Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Did you grow up always asking “WHY”? Did that question drive your parents and perhaps teachers crazy? Are you still a person who wants answers, who wants to understand the WHY behind events or statements or even complex situations?
Here’s a question for all humanity: Do you think God welcomes or resents when human beings ask God ‘WHY’?
I don’t know exactly where it happened, but Moses and his brother Aaron were putting their self-esteem back together again after having been thrown out of Pharaoh’s throne room and chased out of the mud-pit area where the hard-working Hebrew slaves rejected the message Moses brought to them from God. (Ex. 6:9) The mission of hope God had given to Moses to return to Egypt had blown up in Moses’ face!
Suddenly another message came to Moses from God, as recorded in Exodus 7. “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.” (Ex. 7:1,2) I wonder if Moses at least thought and maybe even said to God: ‘We’ve tried that, and it failed. What’s plan B’?
God continued speaking His new message to Moses: “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply My signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you…” (Exodus 7:3) The Bible doesn’t tell us what Moses was feeling, thinking or even if he said anything in response to God. But if it was me… and I wonder about you? Did you see that little, very confusing phrase “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”?
What do you understand God meant by that? WHY would God harden Pharaoh’s heart so Pharaoh would keep refusing what God wanted Pharaoh to do? Does that seem counter-productive? Does it seem contrary to the holy character of the God we love and respect?
Before Moses could ask for an explanation, God continued speaking: “Then I will lay My hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out My divisions, My people, the Israelites…” (Exodus 7:4) Ok, so does that mean God would harden Pharaoh’s heart, so Pharaoh would refuse God’s request to release His people, so that with each refusal it provided God yet another opportunity to demonstrate His supreme power and control over all things? Mmmm… what an interesting strategy!?
And God wasn’t finished, for He next said to Moses: “And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelite out of it!” (Ex. 7:5) Oh my! There it is, the much larger, strategic objective of God in this power showdown!
This was more than delivering the Hebrew slaves. This was about God proving to the most powerful nation on earth that the man-made gods they worshipped had no power when confronted by the Creator of the Universe, the author of human life, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants the Israelites! But how? How would God accomplish this remarkable plan?
That my friends is the step-by-step progression of the plagues which decimated Egypt. 10 of them in all, each one more strategic, more significant than the one before. Do you remember them? We find this crescendo of power demonstration in Exodus 7:8 through 12:51. Over the next couple of days let’s put ourselves in the middle of this amazing, historic, world changing series of events and let’s over and over ask ourselves the big question WHY?
It started right there; the next time Moses and Aaron went back to see Pharaoh. Moses did as God told him. Aaron threw his staff on the ground and it became a snake!! Pharaoh’s sorcerers were there standing beside Pharaoh, so he ordered them to do the same, and they did, and their staffs became snakes too!! (Exodus 7:8-12) What?
WHY did God let that happen? To let Moses and Aaron know that Pharaoh’s sorcerers, empowered by demonic forces, did have some power certain people felt was supernatural power. But then Aaron’s snake swallowed up the snakes from the sorcerer’s staffs!? What? WHY? To prove that God’s power was more powerful than Pharaoh’s sorcerers’ power!
Pharaoh’s response to this power demonstration was as God predicted: “Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.” (Ex. 7:13) But God didn’t waste any time. Do you notice God told Moses and Aaron to go back to Pharaoh the next morning, confronting him again with God’s demand that he release the Hebrew slaves.
In the face of his refusal, with the very same staff which had become a snake and then became a staff again, God instructed Moses to strike the Nile River and God would turn it to blood! Now that would be a very big deal. Then as now, the Nile River was the sacred heart of Egypt. It was the source of life providing irrigation for crops, fish for food, and water for all living things. (Ex. 7:14-19) Turned to blood, rather than giving life the Nile would kill life! Surely it would terrify the Pharaoh, and his heart would melt into submission to God!
But as you may know Pharaoh’s response to Moses’ remarkable power demonstration was to call his sorcerers again who “…did the same things by their magic arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said!” (Ex. 7:20-24) Why? Why would God allow sorcerers the power to imitate God’s miracles, not once but twice?
As we discussed back on July 30 & 31 in “Walking with Jesus”, the dark kingdom (Col.1:13) is full of very powerful angelic beings who rebelled against God before God’s ‘Grand Narrative’ began in Genesis 1. Both of those studies are easily found in our “WWJ” Daily Archives Library home page tab and if you are unfamiliar with Satan’s dark kingdom, I urge you to listen to both July 30 & 31.
Clearly the dark kingdom was very powerful in Egyptian culture and leadership. Moses had seen it, been instructed to respect this dark power in his years living in the Egyptian palace. In fact, might it be safe for us to assume Moses knew far more about the power of the dark kingdom in Egypt than he knew about the God who met him at the burning bush?
Ponder that a moment! Moses needed to understand deeper truths about God’s supreme authority over the dark kingdom, because for the rest of Moses’ life he would be leading the Israelites in battling their great unseen enemy.
We need to pause right here in between Exodus 7 & 8. For seven days God let Moses ruminate on what he had seen thus far and the preposterous idea that Holy, Almighty God was not only allowing the dark kingdom to demonstrate great, miraculous powers which mimicked what Moses and Aaron were doing, God was hardening Pharaoh’s heart more and more with each passing day.
WHY was very likely the question Moses wrestled with, and I invite us to join him. Do we understand what God was doing here? Again, more questions and study notes are found in the “Grand Narrative” link below and here’s a brand-new glorious worship song to help us wrestle with Exodus 7, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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