Daily Lesson for Sunday 27th of July 2025

The prophet Amos declares that “ ‘the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets’ ” (Amos 3:7, ESV), and through the prophet Moses, He revealed to Pharaoh what was coming next. The most solemn warning was given to Pharaoh. This will be a just judgment upon pride, exploitation, violence, and idolatry, all of which have triggered these calamities upon Egypt.

God gave Egypt time—three days of darkness (Exodus 10:22-23)—to think about recent events and what they meant. He also provided their last explicit warning, the last chance to do the right thing.

But Exodus 11:8 says that Moses “went out from Pharaoh in great anger” (NKJV). Why would Moses leave in anger? Most likely because he knows the tragedy, the tenth plague, is going to hit a lot of innocent people—all because of Pharaoh’s hardness of heart.

Also, the number ten is significant in biblical symbolism. Ten represents fullness or completeness. (Think of the Ten Commandments as a complete revelation of the divine moral law.) The ten Egyptian plagues point to God’s full expression of His justice and retribution.

God is the Judge, and He is against pride, injustice, discrimination, arrogance, exploitation, cruelty, and selfishness. He is on the side of the sufferers, the abused, the mistreated, and the persecuted. God will execute justice, which truly is another expression of His love. (See Psalms 2:12, Psalms 33:5, Psalms 85:11, Psalms 89:14, Psalms 101:1, Isaiah 16:5, Jeremiah 9:24.)

We too should try the best we can to be both loving and just. However, we can easily fall into extremes, one way or another. Out of “love” we turn a blind eye to wrongs, to things that need to be corrected. Or we can coldly execute justice as if it were something made of steel. Neither extreme is correct. Instead, this is the ideal: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, NKJV).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25c-05-one-more-plague/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 26th of July 2025

Read for This Week’s Study: Exodus 11:1-10, Micah 6:8, Exodus 12:1-30, 1 Corinthians 5:7, Exodus 13:14-16, Hebrews 11:28.

Memory Text:

“ ‘And it shall be, when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?” that you shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and de­livered our households” ’ ” (Exodus 12:26-27, NKJV).

The tenth and last plague is about to fall. The last warning is given; the final decision must be made. It’s truly a matter of life or death. Not only the life of an individual but the prosperity of families and the entire nation is at stake. Pharaoh and his officials will be responsible for the fate of many people, either for life or for death. Pharaoh’s attitude toward the living God of Israel will determine not just his future but that of his nation.

How do we feel, and what do we do, when the gravity of circumstances lies heavy upon us and we have to choose the next step and direction, a choice that can greatly impact the lives of many others besides ourselves?

God is more than willing to grant us wisdom, understanding, and power to do what is right (1 Corinthians 1:30, Philippians 2:13).

The problem, however, is that, in our own stubborn hearts, we don’t always want to do what is right. We know what it is, but we refuse to do it. In the account of the Exodus, one man’s refusal to submit to God, even in face of overwhelming evidence, brought tragedy upon many others besides himself, which is often how it works, anyway.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 2.

Sunday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25c-05-passover/

Inside Story for Friday 25th of July 2025

By Andrew McChesney

No one in town had ever converted to Christianity, and townspeople burned with anger when Kokila’s father and four other families decided to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Kokila was nine, and her life changed forever.

Kokila’s mother had died when she was a baby, and she lived with her father, four older sisters, and an older brother in southern Asia.

Father, an impoverished farmer, was barred from working in the field after he started to keep the Sabbath. He and the other Sabbath keepers also were forbidden from buying food in shops.

In addition, town leaders announced that anyone who spoke to the Sabbath keepers would have to pay a large fine.

As a result, neighbors refused to talk to Kokila and her family. Kokila also didn’t talk to her neighbors. Nobody wanted to pay the fine. Kokila had had many friends, and she lost them all. It was a strange and silent world for the girl.

When Father refused to give up his faith, the neighbors turned violent. They angrily swooped down on Kokila’s home, scooping up furniture, clothing, and dishes, and dumping them on the street. They also beat her father and brother.

One neighbor, however, proved to be a bright light during that dark time. He also wasn’t a Christian, but he didn’t belong to the same major world religion that the townspeople did. He helped Kokila’s family to buy rice. He talked to Kokila, and he willingly paid the fine for violating town rules.

For seven years, Kokila lived in horrible circumstances. Three of the families who had accepted the Sabbath at the same time as Kokila’s father changed their minds and left the church. Only two of the five families, including Kokila’s family, remained faithful to God.

Kokila never complained, but she cried a lot. Father saw her tears, and he decided to send her to an Adventist boarding school. It was like a piece of heaven on earth for the girl.

“The teachers were very kind and loving,” recalled Kokila, who today is 39 and works as a secretary at the boarding school, E. D. Thomas Memorial Higher Secondary School in Thanjavur, India. “The teachers spoke to me! The children spoke to me! It was so nice to have friends again.”

Thank you for your mission offerings, which support Seventh-day Adventist schools around the world. E. D. Thomas Memorial Higher Secondary School received part of a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2020.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25c-04-inside-story-strange-and-silent-world/

Daily Lesson for Friday 25th of July 2025

Read Ellen G. White, “The Plagues of Egypt,” Pages 265–272, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

“His [God’s] people were permitted to experience the grinding cruelty of the Egyptians, that they might not be deceived concerning the debasing influence of idolatry. In His dealing with Pharaoh, the Lord manifested His hatred of idolatry and His determination to punish cruelty and oppression. . . . There was no exercise of supernatural power to harden the heart of the king. God gave to Pharaoh the most striking evidence of divine power, but the monarch stubbornly refused to heed the light. Every display of infinite power rejected by him, rendered him the more determined in his rebellion. The seeds of rebellion that he sowed when he rejected the first miracle, produced their harvest.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 268.

“The sun and moon were objects of worship to the Egyptians; in this mysterious darkness the people and their gods alike were smitten by the power that had undertaken the cause of the bondmen. Yet fearful as it was, this judgment is an evidence of God’s compassion and His unwillingness to destroy. He would give the people time for reflection and repentance before bringing upon them the last and most terrible of the plagues.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 272.

Discussion Questions

Dwell more on the question of why Pharaoh allowed himself to be so hardened that, in the face of what must have been the ob­vious and correct choice—Let the people go!—he still refused. How could someone become so self-deceived? What kind of warnings should we take from this for ourselves about how we can truly get so hardened in sin that we make utterly disastrous decisions when the correct decision and the right path have been right before us the whole time? What other Bible characters have made the same kind of error? Think, for example, of Judas. At one point, amid the devastation that Pharaoh had brought upon his own land and people, he declared, “ ‘I have sinned this time; the Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones’ ” (Exodus 9:27, NASB). Though a wonderful confession of sin at the time, how do we know that it wasn’t a genuine one?

<–Thursday

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25c-04-further-thought-the-plagues/

Introduction: This week I trimmed a door and then painted it – poorly. I’m such a terrible house painter that when my family gets together, tales of my past wall painting adventures are recited for amusement. Am I insulted? No. If part of the family tradition were stories about my terrible teaching, that would be painful. Some criticism matters. We previously discussed Exodus 5:2, where Pharaoh said he did not know the God of Israel, and he had no reason to obey Him. We will learn this week that the plagues on Egypt were not simply punishment for disobedience; they belittled the gods that Pharaoh knew and presumably feared. Let’s plunge into our study of the Bible and learn more!

I. Uraeus

A. Read Exodus 7:10-12. Were the staffs of the sorcerers real snakes? (Verse 12 specifically states, “they became serpents.” We previously discussed that this power was undoubtedly demonic.)

B. Read Exodus 7:13. What reaction was Moses looking for in Pharaoh? (No doubt Moses wanted Pharaoh to say, “I’m not fighting with your God. You can go.”)

1. Was this a credible demonstration of the power of God over the Egyptian gods?
2. Think about the pictures you have seen of the crown worn by Pharaoh. What is on the front of the crown? (It is a hooded cobra. According to an Internet presentation by the Carlos Museum of Emory University, this crown is called an uraeus, from the ancient Egyptian word yaret, which means “the one that rears up.” A common American expression by one who is defeated is “he ate my lunch.” God belittles the god worn by Pharaoh by eating it for lunch!)

C. Read Genesis 3:1. Whose “lunch” is really being eaten? (Satan’s. Pharaoh is Satan’s agent, and Satan is not giving up easily.)

II. Hapi and Osiris

A. Read Exodus 7:15-16. Why do you think Pharaoh would go “out to the water” in the morning?

B. Read Exodus 7:17-19. What did the Nile do for the Egyptians? (It brought life. It produced crops. Hapi and Osiris were Egyptian gods associated with the Nile.)

1. Why, of all things, would God turn the water of the Nile (indeed all the water) into blood? Why not oil, vinegar, sludge, or something else?

C. Read Leviticus 17:11. What does blood symbolize for the Hebrews (and now Christians)? (Blood brings atonement. It gives us eternal life. It is God’s symbol of life, not water. Thus the Egyptian symbol for life is now replaced with God’s symbol for life.)

III. Heqet

A. Read Exodus 8:5-7. Imagine a discussion about conquering Egypt and one person suggests, “Let’s send frogs.” What would you think of that suggestion?

1. While researching the ancientegyptblog.com I found that the Egyptian god Heqet (or Heqt) was a woman with a frog head. She was the fertility goddess. Heqet also had the task of making sure that the crocodiles ate enough frogs to keep their numbers in check. Why would God target Heqet?

B. Read Exodus 1:9 and Exodus 1:22. What was Pharaoh attempting to do with the number of the Hebrews? (He was trying to limit the number of boys.) 

1. Should Pharaoh understand that God has a message that He can control the fertility of the Egyptians? Recall that the relative number of Egyptians and Hebrews was what started the problem.

C. Look again at Exodus 8:7. Is this helping? Why would the magicians create frogs? (They simply looked at this as matching the power displayed by God. Note the text does not say they created frogs, rather they made them “come up on the land.”)

D. Read Exodus 8:8-10. For the first time Pharaoh agrees to let the Hebrews go to sacrifice. Why do you think Moses asked Pharaoh when, exactly, he would like the frogs to be gone? (This shows the power of God. Unlike Heqet, He can bring the frogs and He can take them away.)

IV. Geb and Set

A. Read Exodus 8:16-17. Geb was the god of the earth and dust, and Set the god of the desert and chaos. Why would God send gnats? (If you thought the frogs were annoying, God now sends insects that suck blood from humans.)

B. Read Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:19. What is the relationship between the ground and God? (God used the ground to create man and animals.)

C. Read Exodus 8:18-19. The magicians could not mimic the creation of gnats from the earth. Why would they admit this represented the power of God? (This is an excuse. So far they have mimicked the signs of Moses and Aaron. But now they are dealing with not only a God, but one stronger than their gods.)

D. Read Luke 11:19-20. What should Pharaoh have concluded? (The Kingdom of God has come upon him.)

V. Uatchit and Khepri

A. Read Exodus 8:20-22 and Exodus 8:13-14. Put yourself in the place of the Egyptians. You have all of these dead, smelly frogs around you and now you have flies which are no doubt landing on the dead frogs and then landing on you! Aside from being annoying and painful, why would God send flies? (Khepri was the god of new birth. Uatchit was the goddess of the flies and she guarded all life in the Nile Delta. Now these gods are feasting on dead frogs and humans!)

B. Look again at Exodus 8:22. How does this fit into the dispute between the true God and the Egyptian gods? (The Hebrews are protected against the flies.)

C. Read Exodus 8:25-28. Pharaoh is now in negotiations with Moses! What reveals the defeat of the Egyptian gods? (Pharaoh asks that prayers to the Hebrew God be made for him.)

D. Read Exodus 8:31-32. Are you like this? You pray that God will help you with a specific problem, and when He does, you go back to your old ways?

VI. The Lesson

A. We still have plagues five through nine left in this study. Like those we just examined, each belittles the gods of Egypt. Read Exodus 9:15. What does God tell Pharaoh is an alternative to the plagues? (God could have killed them all with “pestilence.” God has created difficult and annoying problems, but He did not wipe out the Egyptians as a nation.)

B. Read Exodus 9:16. What reason does God give for sending plagues and not death? (To show God’s “power so that [God’s name] may be proclaimed in all the earth.”)

1. Does this explain why God targeted the gods of Egypt?
2. Read Exodus 9:11. Who is God attacking here? (The plague of boils keeps the magicians from confronting Moses. Satan’s agents are immobilized.)

C. Read Exodus 9:17. What is at the heart of Pharaoh’s sin? (He is exalting himself against the people of God.)

1. Is this a problem in your life? Do you exalt yourself by harming those who love God?

D. Read 1 Samuel 2:30. Is God against a person being honored? (If you honor God, He will honor you. Pharaoh’s sin was that he would not honor the true God of Heaven.)

1. In plagues five, seven and eight God destroys the wealth of Egypt. What is the lesson in this?

E. Friend, will you make the primary goal of your life to bring honor to God? If that is not already your goal, why not decide right now to make that your goal?

VII. Next week: Passover.

Copr. 2025, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within parentheses. If you normally receive this lesson by e-mail, but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you study.

 

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/4-the-plagues-exodus-7-10-teaching-outline/