Exodus 8:16-9:7 Study Guide: The Plagues - is Comfort Your God?

Community Group Study Guide — the Plagues - Is Comfort Your God?
Exodus 8:16-9:7

Study Information:
There are many items and experiences we have in life that make life easier and more enjoyable. Things like how quick it is to get a meal, instant access to some of your favorite shows and movies, cars, transportation and music on demand. These are really nice comforts that make life enjoyable. But, how do you know when your need for comfort, ease and pleasure go too far? There is a dark side to some or our culture’s expectations around pleasure in life. Things like sex and pornography become a focus for many lives, there’s rampant consumerism and where’s the line between enjoying media and being addicted to it?
We’re currently studying the plagues of God against Egypt which were a judgment against Egypt’s oppression of Israel and a judgment against their gods (Exodus 12:12). In these plagues God used the power of creation to show his glory to Pharaoh and Egypt to subvert their pagan gods of wealth, comfort, security and life. The chart below helps us to make sense of the patterns we see in the plagues as a whole.  
The plagues of gnats, flies and livestock relate to the “land” and the Egyptian gods of comfort, beauty and pleasure. In this study guide we will learn how God used the power of creation to confront the gods of comfort and Pharaoh’s response to try and compromise with God rather than surrender. In this we will all be challenged to think about areas we’re unwilling to surrender to God in our lives.

Creation
Exodus 8:16-24, 9:1-7
The Egyptians had gods over all aspects of creation and what they would have experienced through these plagues would have been similar to feeling like all of nature was against them. The plagues of gnats, flies and livestock all related to the land. This may sound funny since gnats and flies fly but in Exodus 8:17 the gnats come from the dust of the ground and in Exodus 8:21 the swarms of the flies “filled” the land and the livestock are land dwelling animals that work the land. It is hard to imagine how annoying and uncomfortable the plague of gnats and flies would have been. It would have been nice if the frogs were still around to take care of them! Notice how the plague of the flies in particular filled all spaces in Egyptian life and home from servants all the way up to Pharaoh’s house. Also notice the plague against the livestock saw the death of donkeys, camels, cows and horses throughout all the Egyptian’s flocks which would have seriously impacted their wealth and comfort. It is important to note that we do not think that all their livestock died since they’re mentioned later on in the plague of hail and again at the Red Sea parting, but it appears that it was all kind of livestock and a massive loss for them.

Each time, Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let the people of Israel go.

These three plagues also mention three unique things. First, the plague of the gnats was the first time that the Egyptian Magician’s admitted their limitations. They told Pharaoh that this was the “finger of God” which was less an expression of belief in Yahweh and more an admission that this was supernatural (Exodus 8:19). Second, God began to call out a distinction between his people and the Egyptians with the plague of flies (Exodus 8:23). This was a display of God’s power to simultaneously judge the Egyptians and to protect his people. Finally, the plague against the livestock was the first mention of death in the plague narratives (Exodus 9:4). This death would foreshadow the passover narrative and the plague of the death of the firstborn sons.

Comfort
The Egyptians got wealth and comfortable on the backs of the Israelite slavery. Egypt was likely one of the most prosperous nations in history, up to that point, and slave labor funded their economy. Moreover the gods associated with gnats, flies and livestock were gods related to pleasure. Specifically, the Egyptian god Uaticht was a goddess with a fly or scarab beetle head and was a god for fertility and the home; and Hathor was a goddess with a cow head and was associated with beauty, sex and glamor. While we cannot make a one to one correlation with all of the various gods, it is important to note that the flies in the Exodus plague filled the “home” and when the Israelites were freed from slavery in the wilderness they made a golden calf idol and worshiped by eating, drinking and “playing” which was a euphemism for sexual immorality. We can see a correlation between the imagery around those gods and the comforts and pleasures of Egypt.

Comfort, pleasure and sex are all easy things to worship as 21st century Americans. We typically expect life to be easy and pleasurable and difficulty is often seen as an interruption rather than a normal part of life. We spend a lot of time on entertainment, lots of money on fashion trends/beauty/glamor and statistics around pornography and sexual promiscuity are rampant. The Christian church is not immune from these idols either, many of us go through times and seasons where we allow a foothold into the idol of comfort to impact our faithfulness to God. When we worship an idol of comfort we struggle to depend on God because we look to that item of comfort instead, and we lack resilience to face difficult things. God may be attacking idols of comfort and pleasure in your life right now so you’d grow to depend on him. Yet, what we learn from Pharaoh’s response is that it is easy to want to try and compromise with God rather than surrender your idol and give your heart fully to him.  

Compromise
Exodus 8:25-32
Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go from their slavery and instead tried to offer God a compromise. This was a sign of his hard heart, he thought he was on equal footing with God and that he could make a deal to keep the comforts brought to him by his slaves and the gods of pleasure. Pharaoh’s first offer in Exodus 8:25, was “why not have a day off and have your little worship service here in Egypt?” Moses rejected that offer and Pharaoh countered with, “ok, well go out of the land a little ways for a camping trip and then come back (Exodus 8:28).” These were both attempts to compromise instead of fully surrendering to God’s commands.

There is a spiritual danger to want to try and keep areas of sin and disobedience by offering God a compromise rather than our full surrender. We promise to take care of it tomorrow or say things like “it is only a little bit of porn” or that it is normal for Americans to spend that much money on the newest thing.

The only way to grow as a Christian is when we have a soft and humble heart and are able to receive his grace. When it comes to areas of comfort we can tend to make excuses to try and keep these things that we think are giving us life instead of trusting God when he says they’re hindering our faith. Pleasure in and of itself is not a bad thing, God has made the world beautiful and given us physical bodies to experience it, however pleasure just makes a terrible god to worship and when we go outside of the boundaries God ordained we end up looking to pleasure for our joy rather than God himself.

Do you have a soft heart towards God and his word? When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, are you quick to want to confess that and grow in holiness? If so, praise God, that is the first step! A great next step would be to look to Jesus who shows us a fully surrendered life to God. Jesus not only empowers us with the grace we need, he also shows us what a fully human life devoted to God looks like. Second, identify what idols of pleasure you’re tempted towards. Some good diagnostic questions would be “are you willing to try and compromise to keep this?” or “I’m hesitant to tell someone who loves me that I’m struggling with this _______.” Those areas are probably areas that are gaining a hold in your heart that need to be brought to Christian community and the Lord in confession. Finally, Remember that God gives us the grace we need to walk in obedience to him, it can take courage and faith to let go of something you look to for comfort and pleasure but God supplies the grace and help in time of need.

At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?

Discussion Questions:
Read Exodus 8:16-9:7

How does God use creation as a judgment against the Egyptians?

What unique things occur in these three plagues and what do we learn about God from that?

What are some ways we can identify if we have an idol of pleasure or comfort in our lives?

Imagine someone close to you came to you and confessed that they had been compromising in a certain area of their life instead of surrendering that to God. How would you counsel them? What kind of advice from scripture would you give?