Some time ago (2009), Leonard Mlodinow shared a story in The Wall Street Journal from the life of baseball great, Joe DiMaggio:
During the summer of 1945, right after World War II had ended, Yankee slugger, Joe DiMaggio, returned to baseball after serving as a soldier during the war. Not wanting to make a big deal of it, he snuck into a mezzanine seat at Yankee Stadium as an ordinary fan with his 4-year-old son, Joe Junior, before rejoining his team. But a fan noticed him, then another. Soon throughout the stadium people were chanting, “Joe, Joe, Joe DiMaggio!” DiMaggio was touched and looked down to see if his son had noticed the tribute. He had. “See, Daddy,” said the little DiMaggio, “everybody knows me!” (Leonard Mlodinow, “The Triumph of the Random,” The Wall Street Journal, 7-3-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
Junior assumed that all the glory was for him and not his father. It was a silly mistake made by a 4-year-old, but when adults make the same mistake in relationship to their Heavenly Father, it is not silly; it is downright foolish.
Romans 1 says, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:21-22).
Do you want to avoid such folly and be truly wise? Then I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 7, Exodus 7, where we see how God dealt with an ancient Pharaoh, who foolishly assumed all the glory was for him.
Exodus 7:1-5 And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them” (ESV).
God makes it very clear: Everyone will know that He alone is the LORD, that He alone is YHWH, the great I AM. Pharaoh is not. The Egyptian gods are not. Only God is the LORD, the I AM, and He will send 10 plagues of judgment to demonstrate that fact before every single Egyptian (show chart).
Now, the 10 plagues can be divided into three groups of three each, with the 10th plague being the culmination of them all. Notice, the 1st, 4th and 7th plague each begin with “In the morning.” Aaron’s staff is used in the first 3 plagues. No staff is used in the second 3 plagues, and Moses’ staff is used in the last 3 plagues.
In addition, each set of 3 plagues begins with a purpose statement, the reason why God is sending the plagues. In Exodus 7:17 God says, “By this you will know that I am YHWH. In Exodus 8:22 God says, “that you may know that I am the YHWH in the midst of the earth. And in Exodus 9:14 God says, “So that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.”
God wants everyone to know that He is, that He is here, and that He is holy. And the sooner we acknowledge that, the less foolish we become and the better off we’ll be. So if you want to be truly wise, then first of all…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS.
Recognize that the God of the Bible exists and none other. Realize that God is real. He is the ONE WHO IS, the I AM, YHWH Himself.
Look at Exodus 7:14 where the first three plagues are introduced.
Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD [that I am the I AM, YHWH]: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ” Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile (ESV).
God had turned the Nile river into blood! Now, this was a direct blow to one of the Egyptian gods. In fact, all 10 plagues are! The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River as a god. They believed that the Nile was the god Osiris’ bloodstream flowing to their crops with nourishment. So what does God do? He turns it into blood!
Do you see what God is doing here? He is making a mockery of Osiris. “I am the God WHO IS,” God is saying to the Egyptians. “Osiris is not, and you’re foolish to believe in him.”
The Egyptians also had a fertility goddess. Her name was Heget, and she looked like a frog. So guess what God does. He makes her real fertile!
Exodus 8:1-7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.” ’ ” And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’ ” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt (ESV).
God multiplies frogs all over Egypt, making a mockery of Heget, the frog-like fertility goddess. Is it fertility you want? You’ve got it – in your bed, in your cupboards, in your food, on your chair, everywhere. “I am the God WHO IS,” God is saying to the Egyptians. “Heget is not, and you’re foolish to believe in her.”
Now, the Egyptian magicians are able to do the same thing, so Pharaoh ignores the message. Then God sends another plague they cannot repeat. He turns the dust into pesky gnats.
Exodus 8:16-19 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’ ” And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said (ESV).
Before, there might have been some doubt, but now there is no doubt: God really exists. He is the God WHO IS, the I AM. This is a miracle no one else can duplicate, but Pharaoh still refused to believe. His heart was hard and he would not listen. As a result, Pharaoh begins to look very foolish, because his attitude and actions fly in the face of irrefutable evidence.
So if you want to be truly wise and not a fool like Pharaoh, then believe that God is. The evidence is irrefutable! You cannot look at the intricate design in creation and honestly conclude, “It all came here by chance.” A tornado blowing through a junk yard is not going to produce a Ferrari. In the same way, the winds of chance and time are not going to produce the intricate design in a single DNA molecule, much less the human body.
Francis Collins is a world-renowned researcher and physician. He headed up the Human Genome Project before serving as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. In 2007, he wrote a New York Times best-selling book and titled it, The Language of God. It’s the story of his work interwoven with the story of his journey from atheism to faith in Christ.
It was a long period of searching, which included grilling a pastor and reading C. S. Lewis, but it was the beauty of creation that finally brought him to Christ. Here’s what he wrote:
“I had to make a choice. A full year had passed since I decided to believe in some sort of God, and now I was being called to account. On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains during my first trip west of the Mississippi, the majesty and beauty of God's creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ” (Francis Collins, The Language of God, Free Press, 2007, p. 225; www.Preaching Today.com).
He had no other choice! The evidence before him was irrefutable unless he wanted to play the part of a fool and ignore it altogether.
You see, belief or unbelief is a matter of the will, not the evidence. It’s not that people are unable to believe. It’s that they are unwilling to believe, and that makes them look very foolish. So if you want to be truly wise, 1st, acknowledge that God is. Then 2nd…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS HERE.
Recognize that God not only exists, but that He is personally involved with His people as their protector. Realize that God is a PRESENT help in a time of trouble for those who rely on Him.
That’s what the next three plagues are all about. Look at Exodus 8:20
Exodus 8:20-22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth (ESV).
Better, “…that I am the LORD in the midst of the land.” I.e., the land of Goshen where God’s people are. God wants Pharaoh to understand that He is with His people to protect and care for them. So when He sends the insects, He spares Israel.
Exodus 8:24 And the LORD did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies (ESV).
But not the land of Goshen. Then, when God sends disease on all the cattle, He spares Israel again.
Exodus 9:1-7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.” ’ ” And the LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.” And the next day the LORD did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go (ESV).
God was there protecting His people. And when God sends the boils, only the Egyptians are afflicted.
Exodus 9:8-12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses (ESV).
Where are all the Egyptian gods? Where is Sekhmet, goddess with power over disease? Where is Hathor, the cow goddess, or Apis, the bull god? Where is the insect god, Re? They are nowhere around. The Egyptian gods are tellingly absent. Only Israel’s God is there to protect His own people. And He is HERE, as well, to protect those of us who trust in His Son.
Corrie Ten Boom and her family lived in Holland during Hitler’s invasion of that country. She tells of that time in her book, The Hiding Place, and describes a particular night when she tossed restlessly in her bed while the war planes growled overhead.
After a while, she heard her sister, Betsy, downstairs in the kitchen. And since she couldn’t sleep anyway, Corrie went down for a cup of tea. They heard explosions all around them and talked well into the night until all was quiet again.
Then Corrie stumbled through the darkness back to her room. When she got there, she reached down to pat her pillow and cut her hand on something very sharp. It was a jagged piece of metal 10 inches long! She cried out for her sister and raced down the stairs with the shrapnel in her hand.
Betsy bandaged her hand and Corrie said, “Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen…”
“Don’t say it, Corrie,” Betsy replied. “There are no if’s in God’s world” (Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place).
That’s because God is here for His people. He is in this land protecting His own. And even if they die, they are not ultimately harmed, because God protects them from all judgment against sin.
Later, Corrie and Betsy were carried off to a concentration camp where Betsy died. But that wasn’t the end for her. It was the beginning of her glorious eternity in heaven.
You see, God Himself entered our world to save us from sin. Jesus is God, who became a man, so he could die on a cross for our sins and rise again. Now, anyone who finds refuge in Christ, finds protection from God’s wrath against sin. Judgment will one day fall on the entire world, as the plagues fell on all of Egypt, but those of us who depend on Christ are immune from that judgment. It doesn’t affect us, because Jesus has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.
My dear friends, if you haven’t yet put your trust in Christ, I urge you, “Do it today.” Call upon the Lord, who died for you and rose again, and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you will find that he makes a distinction between you and the rest of the world as He did for Israel in Egypt.
Don’t be a fool like Pharaoh. Acknowledge 1st, that God IS and 2nd, that God is HERE for you if you choose to depend on Him. Then 3rd, if you want to be truly wise…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GOD IS HOLY.
Recognize that God is unique, unlike any other god. Realize that there is no one or nothing like Him.
That’s what the third three plagues are all about. Look at Exodus 9:13 where those plagues are introduced.
Exodus 9:13-14 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 the 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 your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth (ESV).
God is unique, holy, set-apart in a class all by Himself. The hailstorm He sends demonstrates that.
Exodus 9:22-26 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 were, was there no hail (ESV).
They had seen hail storms before, but never like that. There is no one like God! The locusts He sends also demonstrate that.
Exodus 10:12-15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt (ESV).
They had seen locust invasions before, but never like that before or since! There is no one like God! The hailstorm demonstrates that. The locust invasion demonstrates that. And the darkness God sends likewise demonstrates His uniqueness.
Exodus 10:21-23 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived (ESV).
They had seen darkness before, but never like that. There is no one like God! Acknowledge it, or like Pharaoh become a fool in denying it.
In his book Soul Searching, Christian Smith summarized the perceptions about God that are prevalent in our culture today and even in the church. He said that most people believe in what could best be described as “moral, therapeutic deism” (Think Santa Claus and you’ve got the idea).
Moral implies that God wants us to be nice. He rewards the good and withholds from the naughty.
Therapeutic means that God just wants us to be happy.
And deism means that God is distant and not involved in our daily lives. Oh, God may get involved occasionally, but on the whole, God functions like an idea, not a personal being actively present in our world (Christian Smith, Soul Searching; www.PreachingToday.com)
Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The God that IS is the God who IS HERE and the God who IS HOLY. He’s not an obese, jolly toymaker who works one day a year. He is the Almighty, actively involved in our everyday lives, judging sin even as He justifies believing sinners and equips them to serve Him. That’s how God wants to be known. And if you know Him, God wants to use you to make Him known.
So if you want to be truly wise, acknowledge that God IS; acknowledge that God IS HERE; and acknowledge that God IS HOLY. Then…
ALLOW GOD TO USE YOU TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO THE WORLD.
Let God have His way in your life to make His name famous wherever He leads you. Accept your role in God’s plan to glorify Himself.
That’s what Moses had to do. At first, Moses is in the background, letting his big brother, Aaron, take the lead. Aaron is the one raising his staff. Aaron is the one God uses to perform the miracles.
Exodus 7:10 AARON cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
Exodus 7:19 The LORD said to Moses, “Say to AARON, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt… so that they may become blood,
Exodus 8:6 So AARON stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land…
Exodus 8:17 AARON stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast.
God is using Aaron initially, but when you get to the 6th plague, God says to Moses, “Now, it’s your turn!”
Exodus 9:8 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let MOSES throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.
Moses can no longer hide behind his big brother. Now, it Moses’ turn to let God use HIM! And from here on in, that’s what happens.
Exodus 9:10 MOSES threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast.
Exodus 9:23 Then MOSES stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire…
Exodus 10:13 MOSES stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land, [which]… had brought the locusts.
Exodus 10:22 So MOSES stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt.
God glorified his name through Moses, and God wants to glorify His name through you, too! So let Him use you to make Him famous. Let God use you to make Him known at least to your friends.
Dr. Jerry Root tells the story of a time when his flight was delayed, and he met a woman in the Vienna airport. She was wearing a lanyard with a name tag, carrying a clipboard, and taking a survey for the airport. When she came to Jerry, he asked what her name was.
"Allegra," she replied.
"Allegra, are you from Vienna?"
She answered, "No, I grew up in southern Austria."
So Jerry asked her, "What brought you to Vienna?"
She said she was a student, which opened the door to more questions. Where did she go to school? What was she studying?
After 20 minutes or so, Jerry knew a good deal about Allegra. He knew her mother abandoned the family to go to Canada with her lover. He learned her father's bitterness was toxic. Jerry also learned her brother attended the University of Vienna, but that they were estranged.
When Jerry expressed his sadness for what seemed to be a good deal of estrangement from the people closest to her, she said it was far worse than she confided. She told Jerry she had a boyfriend who went to study art in Florence for six months. The boyfriend asked her to wait for him, and she did. He returned the day before Jerry met Allegra only to inform her that he met somebody better in Florence.
After 20 minutes, Allegra had not asked Jerry one question from her survey. So he told her, “I know you have a survey to fill out, but I have been sent to tell you something.” She wondered if he was a plant, put there by the airport, to see if she was doing her job. Jerry assured her it was nothing like that, but he had something to say to her once she finished her survey questions.
She rushed through the airport's survey, then put down her pen, looked Jerry in the eye, and eagerly asked, "What were you supposed to tell me?"
Knowing that Allegra felt abandoned and betrayed, he said to her, "Allegra, the God of the universe knows you and loves you; He would never abandon you or forsake you." He said it to her again: "Allegra, God loves you!"
Sometimes, it takes three times before the words sink in, so Jerry said it again: "Allegra, God loves you!"
After the third time she burst into loud sobs. Everyone in the gate area was looking in their direction. Through her tears, Allegra blurted out, "But I've done so many bad things in my life!"
Jerry responded, "Allegra, God knows all about it and that's why he sent Jesus to die on the Cross for all of your sins and to bring you forgiveness and hope." He was explaining the gospel to ears willing to hear and a heart willing to receive (Dr. Jerry Root, “When Evangelism Really Isn't That Hard,” Christianity Today, 2-17-17; www.PreachingToday.com).
It was a divine appointment. God had already worked in Allegra’s heart. All Jerry had to do was take advantage of the opportunity. And that’s all you need to do. Evangelism isn’t really that hard. God is working in people’s hearts all the time. All you have to do is listen to people. Then when God opens the door, introduce them to Jesus.
Do you want to be truly wise? Just acknowledge that God is, that God is here, and that God is holy. Then allow Him to use you to make Him known to a world in desperate need of Him.
