Surprise!! I'm back again so soon with another Sermon Summary. It's just about 3 p.m. on this rainy Sunday afternoon. I have homemade beef stew in the crock pot, getting ready for supper later. The steak came from a larger piece Mike marinated when he was here. I accidentally overcooked it the other night, so this will tenderize it for easier consumption.

The only other update I have right now is that I got to see Rob's godparents for a minute or two when they were picking him up to go to York Beach Maine yesterday afternoon. I haven't seen them since he and I were together back in 2021. It was good to know they are still doing well.

One of my other interests besides Bible Study and Crafting is History. For that reason, historical fiction is one of my favorite genres of both books and movies. That being said, "Tombstone" is one of my favorite movies. The late great Val Kilmer plays Doc Holiday to Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp.* As the story progresses, we find the notorious Cochise County Cowboys causing trouble in the greater Tombstone, Arizona region. The tension is finally released in the famous shootout at the OK Corral. Here, the skills of both groups are tested until Wyatt Earp's men win the day.

In today's message, we find Moses and Aaron challenging the Magicians of Egypt to a test of skills. (I think we all know who wins.) 😉

Thankfully, Mike was able to attend this one. 🥰

Our Scripture is Exodus 7:1-24 --

Exodus 7

New International Version

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ² You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, ⁴ he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. ⁵ And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

⁶ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: ¹² Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

The Plague of Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. ¹⁶ Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. ¹⁷ This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. ¹⁸ The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”

¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels^[a] of wood and stone.”

²⁰ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. ²¹ The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

²² But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. ²³ Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

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To begin his message last Sunday, Pastor Matt spoke of tension vs confrontation. In the process, we were told (or reminded) that his absolute favorite movie of all time is "The Warrior", starring Tom Hardy. It features MMA fighting, but the story itself is one of tension, confrontation, and redemption of the two brothers who are the central characters.

The takeaway thought for today's lesson is this -- "God's Salvation includes His judgement of evil." As we think about it, we can look at Ephesians 6:10. Here, Paul is calling their attention to the truth that our battle is not against flesh and blood; but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. This is equally valid today. In our passage above, Pharaoh sees himself as the god of gods, even over the Nile River.

Verses 8-13 give us the showdown between Moses and Aaron displaying the power of God while the Magicians of Egypt could do nothing more than imitate the things Aaron was doing, or rather, that God was doing through Aaron.

Pastor Matt pointed out the difference here between the word used in Exodus 4 when God turned Moses' staff into a snake - "nachash" as opposed to the term "tannin" above. While the first refers to the basic slithering animal, the latter refers to a large sea creature. Overview mentions the possibility of leviathan in this context. (cf. Gen. 1:21) Other terms may be "sea monster" or even "dragon". What we see in all of this is the fact that God controls things that are otherwise uncontained. Literally EVERYTHING is in His power!!

As Pastor Matt phrased it, God overpowers the "posers". He went on to share just such an experience in his own life. Just the other weekend, he and his wife, Heidi, went up Mount Washington* with friends, in Jeeps. While the others already owned them, Matt and Heidi had to rent one for the excursion. In the course of the day, they were instructed on the "Jeep wave", which is just a couple of raised fingers in acknowledgement of other Jeep drivers on the road. He was embarrassed to realize that he had been doing this behind the side mirror where no one had been able to see it!! 🤭 Of course, the other part of new information was the practice of other Jeep drivers placing a small rubber duck on your vehicle, which you then place on the front of your dashboard. (Some people have more than one row)* He felt like a "poser" among the Jeep Community that day. LOL

In verse 14 of our passage above, we find that God is turning the Nile into blood. This was the life source for all of Egypt. Pastor Matt brought out the fact that they literally saw water as the "blood of the land". As mentioned before, the Magicians, or "posers", if you will, could do nothing aside from copying what God had done through Moses and Aaron. They could not FIX it. Their efforts only made things worse!!

The truth is that we sometimes deal with the same hardness of heart as Pharaoh had. Our tendency is to flex when life gets hard when what we really need is rescue.

In the New Testament book of Colossians, Paul reminds them in chapter 2, verse 15, that in Christ, God made a mockery of the powers and principalities of evil, disarming them. He defeated them by revealing what was true or false, just as we see in our story above.

Further, Hebrews 2:14-15 tell us that Jesus shared our humanity in order to rescue us on the Cross. This brings us freedom from all fear. While the Egyptian Magicians believed that the core desires of significance, belonging, and peace all came from their gods; Jesus defeats all gods. Whether it's money, sex, or power, He provides the depth of satisfaction nothing else can even come close to bringing into our lives.

Again, to reiterate our key thought for the day, when God reveals evil, He judges it. God's Salvation includes judgment of all evil.

In closing, Pastor Matt shared that one way we can take part in God's rescue is by confession of our sins and weaknesses in places of safety. (I believe I spoke on this the other week, but in case I didn't, I just want to do it now. At the end of the service the other week, he had us go to someone else in the room and talk about what we may be struggling with. I found this distasteful, as it smacks of Catholicism. My take on James 5:16, which talks about confessing to others, is that we should keep those moments private in conversations with a trusted friend. When they are sharing with us about something they may be going through, we then respond with our own. This is not about receiving forgiveness, necessarily; but simply acknowledging that we are not perfect either, nor should anyone expect us to be.)

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. In relation to "Tombstone", I actually saw something the other day about how one of the actors playing a cowboy respected Val Kilmer's focus of staying in character all day, even when they weren't shooting a scene. He said it was impressive.

2. For those who may not know, Mount Washington is the highest point in the Northeastern United States. It stands 6,288 ft. above sea level. From here in Concord, it's about a 3 hr. drive.

3. Another "Jeep thing" is that there are trails all across the United States where you can earn a "badge" for having driven there. These are stickers placed on the quarter panel in front of the driver's door. (I don't even have a vehicle, but I have a friend who owns a Jeep, so I know things.)

4. Remember, the podcast drops every Wednesday afternoon, so be sure to listen to "Dive in with Matt and Joe" for more in-depth perspectives on each lesson.

Music -- No rights ever, I promise!!