“Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.” (Isaiah 29: 13-14)

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Today’s Feature

Jesus condemned the priests and their traditions. They were supposed to represent Him before His people. Instead, they were leading His children astray. If you think Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 23 were harsh, take a look at His description of the penalty for this offense:

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18: 6)

This penalty is very severe, even inhumane, but Jesus said the punishment for leading His children astray is much worse. This is a deadly serious matter, and the priests should have known better. Through His prophets, Yahweh had told the priests many times not to substitute religious ritual and tradition for faith and obedience—but to no avail. For example, He said:

“I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5: 21-24)
“Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.” (Isaiah 29: 13-14)
“How can you say, ‘We are wise, since we have Yahweh’s Law’? Look how it has been falsified by the lying pen of the scribes! The wise men are put to shame, alarmed, caught out because they have rejected Yahweh’s Word. What price their wisdom now?” (Jeremiah 8: 8-9)
“‘But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,’ says Yahweh Sabaoth. ‘So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction’.” (Malachi 2: 8-9)

Jeremiah went so far as to blame the priests as a group for all the hardships inflicted on the Jewish people: “The shepherds (i.e., the priests) are the ones who have been stupid: they have not searched for Yahweh. This is why they have not prospered and why their whole flock has been dispersed.” (Jeremiah 10: 21)

In response to Jesus’ rebuke, the priests plotted to kill Him. How ironic. They conspired to kill the One who came to redeem and save them, and their sin opened the door for the whole world to be saved by the shedding of His innocent blood.

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

Exodus Chapter 9

Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.
If you refuse to let them go and detain them any longer,
look, the hand of Yahweh will strike your livestock in the fields, horses, donkeys, camels, oxen and flocks with a deadly plague.
Yahweh will discriminate between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt: nothing of what belongs to the Israelites will die.
Yahweh has fixed the time. Tomorrow, he has said, Yahweh will do this in the country.”‘
Next day Yahweh did this: all the Egyptians’ livestock died, but nothing of the livestock owned by the Israelites died.
Pharaoh had enquiries made, and found that of the livestock owned by the Israelites not a single beast had died. But Pharaoh was obstinate and did not let the people go.
Yahweh then said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and before Pharaoh’s eyes let Moses throw it in the air.
It will turn into fine dust over the whole of Egypt and produce boils breaking into sores on man and beast throughout the whole of Egypt.’
So they took soot from the kiln and stood in front of Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and on man and beast it brought out boils breaking into sores.
And the magicians could not compete with Moses in the matter of the boils, for the magicians were covered with boils like all the other Egyptians.
But Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold to Moses, he did not listen to them.
Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, “Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.
For this time I am going to inflict all my plagues on you, on your officials and on your subjects, so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world.
Had I stretched out my hand to strike you and your subjects with pestilence, you would have been swept from the earth.
But I have let you survive for this reason: to display my power to you and to have my name talked of throughout the world.
Since you take a high hand with my people, refusing to let them go,
very well, at about this time tomorrow, I shall cause so severe a hail to fall as was never known in Egypt from the day of its foundation until now.
So now send word to have your livestock and everything else you own in the fields put under cover. On man or beast, all that happen to be in the fields and are not brought indoors, the hail will fall and they will die.”‘
Those of Pharaoh’s officials who respected what Yahweh said, brought their slaves and livestock indoors,
but those who did not take to heart what Yahweh said left their slaves and livestock in the fields.
Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that it hails throughout the whole of Egypt, on man and beast and on everything growing anywhere in Egypt.’
Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yahweh thundered and rained down hail. Lightning struck the earth and Yahweh rained down hail on Egypt.
And so there was hail, and lightning accompanied the hail, very severe, such as had never been known anywhere in Egypt since it first became a nation.
All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the fields, man and beast, and the hail beat down everything growing in the fields and shattered all the trees in the fields.
The only place where there was no hail was in the Goshen region, where the Israelites lived.
Pharaoh then sent for Moses and Aaron and said, ‘This time, I have sinned. Yahweh is in the right; I and my subjects are in the wrong.
Pray to Yahweh, for we cannot bear any more of this thunder and hail. I promise to let you go. You need stay no longer.’
Moses said to him, ‘The moment I leave the city I shall stretch out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yahweh.
But as for you and your officials, I know very well that you still have no respect for Yahweh God.’
The flax and the barley were ruined, since the barley was in the ear and the flax in bud,
but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, being late crops.
Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He stretched out his hands to Yahweh and the thunder and hail ceased and the rain stopped pouring down on the earth.
When Pharaoh saw that rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he relapsed into sin,
and he and his officials became obstinate again. Pharaoh was stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold through Moses, refused to let the Israelites go.

The Fifth Plague—Disease on the Livestock

Yahweh told Moses to warn Pharaoh that if he refused to let His people go “the hand of Yahweh will come with very severe pestilence on your livestock,” (Exodus 9: 3) but He said that the plague would affect none of the Hebrew livestock. God gave Pharaoh a day to make up his mind, but he still refused to let God’s people go.

The next day, Yahweh inflicted a disease on the livestock in Egypt, and many of them died. Pharaoh sent his scouts to Goshen to find out if any of the Hebrew livestock had survived. They reported back to him that all of their animals were alive and well. Still Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let God’s people go.

The Sixth Plague—Boils on Men and Animals

God told Moses to take soot from a kiln and to throw it into the air in front of Pharaoh. Immediately, it became a fine dust that covered the land of Egypt. It caused boils to break out on men and animals. Boils broke out so badly on Pharaoh’s magicians that they could not stand in his presence. Still, he refused to accept Yahweh’s authority. Pharaoh had a stubborn, unyielding heart, and Yahweh was furious with him. For the first time, Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let God’s people go.

The Seventh Plague—Hail

God’s anger was growing by the moment, and He said,

“This time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, in order to proclaim My Name (Yahweh) through all the earth.” (Exodus 9: 14-16)

God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh and his servants to bring their animals in from the fields to safety because the next day He would send a hailstorm the likes of which they had never seen. By now, many Egyptians believed Moses and feared Yahweh, and they quickly brought their animals inside for cover. Those who did not believe God turned a deaf ear to His merciful warning, and they were destined to suffer great loss.

The next day the storm began, but it was not a typical hailstorm. Hail and fire (not lightning) mixed together rained down from heaven. Ordinarily, water and fire cannot coexist, but this time they did. In the deutero-canonical book “Wisdom” that is included in Catholic Bibles, King Solomon said this about the seventh plague:

“Even more wonderful, in the water—which quenches all—the fire raged fiercer than ever (Wisdom 16: 17)….For the whole creation, submissive to your commands, had its very nature re-created, so that your children should be preserved from harm (Wisdom 19: 6)….A new attuning of the elements occurred, as on a harp the notes may change their rhythm, though all the while preserving the same tone; and this is just what happened (Wisdom 19: 18)….fire reinforced its strength in water, and water forgot the power of extinguishing it….” (Wisdom 19: 20)

For your information, “deutero-canonical” simply means that it is not included in the Bible that Protestants use. Early church leaders accepted the book of Wisdom as Yahweh’s divinely inspired word until St. Jerome (340 A.D. to 420 A.D.) and several other church leaders objected to its inclusion in the canonical Scriptures—the Protestant Bible. Wisdom is a wonderful book that should be read by all Christians.

According to The New Jerusalem Bible (Doubleday, New York, 1985, p. 1042), King Solomon wrote The Book of Wisdom. Although he is not named in the book as the writer, he is clearly indicated. For example, Wisdom 9: 7-8 says “You have chosen me to be king over Your people, to be judge of your sons and daughters. You have bidden me build a temple on Your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you have pitched Your tent, a copy of the holy Tent which You prepared at the beginning.” Solomon is the person Yahweh commissioned to do these things. Wisdom 9: 12 says, “…I shall govern Your people justly and be worthy of my father’s throne.” Again, this verse indicates that Solomon is the writer of The Book of Wisdom because he succeeded his father David to the throne of Israel.

The fire and hailstorm was a sight to behold. But in the land of Goshen where the Hebrew people lived there was no storm at all, and for the first time Pharaoh feared Yahweh. Hurriedly he sent for Moses and pleaded with him to ask Yahweh to call off the storm. He said, “I have sinned this time; Yahweh is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones.” (Exodus 9: 27) Pharaoh told Moses that if Yahweh would stop the storm, he would let His people go.

Moses did as Pharaoh requested, but he knew Pharaoh’s fear of Yahweh was normal human fear—not fear leading to obedience to God. Sure enough, when the storm ended Pharaoh broke his word again.

With these plagues, Yahweh was demonstrating His sovereignty over the forces of nature and nature itself. He was also displaying His superiority over the most powerful principality in the world. No king or god can prevent from happening anything that Yahweh wills to happen. Yahweh is in complete control, and the Exodus experience became an enduring lesson for all of mankind about His omnipotence. As Yahweh instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh, “For this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, in order to proclaim My Name (Yahweh) through all the earth.”

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His Name is Yahweh

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