Exodus 9:8  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

We are now looking at the sixth plague that God is sending upon the Egyptians. At no time has the Pharaoh been able to disprove the LORD’s power to do as He declares. For the first few plagues, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to duplicate the signs, but they could not remove them. They really proved nothing. Pharaoh knew he was up against something much bigger than he was. However, even though Pharaoh was losing, he was so stubborn that he was not going to give up. As we will see, he would not give up until he was killed and then it would be too late.
In our text, the LORD told Moses to take handfuls of ashes from the furnace and throw them up into the air in the sight of Pharaoh. Pharaoh needed to see what the LORD was doing. In verse 9 the LORD told Moses that this small dust would become a boil breaking forth. Boils are painful. The Bible records the account of Job. God allowed the devil to attack the health of Job. The devil chose to infect Job with boils. His boils affected him so severely that when his three friends came to visit him, they did not recognize him.
In our text, the LORD was going to infect the people of Egypt, including Pharaoh, with boils. There would be nothing that any Egyptian could take that would protect them from the boils. God is the Creator of life and He is the giver of health. These plagues were the work of God. It was not the devil that was inflicting Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt with plagues. This was the work of God. Pharaoh was already a servant of the devil. He needed to see the power of the LORD. The nation of Egypt needed to know their false gods were just that, they were false gods.
It is interesting how some people have the power to lead people along with a lie. People are much quicker to follow a lie than they are the truth. The people of Egypt were content to believe in their false gods even though they had no evidence that those false gods could do anything for them.
Moses and Aaron were directed by God to show the nation of Egypt as well as the Hebrews that He was the only true God and He was actually God. He decreed things and they happened just as declared. He could make changes to the nature of things and He could also very quickly turn things back to how they were. All of this was a picture of the fact that God alone can change the heart of a sinner. He can forgive sin and He can change the nature of the saved person. He can give the saved person a love for truth and a desire to walk in truth.
Thus far in our study in the book of Exodus we have seen that Pharaoh’s rejection of the truth did not change the truth. We have seen that God was able to separate out the land of Goshen, where the Hebrews were living, from the rest of the land of Egypt. The Egyptians were affected by the plagues but the Hebrews were not affected by them.
We learn from our text today that the magicians were unable to do anything about the boils. They could not bring on boils and they could not remove the boils. They were in the same trouble as the rest of the nation.
Pharaoh continued to reject the hand of the LORD upon him and the nation. We read that the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart. We have talked of that before. The LORD made man. The LORD made man to glorify Him. If the LORD had not made man, he would not exist. The LORD has every right to expect a certain standard from His creation. The LORD did not create man to send him to hell. He created man to serve Him. Pharaoh chose to reject the LORD. That was his choice. He and all people need to understand there are consequences to our choices.
The LORD teaches us the truth. He also shows us the way of truth. Then He holds man accountable for his actions. Many times parents fail to teach their children the truth. They do things that are wrong and then they wonder why their children do things that are wrong. If we want to set a bad example before our children, we should not be surprised when they exemplify even worse behaviour than we set before them.
The devil is a cruel task master. He loves evil. He loves it when parents choose evil over good. He knows how to encourage evil thoughts and actions. Man needs the true God to govern his thoughts and his actions. When man rejects the true God and sets his own standard of right and wrong, he finds out that sorrow and grief are the result.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

God recorded the events of the book of Exodus for our learning. The devil wants us to doubt what is written and even to scoff at it. God wants us to use it as a mirror to see that if we choose the same path that Pharaoh chose, we can expect the same results. God is not sending plagues right now. He is allowing man to develop plagues of his own. Canada has gone through over two years now of trouble that was designed by man. In fact the world has been involved in this trouble. God is well aware of what is happening. He has allowed the devil to direct men like Dr. Fauci and others to develop this evil plot and put the pieces in place. God has not allowed man to destroy himself. He has allowed man to experience the effects of his evil plot.
There is a report out of the increase in deaths among doctors in Canada since 2020. There has been a large increase in deaths from those recorded since 2019 to those in 2020 and onward. The officials have no explanation for this drastic change. However, our health care system is suffering from the loss of doctors and nurses. Our politicians have no answers as to how to resolve this problem. So far they have been able to find the care they need so it is not a big issue to them.
In our text, Pharaoh was not isolated from the plagues that God was sending. He was affected by them as well as the rest of the Egyptians. In spite of that, he was still not willing to humble himself. We read that God was using him to show the danger of rejecting the truth. When a person makes a firm stand against the LORD, He can confirm that rebellious stand and He can harden that person in that position.
That is what we see happening in the life of Pharaoh. This is a warning that the rest of humanity would be wise to pay attention to. There are many today who have determined that they will not bow to the true God. They have chosen a fictitious god and they are promoting this false god. New Evangelicalism has done this for years. It is amazing how many people are comfortable in that lie. It seems that they have no desire to repent and be saved. They are so content to remain in their lie. They cannot even seem to see they are being deceived.
Those that are saved can be thankful that God is merciful and gracious to us. We need to be careful not to buy into the lies of the devil. We need to stand apart from the wicked world and be like God wanted Moses and Aaron to be. We need to be such that we can be a testimony to the lost.
Pastor Bartel