Editor’s note: This article is a lightly edited transcript of a Sunday class teaching. The session opens with extended catch-up banter between the host and class members before the formal teaching begins. The Scripture reading (Exodus 10:1–20) and opening prayer have been preserved as references rather than reproduced. Class member contributions, Q&A, and closing banter have been preserved with attribution where possible, and marked editorially where the content drifts away from the teaching. Spoken cadence — including asides and self-corrections — has been preserved. Mid-thought breaks are marked
[interjection]. Section headings have been added by the editor to aid navigation.
Calling the Class to Order
All right, all right, all right. So we’re going to need a reader, and we’re in the book of Exodus chapter 10, verses 1 to 20. So we’ll have a reader and we’ll have a prayer. Let’s begin with reading. Anybody feel like reading? You can just put your flag up, give it a wave, ready to start. Thank you, Nathan, to the rescue. Thank you again.
[Scripture reading: Exodus 10:1–20 — read by Nathan (a class member)]
Thank you very much, Nathan. If one of the Beyond men could pray for us, that would be much appreciated.
[Opening prayer: offered by John Michael, beginning “Father, we thank you for your word, which is easy to say it is powerful…”]
Amen. Thank you, John Michael.
Frog Ministers?
All right. Okay. All right. Now, you might be asking yourself — well, you already know that women ministers, they’re not a real thing — but what about frog ministers? Have you ever thought about that before? [interjection: aside about technology] So I don’t know — I can, in the person of a frog, continue this. So maybe I’ll just start the video and see if something else appears.
All right, folks. So we’re into the eighth plague now. Plenty to say here, but it’s mostly going to be the first part — meditations in the first part. There’s plenty to say about the locusts.
A Side Note: Are We Allowed to Eat Locusts?
And, of course — are we allowed to eat locusts, by the way? Yes, yes we are. I wouldn’t fancy it myself, but I can’t refuse it on grounds, you know, on ethical grounds. Interesting.
Rushdoony’s Account of a Locust Plague
Okay, so Rushdoony gives an account in the excellent Exodus in the Pentateuch series. He gives an account of one traveller in — was it Sardinia? Not quite sure. But he said, look, the sky was black with them. The horses — they were nine inches thick on the ground. With the horses, they had to be whipped to move. And then when they did, scattered all over the place. You try to take a bite of anything and you ended up with a locust in your mouth. It was just impossible. If you opened up the door any chink — [interjection] pardon, that it wasn’t a racial slur — but any sort of keyhole, that just swarmed through it. They were in the cellars. They were everywhere. Life was impossible.
And the stench — apparently the stench is just extraordinarily awful. And the guy in question, he had to put a vinegar rag — vinegar-soaked rag — up his nose to help deal with the stink. So it’s obviously quite something.
Focusing on the Opening Verses: Divinely Hardened Hearts
But I kind of want to focus — I want to focus on the initial part there. “The Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants.”
Okay. So what you’re going to see in the dialogue that follows are divinely hardened hearts.
Sophisticated Geopolitics: The Court Around the Throne
And again, we want to impress on you that when we’re dealing with geopolitics in the present day, and geopolitics in the Bible — and the Bible, of course, is full of geopolitics. It’s full of internal-to-Israel politics, and international relations, great powers, lesser powers, all sorts. We must think in terms of the king, or Pharaoh in this case, or Abimelech in other cases — and his court, who are represented here by his servants.
And it’s interesting that the servants were singled out in the previous plague. There was a — [interjection] do you remember? I said there was a wedge driven, that the Lord in his wisdom drove between Pharaoh and his servants — and perhaps even between one servant and the other servant.
Can you remember the tactic that God used, the means that God used to help drive a wedge between the parties? There was something unique in the seventh plague.
Class member: The plague didn’t touch Pharaoh, but it did hit his servants — servants in the field.
Well, that’s not quite what I’m thinking of, but that may be the case, may have been the case. What I’m thinking of has to do with the choices the servants could make. He warned them so that they could make the choice. Very good. And some of them did, and some of them did so. They got to taste what it was like to have some degree of faith, you might say, in the warnings of God, and to have a very material result from that. That’s good.
And so they could say, well, if we simply obey what Jehovah’s authenticated messenger says — [interjection] now, when I say “Jehovah’s authenticated messenger,” can you cast your mind back and tell me how Moses became an authenticated, proven messenger of Jehovah before Pharaoh and his court?
That’s right, that’s right. So Jehovah, the Lord, spoke to Moses, and knowing the test — well, you need to be accredited, you need to be authenticated. And he said, this will be your means of authentication — this is what you do. And that’s what he did. And first of all, he was authenticated by the elders. The elders said, yes, we’re going to follow you, which was crucial to the whole thing. And indeed probably crucial to — [interjection] he would have to get their approval before being a proper representative of the nation. That’s why “you shall appear as God before Pharaoh” — that is, as a civil ruler, as a civil person, before Pharaoh. This was all necessary.
Okay, so he’s an accredited voice of Jehovah.
Trump and His Cabinet, Starmer and His Servants
All right, so we have to think in sophisticated terms. We can’t just think, there’s a king, that’s it. And so when we think of Trump, we should think — ah, but what about his cabinet? And the cabinet is what’s making the difference — his advisors, the court. Because he is really, as powerful in many ways as any king — more powerful than any king that ever was. We’ve got to say, well, what are the people around him like? Previously they were trying to sabotage him, and now they at least seem to be working for his agenda — whoever, [interjection] good or bad that agenda might be.
So let’s be sophisticated. Why? Because this is the Bible. This is the picture again and again that the Bible gives us. And of course, this was very evident when Joseph was there — he had this brief encounter where this coterie, this inner group, surrounded Pharaoh first time. And of course, with Daniel — Daniel was one of the team that was specially trained, especially picked, groomed, if you will, to become part of the inner circle. And they rose within that circle greatly.
All right, so let’s be sophisticated, let’s not be simplistic. And when we think of Keir Starmer, we can’t just think Keir Starmer — we have to think, who’s putting him in power, who’s enabling him to be in power? And these people don’t float in the air, as we find out. No matter how powerful they might appear, there’s a whole apparatus beneath them that is keeping them up.
So it might not seem like a very important point, but it’s a point I want to drive home, because we do want to use the tools that the Bible gives us to better understand the world in which we live. And it’s very evident, by the way, with chiefs — of course, if you have ever dealt with a fon, a chief, then the chief will doubtless have his advisors around him. Okay, and that’s something that maybe you’ll have to deal with when you’re in Africa — you’ll have to get on the right side of the chief, or I don’t know quite what your setup is. All right, maybe several chiefs, who knows.
Verse 2: The Educational Purpose
“That I may show these signs of mine before him.” Okay, now into verse 2. “And that you may tell in the hearing of your son” — wait a minute, what’s this about? What — how — where did this skip from speaking before Pharaoh to his son, and his son, and your son’s sons? “The mighty things I’ve done in Egypt, and my signs which I’ve done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
What — excuse me — don’t quite follow. Wait a minute. “That you may tell in the hearing of your son.” So are you telling me — are you actually telling me — that the purpose behind this was an educational one? That God — you see, the Lord here is writing a story.
God Writes a Story in History
We can write a story because we’re made in the image of God. A dog can’t write a story. A dog can go woof woof, and bark bark, and chase a stick — things like that, really cool things like that — but can’t write a story.
But the Lord is writing a story. And, by the way — I read two commentaries on this, and I wanted to puke up in my mouth, because both of them were unbelieving. Well, the kind of Cordélish one wasn’t, [interjection] as a third one — but it thinks it is a story, just a story. Unbelievably. This is at the heart of the Christian church. Anyway, that’s another story.
He writes a story. When the Lord writes a story — you could use a parable, and, you know, there are occasions when that parable didn’t happen, the thing didn’t happen. So yes, we can do that to a lesser extent, less skilfully — but the Lord here is writing a story in history. Huh — he’s writing a story in history.
Why? To Bolster Covenant Children’s Faith
Why? “That you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s sons the mighty things I have done in Egypt.” So this whole thing is in order to bolster the faith of — [interjection] to be a story, a true story of course, that bolsters the faith of covenant children. Isn’t it remarkable, the power of God?
The Stars in the Heavens — For Whom?
That he’s now — [interjection] you look at the stars in heaven. What’s the purpose of stars and the stars in heaven, according to Genesis 1, the third [day]? Is glory?
Class member: Yes.
What does it say, though? I don’t —
Class member: That’s absolutely true.
What does Genesis 1 say? You’re going to have to turn to it to get the answer. I think it’s 6 to 8, I’m not sure. Oh, 14, yeah — 14, go ahead. I mean, I don’t know if that’s what you’re — yeah, yeah, 14, 14, go ahead.
So where are they there? “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for the earth.”
So thank you very much, that’s wonderful. So that’s right. So the purpose of the stars — they’re not just, [interjection] if they are, that is, giant balls of gas in the air, that the light that they produce is so far away that they’re dead now, and it’s just the emptiness of space. No. God has written them in the sky for signs. For who? He doesn’t need the sign — for us. He put the stars in the heaven for his people, in order that they might be able to mark the seasons, mark times of the year and so on.
So this is the Lord who creates these mighty — whatever they are. Some people posit that they’re electrical phenomena rather than gaseous nuclear phenomena, apparently. But whatever they are, they’re immense, they’re so far away from us, it would appear, and so powerful, what have you. But they have meaning, you know. And that meaning is revealed in scripture as relating to the chief of his creation, that creation which uniquely bears his image — which is us.
Awed at the Responsibility
So when you think of yourself, we must be awed at the responsibility that God gives us — that he would, for instance, throw the stars into the heaven, yes, for his glory, but also for his people, for those people that bear his image, to be able to calculate and plot and so on, signs and seasons.
It’s remarkable. The purpose is related to us. And how dearly, how mighty, and how dearly he loves his people — that he will take the most powerful empire in history and, as the text says later on, humiliate it. But yes, as punishment, but also as an educational device for the — [interjection] for the women to tell the children? Is that what it says? “That you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son” — so it seems to be that he’s saying that the fathers should be the ones telling this to their sons in particular. Obviously their daughters as well, there’s nothing to stop the womenfolk — but it seems to be saying that the fathers should be telling it, passing that on to their sons and their sons.
God’s Vision Is Multigenerational
So it’s interesting here that at the heart of this — not only do we have something that’s educational, not only do we have the meaning of this mighty devastation of the land of Egypt, the great land of Egypt — but we have God’s heart, and God’s concern, and God’s vision, which is multigenerational for his covenant people.
So if God, the Lord our God, thinks in terms of the covenant — [interjection] pardon me — thinks in terms of multiple generations, can we afford to think just about the day, the week, for ourselves, our life? No. And we can’t even restrict ourselves to our sons. We don’t have any sons yet, we’d certainly like some. But even if you don’t have — if you don’t have, you have no prospect of having a son — look, we should be thinking in terms of generations.
Calvin’s Sons
Because — hey, you know, Calvin, he said — he had one son who died, and they mocked him for it in Geneva. But was he able to say that, ah, the world is peopled with my sons? Because he in his calling was able to be fruitful. And that’s one of the blessings of scripture, isn’t it? Even the eunuch can — [interjection] said to be — [interjection] “I will give you a name that is better than sons and daughters. I will give you a name that is better than sons and daughters.”
Tiffany’s looking it up here. So Tiffany in my chat — “Let not the eunuch say…” The Old Army Directory — I think it’s right. Right, well anyway — so there are promises there for us all, and there’s this perspective that’s there for us all.
Multigenerational Plotting — On Both Sides
After all, you know, we get a lot of complaining about these secret societies. They’ve been plotting the EU for ages. What is — what is it — the guy, some French-named guy that dreamt it up at the beginning of the century, last century, whatever it was, I can’t remember his name. And look at the Jews, they’re plotting. Look at the Illuminati. They’ve been plotting, I’ve been doing this for generations.
And you think to yourself — well, do you have a generational perspective? Are you thinking in terms of how I can reach the children? This will come up later on in the text. But yes — let’s conform our minds, our mental outlook, let’s adjust our vision to think about sons and sons’ sons.
The reference is Isaiah 56:4 and 5, if you want to look up that eunuch reference.
From the International to the Domestic
Okay, “and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son” — and we come here from an international geopolitical court of Pharaoh to something very domestic, homely, personal — a beautiful thing — a father talking to his son. Wow, can anything get more personal than that?
And God’s concern is with the nations, but it’s also very much with a father, with his son. He sees it. That’s important. And you sons, I know — I’m looking, I know who you are — you value that time, and you make sure you listen to your father when he talks to you, you know, and passes those things on. You treasure that, you know.
All right. “That you may tell in the hearing of your son” — isn’t that so personal, isn’t that so homely. “And your son’s son, the mighty things I have done in Egypt, my signs which I’ve done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Be Good Storytellers
There’s a lot here. They’re not — [interjection] not sure how much I’ll be able to — [interjection] I, when I’m going to stop — but there’s plenty, plenty here.
For one thing, here’s a thought. Let us aim to be good storytellers. Let’s build that into our — you might call it curriculum or time. That’s one thing. Let’s learn to be storytellers. And there are some people who devote their life to that and are writers of history and dramatisers of history. And I know that you have — [interjection] you know, you have enjoyed the Henty books for instance — and they certainly are good, apparently not perfect, but good. And so that’s a legitimate calling, you know. This legitimises it, you know, as it were.
And we realise, in that 3-3-3 pattern, where Moses even, who’s writing this humanly speaking — but it’s very much Moses — he is a very skilful writer. And we find throughout scripture there’s skill that goes on, that’s genuinely from the person writing it. Artistry in the crafting of the story. So let’s not demean those who might devote themselves to literary things. And let those who are devoting themselves to literary things devote themselves first of all to the Lord, that they might faithfully recount things.
A Confession: My History Background
Now, my history is my background. I would like to say I studied history, but I attended classes where history was taught. That’s the best I can say about my undergraduate experience. I was too dopey and confused, frankly. I just didn’t know what was going on. I wasn’t a good student. I didn’t have a good work ethic, etc., etc.
But what I did know is that I could not teach history. Could not teach history in a secular school. I couldn’t do it. Because their version of history is a lie, of course. So chances are you’re going to have to teach history from a Marxist perspective if you just read the stuff out of the books.
The Promise Embedded in the Verse
But I want to unpack that further. So there’s a promise here. “That you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son, the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them, that you may know I am the Lord.” There’s a promise there. There’s a way of the Lord. Then we want to know the ways of the Lord, and we want to discover them, and then put them into practice, because the ways of the Lord work.
Myron Golden on the Ketchup Bottle
Yes — and I like Myron Golden a great deal. No shock, I’m not black, but I like Myron Golden a great deal. I have a lot of time for him. And he would say very wisely — he says, you know, if your life ain’t working, are you working life? Ask yourself, are you working life the way life should be worked? That’s a good question. Are you doing it the right way? Because you’re never going to get the ketchup out of the bottle if you’re trying to get it out of the glass end, not the — you know, not that bottle-top end. You know — just certain things don’t work that way.
But here we have a — [interjection] I guarantee a promise, an example of how things work. How do they work? It says “you” — addressing Moses — so the father tells your son and your son’s son. So it’s a father taking the responsibility. He’s passing it on primarily, first of all, to his son. Okay, what — the mighty things which he has done. So it’s a story of salvation, judgement, redemption, liberation, all the things that happened.
The Conditional Promise
And what’s the promise aspect of it? If you do these things, fathers, to your sons, then they will know that I am the Lord. So if you want to pass on the faith — here’s, as it were, in narrative form, a promise that they will know that I am the Lord.
Well, here’s a promise for those involved in writing, in passing things on to their children, maybe to their grandchildren, of course. And we pray that the Lord would bless the elder Beyonds with lots of little sprogs run about the place. That’d be great, wouldn’t it?
Okay, bless you. Okay. So if we just recount the stories correctly with faith, they will know that you are the Lord. There’s an if, and there’s a but, and there’s a warning coming up.
Okay, so there’s a great promise. Let’s not neglect that. Let’s have faith and say, this is the way of the Lord, I will go the way of the Lord. I’m going that way, whoa — because there’s a promise here. Yes, that’s good.
Two Unbelieving Commentaries
There’s several other things here, but let’s consider this. I read two commentaries — you couldn’t really get very far with them. Let me just try to find it. I just got so many programmes open. Which one was — let me see. The Word Biblical Commentary, which sounds pretty good, like — you know, “Word” and “Biblical”, those are all good things. And some other one — what was it? Possibly — yeah, the NAC. What is the NAC? New American Commentary. Okay.
And both of them — and this is awful — but the Word Biblical Commentary sees this as what you might call salvation history. There’s a German word for it, I can’t think of it because I don’t speak German. I think they call it — it’s Barthian — meaning that, oh yes, this essentially didn’t happen.
So you’ll have a class of theologians who devote their lives to theology, but they don’t believe it. They don’t believe the things actually happened. But they say, oh yes, this is of great spiritual importance.
Running the Promise Through the Filter
So if we take that promise, and you know, it’s like a filter or a sieve or something like that — and if we feed the elements through that promise that we just outlined — what’s going to happen if you teach the story as if it didn’t happen, in fact saying it didn’t happen? What are you going to produce the other end? If you tell it faithfully, believingly, to your children, fathers in particular — your sons and your grandsons are going to believe. If you teach it as if it never happened, guess what’s going to happen? Guaranteed, a great number of people will have their faith shipwrecked.
What do we find at Bible colleges? A great many people have their faith shipwrecked.
Now this is a warning, and it’s also — [interjection] you know, there’s also a promise. You know, but how awful is it? How frightful is it? And what a weight of punishment awaits these people who are teachers, and people who promote these books? I read them because sometimes there’s insight in them, you know — they’ll pick out a word, and they’ll bring out parallels in other scriptures, you know, it’s useful sometimes. But is it any wonder we see the devastation around us?
And we should think — [interjection] we should have mercy on those people that have gone to Bible college. Not all Bible colleges, I realise, are equal. But we should have pity on those people, because, you know, they’ve had their faith put through the wringer.
Pausing for Questions
Okay. I think I have another couple of points there, but I’ll just let you — [interjection] let you — [interjection] stop for questions and comments here.
Now, there’s another aspect of that promise — you can butt in if you’d like — there’s another aspect of that promise. Let’s just say that the chain of faith has been broken, and somebody doesn’t — [interjection] there’s unbelief in a generation. To whom the promise then is still valid. If a father, or even perhaps a grandfather, will relate these stories to their children, to their sons and their sons’ sons, then that line can be re-established.
Hmm. It doesn’t say this can only happen if there’s an unbroken line between the exodus event and your generation. No — if. And I suppose it would count for orphans as well, you know — those who have ministered to orphans, you know. Whatever it happens to be, there’s a promise there, I believe.
Class Question: Is Sunday School an Outsourcing?
Class member: Can I ask a question?
Oh, you certainly may.
Class member: Do you think that the problem with Sunday school teachers — in the sense that it’s an outsourcing of passing on…
Well, it is a bit weak. If you’ve ever looked at Sunday school material, it can be dreadful. It can be Marxist, it can be — you know, that’s one thing. If it’s frequently given to young ladies who maybe have no formation whatsoever to do — you know, that in itself is pretty bad. But you know, if it’s a man leading, you know, and he has a gift of teaching, then you could see it certainly working. But if all you do is to dump your child into Sunday school or children’s church, then of course you’re, [interjection] it is a complete cop-out.
But again, I think there’s another aspect of it — that’s just what I think of it. The expectation is that you do that — that you leave it to the experts, you leave it to the qualified teachers and qualified Sunday school teachers and qualified clergy. Whereas you think — wow, the Lord’s entrusted me with that responsibility, and given me a promise here that they might believe, you know, that they might know that he is the Lord. Wow, the Lord’s empowered me.
Rushdoony on a Father’s Responsibility
And it makes me think of Rushdoony saying about the response of a man whose daughter was made pregnant out of wedlock. And there was a quandary as to what should be done. The man loved and wanted to marry the girl, and you know, whatever led to the unfortunate happenings — he was there. And Rushdoony said — look, in terms of it — it’s not the wife, it’s not the couple that should decide. It’s you that should decide.
Suddenly, well, this man was suddenly ten feet tall, and he always from that point on gave to Chalcedon. Very interestingly. So this is in an era in which the man is done down and made to look foolish, and the woman, you know, praised to the highest heaven, regardless. This is a tremendous boon to the man. It’s a responsibility, yes, but it’s a tremendous shot in the arm. This is how man finds himself — by fulfilling his responsibilities before God.
Her father — [interjection] I might have told that story slightly wrong. Her father, her father had the responsibility. Yes. So what did they end up deciding? They ended up getting married. Okay.
Yeah, well, it can be a grandfather. It doesn’t have to just be a father. It can be the grandfather. It could be that that very grandfather then saw his own responsibilities.
Verse 3: “How Long Will You Refuse to Humble Yourself?”
All right, I hate to just hit you with a word, to be a blank, a blank void, hitting you with lots of words like that. God willing, we’ll have a camera set up and you can see in glorious Technicolor what I’ve had for breakfast and so on.
Okay. So there’s lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots in the first two verses. Let’s see if we’ve got anything else.
First three. So “Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?”
Now this is the first time — this particular wording is used in the narrative. And apparently it’s the first time this wording is used in the entire scripture. But what this is — [interjection] quite something to be so direct and blunt before the god Pharaoh, as it were, you know. “Let my people go that they may serve me.” This has been said again and again and again.
Sin vs. Sins
But it’s interesting, you know — what’s the difference between, [interjection] here’s a question — what’s the difference between sin and sins? Can somebody tell me? Is there a difference?
Class member: Both can be clear. One’s general and one’s specific.
Well, this is important. Let’s spend a bit of time on this. So sin refers to the original sin of man, and the inheritance of that original sin of man. So we’re born in sin and shapen in iniquity, you know — this is our nature. Our sin nature is to — [interjection] and then from that sin nature we commit individual sins, one through ten, [interjection] pardon me, one to ten — becoming American, oh dear.
So sin theologically is the desire to be one’s own god, and to determine good and evil for oneself. That’s what sin is. And we get that desire from our first parent, Adam.
Civil Rulers Are Particularly Prone to Sin
Okay, so it occurs to me here that “how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?” — this is the essence of original sin. But what occurred to me was that civil rulers are particularly prone to this, because they above and beyond anybody else have the power of death, they have all the money, they have all the prestige.
And was it Nero had a fantastic — he drained the empire of riches in order to build this palace, and really was seeking to live like a god. And he said, finally I can live like a man, after — it was just fantastic in its proportions. And that fairy-tale castle that we see on jigsaw puzzles — I can’t remember where it is in Germany — but the fella bankrupted his own state, apparently, in order to build it. And again, he was a very vain man, not a good man.
Anyway, so this is what when we’re sinning, this is our position. How long are we refusing to humble ourselves before the Lord? This is the sin. This is the sin that produces sins.
Tiffany’s Insight About Trump and Pride
And I thought, I remembered Tiffany’s comment about Trump — you know, that the Lord is far from the proud, you know, but he gives grace to the humble. Just how closely related pride and sin are. “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?”
And of course as you think of that, I’m sure at least some of you would have thought, oh, pride — well, we all know what pride represents in our current society. If we say “pride”, we’re thinking of deviance, you know, and this vaunting of sin and so on, which they engage in is, of course, a simple refusal to humble oneself before God.
The Covenantal Formula
“Let my people go, that they serve me, or else if you refuse to let my people go, behold tomorrow…” Okay, and so on and so forth. So again, we have a covenantal formula. And the covenant formula is — do this. This is a command. And if you don’t fulfil the command, there’s a negative sanction. And if you do obey the command, there’s a positive sanction of the negative sanction not happening.
And meanwhile, meanwhile, the purpose — we’ve talked about the purpose that their sons and their sons’ sons would know the Lord, know that he is the Lord. But in all of this, he’s also at war against the gods of Egypt, which may well represent the civil rulers of Egypt, which we see here — that he hardens the servants of Pharaoh’s heart, and hardens Pharaoh’s heart, to their destruction. But he’s also showing them that he is the Lord. And so through hardening their heart and ensuring that the judgement comes at each point, he is leading them down the only road that leads to the destination marked: I acknowledge that God is the Lord.
Van Til’s Button
So it’s interesting, isn’t it, that this is the depths of man’s resistance to God. You know, that Van Til puts it this way — that if there was a button that you could press that would allow you to suppress the image of God or suppress the knowledge of God, every man would have his button finger in that button at all times. You know, this is what we’re constantly seeking to do.
Anyway, I’m getting a bit preachy and non-specific here. I’m sorry, I’m waffling.
What Road Are the Western Nations On?
Okay, so I’m thinking to myself — what road is — as I look at events in society, and I hear glimpses, I hear little bits and bobs that perhaps they are serious about sending troops to the Ukraine, and you’re thinking, no, they’ll never do that, that’s completely mad — we don’t have an army with more horses than we do tanks in the British army — no tanks, says I. But will they really go that route? Will they really destroy themselves so far? Will they really push this TBLPQ agenda that far? Will they really — you know, don’t they realise how foolish they are?
But God has a route in mind, I believe, for every nation, but in particular that he’s taken them on, that will eventually lead to the destination marked I acknowledge God to be the Lord. So that’s just a thought, that’s just a thought. Perhaps it’s a little bit of a reach, I don’t know.
Okay, but then if you have any questions or comments —
“They should cover the face of the earth.” Yeah, I’m not quite sure what to do, so I’m going to pause for questions.
Tiffany’s Reflection on Hardening and Softening
Tiffany (class member): Yeah, I was just thinking about how, with the contrast of pride and humility, the only way that we are humble and broken before the Lord is that he has done the opposite for us — that he did then what he did with Pharaoh. So Pharaoh was not humble, but God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. And we’ve talked a little bit about that before, that it’s both — and it’s God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and we’ve also looked at scriptures where Pharaoh himself hardened his own heart. But the only way that we can be humble and broken before the Lord, and acknowledge our emptiness and need and our desperation, is that the Lord does the opposite, and he’s soft — well, he gives us a new heart. He takes away that stony heart out of our heart, you know, and gives us a new heart and gives us a soft heart, but continues to do that. And I think that’s so that we just continue to pray, “Lord, you know, make my heart be tender towards you and vulnerable towards you, know your word and soft before your word, pliable in the hands like clay, in the potter’s hands, just being so soft and pliable in your hand. And, Lord, show me if there are areas of my life where I have a hardened heart, or something is just a barrier and I’m not soft in that area, I’m not listening to you, I’m not being obedient to you.” So just remember — and it’s the Lord at work, you know, hardening or softening, and keeping us humble, or, you know, even convicting us of pride at times. And we ask the Lord, we want that just loving discipline from the Lord if we are tempted to be prideful, because we know he is far from the proud and he gives grace to the humble.
All right, good. So let’s press on here. Just shout out if you’ve anything else there. Thank you.
Verses 4–6: The Locusts Predicted
“Or else if you refuse to let my people go, behold tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory, and they shall cover the face of the earth so that no one will be able to see the earth. They shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field. They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.”
The Economic Implications
All right, let’s do the economic implications of this. What are the economic implications of this? What are the implications of this?
Well, the hail we talked about last week was absolutely devastating for, [interjection] I guess, the people that left their cows and cattle out, and their servants out, whatever. And they’ve already been devastated with previous plagues. So you know, it specifically says that anything that was preserved after the hail was now gone. So the devastation is mind-boggling in terms of finances.
Surely, you know, there must — you know, I’m thinking about our own financial situation, and the — [interjection] we talk about the working — [interjection] the middle classes being devastated. So presumably there would have been people who perhaps had some savings, let’s say, and perhaps now after this plague those people largely would have lost their savings. You know, it’s, I suppose, that kind of step. It’s gone from that — even the middle classes are becoming destitute.
Hmm. Right. And so we mark that and we say — okay, when the Lord is at work judging a land, your economy is not going to survive.
Historical Locust Plagues
There were two accounts of plagues of locust infestations through history that were given in that book about the wonders in the land of Ham — one where 80,000 lives are lost, and the other where 200,000 lives are lost.
So if there’s no food, there’s no food. And as I say — what would keep them from — [interjection] I don’t think the locusts would — [interjection] why would they leave the stores of food alone, for that matter? So whatever food you’re going to get, you’re going to have to exchange gold for. But how are you going to get from where you are to outside your land in order to bring the food? And if you bring the food in, surely the locusts are going to eat that as well. So you’re in a total quandary. And so, yeah, as we see later on, what does Pharaoh call it? He calls it “this death,” you know. So there is — there’s no food, you die.
Lenin and Collectivisation
What happened with Stalin’s progenitors when Lenin collectivised farms and demanded that the harvest be brought up early and so on? The Ukraine famine — and millions died. What are we looking at in the UK? Well, who knows what the Lord might have for us, in order to bring us back to him, to humble us — humble us from our pride? But this is devastating, totally devastating.
Greek Deities Chasing Locusts
It’s interesting that this book — what is it called? It’s not “Wonders in the Land of Ham” — what is it called? Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham. Yeah, that — it details Greek deities, various Hercules who were said to have chased away the locusts, you know. And he points out that many of these Greeks — the Greeks originally came from Egypt. So he’s suggesting that there’s a link here, and that the Egyptians at some point would have been given the glory for chasing the idols, you know, chasing the locusts away. And of course this is one aspect of dealing with that volcano-shaped religious structure where God is humiliating — and that’s the word — the land of Egypt, from the top of the structure to the bottom of the structure. He’s making a fool of them.
A Dark Pantomime Comedy
It’s like a comedy, a very dark comedy at this stage, where you’re thinking, oh, surely they’re going to capitulate now, surely, you know — don’t put the ladder against the wall, you’re going to fall. It’s very obvious. It’s like pantomime — behind you, behind you! You’ve seen in seven plagues already what the Lord has done, and it’s come true at every point. You’ve seen in the previous plague how, if you obey him, he will spare you. It’s making them appear not just proud, but foolish to the nth degree. Can you not see all wisdom has departed?
And that’s, of course, a large aspect — tremendous aspect — of our own days. Pride in civil rulers and foolishness in civil rulers, to their own harm, to their own destruction.
So we should be encouraged by that, because this is a great deliverance of God’s people. And so we should be saying, wow, the civil rulers are foolish. Let’s do our best to hide from the destruction that’s coming, and be prepared to move, whatever, dig in, I don’t know — but this means there’s a great deliverance coming.
”They Shall Fill Houses” — And He Turned and Went Out
“They shall fill houses.” Okay. “And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.” That’s him, he’s gone. And this is what we should do — we deliver the words of God, and we shut up. That’s what should be done.
Verse 7: The Servants Turn
“Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?”
So this is the genius of God. This is the wisdom of God manifest. He had previously worked so that some of the servants had brought in by faith their servants and their beasts and were spared. And so a wedge is driven. So much so that as soon as Moses is out of the picture, they’re at Pharaoh, saying — you, are you stupid? Egypt’s destroyed. It’s your fault.
So at this point, God in his wisdom is making this depend on Pharaoh. Pharaoh hasn’t had a chance to respond, but this time it rests on Pharaoh’s shoulders, so that that will further the rift between his servants, upon whom he depends, and Pharaoh himself.
Bargaining With God
But what did they say? What was their counsel here in verse 7? We want to keep the women and children and everything as hostages to make sure the men came back. Let the men go. Ah — their hearts are hard. They know they were there, they heard, they know — they know rightly — but they think — and this is what sin does. Sin says, I can bargain with God. Sin is so foolish. It says, I can bargain with God, I can dicker with God if you like.
“Let the men go. Don’t let the women go, don’t let the children go, don’t let the aged people go. Let the men go.” But still there was this rift here.
Moses and Aaron Brought Back
“So Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh, and he said to them” — now that is, you know, they’re realising they’re having to bargain. They can’t ignore this guy. They’re going to have to bargain with him.
“So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh.” And he said to them — and he, showing how dependent he is on his advisors, just repeats that advice. It’s like — who is it now? Solomon’s son. Who said, you know — “He took the counsel of the young men and said, oh, my little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. He scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.” He says, “Go serve the Lord your God. Who are the ones that are going?”
Moses Is Calm and Clear
Okay, so he says, “Go serve the Lord your God.” I wonder, did Moses at that point say, oh really, is he going to let us go now? He knew — he would have recollected at that point, no, what was initially said to me was that Pharaoh’s firstborn would be killed. That hadn’t happened yet. But I’m sure there was a moment in him where he says, wait, what?
And then old Pharaoh, obstinacy of sin, he wants to bargain. He’s taking the counsel of his advisors. Said — “Who are the ones that are going?” And Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons, our daughters, and our flocks our herds will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”
So this is what God’s servant is to be. He’s calm, he’s detail-oriented, he knows exactly what the Lord has said to him, and he’s very clear about that. And he’s going to say to anybody who’s relevant to his operations — he knows exactly. He’s a faithful messenger. He’s a faithful house servant.
No Dialogue, No Negotiation
But this is — what we’re seeing there is negotiation, and there’s a lot of talk. There was a lot of talk maybe previously about dialogue with other faiths, and dialogue about this, and dialogue about that. But the gospel, Christian ethics, and so on — they’re not up for dialogue. Although the minister of religion has to do, because he’s a minister — he’s a minister of God. He can only minister — the only thing that he can do, in a thousand and one different ways, is to just say what God has said in the way that he says it, you know.
So he’s very, very clear, and we must be clear as well. We can’t alter, we can’t lessen any of the demands of God. We can’t say, well, I’m going to obey him here but I’m not going to obey him here. In other words, the liberation, the total liberation of the people of Israel — of the children of Israel — from the land of Egypt was contingent upon the complete obedience of the representative that God had appointed.
And so too, if we want to inherit the promises of God, if we want our sons and our sons’ sons to know the Lord — for example, that’s one promise as it were — we must faithfully tell them, for example, the exodus story, the ten-plague story, that they might believe. And the thrust of scripture is not that we talk about God as if we’re scholars looking down from on high — it’s not about that. We learn about the Bible that we might hear and fully obey every word. And that’s the spirit that we must have. We say, show me more, Lord, show me more, show me, give me the grace to obey here, and give me the grace to obey and keep on obeying and knowing more about your word, that I might obey, that I might inherit, you know.
Pharaoh’s Sarcasm
And then Pharaoh — he quipped back. Then he said to them, “The Lord had better be with you” — so, “I am that I am” — it’s a god who is — it’s a God who’s with you. And he says, “The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go.” So I think he was being a little bit sarcastic there — in a pig’s eye, he’s saying. You know, “Beware, for evil is ahead of you.” So he’s saying that evil is before your face — in another translation he’s saying that you have an evil intention. I think that’s what — what — so he said, “Not so. Go now, you who are men, and serve the Lord, for that is what you desired.”
Being Prepared for People Who Lie to Your Face
So are we prepared for people who, when we talk, when we deal in our teaching or in our professional capacity as farmers or teacher or whatever it happens to be, ministers — are we prepared for people who just lie to our faces and say, “You didn’t say that”? Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for people that take the plain words of God and totally misrepresent them for their own ends? We better be prepared, because this is what people who are high on sin are, I do you know. Are we prepared to stand our ground?
“And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.”
Herodotus: A Pilgrimage of 700,000
So it is interesting to note, by the way, that in this book Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham, we have — and this I have not heard of before — from Herodotus, the Greek historian, accounts of up to 700,000 men only making a pilgrimage to some sort of temple, not counting the children. I thought, wow, that is really what this whole thing is about. “Let us go three days into the journey, that journey into the desert, that we might worship God, make sacrifice to God.”
So I was very surprised. It should colour our picture, that this was a known thing, and it was the children — apparently elsewhere he does mention that the women would go as well. So this was an established thing in Egypt — that such things should happen.
And yet, and yet, of course, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened here. And isn’t it just like a worldling to attribute evil to the very person who is faithful above all else? Didn’t Ahab do that to Elijah? He said, oh, you troubler of Israel.
Wrapping Up
All right, so there’s plenty there. I’m sorry I didn’t see the time there. There’s more there, but that should do. There’s plenty of promises, there’s plenty of warnings, there’s plenty of advice about how to deal with people who are prideful, deal with people who are — well, there’s plenty of strategy here about how God — and plenty of things for our time, you know, by dividing one party — one of the ruling parties — from another of the ruling party. And we see that the evolution of the disintegration of Pharaoh’s authority. Previously, that would never have thought to question Pharaoh, but by a process of a series of very foolish mistakes brought on by pride, divinely empowered pride, and hardness of heart — that’s not to their own destruction.
So when we see pride, when we see foolish decisions, we should say — aha, the Lord’s at work here, he’s doing something. Again, so that they might know that Jehovah is the Lord, you know. So that’s what I have for you this evening.
Class Question: Was Goshen Spared?
Class member: Can I — yes, I’m sure you can. Just I was going to ask — it doesn’t, I don’t think — I’m right in saying, it doesn’t specify that the land of Goshen was protected from the locusts.
Well, it doesn’t, but I think we can safely assume that it was. I think we can safely assume that it was. But it does — since Goshen as mentioned as a separate land and it’s Egypt that’s targeted here, then we could say, well, they were exempted. Again, although it doesn’t spell it out.
Class member: Okay. This would have been happening early March that — I think it would have been the wheat harvest that would have been affected, which is the main harvest.
So so are you saying then, can we extrapolate from what you said, that when we look at Keir Starmer, we can comfort ourselves in the knowledge that God is at work in the United Kingdom?
God Is at Work in the UK
Well, absolutely yes. I’m saying that the spectacular stupidity and spectacular hubris of a man who thinks he’s still at the height of the British Empire, you know — it is really — well, yeah, is really — we could certainly say that the Lord is at work there. Now, it doesn’t mean that the United Kingdom will survive in its present form. It doesn’t mean anything like that. But it does mean that the Lord’s purposes will be advanced.
Class member: Yeah, and what we should be expecting then is, in all of this, to see God’s glory, to see God reveal himself.
Yes, absolutely yes. And that more and more people would say that God is the Lord here. And I think there’s that dynamic, we’ve already noted on several occasions, have we not — be it the rather trivial with Kanye West, and rather incidental with Tyson Fury, you know, or even calls by Douglas Murray or Tom Holland from the intellectuals. And even Paul Joseph Watson is not — you know, he’s mentioned various things, even though he’s a bit of a bitter character himself. But those are signs which we didn’t previously see. What we saw previously was just unbelief and scorning.
The New Atheists Discredited
And yeah, well, even the likes of these so-called new atheists — I think I’m right in saying that they’ve largely been discredited. They no longer have the respect that they once held. Am I right in saying that? Well, I don’t think they have the cachet that they once had at all. And of course we have, what’s his face, saying that, oh yes, I’m a cultural Christian — hey yeah, spoon — and the other one I was thinking about was Sam Harris. I saw a video of him today, I’ve never seen him before, and he was just being ripped apart. And I thought, yeah, I don’t think that would have happened ten years ago.
Well, we should, with the eyes of faith, be looking out for that. And perhaps even within the church, you know — the churches — let’s look for signs at least. Okay, okay, yep, I like that.
Telling Other Deliverance Stories
One thing that I wanted to say as well is that, you know, we can take this exodus story as a model, of course. And there are plenty of stories to be told about deliverances. You can think about the Spanish Armada, for instance, and the Pilgrims, how they were preserved when they first came ashore — the Indians that were there would have wiped them out, the year or years before they would have certainly done them to death. So we have to tell those stories, in imitation of this exodus story. And I suppose these are stories that need to be told to the wider audience, that they might know that we are the Lord. And that this is the insidious thing about history teaching — that a godless history is just a nursery for unbelief.
Apparently what Archbishop Ussher’s Annals of the World details is history in terms of the covenant. So whether such a group were obedient to the covenant or not — that’s what I had thought of doing. And as a fellow Northern Irishman, you know, to Archbishop Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh formerly, that should be our approach, you know, of course.
Class Comment: The Marxist Naming of Things
Well, I hope that wasn’t encouraging — I think it was —
Class member: Yes, I was — talk about how the Marxist wing of our politics always calls themselves “progressives” when they’re obviously not progressive in the slightest, they’re regressive. There was, you know — there was a label, their organisations, “family planning” — I mean, they’re actually trying to — or whatever it is, you know. There’s — it’s always the exact — Black Lives Matter, which actually mean black lives don’t matter. Whatever it is, it’s always the opposite of how they name it. I was just like that when you mentioned the NAC, the commentary. Right? I mean, they’ve got to be as deceitful as possible to try and ensnare people, just even in the naming of a commentary.
Yes, that’s right, that’s right. Absolutely, absolutely. And the work of subversion is always taking place in the church, you know, throughout history it seemed to be that’s been the way.
Closing Prayer
Lord, would you rejoice in your word, Father, and rejoice that you’re the God of generations, generations, thousands of generations of those that love you. We thank you that the wicked are reduced to just two and three generations, Lord, and we see your ways in history. And sometimes our faces are placed so close to the glass that we can’t see anything with no perspective. Thank you that your word gives us perspective, that it illuminates and shows the pride of man, the foolishness of man, to be entirely in your hands, Father, and directed entirely for your purposes, specifically for your people, Lord. So help us, Father, in our various capacities to pass on the true story of your salvation, your deliverance, your judgement to the next generation, Father, that they might know that God is a God who always gets exactly what he wants. He got exactly what he wanted — they spewed them out of the land because of God’s wise providential hardening of heart and bringing of judgements. And so too, you will accomplish exactly what you want for these islands, Father, in your time, exactly precisely, and you will not bargain, you do not have to bargain with anybody. We give you glory for that. So help us to rely on your promises, to see by faith that you are absolutely at the helm here, and help us by faith to then put our lives on the well-worn track of your word, and say, we, in God’s name, are going to advance and inherit the land by faithfulness, Father, by covenant. So grant us this, be with us, encourage our hearts, Lord, throughout this week, and help us to see you as — help us to see ourselves always as your fellow workers, whatever task that we might be engaged with. We thank you that this is a victory that overcomes the world, even our faith, Lord. Give us an overcoming faith, an increasing measure, we pray. And do be with the sons and the sons’ sons, Father. Be with us, Lord, be our consolation always. In the name of Jesus we pray, and for his sake. Amen.
Amen. Thank you again, Nathan. Thank you. We pray y’all have a great week. Take care. So good to see y’all. Take care. Bye-bye.