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POR 4 The Plagues

Lesson 4

Before we get into the meat of today’s lesson, let’s do a little review.  The reason so many do not understand the Bible (especially OT prophecies and symbolism) is because they do not understand God’s special relationship with the nation of Israel.  First see if you can answer the thought questions from memory.  If you cannot not then scroll down and read the verses and explanation and then try answering the thought questions after you have done that:

Thought questions:

1. Did all nations who existed at the time God gave His commandments to Moses also receive the Law of Moses?

2. Why did God give the Law to only the Israelites?

3. What important purpose did God have planned for the Israelite nation?  (Give verses)

4. What ultimate gift to all the nations, Jews and Gentiles, would come through the Israelite nation?

It is important that you know the answers to above questions to be able to understand “the rest of the story”.  The Israelites were the only nation to receive the Old Law.  Let’s refresh our understanding of who the Israelites were and why they alone were chosen separate from all the nations to receive His Law, to be a special people with a special purpose:

5. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the _________ of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 9:5)

6. The passage above gives two reasons why they were chosen and not the other nations.  Name them:

7. And that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a ____  _______  to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken.” (Deuteronomy 26:19)

8. For what purpose did he set them apart from all other nations according the verse above:

9. “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and _______ in His ways. (Deut. 28:9)

10. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are _____  ______  the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. (Deut.28:10)

11. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD ______  to your fathers to give you. (Deut.28:11)

12. The LORD will open to you His _______  ______  , the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. (Deut.28:12)

13. And the LORD will make you the _____  and not the _____; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. (Deut.28:13)

14. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after _____ _______ to serve them. (Deut.28:14)

15. According to the passage above (Deut.28:9-14) tell the purpose of the Israelite nation:

16. Give the conditions they must meet in order to receive the blessings listed in these verses (See verse 14)

Now let’s proceed to this week’s lesson.

When we study symbolic passages we understand that Biblical symbolism often represents real events found in the OT. such as Gal. 4 where we learned that the Sarah and Hagar were the two covenants (symbolicly).

Let’s try our hand at understanding some Revelation symbolism. Please read Revelation 15 and 16.  Observe in it that there are some familiar phrases which remind of us something we have read before in the OT.   Let’s now pull these out so we can look at them:

The seven last plagues (Rev.15:1)

The song of Moses (Rev.15:3)

So he carried me away .... into the wilderness (Rev.17:3)

These three phrases remind us of the Israelites when they left Egypt.  God sent plagues on Egypt until Pharoah let the Israelites go.  The Israelites followed Moses into the wilderness.  On his 120^th birthday Moses made up a song, which is called the Song of Moses, and he taught it to the Israelites.  Actually God gave Him the words to the song and told him to write it down and to teach it to the Israelites.

17. Please read Exodus 7-11.

18. List the plagues which came upon Egypt.

19. List the 7 plagues in Revelation 15-16. 

20. Compare the two list and list any plagues that are similar.

 Having done this, it appears that we may have found the OT parallel for our Revelation symbol of “plagues”.  But wait!  We continue through the Bible and we find more about plagues in Leviticus 26.

Israel had just received the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.  God pronounced the blessings which would come to Israel if they would keep all His commandments and obey all His laws (The Law of Moses which included the 10 commandments).  But if they did not keep His commandments, God promised to send 7 plagues!

Let’s read this passage below carefully because I believe it holds part of the key to understanding Revelations and perhaps even the 7 last plagues.

Note:The number 7 in the Bible is a symbol for completeness.

Leviticus 26

21. You shall not make _____ for yourselves; neither a _____ image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an __________ stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God. (verse 1)

22. You shall keep My Sabbaths and _________ My sanctuary:
I am the LORD. (Verse 2)

23. If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and __________ them,... (Verse 3)

24. Then I will _____  ______ rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. (Verse 4)

25. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land ________  . (Verse 5)

26. I will give _______  in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you ______ ; I will rid the land of evil beasts,  and the sword will not go through your land. (Verse 6)

27. You will chase your enemies, and they shall ____ by the sword before you. (Verse 7)

28. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your _______  shall fall by the sword before you. (Verse 8)

29. For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and ________   My covenant with you. (Verse 9)

30. You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the ____. (Verse 10)

31.  I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not ____  you. (Verse 11)

32. I will _______  among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. (Verse 12)

33. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk _________ . (Verse 13)

34. ______  if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, (Verse 14)

35.  And if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but __________   My covenant, (Verse 15)

36. I also will do this to you: I will even appoint _________  over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause ________  of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. (Verse 16)

37. I will _____  ___  ________   against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. (Verse 17)

38. And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you _______  ______   more for your sins. (Verse 18)

39. I will break the _______ of your ______ ; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. (Verse 19)

40. And your strength shall be spent in _____; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. (Verse 20)

41. Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you ______  ______  ______   _______  , according to your sins. (Verse 21)

42. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be ___________ . (Verse 22)

43. And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk _____________  to Me, (Verse 23)

44. Then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet _____  ________ for your sins. (Verse 24)

45. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the ___________  of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you;  and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. (Verse 25)

46. When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be _________ . (Verse 26)

47. And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk ________  to Me, (Verse 27)

48. Then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you _______  _________  for your sins. (Verse 28)

49. You shall _____ the flesh of your sons, and you shall _____  the flesh of your daughters. (Verse 29)

50. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;
and My soul shall _______ you.  (Verse 30)

51. I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to __________, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. (Verse 31)

52. I will bring the land to ____________  , and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. (Verse 32)

53. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be __________ and your cities ____ . (Verse 33)

54. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies _________ and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. (Verse 34)

55. As long as it lies _________  it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. (Verse 35)

56. And as for those of you who are left, I will send _________ into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. (Verse 36)

57. They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no ______ to stand before your enemies. (Verse 37)

58. You shall _________   among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. (Verse 38)

59. And those of you who are left shall waste away in their ______ in your enemies’ lands; also in their fathers’ ________ , which are with them, they shall waste away. (Verse 39)

60. But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked ______ to Me, (Verse 40)

 61. And that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are _____, and they accept their ______— (Verse 41)

62. When I will ________ My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will _______; I will _________  the land.  (Verse 42)

63.  The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they ________ My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. (Verse 43)

64. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to _______ destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I am the LORD their God. (Verse 44)

65. But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their __________, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:I am the LORD.’” (Verse 45)

66. These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the ______  __ _______ . (Verse 46)

A study of the Israelite nation reveals that they did not keep God’s commandments.  Therefore God grew to abhor them.  God kept His promise to punish them. He brought on them plagues!  He allowed them to be carried away into captivity. 

Yet He remembered His covenant with Abraham:

67. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be _______ ;... (Genesis 26:4)

God grew to abhor the Israelite nation and His desire for vengeance grew stronger and stronger.  Yet He did not destroy them because of the promise He had made to Abraham that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  Christ would eventually be born as a descendent of Abraham. The promise would then be fulfilled to Abraham.  If Israel then continued its rebellion about God after the Savior came, there would be nothing to keep God from executing the wrath which had been building and building and building against them.  The Jews or Israelites did not turn to God after the Savior came.  Instead they crucified Him!

68.  From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and ______  _______  _______   from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Matthew 16:21

Nothing would now hold back the Father in his final fury and rage against this unholy nation!

69. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is _________ . (Revelation 15:1)