Let Them Go, Let Them Go, Can’t Hold Them Back Anymore (Exodus 12:29-42)

“Hello, Pilgrim.”

I won’t even attempt an impression, but you savvy film buffs associate that greeting with the Duke. Ask anyone to impersonate John Wayne and they’ll invariably say, “Hello, Pilgrim,” or some variation of it.

It comes originally from the film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. He called someone “pilgrim” over twenty times in conversation.

The word next occurred in McClintock, about a year later. Even though he didn’t say it much afterward, it became associated with him.

Being Americans, we immediately associate the word “pilgrim” with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in present day Plymouth Massachusetts. They’re the group that gave us Thanksgiving as a holiday.

“Pilgrim” is a word we seriously need to reintroduce into our Christian vocabulary. Instead of reminding us of the Duke, or the Pilgrims, it needs to remind us of our daily pilgrimage as believers in Jesus Christ.

John Bunyon wrote a book in the 1600’s, Pilgrim’s Progress. The full title is, The Pilgrim’s Progress From This World, to That Which is to Come.

It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. It has also been cited as the first novel written in English.

It’s an allegory whose hero is named Christian. The plot centers on Christian’s journey from his hometown, the “City of Destruction,” to the “Celestial City.” Along the path of his pilgrimage, Christian encounters things typical of our lives as believers on earth headed to Heaven.

Pilgrim’s Progress may be written in the genre of allegory, but there’s nothing allegorical about it’s message.
You and I aren’t simply like pilgrims in certain areas of our lives. We really are pilgrims – all the time, everyday – on our way home.

In our verses today, the Israelites are let go from slavery by Pharaoh. They immediately become pilgrims on their way to the Promised Land, and beyond that – to Heaven.

As we work our way through these verses, we’ll have an opportunity to talk about pilgrims and their pilgrimage. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You’ve Been Set Free For Your Pilgrimage, and #2 You’re To Set Out On Your Pilgrimage.

#1 – You’ve Been Set Free For Your Pilgrimage (v28-32)

Long before the Mayflower sailed, God’s people were pilgrims. The Bible is full of them. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews speaks among others of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is said of them,

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 11:14  For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

Our “homeland” isn’t anywhere on the earth. It is after the earth; it is Heaven.
This, by itself, is life-altering in its implications. It tells me I should never look to settle in this life; that I am always pressing forward in the work of the Gospel, until I enter the Celestial City whose builder and maker is God.

Perhaps this week you read the Billy Graham quote, “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

There’s a back story to his words. Evangelist and author D.L. Moody was one of Billy Graham’s heroes. Moody first uttered the quote; here it is in full:

Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal – a body that death cannot touch; that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.

Moody and Graham knew they were pilgrims, just passing through. It isn’t something reserved for renowned evangelists. It is common to all believers.

Let’s take a look at the Israelites as they became pilgrims.

Exo 12:29  And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.
God had given Pharaoh over eight months to let the Israelites go. He had performed nine wonders as signs of His will and His power. Pharaoh only hardened himself against God.

One wondrous sign remained – the death of the firstborn. It’s severity would overcome Pharaoh’s reluctance.

If anyone thinks God was unfair or cruel, just remember these things:

God’s people were enslaved. This was a rescue mission.
God had been incredibly longsuffering with Pharaoh.
The death of the firstborn was avoidable.
Everyone dies, but to know the moment of your death is a tremendous mercy on God’s part, giving you real incentive to receive His offer of eternal life.

Exo 12:30  So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

Our world is beset with tragedies. In their aftermath, we catch glimpses of the overwhelming grief the survivors display.

I can’t even fathom what that night in Egypt must have been like.

Exo 12:31  Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said.
Exo 12:32  Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

Pharaoh asking for a blessing indicates that he finally understood the power of God. As I’ve said in previous studies, God spoke to Pharaoh (and by extension, to Egypt) in the language they understood – the power of the gods. Their lower ‘g’ gods, including Pharaoh, were no match for the God of the Hebrews. As Yul Brenner so eloquently stated in The Ten Commandments, “His God is God.”

Generations earlier, Joseph – an Israelite but second only to Pharaoh at the time – had led his starving family to Goshen, just outside Egypt. The Jews had been there about four centuries. They weren’t nomadic wanderers. They had settled in Egypt.

Literally overnight they were asked to leave everything they had ever known, and their lifestyle, and embark on a pilgrimage.

I can see where that could be somewhat exciting. But I can also see how it would be somewhat terrifying.

For one thing, the territory they would be passing through was hostile. There were enemies to fight – and, having been slaves, they had no training or weaponry for fighting.

There were no mini-marts along the way. There would daily be needs for food and water for what we’ll see were a lot of people and livestock.

And there would be intense spiritual warfare as well. God defeated the lower ‘g’ gods of Egypt, but they would regroup, and seek to destroy the Jews in the desert.

I make one simple observation for us. When a person’s will is freed by the operation upon it of God the Holy Spirit; and he or she is convicted of sin and of righteousness and of the coming judgment; and he or she receives the free gift of salvation by faith; that person, who we call a Christian, becomes a life-long pilgrim on their pilgrimage through this world to Heaven.

They are immediately delivered from slavery to sin and Satan and set-out on their journey home.

We’re not like the Pilgrims who came over from Europe. They came here to settle – to establish something permanent. Of course, spiritually they remained strangers on their way to Heaven. But I think we need constant reminding that we aren’t settlers.

We live in the greatest country on earth; maybe ever. Even with all our problems, we are still hopeful that we can be that “shining city on the hill” that Ronald Reagan described.

But guys, gals… This is not our home, and we can’t ever get comfy while there is work to be done.

We are not settlers; we are strangers. We go out each day as pilgrims.

There is one game-changing advantage to embracing your pilgrim status. Heaven can so fill your thoughts that the tragedies of this world and your life are kept in proper perspective.

It’s not that we are so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good. Indeed, a Christian should do the most good, in every circumstance.

But we don’t lose sight of our destination, where there will be no more tears. Ultimately the answer to every argument, to every question, is to look into the eyes of the Savior.

#2 – You’re To Set Out On Your Pilgrimage (v33-42)

Sometimes you need a kick-start to get going.

KickStarter is one of those crowd-funding sites where you ask for funding to kick-start your product. Since it launched in 2009, 12million people have pledged $2.8billion to fund over 116,000 projects.

The Israelites may have invented crowd-funding, and they certainly got a kick-start from the Egyptians.

Exo 12:33  And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”

God, in His foreknowledge, saw that the death of the firstborn would be the final sign necessary to overcome Pharaoh’s reluctance. The Egyptians didn’t know that, and were thinking that if Pharaoh didn’t let Israel go now, then God would start killing more Egyptians.

Exo 12:34  So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

We’re going to see a lot of references to their unleavened dough. Moses was interested in establishing the symbolism of the feasts Israel will observe. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorate the deliverance of Israel; and the Feast of Firstfruits will also occur during that period of time.

As we said and saw last week; and as we will see again later in Exodus; the feasts were prophetic of God’s plan of redemption not just for Israel, but for the human race.

The unleavened bread spoke of the haste in which they left Goshen. They had no time for the dough to rise.

As for the bowls, listen to this:

It was customary to travel with the kneading troughs bound in clothing to keep them handy. They were small wooden bowls used to mix flour and water or milk for bread cakes. Some were made of leather and could be closed like a pocketbook. Dough was often carried in them.

Pretty ingenious. I could see this pitched on TV’s Shark Tank as the latest, greatest, travel product.

Exo 12:35  Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.
Exo 12:36  And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

See what I mean? Crowd-funding.

I don’t like the connotation of “plundered.” It make the Israelites seem like robbers. Like when you’re being held-up and you say, “Take anything you want.”

I guess it could be construed that way. The Israelites were asking nicely, while the Egyptians were thinking, “Take whatever you want; just don’t kill anyone else.”

Normally we don’t solicit funding for God’s projects from nonbelievers. Truth is, we don’t solicit from believers, either. We trust that you’ll be moved by God to give regularly, joyfully, and sacrificially.

In the case of the Israelites, commentators soften the plundering by suggesting the stuff was deserved as a kind of back wages for centuries of forced labor.

However you look at it, the Jews went out with considerable wealth. Which may not be such a good idea when you’re traveling through hostile lands.

Exo 12:37  Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.

Time to put on our math hats. We’re told elsewhere there were 603,550 men who qualified for military service (Numbers 1:46). Based on this, a conservative estimate for the total number that left – including women and children – is in excess of 2million.

One source suggests it was far more by separating the Israelites like this:

Men of war – 600,000
Wives of men of war – 600,000
Wives of others, not engaged as men of war, and sisters – 400,000
Children of men of war (estimating 4 per family) – 2,400,000
Levites a month old and upward – 22,300
Wives of Levites 30-50 years old – 8,580
Wives of younger and older Levites, and sisters – 2,000
Children of Levites – 34,320
TOTAL NUMBER OF ISRAELITES: 4,067,200

That’s huge, but we’re not done with the count:

Exo 12:38  A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds – a great deal of livestock.

Who were the mixed multitude? One researcher said,

In this multitude were to be found heathens who were deeply impressed by the wonderful works of the LORD as seen in the history of Israel, many who were tired of the despotic rule of Pharaoh, and many more who were animated by curiosity, and who desired to see to what end this vast nation would be led; and no doubt many families who had intermarried with Israel would follow their relatives, animated by mingled feelings of love and sorrow.

I’m not sure how they arrived at the number, but the same source suggests there were as many as 2million in the mixed multitude.

Then there was the livestock. This was quite a congregation. Here is one description of their moving column:

If they went 400 abreast there would be a line nearly 8.7 miles long, allowing 3 feet for each of the 15,252 rows.

Now can you begin to appreciate why Moses needed forty years of training as a desert shepherd, to lead this flock and their flocks? When he first sought to deliver them, he killed an Egyptian taskmaster – in military style. They didn’t need a general; they needed a shepherd.

Exo 12:39  And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

Moses continues to call attention to the haste with which they left. They may have waited centuries, then months, but when God delivered them, it happened quickly.

It reminds me of the prophetic progress of our world today. Scoffers point out that the world has gone on for centuries and Jesus has not returned. But when you read about the future, you see that things are going to happen rather quickly once they begin.
The phrase “out of Egypt’ is repeated fifty-six more times in the Bible after this point. Since Egypt is recognized as a type of the flesh, we should always be able to be described as being “out of Egypt.”

The Passover lamb was consumed, then unleavened bread was their diet – all to be commemorated in annual feasts that would pass on the knowledge of their deliverance.

Exo 12:40  Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Exo 12:41  And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years – on that very same day – it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

There are discussions and debates about exactly when the four hundred thirty years began. One that makes sense is the day God revealed to Abraham that his descendants would in fact be held captive in Egypt.

It’s a real number, not a guess, or an estimate, because Moses wrote “on that very same day,” to let us know it was a precise moment.

It’s amazing how often God does something on a specific, prophesied day.

The exact day that Jesus would enter Jerusalem and be hailed as King was predicted by Daniel in the Old Testament.
As we saw last week, and will see again in Exodus, Jesus fulfilled the first four calendar feasts of Israel in His first coming, on the every day they were being observed.
Exo 12:42  It is a night of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

The narrative again leaves the immediate story to remind how important the annual observances would be to the life of the nation.

Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, would require male Jews to travel to Jerusalem three times each year. That in itself was a reminder they were pilgrims even after entering the Promised Land – pilgrims until Heaven.

The earthly Promised Land is not a type of Heaven. Nothing pertaining to this earth is home for any of God’s people.

As I said earlier, the Israelites left the perils of Egypt for the perils of the pilgrimage in the wilderness. But leave they did. They set-out… And so do we, when we get saved.

Perils there be, however, along the way. Some of them are, if we’re honest, terrible; they cause nearly unbearable suffering and sorrow. Their effect can be crippling.

Nevertheless we must set-out as pilgrims everyday. We must embrace the truth we are on a pilgrimage.

I referenced John Bunyon. He was no stranger to a pilgrim’s peril. He once spent a dozen years in prison for refusing to stop preaching the Gospel.

Here is an overview of Pilgrim’s Progress:

Christian flees from the City of Destruction and makes his way through many dangers and difficulties to the Celestial City. One of the first places to which Christian comes is the Slough of Despond, where he is almost swamped by doubts and fears. Almost thrown off course, the faithful Evangelist directs him to the Wicket Gate through which he must pass to find the path to the Celestial City.

Going through, he comes to the House of the Interpreter, who shows him many wondrous things, and sends him on his way.

From there Christian ascends a hill with the Cross upon it, where he loses the burden of sin from his back. He goes on up another hill called Difficulty, and passes between two chained lions to a lodge where he rests and is armed for his onward journey. His arms and armor are immediately put to the test in a long and painful battle with Apollyon, the devil, where Christian wins through in the face of much distress.

He meets a fellow-pilgrim called Faithful, and together they press on to Vanity Fair with all its carnality, where both are imprisoned and where Faithful is martyred.

Christian is delivered, and travels on with another friend, Hopeful, who has come to be a pilgrim through the testimony of Christian and Faithful. Although the two escape the snares of the Hill Lucre, they are captured by the Giant Despair through Christian’s foolish going out of the way, and held for a time in Doubting Castle.

Again they escape, this time through the use of the key called Promise. On they travel to the Delectable Mountains, where four shepherds called Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere care for them, and give them a sight of the Celestial City far ahead. Pressing on, through encounters with men including Ignorance and Atheist, they come to the Enchanted Ground. To prevent themselves being made drowsy and lulled to sleep, they talk of good matter, and so pass through the Enchanted Ground to the land of Beulah, a place of true rest and delight.

One last obstacle awaits them before they can reach the heavenly city: a river, death. There is no way to the Celestial Gate but through the river, the depth of which changes depending on the faith of those passing through it. Hopeful passes through quite easily, but Christian is at first overwhelmed with fears. Hopeful strives to keep his friend’s head above the water with encouragements, and soon Christian gets a view of Christ that delivers him from his fears. So the two men pass through the River to the Celestial City, and are welcomed into glory.

Put yourself in the story; after all, if you’re saved, you are ‘Christian.’

Where are you on your pilgrimage? The Slough of Despond? Wrestling with Apollyon? Captured by the Giant Despair? Imprisoned in Doubting Castle?

Or are you settled somewhat comfortably in Vanity Fair – in a place of carnality?

Maybe you’re at, or approaching, the final River, about to pass over into the Celestial City.

The best thing I can do for you, to constantly kick-start you in your journey, is to greet you by saying, “Hello, Pilgrim.”

Night of the Lamb-less Dead (Exodus 12:1-28)

Do you still play Pictionary? It was created by a Seattle waiter, at a party in the 1980’s. Its first year on the market 3million copies were sold.

How about Draw Something? In 2012 it became the world’s top-selling app in just seven weeks. The creators sold it for $180million.

You should watch Jimmy Fallon play Pictionary with his celebrity guests on The Tonight Show. If you Google it later, watch the one with Martin Short, Jerry Seinfeld, and Miranda Sings.

Playing Pictionary or Draw Something will give you a real appreciation for the people who come up with signs. It’s no easy task to draw a symbol that will be universally, immediately understood by people of all languages.

(I’m still having trouble in the Costco roundabout, but I don’t think it’s the fault of the sign makers).

While we’re on the subject of communicating with pictures, there was an episode of Start Trek – The Next Generation in which Captain Picard needed to establish meaningful communication with the captain of an alien race. The alien, Dathon, uttered the phrase “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.” The universal translator couldn’t process what he was saying.

Picard comes to realize that the alien language consisted of metaphor and allegory – that it was a kind of verbal Pictionary.

In the Bible, God gives us metaphors and allegories and similes. I don’t know the differences between those terms, so let’s agree to call them pictures – or we could simply say illustrations – that convey spiritual truth.

The Passover lamb is an especially meaningful picture to illustrate spiritual truth. The Angel of the Lord was coming to kill all the firstborn, of both man and beast. Moses instructed each household of Israelites to kill a lamb, then apply its blood to their doors. The Angel of the Lord would see the blood, pass-over the house, sparing the firstborn.

Do you recall how John the Baptist introduced Jesus at His baptism? He said, “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
The apostle Paul says Jesus “our passover was sacrificed for us” (First Corinthians 5:7).

Those exclamations are rendered more meaningful by the Passover lamb as their explanation.

As we work our way through these verses, I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 Why Does The Lamb Of God’s Sacrifice Save You?, and #2 When Did The Lamb Of God’s Sacrifice Save You?

#1 – Why Does The Lamb Of God’s Sacrifice Save You? (v1-20)

Let’s share a doctrinal moment. The Passover lamb illustrates what theologians call vicarious atonement.

(It’s also called substitutionary atonement).

Atonement is a term meaning “reconciliation.” Vicarious means “done in place of, or instead of, someone else.” So, in literal terms, the doctrine of “vicarious atonement” is that Jesus was substituted for humanity in order to pay for the sins we had committed and thereby reconcile us to God.

Mankind needs an atonement because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Their descendants inherit a sin nature; and we commit individual acts of sin. The penalty for sin is death on three levels:

We are born spiritually dead.
We will one day physically die.
Without intervention, we deserve what the Bible calls the “second death.” It is to be separated from God for eternity in conscious torment in the Lake of Fire.

It should be clear that a man cannot give his own life as a sacrifice because it is riddled with sin. It would be like bringing to a great king an offering of a diseased or dead animal. Such an offering would be unacceptable.

Only a sinless human being could give His life as a sacrifice. But how can there be a sinless human being if we all descend from Adam and Eve?

The only way to achieve a sinless human being is for God to add humanity to His deity; for God to be born a man.

Jesus is that God-man, and He voluntarily gave Himself as your Substitute and Sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary.

I think that was a pretty clear explanation; but it’s made crystal by the picture we get in the Passover.

Exo 12:1  Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Exo 12:2  “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

The first nine wonders were reported in rapid succession. The tenth – the death of the firstborn – occupies a lot more narrative. It isn’t just because the destruction of it was so severe. It isn’t just because it marks the birth of Israel as a nation.

It’s because it lays the foundation for the entire program of sacrifice in the Old Testament that gives way to Jesus in the New Testament.

It was so important that the month in which it occurred, called Nisan, would become “the beginning of months.”

Wait a minute. I thought Rosh Hashanah, in the month of Tishrei, was the first day of the year in Israel?

We need to quit thinking like Americans who celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. When we read that Nisan became “the beginning of months,” it means that we are to understand that the calendar feasts of Israel begin with Passover. Passover is their starting point; it is ground zero.

There are seven feasts on the calendar God gave Israel – four in the spring, and three in the fall:

The four spring feasts are Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost.
The three spring feasts are Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles.

If you wanted to study the feasts, to understand what God was trying to convey through them, you start with Passover, God’s “beginning” feast.

That’s because the feasts are in a perfect prophetic order that itself is a picture of God’s plan for the redemption of human beings and the restoration of creation.

We spent eight weeks or more on Wednesday night in a series on the feasts. Let me summarize and say that the four spring feasts were fulfilled by Jesus – to the very day – in His first coming. The final three fall feasts will likewise be fulfilled by Him in His Second Coming.

What do I mean by fulfilled? Jesus died just as the Jews were sacrificing the Passover lambs; He was in the tomb but suffered no corruption, as pictured by the Feast of Unleavened Bread; He rose from the dead on First-fruits as the first-fruits of the future resurrection; and He sent the Holy Spirit upon the church on Pentecost following His ascension.

Exo 12:3  Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
Exo 12:4  And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

If your household was too small, you must join with your neighbor. We’re told elsewhere that the minimum number of people was ten.

This is the first occurrence of “congregation” in the over one hundred usages in the Bible of what becomes a technical term for the people of God gathered together to worship God or to be instructed in spiritual things. Hearing it would inspire the Israelites. A new and spiritually exciting chapter in their existence was starting.

Exo 12:5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

The word for “lamb,” according to my Strong’s Concordance, means a member of the flock. It could have been a lamb or a goat. When Jesus was introduced by John the Baptist, he used the word for lamb.

Since we’ve already revealed that the lamb pictures Jesus, we note that He, of course, was “without blemish,” perfect in every way – thus He was the only possible sacrifice for your sin.

Exo 12:6  Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

It’s interesting to note that according to most of the chronologies of Jesus’ last days leading up to His crucifixion, He was in Jerusalem being “examined” by the religious leaders a period of four days. They could find no fault in Him.

The Passover prep began around 3pm, allowing for the butchering. Dinner was at “twilight,” and the night continued to midnight. It was a long contemplation of what God was about to do.

The gathering in each household was to carefully observe a few things:

Exo 12:7  And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
Exo 12:8  Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Exo 12:9  Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire – its head with its legs and its entrails.
Exo 12:10  You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
Exo 12:11  And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.

I don’t know why, but whenever the Passover comes up, I feel compelled to point out that very little of what is in modern Passover celebrations was in the original. That isn’t to say it is being celebrated improperly, because God gives us freedom in these areas. Just realize that a lot of stuff has been added to it that wasn’t in the Bible.

“Bitter herbs” would seem to remind them of their bitter bondage as slaves in Egypt.

They were to eat it ready to move – with sandals already latched, and their robes tucked-in. They were getting out of Dodge.

One interesting observation about “sandals on [their] feet.” Since they ate reclining around low tables, Jews never ate with sandals on; they always took them off, and washed their feet.

Jesus, when He celebrated Passover with His disciples, was barefoot. we know that because of the foot-washing snafu that ensued. Not one of the disciples offered to be the foot washer.

I guess what I’m saying is that there is wiggle room in how God’s people celebrate His ordinances. The first Passover required sandals, but by the time of Jesus, that had been abandoned. There are main things, for sure; but there is also freedom.
Exo 12:12  ‘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: I am the LORD.

A few times in the Bible God says, “all that open the womb [meaning the firstborn] are Mine” (Exodus 34:19). Every firstborn thing belongs to the Lord. He has claimed them for Himself; therefore, He expects His people to honor His claim by devoting all firstborn to Him.

Why? For one thing, the firstborn is like the first-fruits of a harvest. When you acknowledge the firstborn as the Lord’s, you are saying that everything else that comes is likewise the Lord’s.

God said He would “execute judgment” “against all the gods of Egypt.” There were genuine powers at work in Egypt. The two magicians that advised Pharaoh, Jannes and Jambres, could do crazy stuff – like have their staffs turn into serpents, and change water into blood. There were in Egypt what we must call lower ‘g’ gods.

One commentator put it like this:

We tend to think the lower ‘g’ gods are make believe. That they are idols of wood and stone. While the idols they inhabit are wood, stone, and sometimes gold or silver, the lower ‘g’ gods that people worship are real… Just ask anyone in India.

We say that “anything can be an idol,” then point to material things or hobbies that dominate our lives. Don’t overlook that there are also evil, supernatural principalities and powers at work in the world.
Exo 12:13  Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Someone pointed out that “death came to every home in Egypt: either the death of the firstborn, or the death of the lamb.”

Exo 12:14  ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.

God spoke to them as if they would enjoy “generations” of fellowship with Him. They would commemorate Passover every year… And more than Passover. As we’ll see later in Exodus, there would be a total of seven such holidays. Like the Feast of Unleavened Bread described next.

Exo 12:15  Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16  On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat – that only may be prepared by you.
Exo 12:17  So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

“Leaven” is what we call yeast. Although we love the benefits of yeast, it is an agent of decay. Because it has a decaying affect, the Bible uses it as a metaphor for sin.

Jesus, God’s lamb, was killed and placed in the tomb. Two things to note about Him:

First, He had led a pure, spotless life, unblemished by sin. Examine Him for four days or four decades, there was no fault to find. We could say His life was “unleavened.”
Second, although in the tomb for parts of three days and three nights, His body would not see decay. It remained “unleavened.”

On the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter quoted Psalm 16:10 and applied it to Jesus, saying, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption [decay].”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread illustrates the burial of the sinless Son of God.

Exo 12:18  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Exo 12:19  For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.
Exo 12:20  You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

Passover was on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin on the day after the Passover, and continue for seven days. The first and last days, Nisan 15 and 21, were considered Sabbaths on which no work was to be done. Later we will learn that a third feast, Firstfruits, also occurs during these dates.

Jesus was like a lamb without blemish or defect (First Peter 1:19).
John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
The Apostle Paul wrote: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (First Corinthians 5:7).
It is through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death that our sins are forgiven and our death sentence canceled (Hebrews 9:22; First John 1:7).

The Passover lays the foundation not only for the Old Testament sacrificial system but also for our ultimate redemption through Jesus Christ, a redemption which the Old Testament sacrifices could never accomplish (Hebrews 7:27; 10:1–12).

No wonder, then, that the Passover ‘pause’ is so distinct in this narrative.

Vicarious atonement is God’s plan to save you. You must be saved in God’s way, and not by some other plan of your own devising. One commentator said:

You may reason about the peculiarity of the method of salvation; you may think that other means will be more effective to the end desired; but if you at last are found out of the Divine way of safety, you will inevitably be lost.
The blood of Christ sprinkled on the heart is the only sign the destroying angel will recognize, and regard as the token of safety.

God has made a way of salvation. There is no other.

#2 – When Did The Lamb Of God’s Sacrifice Save You? (v21-28)

Last week we explained why we believe that Egyptians could have been spared by doing what God told the Israelites to do. With each wonder there came a warning, and more than once certain Egyptians heeded God’s warning and lives were spared.

Please note that individual Israelites were not automatically spared. Each household must sacrifice a lamb and apply the blood to their doorposts – otherwise the slain lamb would have no effect.

Using New Testament theological language, we would say that the lamb was sufficient to save anyone and everyone – “whosoever” would believe God and respond to His gracious offer.

But the lamb was only effective for those who applied its blood. Only they were actually spared.

The apostle Paul wrote of Jesus, “[He] is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe” (First Timothy 4:19). As God’s Lamb, He has made the way of salvation available to all mankind. But you must respond to the Cross.

One commentator said, “It is not sufficient for the safety of men that Christ died; His precious blood must be sprinkled on their hearts.”

It wouldn’t have done an Israelite or an Egyptian any good to butcher and cook and eat the lamb but fail to apply its blood to their door. That application – it was a passive response of faith, believing that the terrifying Angel of the Lord would see it and spare you.

God told Moses about the Passover lamb, and he now tells the Israelites, and it is up to them to respond by faith.

Exo 12:21  Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.
Exo 12:22  And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
Exo 12:23  For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.

What good, really, was blood against the Lord? How could it possibly spare you? Only because God said so. You must simply apply it, and by doing so give evidence that you believed God.

Exo 12:24  And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.

Later in Exodus we’ll look again at Passover and the other calendar feasts. We will answer the question, “Do we, as Christians, need to observe the feasts?” The answer is “No.” We are under no obligation to observe them, and, in fact, ought to avoid them, seeing they are inferior shadows of what we now have in substance in relationship with Jesus.

Exo 12:25  It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.

God had a land for them, but a whole lot more. Observing the feasts – all of them – Israel would see God’s plan to use them as the preeminent nation of the world in order to bring Gentiles in every other nation to faith in Him.

Exo 12:26  And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
Exo 12:27  that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

The annual observance would be like a game of Pictionary in which the kids would ‘see’ salvation depicted in the Passover elements.

There was an immediate response of reverence and worship. It encourages me about the time of reflection we have at the end of our service.

Exo 12:28  Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
They heard God’s Word and they went away and did what it said. Hopefully that describes each of us anytime we read or hear God’s Word; or anytime that we are prompted by His Holy Spirit.

The question, “When did the Lamb of God’s sacrifice save you?”, is intended to elicit your testimony. You should be able to say when you realized that Jesus Christ’s universal offer of salvation became personally effective in your life.

It may be that it happened when you were merely a child. Maybe you’re more like me, and got saved later in life – as an adult.

He’s the Savior of all men, but He’s your Savior only if you respond by faith to His gracious offer to spare you from the second death and.

If you’ve never done that… You can today.

A final quote: “Not one soul has ever been lost that reposed its confidence in the atonement of the Savior. The trustful soul shall not be hurt by the second death.”

After Midnight, You Gonna Cry, Lament & Shout (Exodus 11:1-10)

Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

The Colossus of Rhodes
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and
The Great Pyramid of Giza

We might want to rename the list the Wonder of the Ancient World. The only location on the list that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza.

If I understand the dates correctly, the Great Pyramid at Giza was standing when Moses led the exodus. I doubt he was interested in it as a wonder, however.

In chapter eleven of Exodus, the real “wonder” in Egypt was the series of signs God was performing through Moses and Aaron.

When God first spoke to Moses from the burning bush, we read,

Exo 3:20  So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst…

After nine such wonders, we read,

Exo 11:9  But the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not heed you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
Exo 11:10  So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

The tenth wonder was coming: The Death of the Firstborn of all Egypt. In its aftermath, Pharaoh would finally relent.

Chapter eleven is a pause, allowing us to take a breath before we get to the terror of that night. As Gandalf said to Pippin on the eve of the attack on Gondor, “It’s the deep breath before the plunge.”

As we catch our breath we are reminded that our God is a God of wonders; that He does wonders, especially to forward His agenda to save lost men and women.

I’ll organize my comments on these verses around two points: #1 God’s Plan To Save You Is A Wonder In Its Completion, and #2 God’s Plan To Save You Is A Wonder In Its Compassion.

#1 God’s Plan To Save You Is A Wonder
In Its Completion
(v9-10)

Do you have any unfinished projects at home? Ladies, don’t elbow your husbands too hard.

God has an unfinished project, but He doesn’t need to be elbowed to finish it. He’s always working to bring it to completion.
It’s an ambitious project, described by the apostle Paul when he said,

Rom 8:19  In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are.
Rom 8:20  Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope
Rom 8:21  that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children.

Human history is moving towards a consummation when God will “show who His children are.” That’s another way of saying that God is at work saving lost men and women for eternity.

Meanwhile, “creation is confused.” That’s putting it mildly. Creation “groans,” other translations say. We refer to creation as fallen, recognizing there is something terribly wrong with the world we inhabit.

One day creation will be restored. Saved individuals will live for eternity in the restored creation. It will be the ultimate, “And they lived happily ever after.”

From eternity past, God had a plan to save mankind, and to restore fallen creation. It’s a plan full of wonders as He works in human history to accomplish it.

I mean, is it not a wonder that in the Garden God promised to add to His deity humanity, to come as a man, in order to defeat sin and Satan, saving men and restoring creation?

Is it not a wonder that he made a nation from Abraham and Sarah when they were beyond the age and ability to have children?

There are wonders predicted in God’s Word that we see in our world. Is it not a wonder that Israel is again a nation, and that Jews continue to return there from their dispersion all around the world?

Speaking of God’s Word, is it not a wonder it has been preserved these many centuries despite the efforts of men and entire governments to eradicate it?

We see wonders most, of course, in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Wonders upon wonders – so many that the apostle John said if they were all written down, the world could not contain the books necessary to catalog them.

God performed a series of wonders to get Israel out of Egypt. We’ve seen nine of them, and are introduced to the tenth.

Chapter eleven is not in chronological order. It’s clear from reading verses nine and ten that they occur after the ninth sign, but before the warning to Pharaoh about the death of the firstborn. They summarize the first nine signs, which we think occurred over a period of maybe eight months.

Since they are not in chronological order, we can take them in logical order, and comment on them before verses one through eight.

Exo 11:9  But the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not heed you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
Exo 11:10  So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but every time we encounter the phrase, “the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” I feel we need to pause and explain it. It sounds as if God was the cause of the hardening. It sounds as if God was asking Pharaoh to do something that He was preventing him from doing.

In fact, a lot of Christians will tell you that is exactly what it means. Then they say it somehow glorifies God that He acts in a manner that would be evil if we did likewise.

God is no puppet-master; He is no monster. The hardening, or you could say, the strengthening, of Pharaoh’s heart was Pharaoh’s own choice in response to the pressure God was exerting upon him.

I can think of no better illustration than the pressure the nations of the world are exerting upon Kim Jung-un of North Korea to get him to abandon his nuclear ambitions. With every round of new, stricter sanctions, his decision to defy the world is only strengthened.

You could accurately say of him that the nations of the world have hardened his heart.

The other thing we’ve talked about at length is that just because God has foreknowledge of Pharaoh’s final decision, it doesn’t mean God predestined it to occur apart from Pharaoh’s free will. All things are foreknown by God, but not predetermined by Him.

One of the things we learn from the wonders leading up to the exodus is that God will most definitely bring His plan to completion. No matter Pharaoh’s hardness of heart, and God’s unwillingness to violate Pharaoh’s free will, you know all along that Moses is going to prevail, and lead the Jews out of Egypt.

Looking ahead, God’s plan for the future remains intact. He will resurrect and rapture the church; He will put the inhabitants of the earth through the seven-year Great Tribulation; Jesus will return in a glorious Second Coming to establish a one-thousand year Kingdom on the earth.

Beyond that is the final judgment of all the lost at the Great White Throne. Finally He will restore creation and we will enjoy His presence in eternity.

God is simultaneously working in your life. He Who has begun a good work in you will certainly complete it.

And this is where the elbowing comes in to play. It can seem as if God has set you aside – that He has thrown a tarp over you as an unfinished project, and is stacking boxes on you – like we do in our messy garages.

I wonder if the Israelites felt that way? Think about their plight:

They’d been subjected to Egypt for nearly four centuries – waiting to be delivered.
When promised a deliverer, they found themselves seeing their infant boys thrown into the Nile River to drown.
Then, when their deliverer showed-up, he wasn’t ready at age forty. He needed to learn how to shepherd – so the Israelites suffered another forty years for Moses’ return.
Upon his return, their life was made more miserable as they were ordered to meet their daily quota of bricks without being provided the necessary materials. Many of them were beaten because of it.
Lately they waited another eight months – during which time they suffered along with the Egyptians through the first three signs.

They were about to suffer through one terrifying night, asked to believe that a little lamb’s blood applied to their doorposts would save their firstborn from Someone called the Destroyer.

Going out into the desert would be no joy ride, either. They weren’t used to travel; and some of the peoples they would encounter along the way would be hostile. They’d be called upon to fight – having no training or experience in combat.

The Promised Land would present enormous challenges – literally, as there were Nephilim giants there who needed killing.

Is that how we normally view those biblical events? Not really. We see them as wonders God did in the midst of His people.

It may not seem like it, but God is doing wonders in your life. You may not be able to see them until they are passed… But He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Some of His wonders you can see:

Are you saved? It’s a wonder of His grace and mercy, having provided Jesus as your Substitute to take your punishment for sin.
Are you saved? It’s a wonder that your body houses God the Holy Spirit.
Are you saved? It’s a wonder you are called upon to serve others in His Name, and (especially) to proclaim the Gospel to the lost as an ambassador of Heaven on the earth.
Are you saved? It’s a wonder that you could be raptured any moment. And that if you are not, if you die, you will be absent from your body and immediately present with the Lord in Heaven.
Have you sinned? It’s a wonder that God forgives you seventy-times-seven, restoring you to fellowship with Him.

Next time we sing God of Wonders, don’t just think of “water, earth, and sky,” the heavens and beyond our galaxy. Think of yourself.

#2 God’s Plan To Save You Is A Wonder
In Its Compassion
(v1-8)

I hope by now you, too, see God’s compassion in these nine wonders. They were signs pointing to salvation in Him. Through them, God was reaching-out to the Egyptians.

That’s not just my opinion – it’s not just my hoping to make God look better. He needs no defending from me or anyone else.

No, it’s borne-out in the series of wonders themselves:

In the first place, most of the plagues were preceded by an announcement and a warning. Warnings indicate the opportunity to avoid something.
Each succeeding plague was further proof of God’s existence and power, and gave greater substance to the warnings which followed.
The Egyptians were specifically told to get their slaves and their livestock to safety before the plague of hail. Some of them heeded his warning and thereby spared lives.
During the plague of locusts, Egyptians approached Pharaoh, begging him to yield to God.
In verse three of this chapter we will hear that all of the Egyptians came to respect Moses (11:3).
When the Jews do leave in the exodus, many Egyptians accompany them.

Sure, God was judging Egypt. They deserved it, if for no other reason than they enslaved the Israelites. But in wrath God remembered mercy, and was giving them opportunity after opportunity to repent.

Don’t forget, either, that God was showing them the weakness, the powerlessness, of their many gods. This, too, shows compassion. Why follow a god who cannot help or save you – when Almighty God is reaching out to you?

If a person is devoted to one of the world’s religions – Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism – they are on the broad road that leads to Hell. Is it not compassionate to show them the powerlessness of their gods?

Exo 11:1  And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
Remember, these verses don’t follow a chronological order. At some point God had given Moses the revelation of the tenth and final wonder… And with it the assurance that it would be so severe that Pharaoh would, of his own free will, relent, and let them go.

Exo 11:2  Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.”

There may be some symbolism in this. When someone was freed from slavery, it was common to send them off with gifts. Moses and the Israelites would see this gift-giving as a sign of their permanent release from Egypt.

Exo 11:3  And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

The series of signs – devastating though they were – were wonders to the Egyptians that pointed to the greatness of God and His servant, Moses.

The Egyptians were not filled with hatred or animosity toward God or Moses; quite the opposite. They saw the hand of God in all this. I’m not saying they were saved – only that their hearts were definitely affected for the good.

Why accuse God of being cruel or vindictive in sending the plagues when their result was so spiritual? Would it be better to let Egyptians prosper, and never see the need to believe God to be saved?

Look at it this way. The firstborn of every Egyptian would one day day from illness or accident or age. If they died without an opportunity to believe God and be saved, they’d face what the Bible calls the Second Death, which is eternal separation from God in Hell. Instead, in compassion, God was telling them, “Tonight your firstborn WILL die, unless you do as I prescribe.”

The next set of verses, chronologically, took place at the end of chapter ten – where Moses is still talking to Pharaoh, and we’re informed they will never see one another again.

Exo 11:4  Then Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;
Exo 11:5  and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.
Exo 11:6  Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.

This last wonder will occupy us for a few weeks. We’ll talk more about the “firstborn” in subsequent studies.

Notice that God says, “I will go out into the midst of Egypt.” God Himself would be the Destroyer. There is no Angel of Death; no Grim Reaper. It was the Lord Himself.

Matthew Henry writes, “God’s Son, even His firstborn, released this judgment and conquered Pharaoh…” It was Jesus in a theophany, in a pre-incarnation appearance, as the Angel of the Lord.

Since it was Jesus, we’re even more prone to see the compassion involved in it. So where is that compassion?

Let’s answer that by asking another question. Do you think Egyptians could have avoided the death of their firstborn by doing what God will tell the Israelites to do – by applying the blood of a lamb on their doors so that the Destroyer would pass-over their homes?

One commentator, who thinks “Yes,” put it like this:

There is no specific mention of any Egyptians celebrating the first Passover, although this is possible, even likely. This possibility is enhanced by the report that some Egyptians had taken heed of previous warnings (9:18-21). Also, in the instructions God will give concerning the future observance of Passover, foreigners who placed themselves under the Abrahamic Covenant (as signified by circumcision) were allowed to participate, with no distinctions made between them and (other) Israelites (12:43-49).

We’re not told if Egyptians could be spared; but we’re not told that they could not be spared. Left to decide, we fall out on the side of grace. While the account is not written to underscore the conversion of Egyptians, I think that there is ample evidence to suggest that some of the Egyptians were converted to true faith in the God of Israel.

Had an Egyptian family gone to ask the Israelites how to serve their God and avoid the plague, they could have received the instructions for the Passover and thus spared their family.

Why believe they could not be spared if there is a biblical alternative that is more compassionate?

Listen, if you can biblically believe something about God that amplifies His grace or mercy or love, or an alternative that makes Him seem petty or cruel – go with the position that is most fitting of God’s nature as revealed in the Bible.

Exo 11:7  But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’

While wailing and weeping, screaming and shrieking, filled the night in Egypt, it would be so peaceful in Goshen that dogs would not bark.

Exo 11:8  And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

Someone said, “To be in the presence of evil and not be angry is a dreadful spiritual and moral malady.”

What a waste was caused by Pharaoh’s hardness of heart. Unnecessary loss of life; economic and agricultural hardship for years to come.

Let’s talk about Moses for a moment. He faithfully discharged his mission, and stayed on message. The results were not what he might have hoped for: Pharaoh remained hardened, and great ruin ensued.

In serving God, you are not responsible for the results. As I’ve heard it put, “the husbandman cannot give the desired harvest, he is only responsible for the sowing.“

The Israelites must be released to journey toward the Promised Land. God provided for this part of His plan by the ten wonders He brought to pressure Egypt. He could have delivered Israel immediately, or in any number of other ways. Instead He chose compassion – reaching-out to save them, putting His glory and power on display.

God’s plan to save men and to restore creation cannot fail. He provides for it, but does so compassionately, without violating free will.

Along the way He tolerates evil. He could and He will overcome evil once-and-for-all. In eternity there will be no more tears. But once evil is totally eradicated, it will mean there is no more opportunity for lost individuals to be saved. Their eternal destiny will be set.

Meanwhile, though you may not see it through your tears, He is your God of wonders, working in you to bring to completion the work He began when He saved you.

Bad Boils, Bad Boils… Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come On You? (Exodus 8:20-9:12)

The signs read, “No ICE.”

On our recent trip to Southern California we noticed as we entered Los Angeles along I-5 that people had hung hand-written signs on the overpasses. “No ICE.”

My first thought was that it was about ice – as in ice cubes. Maybe it was a new way to save the environment by rationing water, or by not using refrigerant and electricity to produce and to store ice.
You guys are up on current events, so you know that ICE is the Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency. The signs are a protest against the deportation of illegal immigrants.

California recently became a Sanctuary State. The bill passed by our legislators and signed into law by our governor limits cooperation between local officials and ICE.

North Carolina is not a Sanctuary State, nor does it claim any Sanctuary Cities. Nevertheless, as of late December, four people were enjoying sanctuary from deportation by taking refuge in North Carolina churches. One pastor here illegally from El Salvador has been living in a Durham church for the last six months.

Houses of worship have a long history of being places of refuge for those wanted by the authorities. It’s no longer true that if you get to a church you can simply call “base” and be free from arrest. But in some cases, the authorities will respect it.

ICE has said it generally avoids arrests at “sensitive locations,” including places of worship. Their policy doesn’t rule out enforcement there in certain circumstances, such as instances relating to national security, terrorism, or public safety.

I’m guessing that seeking sanctuary in a church in China is a bad idea. Authorities in northern China’s coal country demolished a well-known Christian mega-church.

The People’s Armed Police forces used excavators and dynamite to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province.

ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the building, which was built with nearly $3 million in contributions from local worshippers in one of China’s poorest regions. The church has over 50,000 members.

Today in the Book of Exodus we continue with the series of ten signs (commonly called “ten plagues”) that God brought against Egypt. Beginning with the fourth sign, flies, God makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Hebrews. God says,

Exo 8:21 I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.
Exo 8:22  And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land.
Exo 8:23  I will make a difference between My people and your people.

This distinction between the Hebrews and the Egyptians continued for the remaining signs: The Egyptians would be affected, but not the Hebrews.

You might say that Goshen was a kind of ‘sanctuary state’ in the midst of Egypt.

There was nothing special about Goshen; it was the fact the Hebrews were there that made it a refuge and sanctuary.

In our dispensation, the church is spiritual geography that is distinct from everything surrounding it. It is, or should be, a refuge and sanctuary.

As we work our way through these next three signs, I want to take a look at refuge and sanctuary. I’ll organize my comments on signs four, five, and six around two points: #1 As A Nonbeliever You Ought To Seek Sanctuary From The World, and #2 As A Believer, You Have Your Sanctuary In The Lord.

#1 – As A Nonbeliever, You Ought To Seek Sanctuary From The World

Every group has a vocabulary that is used by its insiders. I’m interested in coffee; it’s my hobby. I like making it more than I like drinking it – and I love drinking it. I have maybe 40-50 different coffee makers. And some grinders… And a coupla small home roasters.

Coffee has a vocabulary for its insiders. Chemex, V-60, Aeropress, and vacuum brewer are part of the modern language of coffee.

Did you know we are in the “third wave” of coffee? Third wave coffee aspires to the highest form of culinary appreciation of coffee, so that one may appreciate subtleties of flavor, varietal, and growing region – similar to other complex consumable plant-derived products such as wine, tea, and chocolate. It also includes revivals of alternative methods of coffee preparation, such as vacuum coffee and pour-over brewing devices such as the Chemex and Hario V60.

Christians have a vocabulary. I ran across this in an article on what is labeled Christianese:

Think about the word “conversion.” It is filled with meaning for you, from all the Bible studies, books, and talks you have absorbed. If you had never encountered the Christian faith, though, what imagery would “conversion” trigger in your mind?

I usually hear it used to describe a building project that makes the attic habitable (a “loft conversion”), as a term for comparing the relative value of money from different countries (a “currency conversion”), or as a way of changing the format of a document on a computer (“file conversion in progress”).

There’s a word we use all the time that, while it makes perfect sense to us, might confuse a nonbeliever. It is the word “world.” We talk about the things of the world, or walking in the world, or returning to the world. We cleverly advise, “Be in the world but not of the world.”

Telling someone you are “not of this world” makes sense to us, but it might get you a 72hr hold from the authorities.

To complicate it even more, we use cities or countries named in the Bible to represent the world:

I remember one gal telling someone she had gotten her college degree from a school in Babylon. Did she mean in Iraq? Or Babylon, New York? No; she meant it was a secular school.
During a wedding ceremony, the pastor mentioned that the bride had recently returned from spending time in Egypt. He didn’t mean she had been on an archaeological dig at the pyramids. He meant she had been away from the Lord for a time – in the world.

What is the world? For our purposes, the world is the invisible spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan and all that it offers in opposition to God, His Word, and His people.

Egypt is a good type, or illustration, of the world and all that it offers in opposition to God. For example, a little later in Exodus, after the Hebrews are free from slavery in Egypt, they nevertheless long for what it offered:

Exo 16:3  And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

In another place they exclaim, “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted” (Numbers 11:5). They wanted to draw-back from the spiritual to the material.

As believers, we are no longer merely “living in a material world.” We are spiritual, and ought to approach life as if we are seated in heavenly places.

Hopefully all this background helps you to understand what we mean when we say that the nonbeliever ought to seek sanctuary from this world.

Exo 8:20  And the LORD said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Exo 8:21  Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

In other words, it would be like life on a dairy. (Sorry; I had to!).

Literally, it says God sent a swarm upon Egypt; “flies” is in italics, meaning the translators added it to help make better sense of the sentence. It does not specify what the swarm is. It may have been a variety of gross insects – not just flies. Psalm 78:45 says these swarms “devoured them,” telling us that there were biting insects in the swarm.

Exo 8:22  And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land.
Exo 8:23  I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” ‘ ”

We made a big deal about why the Hebrews suffered alongside the Egyptians during the first three signs. When the water was blood, and frogs and gnats multiplied, it happened in Goshen, too.

We suffer alongside folks, just as Jesus suffered alongside folks, in order to identify with them, and have compassion on them.

God made a distinction in order to show Pharaoh something more about His power, and He was far superior to all of Egypt’s gods.

Exo 8:24  And the LORD did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies.

Do you remember the X-Files episode where the aliens came as cockroaches? And one crawled across the screen? Yuck.

Exo 8:25  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.”

“In the land” was Pharaoh negotiating a compromise. There is no negotiating with God on essentials.

Do you agree? If you do, you might be in the minority – even among Christians who profess to follow God’s Word.

Every year, the Oxford Dictionary announces their ‘Word of the Year.’ In 2016 it was post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.’

In other words, your feelings have greater impact than the facts, or the truth.

Christians have been applying post-truth in their marriages for years. They divorce without biblical grounds, based mostly on how they feel. The objective Word of God gives way to their subjective feelings. Always submit your feelings to your faith and obey God.

Exo 8:26  And Moses said, “It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us?

There are many theories on what, exactly, the Egyptians would find abominable. No one knows for sure, but it’s clear that Pharaoh understood what Moses meant.

Exo 8:27  We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He will command us.”
Exo 8:28  So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.”

Three days was too far for Pharaoh. Again, he sought to negotiate. It reminds me of post-truthers once you expose them to the black & white Word of God. They still want to negotiate their own terms.

Exo 8:29  Then Moses said, “Indeed I am going out from you, and I will entreat the LORD, that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. But let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.”

Moses didn’t agree to Pharaoh’s terms. He did agree to pray for Pharaoh. Praying for our enemies – not easy, but necessary.

Exo 8:30  So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the LORD.
Exo 8:31  And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained.

Those who try to see these events as having natural environmental causes cannot answer the fact that God ended them abruptly when called upon. There is no reason, except embarrassment, to shy away from the miraculous.

By ‘embarrassment’ I mean we don’t want to sound supernatural, for fear that folks will think us ignorant. Of course God does the supernatural.

Exo 8:32  But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.

He was on the ropes, but Pharaoh rope-a-doped by acting like he’d relent. Knock-out punch is coming; mean time, God was giving space to repent.

The next sign is a nightmare for PETA.

Exo 9:1  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Exo 9:2  For if you refuse to let them go, and still hold them,
Exo 9:3  behold, the hand of the LORD will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep – a very severe pestilence.
Exo 9:4  And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.” ‘ ”
Exo 9:5  Then the LORD appointed a set time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”
Exo 9:6  So the LORD did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.
Exo 9:7  Then Pharaoh sent, and indeed, not even one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go.

Christian and nonChristian commentators try to explain this by pointing back to the swarm of insects, as if the pestilence was caused by them. But if these plagues can be explained naturally, they are not signs.

Each series of three of the first nine signs ends with a plague that comes upon Egypt unannounced.

Exo 9:8  So the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9  And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”
Exo 9:10  Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast.
The Hebrew word for “boil” means to belch forth; an inflammatory pustule. Put those together: Inflamed pustules were belching.

I’d like to read you something I ran across in an archaeological journal.

Evidence for the plague of boils which God brought upon Egypt may have come to light. In 2009, Ed Kaspar, wrote an article in which he proposed that the Exodus Pharaoh was Thutmose II. This is based upon recent CAT scans of the pharaoh’s mummy as well as quotes from the original archaeologists that examined the mummy back in 1886 and 1912. The examinations and CAT scans revealed that Thutmose II had scarring on his flesh which may have come from a skin disease consistent with that of boils. Other mummies of individuals who were alive at the same time as Thutmose II were also found to have this same scaring. Those mummies included his wife Queen Hatshepsut, her wet nurse Sitre-In, and her stepson Thutmose III.

File that under the category of “maybe.” We’re not sure which Pharaoh was the one Moses confronted. Alfred Edersheim proposes in his Old Testament Bible History that Thutmose II is best qualified to be the pharaoh of Exodus based on the fact that he had a brief, prosperous reign and then a sudden collapse with no son to succeed him. But other scholars say it was a Ramses.

Exo 9:11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.

Inflamed pustules were belching on “all the Egyptians,” but not the Israelites.
The magicians, identified in the New Testament (at least two of them) as Jannes and Jambres, had replicated the first two signs. After they could not replicate the third, we lost track of them. Now we see they continued by Pharaoh’s side, no doubt advising him.

They would no longer be able to stand before Moses – meaning Pharaoh might become more susceptible to God’s pressure. Don’t underestimate the power of evil influence. Eliminate it whenever possible.

Exo 9:12  But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.

God foreknew Pharaoh’s response, but He did not determine it. He does not ask someone to do something He predetermines they cannot do. If anything, God was working on Pharaoh’s hard heart to soften it.

If you were an Egyptian, following this narrative, you’d realize there was a place of refuge from what was happening in the world. It was Goshen – but not because of its physical geography. No, it was a place of refuge, a sanctuary, because that was where God’s people dwelt.

We know that at least some Egyptians would accompany the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Some found sanctuary among God’s people.

If you are not a believer, it isn’t the physical catastrophes that are occurring with increasing frequency that you need sanctuary from. After all, Christians suffer alongside you in them.

It is the spiritual catastrophes you need to fear. One author said it like this:

No creature so much needs the shelter and defense of a safe hiding-place as man. His sources of danger are more than can be numbered, and with an infected nature he travels an infested road. Beset with foes, he is in constant need of shelter, and often cries out for deliverance.

You have “an infected nature.” Really, it’s much worse than infected. You were born spiritually dead, complete with a sin nature. You therefore face eternal death, separation from God for eternity, if you remain in your sins.

You travel “an infested road.” The world really is in the power of its god – Satan. It is designed to hold you its spiritual captive.

You may think you are doing alright, enjoying life; maybe even doing good works. But your time here is probationary – to determine where you will live for eternity. If you aren’t considering your own mortality and immortality, then you’ve been lulled into a false sense of security that will prove devastating upon your death.

You cannot qualify for Heaven by your good works. Salvation can only be received as a gift when you have faith in Jesus Christ.

#2 – As A Believer, You Have Your Sanctuary In The Lord

We all know that the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the Christian at the moment you are saved. Our individual bodies become His temple – His sanctuary.

We are further described, as we gather together, as the temple (the sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit. Not this room, but our being present in it, make it sanctuary.

But I have more in mind the idea of sanctuary that Jeremiah wrote about:

Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary.

The first phrase should read, “a throne of glory.” From the very beginning, God’s throne of glory has been our sanctuary, where we find refuge. When Adam and Eve sinned, God came immediately, and explained He would provide them refuge and sanctuary.

There’s a difference, by the way, between refuge and sanctuary. A refuge can provide temporary help, whereas sanctuary permanently provides for your greatest needs.

People find refuge in the philosophies and psychologies and religions of the world; all of them fall short, because they cannot transform you. Sanctuary can only be found in the salvation provided all who believe in Jesus.

Sanctuary is another way of saying He saved us, and is saving us, and will save us. But it’s a way that communicates that His refuge as sanctuary is unassailable.

Let me give you an example of this kind of sanctuary. Quite some time ago, when we were first confronted with HIV and AIDS, I saw an interview with a terminal patient. I’ll never forget what he said. He said, “I’d rather have AIDS and know Jesus, than not have AIDS and not know Jesus.”

Jesus was his sanctuary as he suffered and died. If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, you’ve encountered that same testimony among terminally ill believers. Jesus is their sanctuary; they are unassailable, even and especially while dying.

On a less severe level, we all need refuge that is a sanctuary, and we should experience it in Jesus, and among His gathered saints.

If you’re a Christian, this world is not your home. Your citizenship is elsewhere; it’s in Heaven. You are looking forward to the city whose builder and maker is God.

No citizenship… Far away from your true country… Living in a foreign kingdom. In one place in the New Testament Christians are called “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” “Stranger” translates to foreigners, and “pilgrims” can mean resident aliens.

It sounds like you’re an immigrant on this earth.

Find your refuge and sanctuary in Jesus, and among His people, as you await His coming for us. Reject post-truth living, and the subtle but sinister lure of finding satisfaction anywhere else, or in anyone else.

Pharaoh In De-Nile (Exodus 7:14-8:19)

Top 100 lists, or Top 10 lists, peak our curiosity. It’s fun to try to predict the things on the list, and to see how our personal rankings stack-up against what others think.

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter compiled a list of the Top 100 Movie Quotes. In the interest of time, I’ll give you their Top 5:

#5 “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” (The Wizard of Oz).
#4 “May the Force be with you” (Star Wars).
#3 “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” (Jaws).
#2 “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid” (Casablanca).
The American Film Institute had the Casablanca quote at #5, with their #2 being, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” (The Godfather).

Every list has the same #1. I won’t say it, because we’re in church. It’s Rhett Butler’s last words to Scarlett O’Hara at the end of Gone With the Wind.

Growing up in the sixties, it seems like every year around Easter we watched The Ten Commandments. It’s not historically accurate; it’s not biblically accurate; but for a movie released in 1956, it has stood the test of time.

There is one incredible quote in the film that, while not in the Bible’s account, nevertheless is an expressive summary of the contest between Moses and Pharaoh. Slouching on his throne, having been defeated, Yul Brenner as Pharaoh says, slowly and distinctly, “His God is God.”

In the Book of Exodus, Moses delivers God’s message to Pharaoh, saying, “Let My people go.” Pharaoh asks, with disdain, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (5:2).

In chapter seven we’ll read, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD” (v17).

By “this” God means the series of ten signs in which He proves that “His God is God.”

We’re going to look at those signs, three at a time, building up to the tenth and final sign – the death of the firstborn throughout Egypt.

Today we’ll read about water turned to blood, and the multiplication of frogs and gnats. Those were incredible historic events that happened just as reported by Moses.

But we want more than that. We want to know how these events apply to us today. Along those lines, I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Struggle Against The Powers Of This World, and #2 You Suffer Alongside The People Of This World.

#1 – You Struggle Against The Powers Of This World

We’re taking the signs by threes in the interest of time, for sure; but there are good reasons in the text to see them grouped together:

For example in each series the third sign is not announced to Pharaoh; it simply occurs without warning.
The third sign in each group also breaks a pattern. Today we will see that the first two signs – water turned to blood and the multiplication of frogs – can be duplicated by Egypt’s magicians. The third sign – the multiplication of gnats – cannot be duplicated by them.

In the second group of three – flies, livestock, and boils – the magicians stand in Pharaoh’s presence for the first two, but after the third they can no longer stand in his presence.

In the third set Pharaoh repents after the first two – hail and locusts – but ultimately reneges after the third – darkness. He then dismisses Moses once-at-for-all, setting-up the final sign – the death of the firstborn.

One more thing before we begin. It is commonly taught that each of the ten signs was directed at defeating one of Egypt’s gods. That’s sort of true. As far as God vs. god, there were something like 150 gods in Egypt, so no two lists of the ones God supposedly defeated ever agree. It’s better to see God proving Himself superior to all Egypt’s gods, and to all false gods, rather than just ten of them. By these ten signs He leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind.

Exo 7:14  So the LORD said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go.
Exo 7:15  Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.
Exo 7:16  And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear!

We spent a good while in our last study explaining that Pharaoh’s hard heart was his own free-will response to God’s efforts to reach him. We compared this to the modern practice of nations applying sanctions to rogue nations, attempting to get them to relent from their nuclear ambitions. In many cases, it only serves to harden them against the rest of the world, and to remain committed to their maniacal designs.

God gave Pharaoh lots of time to change his mind. According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary,

The 10 plagues may have occurred over a period of about nine months. The 1st occurred when the Nile rises (July-August). The 7th was in January, when barley ripens and flax blossoms.

The prevailing east winds in March or April in the 8th plague would have brought in locusts. And the 10th plague occurred in April, the Passover month.

God was patient with Pharaoh – not willing any should perish.

Exo 7:17  Thus says the LORD: “By this you shall know that I am the LORD. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.
Exo 7:18  And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.”
Exo 7:19  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’ ”
Exo 7:20  And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the LORD commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
Exo 7:21  The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

You probably noticed I’ve been calling these “signs,” not “plagues.” These certainly were plagues upon Egypt, but they were first and foremost signs to introduce God to Pharaoh.

In the last few years it has become popular to try to describe all these signs by reducing them to some natural occurrence.

We would reject that; there’s no room in the text for us to come to that conclusion.

We need to not be embarrassed by the Bible’s supernatural stories. You’d expect God to perform incredible signs. Besides people are more open to the supernatural than ever. It’s not a time to shrink away from Jonah being swallowed by a great fish – not while mainstream scientists are relying on ancient astronaut theories to describe human origins.

Our supernatural is better than theirs – ’cause it’s true.

Exo 7:22  Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul names two of the magicians. They were Jannes and Jambres. They duplicated the sign; or, at least, they, too, could turn a quantity of water into blood.

Why didn’t they try to turn blood into water. I mean, seriously; more blood wasn’t the thing they needed.

Perhaps they did try to reverse it; we’re not told, but that would be logical. So why make more blood?

They were probably attempting to establish that they and their gods were just as powerful as Moses and the God of Israel. Whatever He could do, they could do.

It does serve to warn us that the servants of Satan can at times produce signs and wonders.
It’s important to listen to the doctrine, to the teaching, in order to determine the real source of a sign.

Exo 7:23  And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this.

Pharaoh was not convinced God had the power to defeat Egypt.

After 400 years, why wait another nine months? Again I must point out the great lengths God was willing to go to in order to try to reach Pharaoh.

Exo 7:24  So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river.
Exo 7:25  And seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.

Like so many despots, ancient and modern, Pharaoh had no compassion for his own people.

Before moving on, are you wondering how the Egyptians could go seven days with such little potable drinking water? One word: Beer.

No, it’s not in the Bible, but we know from ancient Egyptian scholars that beer was a preferred beverage. It was so prevalent that it was used as wages.

Maybe they went on a seven-day beer-bender while the Nile ran red.

Moses had struck first-blood, but Pharaoh hardened his heart.

Exo 8:1  And the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Exo 8:2  But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs.
Exo 8:3  So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls.
Exo 8:4  And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants.” ‘ ”

Remember Frogger? One of the greatest classic arcade games of all time. In Egypt, instead of trying to get the frog to safety, the people were trying to avoid stepping on frogs.

There was nothing remotely playful about having frogs everywhere. Even those of you who think reptiles and amphibians make great pets have to be creeped out about this many frogs.

Why frogs? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. Yes, there was a deity who had a frog’s head. But, again, God wasn’t taking on a few of Egypt’s gods; He was showing Himself the only God.

Exo 8:5  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.’
Exo 8:6  So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

Our attention is so fixed upon Pharaoh that we are overlooking the obedient faith of Moses and Aaron. It wasn’t easy to believe that frogs in this quantity were going to appear.

Exo 8:7  And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

If frogs were already everywhere, how did they know that more frogs were produced? Maybe they hopped like an Egyptian.

Exo 8:8  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat the LORD that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD.”

That must have sounded great to everyone. It was short-lived.

Exo 8:9  And Moses said to Pharaoh, “Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only.”
Exo 8:10  So he said, “Tomorrow.” And he said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.

In other words, pick the exact time you’d like this to stop; Moses would pray; the frogs would be (mostly) eliminated.

Exo 8:11  And the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.”
Exo 8:12  Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh.
Exo 8:13  So the LORD did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.
Exo 8:14  They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.

This would have been a frog-gigger’s dream time to be alive. I guess frog-legs weren’t on the menu.

Truth is, and I’m being serious, the Egyptians ate a mostly plant-based diet. An article on InsideScience.com stated, “If you’re a vegetarian, tucking in along the Nile thousands of years ago would have felt just like home.” A French research team, working with 45 mummies, by testing for carbon-ratios, were able to determine not only did the Egyptians eat mostly plants, they ate very little fish. Who knew?

Exo 8:15  But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the LORD had said.

Did you ever have the experience of crying out to God, and having Him help you – only to then turn your back on Him?

Or maybe a nonbelieving friend or family member turned to the Lord in the midst of a difficulty, only to fall-away once it was over?

“As the Lord had said” points to God’s foreknowledge. Of course He knew beforehand what Pharaoh would do. But God’s foreknowledge didn’t cause Pharaoh to harden his heart.

The next sign started out differently.

Exo 8:16  So the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’ ”
Exo 8:17  And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

There was no going to Pharaoh; there was no warning.

The Hebrew word translated “lice” occurs only here in the Old Testament. Gnats or biting insects is a better translation.

Exo 8:18  Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast.

It wasn’t that gnats are harder to produce than frogs. God determined it was time to show Egypt that the powers of their magicians was not on any par with His.

Exo 8:19  Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.

This is a great admission of God’s power. He only needed to lift a finger to accomplish the sign. It should cause one to tremble at what He could do. Notwithstanding, Pharaoh only strengthened his resolve to defy the Lord.

Obviously this whole episode is unique. It was the one and only time God was working in this particular way to deliver several million Jews from bondage and into their Promised Land.

At the same time, at its core, it is happening everyday; and it involves us.

At its core, the man (in this case men) of God have a message of deliverance for those held captive by the ruler in charge, who depends upon the powers that aid him in his nefarious kingdom.

That’s a perfect description of the situation we find ourselves in as Christians:

Satan is the ruler of this world.

He promotes a nefarious kingdom of darkness.

He is aided by various “powers.” More specifically, by “principalities [and] powers… [and] the rulers of the darkness of this age… [and] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6).

We are in the midst of Satan’s kingdom, sent out with the message of deliverance – the Gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe – freeing them from sin and from Satan.

We don’t carry a staff or a rod that can turn into a crocodile or bring forth mighty signs. That’s not the kind of warfare we are currently waging.

Instead, we have spiritual weapons; but they are every bit as powerful, because their source is the same as Moses’ staff. Their source is the living God.
We need to be committed to the truth that spiritual weapons are superior. To put it negatively, we need to reject carnal weapons.

While you may eventually file a grievance at work, for example, try love and mercy and forgiveness. And even if you must go through some process, depend upon grace to sustain you. You are most likely right where God wants you, to reach some ‘pharaoh’ with the message of the Cross.

#2 – You Suffer Alongside The People Of This World

There’s something else subtle but powerful to reflect upon regarding the first three signs. While not everyone agrees, it would seem that the Israelites were affected by these three signs just as much as were the Egyptians.

Here’s why I think they were. The next sign, the fourth, is flies. In Exodus 8:22-23 we are told,

Exo 8:22  And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land.
Exo 8:23  I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” ‘ ”

For the first time we read that God exempted Israel from the effects of a sign. The same is said of the fifth sign:

Exo 9:4  And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.” ‘ ”

While no direct mention is made of a distinction in the sixth sign, the implication of Exodus 9:11 is clear: “And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.” 

From the plague of the hail the Israelites were also exempt: “Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail” (9:6).

Of the eighth sign, locusts, Exodus 10:5 & 6 says that it was directed against the Egyptians: “…and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remains unto you [the Egyptians] from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you [the Egyptians] out of the field: And they shall fill the houses, and the houses of all their servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians…..” 

In the ninth plague, darkness, we read, “all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (10:23). 

There was no mention of any exemption from the first three signs. The Bible calls attention to the exemption starting with the fourth sign. So I’m saying the Israelites endured water turned to blood, and frogs, and gnats.

What can we make of this? First of all, we already realize that Christians are not exempt from the tragedies and catastrophes that occur with increasing frequency in our fallen world. One writer put it like this,

Rain and sunshine, flood and drought, plenty and famine, prosperity and depression, war and peace, lightning and hail, tornado and hurricane, health and pestilence – all these befall the wicked and the righteous in common.

The difference between believers and nonbelievers in catastrophes is that God can work all things together for our good in them, and through them. They can be used by God to further our sanctification – to further our spiritual growth toward holiness, toward our being more like Jesus.

Let’s take a step further back. Instead of starting with us, and wondering why we are not exempt from certain sufferings, we ought to start with Jesus.

Jesus was eternally God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in perfect fellowship, in Heaven. What did He decide to do in order to save the human race?

Php 2:6  …being in the form of God, [Jesus] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
Php 2:7  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

God became man. Deity took upon humanity. Of this we read, with wonder and awe,

Heb 4:15  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In other words Jesus came into our world and suffered alongside of us. We can list some of those ‘alongside’ sufferings:

Jesus lived in poverty.
Jesus suffered from exhaustion.
Jesus experienced grief.
Jesus was betrayed.

After all that, Jesus died in our place, in the cruelest way – mocked by His own creations on the Cross at Calvary, after being mercilessly beaten and scourged.

We might mention, too, that in His resurrection from the dead, Jesus now has a glorified human body that still bears at least some of His scars. Even in His glory, He shows how He suffered alongside of us.

With the perspective of Jesus suffering alongside us to save us, we can certainly suffer alongside the lost, to give them the opportunity to be saved. The Lord is only calling us to do what He did to a much greater degree than we could ever fathom.

Believers and nonbelievers are watching you to see if Jesus makes a difference in your life, and especially in your difficulties.

You don’t want people to say of your spiritual life, “I see dead people.”

No, by the sustaining grace of God, you want them to say, “His God is God.”

Old Guys Duel (Exodus 7:1-13)

Kim Jong Un recently was quoted, “The nuclear button is on my desk at all times.”

Donald J. Trump replied, “I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works!”

We can laugh a little, but the threat is all too serious.

Japan’s Prime Minister has called the prospect of a nuclear-capable North Korea “absolutely unacceptable” and said the security situation facing his country is the severest since the Second World War.

Prime Minister Abe urged the international community to apply increasing pressure to the rogue nation in an attempt to coerce its regime into giving up its nuclear ambitions.

Pressure has been applied, but so far it has only strengthened Kim Jong Un’s resolve to be a nuclear maniac.

Egypt’s Pharaoh had no button to push; I doubt he had a desk. He was, however, holding God’s people captive, and was treating them with intensifying cruelty. God sent Moses and Aaron with a message for Pharaoh, “Let My people go.”

Pharaoh refused again-and-again. Each time he refused, God applied increasing pressure – but it only strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve against the Israelites.

We’re going to talk about this strengthening of Pharaoh’s resolve, and hopefully come to a biblical understanding of the frightening phrase, “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

We’re also going to see something in the story to apply to ourselves. If you’re a Christian, you know that Satan is the god of this world. Nonbelievers are held captive by him. You and are I sent out with the Gospel – a message of exodus from sin and from death into eternal life.

The pharaoh’s of this present age do not give up easily. We’re in for a spiritual fight if we wish to see folks moving from the kingdom of darkness they are born into, to the kingdom of light they can be born-again into.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Your God Inspires You To Remain Resolved, and #2 Your Adversary Incites You To Reject Your Resolve.

#1 – Your God Inspires You To Remain Resolved (v1-9)

I want to get right over the major hurdle we encounter in these verses. We’ve mentioned it before, but now it’s directly in our path. It is the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

The Lord tells Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” (v3), and that “Pharaoh’s heart grew hard…” (v13).

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart has been twisted by some to teach a determinism that makes Pharaoh a puppet in the ‘hand’ of the Sovereign God. They teach that God caused Pharaoh to act as he did.

We reject that. Truth be told, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, when properly understood, teaches quite the opposite.

The word “heart” refers most often to the entire inner life of a person. We would translate it mind or will.

Language scholars point out that three different verbs are used in the various passages that speak of the hardening of Pharaoh’s will. The three are translated “hardened,” “strengthened,” and “made heavy.”

After studying all their occurrences, they conclude that, taken together, they convey the single idea that Pharaoh steadfastly refused to release the Israelites.

One scholar therefore commented, “Hardening someone’s heart is about giving them the willpower or resolve to do what they have already decided, when other factors might pressure them into doing otherwise. In some situations this will be associated with courage; in others, stubbornness.”

It was Pharaoh’s will to refuse God’s request. Each encounter with Moses served to strengthen his resolve to refuse. In spite of the signs performed by God, Pharaoh’s will does not change. While he occasionally wavers when put under extreme pressure, he remains resolved in his opposition.

Kim Jong Un would be described as hardening his heart. Is he being forced against his will to resist international pressure? Is he a puppet in the hand of the Sovereign God?

No; he is acting of his own free will. Every effort to pressure him only gives him greater willpower to resist.

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is not about him being a puppet. It is the reverse; it is about him being emboldened to do what he most desires.

Pharaoh was determined to defy God – not determined by God.

God went to incredible lengths to not violate Pharaoh’s free will. On solid biblical grounds, we can say that Pharaoh exercised his own free will, and God strove with him, mercifully, to try to save him.

Then there’s the argument from the character of God. If God determined that Pharaoh resist Him, with no genuine possibility of repenting, then God is a cruel despot who penalizes the behavior He Himself brings to pass.

You can’t cancel-out that argument by glibly stating, “God is Sovereign,” as if He can do something evil and call it good simply because He is God.

Now that we are no longer troubled by the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, let’s see how it all works out.

Exo 7:1  So the LORD said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

This sounds a little strange until you remember that the Pharaoh was considered to be a god. In his own court stood another man – Moses – who was speaking as God.

The fact he spoke through Aaron only intensified the symbolism. If Moses spoke directly, Pharaoh might think him a mere prophet of some secondary deity. But here was Moses speaking through a prophet – the way God would speak. The theatrics of it communicated to Pharaoh that he was, indeed, being addressed by the God of the Israelites.

“Made you as God” is better translated, “made you a god in My stead.” It is a technical term used of men and women who act in God’s place, on His behalf.

While it would be confusing to say of Christians, “you have been made as God,” it is nevertheless true that we act in God’s place, on His behalf, as we await the resurrection and rapture of the church.

Exo 7:2  You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.

Moses’ assignment was not easy, but it was simple. He only need “speak all that [God] command” him.

Our assignment as servants is likewise not easy, but it is simple:

If you are in full-time ministry, especially as a teacher, you teach the whole counsel of the Bible, verse-by-verse, book-by-book.
For all of us, who can be used by God at any moment, we must remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit, listening for Him to guide us into what to say to others that will shine light into their darkness.

Aaron was going to repeat what God told Moses. He did not have freedom to edit, or to augment, or to interpret the message. So, too, with us, we should keep it simple and not add our own exaggerations.

Exo 7:3  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

God’s confrontations with Pharaoh would serve to strengthen his will to resist and remain a cruel despot.
Mean time God would “multiply… signs and… wonders,” which while they would only make Pharaoh’s heart heavier, would open the eyes of the citizens of Egypt to the majesty of Israel’s God.

Exo 7:4  But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

God has foreknowledge. He knew how Pharaoh would respond. His foreknowledge did not determine how Pharaoh would respond; it did not cause Pharaoh to harden his heart.

Even though Pharaoh would not heed the message, God would provide for His plan, and get the Israelites out of Egypt. In ways that are deep and mysterious, God accomplishes His will without violating ours.

Exo 7:5  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

This is quite an insight into the nature and character of God. He was simultaneously delivering His people AND revealing Himself to the nonbelieving Egyptians.

Never forget that God so loved the world that He sent Jesus into it, to die for whosoever would believe in Him, and thereby have eternal life. Holding that overriding truth in mind, we see Him reaching-out to the Egyptians – not taking pleasure in judging them.

Exo 7:6  Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the LORD commanded them, so they did.

What a great thing to have said of you in the end: “Just as the Lord commanded him, so Gene did.”

As I get older, I think more about the epitaph I might deserve on my tombstone. I found the following actual, but somewhat comical, epitaphs:

On the 22nd of June, Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune.

Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake; Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.

I laid my wife beneath this stone, for her repose and for my own.

Exo 7:7  And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Is the Old Guys Rule campaign still popular? It would have been a great t-shirt for Moses and Aaron to wear into Pharaoh’s court.

D. L. Moody said, “Moses spent forty years in Pharaoh’s court thinking he was somebody, forty years in the desert learning that he was nobody, and forty years showing what God can do with a somebody who found out he was a nobody.”

Are you getting older? Looking towards retirement? That’s great – it should give you a lot more time to serve the Lord.

When you think retirement, top of the list ought to be where or how you can dedicate more – not less – service to Jesus.

There’s no such thing as spiritual retirement.

Exo 7:8  Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
Exo 7:9  “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’ ”

According to AncientEgyptOnline, the Pharaoh’s and other prominent citizens of Egypt had ornate staffs that represented their stature and authority.

Moses “rod” was either the traditional shepherd’s crook, or the shorter rod that shepherds would carry. Either one seemed woefully inadequate. I mean, just look at a staff from Egypt in a museum, then compare it to an everyday wooden staff or rod.

In the first (and best) Men in Black, Tommy Lee Jones shows Will Smith the impressive Series Four Deatomizer, but then gives him the diminutive Noisy Cricket.

Or how about that scene when a guy pulls a knife on Crocodile Dundee, and he says, “That’s not a knife,” then pulls out his own huge blade, adding, “That’s a knife.”

A shepherd’s staff or rod seem to be like a small knife and a Noisy Cricket. But it was just the weapon God needed to communicate that it is His nature to lead His people, and to care for them, as their Great Shepherd.

God’s entire plan to save mankind is steeped in what appears to be inadequacy, but is, in fact, strength, because it alone can open the eyes of the spiritually blind.

One example out of thousands: we just got through the Christmas season. Does it make any real sense that the Savior of the world would be born to a virgin, thought by others to have gotten pregnant while betrothed? And away in a manger? Greeted by shepherds? I think you get the idea.

In his classic devotional, The Jesus Style, Gayle Erwin lists unusual characteristics of our Lord: He was a servant, He did not Lord over others, He was humble, as a child, as the younger, last, least, used no force, had no reputation, and was obedient.

Then he lists “death” as a characteristic in a chapter titled, Shepherd’s Don’t Run.

God’s entire approach to saving us is absolutely upside-down to the way we normally think. For Deity to take on humanity, in order to be our Substitute and die in our place, then offer salvation as a free gift for believing; that’s contrary to our whole natural mindset.

We can see Egypt as a type of the world system ruled by Satan. All those things and people opposed to us are like mini-pharaoh’s.

The eventual outcome of history is written in advance. We win. But along the way, we will be resisted, and folks will harden their hearts against God.

The Shepherd Who died is alive forevermore – still seeking to woo hearts by upside-down methods that put us in His stead as the least, and as the last.

#2 – Your Adversary Incites You To Reject Your Resolve (v10-13)

Moses had expressed great reluctance to go to Pharaoh. At one point he flat-out told God, “Get someone else.”

For His part, rather than forcing Himself on Moses, God answered his objections by implementing a back-up plan, using Aaron as Moses’ mouthpiece.

Might Moses lose his resolve in the face of continuing resistance from Pharaoh?

He didn’t; but it gives us the opportunity to examine ourselves.

I don’t know if you’ve figured it out yet, but life is hard. Harder for some of you than others, but we will all have our share in suffering.

If you serve the Lord much, you’re going to have additional trials on account of the Gospel.

Might we lose our resolve in the face of continuing resistance from the pharaoh’s of this world?

The next few verses simultaneously reveal to us that our adversary will not relent, but that we should never lose our resolve – never harden our hearts.

Exo 7:10  So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

“Serpent” can be translated snake or crocodile. No way of knowing which, but I favor the croc, since they were so common in the Nile River.

The rod is called “Aaron’s” only because he was the one wielding it at the time. It was, technically, the rod of God in Aaron’s hand.

This Moses and Aaron thing tells me that I can miss out on being used by God, but God is not stymied by my disobedience.

Moses clearly missed-out. It should have been Him speaking to Pharaoh, and wielding the rod.

Can you think of a time you’ve missed-out? Maybe God touched your heart in church, about doing something or giving something. But you overlooked it.

God’s not angry with you for it. It’s you that missed-out on the reward of obeying God. God got it done – using someone else. He’s gracious like that.

Exo 7:11  But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

In Disney’s 1963 animated feature, The Sword in the Stone, there’s a fun sequence where Merlin and Mim have a wizard’s duel. They try to destroy one another by transforming into different animals. At the end Mim transforms into a purple dragon which is supposed to be against the rules. Merlin is able to think quickly, and transforms himself into a germ and infects her, winning the duel.

The “wise men,” the “sorcerers,” the “magicians,” were truly able to duplicate the miracle. It wasn’t mere slight of hand.

They weren’t Penn and Teller. They were Janne’s and Jambres – identified by the Holy Spirit through the writing of the apostle Paul in the New Testament, in Second Timothy 3:8.

Does it disturb you to hear that the devil can perform miracles? It does me. Nevertheless we read,

2Th 2:9  The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,

The fact that Jannes and Jambres could duplicate God’s miracle strengthened Pharaoh’s will to resist God. After all, maybe this was God at His best? Maybe Pharaoh’s masters of the mystic arts were superior to the God of Israel.

Let’s digress a moment. Until right then, there was no empirical evidence to suggest that Israel’s God had any power – let alone enough to deliver His people.

Their God had left them in Egypt over 400 years.

They were forced into servitude, treated as slaves.

Their deliverer had miserably failed in his first attempt – he killed an Egyptian, causing him to flee a wanted felon.

Upon his return, their deliverer presented himself as a reluctant-to-talk shepherd trying to take-on one of the world’s great military powers.

The rod turning into a croc was the first sign that Israel’s God had any power at all.

Knowing what we know, looking back with perfect hindsight, we can see that those points of weakness were signs of God’s power.

As I was writing this, an old chorus came to mind:

He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd;
He shall gather the lambs in His arms;
And carry them, in His bosom,
And shall gently lead those that are with young.

Isn’t that what God was going to do? Pharaoh could have seen it. He didn’t – probably mostly because he’d never imagined that any ‘god’ could act that way.

The God of Israel was wholly separate and unlike any other god. His power was not in coercion or force; it was in love and in grace – able to save to the uttermost.

Exo 7:12  For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

We’re not told how many Egyptian rods there were, but we know there were at least two, and probably several. The rod of God in Aaron’s hand “swallowed up” the others.

It doesn’t say God exposed them as charlatans. Their rods really turned to crocodiles – but they were brunch for the rod of God.

Exo 7:13  And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.

The rod battle only strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve.

This tells us we are in a long, protracted contest against evil. Victory is assured; but battles may be won or lost along the way.

One commentator said it like this:

God’s struggle with evil is real; God does not rid the world of evil with a flick of the wrist. There will be genuine conflict in moving a people from bondage to freedom.

The way I’ve been putting it lately is to say that because of His longsuffering with sinners, not willing any should perish, God tolerates evil in the world.

Great – except you and I get caught-up in that, and are called upon to press on serving God despite being treated as the least, as the last.

In the midst of what seems defeat, or suffering without relief, our spiritual resolve is tested.

Isn’t that what Job is about? The devil contended that Job would lose his resolve to love and to serve God if he were allowed to afflict him.

Afflict him the devil did. Like a weeble, Job wobbled, but he didn’t fall down. His resolve to love and serve God was instead all the more intensified by the end of the book.

Right now, in my life, there are some things that I know God could do in the lives of others, for their good and for His glory. It’s testing my resolve because it seems to be taking too long.

It’s as if I’ve just thrown down His rod, won the contest, but to the result that hearts are hardened rather than softened.

Ever feel that way? I hope you don’t, but I know you will.

Your adversary incites you to lose your resolve. He will never relent, not until he is in chains, or in the Lake of Fire.

In his 2017 speech at the Pentagon 9/11 memorial, President Trump depended upon the word “resolve” no less than four times to get his message across:

Addressing the families of victims, Trump said, “we can honor their sacrifice by pledging our resolve to do whatever we must to keep our people safe.”

Secondly he said, “We shed our tears in their memory, pledged our devotion in their honor, and turned our sorrow into an unstoppable resolve to achieve justice in their name.”

Thirdly he said, “Here on the west side of the Pentagon, terrorists tried to break our resolve. It’s not going to happen.”

Leaning upon the word a fourth time he said, “Woven into that beautiful flag is the story of our resolve. We have overcome every challenge – every single challenge, every one of them – we’ve triumphed over every evil, and remained united as one nation under God. America does not bend. We do not waver. And we will never, ever yield.”

On 9/11, our resolve was strengthened as we collectively recognized and faced a great evil.

Without diminishing the events of 9/11, allow me a little freedom to use it as an spiritual comparison.

You are going to face 9/11 level trials and afflictions in your spiritual lives before you go to Heaven. Let them strengthen – not weaken – your resolve.

Brick Or Beat (Exodus 5:1-23)

Memes are captioned photos or videos on social media that are intended to be funny by ridiculing human behavior.

Have you encountered any with the caption, The Struggle is Real?

There’s one that is a picture of someone desperate to cook a slice of bacon using a hairstyling flat iron.

Another shows a compact car with a home window air-conditioner installed, plugged-in to a gasoline generator bolted on the trunk lid.

There are a slew of Struggle is Real meme’s involving T-Rex’s trying to do things with their tiny arms.

In our verses, Moses confronts Pharaoh for the first time. For Moses and the Hebrews, the struggle is real:

Instead of letting the Hebrews go on a three-day religious holiday, Pharaoh orders them to meet their regular quota of bricks while withholding the necessary straw to make them.

Instead of rallying behind Moses as their deliverer, the Hebrew foremen blame him for their worsening predicament.

God had promised He would lead His people out of Egypt. Why put-up with Pharaoh’s refusals?

One reason for it is something we mention quite a lot, but that is so important we can’t emphasize it too much. I’m talking about God’s longsuffering. God was longsuffering towards Pharaoh.

One thing we should realize about God’s longsuffering: By virtue of our relationship with Jesus, we are active participants with God in His longsuffering. As He waits, we wait with Him. As such, we can find ourselves in peril like the Jews, and perplexed like Moses.

I’ll organize my comments about longsuffering around two points: #1 Your Participation In God’s Longsuffering Will Lead You Into Peril, and #2 Your Participation In God’s Longsuffering Will Leave You Feeling Perplexed.

#1 – Your Participation In God’s Longsuffering Will Lead You Into Peril (v1-19)

There are always two primary reasons for God’s longsuffering:

The first is to give every sinner genuine opportunities to repent and be saved.

The second is to show that God gave those genuine opportunities in abundance so that the unrepentant sinner has no argument about God being unfair in His eventual judgment.

The waiting that Moses and the Hebrews were called upon to endure while God dealt with Pharaoh illustrates our own waiting while God strives with sinners to be saved. That’s the application.

Exo 5:1  Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

You don’t need to say much to say a lot. Some of history’s greatest speeches were incredibly short. God’s message to Pharaoh is right up there with the best of them.

If the goal was to deliver Israel from Egypt, why start by asking permission to take a long weekend to celebrate a religious feast?

What they were asking was reasonable, and would not have hurt Egypt or its economy. Pharaoh’s refusal establishes that he was against God from the beginning. He was making a willful choice to disobey God.

Exo 5:2  And Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.”

The Egyptians worshipped many gods – Anubis, Isis, Ra, and Set are some we’ve heard of. I saw one list of forty-nine Egyptian gods. The nations surrounding Egypt had their multitude of deities.

Pharaoh probably knew that the Hebrews had a ‘god,’ but he may not have known His name.

More to the point – The ‘god’ of Israel would have seemed puny and powerless to Pharaoh. After all, who was the master? Who were the slaves? For Pharaoh, it was case closed.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we must embrace the fact that our Lord seems puny and powerless to nonbelievers. They look around at the evil state of the world and declare that there either is no God, or that He doesn’t care. They think it’s case closed.

Little do they know our God has power to save, and that the evil in the world is something He tolerates in order that more lost and perishing humans can hear the Gospel and receive eternal life.

Exo 5:3  So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

Moses and Aaron let Pharaoh know that something had happened to trigger their request.
The God of the Hebrews, who had been silent for the past four centuries, had appeared to Moses. He was commanding worship.

Lest God bring judgment upon the Hebrews for disobeying His call to worship, Pharaoh ought to let them go, or risk losing his work force to some judgment of God upon them for their disobedience.

Moses had experienced firsthand the seriousness of obeying God when God had recently sought to kill his firstborn son for being uncircumcised.

Worshipping and sacrificing in the desert was a command – not an invitation. Without passing over into legalism, it might be better for us to think in terms of commands rather than invitations. For example in the Book of Hebrews we read,

Heb 10:25  not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Each of us must decide for ourselves where to attend church, and how often. But we should never think it merely an invitation to meet with the Lord when everything is just right. It’s a command – a blessed one, having our best interests in mind.

Jesus is so incredibly gracious that it’s easy to think His commands are mere invitations.

Exo 5:4  Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.”
Exo 5:5  And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

Pharaoh was too well informed to not know who Moses was. Still he addressed Moses as if he were just another one of the Hebrew slaves.

You and I are citizens of Heaven who are ambassadors to the nonbelievers of earth. They mostly reject our authority. It’s to be expected.

There’s some political drama in Pharaoh’s use of the word “labor.” You might remember that the previous Pharaoh thought that the population of the Hebrews was getting dangerously high, so he ordered the murder of the male infants. That didn’t work, so the Egyptians went another route. They put the Hebrews to hard labor so that they could better control them.

Exo 5:6  So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,
Exo 5:7  “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Exo 5:8  And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it…

There’s a lot of explanation in the commentaries about brick making. I can’t imagine any of us are interested in knowing more than that the Hebrews needed lots of straw, and that it was withheld. Thus the Hebrews had to work overtime to gather straw and still make their daily quota of bricks.

Exo 5:8  And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

Pharaoh’s reasoning was that if they had time for worship, they weren’t working hard enough.

Pharaoh wanted the people of God to be so busy serving him that they had no time for worship. The world will try its best to keep you too busy for God. For example – So many family activities and kid’s sports now interfere with church.

Once again, I’m not here to judge your calendar. I’m simply suggesting that since the world is geared toward destroying your family, you’re not going to strengthen your family by spending more time busy in the world than with the Lord’s family.

Exo 5:9  Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”

Pharaoh reasoned that time away from brick making could only put ideas of freedom and civil rights in their heads.

Exo 5:10  And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw.
Exo 5:11  Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ ”

So far this deliverance-thing wasn’t going very well. Instead of packing a picnic basket for their weekend of worship, the Hebrew’s work load had been increased exponentially, and there would be no relief.

Exo 5:12  So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.

Apparently the powerful straw lobby would not allow the Hebrews access to their fields. They instead had to venture far to find inferior “stubble” wherever they could.

By the way – the Hebrews also had to tend to their own fields. and flocks. Their situation reminds me of that old Tennessee Ernie Ford song,

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

Exo 5:13  And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.”
Exo 5:14  Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”

The “taskmasters” were Egyptian officials who oversaw the work. The “officers of the children of Israel” were Hebrews who acted as crew chiefs.

When the quotas fell short, the Egyptians beat the crew chiefs. And I mean that they whipped or scourged them. This was no payroll deduction or loss of vacation days or reduction of health insurance benefits.

Exo 5:15  Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants?
Exo 5:16  There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

It sounds like the officers had no idea that Pharaoh was reacting to what Moses had asked. At the very least, they had not yet put together that it was because of God’s message that they were being mistreated.

Christians are still tortured; still martyred. The struggle is real for our brothers and sisters around the world. Let’s not insult them by thinking some minor first-world setback is a struggle.

Exo 5:17  But he said, “You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
Exo 5:18  Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.”

Pharaoh’s perspective was that they were demanding religious freedom. He wasn’t going to grant it. After all, the God of the Hebrews was obviously a lightweight. Just look at them.

Exo 5:19  And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.”

Their trouble was not going to be abated. If anything, it would get worse.

I’ve told you this before, but often my counsel to people is that their situation is going to get worse before it gets better – if it ever gets better.

God could have fast-freed the children of Israel. It was nothing for Him to overcome Pharaoh and the so-called ‘gods’ of Egypt.

But God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish. He waits so men can repent. There are many biblical examples of this.

Early in the Book of Genesis, God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But He also said that mankind’s “days shall be 120 years.” The apostle Peter refers to this and comments, “the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (First Peter 3:20). God’s longsuffering waited.

In a very real sense, God’s longsuffering has been waiting ever since Adam and Eve sinned in Eden. God has tolerated evil, and withheld His judgment, even until today.

In Romans 9:22-23 we read,

Rom 9:22  What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23  and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

At the heart of those words is the fact that, because He is longsuffering, God “endures” evil in order that men might have opportunities to be saved “for glory.”

That all sounds great – until you realize you are a participant in God’s longsuffering. While God’s longsuffering waits, you might triumph; or you might be tortured.

For sure, you are going to be mistreated and misunderstood by the nonbelieving world. They consider Jesus puny and powerless, and His followers fools.

The apostle Paul explained it like this:

1Co 4:11  To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
1Co 4:12  And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
1Co 4:13  being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.

“Offscouring” is the stuff that sticks to your cook pan, that needs to be scraped-off. It’s worse than “filth.”

It is your portion as an agent of God’s longsuffering to face peril.

God’s longsuffering is not limitless. It waits; but as in the days of Noah, judgment comes.

I’ll say this for a third or fourth time this morning: God tolerates evil for the sake of giving sinners opportunities to be saved.

He has a plan to eradicate evil once-and-for-all. But when He finally, fully implements it, it will be too late for the lost. They will pass on to eternal conscious torment.

Let’s do our part to hasten the end by serving the Lord as His agents of longsuffering, bringing the Gospel to the lost.

#2 – Your Participation In God’s Longsuffering Will Leave You Feeling Perplexed (v21-23)

It’s an effective strategy to get your opponents to fight amongst themselves. In the last Avengers movie, Civil War, the bad guy devised a plan for revenge that pitted the heroes against each other… And it worked. In the end, Captain America fought Iron Man, and the team was divided into two factions.

Pharaoh was no dummy. He recognized Moses as a potential threat. By increasing the work, he hoped to drive a wedge between the Hebrews and their would-be deliverer. And it worked.

Exo 5:20  Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them.
Exo 5:21  And they said to them, “Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

These crew chiefs were getting the brunt of the punishment. Not only were they beaten by the Egyptians, but they had to drive their own people much harder – making them unpopular, to say the least.

In the New Testament, when the believers got beaten for representing Jesus, they rejoiced for being worthy to suffer in His Name (Acts 5:41). These officers had a long way to go in their spiritual understanding. To them, the beating was a defeat.

God’s longsuffering – It’s not just about the unsaved. It provides opportunities for Christians to get their spiritual ducks in a row.

The Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk, called upon God to judge the wickedness of the Jews. I’m not sure what Habakkuk thought God should do, but it wasn’t what God did. God disciplined Israel by making them subject to Babylon.

It was God’s longsuffering at work toward His own people. It gave them the incentive to repent.

To say that this course of action troubled Habakkuk – well, that would be an understatement. In the end, as he participated in God’s longsuffering toward Israel, Habakkuk could exclaim,

Hab 3:17  Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls –
Hab 3:18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

When you receive Jesus Christ, it’s just the beginning. It starts a process called sanctification, wherein you are changed day-by-day to become more like the Lord. It won’t be complete – YOU won’t be complete – until the resurrection and rapture of the church. Mean time, while God’s longsuffering waits, He uses the time in which He is striving with sinners to mold and shape you.

The Hebrew officers described Pharaoh as having a sword in his hand to kill them. Might that be a slam against the staff in Moses’ hand, which was supposed to be so powerful?

They saw it as a case of sword-beats-staff. Sword might beat staff in the material world, but not when it’s the staff of God in the hands of His called servant.

We must get it through our heads that spiritual weapons beat material ones, and that the weapons of our warfare are spiritual.

This wasn’t a case of losing round one to make a Rocky-esque comeback. No, this was a win.

I’ll say that again: This was a win. It was a win for the longsuffering of God. He could easily have overcome Pharaoh. It was much harder to tolerate Pharaoh in order to give him opportunities to be saved.

The crew chiefs, and the Hebrews in total, had a lot to learn about God. But so did Moses.

Exo 5:22  So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?
Exo 5:23  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”

We want to say, “Cry me a river.” Call the Waambulance. God had said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But… he will not let the people go” (4:21).

Moses should have expected Pharaoh to refuse, at least at first. Instead he was shocked, and he complained.

Let me address something inquiring minds might be wondering about. I’ve been saying God’s longsuffering was giving Pharaoh opportunity to repent. But God also said, “he will not let the people go.” Is that a contradiction?

No; not at all. For one thing, God’s foreknowledge of what Pharaoh would ultimately choose does not mean God determined Pharaoh’s choice. He was free to choose.

For another thing, there are instances in the Bible where, from our perspective, God seems to change His mind. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them in 40 days, they’d be overthrown. But when they repented, God – acting according to His nature – relented from His prophesied judgment.

God’s offer to Pharaoh was genuine. His offer to “whosoever will believe” in Jesus for eternal life is genuine.

Discouragement in your Christian walk is to be expected. No matter how much we are reminded that we will suffer, and have trials, and be afflicted, it stills stops us in our progress.

God never stops. He began this good work in you, and He will be faithful to complete it.

Egypt wasn’t delivered in a day. You won’t be finished in a day – but you will be, in the Day you stand before the Lord and He says, with much joy, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

God’s longsuffering waits… And you wait with it. Wait patiently, with endurance, knowing God is saving whosoever will believe.

It Slices, It Dices, It Circumcises (Exodus 4:18-31)

Some men wouldn’t want their wives to remarry someone else in the event of their death, but not Heinrich Heine. The German poet left everything to his wife – but there was one stipulation: She must remarry. His will read, “Because then there will be at least one man to regret my death.”

It’s one of the many weird wills that you hear about. Like the lucky dog who inherited $12 million when his owner, businesswoman Leona Helmsley, died. And I mean “dog.” Helmsley left the fortune to her Maltese, Trouble. It’s not because she didn’t have any heirs. Helmsley’s grandchildren received less than the dog, according to her will, though a judge reduced the sum to a cool $2 million.
Trouble died at the age of 12 in her final days in luxury, every need tended to around the clock, in Sarasota, FL, in 2011. Her cremains are being privately retained.

Then there was Charles Millar. A Toronto lawyer and businessman, he left his sizable assets up for grabs to pretty much any local woman. In his will, he said that all of his estate should be left in a cash sum to the married Toronto woman who could birth the most children in the decade following his death. It became known as the “Stork Derby,” and many women vied for a chance to claim the prize. In the end, four women tied for it, with nine children each. Two-runners up were given a small amount for their efforts. 

No one dies in our verses, but I got thinking about inheritances because the word “firstborn” is prominent throughout:

God names Israel as His “son… [His] firstborn” (v22).
Moses’ message to Pharaoh is, “let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn” (v23).
Moses own firstborn son figures prominently in these verses.

A lot of unusual things happen in these verses – things that have commentators baffled and befuddled. Whatever secondary issues arise, the primary theme is the firstborn.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 It’s Because Of The Firstborn That You Can Be Saved, and #2 It’s Because Of The Firstborn That Israel Will Be Saved.

#1 – It’s Because Of The Firstborn That You Can Be Saved (v18-23)

The very first mention of the “firstborn” in Exodus is in our verses. It’s the first of many. God’s confrontation with Pharaoh builds through nine plagues until finally the Lord says in chapter eleven,

Exo 11:5  and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.

One of the commentators I read this week said, “Remember that in the Old Testament, physical things became spiritual truths in the New Testament. They were like an object lesson of God’s true intent realized in Jesus.”

What spiritual truth was God showing mankind in the death of the firstborn? Remember that the Israelites would be spared the death of their firstborn when they sacrificed a lamb for each household, and applied its blood on their doorposts. When God saw the blood, He passed over their homes.

The spiritual truth they were being shown was this: The blood of an innocent lamb, properly sacrificed, could substitute for a human being, saving his or her life.

Centuries later, Jesus would be announced as “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” His sacrifice substitutes for the human race – for “whosoever will believe in Him” – saving a person for eternity.

The life or death of the firstborn of Israel and Egypt were “an object lesson of God’s true intent realized in Jesus.” Keep all that in mind as we read the narrative.

Exo 4:18  So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

Common courtesy ought to be practiced at all times. Moses had been with Jethro forty years, and I’m guessing he was his “Number One guy.”

Jethro would also be missing his daughter and the grandkids.

We should always think of how our decisions will impact those we love. In the end, we must follow the Lord’s definite leading; but we should do so with humility.

There are those who suggest that Moses, when he said he wanted to see if the Hebrews were “still alive,” was being less than forthcoming about his real mission. Maybe; but Moses was under no obligation to explain everything to Jethro. Sometimes an abbreviated version of your story is the best way to communicate.

At any rate, Jethro gave his blessing, and Moses was off to Egypt.

Exo 4:19  Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”

Earlier in this chapter Moses had been offering excuses to stay in Midian.
Perhaps God anticipated Moses offering as another excuse that he was wanted, dead or alive, and would be killed should he return. God eliminated the excuse before Moses could say it.

Exo 4:20  Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

The “rod of God” was either Moses’ shepherds crook, or the smaller rod all shepherds carried. It was God’s because of His promise to perform wonders and signs through it.

Right after Moses married Zipporah, we were told they had a son who they named Gershom. We don’t learn the name of his second son until chapter eighteen. It’s Eliezer.

Moses had been in the desert forty years. These boys were grown men.

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

Let’s get right to what we think about God saying He would “harden [Pharaoh’s] heart.” Commentators count ten passages where we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. There are ten other passages where we read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Pharaoh hardened his heart in the first sign and in all the first five plagues. Not until the sixth plague is it stated that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (9:12).

Thus we say that Pharaoh had every opportunity to repent, but refused, and the result was that God left him to the rebellion in his heart. The hardening God did was to let Pharaoh be confirmed in his own choice to disobey.

Pharaoh was no mechanical man, predestined to disobey God. He could have chosen otherwise. It’s been illustrated this way: “The same sun that melts butter also hardens clay.”

Opponents to this view like to quote from the Book of Romans, chapter nine, where Pharaoh is mentioned, and where God is compared to the Master Potter who has power over clay to make it whatever He wants.

What they ignore is that it’s a reference from the Book of Jeremiah. In its original context, God goes on to say He will mold a nation one way or another based on their free-will response to Him:

Jer 18:7  The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
Jer 18:8  if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
Jer 18:9  And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
Jer 18:10  if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

Does that sound deterministic? Does it indicate God has predestined the response? No.

God let Moses know up front what He foreknew. Pharaoh would resist him.

Has it occurred to you how many of God’s great servants had ministries in which men would not heed them? Isaiah… Jeremiah… Ezekiel. If you’re being faithful to God’s Word and to your work for Him, you may or may not see conversions. In fact, the result you see may be a hardening against God.

Exo 4:22  Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

Spiritually speaking, God was Father to Israel. It was His miracle of opening up Sarah’s womb to conceive Isaac when she and Abraham could no longer have children that led to the “birth” of the nation of Israel.

Here’s the thing: Firstborn is more a title than it is about birth order. There are sons in the Bible who were born first but who were not the firstborn:

Ishmael was born to Abraham and Sarah before Isaac, but Isaac was considered the firstborn, and the inheritor.
Likewise Esau was born to Isaac and Rebekah before Jacob, but he sold his birthright to Jacob who was then the firstborn who inherited the blessing.

Firstborn does not mean “first” in chronological order. It means “first in rank,” firstborn by way of preeminence with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of a “firstborn.”

Many nations existed before Israel became one under Moses. They weren’t the first nation but they were to be considered the firstborn. The further fact the Savior would come from Israel would only enhance their preeminent status among the nations.

Exo 4:23  So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ‘ ”

God is not a bully. God wasn’t acting like the Mafia. God was preparing for the Passover, when He would show the salvation available in the substitutionary sacrifice of the ultimate firstborn son, Jesus.

Jesus is the firstborn Who must die for all others to live.

The fact Pharaoh’s firstborn would die the night of the first Passover if they failed to apply blood only accelerated the inevitable. Anyone who does not avail themselves of the blood of the final Lamb is dead already.

The death of Pharaoh’s firstborn was therefore avoidable.

I just said that Jesus was God’s firstborn. How is that, since He said Israel was His firstborn?

There’s a famous verse in Hosea; it’s Hosea 11:1, and it says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” It is applied to Jesus in Matthew 2:15, where we read,

Mat 2:15  and [Joseph and Mary were] there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”

Jesus is thus identified with Israel. The nation of Israel is God’s firstborn; but being eternal as God, and having come through Israel as a man, so is Jesus God’s Firstborn.

In Exodus chapter four we are being schooled in spiritual truth. The sacrificed Lamb of God and His blood can substitute for you and be salvation.

Or you can take your own punishment for sin – death followed by eternal damnation.

#2 – It’s Because Of The Firstborn That Israel Will Be Saved (v24-31)

The privileges of the firstborn, for Israel, were (as stated by the apostle Paul), “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came” (Romans 9:4-5).

After the Jews rejected Jesus at His first coming, many would conclude that Israel has no official place in God’s plan.

That is an erroneous and unbiblical conclusion. God is not through with Israel. He can’t be, because many of His promises to save and bless them as His firstborn are unconditional.

As we read the next few verses, keep in mind that God has made an unconditional covenant with Israel.

Exo 4:24  And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the LORD met him and sought to kill him.

Now that’s weird. Or at the very least, unexpected. What was going on?

We’ll see in the next two verses that Moses’ firstborn son had not been circumcised. But before we talk about that, who do you think God was going to kill?

Before you answer “Moses,” let me point out that only personal pronouns are used. We are only told the Lord met “him,” and sought to kill “him.” The “him” is not made clear.

It’s most likely that God sought to kill Gershom – not Moses. Probably the best reason for thinking this is that the whole flow of these verses is about the living or the dying of the firstborn of Israel and of Egypt. It therefore makes sense that the “him” is Gershom, the firstborn of Moses.

Exo 4:25  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”
Exo 4:26  So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!” – because of the circumcision.

I need to read a long passage from Genesis so that we are up-to-speed on the importance of circumcision to the Hebrews.

Gen 17:1  When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
Gen 17:2  And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
Gen 17:3  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:
Gen 17:4  “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
Gen 17:5  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
Gen 17:6  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
Gen 17:7  And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.
Gen 17:8  Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
Gen 17:9  And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
Gen 17:10  This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;
Gen 17:11  and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
Gen 17:12  He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.
Gen 17:13  He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Gen 17:14  And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

God was acting through Moses to deliver Israel. He was living-up to His covenant promises to Abraham. A big part of that covenant was for Israelites to be circumcised. Those not circumcised were to be “cut off from [their] people.” In His actions against Gershom, God was thus emphasizing the covenant.

Somehow Zipporah was aware that God would kill her firstborn if he remained uncircumcised. I wish we knew more about what happened. Did an angel stand in their way, intent on killing Gershom? Did he suddenly fall terminally ill?

What was it like when Zipporah said, “I know what to do,” and approached her adult son with a sharp flint?

What was Moses doing? What about Eliezer – was he also circumcised? (Just because it doesn’t say he was, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t).

“Husband of blood.” Repeated twice – as if that somehow helps us to understand what Zipporah meant.

It might, if we translate it differently. One language scholar said, “the phrase often translated as “husband of blood” does not necessarily mean “husband,” but rather, “one bound” in a covenant of blood, in this case referring to Gershom’s circumcision.”

Zipporah’s words might simply have been a declaration that now that he was circumcised, Gershom was bound to the covenant God had made with Abraham.

I like that; it’s simple and to the point.

Why so dramatic? On a very basic level, how would it look for the deliverer of Israel to be in violation of the one sign of the covenant? It would have been a total hypocrisy. At the very least, it would have misrepresented God at a time when it was super important to reveal Him accurately.

I suppose I should spend a few minutes talking about circumcision as a religious ritual for today. It isn’t necessary. There are many passages that reveal this, but none better than Acts chapter fifteen. It recounts the church council in Jerusalem where “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (v1).

After much discussion, the conclusion of the matter was, “that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood” (v19-20).

In fact, we have no obligation to observe any Jewish rules or rites or rituals. They were the shadow of which Jesus is the substance. We walk in the light – not in the shadows.

Why Moses failed to practice it on his sons eludes me, but I can understand it. He was far from his people, with no hope of ever seeing them again. In a situation like that, I can see Moses immersing himself in the Midianite culture.

I offer a fascinating comparison for what it’s worth:

Abraham knew what it was like to sacrifice his firstborn. In Genesis chapter twenty-two God tells him to take Isaac – an adult in his thirties – and offer him as a sacrifice on an altar. Abraham obeyed, and God provided a substitute sacrifice at the last moment.

In Moses’ case, the near death of his firstborn was his own fault; but still he would know a little about what it was like to almost lose him.

God, of course, would send Jesus, the Firstborn Who would not be saved from sacrifice at the last moment, but Who would fulfill all the terms of the covenant God had made with His people, and with all humanity.

Exo 4:27  And the LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him.

The Lord was working at both ends. Moses had been made aware of this at the burning bush; God had already set it in motion.

We see so little of what is going on. God really is working at the other end, for your good and His glory.

Exo 4:28  So Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.

Big brother Aaron offered no excuses or objections. Perhaps the continuing oppression in Egypt had steeled him for confrontation.

Exo 4:29  Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.

Israel wasn’t a nation with laws; not yet. They were tribal, governed by elders of each family.

He’d been gone forty years, but the return of Moses would have been a notable event. It wouldn’t have been hard to get the elders interested.

Exo 4:30  And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.
Exo 4:31  So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Hope at last, after more than four centuries, for deliverance.

God had not forgotten His covenant with Abraham. In fact, the incident involving circumcision showed how committed God was to keeping His end of the covenant. His promises to Israel were so important that He was ready to enforce the killing of a descendant who was uncircumcised. That’s attention to detail.

In the New Testament we read Paul’s words, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).

We go on to read, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “THE DELIVERER WILL COME OUT OF ZION, AND HE WILL TURN AWAY UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB…” (11:26).

God’s plan is on track. We ought to remain faithful serving Him, pointing everyone to the Lamb of God.

You know who else is called firstborn? Christians. The writer of the Book of Hebrews calls Christians, “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in Heaven…” (12:23).

If you are a Christian, you have a preeminent position as sons and daughters of God, Who inherit all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. You are firstborn when you receive Jesus as your Substitute on the Cross.

Your heart – is it butter? Or is it clay?

Here He Comes to Save the Day – Mighty Mouth is on His Way (Exodus 4:1-17)

For the last ten years, job listing site CareerBuilder has put out a list it calls “The Most Unbelievable Excuses for Calling in Sick.” Here are a few of them:

An employee said he couldn’t come in because his false teeth flew out the window while he was driving down the highway.

Another claimed that someone had glued her windows and doors shut so she couldn’t get out of her house.

Another said he caught his uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry.

This one is my favorite because it’s a personal fear of mine: “I got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out.”

In chapter three of Exodus, Moses learned that God had a job for him: “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (v9).

In chapter four, Moses will give a series of excuses why he thinks he is not the man for the job. They are altogether lame excuses; God easily overcomes each one of them.

Having run out of excuses, Moses finally says, “I don’t want the job; send someone else.”

That’s not going to go over well; God is going to get angry. But before we get to God’s response, these verses give us an opportunity to discover if we are making excuses for refusing to serve the Lord.

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 Have You Ever Excused Yourself From Serving The Lord? and #2 Have You Ever Refused Yourself From Serving The Lord?

#1 – Have You Ever Excused Yourself From Serving The Lord? (v1-12)

Only recently did I first here the word, ‘volun-told.’ It means to volunteer someone to do a task (usually not an enjoyable one) without their consent or knowledge.

God was calling Moses to serve Him. Moses reacted as if God was volunteering him against his will; as if he was being volun-told.

Was God forcing this on Moses? Hardly. Think back forty years. Moses had boldly rejected his upbringing in Egypt to identify with his Hebrew brothers and sisters. He stepped-up as a deliverer and killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave. Moses thought everyone would recognize his calling.

They did not. Instead, the Hebrews accused him, and the Egyptians sought to kill him, forcing Moses to flee into the desert as a fugitive.

The strong desire in Moses’ heart was to deliver his people. God wasn’t calling Moses to do something against his will; God was giving him the desire of his heart – only it was forty years later, after Moses had received the proper spiritual preparation.

As we discuss serving the Lord, consider that the thing or things God might be calling you to do might initially seem contrary to your will. Trust that He knows you better than you know yourself, and that He is wanting to give you the desires of your heart.

Exo 4:1  Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’ ”

Moses was still at the burning bush, where God was talking to him. We saw last week that this was none other than Jesus speaking.

In verse eighteen of chapter three Jesus had said, “they will heed your voice.” Moses’ suggested that they might not. It’s always an excuse when we think or suggest God’s Word may not be accurate.

Exo 4:2  So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”

This was most likely his long shepherds crook, although we know that shepherds also carried a shorter rod for discipline and defense. We read in the psalms about the rod and the staff.

Many devotions have been written about Jesus using what is already “in your hand.” While we are never to trust in our natural abilities or talents, they can be offered to God, and He can anoint and use them.

The apostle Paul provides the great example. He said that he considered his life before meeting Jesus a pile of manure. But as we follow his journeys in the Book of Acts, we see God using what was in Paul’s past – things like his dual citizenship in Israel and Rome, and his command of several languages.

Jesus can, and even wants to, use what is in your hand. Don’t grasp for something not in your reach. Let Him anoint what you already have.

Exo 4:3  And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

In his forty years as a shepherd Moses had encountered many snakes. This one was a red-on-yellow, kill-a-fellow variety. Commentators suggest it was a cobra like the one that adorned Egyptian headdresses, but that’s mere speculation.

Exo 4:4  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),

Even non-poisonous snakes should never be handled by the tail. It’s the head that you need to immobilize. Moses showed a great deal of faith in obeying the Lord.

In the midst of doubting Jesus, and objecting to Him, Moses still had faith. One of the things that makes it hard for us to see when we are making excuses is that in most areas of our walk with the Lord, we might be doing His will. We thus tend to overlook any areas where we are prone to make excuses.

If I’m going to church, and people know I’m a believer, and things are generally going well, I may not hear the Lord calling me to further sacrifice; or to something new. I need to constantly ask the Lord to search my heart, revealing new ways of serving Him, and invigorating the old ways, too.

Why a serpent? Maybe to show that Jesus had power to take up the devil and defeat him. After all, the promised Savior in the Garden of Eden would crush the devil’s head. (That’s why Moses took the serpent by the tail. Crushing the head was not his task).

Later in the history of Israel, when they are out of Egypt and in the desert, they grumble against God. Poisonous serpents come into their camp. Their bite is fatal. Moses constructs a bronze serpent on a pole. Any Israelite who gets bit need only look at that pole to be healed.

In the New Testament, Jesus compares Himself on the Cross to that pole. All we need do is look upon Jesus – believe in Him – to be saved.

Exo 4:5  “that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

The Hebrews had descended from Abraham through his son Isaac, and from his son Jacob. More than just a reminder, the Lord meant for them to understand there was a bigger historical movement that they were part of.

Exo 4:6  Furthermore the LORD said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.

The term “leprous” described a bunch of skin maladies – from slight to serious. This was evidently a very serious case.

Exo 4:7  And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh.

I wonder how much time elapsed? There must have been some anxious waiting on Moses’ part.

Reaching in to yourself, there’s only sin – represented by the rotting flesh disease. God can nevertheless heal indwelling sin, as it were, and use your hands to serve Him.

Exo 4:8  “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.

Two signs would be better than one. How about a third?

Exo 4:9  And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”

The Nile had claimed the lives of untold Hebrew babies who had been drowned in it by the decree of the previous Pharaoh. That blood cried-out to God.

Moses was promised three powerful signs that would confirm that he was speaking on behalf of God. God thereby easily overcame Moses’ objections.

Are we ever hesitant to share the Gospel because we don’t think people will listen to us, or believe us?
According to Barna, “When asked if they have a personal responsibility to share their faith with others, 73% of born again Christians said yes. When this conviction is put into practice, however, the numbers shift downward. Only half (52%) of born again Christians say they actually did share the Gospel at least once this past year to someone with different beliefs, in the hope that they might accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.”

We think it would be great if signs and wonders could accompany our sharing. Maybe they do.

When we share our testimony of being saved, we’re proclaiming that Jesus has defeated the devil, and given us victory over sin.

Your walk with the Lord – that’s a miracle of spiritual birth.

Moses was not through offering excuses. In fact, he was just getting started.

Exo 4:10  Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

We have an important decision to make. We need to decide if Moses had a speech impediment, e.g., stuttering.

If this statement were all that we had to go on, we might come to that conclusion. Thankfully, we do have more to go on; it comes from the speech of Stephen, the first martyr of the church age. In the Book of Acts, while reviewing the history of Israel to his Jewish accusers, Stephen said a lot about Moses. Concerning his speech, we read,

Act 7:22  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

It is the inspired testimony of the Holy Spirit through Stephen that growing-up Egyptian Moses was “mighty in words.”

Add to that Moses himself forty years earlier “supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand” (Acts 7:25).

No disability is ascribed to him – not stuttering, not anything.

OK, so what might Moses mean? What was his real excuse?

My father was a first generation Italian immigrant through Ellis Island. He came to the United States when he was sixteen. He spoke only Italian. He had to teach himself English.

Growing up, I remember my dad calling our Italian relatives back east every Christmas Eve. My grandma never learned English, so my dad had to talk to her in Italian. Every year it became more difficult for him. His speech was hesitant – a curious mix of Italian and English, with a lot of asking, “how you say?” All those years speaking only English had taken its toll on his native tongue.

Moses was forty years removed from speaking Egyptian or Hebrew. The most natural explanation was that he was objecting that he no longer had the eloquence to address either Pharaoh or his own people. “Slow of speech and slow of tongue” make more sense as a lost skill than a physical disability.

Exo 4:11  So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?

Let me preface the next few minutes by first stating this: Read this verse in its context. If you read this as a stand-alone verse, out of its context, it seems to teach that God makes certain people mute or deaf or blind.

Indeed, a lot of commentators read it that way, and then glibly explain, “God is sovereign and does what He wants.”

I’ve used this illustration before, but it’s a good one to remember. In the famous Frost/Nixon interviews, David Frost asked Nixon if it was ever alright for the president to do something illegal. Richard Nixon responded by saying, “If the President does it, it’s not illegal.”

Commentators who appeal to the sovereignty of God to explain difficult statements are basically saying, “If God does it, it’s not evil.” We reject that as an explanation.

What, then, do we make of verse eleven? First of all, even if we do look at it all by itself, it isn’t saying anything about creating people with disabilities. The words “made” or “make” have nothing to do with forming humans in the womb. That’s something we read into the verse that it doesn’t say.

Moses was objecting that his words were not eloquent enough to accomplish the task. He was afraid Pharaoh would hear him, but not be persuaded by him. We might use the expression, “his words would fall on deaf ears.”

They would indeed fall on deaf ears, but in a spiritual sense. Pharaoh would be “mute and deaf and… blind” to God’s Word and ways.

What this verse is pointing to are spiritual disabilities – not physical ones.

It’s not unusual for God to describe physically healthy people as having spiritual sensory disabilities:

When God first commissioned Isaiah, God told him, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed” (6:9-10).

The prophet Jeremiah was told by God, “Hear this now, O foolish people, Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not, And who have ears and hear not” (5:21).

In the New Testament, we are told, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25).
The people attending the church in Laodicea are described as “blind” in Jesus’ letter in the Revelation (3:17).

There are many such passages where people are described as spiritually deaf and dumb and blind.

Look carefully at verse eleven. It says, “who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind.”
In a list of disabilities, why mention making some people “seeing”? It only makes sense if God means spiritual hearing and spiritual seeing.

God was sending Moses with His words knowing Pharaoh would be deaf to them, blind to their truth. As far as physical disabilities, from the womb or otherwise, I like what theologian Greg Boyd says: “God created a world in which blindness is occasionally the result of natural processes such as disease and genetic defect or accidents. (And occasionally due to violent, sinful acts by people).” 

Another commentator shared this insight:

We should acknowledge that we are all disabled or handicapped in some way. The need for eyeglasses indicates impaired or “handicapped” vision. Dental braces are a sign of imperfect teeth. The whole human race lives with the reality of imperfection. We are all broken in some way. The handicaps we live with are simply a matter of degree.

When babies are delivered in the hospital, they are issued an Apgar score. The Apgar scale is determined by evaluating the newborn baby on five simple criteria on a scale from zero to two, then summing up the five values thus obtained. The resulting Apgar score ranges from zero to 10. The five criteria are Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration. The fact we score newborns is a reminder we live in a fallen world.

If something is evil, it’s evil to suggest God is its source. As one commentator put it, “Hell is the source of the trouble which God tolerates for the sake of our freedom.”
God is sovereign – so sovereign that He gave and has given mankind free will. We exercise free will sinfully, and bad things happen. God’s resolve was to come into our world as the God-man and pay the penalty for sin. Delivering Israel from Egypt was a major movement in that plan.

Exo 4:12  Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

Do we ever use Moses’ excuse? Sure. We excuse ourselves for not being adequate to the task. We don’t know enough… We’re not holy enough… We don’t have the time, or the resources.

Anytime we look at our own abilities they seem disabilities that hinder our saying “Here am I; send me.”

You know how sometimes in a meeting, or at an appointment, you know you’ve been dismissed? God said, “Now therefore, go.” That’s pretty final.

If Jesus calls you to a ministry, or asks you to serve Him in some way, small or great, “Now therefore, go.” He wouldn’t commission you unless He had overcome all possible excuses by His grace.

In our reflection and prayer at the end of the study, be brave and ask the Lord to show you any excuses you are using that are keeping you from serving Him. In Moses’ case, it was a big ask: Leave everything you’ve built for forty years and serve full time.

It could be that for you, too. Probably it’s something lesser, but no less important.

#2 – Have You Ever Refused Yourself From Serving The Lord? (v13-17)

“Mr. McGee, don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

McGee was the investigative reporter who was trying to expose David Banner as the Incredible Hulk on the original television series.

God’s about to get angry with Moses. But we shouldn’t think of Him as Hulking-out.

Exo 4:13  But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

“God, I don’t want to go; send anyone else.” It was a refusal.

Exo 4:14  So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses…

Yes, God gets angry; but His anger is hard to get a handle on, because it’s not sinful. So much of our anger is sinful. We get mad or fed-up and lash out. We know intellectually that there is such a thing as “righteous anger,” but unrighteous anger tends to characterize us.

I’d offer this illustration to explain God’s anger with Moses. Let’s say you’re having a teachable moment with one of your young children.

You’re dialoging, overcoming their excuses and objections, when suddenly they get defiant and just say, “No” to you.

You go into a whole different mode, do you not? You get angry – but not sinfully. You don’t lash out, etc. No, you get determined to see it through, to the bitter end, in which you must win. You have a measured, but determined, anger against their rebellion.

That’s a little like God’s anger with Moses.

Exo 4:14  So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you.
When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

Moses had a big sister, Miriam, and an older brother, Aaron. Since this is an origins story, Moses includes the detail that Aaron was a Levite. This will be important later, when God establishes the priesthood. Only Levites can serve as priests.

God sees several moves ahead and provides accordingly. Aaron was probably coming to tell Moses that the Pharaoh who wanted him dead was himself dead. Little did Aaron know that he, too, was going to be volun-told to serve God – more so by Moses than God.

Exo 4:15  Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
Exo 4:16  So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.

Aaron had no problems speaking Hebrew or Egyptian. He would be able to serve as a translator for Moses. “You shall be to [Aaron] as God” simply means that the words Moses spoke to Aaron should be considered the very words of God.

On the one hand, having Aaron to talk through was a blessing. However, Aaron would pose problems for little brother. Most notably, when Moses goes to receive the Law of God, Aaron makes the Golden Calf, leading Israel into an orgy.

We should not trust in man, but in God. Eloquence is not what God needed to reveal Himself to Israel, or to confront Pharaoh. A case can be made that God would have been far more glorified by Moses’ slow, heavy use of language.

Exo 4:17  And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

Pharaoh and the Hebrews would recognize the rod (or staff) as the implement of a shepherd. It would communicate that God had decided to lead His people like sheep away from Egypt.

By the signs, it would also show His power to do so.

Would a show of power help our witnessing? I’m always reminded that it didn’t for Jesus. I’m not saying signs and wonders can’t or don’t still attend the preaching of the Gospel; but we should not count on them, whether they occur or not.

I can’t determine anyone else’s refusals to serve; I can only look at my own life. But I can suggest this: The Christian life is a sacrificial life. We are to continuously offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

If I am not making sacrifices of my time, and my finances, and my availability, specifically for the sake of the Gospel – then I am refusing to serve.

As we go into our time of reflection, ask the Lord, “Am I sacrificing?” Listen for His answer and make the necessary changes.