The Plagues Begin Series

The Story of Moses : Exodus 7

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

05-04–2025

So far

So far, we have witnessed Moses’s miraculous rescue from the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter. He was raised in the Egyptian palace and was considered to be in line to be the next Pharaoh.

But Moses never forgot who he was and when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew worker, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

He truly thought that was the beginning of the revolution and that he would lead the Israelites out of slavery. But the Hebrews turned on him, his adopted grandpa offered a bounty for his head, and he ran away to the land of Midian.

He married, had children, and tended his father-in-law’s sheep for him. He thought he had missed his chance to be a leader but God thought differently.

God appeared to him in a burning bush and commissioned him to go back to Egypt and take on the most powerful person in the world and tell him, “Let my people go!”

Moses spends the whole conversation making excuses about why he is not the right person for the job. God ignores his excuses and promises that His power and presence would go with him.

Finally, Moses obeys and, with his brother Aaron as spokesman, he goes to the elders of Israel and tells them of his burning bush experience.

The elders believed him and they all went to Pharaoh to demand the release of the Hebrew people. That day goes from bad to worse. Pharaoh declares that the slaves are lazy and then makes their work a thousand times harder by denying them the straw they use in making bricks.

The Hebrew elders attack Moses and Aaron, accusing them of making the Israelites a stench in the nostrils of Pharaoh.

Moses prays but his questions for God are really accusations. He accused God of making things worse, of forcing him to do this mission that he wasn’t cut out for, and for not knowing what He was doing.

Instead of striking him dead with a lightning bolt, God makes six promises to Moses and to the Israelites:

Pharaoh will let you go

I am still God

I will keep My promises

I will free you and redeem you

I will be your God and you will be My people

I will bring you out of Egypt and into the Promised Land

Now, it’s time for the main event. The showdown between Yahweh, the Sovereign God of the Universe and Pharaoh, who thought he was a god.

If you want a sneak peak of what this might look like, watch this:

[Avengers: End Game - “Puny God” clip]

Pharaoh doesn’t say, “I’m a god you dull creature”. But he does taunt Moses and Aaron when they demand the release of the Israelite people:

"Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:1-2)

Pharaoh is about to find out who the Lord is and the wheels are set in motion for the Israelites to leave Egypt for good.

Please turn with me to Exodus 7.

Prayer.

Obedience

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 

Moses was to be God’s representative and Aaron was Moses’s mouthpiece. They are to faithfully speak all the words of God to Pharaoh.

Let me pause here to remind us that we have the same mission. We are God representatives here on earth and we are to be faithful to share God’s Word with the people around us.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

This week, I was told about a situation in which a CBC person made a conscious decision to be Jesus to someone hurting and in need. She didn’t solve the problem but she brought the hope of the Gospel to her friend.

It’s been said: