Stories from the Bible - Ep 4 The Power of God to Rescue His People (Exodus 9)

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Last time we heard how God promised to give a man called Abraham many descendants, a land to dwell in, and that he and his name would be blessed. But there appeared to be a snag when Abraham's wife, Sarah, wasn't able to have kids. They waited and waited and eventually creatively took matters into their own hands (hear how that worked out in episode 3).  Today's story fast-forwards a few hundred years to a time when some of God's promises to Abraham have come true - his descendants are truly numerous. However they are neither blessed nor living in their own land. Hear what God does in this episode. The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved

Beauty, perfection, desire, deception, rebellion, judgment, hope. You're listening to Stories from the Bible. Bible stories told in order, using the words of the Bible, with introductions to give a recap and provide context. At the end of each story, you might want to pause and take a moment to reflect on what you noticed in the story, things you liked or didn't like, something the story showed you about God or about people. Don't worry if not everything makes sense. Keep listening to each episode and sit with the journey. I'm stoked to have you on the ride. Today is story four. Let's recap what we've heard so far

and also cover a bit of the context that we'll need to understand the next Bible story, because today's story skips forward over 400 years, and there's a bit that happens during that time, and it's helpful to know the highlights. Well, last time we met Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. To refresh, Abraham was living in the land of Babylon, the country we now know as Iraq, when God spoke to him and told him to leave his country, his people, and his father's household and go to the land that God would show him. God promised to give him many descendants, land, and that he and his name would be blessed. God promised that eventually all the nations on the earth would be blessed through Abraham's

descendants. Well, Abraham trusted Abraham's descendants. Well, Abraham trusted God's promises. He packed up everything and moved to the land of Canaan. But there appeared to be a snag with the plan. Abraham's wife, Sarah, wasn't able to have children. Even after they'd lived in the land of Canaan for 10 years, waiting, waiting, there was still no baby. So where was this great nation of descendants going to come from?

Sarah decided to take matters into her own hands and had the idea of giving her servant Hagar to sleep with Abraham, which he agreed to, and Hagar indeed became pregnant. But unfortunately, things turned sour, and once Hagar realized she was having a baby, she despised Sarah. This made Sarah miserable. She blamed Abraham. Abraham told her to do what she wanted to, Hagar. Sarah mistreated Hagar, Hagar ran away, Hagar met an angel. The angel told her to go back and that her kid would also be blessed. And that's where we ended. Well, Hagar had her son, Ishmael. But God still planned on keeping his promise to Abraham and Sarah. And when Abraham was 100 years old, when Ishmael was a teenager, Sarah did indeed give birth, miraculously

in her old age, to a son whom they named Isaac. Isaac grew, married, and had sons. One of his sons, Jacob, who also became known by the name Israel, had 12 sons. One of those sons, Joseph, he was sold by the rest of his brothers into slavery in Egypt. They did that because of jealousy. Once in Egypt, Joseph consistently gained the trust of his masters, and despite being wrongly thrown into jail at one point, he rose to a position of power and influence in Egypt, so that when a great famine hit the entire region, including Canaan, where his father and brothers still lived, Joseph was the manager of Pharaoh's

grain stores. To avoid starvation, Joseph's brothers travelled to Egypt to buy grain. Of course, the brothers didn't recognise Joseph, although he realised who they were straight away. Eventually, Joseph revealed himself to them and showed them that he had forgiven them. He invited his brothers, plus their father Israel and all their families, to move to Egypt, where he would be able to look after them. So the descendants of Abraham, there were 70 of them by this point, packed up and moved to Egypt. Eventually, Joseph and all of his generation died.

But the descendants of Israel, or the Israelites as they became known, multiplied and multiplied for 400 years. A new king, or pharaoh, came to power in Egypt, who feared the large number of Israelites, and he decided to force them to become his slaves. But the more he harshly oppressed them, the more they grew in number. Until one day he announced that every baby boy born to the Israelites was to be thrown into the Nile River. The Israelites cried out to God in their distress, remember us, save us. Where are the promises being fulfilled that you said to Abraham? And God heard their cries and promised he would rescue them. Now God had prepared a man called Moses, and he said to Moses,

Go and speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Speak to him and say, The God of the Israelites says, let my people go. Well, when Pharaoh heard this, he just laughed and he said, who is your God? Why should I listen to him? And he refused to let them go. So God began to send plagues against Pharaoh. And he sent, up to this point, six plagues, each one more severe than the one before. Most of the plagues, Pharaoh would say during the plague, Oh, pray to your God to get rid of the plague and then I'll let you go. But the minute the plague was finished, he would change his mind.

Well, today's story from the Bible is about the seventh plague. The story starts here. God said to Moses, get up early in the morning and go and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, The God of the Israelites says, Let my people go to worship me, or I will send the full force of my plagues against you. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and wiped you off the face of the earth. But I have done this so that you might know that there is no God like me in all the earth.

I have raised you up for this very purpose, that you might see my power and that all the nations of the earth would know my name. But I know that you are stubborn and that you have set your face against me by not letting my people go. So I am going to send upon you the worst plague of hail that the land of Egypt has ever seen since the day it was founded. Tell your people and your officials, go out into the fields, bring your animals and your slaves inside,

or they will all die. Now, some of Pharaoh's officials did fear God, and they brought in their slaves and animals from the fields very quickly. But others completely ignored God and left them outside. God said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards the sky, and I will send hail and thunder and lightning on the land of Egypt. Everything outside will die.

So Moses took his staff in his hand. He stretched it out to heaven and God sent hail and thunder and lightning. And the lightning flashed all around and the hail poured down. It killed all of the people left out in the fields. It killed all the animals in the fields. It destroyed all the crops that were above the ground. And it stripped every leaf off every tree. But where the people of Israel lived, in the land of Goshen,

there was no hail at all. So Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, I have sinned against the Lord. God is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. You can go. You do not need to stay here. And the story ends there. Thanks for joining us for today's story. You can read the story for yourself in the book of Exodus chapter 9. Does Pharaoh really let God's people go this time? Stay tuned to find out.

You've been listening to Stories from the Bible. I'm Jen, and I look forward to sharing more stories with you.