The Fifth Plague Livestock

If you have your bibles with you, open them. Please to Exodus chapter nine. Exodus chapter nine, we have come to the halfway point in the plagues. We are at plague number five. It is the fifth of the ten plagues. It is also the middle point of this series of three plagues. Remember we have three series of three plagues, Plagues one through three that are connected, Plagues four through six that are connected, in plagues seven through nine that are connected. They're connected by this pattern where the first of the three plagues, and each pattern begins with going to see Pharaoh in the morning in the water when he is conducting his worship rituals. The middle plague in each of these three sets of three is a plague where Moses is confronted in his officiative capacity or where Pharaoh, excuse me, is confronted in his officiative capacity, more than likely before Pharaoh's court. And in the third plague in each of these three sets of three plagues is a plague where Pharaoh is not confronted, but the plague is merely brought forth. So this is the middle plague in the middle section of plagues. This is the second of three plagues. In the second of three sets of three plagues, and it's the fifth plague in the series of ten plagues. So this is sort of a fulcrum point, if you will, of these plagues. Also in this second set of plagues, if you'll remember, these plagues are unique in that in this second set of three plagues, God makes a clear distinction between Egypt and Israel. He brings the plague on the Egyptians, but he specifically and expressly and obviously protects Israel from the effects of this second set of three plagues. We sat on last week that the picture here is a picture of redemption, that He is redeeming Israel, that he is setting Israel apart, and that this is happening in two ways. Number One, he is demonstrating that He has chosen Israel. He is demonstrating that He is taking Israel as his own, that Israel no longer belongs to Pharaoh, that Israel is not Pharaoh's possession. And there is this fight as Pharaoh tries, we saw in the last plague, to compromise and allow Israel to do what God says while still acting and living as Pharaoh's possession, and God says no. So God's redeeming them in that sense. But there is a second sense that we said, and this second sense that is not said specifically, but that we understand because of this idea, let my people go so that they may worship me. Remember that it's always it's not just let my people go. God is not redeeming Israel simply because they are slaves and he wants them free. He says, let my people go so that they may worship me. God redeems a people to worship him. God is redeeming Israel to worship him. And so the second thing that has to happen is they have to be redeemed and brought out of Egypt. But Egypt also has to be brought out of them. They have not worshiped God rightly in hundreds of years. They don't know how to worship God rightly, and most of what they know about worship, most of what they think about worship, is wrong because they are surrounded by and inundated with the pagan worship of Egypt. So as God is delivering them and setting them apart, he is also showing them very clearly that the Egyptian gods are not God's, that he is God and that he is God alone, because again he is preparing them to be his worshiping people. In this fifth plague, God attacks at the heart of Egypt's wealth and worship. This is important to be known and understood. We just came off of an unofficial day of rems remembrance in the United States. It's not one of our official days. It's not Memorial Day or Armistice Day or Marine Corps Birthday or any of these other specific days. It's not Independence Day. But it is a day. Although it's not an official day of remembrance on our calendar, it is a day of remembrance. It's September eleventh, and we remember that day. It's one of those days. Every generation has its day, that day on which everyone who was alive and cognizant can tell you where they were and what they were doing. We all remember that day. We all remember the attacks of that day. And when you get beyond the sort of visceral response that we have to that day, that let's go get them, that, let's get even response on that day, what you must recognize is the symbolism of that day and the symbolism of those attacks that by attacking the World Trade Center, and by attacking the Pentagon, by having plans to attack Washington, DC. The idea was not to defeat the United States. The idea was to send a very specific message by attacking at the heart of our strength, at the heart of our economic center, at the heart of the military industrial complex, at the heart of what makes us the most powerful nation in the history of planet Earth, in order to make a statement, long before there were skyscrapers, long before there were economic centers, long before there were pentagons. And by the way, warfare today is about economics. Warfare has always been about economics. Who has more money, who has more troops, who has more weapons, It's always about economics. So in essence, the attack on the Pentagon and the attack on the World Trade Center was all about attacking us at our economic center, at our economic core. And before there were skyscrapers, before there were powerful you know, military industrial complexes, before there were all of those things, there was livestock. And we don't think about it that way because we haven't been a grarian in so long. But before the time where you had a bank, before the time where you had Wall Street, before the time where you measured your wealth in terms of these outward things that we have and that we possess. There was a time where your wealth was measured by your livestock, and you determined who was a wealthy individual and who was a wealthy nation by almost livestock they had. But livestock wasn't only connected to your wealth. It was also connected to your worship, because throughout history there has been a tendency for individuals to connect their worship with their wealth, and in this instance, it would have been connecting your worship with your livestock, at least in a symbolic way. And this was very true of Egypt. So an attack on their livestock was absolutely an attack on their wealth and on their worship, just like an attack on the world trade centers was an attack on our wealth and our worship. Because whether we want to admit it or not, for the overwhelming majority of us who call ourselves American, what we worship is our wealth. And if you can't say amen, you ought to say algie. It is our greatest form of idolatry. And this is what God attacks in the Fifth Plague. Look with me at chapter nine, verses one through seven. Then the Lord said to Moses, go in to Pharaoh and say to him again. Last plague he went and met They went and met Pharaoh at the water. This is the middle plague. So in the middle plague we would expect go in to Pharaoh, probably go into the court and meet Pharaoh. And the next one we can expect that they nothing will be said. Go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews. Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague on your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. Notice the wording there even in the English. You see it more in the Hebrew. But look at the wordplay even in the Hebrew. Go back, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews. Here's what's ironic. God is God. Period. Amen. Should have been a little bit more of an amen there, right, Let me try that again. God is God, period Amen. All right, thank you. God is God. Period. He's not just the God of the Hebrews. He's just God. But remember what's happening in this middle section. In this middle section, he is redeeming Israel as his own and he's setting them apart as his own people. And this is a direct confrontation between God and false gods, between Moses and Pharaoh. And God is identifying himself with the Hebrew people. That's why he says so even there, even there, there's an abundance of truth being spoken. I'm the God of the Hebrews. I'm God, period, but today you need to know I'm the God of the Hebrews. I am setting them apart as my people. Let my people go that they may serve me. Again, We've said again and again and again when we say let my people go, you are only saying half of it. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, you're holding them. You're holding on to them as your own. Behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague on your livestock. In other words, if you don't open your hand to release the Hebrews, God will open his hand and destroy your livestock. There's a word play there, just like in the last one. If you don't open your hands and release Israel, God will open his hand and release the flies verse four. But the Lord will make a distinction between the live stock of Israel and the live stock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time, saying tomorrow, the Lord will do this thing in the land. Again that pattern of setting a time, And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the live stock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the live stock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent and behold, not one of the live stock of Israel was dead. Please don't miss that. Pharaoh sent to find out if this thing happened the way God said it would happen. Isn't that interesting? God says, tomorrow, what's going to happen? It happens, and instead of just saying I'm not going to let you go, he says, hey, go check if their livestock is a lot. Go to Goshen and see, and he does, and he gets word back, and the word is yep. God did exactly what he said he was going to do. The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go again. No, matter how many times you read that, at the end of reading it you just want to go really, you know it's coming. It still makes absolutely no sense unless you understand the condition of fallen man. Unless you understand that, apart from the sovereign work of God, man cannot change his own heart. There is not enough calamity to change a human heart. There is not enough evil that can befall a man to change his heart. There is not enough circumstances and situations. There's not enough pain that can change a human heart. The only thing that can change a human heart is the sovereign hand of God. Nothing else. Wicked man will not change his heart. And so God is not bringing this calamity on Pharaoh. I know what we say at weekend and week out, and I'm going to say it again, and Steven's gonna say it again. God is not doing miss in hopes that he can change Pharaoh's mind. God could do that if he wanted to, or he could just kill Pharaoh and have someone else raised up in that position. But that's not what's going on here. God is saying something with every plague, and with this plague, he's saying something about Egypt's wealth and worship. He's destroying their wealth, their livestock as wealth. Look at it in Genesis forty seven. If you remember back in Genesis, God brings Joseph into Egypt, and this is how Israel gets into Egypt because of the position that God gives to Joseph. But remember that he came there because there's going to be a famine, seven years of feast followed by seven years of famine. He's going to store up grain. And in those seven years of famine, his family comes to Egypt, and this is how they survive the famine. This is how they survived the drought. But tucked away in that same narrative is this little nugget beginning of verse fifteen, chapter forty seven. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, give your livestock, and I will give you food and exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, their flocks, their herds, and their donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. Here's what's interesting. Money is not wealth. Let me say that again. Money is not wealth. Money is only a symbol of wealth. Money represents wealth. Now we don't understand this because we haven't lived in that kind of society for a long time, and we live in a society with fiat currency, and so we have these dollar bills and these coins in our pockets and somebody just tells us what they're worth. They're not backed by anything like they used to be. And so it used to be this is worth this much weight in silver or this much weight in gold, and so it was a tangible example of wealth. Now it's not. Now money is completely divorced from wealth, which is grossly unbiblical. But that's another sermon for another day. And so money is completely divorced from wealth. So we have no idea, no idea what wealth really is. But when you look at the passages like this, their money would have probably been some kind of coin that was worth something. It would have been silver, it would have been gold, it would have been whatever. They weren't walking around with paper dollars in Egypt, Amen, somebody, Okay, they weren't worth walking around with paper dollars. So there were coins that were probably made out of silver or something like that, and so it had worth. It had value because of the value of the metal from which it was made, and because of the stamp that was on the metal that validated the worth of the metal itself. Now, all their money was gone. When all their money was gone, they needed another form of wealth to exchange for grain, and after money, currency metals, precious metals that have worth. The very next thing that Joseph went to was livestock. Livestock. All of our money is gone, all of our wealth in the form of coins that are made from precious metals, all of that is gone. Our wealth is all gone. No, your wealth is not all gone. You have another form of wealth, and that form of wealth is your livestock. It's your livestock. By the way, the next thing they give up is their freedom. That's the next thing that happens. In forty seven, We'll give up our freedom. By the way, that's generally the way things go. You give up your wealth, you give up your possessions, and the only thing you have left to give up is your freedom, or you don't give it up. They come for your wealth, then they come for your possessions, and then they come for your freedom. The point here is that livestock is a form of wealth, so that when God kills the livestock, he may as well make all the gold and silver disappear. He is hitting them at their point of their wealth. This is what we own, This is what makes us rich. This is the stuff that we can point to and say that we have something. And that's what God kills. He kills their wealth, he kills their livelihood. This is a serious plague. And interestingly enough, after this, he's going to go to their bodies destroys their wealth. But again, these life stock are not just associated with wealth. They're also associated with worship. And this is true not only of the Egyptians, but this is true historically, it's true today. There are people today who still hold animals as sacred and worship them. There are places, for example, in India where you could go and you better not kill a cow. Livestock is worship the cow or the bull? Hathor isis nut that these were goddesses who were often depicted as cows, with the horns of cows or with the ears of cows. Because of this, and because of the relationship of the Pharaoh as a living god, the cow came to symbolize the mother of the Pharaoh. The cow was also a solar icon, where nut carried the sun across the sky on our back when she was in cow form. The cow was linked to female fertility and to the mother of the Pharaoh. Osiris was related to the bull. The APIs bull after death became Osiris APIs. While it was still alive, the APIs bull was seen as the Ba two of Ta mummified god of creation. The Nevis bull was regarded as the Ba of raw autumn. The bull, therefore was linked to the masculinity. Linked to masculinity and to the pharaoh God's killing cows and bulls pigs. The pig was an animal sacred to set the god of chaos. Those died two so know that when God is bringing the plague against the livestock, he is attacking them at the point of their wealth and at the point of their worship, and being attacked at the point of your wealth and your worship is being attacked at the point of your idolatry. That thing which you hold most dear, those things to which you hold most tightly, those things that give you your security. And usually the worship of idolatry is always connected with those things that we need in order to survive. Idolatry is all about me giving worship and paying all of my attention to those things that are going to bring me what I need to survive. And So when God's people go from being nomadic people in the desert and they come into the plains, there is a god in the plains named Bail, and Bail is the god of fertility in the plains. He brings the former and the latter ings. Asherah is the female deity associated with Bail. So when they come out of the wilderness and they go into the plains and now they're farmers, guess what they're guilty of bail worship? Why? Because it has to do with accumulating economic wealth and surviving. That's what idolatry always is. That is why it is impossible to separate your idolatry from your wealth, because we either worship wealth or the things that symbolize wealth or the things that bring us wealth. And this is exactly what God is attacking here in Egypt. He is attacking that connection between their wealth and their worship. He is attacking idolatry. Number one, to demonstrate to the Egyptians your gods are not gods. And secondly, to demonstrate to Israel I am God. This is not this isnt at bacon idolatry, and it's necessary. There's a little housekeeping detail here that needs to be addressed. It says that all the livestock died. And people will look at that, and they say all the livestock died, and they say, well, horses were listened there too, right, Well, if all the horses are dead, then how do they come after the Israelites with horse drawn chariots? Later legitimate question. Listen to this from kielan dailysh in the words all the cattle of the Egyptians died. All is not to be taken in an absolute sense, but according to popular usage as denoting such a quantity that what remained was nothing in comparison, and according to verse three, it must be entirely restricted to the cattle in the field Universes nine and nineteen. Much of the cattle of the Egyptians still remained. There are people who make that argument. But those are people who number one, are not reading the Bible carefully. Number two, they're not reading the Bible honestly. And number three, they have an ulterior motive. That's childish. It's childish. Oh uh huh. See he says all the last stock were dead, Well, then where did they get horses from the kind? But see the thief. There's a contradiction in the that's childish, that's dishonest. It's dishonest. First of all, all the cattle that were in the field. Secondly, when Moses wrote this, guess what he knew. He knew that later they came after him with horses, because this was written after the fact, right, So when he's sitting here and he's right in chapter nine, he knows that later on he's going to tell of the horses that came after him. Right, So let's not fall into that, shall we. Why is it important for God to attack this idolatry? At least a couple of reasons. First, because idolatry is sinful and unacceptable. Idolatry is sinful and unacceptable. Every human being owes God worship. It amazes me how many Christians have this attitude that says, well, they're lost. What do you expect? I expect them to give God the worship that he's due. Yeah, we're they're lost. How can you hold lost people accountable before God holds lost people accountable in their lostness? Romans I, eighteen to twenty three. Turn to it. Please turn to Romans chapter one, because again this is very common. And if you haven't said it, you've heard it. And I'm hoping that we haven't said it. Okay, but you get this. I mean, you bring up any issue and it's like, well, what do you expect? It's lost people being lost people, as though we should no longer be scandalized by sin, as though it should no longer bother us that lost people are lost people, as though our attitude should be let them all burn, as though we shouldn't be jealous for the glorylory of God, and as though it shouldn't bother us when we see idolatry. Romans Won, beginning at eighteen, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God as plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. Lostness is not an excuse for idolatry. And every time we say, well, they're lost people, what do you expect? What we say is they have an excuse? No, they don't. That's why God's going to judge them, because there is no excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became feudal in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds and animals and creeping things. There you have idolatry going to animals. There you have idolatry going to animals, symbolizing that which the One True God is and does. Right here in Romans chapter one, and what should our attitude be? How about we listen to the same guy who wrote in Roman chapter one and Acts, chapter seventeen, verse sixteen. Now, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. His spirit was provoked within him by idolatry. He did not sit there and say, oh, well, they're lost people, what do you expect. He hated idolatry. And we ought to hate idolatry in ourselves and in others we ought to despise idolatry. You know, I saw something not long ago that made me mindful of this. There was a video that was going around and there was a man who was who's dressed up full uniform as a marine sergeant major, and he talking all this stuff. And a marine who had just come back from a tour and you know Afghanistan, actually confronted him his uniform. Was it right? Some of the things he was saying wasn't right. And this young marine confronted the man, and the man who became irate and then he tried to turn around and walk away, and the marine goes, oh, now I know you're not a sergeant major. You sergeant major, are not going to turn around walk well, no, that's not what's going to happen. And people were irate, they were up in arms, they were this, and that meant why why? Because he was illegitimately taking the glory of the Marines for his own. And every American would say the same thing. It's wrong. It's wrong if you didn't earn it and you didn't do it, for you to put on the uniform and pretend like you did. It's wrong for you to act like you're worthy of that honor when you're not worthy of that honor. Folks, if you can get upset about that, how dare you accept idolatry? Because that's someone accepting the honor and the glory that is due not to the Marine Corps but to God. He outranks them. We must hate idolatry, we must not accept idolatry, we must not excuse idolatry. And instead there's this sort of flippant attitude that we've developed and says, well, they're lost people. What do you expect? I expect for God to be glorified. That's what I expect. I expect for every need about and every time to confess, That's what I expect and I'm not satisfied with anything less than that. That's why we preach the gospel. That's why we take the Gospel to the lost, because it's not okay for people be engaged in idolatry. It's not okay for people to give the glory that belongs to God to someone or something else. And it's not okay for us to sit around and say that that's not a big deal. It is the biggest of big deals. Idolatry should break our hearts. Idolatry should anger us. There should be a righteous indignation when we see idolatry, and idolatry should cause us to pity the lost person because they are wasting their time and their efforts and their energy worshiping things that have eyes but do not see, and hands but cannot touch, that cannot hear, or worshiping four footed beasts that God gave to be eaten and not worshiped. Amen. God gave us those things to eat, and we worshiped them. And it's amazing because in some places there are people who are hungry, who are starving while animals are being worshiped all around them. That's not okay, that's not Okay, who remember when I said, was God was taking this out of Israel as well? And we see later that it was necessary. Why Chapter thirty two turn ahead beginning of verse seven. This is where I know that there's something wrong with me, and y'all need to pray for me hard all the time, because this is one of my favorite scenes in the Bible. It just is. And that's so wrong. But when they build a golden calf and Aaron says, we just threw the gold in there and that thing just came out. I'm sorry, that's like my that's one of my favorite scenes in the whole Bible. It's terrible. It's horrible people die that day. But I'm just sitting there. He really just said, we just I don't know what happened because we put the pray for your pastor people beginning of verse thirty verse seven of chapter thirty two, and the Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt. Notice what we just read. We just read I am the God of the Hebrews. Now, all of a sudden, God is sand to Moses, you need to go see about your people. Have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden altogether calf, a golden calf, not the golden image of a man, the golden image of a woman, the golden image of an angel. They made a golden image of livestock, because that's what they learned in Egypt. Sake of time, won't read on for all that happened. But verse thirty five, Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made folks, there's not a wasted word in the whole Bible. How does God respond to their idolatry with the calf? Well, Number one, the Levites kill many of them with the sword. That's how the Levites are set apart for the priesthood, by the way they stand with Moses. But secondly, he sends a plague. He sends a plague. So there's the picture of why it's significant for Israel. But that's why it's going to become significant. Why would it have been significant already in the past Israel had dealings with livestock. Number one, Livestock was a source of Jacob's wealth. This is how Jacob becomes the wealthy man that he is, the livestock that he got from serving Laban. Secondly, tending livestock is how they got to Goshen in the first place, Chapter forty nine, verses thirty one to thirty four. Listen to this carefully. Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. And the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation, you shall say, your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now. But we and our fathers in order that we may I'm sorry, until now, both we and our fathers, in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen. Next phrase, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptian. Here's why they got the land of Goshen, the prime land of Goshen, prime livestock land. And by the way, later on pharaoh sends his choice livestock to the Israelites so that they can tend his livestock. So Israel not only has a history with livestock, but they have a history with livestock in Egypt. This means something to them. When Egypt's livestock is killed in at present, they see the live stock being worshiped, and it leads them to their idolatry in the future. And at present there is also the passover lamb, where God will teach them something through livestock, not that the live stock would be worshiped, but that the livestock would be a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that God would bring. And then in their future there is the priestly sacrificial system which will remind them of God's grace and his mirthy mercy, and his wrath against sin. And ultimately there will be the lamb of God, where God will sacrifice his own son. Why because the blood of bulls and lambs and goats were sufficient to show the people what God was going to do, but it was not sufficient to deal with their sin. It is only in the Lamb of God that we see this come to fruition. It is only in the lamb of God that we move away from idolatry, because now we are not worshiping an animal, but we see through the sacrifice of these animals what God is pointing to in the sacrifice of his only begotten son. Here we are not engaging in idolatry, but we are actually worshiping the God who has said to us, this is how I will deal with your sin, and nothing else will do. And anything that we do that is not in keeping with that is a perversion of that. God has provided a lamb. When Adam and Eve's sin, God killed an animal covered them. When Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, he didn't have to. God provided a lamb, and the lamb was killed and Isaac was saved. In Egypt, a plague will come, another lamb will be killed, and by his blood the people of God will be saved from the death Angel. But all of those lambs and the thousands upon thousands upon hundreds of thousands and millions that would later be slain, and the tabernacle and in the temple mean nothing without the lamb of God, who laid down his life for sinners. God made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. All we, like sheep livestock, had gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. But God has caused the iniquity of us all to be laid on him. And it is because of Christ, the Lamb of God, that we have salvation and become the people of God. So in essence, this plague comes and purges the idology, the idolatrous worship of animals because of the wealth that they bring, which is only temporary. And it's important to purge this idolatry so that God, who would provide his own lanfe i Am in the form of his perfect son, the second person of the Trinity, might have us know and worship him rightly for his provision and cleansing us from our sin. This is why we worship. And one day God's wrath will come again, and ultimately, when his wrath comes at the end of the age, at the heart of every sinner who is judged will be the sin of idolatry, of ascribing to someone or something else that which belongs solely and completely to God. By seeking from someone or something else that which can only be found in God. By trusting someone or something else to do that which can only be done by God. This is the heart of idolatry, and it's in the heart of every one of us. And praise God that he sins preachers and not plagues. Amen, Turn from your sin, turn from your idolatry, Turn from trusting in those things that promise you wealth and ease, Turn from praising those things that have seemed or appeared to give you wealth and ease, and instead turn to our God, who is the source of all true wealth, who provides for us everything that we need, and who above all else, is the Savior who saves us from ourselves and from our sin and from the wrath that is to come. Turned to him, trusted him, fleet to Christ, for he is indeed your only hope. Let's pray God, our Father. As we bow, we acknowledge and confess before you our own tendency toward idolatry, our own tendency to trust in and cling to those things that promise us what we want to try to hedge our bets, our tendency to try, like Israel, to worship You and other gods. But as you have said in the person of your son, we cannot worship two masters. We cannot serve two masters. Grant by your grace that we would forsake the one and cling to the other, the other being You, the one true and Living God. Grant by your grace that we would be purged of our idolatry and renewed and our trust in and worship of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Grant this we pray in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.