God's Word, Exodus chapter 8, starting in verse 16. Let's stand together for the reading of God's Word. Let's give our attention to the very Word of God. So the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said. And the Lord said to Moses, Rise early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, Thus says the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies and also on the ground on which they stand. And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen in which my people dwell. No swarms of flies shall be there in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be And the Lord did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. Moses said, it is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he commanded us. So Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. Only you shall not go very far. Intercede for me." Then Moses said, Indeed, I am going out from you. And I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. But let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. So Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did, according to the word of Moses. He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart. At this time also, neither would he let the people go. Thus far, the very word of God. Let us pray. O Lord our God, as we have assembled before you to continue in our worship, we come to the pinnacle when we would humble ourselves before you and hear the Word of God. Father, we ask that as you have appointed the preaching of the Word, what is deemed foolish by men and weakness, that you would demonstrate your strength and power, that you would attend the preaching of the Word with the Holy Spirit, both in its going forth and in our hearing, and that as you send forth your Word, that it would accomplish your will in each heart. Father, we recognize that your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, the piercing of soul and spirit, a discerner in the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Lord, accomplish good in us. And Lord, even as we've heard of the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, Lord God, give us tender hearts, or as Jesus spoke in the parable, good soil, fertile ground, that your word would take root there and bear fruit for the glory of our God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Thus far we have seen the results of a king with a heart of stone. Pharaoh with a dead heart of sinners. He has arrogantly taken on a contest with God Almighty. You might say, well, how foolish. Yes, indeed, how foolish, but our own hearts are not far from the same danger. Pharaoh has dared to refuse to obey God, the God of the Hebrews, who is also the God that he and indeed all people answer to. God is the Lord over all creation. Indeed, all the nations answer to Him. And it's not gone well for Egypt. There's been two plagues thus far. The Pharaoh, because of, they've been because of Pharaoh's rebellion. The land of Egypt has been plagued with a complete loss of water. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? No water. No water in all the land because of Pharaoh's rebellion the land has also the blood was turned to blood and so you had that corruption the death and the destruction of the fish and and all the things that dwell in the water and the land stank with a stench of death but then the land was overrun with frogs and and then the frogs died when Moses entreated the Lord and and they were piled up in heaps and And I think we should imagine that they continue to be piled up in heaps, that there would have been an effort to get rid of them. What would you do with heaps and heaps and heaps of frogs throughout all the land? But Pharaoh remains as he was. He's hard-hearted, unwilling, and unable to change his ways. What we see in this man is the inability of the sinner. I mentioned earlier that he had a heart of stone. This is what the prophet Ezekiel says, God speaking through him, that we have a heart of stone. Stone hearts are incapable of transformation. There is no way that Pharaoh can change himself. We see that Pharaoh is a powerful picture of every sinner in every age since. For over 3,000 years of recorded history, this record of this rebellious man, a man rebelling against God, has remained as a testimony to warn all who would do conflict with God. But indeed, that's the condition of man's heart, to be in conflict with God. Total depravity, disobedience, rebellion on every side before the Almighty. There's another lesson here too. There's a lesson that you do not mess with God's people. To mess with God's people is to touch his own, his church. If you do so, you will not come out unharmed. And that's a message to the civil magistrates, the tyrants, and the dictators of our day, even as it is for all days. So once more, let us remember that this history from so long ago tells us how God made himself known to his people as well as to the nations. So we see happening in the book of Exodus, God is making himself known, that he, he is God alone over all. He is faithful to keep his covenant that he made with Abraham, thus we see him referred to throughout this text as the Lord, the covenant faithful one. and he's making himself known as sovereign over all. We've seen that thus far in the plagues, we're going to see that even more so as we move forward. These things are just as true. These lessons, these truths, God making himself known as God over all, sovereign, all-powerful, are just as true today. This is an ancient book of ancient history, but the realities of God have not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, even forever. We use four main headings, real straight forward. The third plague, the fourth plague, Pharaoh relents, Pharaoh recants. This is the pattern we saw in the last two plagues. Well, in the last plague, the relenting of Pharaoh and then his recanting. You will see that there's a more thorough outline provided in your worship guide. We'll begin with the third plague. The third plague comes with some changes. There's a pattern in plagues one and two and there's some changes in this pattern. The pattern has changed with the third and fourth plagues. First we see with this third plague, judgment comes without warning. The first two plagues and even the initial encounter that Moses and Aaron had You know, they went to Pharaoh. They stood before Pharaoh. The rods were thrown down, turned into serpents. They gobbled up Pharaoh's magician's rods. But the issue of the water turning to blood, Pharaoh was warned. The frogs, Pharaoh was warned. Not so this time. Pharaoh, in the last play, recanted and then, or he relented and then he recanted. He changed his mind. And so God strikes without warning. Moses made no announcements. There was no going out to meet Pharaoh by the river. This plague was put upon Egypt without any warning and Moses spoke to no one. The Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. The previous two judgments were for the king's refusal to obey. and that they served as a warning. It was not necessary for a warning this time. He's had ample warning with the prior two plagues, that you don't mess with God, that your rebellion will be answered with a heavy hand from the Almighty. Children, you understand that if you've been disciplined by your father for lying, say once or twice, you understand that if you lie again, you would expect discipline again every time you're thinking of telling a lie you don't need to be warned that there will be discipline that follows you see that's Pharaoh has been disciplined he's been struck and yet he's not learned that critical lesson So the plague comes, and it's an affliction on man and beast. Certainly the water, the loss of water in the land would have afflicted beast as well as man. The frogs would have been inconvenient for the livestock, not as much so as for man. No doubt there would have been certain animals in the land that would have filled their bellies with frogs. But this plague is different, and it comes at the command of the Lord. Moses speaking to Aaron. Aaron then obeying the word of God, stretched out his rod, and he strikes the dust of the land. God says, this is what's going to happen. And that the dust will become lice for all the land. Verse 17, And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and he struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. A lot of dust in the land, isn't there? We try to get it removed from our houses because it shows up on a regular basis. We go out for a walk and it's on our shoes. There's dust everywhere. And you can imagine in a land not far from the equator as Egypt was that the quantity of dust would have been incalculable, although God knows. Aaron struck the dust and it became lice. Now, some translations render this as gnats. The word in the Hebrew is used infrequently, and I think that we were very comfortable with the word lice. Gnats are a nuisance too, are they not? Swarms of them. They've been to Maine in the summer with the midges and the black flies. Whatever swarms is bad, but we're going to stay with the lice. I think that I'm comfortable with the New King James translation. These are tiny wingless insects that feed on human blood. I don't know if any of you have had any experience with these. When we lived in Brazil, that was a problem. My mother would set us down and go through our hair looking for lice. This little fine, fine, fine tooth comb to try and find them out. These lice are parasites. They infest the hair. They infest the body. They infest our private parts. They burrow, and they bite, and they cause intense itching. I'm being descriptive. I want you to be uncomfortable because I want you to imagine this plague. They lay eggs that hatch in about six days. A single louse, that's one lice, is no larger than a sesame seed. Lice are carriers of disease like typhus. How do you like these little guys? there through all of the land. Moses told Aaron, he struck the dust with his rod and all, notice the languages, all the dust of the land became lice. This is where lice tend to live. This isn't just that these lice were laying in the dust, but God acting supernaturally with His power, acted and turned the dust of the land into lice. And they were everywhere, on every man and beast. This is widespread throughout the land. All the dust became lice. No one escaped, as with the other place. Everyone was consumed day and night with itching and scratching. If the frogs kept people up at night, how much more the constant itching and scratching, have lice infesting every crevice and part of your body, gnawing, biting after your blood. Now we said the plague of water turned to blood, that this was a severe plague, a severe affliction. But is not this also misery? But then what we see in the text is man's inability. What's more, Pharaoh's magicians trying to perform the same miracle, the same thing with their secret arts. Why? As badly, why do they want more lice? Well, I don't think they want more lice, but they want to say, we can compete. We can stand against this man Moses and Aaron. We can do as they have done. They're really no different than us. And thus far, that argument may have been maintained. But not this time. The text says, they could not. They could not do it. Nor could they get rid of the lice. What we see here is man's complete inability. Even as Pharaoh couldn't change his heart, no man throughout all the land could undo what God had done in turning dust to lice. No one could undo the affliction that God had put upon them. And so, to underscore, look at how verse 18, we've already been told earlier that lice was on man and beast, and so when we're told they could not, verse 18, so there were lice on man and beast. It's underscored, this reality of this great affliction, but there's more. The magicians take notice of this. They notice that they could not do this. They couldn't do it this time. God, in his sovereign will, has permitted them to replicate in some way through magic arcs or through the power of the devil. This time, goddesses know more, because God is sovereign over all. God has stayed their hand from whatever they have employed in the past. They cannot, and they know it. So what do they tell Pharaoh? This is the finger of God. They say it's the fist of God, the hand of God. It's like, this is the finger of God. You can imagine, well, if this is only the finger of God, what's coming next? They declare to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. Pharaoh's miserable. Pharaoh is not exempt. The lice are infesting his body. He's scratching and itching. They're sucking his blood out of his body and putting him at risk for whatever disease they were carrying in that day. But it had no effect on Pharaoh. Verse 19. Even his magicians have told him this is the finger of God, but Pharaoh's heart grew hard. That's what we've been hearing. Pharaoh's heart grew hard. Pharaoh's heart is hardened. Pharaoh hardens his heart. God will triumph over all his enemies sooner or later. They must acknowledge that he is God alone. But Pharaoh will not. We'll be reminded here, as we see in the Gospels, that people demanded that Jesus show them a sign. And Jesus said, a wicked and perverse generation seeks for a sign. And what we see from the mighty miracles that Jesus performed in his day, and even these in the days of Moses, signs and wonders do not change hearts. Let me say that again. Signs and wonders do not change hearts. And yet, even in our day, there are those who, under the banner of Christ, calling themselves Christians, go about in some chicanery or another to do signs and wonders, as if to somehow persuade or wow people to come into Christ. Well, you can just as quickly be led astray as well when the next charlatan comes along. Signs and wonders do not change hearts. If they did, Pharaoh's heart would have been radically altered. Certainly at some point along this chain of ten plagues, the signs and wonders do not change hearts. The Holy Spirit alone can do that. And the Holy Spirit alone does that based upon and because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was for this reason that the Son of God came into this world. He came to do what no other could do. No son of Adam had the ability to change his own heart. No more than the leopard can do away with the spots where the Ethiopian changed the color of his skin. Jesus came to do it. He took on our humanity and lived in full obedience before God. And then he went to the cross, laid down his life, and as the sin bearer, he suffered and died under the wrath of God to pay the penalty for sin, which is death. He died the death. that we should die. He died in our place. He came to do for us what we could not, would not do for ourselves. He's the righteous one. The very righteousness of God come in human flesh. Jesus Christ is unique. Do you see how unique Christ is? People of God who look to Christ as your Savior, you just see how unique He is, how precious He is. There is none other like Him. He alone is the God-Man. He alone has lived an obedient life before God in our humanity. He alone obeyed the Father in all His deeds. We saw this throughout the Gospel of John. He only did what He saw His Father doing. He only spoke what He heard His Father saying. There is no other like Him. And indeed, He should be precious to our souls. So while we gather to worship week by week, because He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. And no one comes to the Father but by Him. Is Jesus precious to you? Is He your only hope in life and death? Do you look to Him alone for your salvation? Before we go on, following that application, when God gives a warning, and a sinner pleads for mercy, perhaps you've experienced this in your life, you've been under some affliction, some heavy hand of God, perhaps as a consequence of the Lord's discipline in you. When you plead for mercy, once mercy is received, do not think that you can turn around and stick out your tongue at God. without consequences. You understand that, children? Do you not think you can just turn around and thumb your nose at God or stick your nose out at God? God will not suffer any harm from you. But that attitude is a manifestation of a hard heart. The only response to the hand of God is to bow the knee before King Jesus and declare that He alone is Lord. When nations or men rebelled against God, the one who reigns over all, let all understand that God has many arrows in his quiver." I'm drawing this language from Matthew Henry. That is to say, he has all ways, sorts of ways to afflict and to discipline and to chastise. He has no limits on what judgments he can bring on the children of Adam. Water to blood, frogs in a superabundance, turning dust into lice. look and learn and do not presume upon the mercies of God Pharaoh gave way after the frogs and then as soon as the frogs were moved Pharaoh went right back to his hard-hearted condition the message of God is repent now for now today is the day of salvation we move on to the fourth plague It's interesting, the last plague, the frogs, Pharaoh says, OK, intercede for me. The lice comes without warning, and it's a severe affliction. We're not told that Pharaoh asked for anything. We're not told that Moses interceded and that the lice were removed. Are the people continued to be afflicted with the lice? We're not told they're taken away. So they may have just lived out their lives as the people continue to scratch with the fourth plague. Pharaoh has asked for no relief. We don't know how long the affliction lasts, but it seems as though, as you read through the plagues, that the plagues come on one after the other, on the heels of themselves. With the exception of the plague of blood, which we're told there was a lapse of seven days before the frogs, there's no such record of that. And if you look at the beginning of each one, so the Lord said to Moses, the lice, and the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning. Chapter 9, and the Lord said to Moses, and the Lord said to Moses, and the Lord said to Moses, the plagues are coming one on the heels of the other. So it is. Pharaoh goes out in the morning, no doubt desiring to be free from the lice, he goes out to bathe himself, comes to the river, God tells Moses to be there early in the morning, meet him there. Servants of the Lord, we need to understand we need to be ready to do the will of the Lord whether it's early or late. Moses obeys. He's there early in the morning. And he meets Pharaoh down by the riverside. And he's given the warning. The warning is renewed. Here again is an opportunity for Pharaoh to repent. Notice the message he comes with. It's the same message. Surely Pharaoh has it memorized. Thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. The message has not changed. The ambassador of God, Moses through Aaron, he has not changed the message. He declares it again, let my people go. And after the lice, that severe affliction, Pharaoh had an opportunity. He could have repented. He said, okay. But he didn't. And so the language, the word goes on. Look at verse 21. Children, you ever heard this from your mother or your father or else? Do as I'm telling you, or else. This is the message of the superior to the inferior. Let my people go, or else. And or else what? If you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies. Notice you should have the flies in italics, because the word in the Hebrew is swarms. It's swarms. And so you find in some English translations different insects suggest it is certainly is a swarming insect and because later on we're told that the land was corrupted in verse 24 by the swarms of flies. I think the swarms, I think flies is a fair translation because what do flies do? Remember, we got dead things in the land, a lot of death in the land. What do flies do? They hover over the dead things, they lay eggs, and they reproduce at an incredible rate, do they not? You put something kind of nasty in a trash can, you come back out the next morning, there's maggots already. Do they reproduce at a tremendous rate? Swarms of flies, and they come, and they're everywhere, corrupting everything. And when we think of flies, we think of disease, uncleanness, filth. They gather where filthy things are and we don't want them on us because they've come from that dead, rotting thing. We don't want whatever they carried on their feet on us, right? Swarms of flies. That's what God has told favor will come. Swarms of flies on you, on your servants. This is the same language as with the lights that just happened. On you, on your servants. on your people, and into your houses, swarms, not a few moose and flies, swarms of flies. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies. My grandfather and uncle farmed, and they had dairy cows, so there was a lot of manure around, and there was always flies around. We had all kinds of stuff to try to get rid of the flies, but there were flies everywhere. There weren't swarms of flies. It's hard to imagine. Swarms like clouds moving and flies. That's what God is telling you. And not only in your houses, but also on the ground on which they stand. That's a lot of flies. In that day, we see God makes a distinction or the Lord discriminates. Notice what he tells Pharaoh. In that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarm of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord." Remember this is our theme. God is making himself known to this arrogant king who is full of himself. powerful nation, a powerful king, and yet he is nothing before the Lord God. I am going to do this that you may know that I am the Lord. I'm going to make a distinction in the midst of the land. Verse 23, I will make a difference between my people and your people. This is looking down to the tenth plague when the death angel will come throughout the land. When God makes a distinction. Indeed, moving forward, we see this distinction. God says, not my people, but your people will be afflicted with the swarms of flies. Imagine you're an Egyptian and this sign folds. You're going, why aren't they bothered? Well, because the God of Hebrews has sent this on the Egyptians and he's protecting his own people. And then God tells Moses to Aaron to tell Pharaoh tomorrow, this sign shall be. Go back to your house. Did you scratch your armpits? And be ready, because tomorrow it's going to happen. And then everybody wakes up the next morning in the land of Egypt to swarms of flies. It's a little bit hard for us to imagine this, but just think about what it's like to be an Egyptian. No water, frogs everywhere, lice on everything, and now what? Swarms of flies. Has the word gone out through the land? Has it reached into the southern regions that they understand that Pharaoh is refusing to obey the God of the Hebrews? That he's bringing all this on him? You can imagine discontent. You know, we get discontent when the government does, you know, anything. The president sneezes the wrong way or something. A discontentment goes down. What discontentment must there have been through that? People are suffering. And Pharaoh's suffering. He's not free from this. Verse 24, And the Lord did so. Notice the language, thick swarms. Like you see them, they're just everywhere. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants' houses, into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. Once again, we are taught that God is Lord over all of creation. Governing all His creatures, all His actions. Lice, they came from the dust. God is sovereign over all of creation. Even the dust obeys His command. And here these flies come by God's command. They come and they're everywhere. And notice this comes at God's command. the next morning. God doesn't tell Aaron to get up in the morning, lift up your rod, strike something. It's just they come in the morning. God operates in this one independent from the agency or the usefulness of man. He just sends the flies everywhere. Every foot of the land is covered. You go walking and you step on flies. This squoosh in the crunch, in the squish, in the scrunch, added to the rotting blood, the dead frogs, now dead flies, and even more swarming. Egypt is a nasty, disgusting, filthy mess. These people who culturally seem to pride themselves on cleanliness, even shaving their hair from their faces and so forth, now is dotted and dead, rotting things all around, except the land of Goshen, which is where Joseph settled his brothers when they came from Israel some 430 years before. God is demonstrating in this distinction His sovereign grace. that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, He will save whom He will save, again pointing to the 10th commandment. God's grace in salvation is His alone to give to whom He will. Three times in the text, not this one, but over these next blanks, God announces that He's going to make a distinction. Here in verse 22, later in chapter 9, next week we'll see this, God makes a distinction later in chapter 11 when leading up to the Passover. God makes a distinction. Israel was exempt from the plague of flies not because they were righteous, not because they were without sin. Indeed, it's very clear they're pretty much like the Egyptians. As we move beyond the Exodus and out into the wilderness, we're going to see that they're pretty much, they live like Egyptians. They even bring their idols with them. Time and again, Moses has to tell them, Joshua has to tell them, put away your foreign gods. Israel was not exempt because they were righteous. But God had chosen them. They are His people. And so He makes a distinction with them. He makes it clear to Pharaoh that He knew who His people were. And He would deal with them differently. They would be spared the swarms of flies. What a mercy! We're not told that's happened with any of the other plagues. This is the first one. Why? Because God would have his people learn about himself as well. But thirdly, we see Pharaoh relents. Verse 25, Pharaoh responds. The swarms of flies were too much, so we're told that he sends for Moses and Aaron. And he says, go, sacrifice to your God in the land. Is that what God said? No. God said, let my people go. They're to go three days into the wilderness to worship me. He says, well, you go. Go sacrifice. Go worship your God. But notice there's something here. Pharaoh is acknowledging the God of the Hebrews. He is denied that they have a God. They're enslaved to him. How can their God be anything? How can he have any power whatsoever? And now he has discovered that the God of the Hebrews is God, even over Egypt, where he is indeed God over all. Here he is. Here's the arrogance of sinful man. He thinks he can negotiate with God Almighty. Go sacrifice some land. I'll let you do that much. But he's not going to let the people go into the wilderness. He doesn't want his slave labor to depart. Moses in verse 26 makes it clear that Pharaoh's offer is unacceptable. Moses said, it is not right to do so. And then he gives the ground. So if we would sacrifice For we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God." In other words, our worship practices, what God requires. You might say, but we're not that far into Exodus where we hear of all the sacrifices, but we know from the beginning of time and Adam and Eve sin that God just threw an animal, shed blood, and clothed them in the skin of that animal. And we find Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people of God, sacrificing. And Moses knows something of what the sacrifices will be. He knows that the practices of what God requires his people to do, with the shedding of blood, which of course points to Christ for the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Moses knows that. He knows this is an abomination to the Egyptians. Well, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us? The practice here is that the Egyptians did not practice stoning. In looking at the original test, what Moses is saying is that our practices would be so unacceptable to the Egyptians that there would be a riot, that the people would be in an uproar, stoning, throwing stones, not necessarily that they're going to stone them as a matter of punishment, as a means of judgment, because the Egyptians did not practice that. What Moses is telling Pharaoh, our sacrifices will lead to violence in your land. Think about it, people are already on edge. Blood, frogs, lice, flies. And then we come along and do this. What do you see in the text here? Something that's true today. The worship, the pure and righteous worship of the one true and living God is offensive to the world around us. What we gather to do here is not only foolishness to men, but it is offensive. We are being told today, keep your religion in your house. Stay in your building. Don't live your religion in the world around us. This was true even in the first century. The Romans did not want the Christians to practice their religion. Keep it under wraps. We don't want to see it. And today we see that today. The world Those who are the servants of the serpent find those who serve the living God that our worship is offensive. And you know what's sad? There are parts of the church today that are compromised. and imported aspects of what the world does, what the world wants, what is acceptable to the world, what pleases the world, even into the worship of the one true and living God in violation of the second commandment. That we are to worship God as he is appointed, alone. And here we see it. Moses is a man, as it were. And we see Moses then, he's a faithful ambassador. Verse 27, he reiterates it again. We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he will command us. Moses will later tell Pharaoh, he said, exactly what he's going to want. We need to take our animals with us, because we need to find out. But here Moses is already, he says, he's recognizing the regulative principle of worship that the second commandment gives us. We will go and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God as He will command us. Do not add to the worship of God. Do as God has appointed. Moses understands that. Well, in verse 28, Pharaoh finds the conditions so miserable in the land that he grants that Israel may go. But he says, only you shall not go very far. So, okay, I'll let you go out of the land. Not okay with this 3D thing. You can just go a little ways. And then having granted this, he pleads for Moses to intercede for him and for the land, for the plague is great. Moses promises to answer this. He agrees to pray to the Lord for Egypt, for Pharaoh. Pharaoh says, intercede for me. Then Moses said, verse 29, Indeed, I am going out from you, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow. Not right away, but tomorrow. from his servants, from his people, but let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. He's already done this. It's okay, you can go. The plague is lifted. He said, no, he can't go. And Moses said, Pharaoh, don't do that again. He's speaking as an ambassador of God. He speaks as God to Pharaoh. Don't deal deceitfully. Moses warns Pharaoh. You see what Pharaoh's doing here with his deceit? He's giving full evidence what type of man he is. He's a liar. And his father is the father of lies. Satan. The old serpent. That's who Pharaoh belongs to. And we're reminded even in this, this is a contest between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. So even as it was when Pharaoh was trying to destroy all the male children, trying to strike the seed of the woman, Here the conflict is still on. You see the treachery and the lies within Pharaoh because he served Satan. So Moses departed, Moses prayed, and the Lord did as Moses asked. You see how powerful Moses is a picture of Christ who intercedes. Notice the thoroughness of the action, God's action. The text tells us, not one fly remained in the verse 31. Not one. We can't say that about our land. There's probably a fly lurking in this room right now. Not one fly in all the land. There were swarms and clouds you're trying to see through them. Not one remained. God is great. God is way greater than we comprehend. His ability exceeds our understanding. And here's a clear demonstration to Pharaoh and to his people, to Moses and Aaron, to the children of Israel, of the power of God. God is making Himself known. He sent swarms of flies after the lice, and He harassed and made life miserable for the people, and then God spoke and they were gone. There is no other God. a true God. He alone is God, the Lord of all creation. Well, Faber recants then what he said he would do. Just as a dog returns to its vomit and the hog to the mud, so Faber, the king of Egypt, returned to his lying ways. Whereas George Bush, this is not the president, this is George Bush, an early 19th century commentator, he puts it, no sooner was this calamity passed than like a bent bow, the spirit of the king sprung back to its former habitual obstinacy. Snap. Just as soon as the flies were gone, right back to his hard heartedness. Unwillingness. The plague was over. The pressure was over. The suffering had ended. And so this sinner broke his promise again. He hardened his heart further. We've talked about this, the obstinacy, the bullheadedness, and the danger is every time Pharaoh hardens his heart, it's becoming harder and harder. He's already got a dead heart, but he is insensible to the word of God. He is unwilling and unable to hear God, to see what God is doing. So we read the very last part of this portion. Neither would he let the people go. conclude with this. All throughout history, peoples and nations have had their myths and legends. I'm sure we know them. The Greeks had their plethora of gods. The Romans had their gods, their myths, their legends. And they imagined gods in their stories to explain to themselves why things were as they were. They invented stories. But in those stories and the myths, the gods were not the greatest power. Magic was stronger. Men imagined some mystical power that was the greatest of all, that even was greater than the gods of their stories. And this is just as true today. People imagine karma as being the most powerful force. Or as I'm sure you hear as I do, people are speaking about the universe as if it were the great force at work. I've heard people say, well, I'll talk to the universe about that. Oh, the universe is acting. You see this propensity, this desire of our hearts to explain things, this myths, stories to explain things, and somehow there's some magical power greater than all. If we look at the events today, if we look at the events before us today in Exodus 8, We've just read about the limits on magic, haven't we? The magicians could not. Magic failed them because magic is non-existent. It's an imagination. It's a sleight of hand. But here we see that the magicians could not. And that will be true moving forward at every plague. The magicians no longer are going to be able to act. The magicians cannot undo what God had done. Magic is not all-powerful. Magic is not sovereign. Magic is a myth. Only the Lord God of scriptures who dwells in heaven on high is all-powerful. He alone can do all his holy will. No man, not magic, nor in the universe can say to him, what have you done? For all things in heaven and on earth are ordered by his decree. This has been made fully known since the beginning of time, when the first man Adam sinned, God promised that there would be a senior woman who would crush the serpent's head. That serpent, of course, Satan answers to God. I think as Calvin, one of the reformers, said, Satan is God's savior. He's the Savior. He's on his leash. He's a creature who depends upon the Lord. He can only do as the Lord says that he can, as we see fully in the story of Job. hundreds since the first prophecy that God gave in the garden, hundreds of prophecies about this coming seed of the woman with incredible specificity, incredible detail were made about the one who would come, the anointed one, the Messiah, the living God, with exacting detail. And indeed, as Paul writes in Galatians 4, within the fullest of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman. born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. His name is Jesus and he has revealed the Father to the sons of Adam perfectly. And Jesus Christ dwells in the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the redemption of God. Not magic, not myth, but indeed the one who reigns on high. God, who is God over all, came in the flesh. And to know Jesus is to know the Father. That's what we heard in John. And to know the Father is eternal life. There is no one more precious than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is seated on the throne of God, ruling and reigning over the nations. For God has given him the rod of iron. This is his inheritance. The nations belong to him. And they will all bow and submit to King Jesus. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, Lord God, we do thank you for your word that teaches us about who you are, what you've accomplished, Indeed, what you promised to do that will surely come to pass. We thank you for our blessed hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, both in our life as we live day by day, but also at the end of our days, that our hope is in Christ alone. Father, we do thank you that you have demonstrated in days of old your great power over this nation, Egypt. And Father, we find great comfort in knowing that in our day, You are just as powerful, just as much in control, absolutely sovereign, doing all your holy will. So, Lord, grant us peace in the midst of our days. For Christ is King, and He reigns above. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.