The Plagues Explained

We trace how the plagues of Egypt expose Pharaoh’s role, Egypt’s gods, and God’s long game of mercy, order, and revelation. We follow the patterns Moses writes into Exodus and connect the plagues to creation, the Red Sea, and Israel learning to trust the LORD. 

• Pharaoh as intermediary between people and gods 
• Ma’at as Egypt’s obsession with harmony and no chaos 
• Egyptian temples, magic, and insect protection practices 
• “Let My People Go” as a five-cycle progression 
• plagues increasing in severity from annoyance to collapse 
• Nile-to-blood as a targeted wake-up shot and possible natural mechanism 
• bargaining dynamics behind “tomorrow” for the frogs 
• plague groupings and repeated literary signals in Exodus 
• Pharaoh hardening his own heart versus God strengthening it 
• Aaron, God, Moses as conduits across the plagues 
• “God Of The Hebrews” as a strategic introduction of identity 
• “all” as ancient hyperbole and why livestock still appear later 
• darkness as a creation echo and a blow to Pharaoh’s light claims 
• Red Sea crossing, east wind obedience, and dry land detail 
• Israel fearing the LORD and believing God and Moses 
• preview of Mount Sinai as the next major step 

Please, if you know a Bible nut and an absolute real Bible digger that might benefit from this, please send them to Biblically Wired. 

Transcript

Welcome And Why Plagues Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome, welcome. You are listening to Biblically Wired. I am the host out of Minneapolis. And today we are getting into something I think is kind of fun because it gave me some answers to some questions or at least some foundation to answer other people's questions about the plagues against Egypt. There's a lot of people who don't get into the Old Testament and find the answers that they might need so that they can nestle up to God and see him for the kind, long-suffering God that he is. In the plagues, we're going to see his long-suffering, we're going to see his details that he plans out. And we're going to learn a lot behind the man on the throne here. Now, today we are going to start out talking about the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh we talked about in our last teaching, we don't know the name of the Pharaoh for certain. And they do think for sure there's two different pharaohs within the 11 months. When you look at all the main characters, it's pretty fascinating. We have the Pharaoh who is on his throne. The Pharaoh's job in Egypt is to be this intermediary between the public and the gods. The gods in Egypt were all that and a bag of chips. The gods, they believed, needed to be fed. So these gods had temples, about a quarter of the farmland might be used for the temple and the temple staff. At least that was the case in the city of Ur when Abraham was there. So it's quite a big chunk of land where all the produce goes to the temple and is sacrificed in some sort of way for the God of that temple. They did not sacrifice animals like God will sacrifice animals. And you see Moses wrestling with that fact at one point in chapter 10. But these temples, I must say, could have up to a hundred staff members, a hundred people dedicated to that God their entire life. And these people believed that they are either here by accident and they are slaves to the gods, or the gods created them and they are slaves to the gods. Either way, they don't really matter to the gods. Now, these people also did not have one god, but several gods. They also believed that if there was a battle between two gods, the god that won was now the highest god of the land, and they would go out and buy their amulets and whatnot. Egypt had a very big problem with some of the bugs, some of the flies, some of the insects that bit them and whatnot. They believed that if they did a certain kind of procedure on some of these bugs when they're dead, and they put them in some sort of resin and wore them around their neck, that they would be protected from that fly. And the dogfly is an example. And when we see God put out the plague of the flies, it is believed it could be the dog fly which stung you and was very annoying. The gnat's also more like a flea. And I had fleas once from a hotel, and it was so bizarre because you can't see anything and you're getting these little bites. Oh my goodness sakes! They did not clean the bed that a dog had slept in, and I slept in there. I didn't last long, let me tell you that. Well, the Pharaoh's job to the gods was to keep Ma'at or Harmony going in Egypt, and Ma'at or harmony was the priority of the land. If there was chaos in the land, was seen as kind of losing face, or maybe he would lose some fans, that kind of thing. Basically, they kept ma'at through a lot of different variables. One thing they did in the ancient times is one thing they believed was that the initial laws in a land, when you enter, those initial laws demonstrate the priority of the lawgiver. So the first few laws in a new community demonstrated a lot of their priorities. And in Egypt, the Pharaoh's laws centered around keeping a strong nuclear family. So there were laws, believe it or not, against having affairs. There were laws against divorces of kinds, and they really believed that a strong community is birthed out of a good nuclear family foundation. And I was shocked when I read that. Another thing that is huge for them, and it's very kind of riveting, is to picture a culture that was so bent on punishing people that were false witnesses. Because false witnesses could have anybody killed if they ruled the streets and they're a good liar, could cause a ton of damage. And we know what gossip does in a community. The penalty for being a false witness was to receive the punishment of the person you witnessed against. So let's say I got in trouble or arrested for stealing some fruit, and the shop owner became a false witness and said I never paid him. Maybe he was mad at me. Who knows? Either way, he's a false witness. And then it is proven that I did pay for it. They would maybe chop off his hand or chop off his arm. In that way, people with missing limbs were known as possible liars. Now, if I was accused of murder falsely, then my false accuser might be murdered. Now, these Egyptians really, really survived on no chaos. Communities in the ancient times wanted the easy flow of living. Before you get into the text here, and we're not going to read the whole thing, but Douglas Stewart, theologian, has been part of some massive commentaries, and he's very well respected. He is definitely the commentator that I go to, and I go to other ones too. I'm not going to take Douglas Stewart as the ironclad, all-knowing person, and he wouldn't want that either. Well, Douglas Stewart helps us see what's going on between Moses and the Pharaoh. What is going on is that the Pharaoh understands that Moses wants to take all the Israelites out of Egypt. He understands that immediately. Moses knows the Pharaoh knows. So what we see here is Moses asks for more and more as the plagues continue. And you can see that if you just keep reading through and highlighting different portions of the text that show all the moves of the Let My People Go theme. So the Let My People Go theme is in five cycles throughout this text. We know five is mercy and grace. And it's in chapter five, seven, eight, nine, and ten. And if you look at all those places, you will see this progression in who I'm asking to go. It's very intriguing to see how Moses wrote this out. It honestly feels like the letters had to have collided in the wind and landed on his page. How, how, how in the world could you write such an amazing text? Now he's emphasizing what actually happened, but he's putting him in these five cycles. Also, we will see that the plagues advance in severity. The first initial plague, Douglas Stewart, kind of makes it sound like he shot an arrow at Egypt. Basically, he's taking a shot, waking them up, letting them know I'm in the vicinity, turning the Nile into blood. Most people believe was not actual blood, but was a natural thing that happens in the Nile. The algae in the Nile in different seasons would turn portions of the river red and it was undrinkable. The reason people tend to think it was a natural change. God used what he already created is because the rest of the plagues all have a natural source. So that's just food for thought and something to think about. And it always amazes me that God placed these things into creation so long before he's using them in this incredible fashion. Now there's a lot of negotiations, as I said, throughout the text, and I want to reiterate that Moses was the person for the task. Moses was raised in the temple. Moses understood rhetoric. He understood that type of bargaining. He witnessed it at the dinner table, and he witnessed it all the time. Now, what we see from God's perspective is God advancing on the world. From the beginning, we saw God with Adam. We saw God come to Noah. We saw God advance on Abraham quite a bit. We're going to see the closest relationship between God and Moses of all people in the Old Testament. But now he is going to Pharaoh and he is having Moses introduce him as the Lord. So this is the first introduction God has made with an outsider. And he chooses the Pharaoh, the number one throne in the world. He chooses the Pharaoh, the one he is going to be going up against. He chooses the Pharaoh. And I have been chewing on that for many days because I'm like, okay, wait, but but Jesus was introduced to the shepherds. And Jesus came to the lowly. But what God is demonstrating here to me is that he is game on with the world. He is coming on the stage of the world for the first time. And just like the creator came, he is coming in that fashion. And what he is going to reveal is he has the power to decreate his own creation. So just like he comes to the reader of all sorts as a creator, he's coming to Pharaoh as a creator. But what a compliment to be the person that he comes to for the first time in all of history that isn't kind of a person that's in the know. So I'm going to start out with chapter seven. What we're going to see going forward is God saying, I will stretch out my hand. Sometimes we see him tell Moses or Aaron to stretch out your hand, and then it turns into the staff. So when you see hand or staff, it is similar in writing. Now, the Israelites believe that this staff, this special staff, was created. It was one of the 10 things created at twilight on the sixth day. They have 10 things they believe God created at twilight on the sixth day of creation, and this staff is one of them. This staff will end up in the Ark of the Covenant after amazing use and all the reflection that it has upon it and all the power that God is going to use it for. It will be a symbol going forward in that ark as they bring that ark forward into the temple and beyond. All right, so God in chapter seven goes on to say in verse 5 that the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. So there are one, two, three, four. Okay. I had to quick count them. There are seven times that God gives his reason for doing all this. So if we are going to kind of question God about what he's doing here, let's start with what he says he's doing. So the first time he comes in chapter six and he tells Moses the plan and says, I am going to do this, so you should know that I am the God. I am the Lord. I am that great I am. The second time he says, I'm going to do this, so the Egyptians will know. And this is in chapter seven, verse five, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. So Moses and Aaron did it as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. Moses was eighty years old, as we've discussed, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Sarah to Pharaoh. All right, so Aaron's rod becomes a serpent, the water turns into blood, and we see Pharaoh's heart, hard heart. Now the Nile might have this red algae, and at times portions of it become red. So this was something the magicians could recreate, but it never was so bad that every reservoir of the Nile turned red and undrinkable, and even the pots and pans they had water in. So this went on for seven days. You know, everybody got quite thirsty and they had to dig, dig, dig for water. So then immediately, even though a lot of these plagues are spaced out quite a bit, these two are kind of boom boom. He brings the frogs from the water and he says, Let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs. So the Nile will swarm with frogs, the frogs will go all over the place, and it will be quite a pain. So Aaron was called to stretch out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. The magicians could do the same thing. The magicians had power from the enemy, and it was known that a lot of Egypt's Ma'at survived through magic. And it's very um, it's kind of shocking to picture how much the magicians may have pulled off. All right, so let's go to chapter 8, verse 9. A Pharaoh asks Moses, okay, we're sick of the frogs. I will let your people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord. And then Moses says to Pharaoh, and it kind of cracks me up, it's like, okay, you lost, but the honor is yours to tell me, when shall I pray for you and your servants and your people that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they be may be left only in the Nile. When do you want me to do that, Pharaoh? And the Pharaoh answers, tomorrow. Now that's kind of shocking because aren't you sick of the frogs? Why would you wait till tomorrow? And that's been kind of this question. But Douglas Stewart says that what's going on here is the Pharaoh understands that supplication to a God takes time. And Moses was to go out and not just sputter a few words in hopes that God will move, but he was going to put his knees into it, so to speak. The water of the Nile was the body of their God happy. Their god happy, it wasn't a happy god, but the name was happy. Its body was the water. And now we're going to go into the next plaque where the land is a different god. The land is the god Ged. And the gnats come up from the land and they look like dust. And it almost would make the Egyptians believe that these gnats are his body exploding. Now, I want to explain that each of these plagues also go in cycles where they are to be seen together. Now, we just saw the first three plagues, and these plagues each have two other plagues with some matching components. And maybe this is like, Barb, I just want to shut you off. So I'm just going to quickly say if you read plaque one, four, and seven, an example would be that Moses comes in the morning for those three plagues. And then they have some other light similarities. If you look at two, five, and eight, so that would be every third plague, Moses and Aaron show up at court, and in each case, someone is predicting a time. A time is called out when it will stop. The first time the Pharaoh calls it out, and two times God calls it out. Then if you looked at plague three, six, and nine, Pharaoh sees the first one, but he's not warned. And these are the only three he's not warned about. And afterwards, Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron. So come on, God, these details. I mean, what in the world and why? I mean, I know you're organized, but wow, wow, wow. Now, when it comes to hardening Pharaoh's heart, six times, six times Pharaoh hardens his own heart, and three times God hardens his heart. The word for hardened could also be strengthened. So, what God is doing is he's taking Pharaoh's already hard heart and he's making it harder or making sure he really sticks to it. And when he's doing this, it's because he is revealing something huge, not only to the Pharaoh and the Egyptians and the Israelites, but to the world. God has big plans for the world as we know. Now, if we look at who was used as a conduit for these plagues, and this is where I'm getting into the fact I have charts on my charts, just so you know, but I really wanted to see the patterns that God put in here and some of the reasoning because he chose Moses to lead his people out of Israel. We know that the first time they went to the Pharaoh, Moses came back and he was so furious with God, and he really treated God as a person. He put God in the person box, and that's what we do. If we're coming up against God ever, if we are coming up against God ever, as I have, we are putting him in a reasonable Western persons role, and we're never on track. Believe me, I've done it, and yeah, it usually comes down to that fact, and that's what Moses did. So interestingly, Aaron is chosen to do the first three big plagues. He is the conduit. Aaron, the first, the second, and the third. All of them were slightly annoying. Then God brings it for the fourth and fifth, which even get more powerful, and then it appears Moses' faith is strong enough. And it's about at this point that even the magicians are saying, Pharaoh, this is over the top. You've got to let these people go. And Moses, even, I think, is saying, you know what? Yeah, okay, I'm starting to see what's going on here. Moses does six, seven, eight, and nine, four. Moses does four of the plagues, and then God does the tenth. So Aaron three, God, three, Moses four. Moses, the deliverer, does four plagues again, giving us an echo or a foundation to believe and know that God is after the world in this situation. When he says in chapter nine that I am doing this so that the entire world World will know. In chapter 10, I am doing this so the next generation will know. And finally, in 11, God's work is magnified to the world. It should give the reader quite a hint that God is about saving the world. And yes, he is really taking on Egypt. But I want to talk about something that was very freeing for me to discover. First of all, God's name. So my son Bradley was like, hey, mom, when God introduces himself to the Pharaoh, who does he say that he is? Who does he say that he is? Who does Moses say he is? Well, he does say he is the Lord a few times, but we also see him introduce God as God of the Hebrews, God of the Hebrews consistently throughout the text. Now, I had already read through this like 15 times making my charts, and I didn't even know the answer when Bradley asked me. But God of the Hebrews makes total sense, and that he would repeat it makes even more sense because what God is saying is, hey, start to recognize the Hebrews as a nation going forward and start to recognize they have one God, and I am that God. Now I want to talk about the cattle because there is a I don't know if I should call it a theory or if I should call it because I really sense it's true. And it only makes sense when you read the text. So here we go. The word all, A-L-L, in Hebrew is K-O-L. The word all is used. All the animals, all the plants, all the crops, all the trees. It's used many times in these plaques. Well, all can also mean animals all over the place. It can mean plants, all sorts of plants. It can mean crops, all sorts of crops and trees all over the place. It's not necessarily all. Now this goes on and is reiterated by Dr. Paul Copan in his writings, and he reveals how there are portions in Deuteronomy and in through the stories of Joshua, it reveals this text that says that they took on another nation and they completely wiped them out, or it says that God says, totally wipe them out, all of them. Women and children, all of them. And Dr. Copin says there are examples where God says to take them all out, or Joshua writes, we took them all out. But a few verses later it says, do not intermarry with them. Do not intermarry with them. Well, how could we intermarry with them if they're gone, if we took them out? And it will go on to talk about these foreigners or including these foreigners and etc. Well, when it comes to the animals here in chapter nine, it literally says, and I'm gonna start in verse three of chapter nine, behold, the hand of the Lord will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock, which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel. The Lord set a definite time saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. So the Lord did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. Well, if you continue to read through this story, you see that when God is going to bring hail, he says to tell your servants to bring their animals under cover. Also, how do the Egyptians use their chariots to chase the Israelites down without horses? So we know that it isn't all. And the reason why they discovered a lot of this is because we have thousands of more ancient documents than we had 40 years ago. And we're looking at ancient documents in communities surrounding the Israelites at this time or decades later. And what we see is when they go to war, they do great hyperbole in their diaries and journals. They will say we can completely annihilated them. There was not left even a living hair in the land, there was no animals, no dogs, no children, no women, no heartbeat. They will go on to give this hyperbole, kind of like if we go to a good hockey game here in Minnesota between two high school teams, we're rooting for our team, and let's say we win four to one, we come home. Oh my gosh, we demolished them. We absolutely demolished them. It was crazy. None of their efforts had any gain. We were on our skates, right? And this is what they did in their journals, and this is how Moses is writing it here. Moses wants us to know a great number of their livestock died. A great number. It was noticeable enough that the Pharaoh came out to see did any of the Israelite animals die? And they had not. They had not. So next we have the boils, and then we have hail, where God says to bring the animals in. So what we see is also a progression in who's affected. So, like I said, blood, frogs, and gnats were annoyances, annoyances. Flies, those dog flies, horrendous, horrendous. But now we're moving on to animals being killed or livestock, and then now we have humans being affected with boils. Next is hail and it kills animals and humans. Locusts then and moves on to their land, to their food. So it's going to attack the very thing that feeds the animals and the humans. So in effect, it's affecting all of them. Lastly, is darkness before the firstborn. A lot of people say darkness is the biggest hit that God brought upon Egypt because the Pharaoh was supposed to be this mini-god of the God of light, the sun god. Pharaoh was representing that god. So God placed a darkness on them that could be felt. That is just like beyond. That is beyond. And what we see there is incredible and quite jaw-dropping because what God does there is he divides light and darkness. And we see him do this in creation. The root of this is the first day of creation when God divides light and darkness. And at this point, there isn't even sun or moon. When God first divides the light and the darkness, there is no sun or moon. Going forward now, again, darkness and light will be divided before the Red Sea. And the darkness and light will divide the Egyptians and give time for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea. The next time I believe that darkness and light are divided is at the cross. And for three hours, darkness will rule the land. And God again divides darkness and light, revealing this cycle of God representing himself as creator, as ultimate power over all things. All right, so we also see in these plagues, we see him going about water, land, earth, air. We see him with the bugs and the locusts. We know that fish dies, and then even humans. And we basically see him taking his creation and destroying it layer by layer. And God is definitely saying to the whole world, I am the God in charge. And what we see going forward is we see that when Joshua is going into the land, Rahab tells some spies that we are petrified of your God. And this is 40 years after these plagues. 40 years after. We don't discuss many things that happened 40 years ago. So the world was definitely in the know, and things were passed on generation after generation. And still to this day, we discuss it with our kids, and the Israelites discuss it daily and have many festivals around this Exodus. So God was definitely accomplishing everything He wanted to accomplish. Now we know about the Passover, and I wanted to talk about them when they're up against the Dead Sea because there's something I was reading and I was like, wait a second. Does it really, really, really say that? This is incredible, incredible stuff. All right, we're looking at chapter 13 in our next teaching. We are going to get to Mount Sinai. And guys, that's gonna be after I get back from Jordan. I leave tomorrow for Jordan. I'm gonna be gone for two weeks, and I'm gonna be there literally on the ground, probably walking through portions that Abraham walked through. I'm gonna see where Moses saw the promised land, and I'm really excited and hoping to bring some of that fresh energy and some of that feeling into our time. Okay, so they're gonna go to the Red Sea. I have always taught, and people teach, that another route could have been probable, but the Philistines were there. They were not ready to take on another nation, and the Philistines are not on the chopping block when it comes to God, so they're gonna take the Red Sea. But I also see this as part of God's pattern. I mean, look at the way he went through the plagues with patterns. We cannot over-emphasize his hand with patterns. So I think it's true that when he brings them to the Red Sea, he's showing us that after we are released from slavery, we go through the water. We go through the waters on our way to the wilderness. And what we see at the Red Sea that I have not been able to get out of my head because God brings them to the Red Sea. The Egyptians are on their tail, they're on the pursuit. It is really a scary moment. God opens the Red Sea and then He waits until the land dries. It literally says in verse 21 of chapter 14. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind. Notice the east all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. All right, okay. Okay, why do I get into this stuff? I could not believe it when I read that. And it says the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind. East winds are going west. Things that are going west are in being in obedience to God. The wind, the wind is in obedience to God, and God is revealing it here in the text, giving the wind credit for its obedience and drying the land so the Israelites could cross through the waters into the wilderness. I mean, I can't even, I can't even like some of this stuff. I just want to go outside and scream it. Because it's just like, are you serious, God? Look at how he loves obedience. Now, why? Why did he need dry land? Going forward, he will have other times people cross a river and they don't wait for the land to dry. So clearly there's something going on here. And I can see this from many angles. I can see that the people needed to sit and be afraid of the Egyptians and see that the light and the pillar of fire and the cloud go behind them and protect them. I can see they needed to see, first of all, the flags to understand how bad Egypt is. They needed their work doubled, and now they need to be afraid. They need to see this and do this because in a few days they will be begging to go back to Egypt. They will actually beg to go back to Egypt. And this makes me realize that sometimes God has to really allow things to get bad in my life. So I make a turn towards obedience, and I don't crave going back. Another thing I think is God, throughout all the plagues, does insinuate he wants to raise Moses up. And what a big reveal of his faith. Everybody's quite petrified. And then Moses in chapter 14, 13, reveals his faith. He says to the people, Do not fear, stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Oh, that should be on our mirrors. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silence. Oh my goodness. So what's going on here? We have the wind, the ruach. Often the Holy Spirit is called the Ruach. We have God speaking. And in verse 19 of chapter 14, it says, The angel of the Lord who had been doing what? Going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So the angel of the Lord was the pillar of fire here. Oh, wow, wow, wow. Oh my gosh, if I could go back and see this. I mean, the people were like, whoa. And who was chasing after them again in verse 9 to 14? The Egyptians chased after them with what? All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army. So how many were there? I'm not positive anymore. How many drowned? I'm not positive anymore. Because we know there's hyperbole in some of this war language. But oh my gosh. So all night long it's being dried out. Okay, so numbers. How many people are here? I am at the conclusion that it's around under 300,000. And the reason we think this is because God says that they are not the biggest population of other communities they're going to be up against. And there was no communities at the favored number of 2 million that I hear all the time. The communities they go up against are not even close to 2 million. So there's something wrong with the math. And it's okay. The crowd is massive. The amount of cattle and sheep are massive. It had to be miles long of people and sheep. And this is a massive, massive undertaking by God. And it was no problem for God. For God. So the key point ends in chapter 14, verse 31, because the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day. And look at what it says. When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and his servant Moses. Are we going to follow someone through the desert that we do not believe? God is not only inviting him to be the people of God, he is equipping them to do the hard work, to stay steady, and to put one foot in front of the other. God is serious about his promises and look at all that he did so that these Israelites that are primarily idolatrous at this point, that haven't heard from God and are getting to know God again and renew this generation and really relish in who God is. That generation of Israelites that was chosen to go about this exodus was given everything they need to put one foot in front of the other through some pretty tough times going forward. I just think that that's what he reveals in these plagues. I don't think it is, I think it's sad. I think it's devastating that the firstborn of Egypt passed away. Was it every single firstborn now? I mean, now my brain just can't even handle it. I I don't know. We know it was a significant amount. We know there was crying all over Egypt. We can just assume if you want to say every single firstborn died, go ahead. We know that the Pharaoh's firstborn died. If if we want to picture all the animals and they got new animals and all the animals died again, if you want to picture all the plants, all the crops came and went and came and went, that is fine. But I really do think I'm not trying to sugarcoat what God did here, but we know what his goal was. His goal was to take his people out from a dictator. These people left with massive amounts of wealth. The Egyptians couldn't wait for them to go. And why did God allow them to bring so much wealth, so much gold, so much silver, so much stuff? It is because for 130 years they were not paid for their labor. They were at the point of barely anything, they were slaves. So God was allowing them to be paid. There is a lot going on in these details, I realize. But again, this is part of the foundation of Mount Sinai. So this is the group. This is the group. The group that is going to stand at Mount Sinai is the group that saw all these flags. This is the group that was slaves in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. This is the group that started to fear the Lord and believe in God and Moses. So this is a fresh off the press group of people that have seen God magnified beyond belief, but they fear him out of respect. They fear him. They're in as best a place as they could be approaching Mount Sinai. So here we go. The next teaching, we are going to get into Mount Sinai. We're not going to bother with the journey right now because I do have other teachings, just so you know, on the manna and how Jesus is the bread and on a lot of the provision. When we look at Sinai now, oh my gosh, the layers and layers and layers. Wow. God is so cool. He has now revealed himself to the world. He is taking them, and they will be a nation once they agree to be a nation at Mount Sinai. They are still not a nation, but they are a people group under God. Okay. Well, bless everybody out there. Thank you. I'm humbled. Please, if you know a Bible nut and an absolute real Bible digger that might benefit from this, please send them to Biblically Wired. I do this for fun. I don't make a dime. I don't need a dime. But it sure feels good to know somebody is learning something. And it helps me learn too. So thank you for joining me. Keep your chin up. It is spring. You are doing a good work building spiritual muscle. Let's keep it up in Jesus' name.