13
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up
early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith
the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For I will at this time send all my plagues
upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest
know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I
may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from
the earth. 16 And in very deed for this
cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may
be declared throughout all the earth. 17
As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let
them go? 18 Behold, to morrow about this
time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in
Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. 19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle,
and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall
be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down
upon them, and they shall die. 20 He
that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his
servants and his cattle flee into the houses: 21 And he that regarded not the word of the LORD
left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Here is a threat of death. Pestilence is verse 15 is a reference to
plague and sickness.
1Kings
8:37 If there be in the land famine, if
there be pestilence, blasting,
mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the
land of their cities; whatsoever plague,
whatsoever sickness there be;
This is brought to mind again much later
when God condemns Israel for its apostasy.
Amos
4:10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt:
your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses;
and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have
ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
To be
cut off from the earth is to be killed, to die, to perish.
Genesis
9:11 And I will establish my covenant
with you; neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a
flood to destroy the earth.
Zechariah
13:8 And it shall come to pass, that in
all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
2Kings
9:8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him
that is shut up and left in Israel:
Verse 16 has an interesting cross-reference
in the writings of Paul.
Romans
9:17 For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my
power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
The
scripture saith unto Pharaoh? But, this is Jehovah God speaking
through Moses? Is the scripture God? Are the words of God we hold in our hands
likened to God? The scripture in
Romans 9:17 is translated from a word that refers to the written word. We have
to consider the following, as well.
Psalm
138:2 I will worship toward thy holy
temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou
hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
Hebrews
4:12 For the word of God is quick [living, alive], and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.
How then do so-called scholars treat the
Bible as they would any old book and yet even hold it to standards they do not
even apply to Plato or Aristotle’s writings? When you remove the inspiration of
God on the hands of writers, translators, and copyists and the usage of the
church itself throughout history in regard to the Bible, denying the work of
God on His Bible, you do greatly err.
Job
32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
2Timothy
3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Peter
3:15 And account that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath
written unto you;
How relevant then is the Bible to our
faith? Let us look at the words of a prominent writer from several centuries
ago.
Now we have the threat of hail on any animal or person found in the field, out of doors. God said directly to Job;
Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, 23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
A rod turned into a serpent, infestations of frogs, lice, flies, a great plague among the Egyptian cattle, boils on the Egyptians themselves, and hail.
We will see that it is not just going to be hail that will afflict the Egyptians this time. The Hebrews and any Egyptians who feared the Lord should bring their cattle under shelter now.
(2) William Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants: A Safe Way to Salvation (1638, repr. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1846), 463.
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