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Join me in the Dark splendors of ancient Egypt. Stand with me amid  Moses and Egyptian Plagues. Before him stretched the wonders of the Nile.

  • The forest of 50 to 70 foot red granite[1] and limestone pillars ornately carved and painted with cartooshes and hieroglyphics was impressive.
  • To stand before the living god-Pharaoh himself was threatening.
  • To be eighty years old

[as Moses was]

and to face the most powerful King of the Ancient Near East World of that time would be overwhelming!

EXODUS: THE WAY OUT… 

I.         The WAY OUT… OF BONDAGE [1-12]INTO FREEDOM, SHOWS GOD IS POWERFUL

            A.               A Prepared Servant [1-6]

1. Moses = drawn out 2:10

a)                 of the water 2:10

b)                of Egypt 2:11-15

c)                of the wilderness 3:1

2.                Look at Hebrews 11:23-27

B.               A Powerful Display [7-11] = Plagues

C.               A Permanent Reminder [12] = Passover

II.          The WAY OUT… OF IGNORANCE [13-24] INTO GOD’S LAW AND PROGRAM, THIS SHOWS GOD IS HOLY

A.               God Protected Them [13-15] = Red Sea

B.               God Provided for Them [16-18] = food & water

1.                Manna [16]

2.                Water [17]

C.               God Prepared Them [19-20]

III.        The WAY OUT…OF THE WORLD [25-40], INTO GOD’S PRESENCE, THIS SHOWS GOD IS FRIENDLY

A.               The Tabernacle Points to God

1.                Articles Point to Christ:

2.                Brazen Altar = total devotion Christ

3.                Laver = Christ the Eternal Cleanser

4.                Lamp Stand = Christ the light of the world

5.                Show Bread = Christ the Bread of Life

6.                Altar of Incense = Christ constant Intercessor and Priest

7.                Holy of Holies

B.               Colors speak of Christ:

1.                White = perfection, parallel to Luke, Christ the Perfect Man .

2.                Blue = Heaven, parallel to John’s Gospel of the Deity of Christ .

3.                Scarlet = sacrifice, parallel to Mark’s Gospel as Christ the Perfect Servant.

4.                Purple = Royalty, parallel to Matthew’s Gospel of Christ the perfect King.

C.               The Priesthood Leads to God

D.               The Regulations Reflect God

MOSES AND THE FINGER OF GOD; EXODUS 7-11 PART TWO: LESSONS FROM FALSE GODS

Ancient Egypt at its Zenith fifteen centuries before Christ was awesome. The Pyramids were over a thousand years old, and stood towering ominously over this proud and powerful people. The ‘God-Kings’ or Pharaohs as we call them, were sons of Khnum, descendants of RA and the bearers of divinity to the masses. Astride the Mighty Nile, Egypt knew prosperity, fertile and productive agriculture and great peace.

But, a nation had grown up in their midst for 400 years. It had started with just an old man and his twelve boys. Jacob and his twelve sons, his daughters and their families had flourished. In Goshen they now numbered nearly three million. As God had promised to his grandfather Abraham, his descendants would be as numberless as the sands of the sea. From one man to three million is a vast multiplication. And so, the stage is set: 

THE GREATEST ANCIENT EMPIRE: EGYPT    vs.    THE ENSLAVED PEOPLE OF GOD: ISRAEL 

But, it was even more than that. It was also:

God’s People vs. Satan’s People
God’s Promise vs. The Curse
God’s Power vs. The Kingdom of Darkness
Two eighty year old men vs. Pharaoh, his armies and the entire religion of Egypt
Shy Moses vs. Proud Pharaoh
The Whole Plan of God for Redemption vs. The Whole Plan of Satan for Rebellion

Why? These were the:

Covenant People

Bearers of God’s Promises

Vehicle of God’s Written revelation

  And, Ultimately, the only way Christ could come in God’s plan!

The Jews were and are so important in God’s plan. And so in about the year 1445/46 BC God told Moses to GO. And that is where we start this morning. In lightning fast flashes, we have a succession of TEN POWERFUL imprints upon the fabric of Egyptian Society. A land of mystery and false worship of false gods — brought face to face with the TRUE God of the UNIVERSE. Turn to Exodus 6:1-7; 7:3 

One cannot help but be awed by the splendor of the ancient Egyptian temples. Even the remains of many merely represent the fragments of past glory, the crumbling ruins are a testimony to the splendor that Egypt once enjoyed.[2] The multitude of shrines, inscriptions and religious objects are a constant reminder  as are the massive temples and tombs now in ruins are so vivid a reminder that the grandeur of it all, must have been marvelous. However, the myriads of statues that now adorn the museums of the world found in excavations are a grim reminder of the folly of their idolatry. To think those people feared and followed these lifeless gods when faced with the Living and True God of the Universe is tragic, eternally tragic. 

Mummies were normally 5-5 1/2 feet tall

Amenhotep II = Exodus;  Thutmose III = Oppression

The gods of the Ancient Egyptians numbered as many as eighty[3] by some counts. These gods were to some degree quite different from the Canaanite deities who demanded incinerated babies, bleeding human hearts and so on. 

Sacred to them were the lion, ox and ram; the wolf, dog and cat; the ibis, falcon and hippopotamus; the crocodile. cobra and dolphin; they revered the frog, scarab and locust. They also had anthropomorphic gods of AMUN, OSIRUS and ATUM. Finally, Pharaoh was himself a ruler and a god. In each of the ten plague, The Lord showed the gods of Egypt were all  impotent. Remember the Ten plagues? 

Lets examine the PLAGUES in the light of the worship of all the Egyptian gods. The  captors of the captive Jews were proud of their false worship and GOD is about to humble them.

I.                   NILE PLAGUE  [7:14-25] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                When God allowed Moses to turn the Nile to blood it was a catastrophe of greatest magnitude. This is because the Nile was so vital to Egyptian life. It was guarded by the feared god, Khnum at its sources. It was inhabited by the spirit of HAPI, and was the bloodstream of the most revered of all the gods – OSIRUS, god of the underworld.

2.                Also those who worshiped the NEITH the goddess of war would have noticed her inability to protect her children the lates [large fish] of the Nile which died in the plague. HATHOR protected a smaller fish the chromis, which also died.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                This plague was an unmistakable message. It was to drive a wooden stake into the very heart of the worship of Egypt. Simply stated, God is powerful and you are impotent.

2.                OSIRUS was hit to show only God controls the after life. God is very concerned that mankind knows the true JUDGE OF DESTINY.

3.                HAPI was hit to show on God is the spirit of creation.

4.                NEITH was hit to show only God came watch over and protect people securely. GOD wants all to know He alone is the ROCK OF SECURITY.

II.                FROG PLAGUE [8:1-15] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                Like a blanket of filth, the slimy wet monstrosities covered the land until men sickened at the continued squashing crunch of the ghastly pavement they were forced to walk upon. If a mans feet slipped on the greasy mass of their crushed bodies, he fell into an indescribably offensive mass of putrid uncleanness, and when he sought water to cleanse himself, the water was solid with frogs, so he got no cleansing there.[4]

2.                The frogs were called krur and represented fruitfulness or fertility. The annual flood of the Nile which renewed the farmland caused them to make the  goddess HEQT, embodied as a frog, the wife of the great Khnum.

3.                The harming or death of a frog was a capital offense. It was punishable by death in that time, to have every square inch of the land thick with frogs. To feel them crunching beneath your feet. To smell your feared gods rotting in heaps.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                All this was a death blow to the closed system of their worship. God was true and powerful, their gods were not.

2.                HEQT was hit to show who really created Egypt. God is very concerned that all know the CREATOR. 

III.             GNAT/LICE PLAGUE [8:16-19] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                This was unannounced. Josephus said they were lice in Talmud but its not in the Hebrew text.

2.                The most hit group were the priests because of their shaving and purification became unclean. They controlled to a large degree the hearts and minds of the people.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                GOD alone is holy. No priests are or could make anyone holy! 

IV.            FLY PLAGUE [8:20-32] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                These were blood sucking, caused blindness, that were abhorred.

2.                They were related to VATCHIT, the god of flies.

3.                They were not in Goshen, that is a miracle.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                Only GOD can protect from pestilence.

2.                VATCHIT is false and powerless.

V.               CATTLE PLAGUE [9:1-7] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                Only the Egyptian cows were killed. They were significant to their worship [Davis, p. 121-22].

2.                The god PTAH was sacred to the APIS bull, which was central to Egyptian worship.

3.                On November 13, 1856 Mariette found an underground avenue 1,120 feet long with 64 huge burial chambers. Each containing sarcophogi that were 12 feet long, 9 feet high and 6 feet wide. They were made of red and black granite and weighed over 60 tons each.

4.                HATHOR the goddess of love and beauty was depicted with bulls horns and a sun disk. The worship at Heliopolis used the sacred bull in Sun worship.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                PTAH was hit to show the god behind that bull was only an impotent demon.

2.                MNEVIS was hit to show that even the union of the sun god and the sacred APIS bull was powerless to keep the sacred bull on display at the Heliopolis alive!

3.                HATHOR the goddess of love and beauty was powerless in the ugliness of death.

4.                This plague was devastating to Pharaoh who had vast herds of cattle [Gen. 47:6, 17] The economy was so dependent on oxen for plowing and carts, cattle for milk and worship. Camels, donkeys and horses for transportation.

VI.            BOIL PLAGUE [9:8-17] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                Like the 3rd plague this one was unannounced. the Lion headed goddess SEKHMET was the regulator of epidemics and diseases.

2.                The magicians of Pharaoh’s court were so skilled in the arts of the occult, their names are still on record 2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. (KJV)

3.                All of Egypt believed that SERAPSIS was the god of healing and IMHOTEP the god of Medicine.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                SEKHMET was hit to prove he could not regulate epidemics and diseases.

2.                The magicians of Pharaoh’s court, Jannes and Jambres, found that when they  withstood Moses his god was REAL!

3.                SERAPSIS was hit to demonstrate that only GOD is the One who is the god of healing.

4.                IMHOTEP was hit to declare who was really the god of Medicine.

VII.         HAIL PLAGUE [9:18-35] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                This plague occurred in late January of early February.

2.                The Egyptians of course, had a goddess of the sky and weather named NUT.

3.                Two other gods watched over agriculture. They were named ISIS and SETH.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                The blackened and desolate fields were a tragic testimony of the impotence their deities of wood and stone.

2.                The Egyptians had a goddess of the sky and weather named NUT who could not protect them from the CREATOR.

3.                ISIS and SETH were not really responsible for the crops, they were as all else, under the TRUE GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!

VIII.      LOCUST PLAGUE [10:1-20] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                The locust is perhaps nature’s most awesome example of the collective destructive power of a species. An adult locust weighs a maximum of two grams, and yet its combined destructive force can leave thousands of people in famine for  years. The locust plagues were very much feared in ancient Egypt. So much so that the peasants were in the habit of praying to the locust god. [Satan likes to keep superstitious peoples enslaved to his demonic hordes evil powers.] No one who has ever seen the locust at work accuses the Bible of hyperbole. In 1926 and 1927, small swarms of the African migratory locusts were spotted in an area 50 by 120 miles on the plains of the river Niger near Timbuktu.  The next year swarms invaded Senegal and Sierra Leone.  By 1930 the whole of west Africa was flailing away at the pests with everything movable.  But the locusts didn’t seem to notice; swarms reached Khartoum, more than 2,000 miles to the east of Timbuktu, then turned south, spreading across Ethiopia, Kenya, the Belgian Congo, and in 1932, striking into the lush farm land of Angola and Rhodesia.  Before the plague finally sputtered out fourteen years after it began, it affected five-million square miles of Africa, an area nearly double the size of the United States[5]. A locust is capable of eating its own weight daily.  One square mile of a swarm will normally contain from 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 of the creatures.  It is unusual, however, for such plagues to occupy an area of only one square mile.  Swarms covering  more than 400 square miles have been recorded. 

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                GOD alone can marshals his creatures to do His bidding. 

IX.            DARKNESS PLAGUE [10:21-29] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                The darkness like in the deepest cave could be felt. All of Egypt instantly knew that the source of light was extinguished and for how long, no one knew. Only Israel had light in their dwelling places.

2.                The heart of all Egyptian religion was the worship of the sun god, RA. The largest of all the ancient temples with over 100 miles of walls and gardens, was the Luxor Temple of AMUN RA the Sun god. This god had a wife MUT and son KHONS all were sacred and of the highest degree of worship.

3.                HATHOR was the goddess who controlled the sky. HORUS was the son of RA. ISIS and OSIRUS  completed the sacred pantheon.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                GOD, who is light, struck the heart of all Egyptian religion , the worship of the sun god, RA.

2.                Powerless were the legions of priests that overflowed the largest of all the ancient temples with over 100 miles of walls and gardens, was the Luxor Temple of AMUN RA the Sun god.

3.                RA and wife MUT and son KHONS all were sacred and of the highest degree of worship. None rose to defend their titles

4.                HATHOR was the goddess who controlled the sky. HORUS was the son of RA. None could undo what GOD had done.

5.                ISIS and OSIRUS who watched over the afterlife were watching in darkness.

6.                GOD alone gives the true light to guide individuals to the way, truth and life. 

X.               DEATH OF FIRSTBORN PLAGUE [11:1-12:32] =

A.               THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED:

1.                Nothing we can imagine can come close to what happened on Passover Night. Life was going on in Egypt. The pest Moses had caused some problems but, nothing that couldn’t be forgotten.

2.                From cradle to stall, all the firstborn, known only to God, were struck. The wail and moans must have been indescribably chilling.

B.               THE REASON WHY:

1.                Only the blood of God’s Sacrifice can keep His hand of wrath abetted. Only those who trust and obey would be safe.

2.                Egypt was powerful, pampered and proud. And on that very night, the Death Angel would make an unforgettable visit. There are some powerful lessons built into the Passover. We must not miss them. 

I.                   What is it about the Passover we must remember? Two main areas are presented in the Bible, God’s Word. THERE WAS A FINAL, DARK PLAGUE TO FEAR:

A.               It was UNSPEAKABLE – to even imagine a supernatural messenger of doom was to hunt and kill the first born, was beyond words. That anyone could pick out the first born of man and livestock in the unlit blackness of an Egyptian night, is unperceivable. And to know it was tonight, was beyond words to express.

B.               It was UNAVOIDABLE – there was no place he would not visit. Each family would be noticed and examined from poorest to the richest. From the huts of farming peasants to the ivory halls of palaces, all would see the dark shadow of the Death Angel.

C.               It was UNSTOPPABLE – there was no power on earth then or now that could have stopped that stalking death. Nothing to deflect his sword of death.

D.               It was UNEXPECTED – life was moving along as expected. Business as usual. Yes, that old fanatic was still crying judgment. But, we live in a real world, not some God we can’t see who can judge us. Remember, the god’s of Egypt were put to bed each night in their temples by the priest. Awakened each day, fed, clothed and put on display…

E.               Sounds just like Hell and the wrath of God facing unrepentant sinners today. Remember that Jesus says!

II.                THERE WAS A  FULL SALVATION TO SEEK:

A.               God’s offer was Salvation – He gave the ones who would listen the only solution to avert the disaster of the Death Angel’s sword.

B.               God’s plan was Substitution – He detailed a simple act of taking an innocent, spotless lamb to die in the place of the family members.

C.               God’s method was the Sprinkling of Blood – in the dark, a sprinkle of blood on the door posts was all it took to find protection.

D.               God’s promise was Sufficient – it included deliverance from death, provision of all needs for life, and the hope of a land of promise flowing with milk and honey. All this with a personal guide to assure safe arrival!

III.             So what does the Lord want us to remember tonight? THE PASSOVER. And what does that teach us? About our REDEMPTION. THERE IS A FINAL, DARK PLAGUE TO FEAR:

A.               It was UNSPEAKABLE –

B.               It was UNAVOIDABLE –

C.               It was UNSTOPPABLE –

D.               It was UNEXPECTED –

E.               Sounds just like Hell and the wrath of God facing unrepentant sinners today. Remember that Jesus says!

IV.            THERE IS A  FULL SALVATION TO SEEK:

A.               God’s offer was Salvation –

B.               God’s plan was Substitution –

C.               God’s method was the Sprinkling of Blood –

D.               God’s promise was Sufficient –

E.               Sounds like simply receiving the gift of God in Christ!


[1] Davis, Moses and the gods of Egypt, p. 81.

[2] John Davis, Moses and the God’s of Egypt , p. 87

[3] Davis, p.94ff.

[4] Davis, p. 109.

[5] Davis, pp. 128-130.

Transcript

Join me in the dark splendors of ancient Egypt. Stand with me amid Moses and the Egyptian plagues. Before him stretched the wonders of the Nile. Think of a temple with 50 to 70 foot high red granite and limestone pillars that were as many as a forest. There were 40 miles of walls of the ancient temple of Karnak at Luxor. 40 miles of carved and painted with cartouche. That’s that round thing that has the little hieroglyphics, that was their signature, called the cartouche. It was very impressive. But then to stand before the living god, Pharaoh, himself was very threatening. To be 80 years old as Moses was and to stand before the most powerful king of the ancient world must’ve been overwhelming. But that’s where we meet Moses.

As we go through Exodus, the theme of Exodus is: the way out. First of all, it’s the way out of bondage for the Israelites. Chapters 1 through 12 shows them the way out of bondage and into true freedom. The purpose of those first 12 chapters succinctly stated is, to show that God is powerful. And He is, I’ll explain that. We’re going to come back and spend the majority of our time on those first 12 chapters. Secondly, the book has a second division: the way out of ignorance. Now, these people that got delivered out of Egypt didn’t know much about God. They only knew one thing, He got them out of there. They didn’t know anything about how to make Him happy, how to obey Him and please Him, and how to worship Him. The second section of this book is the way out of ignorance. It’s into God’s law. Into His program. His program of how to approach Him. His program of how to please Him and what sacrifices were acceptable. It shows that God is holy. God likes things done a certain way. Have you ever thought about that?

There are only two chapters in the Bible that talk about creation. There are 15 that talk about what boards put where in the tabernacle. Isn’t that a little disproportionate, you ever think about that? God really wants work that’s done His way. First of all, God protected them in chapters 13 through 15. That’s the Red Sea. By the way, that’s the Red Sea, it’s not the Reed Sea as some of them call it. It wasn’t a mud puddle. If you ever go to rummage sale, or a book sale, or a library sale and you’re looking at commentaries, if it’s an Old Testament commentary you want to see if it’s a good one. Look at how they treat creation, the Exodus and Jonah. If they think Jonah was a myth, if they think that the Exodus was a couple of hundred people and they went through the puddle and et cetera, and creation is, who knows what happened then it’s a non-conservative commentary and therefore it’s probably not worth buying unless you’re doing a technical study.

In the New Testament look at the miracles of Christ, look at the miracles of the Apostles, and see what they say about that. I have one commentary. It says Paul’s conversion was this. It says, that Paul was riding on a horse as he came over the rise on Damascus. The sun was so glinting off the alabaster roofs that it just made him blind. He fell off, hit his head, and it was never the same. That is a liberal commentary. I had another one that talked about the feeding of the 5,000 and it said that Jesus came to the people and while He was talking to them, He was an illusionist. He got them all thinking about what He was doing. He backed up and put His hands behind Him, and the disciples were hiding in a cave. They handed Him bread and He started passing it out as fast as He could. The walking on the water, and we’re talking about liberals that don’t accept the biblical record, the walking on the water according to the liberals is that Jesus was on a sandbar. The reason the disciples were getting nowhere in the storm is they were stuck on the sandbar, and they were paddling their arms off. The waves were hitting them and bouncing the boat on the sandbar. Jesus walked up on the sandbar, got in, and says, come on guys you’re on the sandbar, it’s okay. That’s called liberalism.

God says, I’m very concerned that you realize I protected them. God protected them. He took them through the Red Sea. God provided for them. That’s 16 through 18. He gave them manna in chapter 16, and water in chapter 17. That means, God says anything you need I can provide. And He did provide for them.

Finally, God prepared them and that’s in 19 and 20 and actually it goes on through 24. Basically, what happens there is that God shows how to come before Him. In 19, He warns them to come to the mountain and He says, don’t touch it. If even an animal touches it, the animal will be killed, et cetera. Then they come to the mountain and all of a sudden it was quaking. It looked like an earthquake. It looked like a volcano. It was surrounded by a cloud. There were lightnings and like that, Moses goes up there. They all thought he was going to be incinerated. Do you remember, when he comes down his face is glowing. He had to, they were so afraid of him, he had to put a little covering on his face because his face was glowing. That’s the way out of ignorance and into God’s law, and His program. It shows that God is holy. That’s the second division of the book.

The third division of the book, God shows them the way out of the world. That’s chapters 25 to 40. What I’m talking about there is how to get into God’s presence. How to get into His presence and stay in His presence. Fascinating. It’s really a blessing. It shows that God is friendly. God is the one that sought out Adam and Eve. We saw in Genesis; God is the one that’s always been chasing us and He’s friendly. I don’t know if that’s one of the attributes of God, but it’s wonderful that He wants to reveal Himself.

Let’s look at the tabernacle. The tabernacle points to God. The brazen altar, and if you want to jot this down, speaks of the total devotion of Christ. The brazen altar had the offerings that were totally burned. It was a total burnt offering. When they burned it you couldn’t keep any of it. A lot of the offerings they didn’t destroy, or they didn’t offer completely to God. A lot of them, you just threw it in the pot and boiled it and pulled out some of it. The priest got eat it. But the burnt offering was there, and it speaks of Christ total devotion. How He was told to consume in the sacrifice of your sins.

Secondly, the laver. The laver speaks of Christ, the eternal cleanser. Now, we just moved in and by the way, I’ll say it for the last time we started moving last night at 10:00 pm. I moved till 3:00 am this morning had a brief coffee break. We started moving in at 6:30 am and got done at 6:00 pm tonight. It was a very exciting day. On the way out Bonnie said, have you seen the cleanser? I thought about this point right here, you can never find your Comet or your liquid whatever you’re looking for, your Clorox. Did you know that Jesus is the eternal cleanser? There is no sin that we can commit that He cannot cleanse us from. But what about the unpardonable sin? The unpardonable sin, biblically speaking, was only possible to commit you were alive in Christ time and His earthly ministry, and you said what He was doing is done by the power of Satan. That’s the only time there is unpardonable sin. Then there is a sin unto death, 1 John 5. A sin unto death is when you persist in a sin, will not repent of it, and God kills you. But that is forgivable. There are really only two unforgivable sins. One is blaspheming the Holy Spirit and saying that Jesus did His miracles by the power of Satan. The second one, denying and not accepting, not believing in Christ. Those are the only two unforgivable sins. There’s only two sins people will go to Hell forever for. Unbelief in Christ; the total rejection and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the eternal cleanser.

Thirdly, the third article that’s in there is the lampstand. The lampstand speaks of Christ as the light of the world. If you think about this and I don’t want to go into the tabernacle too deeply, but you ought to spend some time studying it, the tabernacle was really ugly on the outside. It was just old black animal skins. On the inside it was beautifully crafted gold and silver, and the most exquisite woods. Did you know, that’s the way God likes it. Do you know what it says in 1 Peter? It says, likewise, you women, let not your adorning be merely the outward, putting on of raiment and putting back the hair. Back then they used to split their hair around adornments and put pearls in them and gold. Women wouldn’t wash their hair for three months because it costs so much, it took so long, to get their head to look like the tower of Babel. They’d go around and there’d be all these precious stones in it, and they’d go around. Caesar’s wife back then had 50,000 months of wages in just her hair. She’d go around with this big thing.

God says don’t worry about the external as much as you worry about the internal. That’s why that lampstand was in there. That lampstand was inside that ugly black tent. The inside was lit by this pure gold lampstand, exquisitely made. They could have just gotten one from Walmart, but God says no, I want to hand carved one that is made specifically this way. The lampstand shows that Christ is the light of the world.

The showbread that was, a table of showbread, it was across the side of the tent. The showbread speaks of Christ as the bread of life. It was a constant thanks offering. It was a constant. The priest would bake this stuff, 12 little loaves. By the way, what’s neat about it is, that you can think about and you can fellowship with God. It doesn’t matter how big or little you are in man’s eyes, because even the smallest tribe had the same size loaf that got placed before God. The showbread is much like this table. In fact, this is a kind of a Christianization of the showbread table. When the priest came and put the bread on that little table called the table of showbread, actually showbread is literally the table of the face or the bread of the face. What it was is, on this side was God and they’d come, and they’d bring their little loaf like this. They set it in front of God. When they stood there, they were having a meal with God. What’s the Lord’s table. God invites us to commune with Him at a supper. Isn’t it neat, you see how a lot of the Old Testament things have been fulfilled in Christ. The showbread speaks of Christ as the bread of life. It’s the bread that gives assessments. It’s the bread of fellowship. It’s the bread of thanks.

The next item. The fifth one is the altar of incense. The altar of incense interestingly enough, there was a lampstand over here as you came in and over here was the show bread. Right in front of you, is this altar of incense. It was right backed up to the curtain. On the other side, you’re in the holy place. By the way, if you walked in the front gate, the first thing you see is the brazen altar. Next thing you see is a laver. Then when you get through that, there is a tent. Inside the tent there’s a little curtain. Go through that curtain and as soon as you walked in, you would see this altar of incense, this lampstand and, the showbread just like that. The altar of incense speaks of the fact that Christ is the constant intercessory and priest for us. It’s the idea of a constant smoke ascending upward. That incense was like the intercessory prayers going up to God, before you could go into the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was. Christ is the ultimate intercessor. It says in the book of Hebrews, “He ever liveth,” Hebrews 7:25 “to make intercession for them.” He is like our altar of incense. That’s why we don’t need priests because we’ve become priests to offer sacrifices to God.

The next item is the Holy of Holies. That speaks to the fact that Jesus Christ is the very Holy of Holies. When we have Him living inside of us as the Holy Spirit indwelling us, that we become the holy place of God. It’s very interesting that in the scriptures, it says in 1 Corinthians 6. It says, “What? know ye not that your body is the naos,” the temple, “of the Holy Ghost.” Did you know there’s two words for temple? Hieron and naos. You know what hieron means? It’s just the building. Naos means the inside of the Holy of Holies.

Just to show you what Judas was like, remember Judas that betrayed Christ for how much? 30 pieces of silver. How much could you buy a slave for in Christ day? 30 pieces of silver. A normal slave. I don’t mean a great slave. I don’t mean a beautiful slave. I don’t mean an Arnold Schwarzenegger slave. I mean a normal slave. How much did Judas think Christ was worth? He wasn’t anything great, He’s just like the least you can get. Remember his heart? He had second thoughts about it, felt bad about it, and went back to the priest and said, I want to give you your money back. They said, uh-uh, nope, it’s a deal and you are the one that betrayed Him. Do you remember what it says? It says, he threw the money down in the temple. It doesn’t say hieron, it says naos. That means he went into the temple to talk to those guys and when they wouldn’t do it, he took his silver, and he threw it up over the curtain into the holy place. Interesting how blasphemous he was. He took the blood money that he betrayed Christ and threw it into the place where Christ was portrayed. Very interesting, there’s a lot of interesting insight there also.

The second area I’d like to talk to you about, not only does the tabernacle point to God, but secondly the colors speak of Christ. There are four colors if you were going into the tabernacle in the Old Testament. There was white, blue, scarlet, and purple. White was a color of perfection, pure white. It was paralleled to The Gospel of Luke, which shows Christ as the perfect man. When you think of the white in the tabernacle you think of perfection. What does Luke spend 24 chapters proving? Luke talks totally about Christ. It talks about the fact that Jesus in His demeanor, Jesus in His ability to walk the roads of Galilee, Jesus in the way He spoke to children, the way He talked to old people, and sick people, and dying people, and demon possessed people was perfect in everything, and everybody was just wronging Him. Luke says Jesus was the perfect man. That’s parallel with the fact that the tabernacle was white.

Secondly, the tabernacle was blue. There were blue tapestries hanging. Blue is always the color of Heaven. What’s interesting is that John’s Gospel shows Christ as the Divine. The whole purpose of The Gospel John is to show that Jesus was God. In fact, I told you last week, what are the three books that are – actually four- that are always attacked? Genesis, because it talks about the origins. Daniel, because it’s so prophetic. John, because it presents Christ as God, divine; and who wants that? Who wants someone to ruin your party, that’s going to judge you. How fitting that the blue there, it speaks of Heaven, and it speaks to the fact that Christ is divine.

The third color in the tabernacle was scarlet. Scarlet of course is the color of what? Blood. Yeah, red blood. What does blood have to do with? Sacrifices, and Christ was the perfect servant in The Gospel of Mark, who willingly came to sacrifice Himself. In fact, the whole Gospel of Mark, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this and we’re going to go through these soon, but each of the Gospels was written to a different target audience. I don’t know if you’ve been noticing, but advertising, the ads are targeting people. Nowadays, they’re very careful in what ads they run what time of the day because they know the demographics, and the socioeconomic figures of what people like. Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jews, and he showed Jesus Christ is the perfect king. Mark wrote his Gospel to the Roman world, and he showed Jesus as a perfect servant, because most of the Roman world was what? Conquered peoples, which they became slaves. Did you know that there were more slaves in Rome than there were free people? There were a hundred million people and about 60 or 70 million of them were slaves. That means, almost everybody just sat around and ate grapes all day, except for the people that were working. You know what I mean, and that’s what the world is like. You say, how do you know Mark was written to slaves and to the Roman Empire? Because every time something from the Old Testament is mentioned, Mark explains it. He never just says, go to the temple. He says, go into the temple where the big pots are, where they throw the money in. Or go to where the water’s poured out. Or go to the Sabbath day journey, which is this far. He always explains all the Jewish stuff because he wasn’t writing to the Jews. They didn’t know about it and so he explains it. John was written to the whole world and shows Christ is divine, but Scarlet speaks of Christ as a perfect sacrifice.

Finally, purple is a color of royalty, not to us. In the ancient world the little shellfish that produced the dye that made things deep purple were very rare. Remember Dorcas, seller of purple? This is very rare. The murex, these are a little, tiny shellfish. You get an extract of purple color from them. If you wore purple clothes, it’s like those gold and platinum hubcaps that people are killing for nowadays, it was a status symbol to have purple. Purple was the color of royalty. Only wealthy, and either wealthy or royal people, could wear it. Those that were big in the world. Matthew’s Gospel, which speaks of Christ as the perfect king, the priesthood, and all the regulations about that leads us to God. The priesthood was in the Old Testament to lead the people to God. Now, as I said, it says in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, that “There is only one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” We don’t need a priesthood. We are a priesthood now. The regulations reflect God.

Someone just asked me, and I just got about a five page letter on my desk, and they said please explain whether or not we’re under the law anymore. It’s hard to say yes or no because there was ceremonial law, there was social law, there was civil law, and there was moral law. Does God’s character ever change? So, do you think His moral law ever changes? The way you punish it changes, that’s civil law. Do you remember what they did to a witch in the Old Testament? They burn them. Are we supposed to burn witches nowadays? No. God will do that in His time, we don’t. We’re not under the civil law, but has God’s character changed at all? It’s murder still wrong? Yes. Should we not take the name of Lord our God in vain? No, we shouldn’t take it in vain. You see what I mean? The ceremonial laws passed, we can eat lobster. Now, it might not be good for your health, it might be expensive, but we can eat it. We don’t have to stop all activity, cessation of activity on Saturday. We don’t have to follow the Jewish ceremonial law.

Let’s zero in. That’s the whole book of Exodus. If anybody asks you what’s exodus about, it’s the way out. Exodus means, the way out. It’s first of all, the way out of bondage. Secondly, out of ignorance. Thirdly, out of the world. But now I want, and you can take your Bibles and turn with me to chapter 7 of the book of Exodus, I want to show you Moses and the finger of God. We’re going to learn some lessons from false gods. I want to show you why the Bible is so significant because everything the Bible says has been put there for a purpose, everything. I remember the first time I read through the Bible. My parents made me read through the Bible. I had to read through the Bible. I thought, I could have finished this days ago if they didn’t have all this needless detail. You ever think about that? All those kings and they put the little bells on the bottom of their robes, and put these little fruits, pomegranates around the robe of the priest and then you know… all the stuff! You think, what is that for? The more you read it, the more you ask the Lord to open your heart and there you see that every bit of it is here for purpose.

Let me show you lessons from false gods. Listen before you start taking notes. Ancient Egypt at its Zenith, 15th centuries before Christ, that’s when Moses was there was awesome. The pyramids, when Moses was there, were over a thousand years old and they glistened in the sun. They were the wonders of the ancient world. Hands down the greatest wonder of the ancient world, those pyramids. They still are very impressive. The pyramids you see today, and if you ever clambered on, they’re really not very impressive until you get up close and see the size of those rocks. In fact, last time, they wouldn’t even let us climb up it anymore because too many people are climbing up and it is ruining it. Getting their little dirty hands on it. When you finally get there and you stand there you go, wow! The only thing close to it are some of the temples they’re excavating in the tropics.

It was amazing to see those thousand year old pyramids that were alabaster covered. They had the sheathing on them that made them just glisten in the radiance of the desert sun. As they towered ominously over this proud and powerful people, they were led by god kings or pharaohs as we call them. They were sons of the god Nun. You say they were? Well, they claim to be. And they were descendants of the sun god Ra. That was the greatest of all the gods of Egypt, the sun that went overhead. They said that the sun was a god and that they were descendants of the sun. They were bearers of divinity to the masses, the pharaohs were. They would bring god down to the common people so they could have his blessing. That’s why they were so important. Egypt had known along the mighty River Nile, prosperity, total agricultural fertility and productive lives, and absolute peace. That’s what they were living in for centuries. That’s why they build all those temples, they weren’t fighting anybody.

A nation had been growing up in their midst for over 400 years. It had started with just one old man and 12 boys. Jacob and his 12 sons, and his daughters, and their families had flourished in Goshen. They now numbered nearly 3 million. Do you see what we’re building to here? Here’s this proud nation that hasn’t had a problem for centuries. They’ve got their big temples and their pyramids. They’ve got their god kings walking around doing their thing. Here is this kind of this fast growing weed that’s off in Goshen, where no Egyptian went. Egypt despised cows and sheep, they worshiped them, but they didn’t like being around them. They didn’t like the smell. Off in Goshen where it smelled, they had these people and they were flourishing. God had promised to the grandfather of Jacob, Abraham, that his descendants would be as numberless as the sands of the sea. For one then to become 3 million is a vast multiplication. That’s what happened in 400 years.

Here’s what’s happening the greatest ancient empire. Did you know, even today, the most popular empire in the ancient world is? Guess what gets more attention than the other empire? Guess! Egypt, not even Rome. Egypt, that’s it. There are more people that when you have a King Tut thing that lineup. You bring a Caesar exhibit and see whether people line up. They don’t, why is it? Because they love the splendor of ancient Egypt. Because no one even knows how they made the pyramids. Nobody knows where all the treasures are. They just found the hundred sons of Ramses’. The second they found his tomb, and it was underneath the bath house… I remember when I went to the Valley of the Kings the last time and went to the bath house, I noticed that their bath house there, you’re in this bath house, and there’s a pipe going out the back and everything’s just spreading out behind you. In other words it was just an open cesspool, just out there. Guess where they found the tombs of the hundred sons of Ramses II, under the basket. You know what? The roof caved in because of all those years, of all that stuff, but it didn’t destroy it. Right now they’re excavating and some of those tombs are still sealed. They’ve never been touched and they can’t wait to see what’s in there.

What we’re seeing here tonight is the greatest ancient empire, Egypt versus the enslaved people of God, Israel. God let this happen. He led one nation build itself up religiously. In fact, even to this day if you’re in the occult, and I hope none of you are, but if you’re in the occult one of the most horrible sources of occultic incantations, to make people sick and stuff like that, is in a book called the sixth book of Moses. If you know anything about the occult, it’s called the sixth book of Moses, why? Because Egypt is the center for occultic worship. In fact, the only two warlocks we know from 4,000 years ago, those names are in the Bible.

Their names are Jannes and Jambres. They were musicians that could throw down a rod and make a snake out of it. They were magicians. They could do every kind of magical incantation. Here comes this collision, but more than being Egypt against Israel it was also, and look at this, it was God’s people versus Satan’s people. That’s what Exodus is all about. It’s God’s promise that, I’m going to make the seed of Israel become the Messiah. Remember, that’s what God said. God promised Eve that someday her seed would crush Satan. That’s all of redemption, that’s the whole story of redemption. Satan knew that. He looked and there goes Abraham, and he watched and there’s Isaac. Now Jacob, he’s got 12 sons. Ah, we’ll get him down here in Egypt. We’ll kill all the firstborn sons. When you kill all the firstborn sons, what do you lose? You don’t have Jews anymore. You’ve got half Jews and the other half Egyptian. You get the idea; he was going to destroy the Israelite nation. Just as that Pharaoh, the Pharaoh of the oppression, whose name was Thutmose III, and if you go over there you can go through his temple or through his tomb. That Pharaoh’s father (Thutmose II) says kill all the firstborn sons. Just when that happened, God raised up Moses, protected him. Remember the little ark in the bulrushes and that whole thing? His daughter’s name was Hatshepsut, and she was a very powerful woman. She took him out of the water, says, I want one of these Hebrew boys. I’m going to raise him for my own. God use Satan’s people to do God’s work. She didn’t know that she was raising the one who’s going to deliver the children of Israel.

Thirdly, we have God’s power versus the kingdom of darkness. We have one 80 year old man and his brother against all the magicians; all the necromancers, that’s people who communicate with the dead; all of the people that are involved in the witchcraft of Egypt. We’ve got an army, actually legions of priest. Remember I told you that the temple of Amun Re, just the wall around it was 40 miles long. Do you know how many priests there were? One of the largest bodies of water in Egypt is the cleansing pond. When you’re on a tour, it takes you about an hour to walk around the thing. It was the largest pool I’ve ever seen. That’s where they would go down and wash themselves, these thousands of priests. But it was God’s power against the kingdom of darkness. It was two 80 year old men against Pharaoh, his armies, and the entire religion of Egypt. It was shy Moses. Moses says, I can’t talk. God says, send Aaron. Remember when God called to Moses from the burning Bush? Moses said, here am I Lord send Aaron. He was really a willing missionary. Proud Pharaoh against shy Moses. The whole plan of redemption against the whole plan of the rebellion. That’s what’s shaping up.

You see why Exodus is so exciting. You don’t get it any clearer than the book of Exodus. You have God, who looks pitifully small, and two 80 year old men. You’ve got Satan with all of his armies, and his priests, and his magicians. They’ve got their swords, and they’ve got all their temples, and their pyramids, and it looks like they’re going to just mow down Moses, but they don’t. Let’s examine the plagues and the life/ of the worship of all the Egyptian gods. The captors of the captive Jews were proud of their false worship. God is about to humble them.

This god was the prime god. The reason God made it dark in the ninth plague was He wanted to tell them that God, who is light, struck the heart of all Egyptian religion and their worship of the sun god was false. Their sun god was powerless. His legions of priests that overflowed the largest of all the temples, of the temple of Amun Re, were powerless. Ra and his wife Mut and his son Khonsu. Hathor the goddess who controlled the sky. Horus, who was the son of Ra. No one could undo what God had done. Isis and Osiris who watched over the afterlife were watching over it in darkness because God alone gives the true light to guide people by His truth.

By this time, the people of Egypt were saying, Pharaoh, could you get rid of these people? We can’t take this anymore. Moses just came before Pharaoh and he says, you’re never going to see me again. He said, you’re never going to see my face again, but he said, God is going to kill the firstborn of every animal, every cattle of the field, and of every human being. Do you ever think about this? Have you ever gone by a stockyard and looked at all those cows out there? Have you ever wondered how to pick out which one was the first born in each family? You couldn’t even tell who was the father, who’s the mother, right? God said the firstborn of every field animal and the firstborn of every male of all of the children, I’m going to kill tonight.

But, if you will take a little bowl of blood taken by cutting the throat of the little lamb, hold the bowl under there, let the lifeblood of that lamb gush out and give its life for you to get that blood. If you’ll take that and go out and get some hyssop sticks. Bundle them together. Take those hyssop sticks and put it in your bowl. Paint, like graffiti, around your door. Put blood on both sides of your door and over the top. God says, if you’ll do that, I won’t kill your firstborn cow and I won’t kill your firstborn son. You know what people said? I can’t ruin my brand new house, I just had my house painted. You think I would put blood on my house. Blood! what a gory thing. I’m not going to kill a lamb. That night nothing we can imagine could come close to what happened on Passover night.

Life was going on in Egypt like normal. That pest Moses had caused some problems, but nothing we couldn’t forget. From cradle to stall all the firstborn, known only to God, were struck. That night the wail and moan must’ve been indescribably chilling. Can you imagine all the people hearing the sound of the death angel? Maybe a whirring, maybe a sound of a sword, they heard something, and they wonder if that old Moses, he’s been right so far but not this. I’m sure that they bolted their doors. I’m sure they closed their windows. I’m sure that they put the baby between them if they had a firstborn son. That night the death angel crossed Egypt. There was not a home that didn’t face his destructive power, except those that had blood over the door. Why did God do this?

Number one, only blood, the blood of God’s sacrifice… by the way, there are a couple of things you can fill in and then we’ll go… to tell them that only blood could His wrath at bay. Egypt was powerful and pampered but on that night the death angel would make an unforgettable visit. There are some powerful lessons built into Passover, let’s talk about them. Number one, it was unspeakable. You don’t have to write anything down but let me read this to you. To even imagine a supernatural messenger of doom was to hunt and kill your firstborn was beyond words, but that anyone could pick out the first one of men in livestock in the unlit blackness of an Egyptian night was imperceivable. To know it was tonight was beyond words. You can imagine the fear of those people as they went to bed that night. I can imagine all the Jewish boys saying, hey dad, did you… Let’s go out and check the door… Did you do it? Oh, okay, yup, ok dad. I’m the firstborn, I want to make it through. Can you imagine how much more of the kids believed in God. They participated; they were afraid.

Secondly, it was unavoidable. There was no place to hide. There was no family he didn’t visit. Every family would be noticed and examined from the porch of the richest, from those living in huts of the farming peasants, to those in the ivory halls of the palaces. All would see the dark shadow of the death angel come over their house. It was unavoidable.

Thirdly, it was unstoppable. There was no power on Earth, there was nothing then or now that could have stopped that stalking death. There was nothing that would deflect his sword except blood.

It was unexpected. Life was moving along as expected. Business was as usual. That old fanatic was still crying judgment. We live in a real world not some world of the god who can’t see and he can’t judge us. Remember, the gods of Egypt were put to bed every night in their temples and awakened each day and fed and clothed and put on display. Doesn’t that sound just like what people say about preaching about Hell. Do you ever think about that? Those fuddy duddy still trying to bother me at work. It was old preachers still talking about their Hell, impossible. People are going to be just as shocked as, the children and the parents of the children who died in the Passover plague.

There was a full salvation. God’s offer was number one, salvation. God offered a way out, salvation. Secondly, God’s plan was substitution. I want you to understand, if you want to know what the Gospel’s all about, the center of the Gospel. If you want to make sure… a lot of people come to me. In fact, one of the main reasons people come to me, they want to make sure they’re saved. I just talked to a lovely gentleman. Boston was his name; his first name was Boston. He was just an interesting fellow. Lives up in North Tulsa. He wasn’t sure he was saved, he wanted to talk about that. I said, if you want to make sure that you’re truly a born again person you’ve got to understand the concept of substitution. You know what that is? He gave Himself for me. It’s not, as much as I can do good plus God. It’s not whether I’ve done enough, or if I’ve been religious, or prayed the right words none of that matters. You can pray the wrong words and you can get saved, if you realize that Jesus gave Himself for me, cause God’s plan is substitution.

Thirdly, God’s method was a sprinkling of blood and the one that gave Himself for us was Jesus Christ. In Exodus, it was the blood splattered from an innocent lamb over the doorpost. For us, it was the innocent, spotless Lamb of God whose blood was splattered and sprinkled out for us. Finally, God’s promise was sufficient. God, including His promise not only delivered from death, you didn’t get killed by the death angel, but provisions for all needs of life and you could go to the promised land. Now, isn’t that neat?

What does the Lord want us to remember? The Passover. What should you remember out of the whole book of Exodus? The Passover. And what about it? It was all about God’s offer of salvation, His plan was substitution, His method was the sprinkling of blood, and His promise is sufficient. I hope that you’ll always remember how wonderful the book of Exodus is.

Let’s bow for word of prayer.

Thank you, dear Lord, for this precious group of saints who come the Father. I believe that in the group this size, there could be some that are trusting in something other than simply Jesus, who gave Himself for them. I pray that you would knock at their heart’s door. And Father, would you please convict and tug at their heart? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was a time when they came to hide beneath the blood of Jesus Christ, to escape the wrath of God forever. Help us to drink deeply of your word in the days ahead. Amen.