Exodus 10-1 says, And the Lord
said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart
and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs
before him. God, in this Old Testament appearance
of Jesus, referred to as a theophany, confirmed Moses as leader of
Israel by signs, and we see that in Exodus 4 to begin with. Then
the Lord set Israel apart from Egypt, which is a type of the
world, with the sign of the plague of swarms of flies. That's in
Exodus chapter 8. And he said to Pharaoh in Exodus
8.23, And I will put a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be."
Then we come to our text in Exodus 10.1, where Jesus is talking
to Moses and tells him that after Pharaoh hardened his heart in
rebellion against God, the Lord would now use that and further
harden Pharaoh's heart for the purpose of releasing the final
three signs of plagues, beginning with the plague of locusts. Then
the Lord tells Moses the purpose of these signs as it relates
to Israel in the next verse, Exodus 10, 2, where he said,
and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy
son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt and my signs,
which I have done among them, that ye may know how that I am
the Lord. There is no other nation, and
no, not even the Church, in which the Lord proves himself by signs. Only Israel is told to look for
signs, as the Apostle Paul confirms in 1 Corinthians 1.22, which
says, For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
The Jews require a sign because Jesus established his signs as
required confirmation with the Jews. The modern charismatic
movement has it all wrong when they claim that the so-called
signs and wonders movement would usher in some sort of global
revival or really any legit revival of any sort. Signs are for the
Jew because the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, is God of
signs and wonders. Sadly, the Jews themselves rejected
the confirmation of Jesus as Messiah, as we see in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. Not only his fulfillment of Bible
prophecy, but the signs he performed right before their eyes, as Peter
said when confronting them at Pentecost. in Acts 2.22 saying,
Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you, by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know. And there are dozens of other
examples of Jesus pre-incarnate and Jesus incarnate confirming
his word and his claims by signs. But even after he ascended to
heaven and sent his Holy Spirit, who confirmed the resurrection
of Jesus by many signs and wonders, beginning with the sign of tongues
of Pentecost, and it's all recounted throughout the book of Acts,
the Jews persisted in their unbelief as a nation and as a mass majority
individually. Hebrews 2 refers to this saying,
God also bearing them witness, the apostles. both with signs
and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, according to his own will. Paul confirmed this again in
2 Corinthians 12.12, where he wrote that, truly, the signs
of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs
and wonders and mighty deeds. The Bible is now complete. The
sign Jesus has left us and left the whole world, including Jew
and Gentile, since the completion of the Bible is his death, burial,
and resurrection. And Jesus referred to this in
Matthew 12, 39, 40. But he answered and said unto
them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
He said that after he'd already demonstrated beyond reasonable
doubt with all kinds of signs. And then he goes on and says,
and there shall no sign be given to it. but the sign of the prophet
Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the whole earth. When
we repent toward God with faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ,
confessing with our mouth and believing with our heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, then we're told in Romans
10, 9 and 10, we are saved. Jesus is God of signs and wonders,
and his own bodily resurrection iced the cake.