Moses and Aaron obey the Lord and go to Pharaoh to convey God's message, but obedience doesn't always bring instant blessing, it sometimes brings hostility from the world! Egypt is a picture of the world with people in slavery to idol worship and striving to live. Pharaoh is a picture of this world's present ruler, Satan, and he challenges the thought that any of his subjects should be released, and he will not let them go without a great deal of pressure being put on.

Pharaoh's initial response is to suppress his subjects even more, so there is even less hope of them being able to be released. Make life more difficult, then any hope of escape will seem that much more unlikely, and those seeking to bring that release about will be tempted to give up. That is so often Satan's strategy but God's kingdom has many "impossible cases" in it who weren't impossible. No one is too hard for the Lord and if the Lord is putting tough cases on our hearts, then we may persevere and look for Him to save them - eventually!

D. Application?

1. The immediate result is not what is all-important, it is that we are

    simply obedient to the Lord.

2. When we seek to share God's word and bring people into God's kingdom,

     or pray for people's healing, sometimes it may seem that the immediate

     response makes it seem more impossible. It isn't!

Chapter: Exodus 5/6

Passage: Exodus 5:22 - 6:6

A. Find Out:

1. To whom did Moses turn in his trouble? v.22

2. What was his complaint? v.23

3. Why will Pharaoh eventually give in? v.1

4. How had the Lord appeared to Abraham etc.? v.3a

5. How had He now revealed Himself? v.3b (& 3:14 )

6. Why was He now acting to help Israel ? v.4,5

B. Think :

1. What was Moses' problem?

2. What was the Lord's response?

3. What about the Lord Himself was important?

C. Comment :

Moses obviously thought that the Lord was going to move immediately to deliver Israel . We too have "instant expectations". Instead, his obedience to the Lord seems to have just brought hardship. Don't worry says the Lord, I'll sort Pharaoh out and you will be delivered (but note He doesn't say when, or what has to happen first!)

Then strangely, the Lord starts speaking about His name, but that is more important than we might think at first. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob He had revealed Himself as GOD ALMIGHTY, which means He is all-powerful, but now He reminds Moses that He has revealed Himself to him as "I AM", the everlasting, ever-present, unchanging One. God isn't just all-powerful, He is also unchanging and that is very significant at this time.

It is as if the Lord is saying, “Look, when I say I'll do something I WILL do it, I am unchanging. Also if I was all-powerful with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I am STILL all-powerful, don't doubt it”. It's because He made a covenant with Abraham that He acts now, and so His promise will be kept, for He is unchanging and He will not change His word or His purposes. We need to remember that!

D. Application?

1. Do we understand that the Lord's purposes are unchanging.

2. When Satan attacked Jesus, Jesus replied by relying upon God's

unchanging word (Matthew 4)

Chapter: Exodus 6

Passage: Exodus 6:6-12

A. Find Out:

1. What did the Lord first say He would do? v.6

2. Then what will happen? v.7

3. What will be the final stage of what He'll do? v.8

4. Why wouldn't Israel listen to Moses? v.9

5. What did the Lord tell Moses to do? v.10,11

6. What is Moses' response? v.12

B. Think :

1. Moses has 2 messages. To whom has he to bring them?

2. How does rejection of the first put him off delivering the other?

3. What is the clear threefold plan of the Lord?

C. Comment :

First of all the Lord gives Moses a message of encouragement for Israel . It is a threefold declaration of intent by the Lord as follows:

1. To deliver Israel (remainder of this set of Studies).

2. To make them His people. (see 2nd set of Studies in Exodus).

3. To take them into the Land (see "Taking the Land" in this series)

We then see Moses delivering this message to the Israelites but they, because of the oppression that they are under, reject it. Why should the Lord give such a message knowing, as He surely does, that they will reject it? Often such prophetic messages are declarations of intent that are there as "signposts" in history which can be looked back upon. Merely because we don't believe when we first hear, that doesn't stop the Lord saying them.

The second message that Moses has to take is to Pharaoh himself, to let Israel go. Having had one negative encounter with him already, Moses would not be feeling very good about it. He himself speaks with "faltering lips" and this comes from faltering faith - but he does it never the less! The Lord's purpose will be spoken. Yes it may be faltering faith but it is, nevertheless, faith. Faith is actually “doing the stuff”, despite how we feel!

D. Application?

1. How many times do we need to hear a word before we will believe it?

2. Faltering faith is better than no faith!

Chapter: Exodus 7

Passage: Exodus 7:1-7

A. Find Out:

1. What did the Lord say Moses & Aaron were like? v.1

2. What is Aaron to do? v.2

3. What will be Pharaoh's response? v.3,4

4. What will the Lord do? v.3,4

5. With what result? v.5

6. How old were they both at this time? v.7

B. Think :

1. How does God restate the teamwork principle?

2. Look back to 3:20, 4:21 . 6:6 How many times has the Lord stated the

purpose we've read today?

3. Why do you think the Lord has to say it so many times?

C. Comment :

The Lord, yet again, encourages Moses and lays out before him His strategy. It is as if He says, "You, Moses, are to be the divine source to Pharaoh, the one who he stands against. Aaron can be your prophet, your mouthpiece. You pass on what I tell you to Aaron and Aaron can pass it on to Pharaoh. The way we do it will mean Pharaoh's resolve will be hardened and he will resist, so I will keep on giving miraculous signs. Never the less he still won't respond, so I will eventually do something quite drastic. Then he will release you and the Egyptians will realise who it is they have been opposing. Not only that, the rest of the world will hear and know as well!".

The detail of this strategy is quite remarkable. The Lord allows Moses to know exactly what He is going to do, and yet without revealing the precise details. There is still lots of room for lots of faith, and that's how it is with us too. God reveals His purposes very clearly to us through His word but there is still plenty of room for us to exercise our faith daily as we hear from Him how to put it into practise, those plans already revealed.

D. Application?

1. Are we learning as we read God's word, the ways of God and the

purposes of God?

2. Are we moving in faith today as we allow the Lord to lead us?

SPECIAL NOTE : How did God harden Pharaoh's Heart

In these Studies we are presented with a particular difficulty: a number of times we find reference to the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart. Without much thought we might say this appears to make God harsh if He MAKES Pharaoh like this and then punishes him.

Let's consider first of all, the various meanings of the Hebrew words translated as "hardening". One word has the element of "stubbornness" behind it. This is used in Exodus 7:3 where the Lord can be seen to say, "I will make stubborn Pharaoh's heart". A more commonly used word has meanings of "heavy" or "insensitive" or "immovable" behind it. And even more commonly used word means "strengthen" meaning, in this context, "to strengthen his resolve"

Let's consider next how it occurs. Once we find the Lord saying, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart" (7:3). Six times we find reference to Pharaoh's heart becoming hard (7:13 / 7:22 / 8:15 / 8:19 / 8:32 / 9:34) and four times direct reference to the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart (9:12 / 10:20 / 10:27, 11:10) The Bible clearly indicates man has free will. There is, after all, no point in God telling someone to do something if they cannot choose to disobey, and they often do. So, the question arises, how does God harden Pharaoh's heart and still leave him free will?

We suggest the following points need to be observed:

1. Pharaoh, before God started dealing with him, was an evil, idol worshipping, self-centred individual.

2. You can either talk gently to such a person hoping to persuade them or openly confront them.

3. Unless the heart is open, such a person will disregard the former course and will simply rise up in anger against the second.

4. God knew that Pharaoh's heart was not open and therefore whatever God said, it would not result in Pharaoh coming into God's kingdom, therefore the Lord used direct confrontational methods which showed up Pharaoh's foolishness as every plague came.

5. Hardening here is, therefore, the response of Pharaoh's already set heart, into an even more obstinate position where he refuses to back down before God. The choice was always his.

Chapter: Exodus 7

Passage: Exodus 7:8-13

A. Find out :

1. What was to be the order of activity? v.8,9

2. So what did they do? v.10

3. What was Pharaoh's response? v.11a

4. What did they do? v.11b, 12a

5. But what then happened? v.12b

6. What was Pharaoh's response? v.13

B. Think :

1. How would you describe what is actually happening here?

2. What does it show us about Satan's activities and the Lord's?

3. Why, in reality, do you think Pharaoh didn't respond?

C. Comment :

So far Pharaoh hasn't seen anything of God's power. The first sign had been performed for the elders of Israel . Now Pharaoh is to be gradually introduced to the power of God, but the trouble with gradual introductions is that you get used to it and loose something of the shock, but then the Lord isn't trying to shock Pharaoh, He's trying to give him every opportunity to come to his senses. At the end of it, if he won't respond, he will have NO excuse for what happens to him and to his nation!

So the Lord briefs his two men and they go in before Pharaoh again and do what they were commanded. Pharaoh sends for his magicians for magic (not the stage sort we might know of) was widely practised in Egypt . These magicians, with Satan's power, are only able to copy what Aaron has done. Aaron's snake simply swallows up all the others, but Pharaoh isn't impressed. So Moses and Aaron are better magicians than his own, so what! Magic is controlled by men so there's nothing to worry about, is there. Control the men and you control the magic. Wrong diagnosis Pharaoh, you'll learn!

D. Application?

1. Do we try to rationalise the supernatural acts of God and explain them

away?

2. Do we need showing again and again or does simple faith accept it first

time round?

RECAP - "First Encounters with Pharaoh" - Exodus Chapters 5 - 7

SUMMARY :

In this third set of 5 studies we have seen:

- Moses asking Pharaoh to release Israel

- Pharaoh's harsh refusal & command to make life harder

- God encouraging Moses through greater revelation of Himself

- God giving Pharaoh the sign of the snake, which he rejects

COMMENT :

When God first approaches it is very gentle. Pharaoh reacts as the tyrant that he is. This isn't going to be an instant success story and Moses is going to learn a great deal about the Lord. The Lord shares more about Himself and lays out His purposes very clearly before Moses. He also reiterates the strategy Moses is to use involving Aaron and warns that Pharaoh's heart is going to become very much harder before this thing is brought to completion. Moses performs the last miracle that the Lord had told him about, but Pharaoh is not impressed. He's got a lot to learn yet!

LESSONS :

1. Obedience doesn't necessarily bring instant success

2. God doesn't back-track on His declared purposes

3. Faltering faith is better than no faith

4. We need to learn to understand the ways of God

5. The godless and hard hearted will rationalise even the supernatural acts of God

PRAY :

Ask the Lord to help you develop persevering faith that doesn't rely on instant success.

PART 4: "God's Judgements Start"

In this next Part watch for the gradual progression of the judgements of God upon Egypt . Watch for the differences that start to appear as they progress. Watch for the shear stupidity of Pharaoh as he resists the Lord again and again. Watch for the changes that take place in Moses as well.