MOSES (Part 2)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 2/25/2018
I came across a story from a few years back about President George W. Bush. While campaigning for his first presidency, he cross paths with a peculiar man in an airport lobby. The man wore dusty old robes with a long beard and flowing white hair. He carried a staff in one hand and some stone tablets under his arm. The soon-to-be president approached the man and inquired, “Excuse me, are you Moses?” The man acted as if he hadn’t heard George’s question. So, George tried again, “Excuse me, are you Moses?” But the man continued to ignore him and looked away. Finally, the governor tugged at the man’s sleeve and asked a third time, “Aren’t you Moses?” The man finally responded in an irritated voice, “Of course, I’m Moses”. So, George W. asked him, “Well, why are you ignoring me?” Moses replied, “The last time I spoke to a Bush I spent the next forty years wondering in the desert!”
If you’re just joining us, we’re in week-two of a quick four-part survey of the life of Moses. Moses’ role in Hebrew history can hardly be overstated. He led hundreds of thousands of Hebrews out of slavery and became a hero to the people—a champion to the downtrodden. As I mentioned last week, his story is one of doubt and deliverance, humility and heartbreak, conflict and courage, trials and triumphs. And it’s a story that remains just as relevant and relatable today as it was thirty-some centuries ago.
Last Sunday, we summed up the first eighty years of Moses’ life in three major events. First, Moses was rescued from the Nile River as a baby thanks to the careful planning of his mother and, of course, God—reminding us that God has a plan for each one of us. Furthermore, Moses was rejected by both Pharaoh and his own people when he killed an Egyptian in defense of the Hebrew slaves—demonstrating that sin comes with consequences. Finally, despite his earlier failure, God recruited Moses for a world-changing mission—showing that God can use ordinary people for extraordinary purposes!
The next installment in Moses’ story takes place in Exodus chapters 5-12. So, if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, you can open it to Exodus 5.
As this chapter begins, Moses is ready to return to Egypt. God gave him the ability to perform wonderous miracles and signs. He has the support of his wife and father-in-law. He even reunited with his older brother, Aaron, who introduced him to the elders of Israel. Hope began to rise among the people of Israel as word of a miracle-working emancipator spread throughout the community.
But then the time came to confront Pharaoh, which leads to the next episode in Moses’ story—the problem.
• THE PROBLEM
Returning to Egypt, the land he fled in shame, must have been intimidating enough for Moses; but walking into the palace and standing before Pharaoh would have been doubly daunting. Yet, the Bible says Moses and Aaron went right in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival for Me in the wilderness” (Exodus 5:1 HCSB).
As representatives of God, Moses and Aaron spoke with confidence and conviction. But Pharaoh responded with distain, saying, “Who is Yahweh that I should obey Him by letting Israel go? I do not know anything about Yahweh, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2 HCSB).
Pharaoh dismissed Moses and Aaron because he neither recognized nor respected Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. Moses and Aaron persisted and even performed miracles and signs in effort to persuade Pharaoh, but the more they pushed, the harder Pharaoh pushed back. In fact, just to spite Moses, Pharaoh issued an order to the Egyptian slave drivers and Israelite foremen, saying: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota” (Exodus 5:7-8 NIV).
No matter what Moses said or did, Pharaoh responded by making the Hebrew’s lives more miserable than before. We have to wonder why, don’t we? Why wouldn’t Pharaoh yield? Why was he so hardheaded? Well, as it turns out, his head wasn’t the problem; his heart was. The Bible puts it succinctly, “Pharaoh’s heart hardened” (Exodus 7:13).
In fact, we’re told 19 times in the book of Exodus that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. It seems that God and Pharaoh were both active in one way or another in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Some people question God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, as if God miraculously made Pharaoh hardnosed and headstrong. I don’t think that’s what happened. Rather, God was just being God. But God also knew what Pharaoh was made of.
You see, if you place a block of wax outside in the hot sun, it becomes soft and pliable. But if you place a block of clay outside under the very same sun, it becomes hard and brittle.
Because Pharaoh refused to humble himself and honor Yahweh as God, his heart grew harder and harder, the more he was exposed to God. As the story continued, God gave Pharaoh increasingly severe warnings of the final judgment to come. Pharaoh chose to bring further judgment on himself and his nation by hardening his own heart against God’s commands.
Sadly, Pharaoh isn’t the only person to harden their heart against God. Anyone’s heart can harden, even a faithful Christian’s. Whenever we resist God’s Spirit or rebel against him, our hearts grow calloused and hard. Perhaps we should ask ourselves the question Jesus asked his disciples: “Are your hearts hardened?” (Mark 8:17 NIV). If the answer is yes, don’t panic—there’s hope even for the hardhearted.
When my kids were small, they liked to play with Play-Doh. They formed figures out of the soft clay. If they forgot to place the lid on the can, the substance hardened. When it did, they brought it to me. My hands were bigger. My fingers stronger. I could mold the stony stuff into putty.
Is your heart hard? Take it to your Father. You’re only a prayer away from tenderness. You live in a hard world, but you don’t have to live with a hard heart.
Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, which led to the next stage of Moses’ story—the plagues.
• THE PLAGUES
God responded to Pharaoh’s heard heartedness by commanding Moses to unleash a series of plagues upon the land of Egypt, beginning with the plague of blood. God tells Moses, “Take your staff and raise your hand over the waters of Egypt—all its rivers, canals, ponds, and all the reservoirs. Turn all the water to blood.” (Exodus 7:19 NLT).
Moses and Aaron did as God commanded. They met Pharaoh on the banks of the Nile River. Aaron raise his staff, stuck the water, and suddenly the whole river turned to blood! But that was just the beginning. Pharaoh still refused to let the Hebrews go, so Moses called down one plague after another.
Hordes of frogs rose up from the canals and ponds of Egypt, blanketing the land. Swarms of gnats and flies infested their homes. Livestock dropped dead. Festering boils broke out on people and animals alike. Thunder, hail and lightning flashed toward the earth. Locusts decimated what was left of the crops. And darkness covered the land for three days.
God carefully designed each plague Moses called down not only to break Pharaoh’s will, but to demonstrate Yahweh’s superiority to the Egyptian gods.
During a Sunday school class, the pastor who was teaching the adults, selected a couple to act out the burning bush scene from the Exodus. The husband was asked to supply the voice for God and his wife would read Moses’ lines. All went well until they got to verse 15. The wife, as Moses, mistook her husband’s dialogue for her own and read, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers…’” The pastor interrupted her. “Wait a minute. You’re not God.” Without missing a beat, her husband deadpanned, “I’ve been trying to tell her that for 18 years.”
These plagues were Yahweh’s way of making Pharaoh realize the same thing: “You are not God! And neither are the idols you worship.”
• The plague of blood demonstrated God’s power over Hapi, the Egyptian god of the Nile.
• The plague of frogs demonstrated God’s power over Heket, the Egyptian goddess with the head of a frog.
• The plague of gnats (that rose from the earth) demonstrated God’s power over Geb, the Egyptian god of the earth.
• The plague of flies demonstrated God’s power over Khepri, the Egyptian god with the head of a fly.
• The plague of boils and sores demonstrated God’s power over Isis, the Egyptian goddess of medicine and peace.
• The plague of hail demonstrated God’s power over Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky.
• The plague of locusts revealed God’s power over Neper, the Egyptian god of grain.
• The plague of darkness demonstrated God’s power over the sun god, Ra.
Over and over again, God demonstrated his dominance over the imaginary gods of Egypt. And yet, Pharaoh still refused to bend his will or bow his knee to the God of the Hebrews. He refused to let God’s people go. So, God arranged one last plague that would bring Pharaoh, and all of Egypt, to their knees—the Passover.
• THE PASSOVER
That day, Moses instructed every Hebrew household to choose an unblemished lamb or young goat for a sacrifice, one for each household. At twilight, they were to kill the lamb and smear some of its blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of each house. Then they were to prepare the lamb along with a loaf of unleavened bread for their family meal.
God then explained, “Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover. On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:11-13 NLT).
This entire production must have seemed odd and outlandish for the people of Israel. They couldn’t have possibly understood it at the time, but this elaborate ceremony was laden with symbolism and foreshadowing. And to ensure the Israelites never forgot this experience, God directed, “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord” (Exodus 12:14 NLT).
To this day, Jews all over the world celebrate the Passover in obedience to this command. But this final plague and the Passover meal itself bears great significance for Christians, too, as all of it points toward Jesus—our Passover Lamb.
The New Testament explains, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7 NLT). Jesus was killed at Passover time, and the Last Supper was a Passover meal. Just like the spotless lambs sacrificed by the Israelites, Jesus—the Lamb of God—shed his blood on the cross. The Israelites who, in faith, applied the blood of the Passover lamb to their homes become a model for us. His shed blood, applied to our hearts and lives by faith, saves us from judgment and death. It was not the Israelites’ ancestry or good standing or amiable nature that saved them; it was only the blood of the lamb that made them exempt from death. The same is true for us today. When we put our faith in Jesus, his blood covers us and exempts us from the death of final judgment.
Interestingly, it isn’t just the lamb and the blood that points to Jesus, but the matzoh, or unleavened bread, too. Jesus once called himself, “The true bread of God… the bread of life!” (John 6:33-35 NLT). There are some fascinating things about the matzoh that provide a remarkable picture of the Messiah.
Traditionally, before the meal the matzoh is placed in a bag called an echad, which means “one” in Hebrew. But this one bag has three chambers. One piece of matzoh is placed into each chamber of the bag. The matzoh placed in the first chamber is never touched, never used, never seen. The second matzoh in the bag is broken in half at the beginning of the meal; half of the broken matzoh is placed back in the bag, and the other half is wrapped in a linen cloth and set aside until the end of the meal. The third matzoh is then eaten.
Weird, right? To this day, most Jews can’t explain the meaning behind this ritual. That’s because the matzoh is best understood in light of Christ. The first matzoh represents God the Father, whom no one can see. The third matzah, the one that gets eaten, represents the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. The second matzah, the one that’s broken, represents Jesus. Half of the matzoh is placed back in the bag, representing Jesus divine nature. The other half, wrapped in the linen cloth, represents his human nature—specifically his burial. But at the end of the meal, the matzoh is unwrapped and returned to bag, symbolizing Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Jesus is both the Lamb of God and the Bread of Life. He sacrificed himself, shedding his blood, so that we might be saved from death and judgment and rose from the dead to give us eternal life!
Getting back to the Hebrews in Egypt, the Bible says, “So the people of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded through Moses and Aaron. And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon” (Exodus 12:28-29 NLT).
Finally, God brought Pharaoh to his knees. Pharaoh called for Moses and order him, “Get out! Leave Egypt and take all the Israelites with you! Take your flocks and herds, and be gone.” After 430 years, Moses led hundreds of thousands of Israelites out of Egypt. God kept his promise and the people of Israel were finally free!
Conclusion:
Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh still resonates with us today.
The problem—Pharaoh’s hard heart—is a problem many still struggle with today. The plagues are a powerful reminder of how great and awesome our God is, there is no one like him. The Passover points us to Jesus, who shed his blood and gave his life to exempt us from judgment and give us everlasting life.
Moses’ story is far from finished though.
Next week, chariots will chase, the sea will part and God will be praised.
Invitation:
In the meantime, if you’ve been suffering from a hard heart, don’t let Pharaoh’s fate be yours. Surrender your heart to God and let him mold it into something soft and pliable. If you’re not sure how to go about that, I’d love to help. You can pull me aside after church, call me at home, or better yet, come forward while we stand and sing.
Let’s sing church.
