Pastor Samuel Sharing

Brother William Sharing

Why did God send the plagues on the Egyptians?

Today, we have come to Exodus Chapter 10. I know some of us may have many concerns about the plagues. There were so many plagues that struck Egypt and I was wondering: How could they live? The plagues were getting more and more severe each time. Chapter 10 would be the last three plagues, and in Chapter 11, the disaster would be worsened. God killed many people. For many of us, it will be difficult for us to accept that God killed people. Many of us will ask “God, how could you kill people? How could you send so many plagues? How could you torture the people in Egypt? In Egypt, there were babies, old people, and probably there were people in the surgical rooms.” You would imagine that it was quite a horrible situation.

In Chapter 10, God sent locusts and ate up everything left on the field. Previously, in the plague of hail, God left some crops but this time around, the locusts devoured all the leftover crops. After the plague of locusts, more plagues were approaching.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt— darkness that can be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. (Exodus 10:21-23 NIV)

God sent the plague of darkness spreads over Egypt for three days. Total darkness for three days, and in these three days no one could see each other. Egypt was ruined. It was probably worse than World War II and many people died. Over these periods of plagues, many people passed away and many animals died too. Do you have a problem understanding? If you have a problem understanding, the problem comes from your view in life and your view in your value system.

God is God and He is in control

Many of us could not understand why the war is still going on, and why many people die. People were bombed to death and the battle could not seem to cease. There were many reasons for wars. If you dug out history, it would tell you there were many wars and many people were killed in human history.

In Chapter 10, what was God trying to tell us? Why was God doing this? God was doing this for the sake of one thing: God wants us to know that God is God. He is the Lord of all. God was doing this to ensure all His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will understand God is in control, that God is God. Even today, God deals harshly with the Egyptians. God is not dealing harshly only with the Egyptians, but anything on the earth. The plagues were for us to tell our children and our grandchildren that He is the Lord. God, you were doing this for the sake of your name to be known. You want us to know you are the Lord and you killed so many people. You sent so many plagues again and again. You struck the world again and again. That was so horrible. Many of us simply could not understand. Many of us asked these kinds of questions. Many pastors were trying to explain to people the reason for God's actions. In fact, they did not have to explain. The whole world belongs to the Lord. God created the whole world, and God does whatever He likes. God has the right to do it.

Who do you belong to? God or Egypt?

The issue is whether you belong to God or Egypt. There is a very clear line. If you belong to Egypt, trust me, there will be many plagues befalling you. There will be a plague of locusts. There will be a plague of darkness. There will be a plague of firstborn sons, a plague of hails and the plague of gnats. The plagues of livestock and many more. There were so many plagues upon the Egyptians.

Now, you have a choice to be an Egyptian or to be an Israelite. If you belong to God, God will give you mercy and love. If you belong to Egypt, God will send you plagues. If you observe the whole world, there are so many sorrowful stories to tell. Today, there are so many battles that are going on: the fight in Europe, the fight in the Middle East, World War I and World War II. There were many people who died in all these wars and battles. Why has the World become like this? It is all because we have a problem understanding; our views are on the earth and on the World. If our views are the same as God’s, we will have no problem understanding.

The topic for today is: Know that He is God and that He is the Lord. Do we really know? If we do not know, we will suffer more.

One day, I was attending a prayer meeting. The pastor on the stage was praying for the economy. I was stunned by the prayer meeting on the economy. Were there any precedents in the Bible praying for the economy? Only the Egyptians are praying for the economy. And some pastors were praying for world peace. They would pray for peace in the Middle East. Why did they do it? Was there anything written about praying for the economy and world peace in the Bible? No.

There are so many disasters in the world, whether they were man-made or the acts of God. Human beings still do not understand that He is the Lord. If our lives are peaceful with a good economy, good living, and have a harmonious lifestyle, we would not know the Lord at all. We live until one day we pass away. This goes from one generation to another generation. The cycle keeps on going.

God is not transforming the world, but destroying the world

Today, I want to shift your views. Do you know the Lord? Do you know He is God? Do you know why was He doing all these thing? There is only one reason. In God’s eyes, there are things belonging to Him and there are things belonging to the world. God is not transforming the world, God wants to destroy the world. But God wants to bring His people out of the world. Every time you want to bring people out of the world, there will be a battle, because the world belongs to the kingdom of the devil.

If you are an economical animal, you will belong to the world. If you are a priest, you will worship the Lord. You will belong to the Kingdom of God. This is how God differentiates His treatment. God will treat the world with disasters, full of plagues and with all kinds of problems. There is a clear line. So where do you belong?

I have come to realize that many people like to complain, and ask questions like: Why did this happen to me? I would also like to ask you why this happened to you, especially Christians. Do not judge people by their outward behavior. They might be showing outwardly they are attending the church, singing worship songs, and worshipping the Lord. But their hearts' desire belongs to money and to the world. Their treasure is not God but the world.

If you see a person suffering from one plague to another plague, they have many problems. Even saving their money in their bank account, a problem still arises. They are short of money, in debt and in sickness. They are deemed very unlucky and whatever they do will cause many issues. Now is the time to wake up.

Are we serving the Lord?

Are we serving the Lord? Many people are serving their own stomachs, and many people are not serving the Lord at all. There is a huge gap between the people who belong to the world and the people who belong to God. That is exactly why there are many battles in a family. You probably have a battle in the family right now. Of course, if both wife and husband belong to the world, they will be fighting. They probably want to kill one another. Nowadays, there is numerous news about the husband and wife killing each other.

But that's not what I want to say to you. I want to ask you if you belong to God or your spouse. For sure, there is a string pulling behind you. Why? Because you and your spouse belong to different worlds. You want to come out from Egypt. You want to come out from the world. God wants to bring you out from the world. But the world wants to retain you, and that's why all the plagues come.

If you read Exodus carefully, it says that the people of God, the people of Israel, needed to come out and go into the desert. They were not going to somewhere very wealthy, or a very good place. No, but going to a very dry place and nobody was there. They were going to that place to worship the Lord. A lot of people may have problems understanding why they are going to the desert: "How am I going to live? How am I going to make a living in the desert? How am I going to survive in the place?" The Israelites, at that point in time, haven't got any time to think about these questions. But the moment they went into the desert, they started to complain. What kind of place is this? How can I run a business in this place? How can I make money in this place? God never bothered with this. Don't bother with it at all!

God only cares about one thing: worshipping the Lord. You need to worship the Lord. You need to serve the Lord. Serving God is the purpose of human beings. But sadly, people suffered so much pandemic, a lot of wars and battles. A lot of people died, and still a lot of people became refugees. They are suffering, but they still want to hold on to their value system. They still think about money, about oil, about the economy, just like the Egyptians.

What exactly did God strike on Egypt? He did it to the Egyptians to damage their economy. God's mighty hand wants to bring the people out to serve him, to worship him. If you understand this, you got it. You have to choose what you want to be. What do you want to be? People are falling sick. I have ministered to them. I prayed for them. Their sickness was healed, and yet their hearts belonged to the world. Their hearts belonged to Egypt. If anything happens about money, their hearts, their emotions will be disturbed. Money is very important to them. If you belong to the world, if you belong to Egypt, you will surely suffer. Do we know about this?

The Doctrine of Destiny

The doctrine of destiny: the Chinese called it the "doctrine of Mingding". In Chinese, "Ming Ding" is a much stronger word than destiny. What does it mean? It means we live for God; we serve the Lord wholeheartedly; we love God our Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all of our mind; we will lay down anything for the Lord. And that is the demand, that is the requirement already stated by Jesus Christ. Do you want to be the disciple of Jesus Christ? Then these plagues do not belong to you. You will want to worship the Lord, and you will belong to the Kingdom of God. These plagues do not belong to you. And God will not strike you; he will not strike you with all these plaques. God's plan is to bless you. Do you want to live you life by money, or by blessing? Blessing, live by blessing. We will serve the Lord, and God will give us anything we need.

God is our economy

God is our economy. It's no longer the economy of the world. If you're concerned about Egyptians, you are concerned about the world. God showed no mercy, and God did it harshly. Why? God wants this story to be told to the children and the grandchildren of the Israelites, so that you know if you belong to Egypt, you will face the same consequences. God will deal with you harshly, unless you belong to the Lord, unless you serve the Lord, unless you worship the Lord. You want to give sacrifices to the Lord. You want to lay down yourself for the Lord. Do you know what will happen? All these plagues will not belong to you. I have never seen the Bible say that God struck His people, those who love God, with a plague of sickness, with a plague of darkness.

God wants to set us free; God does not want us to be a slave of the World. God wants to set us free. If anyone tries to stop us from coming into the Kingdom of God, He will strike them with all these plagues. So worshipping the Lord is the way of life. The plague of darkness, the plague of locusts, all these things are meant to strike the Economy of Egypt. It's not for people of God.

We must serve the Lord wholeheartedly

God created two kinds of people. One kind of people God will prepare them to show mercy and love to them, and another kind of people God will show wrath onto them. And this had been recorded in the Bible. You don't have to prove for God. You don't have to argue with people for God. God is a merciful God, but it depends on who you are. The plagues were recorded in the Bible so that we may make a good choice. I see a lot of Christians who serve the Lord half-heartedly, half belonging to the World, and the other half belonging to God. It is so divided. That is not the view of the doctrine of Destiny.

The doctrine of Destiny is trying to tell the people that we serve the Lord wholeheartedly, with all of our strength, all of our mind, all of our heart, and all of our soul. God will bless us. Many Christian brothers and sisters were already healed through my prayer. Yet their heart belongs to the World. When I asked them to read the word of God, and study the Word of God, and try to digest the word of God, they said they had no time. That is a lie, they do have time. They have time to suffer. They have time to belong to the world. They have time to be a slave of the world. They have time to suffer from darkness, suffer from all the locusts eating up their crop, suffer from losses. Eventually, their sickness will come back again. Cancer comes back again, and we ministered them again. Why? They may wonder why all this happened. I told them: it is simply because you belong to Egypt. You belong to the world.

So can we step out from the world, and make our hearts belong to the Lord? Even in the desert, I will worship the Lord because He is my life. He's everything in my life. You want to serve the Lord. You will surely see. You will see someone behave like Pharaoh, trying to stop you. Someone is pulling a string behind you, and someone is trying to make you compromise. Someone trying to negotiate so that you may not belong to the Almighty God. Let me tell you, whoever it is that wants to stop you, stop you from serving the Lord, worshipping God wholeheartedly, God will strike them with a disaster. Sometimes they will come from your own family, but do you want to compromise?

No compromise with the world

The attitude of Moses is not compromising. That's why some people say, "Your teaching is good, but just a little extreme." What is extreme? Compromising is not called extreme; compromising is called balanced. Are you balancing between the world and the Lord? Are you balancing your personal life with worshiping God? A lot of people like to balance. Do you want to have a balance? Balancing family life and church life? Balancing your business and the church? No, they are not at the same level at all.

I live for our God. I live by the blessing of Almighty God. I don't live by my strength. Do you know why? Many years ago, I already knew this. Whether I live for ten years, 20 years, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years, it makes no difference at all. We will all pass away. If there's no eternal life, anything on this earth will no sense to me at all. It's just like any wild animal, like a street cat. The cat was run over in the street. The cat came to the World somehow, and they died. Nobody bothered, and you and I are still probably the same. But if we serve the Lord, we will look for eternal life. we will belong to the Kingdom of God and serve the Lord wholeheartedly. That will make a huge difference. Then the power of Almighty God will be with me. God is with me. Because I am extreme, I'm not compromising.

That will make a huge difference. Then the power of the Almighty God will be with me. God is with me, because I am extreme. I won't compromise. Even if you are pulling this string, that string, I'll forget it. I came to this earth for only one purpose: serving the Lord, worshipping him, passing on His blessing to many people.

Conclusion

Now do you understand why God is doing all this? God is not going to bless the world; rather, He is going to bless His own people. It is not because God is stingy. This is the spiritual rule laid out by God. The choice is yours and mine. We can make a choice: either we belong to Egypt, or to God. The line is clearly drawn by God. Which side do you belong to? I see some people who are very worried about their job, their work. They try to do all kinds of things to make their job better. Money. Family economy, family GDP. The value system is not on the foundation of the Almighty God. God will send locusts, God will send darkness, God will send boils and hails. God will do all kinds of things to destroy it.

If you are a Christian, but you belong to the world, you are no different from people who don't belive in God. It's probably even worse. Don't be a lukewarm Christian. Be a sound Christian. We want to follow the word of God and want to serve the Almighty God with all our heart and strength. And that is the way of life by Almighty God, not the way of life by the blade. I am not going to lead you to understand if God is merciful to the Egyptians or not. It is not my concern whether God shows mercy to the Egyptians or not. But let me tell you: God surely has mercy and love for those who love him. You cannot criticize: Why is God so stingy? There are two different kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. There are two different value systems, two different purposes of life. They are enemies. If you belong to the world, you are an enemy of God. Do you think God is merciful to his enemies? No, there is no mercy, only plagues.

I hope all these plagues do not happen onto you. If you suffer from sickness, poverty, misfortune, you'd better examine your heart and look if you belong to the kingdom of God, or to the world. That is something you need to think about. May the Lord bless you.