So we're thinking about some
of the younger members of our congregation particularly, but
we're going to read together from Exodus chapter nine and
verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the
Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if thou
refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, behold, the
hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle, which is in the field,
upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen,
and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous
moraine. And the Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall
nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. And the
Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this
thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on
the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died. But of the cattle
of the children of Israel died not one. And Pharaoh sent, and
behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites
dead. and the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened and he did not let the people go. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. The plagues of blood and frogs
and lice and flies had disturbed and disrupted and discomforted
Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. But the hard-hearted king refused
to do what God commanded. He was determined not to let
the children of Israel escape out of the land of Egypt. These
were free workers for Pharaoh. They were too valuable to Pharaoh
for him to let them go easily. They worked for little cost. They built Pharaoh's cities. They worked his lands and they
brought him great riches. They might be God's people. but
they were Pharaoh's slaves and he refused to let them go. This is a beautiful picture of
the sinner's conversion by God. when Satan refuses to let God's
people go and God enacts a powerful work of grace and salvation to
liberate and deliver his people out of the bondage of sin. But that is another story for
another day. We'll come back to this picture
on another occasion. For the meantime, I want to just
think about what God tells Moses to do when he goes into Pharaoh's
presence. Because Moses has to repeat once
again this demand from the Lord. If it was money and wealth and
riches that Pharaoh was concerned about, then this plague, which
Moses told Pharaoh about, would touch his pocket in a way that
none of the earlier plagues had done. Oh, it's true that there
was a lot of discomfort, there were a lot of disgusting smells,
and probably there was quite a lot of disease as well with
the former plagues that had taken place. But this moraine, this
pestilence on the livestock, this disease which came into
the animals, This would cripple the Egyptian farming economy. This would cost Pharaoh a lot
of money. And Moses again declared God's
demand with a high statement of authority. Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel. Whenever we hear that phrase
used, thus saith the Lord, and it's used hundreds and hundreds
of times in the scripture. We remember that it was the phrase
almost exclusively used by Moses to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was left
under no doubt that he was dealing with the Lord God of Israel. Thus saith the Lord demands attention
and it demands compliance. Neglect to do what the Lord says
is painful, it's shameful, and it's costly. And Pharaoh would
learn that. When God speaks, men and women
and boys and girls should listen and obey. But like Pharaoh, because
we have hard, unbelieving hearts, we do not. we think we know better. This plague was to be a plague
or a disease of the cattle by which is meant all kinds of agricultural
livestock and a number of them are are named there's horses
and asses and camels and oxen and sheep and it was to be so
severe and likely infectious so that it was infecting all
the other animals around about, that all or at least a large
part of the animals in Egypt would die and that quickly. God gave Pharaoh a day's notice
to allow time for Pharaoh to act to let the children of Israel
go if he had wished to do so. Let us always remember that God's
patience, God's long suffering is an opportunity to repent of
sin. If God tells a person, if God
tells a people that judgment is coming, he is giving us time
to escape. And again we notice that the
Lord particularly distinguished between His people, the people
of Israel, and the Egyptians in this plague. Though the cattle
were close, the fields were adjacent, probably the water courses were
common and the food that they ate would be similar, No disease
would affect the cattle of the Israelites, and no animals of
theirs would die from the disease. And the Lord did exactly as he
had promised. And as soon as Pharaoh realized
that the Egyptian animals were all dead, he sent to see if the
animals of Israel had been affected in the same way, and he discovered
that they were not. and we're told that the heart
of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not let the people go.
We're not told this, but I wonder if when Pharaoh saw that the
cattle of the children of Israel were not affected by this disease,
that he stole them from them. Here's a couple of lessons that
I think we can learn from this passage. Let me just point out
a couple of things to you by way of application. There was
something different about this plague. I wonder if you notice
what was different about this plague. Something foreboding,
something ominous and menacing happened in this plague that
Pharaoh might have noticed though it doesn't appear that he did. Here's what I mean. All the other
plagues could be fixed. All the other plagues could be
rectified. The water came back when the
blood went away. The frogs all died and the lice
and the flies disappeared. But when this disease had run
its course, the animals of Egypt were all dead. Now I don't know
how many died. We're told all the cattle of
Egypt died. But it seems to be only those
that were in the field. And a little bit later, in some
of the other plagues, we discovered that other animals died as well. So maybe the Egyptians did steal
the Israelites' flocks. And maybe they bought and they
brought in more from some of the nations round about. But
either way, these animals in the field were dead. and at least
those ones were not coming back. You see, what was happening here
is that these plagues were coming with increasing severity and
the price that was paid was getting greater. Disobedience to God does that. At first, in the beginning, the
consequences of our sin do not seem to be so bad. And we might
think that we can recover the situation and we can put things
right and we can fix the problem. But there comes a time when the
effects of our sin are not fixable. And the price that we have to
pay for our sin is more than we can bear. And Pharaoh would
find that to be the case in the coming days. And here's another point which
is notable about this little plague. The difference or what
the Lord calls the severing imposed by God upon the land and the
cattle in the fields during this plague, this plague of the moraine,
is a miracle of distinguishing grace. We mentioned that last
week, but this idea of distinguishing grace means that the animals
of Israel would not be affected while the animals of Egypt would
die. And so it was, God distinguished
between the two lots of property. And distinguishing grace is God's
grace that separates between people and treats them differently
because of God's choice. The Bible tells us that God has
a people whom he loves, a people whom he sets apart in the Lord
Jesus Christ, a people whom he redeems by the blood of Christ,
a people that he gathers through the preaching of the gospel and
the work of the Holy Spirit, and a people that he glorifies. And this people are all the same
people. his elect that he distinguishes
from amongst the men and women and boys and girls of this world.
And distinguishing grace is a Bible principle that we can't deny. God has always had a people whom
he called his own, and he blesses them particularly, and he deals
with them differently. And many people don't like that.
They say, well that's not fair. But we reply, judgment is fair
when we rebel against God and we all deserve judgment. but grace is a gift and mercy
is a kindness. It's born out of love and it
comes completely undeserved. And if God chooses out of love
and kindness to bless one and not another, then that is his
prerogative, that is his choice. And we gain nothing by complaining
against God's goodness. And here's the third point, and
then I'm finished. Pharaoh, when he saw the dead animals in the
fields of the Egyptians, sent, and we're told, behold, that
means wow. It was almost like a big surprise. There was not one of the cattle
of the Israelites dead. Pharaoh was keen to know if God's
promise that he would use this distinguishing grace had in fact
come to pass. And of course it had. And I think
it likely that Pharaoh then said, well, if he kills my cattle,
I'll take his cattle from him. And he likely thought that he
was being clever in doing that and that he would get the better
of God by doing that. And that's what happens in the
thinking of men and women and boys and girls in this world.
They think they can outsmart God and they think that they
can get the better of him. And that's a big mistake. Paul
says to the Galatians, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. And we might think that we can
handle the sin that's in our lives. We might think it's not
so very serious, it's containable, we can live our lives without
giving too much attention to God, just enough to keep everybody
happy. But God is not mocked. And Pharaoh
might think that he can outwit God, but God is storing up wrath
against Pharaoh more than he ever imagined. and more than
he could ever endure. What we need from God is mercy. What we must not do is try to
outsmart God. We need to be like that publican
who stood in the temple and cried, God be merciful to me, a sinner. It is only through the cleansing
blood of Jesus Christ that we can find peace with God and only
by God's own righteousness that we shall ever be fit for the
presence of God in heaven. May God grant us the mercy we
need and not the justice that we deserve. Amen.