I want to thank Fred Sanders for setting me up last week with a visual preview of our upcoming passage in Exodus this Sunday. This week we have come to the “lightning bolt,” the first nine of the ten plagues that the LORD unleashed upon Egypt to compel the Pharaoh by His mighty hand (Exodus 3:19) to let His people go.

We will see Psalm 2:1-5 play out in real time.

Why do the nations rage
 and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury.

The role of “the LORD’s anointed” will be played by Moses (with the help of Aaron). The role of “the kings of the earth” will be played by the Pharaoh of Egypt. And the role of the LORD (as always) will be played by… the LORD. And I think we will see His divine “laughter” in the form of nine, increasingly devastating plagues that will make it undeniable to Egypt, Israel, and the nations who will hear of these events that there truly is none like Him in all the earth (Exodus 9:14-17).

As God’s repeated warnings and signs of judgment only further harden Pharaoh’s already hardened heart, he stands as a warning to all who hear the story. What will we do with God’s merciful, but sober warnings? Hebrews 2 gives us a strong encouragement here.

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews. 2:1-3)

Kenny Clark will be preaching from Exodus 7:8-10:29 and Joe Orr will be leading us in sung worship. Would you pray for them this week as they prepare? And pray that the Spirit would give us attentive ears and hearts to what we hear, that we might not drift.

See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!