Exodus 5:1-10:29
Well, the moment of confrontation has come. Our reluctant hero has agreed to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the people of Israel go. He’s left his Father in law’s sheep in the desert and now comes to the door of Pharaoh’s palace. (Ex 5) You can imagine how he must have been feeling. Butterflies in his stomach. Unsure of himself. Fearful. Voice shaking a bit but hoping that Pharaoh won’t notice. Knees probably shaking a lot. Yet he comes with the words he’s been given by God: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ’Let my people go that they might worship me in the desert.’"
And what is Pharaoh’s response? "Who is the LORD, that I should heed him and let Israel go?" I don’t know this LORD of yours. I choose not to know him. And so the drama begins to unfold. And as it unfolds we discover there are two levels to this confrontation.
There’s the human level, of Moses vs Pharaoh and their differing reactions to what God does. But this only serves to bring out the deeper level of the conflict between the God of Israel and the gods of the Egyptians. As we’ll see in a moment what’s at stake here is who is truly God? What if I don’t recognise him as God? Or are there many gods, all of whom compete for our worship? These are the same questions people today ask, as we look around at our multicultural, multi-faith society. Is there only one God, or are all gods equal?
Pharaoh appears as an arrogant and stubborn man. He sees himself as a God-King in his own land, so why should he listen to the god of some foreigners. Like many people in positions of power he uses his power to get his own way. He questions why Moses and Aaron would want to take the people away from their labour. He tells them to get back to work. He uses his power to hurt those he has power over, thinking that will cower them; break them, so they don’t have time to cause trouble. He says they’re lazy. He blames the victim rather than the oppressor.
So the Israelite foremen come to appeal to Pharaoh but get no respite. They’re still expected to produce the same number of bricks but will have to gather their own straw.
Well, you can imagine how that made the people feel. They weren’t too happy with Moses at this stage. As far as they could see, they were worse off now than they had been before Moses got involved. And they tell him so: (Exo 5:21 NRSV) "The LORD look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us." Now notice how the people think about God at this stage. He’s a God who judges those who act wrongly. This is the most common misunderstanding of the way God is portrayed in the Old Testament. That in the Old Testament, God is a God of Judgement, while in the New Testament he’s a God of salvation. Is there also a hint that they see God as the God of the status quo. There are a few people in the Anglican church who think that. But they’ve got it wrong haven’t they? God isn’t the God who judges, nor is he the God of the status quo. He’s the God of promise. In both Old and New Testaments. And He’s the God who wants people to trust him to fulfill those promises.
Well, this encounter with the Israelite foremen shakes Moses’ confidence. He begins to worry that maybe he got it wrong. But he does the right thing even if the way he does it isn’t very trusting. He turns to God in prayer and asks what’s going on. Why hasn’t God done what he said? If he’s the God of the promise why hasn’t he fulfilled his promise? In fact the opposite seems to be true. Ever since he went to Pharaoh, things have got worse and God hasn’t rescued his people at all.
It must have been hard for Moses mustn’t it? I wonder have you ever been in the position of having to do something that others didn’t think was right? It’s very hard to stand up for what you believe God has said when those around you, particularly if they’re fellow believers, are questioning whether you’ve got it right.
But then God answers Moses. He says "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh." This has just been the first move in the game. The opening gambit. It wouldn’t have been fair to have punished Pharaoh before he was given a chance to change his mind. But now that we see his true character, that is, his arrogance and pride, we can proceed to show him the true character and power of God. If he wants to know who this LORD is, then we’ll show him.
Not that God expects this to change Pharaoh’s mind. In chapter 7, v3 we’re told that Pharaoh’s heart has been hardened. I take this to mean that God has withdrawn any tempering of his character that might otherwise have been there. He’s left him to his own resources, and all the pride and arrogance that’s in him is given full reign. And so, God says (Exo 7:3-4 NIV) "though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, 4he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites." And God is right, Pharaoh’s heart only gets harder as the plagues go on. Despite all that God does he won’t give in. The climax comes at the end of the 9th plague, the plague of darkness, when it becomes clear that Moses intention is to take the people out of Egypt, never to return. Pharaoh explodes, (Exo 10:28-29 NIV) "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die." His patience is finished, he’ll listen no more.
By contrast Moses begins as reticent as ever. His encounter with the Israelites in ch 5 and again in ch 6 haven’t encouraged him. He says "If the Israelites won’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?"
Now as we just saw it has nothing to do with Moses’ faltering lips. Pharaoh won’t listen because his heart is hard. But Moses doesn’t realise that yet. He thinks it all depends on him. And so he’s worried because he doesn’t know what to say. Like most of us, he’s not a trained speaker. He’s not a natural leader. But like us, he discovers, as he steps out in faith, that God can actually help him. God can take his faltering efforts and use them. He begins with Aaron doing the talking. Its Aaron who uses the staff to performs the miracle with the snake. It’s Aaron who acts as spokesperson, and who initiates the first 3 plagues. But then we see a difference coming about in Moses. Moses begins to speak on his own. He grows in confidence. As Pharaoh gives excuses for not letting the people go Moses argues with him. His confidence grows until in the climax at the end of ch 10 when Pharaoh tells him to get out of his sight, Moses turns his words against him. He says "Just as you say, I will never appear before you again."" Then he predicts the final plague, the death of the firstborn of everyone in Egypt and says: (Ex 11:8 NRSV) "Then all these officials of yours shall come down to me, and bow low to me, saying, ’Leave us, you and all the people who follow you.’ After that I will leave." Then Moses storms out, we’re told, in hot anger. What a contrast from the timid Moses we saw in ch 6.
What a difference it makes when someone sees God in action! How important it is to keep our eyes open so we see the things that God does! How important it is that we know our Scriptures so we know the power of God!
Moses realises now that God is in control; that God can be relied on; that when God promises something he does it. More importantly he realises that God is the only true God and that he must be obeyed. What a contrast with Pharaoh who has seen all the same miracles but whose heart remains hard.
The same thing happened in Jesus’ time, you know. The leaders of the Jews saw the same miracles as the disciples, but their hearts were hard while the disciples believed. And the same thing happens today. 2 people can see the same act of God and one will believe and the other not. I was talking to someone the other day who’s a scientist and he was saying that he couldn’t see how anyone with a scientific training could believe in God. Well, I said I couldn’t see how anyone who had trained in the sciences could fail to believe in a God, when they saw the wonders of nature that they’re studying. But unless your heart is open to God, you’re eyes will be blind.
So when you see God in action you have a choice: to believe or to deny. To give the credit to God or to explain it away as mere chance or the luck of the draw, or whatever. But what do you do when something happens that you don’t like, or don’t understand. When God does something that appears to be a judgement on us or on our society. How do you feel when people’s greed results in a monetary crisis like we’re seeing throughout Asia at the moment and we’re the victims as much as they? Do we respond in faith or do we harden our hearts and blame God. What about when illness hits? Do we turn to God for comfort, or do we turn our backs on him and deny that he’s there? These are not easy questions, but they’re important questions, because we’ll all be faced by them sooner or later. Is your heart open to God or is it hardened towards him?
But let’s turn to the second and deeper level of this confrontation. That is, the level of the conflict between the LORD and the gods of Egypt. How do ever thought how the plagues fit into this story? Do you see them as a form of divine blackmail designed to convince Pharaoh that he has more to lose by keeping the Israelites than by letting them go. Well, there is that aspect to them. But at a much deeper level they were a demonstration of the power of God over the gods of Egypt. You see, the gods of Egypt had to do with the seasons, with the earth, the air and the water, with the Sun and the Moon. So the plagues involve the very elements that the gods of Egypt were supposed to control: the water of the Nile; the air itself; the herds and flocks; the crops. And the climax comes when the Sun and Moon are blotted out and the land is thrown into complete darkness - darkness that can be felt. Understandably, I guess, the god of the Sun, Ra was thought to be the greatest of the gods, and its defeat is heightened by the fact that in the land of Goshen, the land of the Israelites, the sun continues to shine.
So the point of the plagues isn’t just to soften up Pharaoh. More importantly it’s to show that there is only one true Lord of creation. The other gods are merely the creations of human imagining. As much as people may try to think of ways of expressing their ideas of God, there is no substitute for the real thing. That is, there’s no substitute for the revelation of God that he’s given us in his word and in the person of his Son.
This is a message we need to hear just as much as the people of Moses’ time. We’re surrounded by people, even people within the church who want us to believe in a variety of gods of their own imagining. People who want to downplay God’s revelation of himself in his word. We all have a great inner need for a spiritual element to our lives, but rather than looking to God to fulfill that need, people come up with all sorts of schemes. That’s why New Age religions are so popular now. There was a New Age festival at the Whitehorse Civic Centre last week with hundreds of people there. There were tarot cards and crystals and ouija boards and mystics and fortune tellers and you name it. All because people want to be in touch with the spiritual. But as I said it’s not just in those sorts of groups. In the church itself we find people who don’t accept the concept of the supernatural. People who want to explain away the miracles of Jesus, even the resurrection, because they don’t fit their preconceptions about the world. These people, too, want to have a god who fits their own understanding, rather than the one who’s revealed himself to us in his word. And if you try to convince them of the truth of God’s word they won’t listen because their hearts, like Pharaoh’s, are hardened.
And that doesn’t say anything about the other gods of our day: the god of individualism (the god of the ’me’ generation), the god of economics, the god of technology, of progress, of worldly success, of health and fitness, of the body beautiful. These gods aren’t that much different from the gods of Egypt you know. They all promise happiness, or prosperity or fulfillment in one form or another. And they’re all counterfeits. They all claim to be what they’re not.
There is only one God. There’s only one way to be truly fulfilled. There’s only one way to be truly secure, to be truly happy. That’s to be in relationship with the living God, the way he created us to be. It’s to have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. To know that Christ has died to save us. The course we’ve been doing on a Tuesday night describes this as living in the Blessed World. As we live in this new relationship with God through the indwelling power of his Holy Spirit we find ourselves being changed, the way Moses was changed as he experienced God’s presence with him. If that’s not your experience, then ask God to make it your experience. Ask him to come to you and show you what his presence with you can mean.
And lets be clear that only God is God. You know Moses had lived for so long in the environment of Egypt that it took him a long time to learn that lesson. That can be equally a problem for us who live in a world that denies God a place in ordinary life, that says that God is irrelevant. We need to remind ourselves that God is still active in his world, that he’s as relevant now as he ever was. Let’s pray that we’ll be able to see through the false claims of the culture in which we’re immersed and rely on God alone for our security and salvation.
