Alright...lets start today with a question.

Of the 5 senses that a human has, which one do you think is the strongest?

It's the sense of smell.

Research has shown that a humans sense of smell can detect 1 trillion different stimuli.

Compare that to your eyes that can see 7 million visible colors.

That means that your sense of smell is 150k times more powerful than your sight.

Its 2.8 million times more sensitive than your hearing.

Not only that, your sense of smell is directly connected to the part of your brain that produces and stores memories and processes emotions.

That’s why smells, more than any other stimuli most quickly and vividly engage good and bad memories and the emotions that accompany them.

So, when you smell a t-shirt that was washed with your grandmother’s laundry detergent... immediately you can have vivid flashbacks to spending time at Grandma’s house.

Or when you get a whiff of that perfume or cologne that old boyfriend or girlfriend used to wear...you are transported to all the good and bad memories you had with that person.

...or if you’re anything like me, you can get legitimately angry at a person for creating a bad smell.

Sometimes Jeremy Young our executive pastor brings a can of tuna for lunch. And when he opens that can, I want to open a can on him.

Because that putrid smell so quickly engages my emotions.

So, in all my research of smells this week, I did a little un-scientific looking for what exactly people thought were the absolute worst smells.

Though its certainly not objective, across the board, on nearly every list I could find on the internet, there were 2 at the top.

Raw sewage and decomposing flesh.

In other words...decay and death are the worst smells that we know.

And those smells remind us of something...Our future.

That one day, we will die and break down.

But what if that’s not what God intended? What if those smells aren’t supposed to remind us of our future...but instead, remind us of our past?

What if death and decay became a scent that caused us to say, “That’s who I used to be” instead of “That’s who I’m going to be?”

We’re going through the book of Exodus...and today, we’re going to cover an incredible part of this story of the rescue of Israel. The Plagues.

But, I want to show you something about these plagues that may never have noticed before. See a lot of folks think these are plagues are just supposed to be a raw display of God’s power against Pharaoh’s evil empire.

But there’s something about these plagues that reveal God’s character in a very unique way...and I hope today they’ll show you that this God is not only a powerful God...but he’s a God that takes stuff that stinks...and makes into something sweet.

Today, we’re covering 6 chapters. Obviously I can’t read all of these today, but I would encourage you to do so. I am reading somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 verses today... but I really want you to get a sense of the flow of what Moses is writing here. So we are going to dedicate a little bit more time to reading the Scripture this morning. I’ll try and fill in the gaps when we skip forward...and then hopefully, you’ll be able to see why its important.

Exodus 5:1-2

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

Take note. That is a question that these next few chapters are going to answer...Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice?

...and know doubt that is a question that every single one of us better be asking.

At this point, Pharaoh gives a command to heap more work with impossible expectations onto the Hebrew slaves. They also are beaten severely for not getting their work done.

At the end of chapter 4, the Israelites were happy to see Moses and Aaron and worshipped God, believing he was going to lead them out of slavery.

But now...they change their tune. The foremen of the Israelites go to Moses to complain... which causes Moses to complain to God.

Exodus 5:21-23

and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Exodus 6:1

But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

Exodus 6:6

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

Exodus 6:9-12

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the LORD said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

At this point, we get another big question that God is going to answer in these chapters. Moses is asking “How is Pharaoh going to listen to me when I’m both physically and spiritually messed up?” I’ll explain this in a bit, but that phrase “uncircumcised lips” has a pretty complex meaning that I think lets us in a little more to Moses’ mindset.

Exodus 7:1-5

And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Exodus 7:8-18

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.’”

Exodus 7:21

And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Since Pharaoh still didn’t think God worthy of obeying...another plague came on Egypt. A plague of frogs, where frogs came out of the Nile and infested Egypt. They were everywhere, even in the kitchen.

Pharaoh finally comes to Moses and says, “Ok, ok. Take the frogs away and I’ll let the Israelites go.”

Exodus 8:10b

Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.”

Exodus 8:13-15

And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

At this point, the plagues go on...Gnats, Flies, death of livestock, sores and boils, ...and each time Pharaoh agrees to let God’s people go only to take back what he said after God takes away the plague

Then comes this in chapter 9. God sends hail.

Exodus 9:14-21

For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”’” Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

Again, Pharaoh relents...even seems to repent...he says, “I was wrong, God is right” and so God takes away the hail.

But shortly after, Pharaoah’s heart is hardened again and so God sends huge swarms of locusts...

Exodus 10:15-17

They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.”

Of course, once again Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he doesn’t follow through and so God sends the 9th plague. An

Exodus 10:21-29

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.” But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”

Ok, Now, we’re gonna work back through all of that and hopefully answer some the Pandora’s box of questions that passage opens up.

Like... “Why is God so mean here? Why not just freeze the Egyptians while Israel gets away and nobody gets hurt? Or why not give Moses the power to wave his staff over Israel and give everybody the speed of Flash. So they zip outta there before Egypt notices?”

Or maybe you have this question, “If it was God that hardened Pharaoh’s heart, why would he hold him responsible?”

Here’s why in a general sense...and this is what we’ll spend the rest of our time working out.

These chapters in Exodus...and these plagues in particular are answers. They are the answer to the two questions that Pharaoh and Moses ask. For Pharaoh- “Who is this YAHWEH...that I should obey him?”

And for Moses- “If the people on my team won’t even listen to me, how do you expect the bad guys to listen, especially since I’m broken physically (I don’t talk too good) and spiritually (I’m not a righteous man)?”

So here’s how God answers these questions. First he shows that...

1) YAHWEH is the only real god.

Pharaoh has something in common with a lot of people living in the 21st century.

He is a rabid pluralist.

In other words, he’s not likely to say your god is not real...instead, he’d just say, “Whatever god you want to believe in...that’s fine...just don't tell me I have to obey YOUR god’s rules.”

That’s why he asks the question “Why should I obey YAHWEH?” So God shows him.

Did you notice in the first of these signs, that Pharaoh is intent on showing that Moses’ God is no better than his pagan gods?

First there’s the snake.

Aaron throws his staff down and it turns to a snake.

Then Pharaoh’s magicians say “No big deal, we can do that too.” But then Moses’ snake eats the other snakes up.

Then when the Nile turns to blood, and when the frogs swarm the land, the Egyptian Magicians (fabulous indie band name, by the way) conjure up some kind of black magic that does something similar.

By the way, doesn’t it become phenomenally easier to turn the Nile to blood and make frogs swarm the land, ...when the Nile is already blood and frogs are already swarming the land?

But, by the time you get to the 3rd plague, the gnats the magicians are unable to come up with any copy cat stuff.

But here’s something you may not have noticed.

Each of these plagues is confronting one of the many Egyptian gods.

For example, the Nile represented a couple of different gods.

Like Hapi, who was said to be the Spirit of the Nile also the Lord of the Fish.

Which, means, its TOTALLY legit to say his name was Hapi Gilmore.

...which makes me wonder if when Moses turned the Nile to blood he said “More like, Hapi Gill-less” in his best Adam Sandler voice

Then there was Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and resurrection. the Nile was said to be his bloodstream.

So when the Nile turns to blood, Yahweh is showing that he has cut wide open Osiris, the god of death & resurrection.

Because we know, while blood is a sign of life, its also a sign of weakness and death. See, we need blood to flow through our veins to live, but its spilled...death is on the way.

All the other plagues were attacks on Egyptian gods.

The frog goddess, the fly god, the cow god, the sky god, the locust god, and the sun and moon gods.

With each plague, YAHWEH is showing Pharaoh, your gods are no gods at all. He is saying, “The reason you should obey me is because I AM the only real god. I am the only God that that created you my image. All these other gods, you have created in YOUR image.

Now listen, I know what you’re thinking.

I don’t worship the fly god or the frog god...I only worship this One True God, Yahweh.

But let me ask you this- Do you obey him?

I mean...It’s easy to look at Pharaoh when he says, “Who is the LORD that I should obey him?” and think “OH NO HE DIDN'T!!!! That sucker is about to get put in his place.”

But think about this. Even Pharoah understands that obeying a god and believing a god is real are inextricably linked.

In other words, Pharaoh would probably look at a lot of us and think, “Boy, y’all are dumb.”

See, because for many of us, the problem isn’t recognizing that there is one True God, or even that that God is all-powerful.

Our problem is that we don’t think that should lead to our obedience.

For example, most of us would probably say, “I think Jesus is the one true God.” But we don’t really think much about his commands or really give any effort to obey what he says.

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

But look what Jesus said

He said “If you love me, you’ll obey my commands.”

Think about this for a minute. If there is an all-powerful God that created you, ...and lets just suppose for a minute that he really loves you... why wouldn’t you obey his commands?

There is absolutely no way you ACTUALLY believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, totally good God if you aren’t willing to obey him.

Because you’re just like Pharaoh. You’re a pluralist.

You believe there are many gods...and in order to have a happy life you have to worship many of them.

So you worship the god of romance, and you ignore YAHWEH’s commands about sex outside of marriage...because...you know...the Bachelor showed you there’s only one good way to get rose.

...and then you worship the god of control...who tells you, you need him...you have to have him...and you obey him by yelling and losing your temper when things don’t go your way, because if life feels out of control...you think you’re losing. Never mind that patience and humility, and gentleness thing that Jesus told you about.

See, you’re a pluralist. And its breaking you. Because you can’t serve more than one god.

Jesus himself said that. At some point, your gods will tell you to do conflicting things...and you’ll have to decide who to obey.

The real God is showing you here, that he is the only God worth obeying because he is the ONLY REAL GOD.

2) YAHWEH is the God of the natural that uses the unnatural to do the supernatural. There’s something else you may not have noticed about these plagues.

They aren’t incredibly exciting.

Honestly, for the most part, they represent a natural progression that’s pretty unremarkable.

First, God makes the Nile ‘undrinkable’ by turning it to blood.

Which, granted, is pretty remarkable...but even the Egyptian Magicians figure out how to make that happen.

...and, of course, it could always be explained by some disease that may have called the fish to rupture spontaneously.

You know, its not like he turned the Nile into a giant snake. From there, the ecosystem is destroyed.

The frogs easily could have fled for other sources of water..then they die...and the gnats and flies swarm their dead bodies and bodies of the dead fish.

Then, from that you get diseases that destroy livestock and bring about boils on people’s skin.

Now, you may be thinking, “Trev, are you trying to explain away these miracles?” No, not at all.

In fact, its very evident in the text that God is making this happen, at an exponential and exaggerated rate.

Its like God is speeding up decomposition. He’s speeding up death.

In fact, its interesting, that the Hail hits...and then the locusts come in and notice what the text said.

The Locusts come and destroy all the fruit that the hail didn’t. All the green things go away. Not tree or plant of the field is left.

Do you recognize what this is?

This is the reversal of the creation account.

Exodus 5-10 is the undoing of Genesis 1-2

In the first 2 chapters of Genesis God is moving from Darkness and Chaos...to light and plants and animals.

Now, the animals and plants are dying while we move toward darkness. See, the hail hits and takes some plants...but not all.

Then the locusts hit...and take the rest of the plants...and make it partially dark, but only for a short time.

Then, the 9th plague, total darkness hits for 3 days.

The world (at least in Egypt) is coming undone.

Its unraveling.

Its moving from life and flourishing to decomposition and death.

Its moving from order to chaos.

From Light to darkness.

See, in Genesis 1 and 2 is God takes takes man, woman, animals, plants, land, water, and weather and has them working together in a beautiful, completely perfect, harmonious, whole.

Everything and everyone are at peace with each other.

Its what the Hebrews called Shalom. Its more than peace, its everything in perfect relationship.

But now, the weather is destroying animals.

The insects are destroying plants...until everything is dark again.

You know what this means, this means that God does not give you arbitrary commands.

If he is the God who created us...and moved chaos into order for our flourishing and so that all creation would work together to give him glory and to have Shalom...

...then when we disobey God, when we buck his authority or claim that his commands are just him trying to keep us from what we want to do... it means...well, that we are going to unravel.

We are going to fall apart. Our lives will naturally fall into disorder.

We are going to decompose...

...WE ARE GOING TO DIE....and that is going to STINK like dead fish in the Nile...and decomposing frogs on the riverbanks.

Look, when you sin, or choose not to obey God, the chaos that comes into your life is not necessarily God supernaturally smiting you from above...it is rather a natural progression of what sin does. It pulls you apart. It's a preview of what’s happening to your soul.

You are coming undone.

When you disobey God, you are starting a domino effect of chaos and disorder that will effect everything and everyone around you.

Your life is falling apart because that is the nature of sin.

Sin broke the world.

In Genesis 3, sin brought a curse to the world...death. Decomposing.

It put a stench in the world that became so powerful, that now we talk about death and decay like its natural.

But its not. Its unnatural. That’s why you never go to a funeral and just think, “Isn’t this great! The world working just like it should.”

No, it doesn’t matter what you believe about God, you can’t celebrate the fact that we die. You fear it. You mourn it. You wish it wasn’t so.

You know death stinks...and you want something that smells better.

Let me give you an example.

Imagine a middle aged man goes to the Doctor.

And the Doctor says, “Mr. Atwood, if you don’t stop eating hamburgers with donuts as the buns, you are going to die before you have grandchildren.”

Now at that point, I’m not going to look back at that Doctor and say, “How dare you try to control me! I’ll eat what I want to eat. I’m not listening to this overbearing power play!”

See, my doctor is just holding her authority over my head, she’s just telling me, “you keep this up...this is going to kill you .”

God knows me better than my doctor.

And he loves me more than my doctor loves me.

So of course, he gives me commands that are for my good, not because he wants to limit me or keep fun out of my life.

Only a fool would believe that about his doctor...and if he did, he’d wind up dead.

But that doctor wouldn’t have to crawl in the window to murder him...he’d just let nature run its course.

Let me give you one example of this.

Take Forgiveness.

God gives clear commands in Scripture to forgive.

Well, have you ever not forgiven someone? Do you know what it does to your soul?

It consumes you. It eats you alive. You become angry, cynical and guarded. You can’t trust anyone...and so you shut people out.

You emotionally fall apart.

Because you are telling God, “I have a better way.”

But you can’t possibly have a better way than the God that created you to have Shalom.

Now, remember what Moses asked God?

Moses said, “God, How is Pharaoh going to listen to me because I am of ‘Uncircumcised lips’.

So what does that mean?

Well, I think it means 2 things.

First, I think it's a reference to whatever is wrong with Moses’ speech.

We don’t know exactly why Moses says he doesn’t speak well, but we know that this is a huge concern for Moses. It's a physical disability. His speech is broken. Its not the way its supposed to be. Its not whole.

The words he wants to say in his brain are not the ones that come out of his mouth. So his brain and his lips are not in shalom. He is physically broken.

BUT, I think there is more here.

See, that word ‘Uncircumcised’ has spiritual connotations, too.

In Genesis, Circumcision was the sign given to Abraham to remind God’s people of his covenant promise to save them.

It was a physical sign of a spiritual reality. That though things don’t look good, the Hebrews can always remember that God will keep his promise to save.

So, when Moses says he has ‘uncircumcised lips’, he is also saying that he is sinful... unclean...not worthy of God’s promise to save.

In other words, Moses confession is that he is both physically and spiritually broken. He has absolutely nothing to put confidence in to stand in front of pharaoh and command his attention.

But in these plagues, in these signs God is using what stinks...dead fish, dead frogs....death, decomposition...physical brokenness...as a tool to do something supernatural...keep his promise to save Israel.

Think of the comfort that is not only to Moses, but to you and me.

This God, this one true God, is the God who uses the unnatural...the physically and spiritually broken...to do his supernatural work.

He uses what makes us stink...to bring about the smell of life and flourishing... and that leads us to a bigger, even more supernatural truth, that....

Jesus is YAHWEH that changes the way your future smells.

Here’s a question that you are probably asking about this text we read today. “It says multiple times in that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart.”

So if that’s the case...then why does God hold Pharaoh responsible for his sin? Well, let me try and simplify a complicated answer.

First, if you read back through, you’ll notice that the text doesn’t ONLY say that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, it also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Additionally, you’ll find that from Moses first encounter of Pharaoh all the way through the first 4 plagues that we are told that Pharaoh was the one hardening his heart or that Pharoah’s heart was simply hard.

And each time, God gives pharaoh a chance to repent.

Its not until the 2nd set of plagues that you start to get this idea that God is doing the hardening.

Think about this in relation to the plagues.

The plagues are all natural consequences of the unwinding of creation that God sort of “speeds up”

Likewise, Pharaoh is exercising his free will in hardening his heart at the same time God is working to harden it and speed up the natural consequences of Pharaoh’s rebellion.

Did you also notice how merciful God is through these plagues?

I mean, when he sends the hail, he tells Moses to warn the Egyptians to get all their livestock in the barns.

Why does God do that? Why even after Pharaoh continues to sin against him, does God not deliver a knock out blow?

Well, its because the point of the plagues is not ultimately to judge...it is to save.

First, of course, the plagues are there to save Israel. To get them out of Egypt.

But God is also continually giving the Egyptians the chance to repent.

And of course, its through God delivering this judgment that we are reading about this today.

See, even all of the smell of this death, as hard as it is to encounter and read, is rising up into your nostrils today to help you understand your own sin...and the way back to Shalom.

Yes, you are dead in your sin.

Yes, all of your good deeds are like filthy, stinking rags to God.

BUT, while you were dead in your sin...unwinding...unraveling...committed to other God’s... God intervened.

See, God brings judgment into your life, the natural breaking apart of your life, to wake you up to his salvation.

He doesn’t save you INSTEAD of judgment, he saves you THROUGH judgment.

Remember what Jesus did when he was on the earth. He gave commands, but he did more than that. He was more than just a good teacher.

He lived in perfect Shalom with all creation. And with God the Father. He didn’t start storms...he told them to calm down and be quiet.

Remember, Jesus was healing people...he was undoing the undoing. He was reversing the curse.

And then there was the time that his friend Lazarus died.

Jesus comes to town to raise him from the dead, but nobody believes it possible.

John 11:39

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”

In fact, when he tells them to move the stone out from in front of his grave, look what Lazarus’ sister says. She says, “Jesus, don’t you know the way the world works naturally?” He’s been in there for 4 days. HE STINKS!!!!!!”

Jesus effectively replies, “Martha, thank you for that science lesson. But that’s not the natural way. Death is unnatural. Death is broken. Death STINKS!....But I am the resurrection and the life and whoever belives in me, though dead, will live again. Now, lets change the way this guy smells!”

See, Jesus writes a different future for you. Where death and brokenness are the unnatural decomposition of your life because of sin, Jesus came to bring the dead to life. To take your future, that is surely death, and move it to your past.

So that in him, your future becomes life. Resurrection. And the only thing that stinks....is your past.

Do you know how he did it?

Remember the 9th plague?

Darkness.

Centuries after that plague hit Egypt, the plague of darkness would hit the earth again... because God was saving through judgment.

Matthew 27:45-46

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

On the Cross, Jesus Christ, the only human being who never had a hard heart...the only human being who lived in perfect Shalom with his Father and with all creation

Broke apart spiritually... “My God, why have you left me alone.”

And he physically broke apart on the cross.

When the plunged a spear in his side, blood and water flowed out...like the Nile River.

And then Darkness hit the land for 3 hours. On the cross the first and the last plague hit the God who is the Alpha and Omega.

It was the judgment of God for you...taken on himself.

God was saving you through judgment.

Jesus went into darkness and chaos so you could be brought to life. The maker of the universe was unmade so you could be remade. So your future doesn’t smell like death, instead...its this.

2 Cor 2:14-16

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

When your trust is in this God...this JESUS...you become a different aroma.

You become the sweet aroma of Christ both to God and the people around you. Your future is no longer tainted by the smell of death and decay, rather by life and Shalom.

We now smell like the gospel, the good news of Jesus death and resurrection for us. And to some, that is life...because they will hear the gospel and repent.

But to some, it smells like death. When they see a bloody cross its offensive...and they just see a god who wants to control them.

And like Moses we ask in humility...WHO IS SUFFICIENT TO CARRY THIS MESSAGE OF SALVATION.

And by his Holy Spirit, through the armoa of Christ that hits our memories unlike any other sense...

“You are sufficient to carry the gospel because I’ve made you clean by my blood.”