Power and Pride
Jeffery Anselmi / General
Exodus / Pride; Hardness of Heart / Exodus 4:28–31; Exodus 5:1–8; Exodus 7:1–13
God judges pride and power, and he humbles those who believe they are above him.
INTRODUCTION
• Today we continue with our series in Exodus; we will see that Moses, despite his objections and excuses, God was going to use him to deliver His people out of Egypt!
• We will have before us today a story of power and pride and how the perceived power led to Pharoah displaying a lot of pride, which led to Pharoah not being willing to listen to God, which led to his stubborn heart.
• Pharoah has a problem with pride. The pride emanates from the perceived power he thinks he possesses as Pharoah.
• This man does not think he is accountable to anyone; he believes himself to be God.
• It amazes me how little has changed throughout time, we may not look at ourselves as a god in the manner Pharoah did, but many of us are stuffed with a lot of pride, a pride that will not allow us to be wrong.
• The comic strip Zits chronicles the life of a 16-year-old named Jeremy, who meanders through typical teenage issues.
• He was recently shown clarifying some comments he made to his mother.
• He explained, “I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just trying to point out that you’re wrong.” Houston Chronicle, 3/27/10, p.E11.
• We have a pride that does not allow us to think we cannot live on our own; we tend to believe we are the master of our universe.
• When we live life in such a way, we will not open ourselves up to listen to God or even consider that we are lost without God.
• We have free will, and we can choose to go through life that way, or we can humble ourselves before God and let Him guide our lives.
• This heart and attitude is prevalent yet today.
• If we will open our eyes and hearts to God, we would be amazed at what He can do.
• The sad part about life is that one day we will all bow down to God; those who have accepted Christ joyfully, those who allow power and pride to rule their lives will do so, realizing what they missed.
› Our Big Idea of the Message today is: God judges pride and power, and He humbles those who believe they are above Him.
• Let’s turn to Exodus 4:28-31 to begin.
Exodus 4:28–31 (CSB)
28 Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and about all the signs he had commanded him to do.
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.
30 Aaron repeated everything the LORD had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people.
31 The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had paid attention to them and that he had seen their misery, they knelt low and worshiped.
SERMON
I. Hope for the hopeless.
• Moses begins his new adventure by telling Aaron everything that the Lord sent him to say and all the signs God commanded him to do.
• Moses was resistant to God’s call, and I think we can all understand why.
• Moses was not seeking to be disobedient to God in the way Jonah was; Moses was just afraid; hence, the flow of excuses as to why God made a mistake in choosing Moses.
• From the exchange between God and Moses, we can surmise that God understands our fears.
• We will see the same type of fear from Gideon later in the Old Testament.
• Ultimately Moses is open to listening to God as well as being obedient because Moses knew HE was not God; Moses was not stuffed with pride.
• I wonder how Aaron felt when Moses shared the news with him and revealed the part Aaron would play?
• WOW! THANK YOU MOSES, FOR PUTTING ME IN THE CROSSHAIRS!
• Who knows, maybe he embraced the challenge.
• We see no resistance from Aaron.
• Verse 30 tells us that Aaron repeated everything that the Lord had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people.
• What was the people’s response?
• God’s people bowed down and worshipped when they heard that God “was concerned about them and had seen their misery” (Exodus 4:31).
• Later in the message, we will see a marked difference between how the Israelites received Moses, Aaron, and God’s message and how Pharoah deals with the same.
• Why were the people so different in their response to what Pharoah will do?
• They both will hear the same basic message and will see the same signs.
• The people were open to listening and subsequently worshipping God because their situation seemed so hopeless that Moses and Aaron were bringing them hope from God!
• The Israelites were in such a desperate situation that they had no room for pride, and they seemed to have no power.
• Life was not good for the Israelites in Egypt as it once was; their lives were dark and hopeless.
• This hopelessness is one of the reasons folks on the lower end of the economic scale tend to play the lottery.
• They feel the only way out of their economic condition is by gambling.
• According to a Wall Street Journal article, poor people. Of course, many folks buy the occasional ticket, but studies have long shown a steady association between poverty and lottery play.
• Many scholars report that the poorest third of Americans buy more than half of all lotto tickets, which is why states advertise so aggressively in poor neighborhoods. https://www.wsj.com/articles/powerbull-the-lottery-loves-poverty-1503868287
• The Israelites were broken; they needed some hope, so with that backdrop, Moses and Aaron were well received.
• These people were not so full of pride that they would excuse themselves from being receptive.
• You know, I was broken, so I received the message of Christ as Maurice MeNeely preached it each Sunday while I was dating my wife.
• Had I not been humble, I may have never been open to listening.
• I know many people whose pride will not let them admit they need Jesus!
• The response of the people was not inhibited by their pride or by power!
• Let’s turn to Exodus 5:1-8
Exodus 5:1–8 (CSB)
1 Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.”
2 But Pharaoh responded, “Who is the LORD that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”
3 They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.”
4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Get to your labor!”
5 Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from their labor.”
6 That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foremen,
7 “Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves.
8 But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers—that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
II. The perception of power.
• Now we come to Pharoah, a man with power, a man who may have thought of himself as a god.
• Or was Pharoah a man who thought he had power?
• Moses and Aaron approach Pharoah and ask that Pharoah let the Hebrews go so that they can go on a three-day trip into the wilderness to make sacrifices to the Lord.
• Power and pride. Pharoah is full of it and so are many today.
• Pharoah responds to Moses and Aaron in verse two by asking who this “Lord” is, I do not know Him, and NO, I will not let the Israelites go!
• By the way, Pharaoh’s answer was not an inquiry as to WHO the Lord was; Pharaoh had no interest in that; it was more of an insult.
• In other words, Pharoah was saying, COMPARED TO ME, WHO IS THIS “LORD”?
• Pharoah was rejecting the Lord’s position of supremacy because HE thought HE was a god!
• A right knowledge and respect for the identity of the Lord is central to the issue of whether or not one will choose to listen or obey the Lord.
• I believe many today reject the Lord because they have the perception of power in their life.
• They believe they are in control, and they do not want to cede that control to God.
• We can be prideful and selfish; ultimately, we want to be the master of our own life, a god unto ourselves, even to the point that we think we can dictate to God the terms on which we WILL enter His kingdom.
• In verses 4 and 5, we see another step in the progression to the perception of power.
• MY WILL OVER GOD’S WILL!
• Moses made it clear to Pharaoh what God wanted from Pharaoh, yet Pharoah said that it was his will that the Hebrews keep making bricks.
• Pharoah had a plan and was not going to let this “LORD” interfere with HIS will.
• I have dealt with people who have rejected the Lord because they wanted to call all of the shots in their life; they had their plans and did not God to change those plans!
• Our pride tells us we do not need the Lord!
• Satan used this tactic with Eve.
• “Eve, don’t you want to be like God? Here is your ticket!”
• Then Pharaoh progresses to the next step; he doubles down on his position.
• In verses 6-8, Pharaoh instructs his foreman to push the Hebrews harder by making them get their own straw for the bricks while maintaining the same quotas!
• Pharaoh calls the Hebrews slackers because they wanted to go sacrifice to the Lord!
• Pharoah's perception that he was in power allowed him to push aside God.
• We still do the same today.
• People reject God because they think they are in command until they find out they are not.
• Stubbornness and pride can kill you.
• Have you ever known someone who was so prideful that they couldn’t listen to advice from anyone else?
• Did it lead to bad decisions and outcomes in their life?
• Or someone so bitter and stubborn that their unforgiveness caused them to lose relationships or even their health?
• We can look at Pharaoh as a sinful person who didn’t listen to God; however, Pharaoh was prideful and stubborn.
• He knew what was best, he was in charge, and no one could tell him what to do. How often do we act that way in our lives?
• Don’t let power and pride cause you to reject or disobey the Lord!
• Let’s turn to Exodus 7:1-13 for the final step in Pharaoh’s rejection of God.
Exodus 7:1–13 (CSB)
1 The LORD answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.
2 You must say whatever I command you; then Aaron your brother must declare it to Pharaoh so that he will let the Israelites go from his land.
3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
4 Pharaoh will not listen to you, but I will put my hand into Egypt and bring the military divisions of my people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
5 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the Israelites from among them.”
6 So Moses and Aaron did this; they did just as the LORD commanded them.
7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
9 “When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent.’ ”
10 So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.
11 But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers—the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices.
12 Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.
13 However, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
III. The hardened heart.
• Just previous to this passage in chapter 6, Moses is still making sure God feels He made the right choice in picking Moses.
• Moses said he was such a poor speaker that Pharaoh would not listen to him.
• This is why God says what He says about Moses and Aaron.
• This is a bit of a repeat of an earlier chapter.
• God eventually tells Moses to perform a miracle when Pharaoh asks him to do so.
• Once Moses and Aaron are before Pharaoh again, Aaron threw his staff to the ground, and it became a snake.
• Pharaoh was not impressed; his wisemen and sorcerers did the same.
• The only problem for Pharaoh is Aaron’s staff swallowed the staffs of all the wisemen and sorcerers!
• Verse 13 tells us that Pharaoh’s heart was hard and did not listen to them, just as God said would happen.
• I want to take a moment and talk about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
• In Exodus 4:21God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart
• In 7:3 and verse 13 from the same chapter, God said that Pharaoh’s heart would be hard.
• I will harden Pharaoh’s heart is a figure of speech, meaning “I will make the king stubborn.”
• The Hebrew word used here literally means “hard” or “difficult,” but a figure of speech usually cannot be translated literally.
• This idiom is found nineteen times in Exodus and is first mentioned in 4:21.
• The mention of hardening the heart here does not mean that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart at the beginning of these events, but that such hardening executed upon him by God would be the final result.
• What we have in these verses (Exo. 7:1–7) is a prophetic summary of the next seven chapters.
• Ten times in Exodus, we are told that Pharaoh would harden his own heart, and ten times or so, we are told God would do so.
• The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a result of his own obstinate behavior; God allowed it and executed the pronouncement on Pharoah.
• In other words, God did not cause Pharaoh to sin; Pharaoh’s own sin led him down the path of a hard heart.
• When we ignore God and disobey Him long enough, we too will have a hardened heart.
CONCLUSION
• After this first encounter with Pharaoh, God unleashed various plagues on Egypt to demonstrate his power and force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
• These plagues were the Nile River turning to blood (Exodus 7:17–18), frogs (8:1–4), gnats (8:16–17), flies (8:20–22), livestock (9:1–4), boils (9:8–9), hail (9:22–23), locusts (10:4–5), darkness (10:21–22), and death of the firstborn (11:4–7)
• Jerry will speak on some of these things next week.
• We have to develop and maintain a humble, obedient heart.
• The Titanic was supposedly a ship that not even God himself could sink. However, the arrogance and pride of the Titanic eventually led to its downfall.
• Don’t go down like the Titanic!
