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That's connectwithskip.com. Before today's teaching, stay with us for a special invitation from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Have you ever dreamed of visiting Israel? Lenny and I want to invite you to join us for a life-changing journey through the land of the Bible in April of 2027. You can walk where Jesus walked. You can worship on the Sea of Galilee. You can celebrate baptisms at the Jordan River, and we're going to share communion at the empty tomb. You'll also have the option to attend the Epicenter Summit in Jerusalem, where I'll be speaking alongside of Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, and Greg Laurie, Jack Graham, and more. So join us April 5th through April 16th.

You can learn more today at connectwithskip.com/israel.

Guest (Male): Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: He, Moses, found out that he was Jewish. And one day he's out and he's watching Egyptians beating a Jewish person. And so he kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand, thinking that no one has seen. It's interesting. It says he looked this way and he looked that way, and then he killed the Egyptian. His problem is he looked this way and that way, but he didn't look that way. God saw the whole thing, and Moses didn't know this, but somebody else saw it as well. Because the next day, after he buries the evidence of his murdered victim, he's walking and he notices two Hebrews arguing.

And he says, "Hey, what are you arguing about?" And one of them said, "What? You want to be lord over us? Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" Now this stopped Moses dead in his tracks. He didn't know that they knew, and because they knew, others knew, and eventually Pharaoh got wind of it. So Moses had to run away from Egypt, to flee. And he flees. I mean, he runs. He runs all the way across the the the desert into the Arabian Peninsula to a land called Midian. Exodus 2:23. It happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died.

The children of Israel grown because of the bondage, and they cried out. And their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So here's what I want you to notice. There's a lot of them. They're numerous. The population has increased, but they are not strong. They are weak. They are feeling oppressed. They are helpless. They are hopeless. So verse 24, God heard. I love this. God heard their groaning. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. Meanwhile, Moses, far away from Egypt, in Midian, that Arabian desert, finds a girl, falls in love.

Her name is Zipporah. Zipporah is the daughter of one Jethro, the priest of Midian. So for the next 40 years, Moses, the favorite son of Pharaoh at one time, is now out in the desert punching a clock for a shepherd. He's just a shepherd guy working for a guy who has a bunch of flocks, his father-in-law named Jethro. It's been well said that you could divide Moses' life up into segments of 40. Since he lived to be 120 years old, for the first 40 years, Moses went to school, got famous, got wealthy, and tried to be something.

For the next 40 years, God took him to the backside of the desert where he finally realized he was nothing. In the next 40 years, God showed Moses that he could take nothing and make something out of him. And that's what he does. That's the story of his life personally. So the time of deliverance has come. They cry out to the Lord. What does God do? Does he send the angel Gabriel? Nope. He sends an 80-year-old failure, an ex-murderer, an ex-con, who's washed up and has spent 40 years as a shepherd in the middle of nowhere.

Now, when Moses least expected it, God interrupts through what? A talking bush. A burning bush. You know the burning bush story, but this this is a very interesting bush cuz it knows Moses' name. And whenever you have a bush yelling at you, you stop and you pay attention. Especially when that bush is burning but not being consumed. So Moses turns aside to see it. Now according to rabbinic tradition, it was the acacia bush or the thorn bush of the desert. To me, that's just suggestive. Because remember when God cursed the earth, he said, thorns and thistles it will bring forth.

It was emblematic. Thorns are emblematic of the curse. So here's a thorn bush burning as God gets a deliverer ready to deliver people from their bondage into freedom. And now I'm going to go fast forward couple thousand years to the New Testament when Jesus, our lamb, put a had a thorn a crown of thorns on his head, emblematic of the curse that he would come to deliver us from. Exodus 3 verse 10. Come now. The Lord says through this burning encountered, come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

Now those were the last words Moses ever wanted to hear. He's been away 40 years from Egypt. Now God says you're going back. Now you're a failure shepherd. Now you're 80 years old. You're going back and you're the deliverer. He never wanted to hear that. He's probably going, I don't want to go back. Did you notice the two words in that verse? Bring. Notice that in verse 10 and out. Bring out. There's the Exodus. That's what it means to bring out, to go out, to go forth. Verse 11. No, Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

I want you to mark those words because those are words some of you have said. You have yearned for God to use you, but then you get all worried about your own failures, your own incompetence, and your own lack of courage. You go, who am I? Some of you are Moses in the making. And God has great things for you. You just need to let him take you through that encounter. Now Moses asked a very natural question. In verse 13, Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, well what's his name?

Who shall I say to them? What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moreover, the Lord said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, patriarch, the God of Isaac Isaac, patriarch, the God of Jacob, patriarch. First three of the four figures of Genesis. The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob has sent me to you.

He's reminding Moses of the covenant he made back then. He says, this is my name forever. This is my memorial to all generations. What name? I am that I am. Probably best translated Yahweh. Yahweh is the Hebrew word that means I am who I am. Yahweh. We think it's pronounced that way. We're not exactly sure because we're only left with four consonants in the Hebrew text, the four letters called the tetra four grammaton, the four letters, the YHWH, but we think it's the name of God as Yahweh. Now the name Yahweh, he introduces himself, I am who I am.

Maybe a good way to look at it is it means the becoming one. The becoming one. That is God will become to you whatever your greatest need is. God is so big, God is so powerful, God is so vast that he will become to you who he is, but in your time of greatest need. For example, in the Bible, he is sometimes called Yahweh Yireh. Or in the as they used to say it in the King James, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord Yahweh, the Lord is our provider. The Lord provides. He he will become your provision when you need provision.

Also he is called Yahweh which means righteousness. The Lord will become your righteousness when you are unrighteous. When you feel weak and you need a banner, he will become Yahweh Shammah, the Lord our banner, our strength. Something else about this name. In John 8, Jesus lays claim to this name when he says, before Abraham was, I am. Not I was, I am. He assumes the divine name of God in that chapter. Well, God calls him chapter four, our Moses excuses. Excuse number one. What if they don't believe me, God? That's a fair argument. What if they don't believe me?

God says, okay, what's in your hand? Moses said, a staff, a stick. He goes, throw it on the ground. It becomes a snake when he does. Then he is instructed to bend down and touch its tail and grab it by the tail. As soon as he does, it turns back into a stick. Now that's a that's a cool trick. I'd like a snake that did that. I'd like a walking stick that did that. So what if they don't believe me? You got this cool snake stick. Pull that baby out. But he has another excuse. He goes, um who That's essentially what he says.

He goes, I can't talk. He says in this chapter, I am slow of speech. Those are his words here. I never went to high school or college speech class. He probably stuttered. So God says, Moses, who made man's mouth? I did. If I made your mouth, I can make words to put in your mouth. Go. But Moses is not done. He has yet another excuse, same chapter. He just says, send somebody else. Now that's the real problem. Now now we're dealing with the heart of Moses. Send somebody else. So Aaron becomes the spokesperson and the contest begins.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. The Bible is a big book, 66 books filled with history, poetry, prophecy, letters, laws, and more. It's easy to lose sight of how it all fits together. That's why Pastor Skip Heitzig wrote his new one-year devotional, Soaring Above It All. It gives you a panoramic view of scripture, helping you understand the key people, events, and themes from Genesis to Revelation while deepening your walk with God. Request Soaring Above It All as our thanks when you give $50 or more today to help connect with Skip share clear verse by verse Bible teaching with people everywhere.

Give now at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. Now here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: Chapter 5 through 11 is the contest, the great confrontation between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh, the leader of that part of the world, especially Egypt. Moses confronts Pharaoh. And the confrontation includes 10 incredible, miraculous plagues of Egypt. Why 10 plagues? What is God up to with these 10 incredible, miraculous plagues? God is executing judgment on the false religious system of Egypt. I know that because in chapter 12 verse 12, it said against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now we're not there yet. So in chapter five, look at chapter five.

Look at one verse, verse two. This is the setup for the plagues. You'll understand why. Verse two, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord? You see, Moses comes to him and says, thus says the Lord, let my people have an Exodus. Let them exit. And his question, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord Yahweh, nor will I let Israel go. So his question is, who is the Lord? And it's like Moses said, well, since you asked, here is your answer. And plague after plague after plague after plague hammer the nation of Egypt to answer the question, who is the Lord?

Oh, he's that Lord. Oh, he can do that stuff. Oh, you don't want to mess with that guy. And it is a judgment on the false gods as you will see in Goddesses of Egypt. So Moses asks nicely. The response is, who is the Lord? Now Pharaoh turns up the heat. Pharaoh responds to the request to go by upping the quota that these Hebrew slaves, that's what they were in Egypt, these 600,000 men and wives and kids, he ups the quota of bricks that they are to produce. And then he cuts out the straw that was meant to fortify the Adobe bricks.

By the way, Adobe is such a terrific building building material. You know, it's pretty um pretty common in this state. And I don't know if you've ever been in the middle of summer in a real Adobe house, it's like you don't need AC. It's just like wow, it's amazingly cool and resilient. So so much of the building, the temples, the the graves, some of the tombs, not the fancy Pharaoh tomb, but some of them were all made out of Adobe. So the fortification of the straw made those bricks heftier. Now he cuts out the straw.

He makes the quota of bricks larger. And by the way, archaeologists have discovered um if you know anything about um the Middle East, you can see these these brick walls in in several sections. They have found brick walls from this time period. And the bottom layer is pretty hefty Adobe bricks laced with full-length pieces of straw. But as you go up the wall, there's no longer straw but stubble weeds that they had to pick up and put into that mud. And then as you go up higher, there's nothing at all but mud. So it corroborates what the biblical text says.

Now the 10 plagues that are in the next few chapters, let me just go through them quickly. Number one, water turns to blood. What's that's all about? It's about the Nile River. The Nile River was the source of life to them. It was the greatest natural resource, and the god Osiris was over the Nile. He was called the father of life. The father of life. There was even a hymn sung to the god of the Nile. Hail to thee, oh Nile, that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive. So this was a judgment on Osiris, the god of the Nile.

Second one, that was that's chapter seven. Chapter eight, frogs cover the land. Pretty gross. Um I like frogs, but not everywhere. That's where they were everywhere. Remember the song Jeremiah was a bullfrog? Well, he wasn't. Hecca was the bullfrog. Hecca was the goddess of Egypt who embodied a frog. There was even a special temple to Hecca in Memphis to her worship. And here's what made the plague worse. It was a major offense to kill a frog. So you think, I got frogs easy. I'll just bat them. I'll play baseball. I'll play golf with them. No, you won't.

You won't touch them. If you're an Egyptian, it was a major offense. Also in chapter eight, the dust becomes lice. Um this was judgment on Geb, the earth god. In verse 17, it says the dust became lice throughout the land of Egypt. Plague number four, a swarm of flies. Some scholars believe the flies were the scarab beetles. And they were found in in many of the tombs, the graves of Egypt. It was a symbol of Egyptian eternal life. So at this point, plague after plague after plague, Pharaoh's attention has been gotten. And Pharaoh now wants to negotiate chapter eight verse 25.

He says, go. Go sacrifice. But don't leave the land. Do it in the land of Egypt. That's his first negotiation. Um then verse 28, he says, go out into the wilderness, but don't go very far. And he also adds this footnote in verse 28, pray for me, intercede for me. When we get to chapter nine, the plagues continue. Plague number five is disease, sometimes translated murrain, a disease that affects livestock, especially cattle. This was aimed at the god Apis, the bull. Now keep that in mind, Apis, the bull, because the children of Israel are going to build a golden what later on?

Calf, probably reminiscent of this god of Egypt. Apis the bull called Mnevis in Greek culture. The judgment was to show the ineptness of that god. Also in chapter nine, boils. Ashes were thrown into the air, turned into sores. By the way, Egyptian priests used to throw soot in the air, ashes in the air as a means of blessing people. Now the blessing turns into a curse. Also number seven in that same chapter, hail and fire mingled with hail that fell from the sky. Why? To demonstrate God's power over the sky goddess called, get this, nut.

N U T. It's appropriate in my view. It's a nut job. God can't do anything. Chapter nine verse 27. Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, I now watch this, I have sinned this time. What? I've sinned this time. This is called selective memory disorder. You've sinned every time. I've sinned this time. I've really blown it. And then he says, the Lord is righteous and my people and I are wicked and treat the Lord that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer.

You go, well that's good news. Man, this is repentance. No, it is not. It's an emotional reaction. Cuz down in verse 34, when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder ceased, he sinned yet more. And he hardened his heart, he and his servants. Verse 35. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard, neither would he let the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses. Okay, so he almost did, but now he didn't. So the Lord's answer, two more plagues. Chapter 10. Locusts. Locusts come in and eat everything left by the hail that was mingled with fire.

Now most experts in the field believe that this locust was called the short-horned grasshopper. Uh these particular grasshoppers breed in deserts. They reproduce rapidly. They migrate long distances. They can travel in columns of hundreds of feet, and the swarm can last for about four miles. Imagine a four-mile 100 plus foot column of dark cloud coming at you. That's the swarm of locusts. When they appear, it looks like there's an eclipse of the sun. Things get so dark. When they leave, the trees have been stripped and the land looks like it's been scorched with fire. Couple of examples of this 1866.

Locusts invaded Algiers, Northern Africa. That's the capital of Algeria. 200,000 people died in the famine that ensued after the plague of locusts in the following days. The worst on record, the worst locust plague on record was 1951 in the Middle East in Iran. Every green thing was devoured for hundreds of thousands of square miles. It is still considered the worst in history. Plague number nine was darkness. As the chapter continues, the darkness came not on Israel, but on Egypt, on the Egyptians. God is very selective in these plagues. Now the darkness isn't just like the cloud cover over the sun like we had today.

It was a darkness, it says, that can be felt. The text says, darkness that can be felt. This was aimed at Ra, R A, Ra, the sun god, one of the principal deities of Egypt. According to the Babylonian Talmud, interesting tidbit. The Babylonian Talmud said that God sometimes reserves the judgment of darkness on particularly evil events or on historic evils of of of epic proportions. God will reserve the judgment of darkness for unusually wicked sin. Now to me, that's interesting because the Bible speaks of another darkness when probably the worst thing ever happened when people decided to reject the savior of the world and put him on a cross and get rid of him.

Darkness covered the land, and that is found in other historical records besides the Bible, three hours of darkness. Chapter 10 verse 27. But the Lord, watch this, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. And he would not let them go. Now this is worth remarking. For the first five plagues, the first five plagues, the text says Pharaoh hardened his heart. He hardened his heart. He just dug his heels in, rebelled against God. But in the sixth plague, and not until, we're told that God hardened his heart. Now the the word for God hardening his heart is the Hebrew word It means to strengthen or to make firm.

So it's just like God saying, okay, that's the position you're going to take. I'm going to confirm or make firm your hardness.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share clear verse by verse Bible teaching with people everywhere, helping them know God more deeply and live out his truth. And this month, when you give $50 or more, we'll send you Pastor Skip's brand new devotional Soaring Above It All as our thanks. This one-year journey through the Bible will help you see how scripture fits together, understand its key people, events, and themes, and grow deeper in God's word each day. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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