Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
We are happy to be here with you today. Welcome and thank you for joining us. We are heralds of hope and our goal is to use media to like radio, Internet and books to make disciples of Jesus Christ to accomplish the Great Commission in our lifetime. Do you think it is possible to accomplish the Great Commission?
Can we go everywhere and teach all nations?
Planes make it possible to travel anywhere in one day. Our communication is instant and it's possible to have a conversation with anyone in the world, no matter where they are.
Do we have the funds to accomplish this?
If God's people will align our hearts with his, funding will not be a problem. The hard part is keeping our hearts in line with His.
As followers of Jesus, we must focus on going and teaching here at Heralds of Hope. We believe it is possible and we plan to do our part as God leads us.
This belief leads us to teach the Bible via radio like this.
So if you can turn with us now to Exodus, we will continue our journey through this Old Testament book with our Bible teacher, J. Mark Horst. And here he is to teach us today's lesson.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: One of the great truths of our times that we need to keep before us is there is coming a time of judgment.
God has promised and predicted a definite time of judgment in the future, and we must remember this as we look at the events in our world today.
Let me help you grasp this truth as we review an event that took place in the lives of the children of Israel when they were in the land of Egypt many, many years ago, God was preparing to bring them out.
So turn with me to Exodus chapter 7 and verses 14 to 25 to learn some valuable truths regarding the judgment of God.
My teaching is titled When Water Turned to Blood and the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go.
Get to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water and you stand by the river's brink where he comes and the rod which was turned to a serpent and you shall take in your hand and you shall say to him, the Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me unto you, saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.
And behold, before this you would not hear.
This is what the Lord in this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and and they shall be turned to blood.
And the Fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink. And the Egyptians shall be loath to drink of the water of the river.
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, say unto Aaron, take your rod and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all the pools of water that they may become blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.
And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded.
And Aaron lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
And the fish that were in the river died and the river stank. And the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river. And there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Neither did he hearken unto them, as the Lord had said.
And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither did he set his heart to this also.
And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water from the river.
And seven days were fulfilled after that. The Lord had smitten the river.
This is a very interesting and informative portion of Scripture.
Observe with me how God said Pharaoh was to learn who he is by what God was going to do.
This account should teach us several valuable truths regarding the judgment of God.
Again, the title of the teaching is When Water turned to Blood.
First of all, there is the prediction of judgment.
When God gave us the Holy Scriptures, he departed from what all other religions do.
He spoke to us about impending judgment. But then he also showed us the way in which we could secure mercy.
God is not willing that any should perish, so he gives us a warning. In this case, he was very specific when he sent Moses to Pharaoh. And he told him exactly what was going to happen if Pharaoh didn't listen and obey God.
The Bible has many other passages in which this same truth is taught.
God sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him precisely what he was going to do and why he was going to do it.
In this way, God is just and he's also merciful. He doesn't pour out judgment without warning people.
Here you have the prediction of judgment and notice. The Lord always works toward the goal of having all men know that he is God.
The Bible tells us in other places that the world of nature around US is constantly witnessing to the fact that God exists.
The psalmist David in Psalm 19 said, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament makes manifest or shows forth his creativity.
In other words, everywhere we look, there is evidence of God.
Here God is moving to bring Pharaoh to the point where he would confess that the Lord is God.
That's the purpose of God in the revelation he has given us in nature and in his word. And that's why the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh with a word, a word which he gave him.
That word was a prediction of judgment.
You and I can take comfort in this, because God has also told us of other times of judgment yet to come.
For example, we read in the New Testament, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.
But God has also told us how to escape that coming judgment.
There is another truth then we gather from this text. It's the execution of judgment. So you have judgment predicted. Now you're going to have it carried out.
When God predicts that judgment will come, he carries it out. He doesn't waver. He doesn't hesitate. He does what he has predicted and what he has assured men he will do.
So the Lord spoke to Moses and told him that Aaron was to take the rod in his hand and to stretch it out over the waters of Egypt.
And God had told him what the result would be. And that result came to pass.
All the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. So the fish that were in the river died, and there was a terrible stench.
And the Egyptians couldn't drink the water because it was blood.
Think about that. It would have been an awful experience.
Now, the Nile river normally flows its peaceful way from south to north and then empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
The Nile river, even today, is vital to the life of Egypt, just as it was during the time of Moses.
Farmers irrigate their fields from the waters of the Nile, and ships transport their goods from place to place along the banks of the Nile.
The Nile was very important in ancient times. We're informed by historians that since the Egyptians in ancient times didn't know where the source of the Nile was, they felt it was sacred. So they made it a God. They worshiped it.
Every spring, the Nile overflowed its banks. And every time the snows began to melt and the heavy rains of the wintertime came, the overflow of the Nile provided food and sustenance for the people of Egypt, even as it does yet today.
But God executed judgment upon the people of Egypt. And he turned the water of the Nile into blood. The fish in the river died and the river stank.
The fish were a source of food for the people. But God was executing a judgment on something that they placed above Him. Remember I said they worshiped the river as a God. They had made the Nile a God when only the true God has the right to occupy a sacred place in the thoughts and hearts of people.
Pharaoh's response to the prediction of divine judgment forced God to carry it out.
And Pharaoh would not listen. And so God must do what he said he would do.
And he did it.
There is the third truth we get from this tremendous experience, the imitation of judgment.
Now it seems strange to you and me that the Lord would permit the magicians and the wise men and the astrologers of Egypt to do with their enchantments exactly as Aaron had done with the rod of God.
But you know, sometimes God permits wicked men liberties to carry out his purposes.
In this case, it was for the express purpose that the final end or goal might be accomplished. In other words, by letting the magicians carry out the same kind of action and turning water into blood, God prepared the heart of Pharaoh even more for his divine judgment.
Now notice with me in this text in verse 25 that the Lord continued this judgment upon the river now for seven days, so that the people nearly died of thirst because they couldn't drink the water from the river.
So they began digging all along the banks of the river to try to find some water that was fit to drink.
Let's also remember the particular reason behind this judgment. God was about to deliver his people to people of Israel from Egypt. Though they had been there for 400 years.
He had promised the patriarch Abraham that he would do this in due time or at the right time, and he was now bringing it to pass.
As you and I reflect upon this experience in the life of the children of Israel, we learn some valuable truths regarding the judgment of God.
When God predicts judgment, it is a fair warning.
Secondly, God must then execute or carry out that judgment. He must carry out what he has promised in accordance with man's response to Him. And then third, God may permit men to imitate his judgments so that their judgment may be just.
Remember, since God has spoken absolutely in his holy word, it is of utmost importance that you turn in simple faith and trust to him so you can escape his judgment.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Thanks J. Mark, for teaching us more from Exodus, and thank you for being there. If you would like this teaching or if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. I'll give you our information shortly.
I love how Exodus teaches us that God is in control and he is at work.
He always has been and and he always will be.
We can trust him right now, no matter what we are experiencing.
We won't always understand him, but we can trust Him. His timing might be different than ours. Think about Moses and he might not do what we think he should be doing.
Remember what happened to Joseph.
However, we have the benefit of looking back and at many years of history and we see God is sovereign. His purposes will be accomplished.
This is his story and he is the author.
If you are interested, we have a study guide for Exodus available.
It is a small booklet designed to help you learn more from each of these lessons. We call it the Hope Herald and if you would like one, all you have to do is ask.
Here is how you can connect with us.
One of the best ways is via email. Our email address is mail heraldsofhope.org if you don't have email, you can send us a letter. Our address is HopeFor Today, Box 3, Breezewood, PA 15533.
Or you can connect with us on our website. Our website is heraldsofhope.org While you're there, please look around for more teaching like this on our website. You will also find other resources available from Heralds of Hope. Again, the website is heraldsofhope.org thanks again for joining us for today's program. I encourage you to join us again next week and as we continue our study in Exodus. We look forward to being with you then. And we'll leave you with a verse from First Corinthians 10.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Blessings to you as you glorify.
