THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PLAGUES

As we continue looking at the ancient plagues that God brought upon the land of Egypt, we notice a pattern in regard to the true and spiritual nature of the plagues. Yes, God did strike the land with these literal afflictions which are historical facts sealed in Scripture. God’s Word is designed in such a way that mortal man can barely touch the depths and riches of the thought of the great Creator. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul declares the words of Christ to be unsearchable. In the Greek this word literally means past finding out.

Romans 11:33 - O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

The Greek word in the above verse used for past finding out is the same Greek word used in Ephesians 3:8 for unsearchable. God’s Word is the Alpha and Omega - the unsearchable Christ Almighty of all things. Every iota of matter and thought in the endless universe is known to Him, as every jot and tittle in His infinite Word is given with much merit. Regenerate man will comprehend only what the Father is willing to reveal - to those who have a love for the truth and thus blessed by His Holy Spirit.

The Sixth Plague Unto Egypt

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.

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Psalms 12:6 - The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

God depicts this earth in many ways, and here He is giving us an analogy of the earth - as a furnace. In Isaiah 48:10 God speaks of this metaphorical furnace as the furnace of affliction.

Isaiah 48:10 - Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

The earth indeed is equated to a furnace in Scripture. Who can withstand this fiery furnace? Zechariah 13:9, among other passages, gives us the answer.

Zechariah 13:9 - And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

In what way is literal silver and gold refined? Quoting from Gold and Silver Mines.Com:

“Silver was discovered after gold and copper about 4000 BC, when it was used in jewelry and as a medium of exchange. The earliest known workings of significant size were those of the pre-Hittites of Cappadocia in eastern Anatolia. Silver is generally found in the combined state in nature, usually in copper or lead mineralization, and by 2000 BC mining and smelting of silver-bearing lead ores was under way. Lead ores were smelted to obtain an impure lead-silver alloy, which was then fire refined by cupellation. The best-known of the ancient mines were located at the Laurium silver-lead deposit in Greece; this was actively mined from 500 BC to AD 100. Spanish mines were also a major source.”

The same basic methods are used today in refining gold and silver and other precious metals…it is all accomplished by fire or heat. This refining of precious metals is how God looks at every true believer on earth…they must be refined in the trials and tribulations of Earth’s furnace. An excellent example of this is told through the true and historic occurrence of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they were tossed into the fiery furnace in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel. They literally survived that ordeal solely because God was using the occasion as a spiritual picture of how absolutely no one can eternally survive the fiery furnace of earth and hell itself except Christ be with them. In the incident of Daniel chapter three there suddenly appeared a fourth figure in the fiery furnace among Shadrach, Mashach, and Abednego - thus the reason for their survival. Daniel 3:25 tells us that the form of this fourth figure is like “the Son of God.” The overall spiritual discerning of this literal event is in knowing and understanding that only Christ - the Son of God - can carry you out of this earth’s fiery furnace without being spiritually destroyed. Christ - Father, Son and Holy Ghost - is the only way to eternal salvation.

Moses, Aaron, and the Ashes of the Furnace

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.

What precisely is this furnace that Moses and Aaron had at their disposal? Later on in Deuteronomy God recalls bringing the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and even adds a symbolic description to life in Egypt as an iron furnace - iron being associated here with bondage and strength.

Deuteronomy 4:20 - But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

To the Hebrew slaves the life, trials and tribulations in the land of Egypt was their world - their furnace of affliction.

1 Kings 8:51 - For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

As mentioned before in this series, ancient Egypt seems to be symbolic of the unsaved world - those who are in bondage to sin. The exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt pictured God’s true elect from the four corners of the earth as Christ leads us through this world and into His heavenly promise land. Christ makes that possible by His taking our eternal punishment for us. As God parted the Red Sea and allowed the children of Israel to pass through, likewise God has provided a ransom for us. A ransom in Christ, that we should not fall into the eternal depths of the sea, which portrays spiritual death, - but that we might pass over the eternal abyss that Christ has “parted” for us and on our behalf, and enter into the eternal bliss of the true and spiritual promise land.

The Old Testament children of Israel and/or House of Israel was a picture or depiction of God’s true and spiritual Israel - all who worship Christ in spirit and in truth. This is not to say that those among the great exodus were not saved. No, indeed some were saved, however, the account of the exodus of the Jews from Pharaoh’s Egypt was accomplished ultimately in disclosing a grand spiritual picture of how God’s true and spiritual elect (spiritual Israel: Galatians 3:29,6:16; Romans 9:4-8,11:26) would be brought into eternal salvation.

As we look at the 6^th plague upon ancient Egypt we find Moses and Aaron picking up handfuls of ashes from a furnace. What is the significance of ashes with regard to Scripture? First, it is a sign of deep mourning or repentance - to lay in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel 9:3 - “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:” Secondly, ashes is the true nature of fallen man. Genesis 18:27 - “And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:” Ashes was also used in ceremonial laws. Numbers 19:9 - “And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.” More commonly the word ash or ashes is symbolic in referring to man’s death, both physical and spiritual. Job 13:12 - “Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.” Ezekiel 28:18 - “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.”

Isaiah 61:1-3:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 - To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3 - To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”

Verse one speaks of the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah as He appears on earth to preach the good news of salvation. Those who believe in Him will be given a garment of praise in place of what they had … a spirit of heaviness. Those who believe in Christ will be given the oil of joy in place of mourning. Those who worship Christ will be given beauty in place of ashes. These are all direct opposites: a garment of praise is salvation in place of spiritual heaviness … that is to say being lost. The oil of joy is again salvation through the symbolical oil of the Holy Spirit … in place of mourning. All who are not saved are in spiritual mourning, whether they know it or not. Finally, God will grant His elect beauty in place of ashes. When Christ appeared, the following verse reached fruition:

Isaiah 28:5 - “In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,”

Psalms 96:6 - “Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”

Beauty in place of ashes! Yes, eternal bliss in place of spiritual death. That is the inheritance of all who truly put their trust in Christ. As we look at Moses and Aaron in Exodus 9:8 we ask ourselves if their gathering of ashes might be in mourning or in great repentance? Clearly it is not. Might it be in association to some type of ceremonial law? There is no indication that it is. The remaining option is in determining that it must or might be representative of spiritual death. Both physical and spiritual death was brought upon by man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. As a result, after man dies his body returns to the dust of the earth. There are other lesser meanings or usages for the word ash.

Toward Heaven

Another word for dust is ash. There are no other verses in Scripture that speak of sprinkling ashes upward toward heaven. As near as we can come is in Job 2:12 - “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.” This is in the context of mourning, as Job 2:11 states. We find throughout all of Scripture that there is only one occasion where ashes are sprinkled upward toward heaven and this occasion was accomplished by Moses in the sixth plague upon ancient Egypt. We also find Moses stretching his rod and then again his hand toward heaven when commencing other plagues upon Egypt. Clearly it is a symbolical gesture, possibly affirming to be in obedience to God as we see in the following verses:

1 Kings 8:22 - And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:

2 Chronicles 6:13 - For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,

Whatever the reason for taking ashes out of a furnace and sprinkling them upward, we know one certainty - it signaled the commencement of the sixth plague upon Egypt. “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,” Exodus 9:8. The Hebrew word for ashes in this particular verse is piyach (powder, dust or ash) and is used nowhere else in Scripture except in Exodus 9:8 and Exodus 9:10. It is a different word than what is used for common ashes and therefore extremely difficult to interpret with any degree of confidence. However God does have His reason for commanding Moses to take ashes from a furnace and sprinkle them upward toward heaven. We can’t second guess the spiritual meaning or significance behind this - we can only vaguely suggest. We do know with certainty that God depicts this world as a furnace, Psalm 12:6. However, God also depicts eternal darkness as a furnace of fire as well. Matthew 13:42 - “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

This world is in a fallen state; its inhabitants are already partaking of the second death, which is eternal outcast. That is to say all of humanity - past, present and future - are walking corpses, they are dead while they live. Thus the fiery furnace of this earth - in a sense - is no different than the fiery furnace of outer darkness … their ashes are alike and in agreement. Of course there is a great multitude which no man can number that are saved from this second death via the atonement of Christ, Revelation 7:9. It is this hope in Christ that differentiates the two fiery furnaces - here on earth there is still hope of salvation.

Perhaps Moses is displaying this truth as he reaches into the furnace and grasps a handful of ashes and sprinkles them toward heaven. Perhaps these ashes are symbolic of salvation and God’s true elect? With that in mind, we ask the question … what spiritual power will God’s elect have over their enemies? Yes, unregenerate man is the enemy of Christ and we are to love our enemies. What, if any, power will believers have over our enemies?

Power Over Our Enemies

Those who are in Christ do and will retain power over their enemies. No, we may not be able to escape the physical trials and persecutions of the world, but that is not the power we are endowed with. 1 Corinthians 6:2 - “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?”

Revelation 2:26 - And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Revelation 11:6 - These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

2 Chronicles 20:27 - Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

Micah 5:9 - Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.

Matthew 22:44 - The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Psalms 89:10 - Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.

Psalms 8:2 - Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Scripture is perfectly clear that God gives His elect power over our enemies. What power do we really have? When we look out at the world we see it continuously crumbling into a state of utter degradation. Why is the power of the elect not able to call up this degradation? Why is the power of the elect not able to break the bars of prison cells and free those elect who are bound in chains? What is our power then? God’s will is being fulfilled for this fallen earth. The heat of this fiery furnace has intensified and is guaranteed to increase as we head into the final days and the Great Tribulation. Our power is greater than altering the law of physics for God blesses His elect and empowers them in ways they are not even aware of.

Luke 10:19 - “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Spiritual and holy power, coupled with prayer, is what God grants us. There may well be other hidden gifts that God’s elect have not yet discovered. In the above verse God is not granting physical power so we can overcome literal serpents and scorpions. No, God is granting His disciples spiritual power over the attacks and deceptions of Satan. God is granting power to us over the wiles of the devil; over false doctrines and false prophets, i.e. the symbolical serpents and scorpions of the world.

The point is that the true believer in Christ has at his disposal a vast amount of power and influence from the Lord on High. It is unseen in the worldly realm, nonetheless it is there. As Christ reached down into the furnace of this earth and scooped up a remnant of rotten ashes or humanity for Himself (His elect), so too perhaps Moses is signifying this very truth as he gives power to the ashes - as Christ gives power to His elect.

Moses Lifts Up the Ashes

Exodus 9:10 - “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.”

The fact that these ashes are being sprinkled upward toward heaven may indicate they are now being used for a holy purpose. Once they were in the furnace but now they are being used of God. It is symbolic in nature and yet God commanded Moses to sprinkle these ashes upward. As Moses obeyed, and sprinkled or scattered the ashes upward, they fell upon man and beast in the land of Egypt. Again, it is figurative language here. Moses threw the dust up into the air in the site of Pharaoh. This fact should not be overlooked. As Old Testament Egypt signified the unsaved world, bound by Satan in their sins and trespasses, Pharaoh as King of Egypt must also have been a spiritual symbol of Satan - the prince of the power of the air and the prince of this world.

Ephesians 2:2 - “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

John 12:31 - “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”

God could have persuaded Pharaoh in an instant to let the children of Israel go. Instead, He gives us spiritual lessons that we might understand some of the depths and riches of His Word. As Moses stood before Pharaoh on behalf of the children of Israel, and withstood him, we see a similar but larger spiritual picture. The children of Israel were taken out of bondage from Egypt, much like God’s spiritual Israel (all elect of God) being saved from the bondage to sin and spiritual death. These literal events in Old Testament Egypt demonstrate the power of God over Satan, of course, but also shed light on God’s salvation plan.

Ashes Turn To God’s Judgment

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.”

The very ashes that Moses lifted up toward heaven have turned to judgment upon all the land of Egypt. Much like the remnant of God, having once been among the ashes of earth’s furnace, but now have been lifted up and turned to judge the earth. Again we quote from 1 Corinthians 6:2 - “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?”

Before this earth is judged at the last day, God begins His judgment upon the House of God.

1 Peter 4:17 - “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

Christ tells us in Matthew 16:18 that He will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Christ’s true church consists of all true believers past, present and future. It is Christ’s bride, His eternal church, of which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail against it. However, the corporate and global church of Jesus Christ, consisting of numerous denominations, is merely an outward representation of the eternal Church and thus subject to God’s wrath - hand in hand with the destruction of the world. In the final years of earth’s present age this corporate church will be destroyed, not by fire, nor by a flood, but earth’s confessing church will be judged and destroyed from within - according to Holy Scripture. That is God’s divine judgment upon the once faithful church. It will be overtaken by false doctrines and false prophets. The plagues of ancient Egypt depict these end-time spiritual plagues upon not only the corporate church but also the world itself - the spiritual Egypt.

Once Moses (who seems to be an Old Testament symbol of Christ) sprinkles the ashes upward toward heaven, judgment upon the land of Egypt will commence. This dust or ash is bringing judgment upon Egypt, much like God’s then futuristic judgment upon the end-time people of earth. These ancient plagues upon Egypt seem to typify or signify God’s spiritual judgment upon the end-time church and thus the world.

Boils and Blains

The 6^th plague results in boils with blains, as Exodus 9:9 tells us. “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.”

Isaiah 5:24 - “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

Physical ailments in the Old Testament were often meant to portray, in metaphoric terms, the state of being unsaved. Leprosy, for example, was often used to depict the nature of unsaved man - those who have a spiritual but terminal ailment. Lepers were viewed in Old Testament days as being unclean. Again, this is a symbolical term depicting those who are without Christ and destined for eternal darkness. In the same way we see the plague of boils upon the Egyptians as representing the same thing. Only these are more severe as they are signifying the spiritual plagues of the end of days and the Great Tribulation.

In Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight God is speaking to the children of Israel. We must remember that when God speaks to the literal Jew of Old Testament Israel, we too, as a member of Christ’s body and eternal Church, will heed the words as well. No, we don’t need to grow beards and become slaves to Old Testament law and ordinances. Christ has fulfilled the Old Testament curse of the law for us. Yes, curse of the law.

Galatians 3:10 - “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

Galatians 3:13 - “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”

However, we are not to dismiss God’s Word to Old Testament Israel. God forbid! The Old Testament is still God’s Word to us today through lessens, examples, and higher interpretations - that is spiritual levels of interpretation. Consider the following references:

1 Corinthians 10:1-11:

1 - Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

2 - And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

3 - And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

4 - And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

5 - But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6 - Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

7 - Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

8 - Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

9 - Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

10 - Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

11 - Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Galatians 4: 21-24:

21 - Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

22 - For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 - But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24 - Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

Romans 5:14 - “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”

Hebrews 9:8-9:

8 - The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

9 - Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

Every jot and tittle of Old and New Testament has meaning for us; it is all the Word of God for us today. In going back to Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight, God begins by stating in verse one that if the Children of Israel will hearken diligently unto the Lord and obverse all of His commandments then the Lord will set then on high above all the nations of the earth. This is a highly spiritual promise. Is it salvation language altogether and at the same time is may apply to literal Israel as a nation. The phrase “set thee on high above all nations of the earth” is dripping with spiritual connotations.

On the other hand, God states in verse fifteen that if the children of Israel will not hearken to the voice of the Lord, to observe His commandments and statutes - then He will bring curses upon them. God then begins to list many of the curses and if one would study these curses you will discover even though they are written as though literal in nature, yet they can indeed be interpreted spiritually as well. That is where the New Testament believers come in. We cannot say that these Old Testament curses were simply physical in nature and brought only upon the Old Testament Jews. They apply to us today in a spiritual nature and that is just as potent and damning to the soul as was the literal curses. One particular curse is mentioned in verse twenty-seven and thirty-five.

27 - The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

35 - The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

This word botch is the same Hebrew word that is used in our study of Moses sprinkling the ashes of the furnace upward toward heaven - in Exodus 9:9 for boil.

Exodus 9:9 - 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.

In both accounts - Deuteronomy and Exodus - the boils were physical ailments as judgment from God but to a much higher degree they were a “type” or “allegory” of the most severe wound possible … the wound of spiritual damnation!

In the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter ten we see him tending to a man who fell among thieves and was left for dead. The Samaritan poured oil and wine into his wounds. Jesus told His disciples “… go and do thou likewise,” Luke 10:37. This is a dramatic picture of preaching the Gospel of the good news of salvation. Pouring oil and wine into raw wounds will do nothing except perhaps help in causing infections. But the wine of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 11:25; Revelation 6:6, 18:13) and the oil of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 25:4; Mark 6:13; Hebrews 1:9; James 5:14;Revelation 6:6) are indeed a miracle cure for the sin-sick soul. Notice that God uses wounds as a figure of one’s unsaved nature and sin-sick soul. Christ appeared on earth, not to heal those who were physically sick (that was a demonstration of God’s power in showing that He was the Son of God) - but Christ came to earth to heal our spiritual wounds. Many times we see news broadcasts showing what is said to be a miracle; maybe a statue of the Virgin Mary said to have bled on a certain day or a fountain with waters that are said to heal certain diseases. And so on and on it goes with no end to the deception. But for those who truly love God’s Word - they are not deceived. They know that Christ (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) appeared on this earth to heal our spiritual souls that we may be accounted worthy, through Christ, to inherit the eternal Promise Land.

In the story of Job God tests his faith to a very severe degree by allowing Satan to smite him with numerous physical afflictions. One such affliction was the plague of boils.

Job 2:7 - “So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.”

In the end, God gives Job’s faith back, not because Job was such a great and holy person (though he was); he was nonetheless still mortal. It was the faith of Christ which sustained Job. The physical curses and ailments upon Job were likewise similar to those upon the Children of Israel. All were ultimately pointing to their sin-sick souls and these boils were simply graphic descriptions of plagues that afflicted the flesh while ultimately and spiritually being a type of spiritual death.

Blains Upon Man

The ashes of the furnace, ceremonially and symbolically thrown upward by Moses, depicts God’s physical and spiritual judgment first upon Pharaoh and all of Egypt (being a type of earth and all of its inhabitants). But more than that, it depicts God’s end-time judgment upon not merely the land of Egypt…but God’s end-time judgment upon the entire earth, beginning with the corrupt and apostate global harlot church of Christ. These ashes became a great and horrible plague upon Egypt - upon man and beast. The Hebrew word for beast is the same word that is used for cattle. Perhaps man and beast could be interpreted as unsaved man - both non-religious and religious - since God uses the word cattle to represent those of His earthly congregations, Isaiah 30:23.

In Revelation chapter sixteen we read of the end-time release of the vials of God’s wrath upon the earth. The first vial is said to be that of grievous and noisome sores upon unsaved man.

Revelation 16:2 - “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.”

This is not any mere physical sore. It is representative of eternal death and damnation to all who remain under to power of Satan during the last days. Much greater are these end-time plagues than the plagues upon Egypt, which were physical and short-term. This sore resembles the boils upon the land of Egypt and may well be the fulfillment, of which the Egyptian plagues merely pointed to.

Concerning the boils in the land of Egypt, we read that these boils broke forth with blains. There is no interpreting the word blains, other than to say it was a section of the sore that ruptured - intensifying the plague.

In the same fashion that Moses lifted up the ashes out of the furnace and gave them a part of His judgment upon the world of Egypt - so too we might consider Christ’s true and eternal Church as ashes, having been lifted up out of this furnace of earth TOWARD HEAVEN - and thus partaking of the judgment of the earth at that great day.

James 4:10 - “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”