here they come

Good afternoon friends,

First, I'd like to invite everyone to our soup lunch after worship tomorrow (if you get there at 11:20 you'll be able to help set up.) Not only will we have tasty soup to eat, we'll also have lots of important stuff to discuss about 2013 at Laurelton and how we are moving into the future. There will be some important pastoral transition discussion too, so I really hope you can make it.

Today's reading continues the judgment of the world with the last plagues of God. Tough stuff, but moving towards a good ending.

God bless,
Sam

Revelation 16:1-11

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”²So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image. ³The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.⁴The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. ⁵And I heard the angel of the waters say, “You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged these things;⁶because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” ⁷And I heard the altar respond, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just!”

⁸The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch them with fire; ⁹they were scorched by the fierce heat, but they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory. ¹⁰The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, ¹¹and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

last chance

Good morning friends,
We skip forward a bit further for today’s reading. After Moses and Aaron first asked Pharaoh to free the Israelites and he refused, they performed miracles to show they were from God. Then God began sending plagues on Egypt through Moses and Aaron. At first, like when they turned the Nile to blood, the Egyptian magicians could keep up. As the plagues continued, including first a huge swarm of gnats and later flies and frogs, the magicians couldn’t duplicate the signs.

Several times in the sequence Pharaoh agrees to let the people go, but sets conditions Moses won’t accept. Other times he allows them to leave but changes his mind once Moses removes the plague. That continues through many plagues before we come to our final plague in today’s reading.

God bless,
Sam

Exodus 11:1-10
The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you away. 2Tell the people that every man is to ask his neighbor and every woman is to ask her neighbor for objects of silver and gold.” 3The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, Moses himself was a man of great importance in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s officials and in the sight of the people.

4Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out through Egypt. 5Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 6Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again. 7But not a dog shall growl at any of the Israelites—not at people, not at animals—so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8Then all these officials of yours shall come down to me, and bow low to me, saying, ‘Leave us, you and all the people who follow you.’ After that I will leave.” And in hot anger he left Pharaoh.

9The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” 10Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.