Now there was to be a shedding of blood if they were to escape the tenth plague.

The Lord commanded them to choose a lamb, a male without blemish.

This lamb was a type of Christ, so it must be perfect.

The Egyptians refused to let Israel go.

...................................The last plague shows the importance of the Blood Covenant.

..........................In the original blood covenant between Abraham and the Lord, it was Abraham to gave of his blood as part of the Covenant.

................Up to now the Israelites hadn't had to do anything to avoid the plagues.

There came a time when the Lord gave fresh evidence of His Covenant of blood-friendship with Abraham.

.....................A new start was to be made in the history of redemption.

......................The seed of Abraham was in Egypt and the Lord would bring them out for their promised inheritance in the Land of Canaan.

Next came the ninth plague.

This was God's last appeal before the worst judgment fell.

........................Life came to a stand still.

........................Darkness covered everything.



The three days of isolation gave a look into God's compassion which would have saved Egypt from the last strike which was to break all its subbornness and pride.

God also showed His power over the sun, which was one of the Egyptians chief gods.

Exodus 10:7 "And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?"


When
the eighth plague was announced the locusts made a terrible sound.

God's mercy sent milder penalties at first to turn the Egyptians away from disobedience and to save them from the final and awful calamity.

..........................But when that didn't work, He had to get stronger in His rebukes to convince them He was serious.



In the seventh plague, [read Exodus 9:16-35], "23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt."

The sixth plague touched the bodies of the Egyptians.

They are smitten with a painful disease/boils.

Exodus 9:1-5 shows that the separation between the Egyptians and God's Covenant people continues.

......None of the animals of the Israelites died;
.....................but the Egyptian's animals died which was most of their wealth.

In the fifth plague, God goes further. It involves their most valued possession.

..................It didn't end when Pharaoh said "NO!" to God's request to let his children go; nor when he said "Yes" but didn't keep his promise.

...........................Pharaoh was warned,
"If thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still, behold the hand of the Lord is laid upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camel, and upon the sheep: There shall be a grievous murrain [animal disease]."
...........................Exodus 9:1-3

Other judgments were manifested against the gods of the Egyptians.

...........Flies also were worshipped in Egypt.

...................First, the rod being changed into a serpent, was simply a sign; then they were affected by personal discomfort with the flies and lice.

..........Next they had possessions destroyed.

As Pharaoh's heart hardened, the plagues continued.

Exodus 8:16-19 was the plague of lice






and



Exodus 8:20-24 was the plague of flies

HEKI the frog goddess of Egypt was considered one of the supreme goddesses.

............................The Covenant God of the Israelites [the slaves of the Egyptians] showed Himself greater than the gods of the mighty Egyptians.

The plague of frogs wasn't only a terrible rebuke on the people, but it was also another judgment on their gods.

............Frogs were a great problem in Egypt and they trusted a goddess called HEKI to drive them away. She appeared many time with the head of a frog.

" And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants."


..........................Exodus 8:2-4

" And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone."
..........................Exodus 7:19

The first plague was that the waters of Egypt were turned into blood.

God commanded Moses, "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning: lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink to meet him" Exodus 7:15
It's possible that Pharaoh went to the river in the mornings to offer his devotions to the God of the Nile.

Satan has his powers that he provided the magicians but he is not all powerful.

.....................The battle between the God of Heaven and earth and the gods of Egypt began at the get go.

................................As the rod of Aaron swallowed up the rods of the magicians, so would the religion which God was about to establish, swallow up the delusions that the 'wise men' of the world thought was great that still left them slaves to Satan.

Exodus 7:8-13 gives Moses' first meeting with Pharaoh and his magicians.

........................The first sign was Moses casting down his rod which instantly turned into a snake.

"Aaron cast down his rod before Paraoh and before his servants and it became a serpent.

Then Pharaoh also call the wise men and the sorcerers; now the magicians of Egypt, they did also in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" Exodus 7:10-12

Exodus, giving us a drama of the miracle-working Covenant God on behalf of His people, was written by someone who knew the facts.

...................It wasn't written by a Babylonian Jew about 400 B.C. as some claim.


..........It features the marks of the ancient Egypt which God judged.

...............Archaeologists have uncovered buildings made of brick with stubble instead of straw as recorded in Exodus 5:12.

The magicians of Egypt performing miracles is a representation of the power that their ancient priesthood possessed.

................The Egyptian priesthood was a group of men and women given magical powers which were excercised on the behalf of the living and the dead.

The deliverance of God's Covenant People from Egypt in Exodus notes many facts that shows the believability of the Bible account.
....................................The picture of Egyptian life given to us in Exodus also shows us truth about ancient Egyptian life at that time and the authority that Pharaoh held in his hand.

On one side is God and His people; and on the other side is Pharaoh and his people.

..........It's a contest between the true and living God and an imposter.

....................God has to break the idol to pieces in order to deliver His people.

Exodus 8:10, 22,23 "......... that thou [Pharaoh] mayest know that there is none like unto the
LORD Jehovah our God. . . . .
and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen,
in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall there be;
to the end that thou mayest know that
I and not thou, I and not thy gods am Jehovah
in the midst of the earth.
And I will put a division between My people and thy people."

The Pharaoh [king] was the only man in all Egypt that Moses and Aaron could deal with in order to deliver the Israelites.

................................................So for these two men, it was like they had to bargain with another god for the deliverance of their people, the Israelites.

Worship was given the Egyptian King as if he were God.

.............He and his ministers sat on different platforms. He sits alone and the others sit away from him and below him.

........When he spoke on a matter that was it, his decision stands no matter what.

In the kings eyes,

......the Egyptians were only trembling slaves,

...........whose religion made them blindly obey him.

When a prince was brought to the throne,

..............in the eyes of his subjects,

........................he was both man and god.

These two Blood Covenant men,
Moses and Aaron,
had Egypt's fate in their hands and
they left words which lived on after all the greatness was gone.

Moses and Aaron, two slaves, who demanded freedom not for themselves but for millions of people who were slaves of the most powerful and rich king of Egypt brought a lot of laughter on themselves.

................................................But the laughter died after these two men's persistence turned it to fear.

Moses and his wife sensed that they were being cut off from God's Covenant plans that God had given to the descendants Abraham because they had failed to conform to the Covenant by circumcizing their son.

Happy New Year 2012