Once again, we're thinking about
Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt and their dealings with
Pharaoh. And we're going through these
plagues that were brought against Pharaoh, as you know. So we're
in Exodus chapter nine, and we're reading from verse eight. And the Lord said unto Moses
and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and
let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust
in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth
with blains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land
of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace
and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward
heaven, and it became a boil breaking forth with blames upon
man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand
before Moses because of the boils, for the boil was upon the magicians
and upon all the Egyptians. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had
spoken unto Moses. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
once again this reading from his word. So here is another
plague that we have presented to us in this short passage today. And this plague comes again as
a plague without warning. Moses and Aaron are instructed
to go and gather handfuls of ashes from a furnace and to throw
them up in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. And as the wind catches
the ash, it would disperse it, or as the passage tells us, it
becomes small dust and it is carried in the wind as it blows
across the land of Egypt. And though there was not enough
ash to cover the whole land of Egypt in just what Moses and
Aaron threw into the air, this was a symbolical act. by which God showed that he was
in control and that he was bringing this disease of boils upon the
whole land of Egypt and this disease would fall upon the whole
nation. This act was to be done before
Pharaoh so that he might be an eyewitness and know that it was
done by Moses and Aaron but no more that it was representing
another act of God. As the ash turned to dust and
descended to the earth, it would appear as though the disease
was coming down from the sky in the dust, signifying that
God in his heaven was sending this plague upon the land of
Egypt. on its beasts, on its people,
and even as we shall see upon Pharaoh and his magicians. The plague itself was a plague
of boils or blains. And my dictionary says that blains
are blisters, blotches, sores, and blemishes on the skin. And it seems to have been a very
painful condition because the magicians not only failed to
copy this plague, but they could not resist the effects of this
plague on their own bodies. And we are told that they could
not stand before Moses perhaps due to the pain that they were
in, and certainly also, I'm sure, knowing that they did not have
the power to confront or contend with the man of God who was as
God to them. And these men, these magicians,
had deceived and incited Pharaoh all along, and now they were
personally feeling the effect of God's plague upon their own
bodies. And the sores and the swellings
that came from these boils would have been upon Pharaoh and his
household as well, because we are told that they came upon
all the Egyptians. And although on this occasion
it is not stated explicitly, again we are given to understand
that these boils did not come into the land of the Israelites,
the land where the Israelites dwelt, upon their houses and
upon their persons or their beasts. So these were hard days for the
Egyptians, for the Egyptian people, for the Egyptian nation. As we've
seen from previous plagues, they were losing their wealth, their
cattle, who were dying of disease. They were losing their health
as these boils and blains came upon them. And I suspect they
were losing their patience as well. But as for Pharaoh, his
pride would not allow him to agree to the demands of God. God's demand was that Israel
should go free to worship him, but Pharaoh would not comply. Pharaoh had hardened his heart
against God on numerous occasions. And now we're told something
different. Now we're told that the Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh would neither listen
to God or to God's servants. And that reminds us that often
men and women and boys and girls will not listen to God or listen
to God's servants. They don't go to church. They
don't hear the gospel preached. And we should always be keen
and always eager to be listening for the voice of the Lord and
listening for the word of the Lord in the message of the gospel. But Pharaoh's heart was hard. His mind was closed and his ears
were shut. It's a terrible, dreadful condition
to be in. Pharaoh had boxed himself in
and God gave him no way of escape. There's a couple of lessons that
I want to draw from these few verses that we have before us
here. And the first one is to take
us back to think about the material that God used to bring about
this disease of boils and blains on Egypt. The material that he
used was ash from a furnace. And that might seem a little
bit odd that he should choose to use ash from a furnace. What's that all about? Well,
I'm pretty sure that it's symbolic. It was real ash, of course, from
a real furnace, but it spoke, it signified something else. Ash is usually a worthless thing. It's thrown away. It's not even
thrown in the garden often because it's so useless. There's no value
to it. It's just discarded. Ash was worthless. And Egypt
and the Egyptians despised the children of Israel. Certainly it's true that the
children of Israel were worth something as far as being slaves
and servants to Pharaoh. There was an economic value in
the children of Israel as far as their servitude is concerned. But they despised the children
of Israel, both Pharaoh and his people. But God uses what appears
to be worthless in man's sight in order to accomplish his purposes. We learn that from Paul in 1
Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 28. And God does that. God uses what appears to be worthless
things to achieve His purpose because God has ruled that no
flesh, no human being will glory in His presence. All glory belongs
to God. Now Pharaoh thought that he was
glorious. He thought that he was powerful
because men and women told him that he was. But God was going
to humble Pharaoh, and God was going to humble Egypt, and God
was going to use something that was worthless and despised, like
the very ash of the furnace, in order to do it. God would
show Pharaoh that neither he nor his people could stand before
the dust and the ashes that Moses threw up into the sky. And another thing about this
material is that the Israelites were brick makers and builders
in Egypt. And it's likely that there would
be furnaces or brick kilns that would be used to break, sorry,
to bake the bricks. A little bit of a tongue twister
there. That would be used to bake the
bricks. So if this dust had come from
one of the kilns where the bricks were produced, then that in itself
also symbolised the suffering and oppression of the children
of Israel. That suffering that was caused
by Pharaoh's swollen pride, and the ash typified the pain and
the suffering of the children of Israel. But now that pain
and suffering was falling upon Pharaoh and his people, inflicting
on them swelling diseases and painful sores to oppress them. So that when God looks down and
sees the oppression of his people, or God hears the cries of his
people for help ascending into his presence, We see in what
happened here in Egypt a way of reminding us that no persecution
of God's people will go unpunished. Pharaoh and his people would
be held accountable and God would take vengeance on them, even
bringing judgments and plagues upon them that were similar or
symbolic of the troubles that they brought against his children. And that's not just a fact of
the Old Testament history. That is a promise for our lives
as well. The Lord's people will be vindicated. And there is a judgment coming
upon the enemies of God and the enemies of His people. And we
have a part to play in that judgment as well. Because very often we
feel that we want to take matters into our own hands and we want
to hit back against people that hurt us. We want to give as good
as we get. Make them pay for what they've
done to us. But the Lord tells His people
don't do that. The Lord tells His people that
He will avenge them. In Deuteronomy chapter 32 and
verse 35 we read, To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. And Paul writes in Romans 12,
verse 19, So there's a lesson for us too, who are followers
of the Lord and to hear his word. It can be hard not to hit back,
especially if we feel that God is not acting quickly enough. However, with all God's promises,
this is true as well. God's wrath will come quickly
upon His enemies and ours, and a day of calamity is at hand. If something is said to be at
hand, it means that it is very close. God used dust on the occasion
with Pharaoh. Who knows what he might use to
bring his judgment upon our enemies. And I just want to make one more
point and then I'm done. The language of scripture here
has changed slightly from the previous plagues that we read
about. Previously, we were told that
Pharaoh's heart was hardened or that Pharaoh hardened his
heart. And now we are expressly told
that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. There's a word for this in the
Bible. It's called reprobation. And it means that God gives a
person up to follow after the hardness of their own heart,
never more giving mercy that will lead them to repentance
or any forgiveness. and it's a terrible state for
a person to be in. It suggests complete hopelessness
before God because he has left that person to their own devices. And Paul speaks about God giving
some people over to a reprobate mind. and he writes to the church
at Thessalonica and he says, and for this cause God shall
send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. So this is a very fearful condition
that Pharaoh has now come into. Indeed, it is the worst condition
in the world, short of being in hell itself and eternal damnation. Our God has given his own Son,
Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have eternal life. And outside of God's Son, outside
of Jesus Christ, there is no hope. When the Lord Jesus Christ
died on the cross, he opened a way of salvation. And he brought grace and he brought
mercy to sinners like you and like me. May the Lord never give
us over to a reprobate mind. May he never harden our hearts
or send us strong delusions that we should believe lies. May he
rather in love bring us to Christ for life and peace and acceptance
and salvation. Pharaoh is in hell today. May the Lord be merciful to me
and may the Lord be merciful to you and keep us from such
a place through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you
for listening. Amen.