Pastor Sherry’s message for 9/6/26

Scriptures: Exodus 12:1-14; Ps 119:33-40; Ro 13:8-14; Matt 18:15-20

The story is told of an old grandmother who had decided that Christmas shopping had just gotten to be too much for her. Now she still wanted to do something nice for her kids, grands, nieces, nephews, etc., so she decided to send each a nice Christmas card with a $50 Visa card inside.  Granny selected the Christmas cards, addressed the envelopes, added stamps, and deposited them at the post office, innocently assuming she had taken care of Christmas gifts for all of her family in a way that could not help but please each one. The problem, however, was that–being a little forgetful–she had neglected to include the Visa cards (probably also forgot where she had put them), and had happily written next to her signature, “Merry Christmas! Go get your own presents.”  We laugh, but this could all too easily be any one of us!

Her intention was loving, but the result indicated neglect or even insult…until her oversight was discovered.

When I was in college, there was a foreign language requirement for graduation. There were 3 stipulations: (1) You had to be able to read it; (2) You had to know the grammar, vocabulary, and correct sentence structure; and (3) then you had to demonstrate you could speak it by passing an interview with the language Professors. I managed to make it through the first courses, but put the speaking part off until my Senior year…YIKES! The first day of class, a stereotypical French woman came into class—wearing a beret, fishnet stockings, a tight skirt with a slit up the side, and carrying her own ashtray (in 1967, professors could smoke in class as they lectured). She propped herself on the front of the teacher’s desk, told us we could not speak English for the rest of the semester, and asked us in French to respond to the question, “What is love? I knew my goose was cooked! Before I had even begun to formulate an answer in English, then laboriously translated it into French, she had gone on to the next deep question.

I survived conversational French, praise God, because I paid a very proficient underclassman to tutor me. Back in 1968, I was able offer a student a cup of coffee and a piece of pie to talk with me in French for an hour 2-3 times a week. By the end of the semester, this young man had me contributing to class discussion in French and also thinking and dreaming in French! It was, to me, a miracle for which I will always be grateful!

But I have never forgotten that French professor’s question, “What is love?”  Our Old Testament lesson, Exodus 12:1-14 gives us some good answers to a timeless question.

Let’s first consider the context: Back in Exodus 3:7+, God had told Moses:  

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.” That was God’s promise. He would create the situation that would compel the stubborn Pharaoh to let His people go. The Hebrews had been in Egypt about 400 years—long enough for the Canaanites to have time to come to love the true God–which they refused to do. So God was ready to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian slavery with 10 plagues.

Each plague was actually a put down of some Egyptian god. Yahweh had declared war on the gods of Egypt: 

1st, He turned the Nile to blood—fish died and no one could drink from it. They so depended on the river for their water supply and commerce that they equated it with life. In rendering it fully polluted, God was essentially saying to them, “I, not your river god, Hapi, (the so called bringer of fertility) am the true source of all life.”

2nd, He sent a superabundance of frogs. Seven days later, millions of frogs leave the polluted river and invade Egyptian homes, businesses, and even Pharaoh’s palace. The frog-headed Egyptian goddess, Heqet, was equated with fruitfulness. God is saying, “I, not Heqet, can deploy millions of frogs at will.”To those who considered frogs to be demons, He declared, “And I also exercise control over demonic entities, even the entire supernatural realm.

Similiarly, out of dust Moses tossed into the air, God produced 3rd, a plague of lice (in opposition to Geb, god of the earth), and 4th of biting flies, the servants of Khepri, god of the morning sun. Again, God was asking, Why aren’t your gods powerful enough to counter Me and to destroy these pests?

5th, God sends disease on their cattle, rams, sheep, and goats, many of which die. The Egyptians had gods for each of these animals. But God is saying, “I have complete control over animal life, not Osirus, the bull or Apis the ram god, or Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of motherhood and childbirth. None of them can counter Me.”

6th, He afflicted the animals that remained—and this time, the people too—with boils. Even Pharaoh’s magicians couldn’t prevent them, nor could Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of healing, heal them.  God was saying, “Only I have power over physical health.”

7th, He sends hail—a form of ice clumps accompanied by fire. Egypt normally gets very little rain. God was essentially saying, “I—not Hephaistos, your god of fire or Porphry, your god of rain, or Nut, your god of the sky—have complete authority over forces of nature.”

8th, God sends locusts to eat up any vegetation left over, then sends them off to drown in the Red Sea. Egypt’s gods of nature were helpless, including Shu, their god of the wind. God was saying, “I can raise up hordes of any creature, deploy them, and then destroy them.”

By now, the Egyptian economy is in ruins, but still Pharaoh will not let his slave labor force go free. God then sends the 9th plague, 3 days of completedarkness—except over where the Israelites live. God was saying, Your sun god, Ra, is powerless before Me.

Finally, God sent the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn person and animal. The Egyptians believed their god, Horus, was the god of life, and Bes, another god, would protect their households. They also believed that Pharaoh was the divine author of life. With this final plague, God was saying, “Not so! Yahweh is the giver of life and He can take it away when it is in rebellion against Him.”

(New Living Translation of the Bible, Tyndale House, 2024, p.89.)

This brings us to the Passover: In the 10th plague, God intended to and did take the life of every 1st born. Those who loved Him, however, could and would be spared. They were to select a perfect male lamb around one year old; they were then to slaughter it on the 14th of Nisan, and paint their door frames with its blood. The blood of the lamb would signal the angel of death that they were true believers and their lives would be spared. They were to remain inside their homes all night, eating the roasted lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. This was a hasty meal. They were to be dressed for travel as they would soon be free to leave Egypt. The first born of those with no blood over their doors did in fact succumb to death, even Pharaoh’s son. By the next day, all of Egypt wanted the Israelites gone!

This series of plagues was tough on the Egyptians, but so effective for the Hebrew slaves! Look at how God manifested His love for them!

He provided a way for the angel of death to distinguish His Chosen People from Egyptians. While every Egyptian house contained at least one dead person, the blood of the Passover Lamb signaled to death, pass over, pass on by every Israelite. This final plague broke the back of Pharaoh’s resistance. He capitulated to Moses’ demands following this event. He finally let the people go. And the Egyptian people were so glad to see them leave that they gifted them with gold and silver coins and jewelry, what my Old Testament professor in seminary called “back pay.”

This is such a great, dramatic example of God’s love: He ground down the Egyptian resistance with 10 plagues, then rescued His people without a single military battle! The historic Jewish Passover finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus—it foreshadows pr predicts Jesus’ blood shed for us on the Cross. He too was a perfect male lamb. John the Baptist calls Him, in John 1:29  …the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus was the only sinless human ever, which qualified Him to be our sinless Substitute, our Savior. He was also God–the only Son of God, so His blood–the blood of God–was a perfect satisfaction or atonement for our sins. Paul later tells the leaders of the Ephesian Church in Acts 20:28  Be shepherds of the church of God, which He [Jesus] bought with His own blood. No mere person would have been capable of atoning for our sins. Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf was totally acceptable to the Father. The writer to the Hebrews calls Jesus is the once and for all perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Peter, on trial before the Sanhedrin, testifies in Acts 4:12 (NLT) that  There is salvation in no one else [meaning Jesus]! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. John tells us in 1 John 3: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.

So what is love? The 10 plagues and the Passover were God’s strategies for motivating a despot to let go of a free labor force of 1-2 million people. The plagues and the Passover demonstrate how far God will go to redeem those He loves. Jesus’ death on the cross proves the same truth again: Our God has died an undeserved but agonizing penalty to obtain our freedom from sin and death; like His Father before Him, He has gone to extreme lengths to redeem us.

 As the apostle John tells us, (1 John4:10) This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. If I could go back in time, I would tell my French Conversation professor, “Your question can be answered a number of ways…

But the best and most complete answer to what love is is this: God is love!

Jesus Christ loving me (and you) so much that He died so you and I could have abundant life!

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory thru our Lord

Jesus Christ! Alleluia, alleluia!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams