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Reading: Ex.7

It had all been going so well for Pharaoh. His building plans were proceeding nicely courtesy of the forced labour of the Israelites. Pharaoh really was quite pleased with himself. He was the supreme power in Egypt and could do what he liked. Surely he was the only sovereign in the land – wasn't he worthy of being regarded as a god?

Pharaoh's wrong-doing had been going on for a long time now and he had come to think of himself as somehow untouchable. How easy it is for men to imagine that they can do what they like especially when they seem to be able to get away with it with impunity. Many today fondly imagine that God will never intervene in their lives and misread as indifference what is the wonderful gracious patience of the LORD.

But Pharaoh is about to be brought to book. He is going to be confronted by the One who alone is God Almighty. Pharaoh, that arrogant seemingly all-powerful ruler of Egypt, is about to see his power and the power of the false gods of Egypt challenged and destroyed.

The LORD was about to break in upon Pharaoh's comfortable world with a series of devastating plagues that would demonstrate who was the true God as He intervened to free His people from Pharaoh's clutches.

Were the plagues to take place in our world today I reckon the media would probably refer to them as a series of natural disasters. We don't like to recognize the LORD's powerful and mighty hand at work in the world any more than Pharaoh did.

Our media is full at the moment of the terrible events that have recently unfolded in Japan with that earthquake and devastating tsunami that followed. Surely such an event should make us stop and think. How small and powerless man is when confronted by the so-called forces of nature! How quickly lives are swept away!

As we read what the Bible has to say about the plagues of Egypt we are given a divine explanation as to why these plagues took place. We are given no such detailed explanation concerning the Japanese events. We don't know why and for what specific purpose these events have taken place but surely we are being called at the very least to reflect upon the brevity and fragility of life. Are we ready to die?

The circumstances all seemed so negative. What chance was there of deliverance for the people of Israel?

Moses and Aaron had been to speak to Pharaoh but all that had been achieved was a degradation of the working conditions of the Israelites. Moses and Aaron were decidedly unpopular even with the people they were seeking to represent. And Moses wants to throw in the towel and the contest has hardly even begun! Seriously, what can two isolated octogenarians hope to achieve?

It all looked so hopeless – there was no earthly reason to expect that the centuries of slavery were about to come to an end. And yet… and yet… within a few months not only would the slavery be ended but the people would be heading off in freedom towards the Promised Land.

What brings it about?

Well as we survey chs.7-10 we find a number of themes repeating themselves again and again.

"The LORD said…" This short phrase appears many times in these four chapters.

It appears right at the outset of ch.7

7:1-5 "And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”"

In these verses Moses is given some general instructions of what he must do and the LORD makes plain to him just what the LORD Himself will do. The information which is summarised in these opening verses will be built upon and developed in the following chapters.

a.       Moses must tell Pharaoh what God commands him to say

b.       God will harden Pharaoh's heart so no quick-fix solution is to be expected

c.        God will perform multiple miraculous signs as demonstrations of His power

d.       All this will leave the Egyptians in no doubt as to who is the true God.

In 7:8-9 Moses and Aaron are given specific instructions concerning how to begin this divine campaign.

"Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.”’"

The message that Moses and Aaron have to share with Pharaoh remains constant.

As the LORD repeatedly speaks (13 more times in these chapters we read "The LORD said") we find that the message addressed to Pharaoh remains the same:

"let my people go that they may serve me." 7:16, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, 9:13, 10:3.

Pharaoh refuses to pay heed to the word of the LORD but that does not call for the slightest change in the message that is addressed to him. What the LORD requires of him remains the same. It is not for the LORD to align Himself with Pharaoh or to adapt to Pharaoh but instead Pharaoh must listen to the LORD!

Pharaoh may well have thought the message he heard from Moses and Aaron was irrelevant, that it didn't take account of the realities of the situation, but that was not the point – the LORD had spoken!

Our task is the same today. Yes, we need to make sure that our message is clear and understandable but we must not alter that message one iota. The problem with Pharaoh was not a lack of comprehension – he knew what the message was but didn't want to obey it. How he would have loved Moses to have changed his tune. But Moses had to go on speaking the same word over and over again. In doing so God was glorified!

The LORD told Moses that Pharaoh would stubbornly resist and that he would not pay attention to the Word Moses had to share with him. There are three complementary explanations as to just why Pharaoh was so stubborn:

1.       Five times in these chapters we read that the LORD hardens Pharaoh's heart. 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27.

2.       But we also read three times that Pharaoah hardened his own heart. 8:15, 32; 9:34.

3.       And a further six times we read that Pharaoh's heart was/remained hardened. 7:13, 14, 22; 8:19; 9:7, 35.

Pharaoh was not Mr Nice Guy whose only aim was to do what was right in the world. We must never read these verses as though somehow Pharaoh was frustrated in his attempts to do good by a mean God. Pharaoh was set on serving what he perceived to be his own best interests. For years that had involved harshly mistreating the Israelites and acting as though he were himself god. He had no desire whatsoever to act any other way.

God gives him the strength to go on resisting – the LORD strengthens him so that he may go on doing exactly what he has always wanted to do: to serve his own interests.

When we turn to the pages of the NT we find the same truth clearly taught in Romans ch.1. There stubborn refusal of men to amend their ways in the face of sufficient convincing evidence can lead to the awful declaration that God gives them up to the evil they want to pursue.

How serious this matter is! Have you understood anything of the message that the LORD God addresses to you? Do you understand that He alone is the true sovereign, you are responsible to Him, and you are not to go on living your life independently of Him? Then have you done anything about it?

Pharaoh understood the message but rejected it and reaped the consequences. Don't be like him. If you stubbornly refuse to heed the word then be warned that the LORD may abandon you to those self-centred desires of yours. How dreadful a state to be in – abandoned by God!

We can be tempted to think that miracles are everyday occurrences in the Bible and some then suggest that we should be looking for miracles to be occurring similarly today. But were we to look carefully at what the Bible actually says we would find that miracles occurred clustered together in certain distinct periods.

There are four such periods: Moses – Elijah and Elisha – the captivity – Jesus and the early church.

Moses spoke to Pharaoh of miracles and signs when such things had not been known before. Moses obedience is therefore all the more remarkable as he confronted Pharaoh.

Sometimes people imagine that we need miracles if others are to be convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel and be converted. We must be careful to look carefully at the reasons that are given for the signs and wonders that are performed. We are not free to imagine for ourselves what miracles are sent to achieve! In this instance the signs would serve the purpose for which they were sent but that was NOT the salvation of Pharaoh!

So why did God act as He did? The answer is repeated several times in these chapters:

Firstly the LORD has an explanation that He wants Moses to understand:

a.       the signs are so that the Egyptians will know that He is the LORD (7:5).

b.       The signs are so that Moses and his people might understand that He is the LORD (10:2)

Secondly, the LORD explains to Pharaoh using Moses as His mouthpiece a series of truths concerning Himself:

a.        7:17 that "you shall know that I am the LORD"

b.       8:10 that "you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God."

c.        8:22 that "you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth."

d.       9:14 that "you may know that there is none like me in all the earth."

e.       9:29 that "you may know that the earth is the LORD’s."

Now because the signs employed are to promote a very specific purpose it follows that the signs are not a series or arbitrary or random events.

Let me illustrate this with just three examples.

We have already said that Pharaoh saw himself as the supreme ruler, the god of Egypt – the head of the Egyptian pantheon of gods. The signs and plagues represent a direct challenge to Pharaoh and to the lesser Egyptian deities. The LORD sets out very purposefully to demonstrate that it is He and He alone who is the true Sovereign.

The first sign concerned Aaron's rod which would turn into a serpent. Don't think of this as some magic trick. Pharaoh's headdress carried a serpent – it was a representation of the serpent gods. The sign involved a head-on challenge.

The magicians too performed a similar sign with their staffs – the Bible recognises the forces of darkness as having real power and not merely tricks of sleight of hand – but what was the end of the episode. Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of the magicians – the LORD's power was superior to that of the Egyptian gods.

If we look at the successive plagues we find that once again the matter is not fully understood as a series of natural disasters but there is a conflict of deities taking place.

The first plague concerned the Nile which was worshipped by the Egyptians as the life-giver. But this life-giver is absolutely powerless when the LORD acts and instead of bringing life by being turned to blood is a harbinger of death.

The ninth plague is the plague of darkness. Ra was the Egyptian sun-god – Pharaoh considered himself to be an incarnation of this god. And yet the sun is powerless to shine when the LORD determines otherwise.

Each of the signs demonstrates the greatness and the supremacy of the LORD – He lays claim to being the Only True God the Only true Sovereign and His claim is backed by His irresistible signs.

Over the course of time Pharaoh's reactions begin to change somewhat. He begins by outright rejection of the LORD's claims and stubbornly persists with his predetermined course of action. He refuses to allow what happens to seriously challenge his world-view.

His responses are followed by so many in the world today:

1.       He simply wants the problem to go away. He is utterly unconcerned for what might have caused the problem and is uninterested in any notion of sin. He makes no attempt to get to the root of the problem being content to deal with the symptoms rather than the causes. Let the problem go away – Moses you pray about that.

2.       He refuses to acknowledge the finger of God at work. Firstly he turns to his magicians who seem able to perform similar tricks – why recognise God when his men can do the same? But then when his own men avow their limitations and urge him to recognise the hand of a mighty God in it all he still refuses. He is ready rather to see Egypt ruined than to admit he was wrong and to change his ways.

3.       As the contest progresses Pharaoh even makes a confession of sin but his confession is more because he's been found out rather than because he is truly repentant. A confession of sin that leads to no change of direction is of no value and he quickly returns to his old ways. A crisis can lead many to cry out to God and even to admit their own sin but the sad reality becomes clear once the crisis is past! Cf.9:27 + 9:34.

4.       Negotiation. Pharaoh does not want to obey the LORD though the instruction was clear and simple "Let my people go" but feeling the pressure he tries to bargain with the LORD. He offers, as it were, to meet the LORD half-way. I'll let the men go. I'll let the people go. I'll let you go just a short distance.

But it won't work – though many try to adopt this same posture today.

The result? Pharaoh becomes angry because he couldn't make his own terms!

Matthew Henry writes:

"It is common for sinners to try to bargain with God Almighty. Some sins they will leave, but not all; they will leave their sins for a time, but they will not bid them a final farewell; they will allow Him some share in their hearts, but the world and the flesh must share with Him. Thus they mock God and deceive themselves."

The terms of our reconciliation with God are fixed and no amount of bargaining will alter them. Pharaoh was exasperated by this and broke off, contact with God's man Moses. Further disaster would shortly break upon him causing such ruin and destruction.

The LORD, He is God and He alone. The word He speaks He will not change because you or others don't happen to like it. He holds you responsible before Him and unless you have the Only Saviour the LORD Jesus Christ as your advocate you will stand before this great and Holy God indefensible in your sin and guilt. Yet, He commends His love towards you in the LORD Jesus Christ – He has raised Him from the dead and calls you to faith in Him. Will you not come and rejoice in such a great salvation?

Amen.