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#971 - Exodus 10-11 – The Last Plagues · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine hundred and
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  Speaker 1: seventy one. Today, The Bible Study Podcast continues the study
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  Speaker 1: of the Book of Exodus with chapter ten. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to continue on with more plagues, including some real
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  Speaker 1: famous ones. But first a word from this sponsor. I say,
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  Speaker 1: we're continuing on with more plagues. We start with the
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  Speaker 1: plague of locusts, which is really just your classic biblical
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  Speaker 1: wrath of God kind of plague. Then the Lord said
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  Speaker 1: to Moses, go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his
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  Speaker 1: heart and the heart of his officials, so that I
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  Speaker 1: may perform these signs of mine among them, that you
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  Speaker 1: may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly
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  Speaker 1: with the Egyptians, and how I perform my signs among them,
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  Speaker 1: and that you may know that I am the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him,
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  Speaker 1: this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says.
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  Speaker 1: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me
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  Speaker 1: let my people go so that they may worship me.
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  Speaker 1: If you refuse to let them go, I will bring
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  Speaker 1: locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face
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  Speaker 1: of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They
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  Speaker 1: will devour what little you have left after the hail,
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  Speaker 1: including every tree that is growing in your fields. They
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  Speaker 1: will fill your houses and those of all your officials
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  Speaker 1: and all the Egyptians, something neither your parents nor your
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  Speaker 1: ancestors have ever seen from the day they settled in
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  Speaker 1: this land till now. Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.
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  Speaker 1: Pharaoh's officials said to him, how long will this man
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  Speaker 1: be a snare to us? Let the people go so
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  Speaker 1: that they may worship the Lord their god. Do you
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  Speaker 1: not realize that Egypt is ruined? Then Moses and Aaron
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  Speaker 1: were brought back to Pharaoh. Go worship the Lord, your god,
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  Speaker 1: he said, But tell me who will be going. Moses answered,
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  Speaker 1: we will go with our young and our old, with
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  Speaker 1: our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds,
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  Speaker 1: because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Pharaoh said, the Lord be with you. If I let
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  Speaker 1: you go along with your women and children, clearly you
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  Speaker 1: are bent unevil. No, have only the men go and
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  Speaker 1: worship the Lord, since that's what you have been asking
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  Speaker 1: for then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh's presence,
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand
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  Speaker 1: over Egypt, so that locusts swarm over the land and
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  Speaker 1: devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.
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  Speaker 1: So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord made an east wind blow across the land all
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  Speaker 1: that day and all that night. By morning, the wind
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  Speaker 1: had brought the locusts. They invaded all Egypt and settled
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  Speaker 1: down in every area of the country in great numbers.
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  Speaker 1: Never before have there been such a plague of locusts,
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  Speaker 1: nor will there ever be again. They covered all the
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  Speaker 1: ground until it was black. They devoured all that was
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  Speaker 1: left after the hail, everything growing in the fields, and
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  Speaker 1: the fruit on the tree, and the fruit on the trees.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the
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  Speaker 1: land of Egypt. Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said,
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  Speaker 1: I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.
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  Speaker 1: Now forgive my sin once more, and pray to the
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  Speaker 1: Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.
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  Speaker 1: Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind,
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  Speaker 1: which caught up the locusts and carried them into the
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  Speaker 1: Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not
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  Speaker 1: let the Israelites go. I have to feel like, of
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  Speaker 1: all the plagues, this is the one that sounds most
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  Speaker 1: like a biblical plague, although I don't know why we
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  Speaker 1: pick it out for that, But basically, at this point,
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  Speaker 1: there's a couple things that have changed. One of the
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  Speaker 1: things that has changed is the officials are now arguing
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  Speaker 1: with Pharaoh that he needs to let people go, that
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  Speaker 1: Egypt is in ruin because of these plagues, and it
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  Speaker 1: is time. And so Pharaoh starts to bargain more, and
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  Speaker 1: he is looking for a solution that is acceptable. He's
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  Speaker 1: looking to negotiate. The last time he bargained it was
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  Speaker 1: you can't go far, or this time it's only the men,
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  Speaker 1: not the women and the children. And so when Moses
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  Speaker 1: says no, it has to be all of us, they
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  Speaker 1: throw him out and again a plague comes. Now at
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  Speaker 1: this point, if you're Pharaoh, or if you're the officials,
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  Speaker 1: you should have known that this would happen. We haven't
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  Speaker 1: had any of this. Where Moses says tomorrow there'll be
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  Speaker 1: a plague, well, but the next day, well, not the
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  Speaker 1: next day, but the day after. Every time Moses says
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be a plague, here's what it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be. It has happened. And so Pharaoh and the
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  Speaker 1: officials could have made the decision before the locusts came,
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  Speaker 1: that they didn't want their crops beaten by locus. Right,
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  Speaker 1: they should have known it was coming. They were told
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  Speaker 1: it was coming. God has been true to God's word.
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  Speaker 1: And so the locusts come and they eat everything, and
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  Speaker 1: again Pharaoh has a change of heart, only up until
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  Speaker 1: the plague disappears. Again, change is hard, and giving up
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  Speaker 1: power is hard, and Pharaoh isn't there yet the plague
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  Speaker 1: of darkness. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out
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  Speaker 1: your hand towards the sky, so that darkness spreads over Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: darkness that can be felt. So Moses stretched out his
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  Speaker 1: hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt
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  Speaker 1: for three days. No one could see any one else
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  Speaker 1: or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: had light in the places where they lived. Then Pharaoh
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  Speaker 1: summoned Moses and said, go worship the Lord. Even your
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  Speaker 1: women and children may go with you, only leave your
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  Speaker 1: flocks and herds behind. But Moses said, you must allow
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  Speaker 1: us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord our God. Our livestock too must go with us.
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  Speaker 1: Not a hoof is to be left behind. We have
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  Speaker 1: to use some of them in worshiping the Lord, our God.
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  Speaker 1: And until we get there, we will not know what
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  Speaker 1: we are to use to worship the Lord. But the
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  Speaker 1: Lord heartened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to
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  Speaker 1: let them go. Pharaoh said to Moses, get out of
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  Speaker 1: my sight. Make sure you do not appear before me again.
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  Speaker 1: The day you see my face, you will die, just
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  Speaker 1: as you say. Moses replied, I will never appear before
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  Speaker 1: you again again. Something changed? Did you notice this time?
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  Speaker 1: There was no warning. There was no Moses appearing before
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  Speaker 1: Pharaoh and saying, if you don't let us go, there'll
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  Speaker 1: be a plague of darkness. So that's a change. There's
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  Speaker 1: this plague of darkness for three days only in the
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  Speaker 1: land of Egypt, not in the land of Goshen, which
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  Speaker 1: is that sub region of Egypt where the Israelites live,
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  Speaker 1: and Pharaoh goes further. Okay, you can take your women
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  Speaker 1: and children, but not your flocks. Now I have to wonder,
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  Speaker 1: was there a point at which Pharaoh could have said yes,
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  Speaker 1: and the people would have gone, and they would have
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  Speaker 1: worshiped God and then had to come back because that's
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  Speaker 1: what they told Pharaoh they would do. Did the Lord
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  Speaker 1: just know that Pharaoh would never say yes up until
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  Speaker 1: he said yes and now go completely. Probably, But at
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  Speaker 1: this point Pharaoh's done. He doesn't ever want to hear
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  Speaker 1: from Moses again. If you appear before us again, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to die. Pharaoh, as far as he knows, is
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  Speaker 1: done negotiating, and he's done with these problematic Israelites. But
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  Speaker 1: there's another plague, the Plague of the Firstborn, chapter eleven. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord had said to Moses, I will bring one
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  Speaker 1: more plague on Pharaoh and onto Egypt. After that he
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  Speaker 1: will let you go from here, and when he does,
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  Speaker 1: he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that
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  Speaker 1: men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for
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  Speaker 1: articles of silver and gold. The Lord made the Egyptians
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  Speaker 1: favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly
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  Speaker 1: regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.
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  Speaker 1: So Moses said, this is what the Lord says about midnight.
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  Speaker 1: I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt
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  Speaker 1: will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on
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  Speaker 1: the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave
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  Speaker 1: who is at her handmill, and all the first born
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  Speaker 1: of the cattle as well. There will be a loud
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  Speaker 1: wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been or
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  Speaker 1: ever will be again. But among the Israelites, not a
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  Speaker 1: dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you
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  Speaker 1: will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt
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  Speaker 1: and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me,
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  Speaker 1: bowing down before me and saying, go you and all
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  Speaker 1: your people who follow you. After that I will leave.
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  Speaker 1: Then Moses hot with anger left Pharaoh. The Lord said
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  Speaker 1: to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you, so
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  Speaker 1: that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt. Moses and
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  Speaker 1: Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh. But the Lord
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  Speaker 1: hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: go from his country. So this is the last time
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  Speaker 1: that Moses ses Pharaoh, and before he leaves, he tells
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  Speaker 1: him of this last plague, the worst of all these plagues,
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  Speaker 1: because people will die, the plague of the firstborn, and
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  Speaker 1: this is their last conversation. And next week we're going
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  Speaker 1: to hear about the preparation for that, and the preparation
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  Speaker 1: for that is Passover, the very first passover, So come
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  Speaker 1: back for that. But with that, we're going to end
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  Speaker 1: this episode of the Bible Study Podcast. If you have
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  Speaker 1: any questions, send an email to Chris two x at
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  Speaker 1: gmail dot com, or better yet, leave a comment on
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  Speaker 1: this episode at the Bible Study podcast dot com. And
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  Speaker 1: as always, thanks so much for listening. I want to
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  Speaker 1: take just a second to thank the team at Life
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