When we face hardship or when we're going through a season of suffering, it's natural to question why these challenges come our way.

Are they random events? Or does adversity signal the judgment of God?

Tough questions.

And today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall explores the biblical account of the Egyptian plagues

and shows us how these ancient events carry timeless lessons about God's nature and his purpose.

He'll reassure us that God's actions are neither random nor vindictive. From

his biographical series on Moses, Chuck titled today's message Plagues that Preach.

In the Bible, there are four great eras of miracles.

During these periods of time, the only way to describe the events that took place in mass on Earth

would be through the word miracle.

These were supernatural manifestations in which God stepped in on the earth scene

to do one of several different things during that time. Three of the four eras are history,

one is prophecy yet to come.

The first era of miracles came in the days of Moses.

The second came in the days of Elijah.

The third in the days of Jesus.

Those three are history.

There is one era of miracles yet to invade this earth, which we could call the era of future judgment.

During this time, God will invade and bring upon this earth a series of what we might call plagues, divine miracles, so as to meet out upon the earth a severity of judgment fulfilling his word. It is interesting to me that the first and fourth

era of judgments are similar in kind. Each one resulted in a new,

fresh, beautiful lifestyle not known by those people who lived through that time. In the days of Moses, as we will see, those who lived through the plagues,

among the Israelites, that is, entered into a new land under a new leader to begin a new way of

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