bed Kevin said we're gonna turn the lights out now We're only gonna turn the lights out for like 30 seconds now if you Have a heart condition or something you can go over there in that room right there and close that door And there'll be light in there because this is a very terrifying moment you're gonna have. It's only 30 seconds, but it says it will feel like it's an hour. They turned the lights out. And you could just feel, it's a pressure. The darkness is a pressure. It's like it's suffocating you, this darkness. Did anybody scream there when you were down in Carlsbad Cavern with the darkness, Marilyn? Did anybody scream? My dad wanted to get out of there fast. Your dad wanted out of there fast. When they turned the lights out down there, people screamed. Not instantly, within 5 seconds or 10 seconds, they just started screaming and crying. Screaming and crying. It's terrifying. That darkness is terrifying. Yeah, he wanted to get out of there fast. He wanted to get out of there fast. It's scary. being down in that. There are people that go down in caves, and even with water in them, it's called splunking. It's called splunking. They go down there and they dive. They explore these caves and things. They take lights with them. A few years ago, there were some children somewhere who went into a cave, and the water went in, and the floods came, and they almost killed all of them. I think some of them got out of there. They were just terrified. Darkness is like, it's like you being suffocated. I remember a long time ago, my mother was married a few times, several times actually. Her second husband was working for Calcutt and The cotton that you get, your clothes are made out of and everything else is, it comes from the cotton plants. In California, in the San Joaquin Valley, that's where most of the cotton in the world was actually produced at one time. And the Kyle Cot had great big cotton gins, and they had to walk these catwalks above them. And Jim fell down into the cotton. A lot of people die. He got out. But he said it was this total darkness. He didn't know where to go. Darkness scares you. I remember out there on the Kern River one time. Remember Merrill Haggard's story about the Kern River? I'll never swim in the Kern River again. There are a lot of people who died in the Kern River. Well, I was an excellent swimmer. Maryland said I could swim like a porpoise or a seal. Is that right? Yeah. Anyway, I went out there, and we were fishing in this deep, deep, deep hole. It's real deep. And I decided that I was gonna go down to the bottom of that hole, because I could swim for more than a block. The Union Avenue plunge in Bakersfield there on Union Avenue was about 100 yards long, and I could swim all the way through that, from one end of it to the other, and go underneath the barriers. and everything. I could swim underneath both ways without ever coming up. Gary Harwell used to bet money on me, but nobody believed anybody could do that, but I did. I could jump in the canal down on Quantico and Edison Highway and swim all the way down to where I lived, which was a quarter of a mile underwater, but I was swimming with the stream. Well, anyway, I dove down in that river. And I went down so far, and all of a sudden, it turned black. You can see up, usually, when you're in water. But I think I was probably close to 50 feet deep in the water. And I went down there, and it just became black. and the water began to swirl down there. It was like a, just like a tornado down there. And I was really struggling. I came up out of that, and I didn't dive in there again. I got out of there alive, but I didn't dive in that hole again. It was black, the blackness. You could feel the black. I could feel the blackness, and I could feel the current around me, and I didn't, for a while, I didn't know which way was up. I finally held my breath, and then I started trembling and tumbling, and it threw me out. It threw me out of the deal. I got to that because my body was floating. And I did go up. And then I went really, really, really fast to get up out of there. My grandmother was scared to death. I was down there so long. She just about jumped in after me. terrifying darkness and blackness. But you know, in all reality, spiritually, many people are in that darkness, and Pharaoh was in that darkness spiritually. The darkness there has a double meaning. God terrified those people in darkness. You couldn't see. You couldn't see your hand. Can you imagine being in that darkness for a day? Not 30 seconds, Marilyn, like down in Carlsbad Caverns, but a day. Terrifying. Terrifying. Yet God was telling them, you're living in darkness. And some of those Egyptians believed, but there's many people out there today living in that type of darkness. Living in darkness. Living in the world, atheism, the cults and isms, where just every shade of belief is out there. From the Buddhists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Islam, we see all of these damning religions in darkness. The undertaker of darkness, keeping their eyes blind from it and by it. Our Father, we send this message out tonight to honor and glorify your great powers that you showed in Egypt so long ago. Let us remember those curses upon them and upon the world today. America is living in darkness today. Living in darkness where right is wrong and wrong is right. That's a spiritual darkness, people. Our God, we ask you to shine the light of truth throughout your land, to wake your people up. I never thought that I'd ever believe, that I'd ever live in a country like this. You know, Father, when I went to the land of Egypt and Syria, Lebanon, Over there, when I went on the Sea of Galilee and I saw that American flag fly up there, I couldn't wait to get home and kiss the ground over here. We were safe. There was a semblance of justice and right and wrong. Father, please give it back to us, we pray. I know we'll have to fight for it, but please help us. Please forgive me where I fail you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.