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Good morning friend, I hope you are enjoying this “Walking With Jesus” journey as much as I am? Can I tell you that it’s an adventure, each morning, as I sit with my Bible and my heart open before God, waiting on Him, listening to see what His Holy Spirit will speak into my heart, so I can then write and record it for you…
Wow, it’s a daily miracle friends, and we’re all experiencing it together.
OK, so today is Saturday, July 6 and let’s dig into Exodus chapter 7.
You’ll remember, Exodus 6 ends with Moses, once again making excuses, that he’s not the right guy for the job of spokesman for God with Pharaoh. But God will not be deterred, and look at His response to Moses, in Exodus 7 “See I have made you like a God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.” Now don’t let that spook you. Of course, God is NOT telling Moses that God has elevated him to the status of being a god. Remember, the Pharaoh was the most important man in the world, and viewed by many as a god, and Pharaoh was worshiped, and obeyed as such. In the Pharaoh’s mind and heart, there was no living person, anywhere in the world, more important than himself, more powerful than himself, more worthy to be worshiped than himself. He was arrogant beyond description, and felt it was his royal right.
But God was determined to humble this prideful man. God was going to work through Moses in such powerful ways, that eventually prideful, arrogant Pharaoh, would submit to Moses’ words, from the one, true, Almighty God, and allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt. Not only that, Pharaoh would acknowledge, that the God of Moses was in fact the only Almighty God, and all the supposed ‘gods’ of Egypt, were subordinate to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses! But to get there, God was going to have to break the pride of Pharaoh!
By God referring to Aaron as a prophet, He’s saying Aaron will do what prophets are supposed to do… speak the words of God and call people to obey and submit to God’s words.
Now friends we need to look very carefully at Exodus 7: 3-5 “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply My miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will NOT listen to you. Than I will lay My hand on Egypt with mighty acts of judgment, and I will bring out My divisions, My people, the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt, and bring the Israelites out of it.” Do you see several very important things God is saying HE will do here? Do you see God’s ultimate purpose in this miracle of the Exodus?
We’ll see this promise of God repeated several times in Exodus: “Then they will know that I am the LORD…”. That my friends, is God ultimate purpose in the entire Exodus deliverance. And in all God is doing around the world today, in our day. God wanted the Egyptians, the Israelites, and all other peoples who would hear about the Exodus, both then and in the generations future, to KNOW, beyond any shadow of a doubt…to be CONVINCED, that the LORD, ‘YHWH’, the God of the Hebrews, is the ONLY, living, true, Almighty God…there is no other! Do we understand this friends? Are we convinced? Have we helped our children and grandchildren be convinced?
Do you see God’s strategic PLAN in Exodus? Since Pharaoh was so self-confident, prideful, arrogant, and since he was viewed by many people as a god on earth, Almighty God was going to further harden Pharaoh’s heart, repeatedly, so that with Pharaoh’s refusal to submit to Moses’ demand that he free the Hebrews, God would have multiple opportunities to prove His power through the plagues. Now watch this. How often do you and I get frustrated that things don’t work out the way we had planned? Are we willing to consider God is either allowing, or perhaps even directing, what appears to us to be roadblocks, hurdles, to our plans...especially when we think they are good plans to accomplish God honoring things? Could it be God is doing that, so He will receive even greater glory, when the roadblocks are miraculously overcome? Could it also be, God is wanting to grow our faith or further develop our Christ like character, through the delays or road blocks? Please ponder that next time you find your path blocked, your plan frustrated.
Lastly, in this verse, do you see God says “…I will bring out My divisions, My people, the Israelites…” What does it mean? You’ll remember in Genesis 32:28 God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and thus all his 12 sons and the descendants who came from them, are called ‘the children of Israel’. Here God used the word “divisions”, to show His recognition of the Hebrews, as divided into ’12 tribes’, each tribe being the descendants of one of Jacob’s sons. When the 12 sons are named and received their blessing from Jacob their father, in Genesis 50, it says “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel…”. So God was saying here in Exodus 7 that every, last Hebrew, would be delivered from Egypt, because He would bring them out according to their tribes, their ‘divisions’. No one would be left behind!
Aren’t you glad God can keep track of ALL of us, each of us, in such a big world? Do you remember Jesus once said “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but I will raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I [Jesus] will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:39,40) That’s you and me friends, and EVERY person, of EVERY generation, from EVERY place on the face of this planet, who has ever trusted in Jesus Christ to be their Savior… no exceptions! Jesus will NEVER lose track of us, and He takes personal responsibility to make sure we will arrive in heaven when we die here on earth! Hold on to that friends… cherish that promise, for you and those you love who are trusting Jesus.
Now look closely at Exodus 7 verse 6 “Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them.” Could there be anything more significant to your life and your tribe than this: that you always DO just as the LORD commands you and leads you in life?
So here we go, in Exodus 7:8-13. The power show-down begins. Moses and Aaron go to meet Pharaoh for second time, prepared with a power demonstration, if he refuses to agree to let the Hebrews go. Aaron throws his staff on the ground and it became a snake, just like Moses’ staff did at the burning bush. Pharaoh is amazed…but not impressed for when he calls his sorcerers, they duplicate the miracle, but then Aaron’s staff/snake swallows up their staffs/snakes, in a show of superiority. But Pharaoh’s heart hardens and I can see Pharaoh saying something like “get out of here and take your snake eating staff with you.”
I’m sure you have wondered about what the sorcerers did here? It’s called ‘black magic’, and it’s very real. For those of us who have lived in places where Satan’s power is evident, real, and even worshiped, like Haiti, Africa and even Satan worship here in America, this is demonic power and it’s real. Friends, Satan is the second most powerful force in the Universe, second only to Jesus, who created him as a holy angel (Col. 1:15,16) and Jesus can control him. But let’s not for a moment, minimize the power of the dark kingdom, including sorcery, the demonic, and what appears to be ‘black magic’, miraculous power.
You’ll see the Pharaoh’s sorcerers did it again in Exodus 7:14-24, and once again, Pharaoh is not impressed with Moses and Aaron, and his heart hardens even further. Now please notice an important progress in these first two plagues. The first one, the staff snake miracle, evidently the only people involved are Pharaoh and his court and his magicians and Moses and Aaron. No one outside the palace saw it. But the second one, the Nile water turning to blood, do you see who is impacted by this miracle? Exodus 7:24 says “And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the Nile.” Everyone who depended on the Nile river for their water was affected by this plague. Ah, do you see it my friends? Pharaoh’s hard heart and refusal to submit to God, is now affecting other people. Let’s be sure to learn that, because it’s true in our lives today… our hard hearts, our refusal to deal with the sin in our lives, our refusal to submit to God’s leading in our lives, will not only affect us, it will affect every person our lives touch! That’s called the ‘ripple affect’. Throw a rock into a calm lake or pond, and watch the ripples run…that’s a picture of your life and mine. Each of our lives affects each person we touch…both the good and the bad.
That’s why this little verse King Solomon wrote is so important… “Above all else, guard your heart, it is the wellspring of your life.” (Prov. 4:23) So would you join me right now in doing what Solomon’s Dad, King David did, would you join me in asking God to take a close look at our hearts? David wrote “Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23,24)
Oh God. . .
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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