Exodus 9. We're going to, as our elder Bill Mulder said, look at the seventh plague of hail. Exodus 9. 13-35. Please follow along as I read the Word of God for us. This is the Word of God to you. Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants, and on your people, so that you may know there is none like me in all the earth. For 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. But for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, About this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall. Such has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter. For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into houses. But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field, only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel stood, was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and said to him, this time I have sinned. Yahweh is in the right. And I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with Yahweh, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. And Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yahweh. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear Yahweh, who is gone. The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in the bud. But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up. And so Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to Yahweh. And the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as Yahweh had spoken through Moses. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord will surely stand forever. Please be seated. I wonder As we start, if you can think for a minute about the most important words that have been spoken in your life, the words that have most changed your life. I think our thought probably first goes to maybe a really good job interview or a great speech that I gave, a really important presentation. Maybe it got me a job. Maybe it improved my standing. But I want to suggest to you this morning that the most important words in your life have been spoken by someone else to you. Surely it was important when you said I do at your wedding, but I'm quite confident this morning that much more meaningful to you was looking at your beloved, looking at their eyes, when they said about you and for you, even though they know your sin and your failures and your brokenness, much more important when they said I do towards you. You might have said rather blithely, as young couples tend to, let's have kids, I think we're ready. But far more important than your words were the words of someone else. Congratulations, mom and dad, you have a son. You have a daughter. The most important words in your life are rarely spoken by you, they're spoken by other people to you. And that's important because it cuts against our grain, right? We're always the hero of our story. My words have the power to shape my life. It's really popular, the power of positive speaking. I can speak something into existence. Well, that's a bad sin tendency for mankind. We certainly see it in the heart of Pharaoh this morning. And so God is going to show Pharaoh, and He's going to show us, His people, through this seventh plague, that it's the Word of God. The Word and power of God alone that should matter for every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve. And so we're gonna unpack the seventh plague and the power of the Word of God through three points. First, the Word of God this morning is gonna wage war in heaven. That's our first point. The Word is gonna wage war in heaven. And then we're gonna hear from the Word of God a voice of judgment. That's our second point. And then finally, the Word of God will show forth in Exodus chapter 9 as the power unto salvation. Again, our three points. First, the war in heaven. Second, the voice of judgment. And third, the power unto salvation. This plague starts, as many of them do, with God speaking. Then the Lord said to Moses, and He commands Moses to speak to Pharaoh. Say this. Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go. So we start, as we always should, with the word of God. But as we understand this first point, this war in heaven, it's important to pause here and emphasize escalation. That's our first sub-point. The war in heaven is going to be escalated this morning. The plagues, there are ten of them, consist in three cycles. We haven't really unpacked that yet because it comes important right now. There are three cycles for the plagues. Three of three that then culminate in the tenth plague. Why do we say there's a cycle? Well, the first plague and the fourth plague and the seventh plague all start in the same way. They both start with God speaking to Moses, rise up early in the morning. Early in the morning these plagues begin as an introduction almost to the plague cycle. Origin and Tertullian point out it's almost like the plagues have morning and day and night in them. So it starts always in the morning. And then the third plague in a cycle always has no warning. Like the end of a day, the third plague, the sixth plague, and the ninth plague have no warning. God doesn't speak to Pharaoh before those plagues come upon him. So we have in there a closed cycle. It starts with Moses rising early in the morning to warn Pharaoh, and then each plague cycle ends with no warning, and God's devastation coming, sure. But it's escalating now, this last cycle, because the seventh is the first plague in this cycle to come without a condition. If you go back to the first and the fourth plagues, when God speaks through Moses to Pharaoh, he says, let my people go, and if you do not, I will fill the Nile with blood. If you do not, or else, verse 21 of chapter 8, or else, if you will not, I will send swarms of flies. But now the war has been escalated. Battle has been declared six times, each time Yahweh has rode out and the gods of Egypt did not meet him. And God sent judgment upon Egypt. Now there's no condition in the seventh plague. Let my people go that they may serve me. But there's no condition. I will be sending hail. Those are the stakes now. You have not been listening. And then even this language, it's also new to the seventh plague, that when this plague comes, it will come such as never been in the land of Egypt since the beginning of its very days. Surely they've never seen gnats or flies or frogs like this before, but God is escalating the stakes to grab both Pharaoh and ours attention. Such has never been. We can conservatively start the beginning of the Egyptian dynasties as we know them to around 3100 BC. The nation of Egypt is thousands of years old. That boggles the mind for a country that has not yet hit 300. We are a toddler compared to the nation of Egypt. And so in the thousands of years that the pharaohs have reigned in Egypt, there has never been a storm like this in the land. This is the escalation. And the escalation is also met now as God moves to the chief gods of the Egyptian pantheon. If you've been with us, we've been examining how the plagues are polemical theology. The subtitle of Exodus can be Yahweh against the gods. Yahweh is waging war on the different members of the Egyptian pantheon. And we've met some quirky characters, to say the least. some very interesting Egyptian gods. But the other way this is escalating now is the last three plagues in particular are going to attack really the chief pantheon of gods in Egypt. And so today we've arrived at the goddess Nut, who is the sky itself. And Nut is the mother of gods. And so like a lot of ancient pagan myths, usually the earth is the woman and the sky is the man. In the Egyptian pantheon, Nut is the goddess. She is the heavens. She's the stars. She's the sky. She's the wind. She's the heaven. She is with her husband, Geb, the earth. And together, they give birth to all the gods you know about. Ra, the sun, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set. Now God is waging war against the mother of the gods. What's interesting in Egyptian religion is, Nut is always portrayed naked. She's the only one. And that's important, actually, because of even the way Egyptians are depicted. Surely, you've seen pictures of hieroglyphics, or heard one of the 80s most catchy songs, Walk Like an Egyptian. And you know that Egyptians are painted in profile. So there's two really important things about Egyptian paintings and hieroglyphics. They're always in profile. It's only ever the side of their face. Their whole body is presented to you, but only the side of their face. And they're always clothed, usually. And this is because the Egyptians believed, deep in their being, that if you saw someone's face straight on, if you could make a picture of their face straight on or see them naked, you were, in effect, stealing their essence. It was profane to paint someone naked or to paint their full face. But not always naked. And so for her, for Nut, that's how much more powerful she is. You can paint Nut straight on. You can paint her naked. She's so powerful that there's nothing you can do that would diminish her power. She covers all of existence. And all of the gods that we depend on, that we've gone through so far, fertility, and health, and power, and healing, and fire, and the wind, and the sand, all of these gods get their sustenance from their mother Nut, the sky itself. So God, Yahweh, is taking aim. And she is the goddess of the sky, and she's the protector of all creation and of souls. And the sign of that is that she controls the weather. We've talked about this a lot. Egypt, we maybe have some sympathy as Phoenicians. It's hot here, it's hot there. What's the most important thing in a desert? Rain. Rain. If you've lived in Arizona for more than a week, you've heard the local news stations breathlessly reporting, we're in a drought, we're in a drought, we're in a drought. She brings the rain, and so she controls the weather. And like most other pagan religions, the very height of their pantheon is, at the end of the day, weather gods. Who controls the sun? Who controls the rain? And so God wages war. And he says, if Nut is really all-powerful, if she's really the mother of gods, if no one can take away her power, then watch me take away her power. Watch me control the very sky that you think she's in charge of. Watch me bring down hail and fire and rain, and watch your mother goddess be totally impotent. Have no power to stop me from doing exactly what I want you to do. And that language, again, is important. Such has never been seen. This goddess has never been able to do what I'm doing. Your nation may be thousands of years old, but in one moment, in one moment, and God fixes not just the day of battle, as he's been doing in the previous plagues, but the very hour. He's now giving a divine appointment, nine o'clock tomorrow morning, free, free for everyone to watch. This is going to happen. I'm going to lay down this supposed goddess and show that I have total power over it. And then verse 19, John Curd and other theologians point out, is at least in part taunting. Now therefore send and get your livestock into safe shelter. Why? Because nut can't help you. You've been taking shelter in your false gods and your idols. If you want to live, abandon not. Do it right now. Show that you have no faith in her and run inside and hide, because I have laid her low. What's most interesting is not just the escalation, not just this warfare against this mother goddess, but now in this last cycle of plagues, culminating in the 10th, God is slowly moving his aim closer and closer to the most important god in Egypt, and that is Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the most important god in Egypt. Worshipped across the thousands of years as a living incarnation of Ra, and of Horus, and of Osiris, and of all the gods. We've gone through all these different images, right? Beetles and cows are symbols of a pharaoh's power. And so not only is God destroying one of their chief gods. Not only is he escalating, but now he's specifically targeting, to be honest, the most important god, which is Pharaoh himself. In Hebrew, verse 13, then the Lord said to Moses, rise up, which means stand up. This is divine mockery. Because what did we just hear in Exodus 9-11? And the magicians of Egypt could not stand up in front of Moses. For heavy was the hand of God upon them. So now God says to Moses, now watch, now you stand up. This is divine mockery. At Pharaoh, Pharaoh, your magicians can't stand up. Watch my avatar stand up before you as easy as can be. The word here for send out hail is the very same word that he uses in verse 13. Send out my people, let my people go. That's now mirrored. I will send out hail, or I will let hail go. And so God is using Pharaoh's life as a mockery. Your prophets couldn't stand, but mine's standing fine. You won't let my people go, so I'll let hail go, and it will cover you. It will cover everything in the world. And then most powerful, Most powerfully, verse 16, but for this purpose I have raised you up. Guess what word that is again? For this purpose I have made you to stand. Your magicians fall when I say, and he's telling to Pharaoh, you're on this throne because I said so. You're alive because I said so. So you are the most important God in Egypt, but I'm telling you this morning that you are existing because of my express will. Calvin says that God is proclaiming to Pharaoh his unmistakable mercy. Every day you stand up, Pharaoh, it's because I have decreed it. It's so easy for atheist critics of Christianity to say that God is unfair, that he is unjust, to visit these very same calamities on mankind. We talked about this just last week. One of the most common trends in modern fiction is disaster movies, where the earth sends hail and rain and plague and fire on mankind, but we deserve it because we've been bad to Mother Nature. But when the God who made heaven and earth punishes mankind for their sin, that's unfair. But here God is saying to Pharaoh, unfair? Every day you wake up in rebellion and hatred against me, that's unfair. Every day you stand up, it's because I have made you stand up and you haven't deserved a single day of it. That's what God is proclaiming in this war. Realize the stakes. Right? That Pharaoh in Egypt, in this world, is at war with God, but God will brook no opposition. He lays low the God of our hearts or the God of modern culture just as surely as He lays low Nut and Pharaoh. By way of illustration, today, May 18th, is the 45th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. I'm looking out and I realize a lot of you, not alive, a lot of people here for that. It's okay. It was the biggest eruption that we've ever recorded in North America. A billion dollars in damage because of inflation. Three billion dollars. That's how much it took. Worse than that, 57 people died. Now, if you know a little bit about science, you know that we have geologists. We have machines that track eruptions. And so the question should be raised, how did 57 people die? How did we not know that this was coming? And the answer was, we did. We did. In March, 45 years ago, over 1,000 earthquakes happened. Very, very tiny ones, but all right in the immediate vicinity of Mount St. Helens. So everyone knew, wow, there is a ton of activity that we haven't seen for like 100 years. Everyone should be careful. And then there starts to be spouts of flame in minor eruptions in the month of April. The governor declares a state of emergency. No one is allowed within miles of Mount St. Helens. Huge fines. Time in prison for getting anywhere close. And then the days roll on, and the weeks roll on, and all of a sudden the eruptions stop. There are still earthquakes. Actually, there are pictures you can go look up. The mountain gets bigger. because it is filling with fire. It begins to look like a dome as the pressure builds, but what happens is the fire stops, and the smoke stops by the end of April, and then May, from May 1st to May 18th, there's no fire. And so what do the people do? They go to the governor and they say, you should really let us go home. This is ridiculous. There are petitions signed by over 100,000 people. This is ridiculous. You're fear mongering. We should get to go back. So May 16th, two days before the eruption, the governor says, yeah, sure, go back. Go get your stuff. And so 57 people die when it explodes in fire and smoke and ash and lava. God's judgment from long ago is not silent. Human beings are not unaware that they have a creator. Human beings are not unaware that we sin. That's why you feel guilty when you sin and no one can see you. But how we convince ourselves that the danger is not imminent, right? There may be earthquakes and fire coming from a mountain and we convince ourself, you should really go let me get my stuff though. I have stuff that I need to go get. That's why these plagues are a gift. God is not letting us fall prey to that kind of silence and ignorance again. No, no, things are afoot. And then from this war in heaven that God is declaring, he's going to move now into our second point, which is the voice of judgment. Let's break that down even more particularly. Why do we say voice? Well, God has been speaking throughout Exodus. Notable for just how much of the speech of God is recorded. Of course, it starts with God speaking directly to Moses. Moses, take off your sandals for the ground upon which you stand is holy. God reveals himself, he speaks. I am who I am. I am the God of your fathers, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. I am the God who will redeem you. God speaks. But here very powerfully we see a couple times God promises hail. Hail is the plague, but what comes with it is thunder. Thunder is what comes from it. Verse 23, Moses stretches out his staff towards heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire. The Hebrew word for thunder is kol. And it is also the word for voice. Again and again in the Bible, God's voice is described as thunder because they are the same exact word. Imagine if you can, put yourself in English now. That as an eruption of noise springs out during the monsoons in a couple of months, and your kids are afraid, and you go, no, no, don't worry, that's just voice. That's how literal the word is here. It's voice. And so, in both ways, yes, there's actual thunder, but yes, also the Hebrews reading this would have read, then Moses stretches out his staff towards heaven, and the Lord speaks, and there is hail, and there is fire. We're going to be doing a lot of Bible jumping here because Exodus 9 is full of what we call biblical theology. It's going to be referenced across the Bible. So turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 29. Psalm 29, where David is going to use this thing that thunder is both, the word coal is both voice and thunder poetically. Psalm 29. Ascribe to the Lord, heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. That's the call. It's actually, I think there's a plaque right here that has 29.3 to it. Worship 29.2. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Why? The voice of the Lord is over the waters and the God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty and the voice of the Lord breaks cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, Syria like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire and shakes the very wilderness. This is a poetic usage of this word to say both that because God is speaking, God's voice is thunder, and God says His voice is destructive. The psalmist says that it is breaking, snapping the tallest trees. Right? Imagine the redwoods. God is snapping the most powerful things in creation with His voice. Psalm 46 says that God speaks His voice and the nations melt. That's the language in the Psalms. And so now God is saying in Exodus 9, the Lord is speaking. And as His voice thunders across the deserts of Egypt, it brings with it destruction. And you see this because of how Pharaoh responds. This is so powerful. At the very end of this account, verse 28. Let's start with verse 7. After the Lord speaks and the thunder of His voice brings judgment, this time Pharaoh says, I have sinned. Finally now, not with a real repentance. We'll unpack that more next week. Not with any real repentance. But so great is the power of the Lord and His voice of judgment that Pharaoh says, fine, I've sinned. And for the first time, Pharaoh is going to use God's name. If you remember, as the plagues are being introduced, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say, Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, has appeared. He's demanding his people back. Let them go. And Pharaoh's response is, I have never heard of this God. Right? We know Egypt has thousands of gods. And so Pharaoh's responding with condescension. This Yahweh, I'm not even going to deign to speak his name. Elohim, which is a common kind of Semitic word for God in these old languages that Hebrew uses as well. Like we use the word God, the English word God. But Pharaoh refuses to call him by his name. It starts with Pharaoh saying, I don't even know who that is. That's how fake and made up and pathetic your God is. I don't want to even say his name. But now, as the voice of the Lord thunders across Egypt, Pharaoh is forced to say his name. Yahweh is in the right. Plead with Yahweh. This God is real. And his voice is like thunder. Plead with him, because what does he say? I've had enough of God's thunder. I've had enough of his voice. Take his voice away from me. That's how you know it's not real repentance. But Pharaoh says, I've had enough of this Yahweh. Please get his voice away from me. Because this is the power of the voice of God as it speaks. And what does it speak? But it speaks judgment. Hail, in the Bible, is a symbol of judgment from above because it's a reversal of the blessing, right? The rain comes down and is a blessing. It waters the crops, it waters the livestock and the people. But hail is a sign of judgment. It's that same water, but now encased in a powerful fist. It's a sign of judgment. Isaiah 28, 17. Hail. Hail, God says, will sweep away the refuge of liars. Psalm 78, 47 through 48, he destroyed their vines with hail and gave over their cattle and their flocks to judgment. Revelation 16, 21, recounting these plagues, great hailstones, 100 pounds each fall from heaven. And so they curse God for the plague of the hail. In Revelation, the people are not mistaken that hail is a sign of God's judgment against them. Fire is the same thing. It's a consuming wrath. Deuteronomy 4.24, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire. Psalm 97.3 recounts that fire goes before him and burns his adversaries to the ground. Ezekiel 38.22, God again pronouncing judgment, with pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with them, and I will rain upon him and his hordes hailstone and fire. And so God speaks as thunder. His voice is destructive. Pharaoh acknowledges that Yahweh's voice is so powerful that, just get it away from me. Get his voice away from me. And they accept, Pharaoh for a moment is accepting this hailstone and fire is a sign of God's judgment and wrath. But the Bible makes clear that just because God poured out that judgment and wrath for a moment on Egypt, that he is not silent. The word of God is his voice. It's a voice of judgment, and then it reveals, Romans 118 says, it reveals from heaven his wrath against ungodliness. Romans 118, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. This is divine commentary on exodus. Pharaoh has suppressed the truth, and every time the wrath of God comes, he tries to suppress it more, but finally In God's own promised timing, the wrath of God comes in thunder and in judgment to reveal His wrath against it. So if today we go outside, and in the kindness of God it's been a very nice May so far, we go out there and we're not going to see hail, are we? There's not going to be thunder, there's not going to be fire. Has God not revealed His wrath against heaven? But the Bible says he's revealed that very same voice of judgment far more surely, far more universally, even than in the seventh plague. Turn with me to Romans, chapter 9, verses 11 through 20. Let's go with verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, quoting Exodus 9, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth, So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. The wrath of God is revealed against sinners. Romans chapter 3. No one is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. They have all turned aside. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And in summation, Paul says, Romans 3.19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So God proclaims powerfully throughout the book of Romans that even more powerfully, more universal to all people at all times, not just thunder and hail and fire from heaven, but the love God reveals to all people for all times that there is wrath against your sin. No one can say anything. Verse 19, that their mouths may be stopped. The whole world is accountable to God. The wrath of God is revealed, not just in fire and hail, but now in the law. Galatians 3.10, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by the things written in the book of law. And as Bill said when he read Hebrews 12 this morning, this is why we read it. See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on the earth. It's a clear reference to the plagues. God's warning them on the earth. He's sending thunder in His voice and hail. There is wrath against your sin. Much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven. At that time, His voice shook the very earth. But now he has promised, once more I shake not only earth but the heavens themselves. So this divine warfare that is typified in Exodus continues to this day. God makes it clear that your idols, your self-righteousness, your nine steps by Friday, your man-made traditions that have the appearance of godliness but lacks this power, all of these things will do nothing as the wrath of God is revealed from heaven through his law to all people. Nothing has changed in that respect. And of course, the great illustration comes from the great master of the English language, Shakespeare, in his great play Macbeth. Macbeth and his wife desire unrighteousness. They desire to be crowned king. They have no claim, but they hear pagan witchcraft proclaiming that there is a way, and so they listen to it. So they murder the king. And one of the great and famous parts of the Western canon, Lady Macbeth is left to keep thinking about what she has done. She's walking around. The king's body is in the ground. She's washed her hands several times. And every time she looks down, she sees the evidence of her sins. The law is written on her. Out, damn spot. Out, I say. One rings, two rings. Why then is time to do it? Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie. A soldier and a feared? What need we fear? Who knows it when none can call our power to account? She's resting in the very thing Pharaoh rests in, which is the very thing we all rest in. She says, who can fear when no one can call our power to account? I'm the queen of Scotland. No one knows what I did. Who can hold me accountable? But, yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him? Just like Abel's blood cries out from the ground, our sins cry out. And she cannot remove that spot from her hands. Who would have thought, she said, the old man had such blood in him? What a picture of our sin. Who would have thought? Who would have thought that our sin is never silent, that we can never wash it out, that we can never ignore it? And we don't even need anymore hail and fire from heaven to demonstrate that. The law of God is spoken, and we can cry out to our sin, out, damn sin, out, but it will never be removed from us. The wrath of God is sure. Yet, the word of God speaks one final thing in this plague this morning. It waged war in heaven, it spoke with a voice of judgment, but then at the last, the word of God, in Exodus chapter 9, is the power unto salvation. We said there's escalation. There's something new in this plague as well. And yes, it is divine mockery. Don't take shelter in not, take shelter in the rocks, but listen to what God is saying. Now therefore send. Get your livestock and all that you have into safe shelter. For the first time, God is offering a haven for those who hate Him. From this plague, from this hail, there is a haven in the hail. So, sure, Goshen is spared. We've seen this in previous plagues. God's people, whom His covenant promises have come upon. It says that the land of Goshen was spared. No hail falls upon those who have claimed to the Word of God. But now God offers a haven, not just for His people, but for the Gentiles, for the Egyptians. He says, listen to me. Run to shelter. You do not have to have my wrath fall upon you. Run. And then it records for the first time this beautiful, beautiful sentiment. Verse 20, then whoever fears the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh. Whoever fears the word of the Lord. I hope that's familiar for you. For God so loved the world that whosoever Whosoever. God is no respecter of persons. It's not the Israelites because they're Jews, because they're the sons of Abraham. God says whoever is listening to My Word, listen, and I'm telling you through My Word that there is a way of safety. And this great theme from Exodus 9 we'll pull out throughout the rest of the Bible. Exodus 9, let My people go so that they may serve Me. My Word can save them and bring them out. In Exodus 20, when the Ten Commandments are given, how does it start? Not with you shall have no other gods before me. What's the first precondition, the preamble? I am the Lord thy God who has brought you out of the land of Egypt and the house of slavery. I've done that. The Bible will say, I carried you on the wings of an evil. My word brought you out. That's why you're here. Turn with me to Deuteronomy. Or at the very least, write down Deuteronomy 7, verses 6-11. The centrality of the Word of God as it speaks that there is salvation in His Word. Deuteronomy 7, 6-11. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It's not because you are more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you. You are the fewest of the peoples. It is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath, He is keeping the word that He swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh king. of Egypt. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is faithful, the faithful God who keeps covenant. He keeps his word. He is a steadfast love with those who fear him and keep his word to a thousand generations. Verse 11, you shall therefore be careful to do the word, the commandment, and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. I am bringing you out by my word that you might have my word. This is what the prophet Isaiah will say in chapter 41, verses 1 through 3. Thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. I have declared that I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and I have traded Egypt as your ransom. God speaks, and in the power of His voice, there is salvation out of Egypt. This is what Zechariah is going to reference. In Luke 1, when the angel tells him, and then his son is born, and the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth will be the one who makes straight this coming Lord, this Word of God that will turn the hearts of sons back to their fathers and turn the heart of daughters back to their mothers. Zechariah says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. And listen again. How has He done this? as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from the days of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, from the hand of those who hate us, to show the mercy that He promised by His Word to our fathers, and He remembered His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear. He is recounting this very event. God spoke by His Word, and by His Word He saved us from our enemies. He saved us from Egypt. This is what He promised by His Word to our father Abraham, and He has saved us by His Word for His Word. By His Word and for His Word, God provides shelter for the Jew and Egyptians alike in His Son. John chapter 1, a passage I'm sure you're familiar with. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But in the good news of John chapter 1 is that the Word comes and dwells among us, because it is by the Word and by the Word alone that Jews and Egyptians and Arizonans will be saved. The voice that thundered over Egypt now speaks through His Son, Hebrews chapter 1 declares. The voice that split the cedars of Lebanon and rained fire on Egypt now speaks to you by His Son. And this is a great thread. If you want to take some time to read through the Gospel of John, look at how much emphasis Jesus places on the Word. John 5. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. John 6.63. It is the Spirit who gives life. Your flesh is no help at all. It's like he could be speaking to Pharaoh in this passage. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. John chapter 8, verse 51, "'Truly, I truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.'" Not just in John. Luke 8, 15, "'As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold fast to it with a good and honest heart.'" But I want to end here with Matthew 7, 25, when Jesus is giving the parable of the man who will build his house. He says, there is a man who will build his house in the sand. That man is named Pharaoh. And in our sin, that man is named me and you. And in ourselves, separate from the word of God, we imagine ourselves able to build that house. And God says that we swept away. And if you're familiar with the parable, we rejoice in that, right? Those who build their house on Christ will be like built on a rock that will stand. But he says in Matthew 7.25, whoever hears these words of mine is the wise man. Whoever hears my words is the wise man who builds his house on the rock. It is the word of God and the word of God alone that provides shelter and salvation. You can't find it anywhere else. Do not be mistaken. You cannot have Christ apart from His Word. That's what Jesus is saying to you. Just as it is His Word that sheltered Egyptians and Jews in Egypt from the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against the god of this, now the Word incarnate, the Son of God, thunders and says, salvation is found in My Word alone. This passage is speaking about a flood. So illustration of this, and I know we don't have a ton of floods. In Arizona, but actually if you're here long enough sometimes the monsoons will come so great and heavy that it will be like a flood So I remember when I was about eight or nine we have kids that age here if you're eight or nine I want you to put yourselves in my shoes, right? So you're a little kid and your dad comes to you and says the rains coming Everyone says there's gonna be a lot of rain. So I need your help. So my dad said to me I need your help. I protecting against the rain. And so we went to a special store and we bought special tape that sealed the door shut. And we bought sandbags. It's the first time I'd ever seen sandbags outside of a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. We went and bought sandbags and placed them in front of every door. And you work with your dad for hours. For hours we worked because the monsoon was gonna be so bad that it came in. And I will tell you this about my dad. He is a Boy Scouts Boy Scout. He's a prepared man. After we were done for a couple hours, I was sure that our house could withstand not just a monsoon, but like an M-80. The house was secure. And guess what? It held for hours, for hours and hours. It rained and it rained, and I could see the waters in my backyard rising higher and higher, rising over the sandbags. And my first thought was, man, my dad sure is a good dad. Look at what he can do. But as much as my dad could control the sandbags and the tape, what couldn't my father control? The rain. because it kept raining. And the more and more it rained, the more and more I realized, oh no, my dad's not that strong. My dad has no control over this whole thing. I remember fear filling me. This is what God says in the plague, is you're trusting in Pharaoh, you're trusting in God. He says to the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve this morning, you've trusted in so many things, in your preparation, and in your money, and in your strength. But the one thing you can't control is God. And unless you flee to the very Word whose voice created the waters themselves. As he says to Job, were you there when I formed the world? Were you the one who told the oceans to stop and they stopped in their tracks? Were you the one who told the eagle where to build its nest and it listened to you? God is saying through this plague and through His Son this morning that you can only come through the One who speaks and controls all things and His name is Jesus of Nazareth. In conclusion, what words spoken to you have most changed your life? I really liked hearing, I do. Changed my life. I loved hearing twice, congratulations dad, it's a boy. I loved hearing twice, congratulations dad, it's a girl. Every one of them changed my life. I love to read. There's so many brilliant things said by so many people. I love poetry, I love fiction. I love theology, I love philosophy. This is what Augustine said. Augustine said, I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful. I've heard many wonderful things in this world. I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful, but I have never heard either of them say, come to me, you who are heavy laden and burdened, and I will give you rest. There have been words that have spoken that have changed your life, and they weren't spoken by you, or your spouse, or your doctor, or a judge, or a jury, or your president. Come to me, ye who are full of labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The plague is an invitation not just to Pharaoh 3,000 years ago, but to us this morning. There is one who speaks life in his word, and he will speak over you. Hebrews, that's why we read it this morning. God will speak over you at the end of time. And if you trust in your house made of sand, even in your pyramids made of sand, then God will speak judgment. And His voice is a thunder. And His judgment is not quiet and is sure. But if you find shelter in His Son, who is the Word made flesh, then there's hope and there's salvation alone. So it's the call for every Christian at every time to both seek shelter in that Word ourselves, but then to proclaim that Word to the world around us. Three words of application. First, what does God's word do? It shakes us. So if you're here this morning and have not Christ Jesus, then the word of God speaks as thunder to shake your very life to its foundations. And that is his goodness and his mercy to you. He will shake your life free from its foundations. The judgment of God is clean. When Lady Macbeth was speaking, she was speaking for you and for all of us, out, damn, spot, out. You cannot remove that guilty stain. And so the Word of God speaks this morning, not just with thunder, but with condemnation that you are in your sin, but God would shake you loose from that false security that you've run to. Today is the day where the Son of God appears to you as the Word made flesh and says, find shelter in me. Give up on yourself and come to me. And even if you are burdened and heavy laden, if you come to the Word of God, I will give you rest. Second, to the Christian who this morning is struggling for the assurance of salvation, God's Word is a shelter to you. He is a high tower. He is a mighty fortress. And every time you struggle to believe that His love might be for you, I feel more like Pharaoh than Moses. I feel more like the magicians than I do the Israelites. How could God love someone to me? It's because you're listening to your own words. I tell you, and the Westminster to Larger Catechism tells you that God forbids you from incessant inward seeking. The words you find in here are not helpful. God's word is your shelter, and so if you struggle this morning for the assurance of salvation to the word, to the word, to the word God calls you. The word proclaims you that Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost everyone who calls upon his name. The very Egyptians that were slaughtering innocent babies, if they would hear the word of the Lord and repent, he will save them, them and their children. And so go to the Word. It is your shelter. It is truth. This is what Jesus prayed for you. Father, sanctify them by your truth. And then Jesus says, Thy Word is true. And so the Word of God is where you turn this morning. It is your shelter in Hightower. And last, brothers and sisters, the Word of God summons you. It summons you. That was the whole train we read from Exodus 9. Let my people go. Why? So that they might serve me. That's why we sang in Psalm 119, the word is able to make wise the simple. It is a light under our feet, a lamp under our path. It is sweeter than honey and richer than gold. The word of God shelters you and then it summons you. The word of God saves you that he might lead you. Memorize Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 11. He did not choose you because you were righteous, because you were mighty, because you were good. He chose you because He loved you. And then He saved you by His Word. But now that you have His Word, hold fast by all that's within you. If it's the Word that saved you, if it's the Word that sheltered you, how could you not hold fast to it? How could it not be your treasure and delight? Because the Word of God puts you on Christ, that rock, that you might have eternal life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we were all once strangers and aliens. But your Word spoke into the darkness. Into our darkness. And once we were blind, but you made us to see. And once we were deaf, and you made us to hear. And so now, oh God, give your people your Word. Father, we pray that whatever was spoken today, all they heard was what was true. What was false or new was cast aside and consumed like dross, but give your people your word that we might better know of the strength of a shelter we have in the word of God, Jesus Christ. We might believe that you once spoke by the prophets, but now you've spoken to him, and we have in him salvation. And then, Father, let us love the Word of God that brought us back to our Savior. Being sheltered by the Word of God, by Jesus Christ, let us now love Your Word. Let us believe that it is able to save us and deliver us and sanctify us and redeem us. Give us that grace this morning we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.