Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

04 The Plagues

I'm Cameron DeFazio and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Continuing on in our study of the book of Exodus, This quarter's lessons are all about that great book of the Bible and as we've repeated over and over now we're studying it not thematically but sequentially, chronologically right through the book.

Yeah well I mean it's a story, it's a narrative that goes in order, so it makes sense that we study it that way too.

This week's study focused on Exodus 7 through 10, that's our chunk of scripture we're looking at as we examine the nature and purpose of the plagues that the Lord poured out on Egypt.

Pretty straightforward and of course you remember we've already had Moses had his call by God in the wilderness, he's come to the children of Israel and we've studied all that and now it's time that the Lord said watch what I'm gonna do and so we see the Lord stepping into action here with the plagues.

I put the Dog Boys together so if you'd be so kind as to offer a word of prayer to get us going.

Father in heaven we are thankful for your word we ask now that You would bless our time in the study of your word and also, Lord, in preparation for the teachers who will be teaching this lesson in upcoming weeks.

We pray that it would be a blessing to our local Sabbath schools, to our local churches, that each that partakes in this lesson, the study would gain a deeper experience with you that would fortify them for the days we're living in to be faithful to you in all things we ask it in Jesus name.

And as a reminder, our talking point notes, of course, are still available for download on PDF or Word, even, if you want to edit them.

And there's one-sided and two-sided, and there's all kinds of versions.

But the latest iteration of that is on the app.

So anytime you go to the lesson inside of the app, you scroll down to the bottom, you can find those talking point notes native in the app.

The official General Conference Sabbath School app.

I keep referring to it as the app, but maybe it'll be...

In case somebody doesn't have it, you can go to your Android or your Apple platform and download that General Conference Sabbath School app.

Tremendous and explore all the other things on there too besides just Sabbath School.

And all the lessons are not just the adult quarterly, the collegiate lesson and all the division lessons are on there but for the adult lesson when you open the lesson itself and you scroll down you can have access to these handy outlines.

So all the excuses are gone there should be great Sabbath schools everywhere all these resources but let's look at this week's lesson talking point number 1 all of God's warfare is spiritual Now I know we're gonna be looking at the plagues and it'd be fighting with darkness and you know, like I mean, physical things like flies and locusts and whatnot, but there's a spiritual warfare behind that and that comes primarily from Sunday's lesson.

Talking point number 2, God respects and reveals our choices.

This is the question about who hardened Pharaoh's heart.

Yes, Talking point number 3 then, God works systematically to accomplish his will.

God has got a process and that's what the plagues point out and that comes from the last part of the week, from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's lesson as they look through each of the plates.

First of all, all God's warfare is spiritual.

What we mean by that is that, I put in the notes, the great controversy is not a fist fight.

When Satan rebelled in heaven, yeah, he didn't say like, stick him up.

You've said that before, it would be the not so great controversy.

It'd be a one-page blip in the history books remember that 1 day.

Yeah But no, it's not in fact, we're gonna look up some passage but in fact Why don't you go to Revelation chapter 12 verses 7 through 9 and read about the beginning of the great controversy as the scripture records it.

Revelation 12, verse 7, the Bible says, And war broke out in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him." Now there's a lot to say on this passage and it's just an introductory to our Exodus story here with the plagues.

But first of all, you notice the war broke out in heaven and we get the picture, oh, that's fighting, that's fist fight, it's drones nowadays or tanks or guns.

But the word there that's for wars is called polemos in Greek.

It's not just necessarily a physical battle, but it's more of an argumentation, right?

It's a battle of ideas and loyalties, right?

And so it divided the angel hosts, you know, a portion went with Satan and a portion stayed.

He didn't execute physical justice then and blot them out of existence.

The Bible in Exodus chapter, Ezekiel I should say, chapter 12.

Before we go there, it also in this passage, it struck me recently in verse 9, he says that serpent of old called the devil and Satan.

Now we refer to him as Lucifer by proper name.

He's called and then these 2 words devil Diabolos means a slanderer false accuser and Satan Satanus means adversary so They are Descriptive of his type of attack.

Mm-hmm in other words, he's called these names because they're descriptive of he's an adversary, he's a slander, he's a false accuser.

Again, the nature of the controversy was not it was, he's not a brawler.

Plus, again to my point, I really wish he had been But the nature of his rebellion leads to this response, right?

You have to cast him out and why Ezekiel 28 verse 17 says of this Lucifer who's now the devil Satan Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor, and now it tells us why he was cast out.

I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they, the other observers, might gaze at you." This concept being that God knew what was in his heart all along and he could have just blotted it out, but the nature of the controversy requires a process to deal with it, right?

So Ephesians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul speaks of this when he tells us, well you've got it there, Verse 12.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So for instance, writing from Paul's perspective, you might think the enemy was the Roman Empire or the Roman emperor at the time, or the Jewish rejection.

The issue is behind all of these powers, there's another power.

The real original power is the spiritual.

And when we come to the book of Exodus and we look at the experience of the Israelites being freed from the Egyptian bondage and how God went through it, he went through this process of physical manifestations, but not because it was a physical war, but because there was this spiritual battle behind the scenes.

It was, as the lesson called their title on, I think it was Sunday's lesson, wasn't it?

So, for example, in, let's go to Numbers 33, verse 4, If you'd look that up real quick.

There's a couple of times in Scripture where the Bible makes it explicit that this was the nature of the battle in the Exodus.

Verse 4, for the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord had killed among them.

Also on their gods, the Lord had executed judgments.

So looking back on it, it's like, oh boy, there was a physical toll to be paid, but it was a judgment on their gods.

Exodus chapter 12, verse 12 says, for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment." So what we see in the physical realm, in the earthly realm, is really just the copy and shadow of what is in heaven.

Just like the sanctuary kind of concept, there's the spiritual battle behind the scenes that we're just on the front end of.

So, for instance, there's this great passage from Patriarchs and Prophets about how the people on the ground, whether they are the Egyptians or the Israelites, recognize that this was a battle not between Pharaoh and Moses and not between the Egyptians and Israelites but the gods that those people served.

I want you to read Patriot for Prophets 259.

The Egyptians derided their expectations and scornfully denied the power of their God.

They pointed to their situation as a nation of slaves and tauntingly said, if your God is a just and merciful God and possesses power above that of the Egyptian gods, why does he not make you a free people?

They called attention to their own condition.

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

Eric Flickinger

Jiřί Moskala

It Is Written

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are studying the Exodus, an incredible period in earth's history, in the history of God's people, that gives us some lessons that we can learn for our day and beyond.

We're going to dive deeply into it today.

If you've ever wondered how we can better understand the plagues and get more out of them, we're gonna see today why God sent the plagues, their significance and what we can learn from them.

Father, we thank you for drawing us together today and we ask that you would bless us with a deeper understanding of you, your character, your will, and your reasons for doing the things that you do.

We ask your blessing on us today and we thank you in advance for granting that.

So we're glad that you are here, but we are also glad that we have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us, Dr.

Mascala, thank you again for being with us.

We're excited to learn something that you have been excited about for a good long time.

I am very excited and I'm very happy to be with you to study this quarterly today.

We've kind of led up to Moses' encounter with Pharaoh and Pharaoh's not keen on letting the people go and makes life more difficult for them.

Before we dive into these plagues, I want to look at verse number 1 of chapter 7.

It says, so the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron, your brother, shall be your prophet.

Now here we have God telling Moses that he's made Moses as God to Pharaoh.

Well I think it's a very beautiful imagery here that Aaron is playing prophet and Moses God.

So it is like a very good definition to understand who is the prophet because the prophet is a mouth of God.

So it's like Moses is speaking to Aaron so he is the full authority like divine authority because he's under the God's Commission and now speaking to Aaron and now Aaron will be his spokesperson to announce it.

So this tells us about the specific roles that God is the God who is in command.

And prophet, and We have so many instances in the Bible which speak about the prophets.

A prophet is a spokesperson for God and has authority coming from God.

So when Aaron is hearing the word from Moses, it's like hearing from God and he's delivering it.

And this is authoritative word also for the audience.

So this is a significant role that Moses is playing here and a significant role that Aaron is plaguing here.

He's playing here but it has to do with the plagues which we're diving into right now.

God typically doesn't do arbitrary things.

He has reasons for doing the things that he does.

And there are reasons behind these 10 plagues as well.

Help us to understand the reason that God sends these plagues.

Before I will speak about, you know, why he's sending the plagues, I think it's also very important to understand that God is not sending this plexus right away.

He is working patiently, I would say, with the stubborn pharaoh.

We already heard in chapter 5 that, you know, Moses and Aaron came and tell him, this is the word of God, let my people go.

But he refused and then the situation got worse and worse.

But now again, Moses and Aaron is with Pharaoh and the big miracle is performed.

You know, we read in chapter 7 from verse 8 that now not Moses but Aaron's stick was put on the ground, then it changed for the serpent.

But the authority is very clear because we read very clearly that even though these magicians could do it, it was the serpent of Aaron which swallowed other serpents.

And even though this miracle was done, you can read at the end of that miracle, verse 13, after the Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs, yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them just as the Lord has said.

So now is for the second time when God really gave the chance to Pharaoh And of course there were many other encounters, we don't know exactly how, but the long history of oppression here.

And before the plague starts, God wants to persuade him, even with a sign, with a special sign that he is God, living God is in charge here.

And then even the plaques are going on, there are situations where Pharaoh has still possibility to let God's people go, to really obey the word of God.

Even at some point, his magician is telling him, this is the finger of God.

So if you go to the purpose of these plaques, I think that's very significant is in chapter 12.

And we can go to the chapter 12 verse 12 when it is stated in regard to the last plague you know that what will happen I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both man and animal, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt." And I think that this is a very significant statement here, that what God was doing, he was not fighting against Egypt.

He was not fighting against Egyptians, but he was fighting against Egyptian gods.

Because Egypt, Egyptians, and now even many Israelites were like slaves in their thinking, in their feelings, in their behavior, were slaves to these gods.

And there was a big pantheon of different gods.

So God had an intent to liberate them, to be free, that they will be not afraid of these forces and the interpretation and mythologies and all the stories which were associated with different gods in order to make them subjugated and slave.

And then of course what you worship or what you fear, you serve to it.

And this lesson actually is now speaking about the first 9 plaques.

And if you will go to some, you know, companion book to the study of this lesson and also teacher's edition, I'm giving some more insights into these different plaques, which are playing a very significant role there.

But simply stated, there are clusters like 3, 3, and 3 of these plaques, and then culmination is the last 1, which will be the study for the next lesson.

And these clusters are also not only specifically related to different events and so on.

But also, they are showing that behind every plaque is not 1, but very often many Egyptian gods.

But if you go and see the plaques, they are in intensity, they are more and more severe.

And of course the last 1 is the biggest stroke.

But again, God was always warning and didn't want to bring more and more.

He wanted the first 1 will bring the right results.

And if you go through it like the blood first statement or the plague was about turning water into blood, nobody would be hurt yet from the human perspective, from humans.

It will be turning to show that we are dependent on water, but the water, the Nile, is not the happy God who is giving the water and life.

So it was from the very beginning that not happy or Osiris, but it is God who is the giver of life, giver of water.

And every plague was against different gods, like the second 1 about frogs.

And this is like the very famous, you know, god of frog Hecate in Egyptian pantheon of gods.

And again, God is showing that he is really in control of it.

And Egyptians, you know, cannot do anything to take them out.

So, like, those 3 plaques are going for everyone.

But then after the third 1, the fourth, it's intensified And it now must be seen a big difference between the Israelites, between God's camp and the camp of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

And of course, if people will associate with these Egyptian gods, the judgment which comes upon the Egyptian gods will fall also upon them.

And this is probably also a very important lesson for us.

That before God is sending his judgment, he's always out of love, he's warning us, giving us his fatherly, motherly advice that this will come.

These are the consequences of wrong choices.

If we have the decision which is bad, of course, then the life will be reflected on that.

So all these plaques playing the role that Pharaoh should come to his senses and that he will surrender to God and open his heart and let God's people go and liberate them.

So God is teaching the lesson of redemption, salvation through all of this.

So he's giving Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity to make a good decision.

But we see over and over again it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart.

We're gonna see shortly that it says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but we're gonna dive into that after our break and see what does that mean, because a lot of people have questions.

John Bradshaw

Better Health on a Budget

Coming up next, please stay tuned for It Is Written, presented by Pastor John Bradshaw.

It's no secret that people living in the Western world are suffering from serious health challenges.

Diabetes and prediabetes are out of control, it seems, and everything from dementia to autism is running amok.

You don't have to suffer from illnesses and disorders.

In the vast majority of cases, you can experience better health.

Good health is a good idea, but for some people, good health seems to be out of reach because good health costs real money.

Health insurance can be horrendously expensive.

Visit a health food store and you'll understand why many people simply shop where they can afford to buy food to put on the table, even though it might not be the best quality.

But having better health does not have to break the bank.

We are going to discuss better health on a budget.

I'm going to share ideas and principles with you that pretty much anyone can follow and implement.

Primarily, better health is God's idea, and your physical health is connected to your spiritual health.

God's wish is that you prosper in all things and be in health, according to 3 John verse 2.

You want to thrive spiritually, you want to thrive physically as far as you're able.

In the Bible, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.

When the king's unclean and unhealthy food and his fermented wine were served, Daniel refused them.

And after 10 days of honoring God in his diet, Daniel and his friends were visibly healthier than the rest of the young men.

As a result, Daniel was blessed with spiritual wisdom and insight, and he wrote 1 of the most consequential books in the entire Bible.

Paul wrote that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that you are not your own, for you were bought at a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." So this matters.

Now, consider that global health statistics make for scary reading, and this becomes important for survival.

James Elsey, professor of surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, writing for the American College of Surgeons.

Currently, the U.S., compared to similar Western countries, has the lowest life expectancy at birth, highest reported maternal and infant mortality, highest hospitalization rate from preventable causes, highest death rate for avoidable and treatable conditions, highest suicide rate, and highest chronic disease burden rate in the world.

Has evolved into a highly corporatized system controlled by a decreasing number of increasingly powerful conglomerates, where Profit is often the main metric of performance and success.

Is a for-profit industry, which is good in some ways, not so good in others.

The primary responsibility of a for-profit enterprise is profitability.

If you need surgery or if you've been in an accident and you need someone to put you back together, you can't beat the U.S.

But if you actually want to get well and stay Well, you really have to take matters into your own hands and start making decisions that will benefit you.

Now, when you start to talk about better health on a budget, there are a couple of places your mind might predictably go.

If you want to pay less for food, you might want to buy in bulk.

But for many people, buying in bulk simply isn't really an option.

Not everyone has enough money to buy 48 of everything.

And not everyone has the space to store 48 cans of beans or 25 pounds of rice.

Buying in bulk is a good idea, but it isn't practical for all.

But we'll put that on our list with an asterisk.

Store brands can be cheaper, and the quality is the same.

SupermarketX doesn't have its own factory-making pasta sauce.

It's made by 1 of the big manufacturers and relabeled, so you're getting regular quality and it isn't costing you so much.

We'll put that on our list without an asterisk.

But at the end of the day, you've saved $14 on your grocery bill.

And while that's something, It isn't changing a whole lot about your situation.

You could shop around for health insurance, but it's all expensive, so it's a bit like saving $10 on a designer handbag, still costing you a ton.

An unexpected visit to the emergency room or an urgent care clinic can break the bank, especially given that 1 in 4 Americans have less than $1, 000 in savings.

What's better is to not need the medication or the visit to the doctor.

Of course, that's not always possible for a variety of reasons.

But what if you could keep them from happening?

The good news is, in many instances, you can.

I'm going to come at this from a couple of different directions.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

04 The Plagues

28m

04 The Plagues

28m

Better Health on a Budget

28m

A Beginning with No End

53m

Relativism and Absolutes

31m

05 Not Just Another Church

1h 11m

A Voice of Warning: Sealed and Delivered

1h 7m

Live Longer with God’s Health Blueprint

58m

04 The Missing Link

1h 1m

A Voice of Warning: Love at the Depths of the Sea

1h 4m

The Moment

34m

03 Your Problems Solved

51m

Sound Doctrine