PSALM 78:40-51 - RECALLING THE PLAGUES GOD SENT TO FREE HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE

Psalm 78:40-51

RECALLING THE PLAGUES

GOD SENT TO FREE

HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE

Psalm 78:40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

Susie: The Israelites, God’s chosen people, were constantly doubting and testing God. They threatened more than once to turn back and return to slavery in Egypt. Lest we judge them harshly, think of all the times we turn back to the slavery of our sin rather than walking in the freedom Jesus gave His life to give us. They “limited the Holy One of Israel.” In today’s vernacular, “They put God in a box!”

Susan: How many time have I experienced God saving my life from the brink of death? Yet, in 1982, when He called me—a woman in a wheelchair—to minister, for six years I told God all the reasons why I was not qualified or fit for the job. I tried to squeeze God into a box!

Susie: But now God is showing both of us that He cannot and will not be confined by our limitations.

Psalm 78:42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

Susie: They seemed to have forgotten how He drowned . . .

Susan: . . . the virulent army of Pharaoh as the walls of water crashed upon them and swallowed them . . .

Susie: . . . never to be seen again! They were failing to remember the plagues the Lord sent to convince Pharaoh to let them go.

Susan: They chose not to remember the awesome power of God!

Psalm 78:44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

Susie: Asaph (guided by the Holy Spirit) begins recounting all the wondrous, horrible signs the Lord performed through His servants, Moses and Aaron. These plagues affected the Egyptians . . .

Susan: . . . but the Israelites, living insolated in Goshen, were spared because they were God’s chosen people. They were exempt from the calamities that befell Egypt.

Susie: Can you imagine the entire water supply turning to blood? Not just red like blood, but actual blood!

Susan: No! It gives me the heebie-jeebies every time I hear or read it!

Susie: Read on because things got progressively worse!

Psalm 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

Susan: It makes me itch just thinking about it, and my startle reflex would go bananas with all those frogs.

Susie: These flies may have included mosquitoes. Imagine entire swarms of those. Then frogs everywhere, even in their beds!

Psalm 78:46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.

Susan: God let the crops that were to sustain the Egyptian people sustain the locusts and caterpillars instead.

Susie: Their food supply was greatly reduced while the Israelite’s fields remained untouched.

Psalm 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

Susie: The vines would most likely be grapevines, supplying fruit, juice, and wine. Hail would ruin the fruit and possibly even the vine itself.  The type of sycomore tree found in Egypt bore fruit which even though inferior could have been a food source. So even the stand-by supply of food was ruined.

Psalm 78:48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

Susan: Ice rocks pelted many of their cows to death, and their sheep were struck crashing lightning bolts!

Susie: Let’s see. . . so far the water is contaminated, the grain for bread is eaten up by critters, mosquitos and frogs are driving the people and animals crazy, and now there will be fewer steaks, legs of lamb, jerky, and even less milk!

Psalm 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Susie: I had never noticed the description “evil angels” before. It is translated “destroying angels” in many versions. We did a little research on this:

http://www.biblestudytools.com

Charles Hadden Spurgeon in

The Treasury of David:

By sending evil angels among them. Messengers of evil entered their houses at midnight, and smote the dearest objects of their love. The angels were evil to them, though good enough in themselves; those who to the heirs of salvation are ministers of grace, are to the heirs of wrath executioners of judgment. When God sends angels, they are sure to come, and if he bids them slay they will not spare. See how sin sets all the powers of heaven in array against man; he has no friend left in the universe when God is his enemy.

Psalm 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

Susan: God slayed the firstborn of all the Egyptians, but He forewarned the Israelites, His chosen people, to place the blood of a lamp upon their doorpost as a sign that all the people inside these houses were to be protected and spared from God’s wrath.

Exodus 12:23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Susan: The Lord Himself deliberately pointed out which households were not to be touched. The blood on the lintels and doorposts was a foreshadowing of the blood shed by Jesus Christ, the ultimate and perfect Passover Lamb, the final sacrifice for our sins.

Susie: Ham was the son of Noah who saw his father naked and told his brothers without covering him up. Because of this, Noah pronounced a curse on Ham’s son, Canaan, from whom the Canaanites would be descended. God would later instruct the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites which they did not obey completely.

Psalm 78:52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

Susie: The Lord sent all these plagues among the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites. However, the Israelites were not touched by these calamities.

Susan: God guided and directed His chosen people, but their enemies and His were swallowed up by the Red Sea.

Susie: He led them like a shepherd leads and protects his sheep. Two other passages immediately come to mind—Psalm 23, and John chapter 10. David called the Lord his Shepherd and Jesus referred to Himself as The Good Shepherd.

Susan: David’s beautiful Psalm about the Lord foreshadowed the coming of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

QUESTIONS

1.   In what ways do believers today “limit God” or try to put Him in a box?

2.   Have you ever been guilty of underestimating the Lord’s power in your own life? You may want to journal about the experience.

3.   Name as many of the 10 plagues as you can without looking back at Psalm 78 or the passages in Exodus chapters 7 through 12 or using Google. Then check your answers.

4.   The Great Tribulation will include some of these same signs. You might find it interesting to cross reference the following chapters in Revelation: Seven Seals—chapter 6, Seven Trumpets—chapters 8-11, and Seven Bowls—chapters 15-16.

5.   Sheep are followers in need of a shepherd to keep the flock together and safe. We have Jesus as our shepherd. Describe the ways Jesus has led you and is leading you now.