Adventist Podcast Network

In the final episode of They Also Served, we shift our focus from the trailblazing women of the past to the women shaping the church today. Historian and host Dr. Heidi Olson Campbell sits down with educators, administrators, theologians, and seminary students from around the world to explore what inspires their service, who mentored them, and how they’re mentoring others. From breaking barriers to building up the next generation, these women remind us that the call to serve didn’t stop with history—it continues. Because women didn’t just serve. They still do.

To explore the Plagues, we pull out an episode from the archives.

This was published originally on October 1, 2021, and so you may have forgotten a few of the details. It was an episode that we particularly enjoyed, and Cameron shares some interesting insights about the Plagues on Egypt that featured in a sermon he preached.

Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, "The Plagues of Egypt," pp. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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" (Exod. 9:27, NASB). Though a wonderful confession of sin at the time, how do we know that it wasn’t a genuine one?

Discussion Questions:

What does it really mean to live a life of worship? Join Worship Project host Dayne Haberman as we explore how worship extends beyond music and church services into our everyday lives. In this episode, we unpack what it looks like to honour God in our work, through hardship, and how to cultivate a lifestyle that responds to His love in every moment. 

Grace isn’t fully knowable inside the monuments we’ve built. Our finest structures merely hint at what the Scriptures call the “breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph 3:18) of love the Father gives us.

Cathedral arches just suggest the soaring kindness of our God. Our well-stocked libraries of knowledge—comprehensively collected; exquisitely curated—tell but a fraction of the story, deeper than our minds can grasp and gentler than our hearts can feel.

Until you stand upon the ocean shore, calling actively to mind that all your sins have been cast into its depths when you believe in Jesus (Mic 7:19), you’ve only sampled moments of God’s grace.

Until you stare in wonder at a midnight sky replete with billions of star galaxies—unknown to us yet still within the orbit of God’s grace—you cannot grasp the promise made to Abraham, whose faith was counted righteousness: “I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore” (Gen 22:17).

We fall in awe before the love that wouldn’t let this planet go: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

The impulse to adore the God whose love for us is infinite is one sure sign that grace has found a home in you.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

Grace isn’t fully knowable inside the monuments we’ve built. Our finest structures merely hint at what the Scriptures call the “breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph 3:18) of love the Father gives us.

Cathedral arches just suggest the soaring kindness of our God. Our well-stocked libraries of knowledge—comprehensively collected; exquisitely curated—tell but a fraction of the story, deeper than our minds can grasp and gentler than our hearts can feel.

Until you stand upon the ocean shore, calling actively to mind that all your sins have been cast into its depths when you believe in Jesus (Mic 7:19), you’ve only sampled moments of God’s grace.

Until you stare in wonder at a midnight sky replete with billions of star galaxies—unknown to us yet still within the orbit of God’s grace—you cannot grasp the promise made to Abraham, whose faith was counted righteousness: “I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore” (Gen 22:17).

We fall in awe before the love that wouldn’t let this planet go: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

The impulse to adore the God whose love for us is infinite is one sure sign that grace has found a home in you.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott