The Ten Plagues - Bible Notes - Exodus 6-11

 HOW do you read the Bible?

1. Summarize

2. Find Jesus

3. Apply

Exodus 6 - God promises to deliver Israel, sending Moses back to Pharaoh.

Jesus faced a tough crowd like Moses did, but was not reluctant to go.

Apply - Israel didn't believe, because of their oppression by Pharaoh.  God saved them anyway.

Exodus 7 - The signs & plagues begin: staffs turn into snakes, and the Nile into blood.

Jesus also gave many signs to show He was from God, and Israel largely refused to believe it.

Apply - Egypt worshiped the Nile, so God showed He could take it away from them.  Over time, God will plague your idols and point you to Him.

Exodus 8 - Frogs!  Gnats!  Flies!  Egypt's magicians can't keep up their farce.  Pharaoh makes false promises to remove the plagues.

Jesus - some like Nicodemus admitted He was from God, though official rejection continued.

Apply - We pretend earthly things can give us what only God can.  We bargain deceitfully with God when He lovingly brings pain into our lives.

Exodus 9 - Livestock, boils and hail.  God starts protecting Israel from the plagues.  How does Egypt have livestock in vs 19, after they all died in the first plague in chapter 9?  Couldn't find a good answer in my resources, but I think Egypt just took Israel's, that had been spared.

Jesus distinguishes between sheep and goats at the last day, bring plagues on those refusing Him, and sparing those who trust Him.

Apply - the plagues can be misapplied to our Covid times, but not every application is an abuse of Scripture.  Take verse 15, where God says to Pharaoh, "by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth."  We deserve to be wiped out as a species, and God would be fair to use a virus to do it.  No amount of human resolve, unity, and science can stop God if He decides to do this.  As Egypt kept their faith in their gods as God plagued them, so we are doing the same today.  We just have different gods.

Exodus 10 - Locusts and darkness.  Pharaoh edges closer to submission, but keeps taking it back.

Apply - all God's people must worship Him, with all their lives.  Take every part of you out of Egypt, and go to God.

Apply - we have stubborn, God-refusing hearts, like Pharaoh.

Exodus 11 - God predicts the firstborn death, and Pharaoh's submission

Jesus' death as God's Son was planned and known by God, and also brought about our deliverance from powers greater than us.

Apply - God will humble you as low as it takes to change you.  Predicting Pharaoh would give in ahead of time, made it all the more humiliating for Pharaoh when he did let Israel go.