WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:01.840 Good morning, church. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:09.839 Today's reading is from the book of Exodus, chapter 10, verses 1 through 20. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:39.840 Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, and I may um that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians, and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:52.159 So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:56.079 Let my people go, that they may serve me. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:31.680 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land, and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.879 Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:44.000 Then Pharaoh's service servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:47.760 Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:52.079 Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? 00:01:52.400 --> 00:02:01.840 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go serve the Lord your God, but which ones are to go? 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:14.639 Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:24.639 But then he said to them, The Lord be with you if I ever um if ever I let you and your little ones go. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:28.560 Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:35.919 No, go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.159 Um And they were driven out of Pharaoh's presence. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:55.360 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. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:07.199 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. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:11.360 When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:27.280 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 shall ever be again. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:38.719 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 fruits of the trees that the hail had left. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:46.000 Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:55.199 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.080 Now therefore, forgive my sin. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:05.919 Please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.879 So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:19.839 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:25.279 Not a single locust was left in all the land, in all the country of Egypt. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:30.720 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and did not let the people of Israel go. 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:33.199 Thanks be to God. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:34.639 Please be seated. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:36.959 Thanks. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:38.319 I'll take that pat. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:39.839 Well done. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:40.480 Thank you. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:41.680 I know. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:44.079 Good morning. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:47.360 Thank you for joining us this morning. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:48.560 My name is James Rathran. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:51.439 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:05:02.160 And we are uh continuing, although close to the end, of our summer of plagues, uh which has been our series to draw up a lot of Google searches. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.639 Uh people looking for a summer of plagues, they can come and be a part of one here. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:08.720 So thanks for joining us. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:12.800 Um let's pray and then we'll move into today's text. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:27.519 Father in heaven, we praise you for your loving kindness towards us, for the might that you demonstrated against Pharaoh, that the sons and grandsons of Moses might know your wonder and know that you are the Lord. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:35.279 Lord, we praise you for grafting us into that lineage, that we might praise you and know that you are the Lord. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:37.199 You are the one who delivers us. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:43.839 You are the one who, as our king, takes our enemies as your enemies, and you conquer them on our behalf. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:46.160 Father, we praise you for that. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:48.959 It is good that you are our Lord. 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:51.040 We thank you for being our Lord. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.120 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:12.240 Okay, so as you're preaching through the plagues, you know, there's a lot of them, and so you're looking for kind of ways in and kind of themes that are taking place throughout the plagues, but also particular themes that stand out for each plague. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:29.920 And so the one thing that really stands out about this particular plague, this eighth plague, out of the ten total plagues, but the nine which we'll be covering this summer, as we'll save the Passover for next year, you've got to have a bit of a cliffhanger at the season ending. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:35.120 Uh, we don't get to find out what's in the hatch or, you know, whatever it is. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:38.160 There's a good reference to a show in 2007. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:46.399 What stands out in this one is Pharaoh's self-destructive nature. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:51.040 Pharaoh is beginning to look really absurd. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.319 Why is it that Pharaoh won't simply relent? 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:05.680 And what is this pride of Pharaoh that is looking more and more suicidal? 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:12.720 It is a pride of Pharaoh where it looks like Pharaoh is on a path of his own self-destruction. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.199 Why is he operating in this way? 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:29.920 And how can a whole court of people, how can the servants of Pharaoh, how can a whole culture and nation in a sense take on this mode of operating in this suicidal fashion? 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:33.680 How can a nation of people become a death cult? 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:41.839 And we look at Pharaoh operating in this way and we see the pride that he stands in at the cost of his nation. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.639 Pharaoh's servants will say to him, Don't you see that Egypt is ruined? 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:49.920 And wouldn't we say, This is enough, Pharaoh? 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:50.800 Relent. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:59.519 And don't you think that any self-interested, rational actor would at this point simply relent? 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:10.560 I think what we're seeing here is that idea of human decision-making, that we operate as self-interested, rational actors. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:19.040 And if the incentives are aligned in the proper way, then we will act according to the incentives which align with our self-interest. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:23.439 Well, Pharaoh is showing that that is not the case. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:36.559 He is operating in a way which is absolutely contrary to his self-interest, in a way that is cutting off the future hope of himself and the future hope of the Egyptians. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:43.120 And so that can feel like a far-off thing and like a strange magical thing that's taking place in the heart of Pharaoh. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:46.000 He is like the archetype of a hard heart. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:51.200 But something that we might think, well, this couldn't happen in a culture like ours. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:09:00.960 But I want to make the case this morning that these very same tendencies are present in our culture. 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:08.960 And that our culture is, in this sense, when it has shifted from God, becomes a culture of death. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:13.840 A culture aimed towards suicide. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.840 Here's a statement that is technically true. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.279 Nothing compares to non-existence. 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:27.039 That's technically true, right? 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.440 Nothing, nothing, compares to non-existence. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:32.720 But you can hear the emphasis. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:35.039 Nothing compares to non-existence. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:41.679 This is a frame, this is a way that many conversations in our culture are framed. 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:47.840 That you know what would finally be better is if we didn't exist. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.919 This is the way that many environmental conversations are framed. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:57.600 You know what would finally be better for the world if there was no humanity in it? 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:01.679 Nothing compares to non-existence. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:07.200 One of the first books that I read in sort of the stream of Reformed Theology was Desiring God. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:09.120 How many of you have read Desiring God? 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:10.399 Yeah, exactly. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.360 It's like the gateway drug of Reformed Theology. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:20.399 So Desiring God, it's by John Piper, and it's the subtitle is Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:23.679 And that's a provocative title. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:25.919 I wasn't around when it was first published. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:29.840 I imagine when it was first published that it was an even more provocative title. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:34.159 Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, those two words put together. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.080 It's an excellent juxtaposition. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:43.600 A hedonist, of course, is someone who pursues as their only or highest end in their life is the pursuit of pleasure. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:48.799 And John Piper in that book argues that we are Christian hedonists. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:53.919 It's this idea that we understand that our highest pleasure is found in the Lord. 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:58.879 And so to truly pursue our highest pleasure, we would pursue the Lord. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:02.559 That is a wonderful point and something that I think is true. 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:04.960 What is the chief end of man? 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:09.440 Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:19.120 Right in the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:24.639 John Piper does a bit of editorial work on that in uh his book, but we'll leave it as it is. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:41.039 Now, Christian hedonism, I think it makes this and it makes this excellent case for a culture that viewed as its highest end the pursuit of pleasure. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:48.240 Now, I don't think that is the way that our culture currently frames our conversations. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:12:02.399 I think that there was a time, perhaps even just before 2020, where the primary way that our culture framed its conversations was maximizing the pursuit of pleasure. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:10.879 Now, I think that our culture frames its conversations primarily in terms of minimizing pain. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:22.080 If you were to sit in a coffee shop, which is basically what's like 50% of my life, and listen to the conversations around you. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:25.200 They are not conversations of maximizing pleasure. 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:31.759 Unless you happen to sit next to a couple of bros that are talking about like ice baths or something. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:53.440 It is mostly a conversation about dealing with your anxieties, about minimizing the pain that you are experiencing in your life, about understanding the and gaining an awareness of the patterns of oppression that cause this pain that takes place in our society. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:55.759 Now there's a technical way of framing this. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:10.799 The technical way of framing this is that we have switched from a utilitarian culture, and a utilitarian culture says that the highest good is to maximize happiness for the most people to a negative utilitarian culture. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:19.600 A negative utilitarian culture is a culture which says that the greatest good is to minimize the amount of pain that is in the world. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:27.440 The person who came up with the term negative utilitarianism is a philosopher named Carl Popper, Sir Karl Popper. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:38.159 He says this I believe that there is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain and pleasure. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:43.600 In my opinion, human suffering makes a direct moral appeal for help. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:49.519 While there is no similar call to increase the happiness of a man who is doing well anyway. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:57.039 And so that I think that quote that is immediately sensible to me. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:13:58.799 What do you guys think? 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:00.639 This is obviously a trap. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:08.799 What do you think of this quote that I share early in my sermon and will certainly disprove later? 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:15.440 This is immediately at face value, it makes so much sense to me. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:30.639 And especially when you consider the frame in which Carl Popper is explaining this, this is in a time of understanding why these totalitarian states emerged in the 20th century, and they're trying to reconcile this idea. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:55.519 And one of Carl Popper's thoughts was this utilitarian framework, which calls for the maximum creation of happiness in the world, creates a ceilingless opportunity for totalitarian states to say over and over again, this will make you happier, this will make you happier, we're doing this because we have to maximize happiness, we have to maximize it. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:15:00.480 And so he says, okay, this is a dangerous framework. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:11.120 Perhaps a safer framework is to say that we shouldn't remove this ceiling of happiness, but instead we should try and uh get rid of the suffering. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:22.879 And that might put a sort of limit on to how much a state could say would be done in the name of your happiness. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:25.360 Do you see what he's doing there? 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:50.799 Now the problem is that as this negative utilitarian framework has developed, and I think that this is the primary way in which decisions are made, especially at the policy level, that it leads to this ultimate end, this final conclusion, which is it would be better if a suffering person didn't exist. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.000 That is the final conclusion. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:16:00.080 Because there is a final way to eliminate suffering, that is non-existence. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:05.360 Nothing beats, nothing compares to non-existence. 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:10.240 Now you can see that is a suicidal culture. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:20.000 This principle that I want us to see is that if you place as your highest good pleasure, you create a tyrannical culture. 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:30.240 If you place as your highest good the elimination of pain, you likewise create a tyrannical and suicidal culture. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:35.519 You can see evidence for this in uh our our own culture now. 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:49.120 For example, of course, in the abortion conversation, one of the ways that this is typically framed is that if the child were to be born, they would be born into a life of poverty. 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:55.519 A life of poverty and suffering, into a world in which there were not the means to care for this child. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:17:06.720 And because therefore, what we are saying is this life of suffering is worse than non-existence. 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:11.119 It would be better to not be born. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:16.000 This is also true in some recent legislation in our own state. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:28.000 In uh 2016, a law was passed uh called the Medical Aid in Dying Law, which allows for if you have a uh if you're over 18. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.880 There are so many strange contradictions in this. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:49.279 If you're over 18 and terminally ill, and you have a less than six month prognosis, then you can receive a medical prescription for a uh suicide drug, a drug that a pill which you will take and which will kill you. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:55.039 And this legislation was amended last month. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:05.200 And it was amended because it used to be a two-week waiting period before the drug was administered. 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.680 This is, of course, a cruel extension of existence. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:12.079 So now it's only one week. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:13.599 Be relieved. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.160 Nothing beats nothing compares to non-existence. 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:28.079 This is also true in I think any conversation which speaks positively about lowering the birth rate. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:29.839 And you hear this all the time. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:37.440 If there is a conversation which speaks positively about lowering the birth weight birth rate, this is a negative utilitarian framework. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:41.920 Listen to this quote from uh the World Bank blog. 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:43.279 Do you guys subscribe? 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.279 Is that in your RSS feed? 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:56.079 In a nutshell, data show that the higher the level of a woman's educational attainment, the fewer children she is likely to bear. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:08.160 Given that fewer children per woman and delayed marriage and childbearing could mean more resources per child and better health and survival rates for mothers and children, this is an important link. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:12.640 Okay, now we hear a sentence like that, and it's like, great. 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:18.799 More resource more resources per child, delayed childbearing, delayed marriage. 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:21.279 These seem like wonderful things. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:43.440 Now I think it's so you can't separate the fact that this study and the positivity about the decline of birth rate is about Ghana, Kenya, and Ethiopia by the World Bank. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.279 Draw your own conclusions. 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.000 Draw your own conclusions. 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:59.680 But I think another way of framing this very idea is experts agree it may be better if you didn't exist. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.519 You know, I see this child that you just had. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:18.480 You know what might be slightly better for all of us is if that child wasn't here. 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:23.599 You know, how soon do you share this stat with a mother? 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:31.920 You know, at what at what point does it really apply? 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.720 Pharaoh is absurd, right? 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:37.920 He's absurd. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:57.039 And the fact that he would embrace this ideal in his pride and hubris at placing at the top of what he aimed at anything other than God, we see that he becomes suicidal in nature, to the point where he would even destroy his own civilization. 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:01.680 You see, Pharaoh is not absurd. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:04.480 He's ordinary. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:16.079 Imagine saying, what if we created a society in which we placed at the top the main thing that we aimed at, the elimination of suffering. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:20.799 Man, that sounds good. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:23.759 That sounds good. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:47.039 Don't you see that in even these maximal examples of sentences which we try and construct which seem so good on their face that anything other than God as our highest aim and hope creates a culture of death. 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:55.680 Anything other than God creates a culture of death. 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:11.359 What this Narrative is about, in many ways, this plague is about how the pride of Pharaoh is absurd and suicidal. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:19.680 And about how the humility of Moses leads to hope. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:22.160 Hope. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:33.279 How do we inject into a world where even when we try and aim at something like the elimination of suffering, we bec we find ourselves hopeless. 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:38.079 How can there be hope in a world like that? 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.400 That's what we're looking at this morning. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:43.680 In Exodus 10, 1 through 2. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:23:02.480 Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians, and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:04.319 He gives this encouragement to Moses. 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:19.519 The hardness of Pharaoh's heart, which is persisting and seems like it is completely unabating, I am doing this for the good of your sons and of your grandsons, people you haven't seen yet. 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:34.480 Right now it looks like the hardness of Pharaoh's heart is your ultimate obstacle, but I am putting it there so that my glory might be displayed, and in the display of my glory, your sons and your grandsons will know that I am the Lord. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:41.359 He is connecting Moses to a future hope, a future he can't even see yet. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:58.880 And he's saying that this present pain, this difficulty in Pharaoh's hardness of heart, you can't see it here, but it is connected to a future hope, which will mean that your sons and grandsons will know I am the Lord by what is taking place here today. 00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:02.079 It is an incredible encouragement. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:06.960 And we see that Moses, in order to participate in that, must only believe the Lord. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:11.359 He must just in humility say, The Lord is doing something here. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:15.839 And he holds the future in his hands, and he promises that it is good. 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:21.440 Therefore, it is worth it to not throw away the future, but to hold fast to the Lord. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:34.319 Let my people go that they may serve me. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:38.640 It is finally said, the problem here with Pharaoh is his pride. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:43.680 It is a refusal to humble himself before the Lord. 00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:49.759 The humility of Moses and his obedience to the Lord is this that leads to absurdity. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:25:10.240 There is this perfect opposite, which is this pride of Pharaoh, which stands in opposition to the Lord as he exalts himself over the Lord, and it leads to absurdity and death, where he is not able to even act in his own self-interests. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:17.119 So Pharaoh is warned of a plague of locusts. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.920 The hail left over some greenery in Egypt. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.240 There was still some food left. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:31.440 But a plague of locusts will come, and they will devour all that has been left. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:41.920 And Pharaoh is told that there has never been a plague like this in Egypt, from your fathers to your fathers' fathers. 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:45.440 Have never seen anything like will take place here. 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:58.400 I think what we're showing, what we're being shown there is that no matter how great the lineage, pride can cut it off and bring it to an end. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:21.039 But for Moses, the opposite is told, because he is given a story of no matter how destitute the lineage of hundreds of years of slavery, in humility to the Lord, there is a hope which can be born and continue for generations. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:27.279 Pride cuts off the future. 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:36.960 In Exodus 7, verse 7, we see that Egypt is ruined. 00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:40.720 And this fact is brought to Pharaoh's attention. 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:44.880 Then Pharaoh's servant said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:47.920 Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.839 Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:55.519 How long shall this man be a snare to us? 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:56.400 They say to Pharaoh. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:26:59.039 Notice the plague hasn't happened yet. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:03.039 They just are starting to believe Moses. 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:09.920 And they're saying, How long are you going to stand against Moses and let this man be a snare to us? 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:14.559 Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:18.720 Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? 00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:23.759 Now there are several mistakes that they make in their appeal. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:29.119 The first one is that they are trying to do this thing where they see God as above them. 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:37.599 I think that these servants do see God as above them, but they also see Pharaoh as above them and perhaps tied with God. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:48.079 They have something like a split allegiance, because they are not asking for the freedom of all of the Lord's people, which is the request that is being made. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:51.039 They are saying just send the men. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:59.920 They are offering some way to appease the Lord, which is other than true obedience. 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:02.559 Some mode of appeasement. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:06.880 But do you see it as a split allegiance? 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:10.480 And then they misunderstand Pharaoh. 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:20.640 So they misunderstand the Lord, but they likewise misunderstand Pharaoh, because their appeal to Pharaoh is this: don't you see that Egypt is ruined? 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:29.119 They think the point of appeal that they have with Pharaoh is the sustaining of Egypt. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:37.279 Here's something that I know Pharaoh wants, and I know we want alongside Pharaoh, for Egypt to not be ruined. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:40.799 But that's not finally what Pharaoh wants. 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:48.319 Egypt not being ruined for Pharaoh is a means to an end. 00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:54.000 The end that Pharaoh is pursuing is that he would be God. 00:28:55.519 --> 00:29:01.759 That he would be the true power, that he would be the one who is truly worthy of worship. 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:08.960 Because if Pharaoh's highest end was that Egypt not be ruined, he could do that in a second. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:17.920 He could simply humble himself before the Lord and say to the Lord, You are truly God, I am not truly God. 00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:20.000 But that is not his highest end. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:28.079 His highest end is that he himself would be God, that he would have no gods above him. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:30.720 Absolute autonomy. 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.839 This is what Pharaoh is actually aiming at. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.720 So they make this appeal, and there's a sense in which Pharaoh listens. 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:44.079 Because he calls Moses back in before the plague happens. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:53.119 So Moses is brought back in, and Pharaoh says to Moses, Who uh I will let you go worship, who will go, who will go? 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:54.880 He actually says it twice. 00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:57.200 Come on, come on, who will go, who will go? 00:29:57.359 --> 00:29:59.759 That's the way I picture it. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:08.000 And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old. 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:16.880 We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:20.880 What does the humility of Moses mean? 00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:24.720 He will not barter. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:34.160 He will not sacrifice some of the people of God to be left out of the feasts. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:36.720 He will bring them all. 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:42.799 He will trust completely and fully in the promise of the Lord. 00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:47.359 He understands that these promises are for you and for your children. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:55.839 He understands that the whole of the people are called together to worship the Lord in a feast. 00:30:57.599 --> 00:30:59.920 Now, it is absurd. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:10.880 But we forget they are under the thumb of Pharaoh. 00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:20.160 And these slaves are saying we are all headed to freedom and a feast to the Lord. 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:26.960 What we are headed towards, they're saying they're headed towards a miracle that only the Lord could provide. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:30.559 And that's what they are walking towards. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:42.400 Now then Pharaoh has this, it's almost like a Freudian slip where he's he just says the quiet part out loud. 00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:46.160 He says, What's really going on here? 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:48.000 In Exodus 10, 10. 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:54.079 But he said to them, the Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. 00:31:56.720 --> 00:31:58.079 Do you hear it? 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:01.440 It's weird almost. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:08.160 The Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:09.440 Oh. 00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:13.839 Wait, what are we really talking about here? 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:22.319 You know, I could have read this whole thing and it felt like there was just an economic incentive, right? 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:26.319 We're your labor. 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:28.960 We're your workforce. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:32.079 And so, yeah, it makes sense. 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:35.359 You can't let us go because that could be the ruin of Egypt. 00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:44.880 I thought this was just about like some prestige of the nation, of the storehouses that are being built. 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:46.319 No, no, no. 00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:53.359 If I ever let you go, you and your little ones, what would it mean? 00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:56.240 It would meant that the Lord was with you. 00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:03.200 The Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:15.599 The one thing that he cannot show is that there is a God and that he is with his people. 00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:18.319 That is what he will not abide. 00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:23.200 He says, look, you have some evil purpose in mind. 00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:26.079 No. 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:31.680 Go the men among you and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking. 00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:34.880 Now there's a strategic thing happening here. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:42.000 One is he knows that the men won't leave their families. 00:33:43.119 --> 00:33:52.559 And so it's kind of like, you know, you can take the car for a test drive, but I'm gonna hold on to your ID and your wallet or something. 00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:56.079 A bit higher stakes. 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:00.400 But something like that. 00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:05.680 So there's that aspect of it's a way of maintaining possession of the whole of the people. 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:15.519 But I think there's another aspect, which is that he is trying to, in a sense, decapitate the people of God. 00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:28.480 You see, the the men who are the head of these homes, he is seeking to decapitate and remove their identity, remove the identity of the people of God. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:44.400 And then he is trying to hold for his own possession the women and the children, the future potential of Israel, who, if they were to move out just men, there's no future. 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:52.719 Israel is a one-generation project if they move out and it's just the men. 00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:56.079 And he's saying, we will keep your future here. 00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:07.679 We will cut you off so that these these people who who would multiply you, they will now multiply us. 00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:11.599 And I will cut you off as the head, and I will be the head. 00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:17.360 They will then be my people, Pharaoh is saying. 00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:26.239 So they try to, in a sense, I we have to be able to think of these things at multiple levels. 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:32.400 They are trying to decapitate the people of God, cut them off from their future. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:47.360 Moses uh he just leaves and calls upon the Lord, raises his staff, and the plague comes. 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:04.719 So all day and all night there's this east wind which is coming. 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:20.639 And then in the morning, when you would look to the east and you to see the sunrise, because you're a Huberman lab bro and you're trying to set your circadian rhythm, if you are, if you were doing that, then you wouldn't see the sun rising. 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:29.280 You would see the darkness of the swarm of locusts who are coming in to destroy all that is left in Egypt. 00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:36.639 And they are brought in by this terrible east wind and they devour everything, all that the hail had left behind. 00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:40.800 The text says that there is no green left in Egypt. 00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:44.000 Talk about having your future cut off. 00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:53.119 Pharaoh stands in prideful opposition to the Lord, acting as though he is the one who upholds Egypt. 00:36:53.199 --> 00:36:56.159 Does he not know Egypt's own history? 00:36:56.800 --> 00:37:13.039 Does he not know that the way this people of God were brought into and gained their station is because God used Joseph to preserve Egypt when there was no green left, when they were in the depths of a famine? 00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:16.000 Who is it that preserves Egypt? 00:37:16.159 --> 00:37:17.119 It is God. 00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:22.239 God is the one who preserves Egypt. 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:32.320 But Pharaoh, in seeking to be God, brings Egypt to this absolute destruction where even their harvest is completely cut off. 00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:34.880 What future do they look towards? 00:37:36.159 --> 00:37:43.760 Egypt is ruined by this east wind, and then Pharaoh, of course, it's that same pattern that we've seen. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:53.519 He comes to Moses, he feigns this sort of repentance, he hedges it, and he says, just this once, just this once, I repent. 00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:56.480 Bring the Lord's forgiveness. 00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:06.800 Moses goes out and he prays, and when he prays, a west wind comes, and it blows all of the locusts into the Red Sea. 00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:12.159 Locusts elsewhere in Scripture are referred to as an army. 00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:20.320 So we might say that the whole army is washed away in the Red Sea. 00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:28.800 There's a bit of foreshadowing of the power of what the Lord is capable of that's taking place here. 00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:42.400 And then even at the sight of this, at the sight of the wonder of the Lord's power in his vengeance and the wonder of his mercy in taking away all of the locusts, Pharaoh's heart remains hardened. 00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:51.360 Because Pharaoh has as his highest aim himself being the Lord. 00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:59.440 He has as his highest aim his own autonomy, his own power, his own self-creation. 00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:11.039 East winds take place throughout the scripture. 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:18.880 If an east wind starts blowing and you're a Bible character, things aren't looking up. 00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:31.039 In Amos, it is the east wind which brings the locusts, which devour the crops of the people of God. 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:41.599 One story in which I I think it's almost the same as this moment is the last chapter of Jonah. 00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:55.440 You may remember Jonah, the whale, runs away from God, swallowed by a whale, spit up on the shore, goes and uh proclaims to the Ninevehites that uh the Lord is coming and will bring destruction on them. 00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:00.480 They repent, but Jonah hates their repentance. 00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:06.159 He doesn't want anyone other than the people of God to be spared. 00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:15.920 See, Jonah wants God, who is God of all, to be a local deity, like Pharaoh. 00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:24.400 And he wants him to be his local deity that fights his battles and does what he thinks is right. 00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:30.239 See, another way of saying that is Pharaoh ultimately wants to be the one who makes the decisions for God. 00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:32.000 Excuse me, Jonah. 00:40:32.159 --> 00:40:33.599 Both, it works. 00:40:34.639 --> 00:40:37.280 Jonah wants to be the ones who makes the decisions for God. 00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:43.599 And then at the end of Jonah, Jonah is complaining and he's bitter, and it's it is he's a tragic comic character. 00:40:43.679 --> 00:40:44.639 It's like a dark comedy. 00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:48.320 You should be laughing at him in his complaining because he's absurd. 00:40:48.639 --> 00:40:59.840 And the Lord uh Jonah sets up camp on the edge of a hill, and he's looking out, and he's looking for Nineveh to be destroyed. 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:02.800 And then he realizes God's not going to destroy Nineveh. 00:41:03.599 --> 00:41:07.119 He's gonna have mercy because they repented. 00:41:07.519 --> 00:41:09.840 And Jonah's not happy about that. 00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:12.480 He wants Nineveh to be destroyed. 00:41:13.599 --> 00:41:18.079 And he's sitting there and he's described as hot in his anger. 00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:23.119 And the Lord has a plant grow up over him and give him some shade. 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:30.400 And then the Lord sends a worm, which devours the plant, so there's no more shade. 00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:33.039 And then he sends an east wind. 00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:42.400 So we've got a devouring plant, a plant devoured, and an east wind, a hot east wind, which is tormenting Jonah. 00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:46.400 And Jonah says, It would be better if I were dead. 00:41:48.239 --> 00:41:54.159 And God says, Do you do well to be angry about the plant? 00:41:55.280 --> 00:42:00.159 Which you didn't make, which you have no particular right to. 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:03.119 Do you do well to be angry about the plant? 00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:07.039 And Jonah says, I do I do well to be angry. 00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:10.320 Angry enough to die. 00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:17.679 Angry enough to die, he says, by the east wind that is brought along. 00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:28.079 The east wind, the pain of this life is unsparing. 00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:34.719 It is an unsparing east wind. 00:42:36.960 --> 00:42:52.239 And if you have this perspective that a life that has suffering in it is not a life worth living, there's a sense in which you're right. 00:42:58.960 --> 00:43:12.559 In Ecclesiastes 4, probably Solomon looks out and he sees and he says, Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. 00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:19.920 And behold, the tears of the oppressed, they had no one to comfort them. 00:43:20.559 --> 00:43:25.679 On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. 00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:33.599 And I thought, the dead who are already dead, more fortunate than the living who are alive. 00:43:35.920 --> 00:43:44.000 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 00:43:48.880 --> 00:43:59.679 You know, if you take a real survey, the oppression of the world, the pain. 00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:01.280 Of existence. 00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:16.079 If you try and make something and you see it torn down, you look to these relationships or these aspects of your life that you've invested in, and then you see them brought to an end. 00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:21.760 And you realize most things go like that. 00:44:23.679 --> 00:44:26.000 Perhaps most, at least many. 00:44:28.639 --> 00:44:29.840 What can last? 00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:35.199 Is there just suffering unto death? 00:44:41.519 --> 00:44:47.679 You see, that conclusion is not in and of itself absurd. 00:44:52.079 --> 00:44:55.440 But there's a different meaning to the east wind. 00:44:57.199 --> 00:45:04.960 And there will be for this people of God a different meaning to the east wind. 00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:25.039 Because in Exodus 14, verse 21, it says, Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:38.079 The east wind, the wind of the Lord's judgment, the wind of the Lord's wrath, is the mechanism by which the people of God are saved. 00:45:44.960 --> 00:45:47.440 There's a way we must understand this. 00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:55.599 There is suffering in this life. 00:45:57.119 --> 00:46:03.599 Suffering to the amount that the wisest man who ever lived says perhaps it would be better to not exist. 00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:10.559 Perhaps the ones who don't exist, who have not been born, they're the ones who are better off. 00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:19.360 That is the reality, the real stakes of suffering in this life. 00:46:21.039 --> 00:46:25.679 Now, how can there be hope in a world like that? 00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:31.360 How is it that that conclusion could be wrong? 00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:38.239 That conclusion is wrong because of Jesus Christ. 00:46:41.599 --> 00:46:47.599 Because he is the one who bore in himself the suffering of the world. 00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:54.239 The one who by no means deserved this suffering. 00:46:56.639 --> 00:47:02.079