Message 18
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If we would grasp the revelation in the book of Exodus, we need to see that God desires His people to build a dwelling place for Him on earth. But God’s enemy has usurped His people and holds them in bondage in the world. Therefore, in the first fourteen chapters of Exodus, there was a struggle between God and Pharaoh, the representative of Satan. In this struggle God’s judgment upon the Egyptian world was made manifest through the ten plagues. However, the plagues were not only a punishment, but also God’s way of exposing the nature, the meaning, and the issue of the life of the world, the life which occupied the people of God. Hence, the plagues that came upon the Egyptians were not only punishments, but also merciful warnings. If the Egyptians had received mercy, they would have seen the nature, meaning, and result of the life in the world.
It is quite meaningful that God sent ten plagues, not nine or eleven. In the Bible the number ten signifies perfection or completeness in human living. For example, our ten fingers and ten toes signify such completeness. The Bible reveals that at the end of this age there will be ten kingdoms under the rule of Antichrist. Those ten kingdoms will be the ultimate expression of fallen human life. In order to expose human life in the world, God used ten plagues. As we have pointed out, these ten plagues are divided into four groups. The first three groups consist of three plagues each, with the last plague standing in a category of its own.
We have covered the first group of plagues, the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice. The plagues of blood and frogs are related to water, whereas the plague of lice is related to the dust of the earth. Hence, in the first group of plagues the water and the earth were exposed and judged. We are all dependent on the water and the earth for our livelihood. The supply necessary to sustain human life comes from these two sources. In the first three plagues God exposed the nature of the fallen life of mankind. As He did so, He showed that the resources of man’s livelihood issue in death, trouble, and irritation.
The second group of three plagues deals mainly with the air. Today there is much concern about air pollution. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth plagues, the air in Egypt became polluted. Flies swarmed in the air, pestilence was carried through the air, and ashes that caused boils were sprinkled into the air. Therefore, in the second group of plagues, the air, another necessity for man’s life, was dealt with.
I wish to emphasize the fact that these plagues were not only a form of punishment, but also an exposure of the world and of the life in the world. If God’s intention had been to use the plagues only as punishment, there would have been no need for Him to send Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh again and again. Furthermore, there would have been no need for Him to send the plagues over a period of so many days. Instead, God could have punished the Egyptians and destroyed them with one blow. However, God dealt with them in a fine, detailed way. Firstly, God changed the water into blood. Then He brought forth the troublesome frogs and, following that, the irritating lice. God’s purpose in doing so was not only to punish the Egyptians, but to teach both them and His own people that the resources of man’s life supply have actually become blood, frogs, and lice.
God created the heavens for the earth and the earth for man’s living. Thus, both the heavens and the earth are for man’s existence. Man, however, has fallen. According to His righteousness, God should have judged both the heavens and the earth immediately after the fall of Adam. But God’s intention is to accomplish His eternal purpose through man. Instead of judging everything, God put the universe under the redemption of Christ.
The redemption of Christ is a very weighty matter, much more significant than we realize. God established Adam as the head of the whole creation in Genesis 1. In principle, when the head rebelled, all creation came under the curse and should have been judged immediately according to God’s righteousness. The whole creation should have collapsed. God cannot tolerate anything that touches His righteousness, holiness, and glory; but neither will He change His heart concerning His purpose to have an eternal dwelling among man. Therefore, God chose to view the whole creation under the redemption of Christ, which in His eyes had been accomplished before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 13:8). Because God views the old creation under the redemption of Christ, He has the freedom either to preserve the universe or to judge it and destroy it. Because of the redemption of Christ, God is wholly just and righteous whether He keeps the universe or destroys it.
When God could no longer tolerate the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah because they rebelled against Him and rejected the redemption He had ordained, that part of the earth came under His righteous judgment. In principle, the same thing happened in Moses’ time. Pharaoh and the Egyptians rejected the redemption ordained by God and thus made themselves naked and exposed to God’s judgment. Because the children of Israel were still under the redemption, God’s judgment did not touch them. Exodus 8:23 is a crucial verse: “I will put a redemption between my people and thy people” (Heb.). Here the Lord was telling Pharaoh that He would put a redemption between His people and Pharaoh’s people. God covered His people with the redemption of Christ, but Pharaoh and his people rejected God’s redemption. Therefore, when God sent the plagues upon the Egyptians, they were not under God’s redemption, but were exposed to His judgment.
In the fall, man had sinned against God’s righteousness and had come short of God’s glory. Nevertheless, God did not come in with judgment. How then could God’s righteousness be maintained? According to Genesis 3:21, the answer rests in God’s redemption. The skins of the animal God used to cover Adam and Eve point to the redemption of Christ. Because of the redemption of Christ, God is able righteously to maintain the existence of the universe.
In Exodus Pharaoh and the Egyptians did not care for the redemption of Christ. They deserved to be judged for the way they were treating God’s people. Therefore, God exercised His judgment upon the Egyptians through the ten plagues. At the time of the plagues, the Egyptians were exposed to God’s righteous dealings. The children of Israel, however, remained under the redemption of Christ, for God had put a redemption between them and Pharaoh’s people.
Today the whole earth is still under the redemption of Christ. If it were not for Christ’s redemption, the sun, the moon, and the planets would disintegrate. God upholds the heavens and the earth for the sake of man’s existence. You may wonder how the righteous God can tolerate the sinfulness of people in the world today. He can tolerate it only because He views the world through the redemption of Christ.
All the people of the world are actually enjoying the benefit of Christ’s redemption, although they have no realization of it. Colossians tells us that God has reconciled all things to Himself through the death of Christ (1:20). Only under the redemption of Christ is this earth a suitable place for man to live. If the creation were not under the redemption of Christ, it would collapse. But God extends His mercy to view the unbelievers under the redemption of Christ that they might have the opportunity to repent and receive this redemption.
All the food we eat and all the life supply we enjoy are under the redemption of Christ. Otherwise, the water would become blood, the fish would become frogs, the earth would produce either thorns or lice instead of grain, and from the air would come flies. The ten plagues came upon Egypt because they rejected God’s redemption.
At the time of Pharaoh’s resistance to God, Pharaoh and the Egyptians exposed themselves to God’s righteous judgment. But He was merciful even in the exercise of His judgment. Instead of annihilating the Egyptians with one act of judgment, He sent a series of plagues upon them. His intention in doing this was not only to punish or to judge, but also to expose and to warn the Egyptians that they might have opportunity to turn to Him.
Each plague is significant. In the first plague, the water was changed into blood. Do you have the assurance that the water of the world which you are enjoying today is not actually blood? If this water is under the redemption of Christ, it is water. But if it is not under Christ’s redemption, it is really blood. In like manner, in your experience does the water that is the source of the necessary life supply produce fish or frogs? It all depends on whether or not the water is under the redemption of Christ. I can testify from a pure conscience that the water I enjoy produces fish and not frogs. Furthermore, for me the earth produces corn, wheat, and vegetables; it does not produce lice. However, if in your experience the earth is not under Christ’s redemption, the dust of the earth will become lice.
In the sixth conflict between the Lord and Pharaoh, the Lord sent upon Pharaoh and all the Egyptians swarms of flies (8:20-32). It is difficult to determine what kind of flies these were. The dictionary in Strong’s Concordance says that there were diverse kinds of flies. In his translation Darby uses the word dog flies, whereas the Amplified Bible says blood-sucking gadflies, flies that bit the cattle and sucked the blood of the cattle. Whatever kind of flies these were, swarms of them came upon Pharaoh, his servants, and his people. All the houses of the Egyptians were filled with swarms of flies.
These swarms of flies signify the pollution in the atmosphere of the world today, pollution caused by immorality that pervades the atmosphere. Consider, for example, how polluted is the moral atmosphere in a city such as Las Vegas. Whenever I visited that city to contact some seeking saints who were there, I had the sense that the atmosphere over the city was foul. The atmosphere of today’s world is teeming with “flies.” Spiritually speaking, there is no fresh air in the worldly places. Because of the fall of man, the moral atmosphere of the world has been polluted; it is full of noisome swarms of insects. Thus, the fourth plague indicates that the air is not filled with clean things or positive things, but filled with all manner of unclean and evil things.
By means of the exposure in the first four plagues, we see the blood, the frogs, the lice, and the flies. What a detailed picture of the living of fallen man in the world! However, the people in the world today do not realize the actual situation of their life in the world. In order for them to realize this, God must come in to expose it to them thoroughly, just as He did to the Egyptians through the plagues.
The next plague was a pestilence that came upon all the cattle of the Egyptians (9:1-7). I believe that this pestilence was caused by germs spread by the swarms of flies.
Exodus 9:3 says, “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 pestilence” (Heb.). According to Leviticus 11, horses, asses, and camels were unclean. They could be used for transportation, but not for food. However, the oxen and the sheep were regarded as clean and were fit for the children of Israel to eat. Hence, the animals that were subject to the plague were of two categories: those used for transportation and those used for food. God judged both the transportation and the food in Egypt. This indicates that the means of transportation and the way of eating in the world today will also be judged by God.
Once again we see that God judged the Egyptians in a very fine way, destroying their livelihood item by item. The Egyptians depended upon the Nile, but the Nile was judged. They depended upon the earth and the air, but the earth and the air were also judged. Furthermore, the Egyptians depended upon their cattle for transportation and food, but in the fifth plague even the cattle were judged.
Since the cattle were not sinful, you may wonder why they were judged by God. According to Genesis 3, the earth was involved with Adam’s sin, even though the earth itself was not sinful. After Adam sinned, the earth came under the curse (Gen. 3:17-18). Thus, Adam’s fall implicated the whole earth. In the same principle, the cattle of the Egyptians were judged, not because they themselves were sinful, but because they were implicated by the sin of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Because these cattle belonged to the Egyptians, they were involved in the sin of the Egyptians. Here we see that God’s righteous judgment also deals with the implications of a sinful situation. Because the cattle in Egypt were related to Pharaoh and served Pharaoh, they were subject to the righteous judgment of God upon Pharaoh.
The principle of implication applies today. If we love the Lord and serve Him under His blessing, everything related to us will be blessed also. Even such things as animals or material possessions will be blessed. If we love the Lord, even our environment will be blessed. Our relatives, friends, and neighbors will be positively implicated in the blessing that is upon us. Under God’s righteousness, we who love the Lord become a factor of blessing to others, even to society as a whole. Those who do not know the Lord may enjoy the benefits of such a positive implication.
My experience of traveling in the interior of China during World War II illustrates this. Often those who were traveling with me, even though they did not believe in the Lord Jesus, told me that they received benefit because of me. During wartime it was difficult to travel. But when trouble came, I prayed, and the Lord preserved me. This caused my traveling companions to realize that they were blessed because God had blessed me.
In the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, we see that the cattle were implicated negatively. Because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness and hardness of heart, the cattle were subject to the plague of pestilence. This should teach us not to become involved with those who are sinful, but to stay away from them. Otherwise, we may become negatively implicated in their situation.
For the sake of His people, God may withhold His judgment from the world. Even when He comes in to judge the world according to His righteousness, He still takes care of His people in order to fulfill His desire to have a dwelling place on earth. We have seen that in the plague of the flies, God put a redemption between His people and Pharaoh’s people. Likewise, in the plague of the grievous pestilence upon the cattle, 9:4 says, “And Jehovah 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” (Heb.). According to verse 6, none of the cattle belonging to the children of Israel died. The messengers sent by Pharaoh saw that none of their cattle had died (v. 7).
Because the people of the world were hindering God’s people from fulfilling His purpose, God came in to judge the way of living in Egypt. Not even the children of Israel understood the true nature of Egyptian life. They also needed a revelation of the nature, the living, and the result of life in Egypt. The more the Egyptians were judged, the more the children of Israel were enlightened regarding the living of Egypt. Therefore, God used plagues to accomplish two things: to punish the Egyptians so that they might release His people and to open the eyes of the children of Israel to the nature of the life of usurpation in Egypt. The enlightenment they received through the plagues made them willing to flee out of Egypt and to go into the wilderness where, at the mountain of God, they could receive God’s revelation concerning His dwelling place.
In the sixth plague, which took place during the eighth conflict (9:8-12), boils broke forth upon man and beast. The Lord told Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from the furnace and to sprinkle them toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. The ashes became fine dust which caused boils to break forth upon man and beast throughout the land of Egypt (9:8-9).
Ashes are what remains after something has been burned. At the end of the fifth plague, all the resources of Egypt had been judged. The water, the earth, the air, and the cattle had all been judged by God. Nevertheless, the ashes, the remainder of things burned, still had to be dealt with. This indicates that anything remaining of our fallen human life must be dealt with by God. You may think that a certain thing has been dealt with thoroughly. Yes, it has been dealt with, but there are still some ashes, some remainder. In a sense, the remainder is worse than the thing itself, for the remainder can cause boils. The remainder of something you once did or had can cause serious damage. Therefore, God deals not only with the things themselves, but also with the remains of those things. By sprinkling the ashes from the furnace into the air, the ashes were exposed.
After God had judged the water, the earth with the dust, and the air, it seems that nothing was left of the resources for the Egyptian livelihood. Even the animals used for transportation were killed. But there were still ashes left from the things that had been dealt with and burned out. Even the ashes, the remainder, God would not tolerate. This indicates how fine, how thorough, both God’s exposing and His judgment were, and it also shows that God did a fine work to educate His people to know the real nature of the life in this world that is against His economy. The educational aspect of God’s judgment upon Egypt was very fine indeed.
Ashes usually contain no germs, for all the germs have been burned away. But the ashes scattered into the air by Moses and Aaron must have been filled with germs because they became dust that caused boils. You may think that your past sinful practices have been thoroughly dealt with and that the only remainder is clean ashes, ashes that contain no germs. But God is not satisfied even with such remains. Therefore, He comes in to judge the remainder of the sinful things. Do not think that in your personal life nothing remains to be dealt with after your sins have been judged. On the contrary, there is still a remainder within you, the remains of what has been judged and dealt with. This indicates that, in the eyes of God, everything of the Egyptian life — the water, the earth, the air, and the ashes — must be judged and exposed. Nothing of the life of the world should remain.
Do not boast of how you have dealt with your past sins or worldly practices. Deep within, you may still have some ashes. For example, a brother may have been an outstanding athlete before he became a Christian. He may think that his love for sports has been dealt with. It may have been dealt with, but the ashes may not have been. Young sisters may have boxes of ashes, the remains of certain things which they dearly treasure. Praise the Lord for all the dealings you have experienced under His leading! But what about the ashes? God requires that they also be exposed and judged.
The plague of the boils affected the Egyptians, but it did not come upon the children of Israel. Yet some of the saints may feel that they have had the experience of scattering ashes of their past experiences and causing damage to other believers. The saints must be careful not to walk as Gentiles. In giving testimony of how we have dealt with sinful things, it is possible to spread ashes in the air. We need to pray that the Lord will cover us with His prevailing blood. Such a prayer will put us under the redemption of Christ, and the anointing will restrict us from spreading ashes. The real significance of this plague is that it indicates how fine and how thorough God’s judgment was, even dealing with the remainder of things burned out, and also how extensive was God’s education for His people.
We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that even the remains of sinful things must be judged. In the eyes of God nothing of Egypt is good. Everything related to Egyptian living, to the living of the world, must be exposed and judged thoroughly. May God expose to us every aspect of the living of the world.
In the second group of plagues two matters are very striking. The first is that these plagues did not affect the land of Goshen, because the children of Israel were under the Lord’s redemption. The second is that in these plagues the Egyptian magicians were not able to do anything. We have pointed out that certain of the philosophers of the world may teach things similar to what we teach in the preaching of the gospel. Eventually, however, these present-day “magicians” are not able to do anything. The philosophers of the world cannot save people from flies, pestilence, or boils. They cannot rescue anyone from moral and spiritual pollution. Only the salvation of God can deliver people from this. Sooner or later, even the “magicians” will become powerless before the hand of God.
Through all these pictures with all the plagues we can see the real situation of our fallen human life. No other portion in the Bible shows us such a detailed picture of the worldly life as it opposes God’s building. The world is against God’s building, and God’s building is opposed to the world. God’s chosen people are the crucial factor between these two opposing forces. If God’s people remain in the world, God cannot do anything. But if they are willing to be rescued from the world unto God, God can work out His purpose on the earth to have His dwelling place. Therefore, God must come in to deal with the usurping world and to educate His people to realize what the world is, so that they may give up the world and remain there no longer. The ten plagues taught the children of Israel what the real nature of Egypt is and what it is that usurped them, occupied them, and possessed them.
