Exodus 5-10
Exodus: The Presence of the Savior • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Exodus 4:29–5:3 (ESV)
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
This marks a good day - perhaps revival, even.
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
Pharaoh - why do you take the people from their work?
Pharaoh commands taskmasters - no more straw to make bricks - they must gather themselves
but quota doesn’t drop - same as before
Exodus 5:9 (ESV)
9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
Israelite foremen were beaten for not making quota
Exodus 5:20–23 (ESV)
20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
How is it that Moses and the Israelites could so quickly abandon God’s promise and accuse God of being evil?
Jesus describes this kind of faith as “rocky:”
Mark 4:16–17 (ESV)
16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
The point Jesus is making is that true faith is rooted and stands when tested.
What is it rooted in? God’s Word.
If they had only held onto God’s Word.
Exodus 12:51 (ESV)
51 And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
God’s Word DID come true. Because:
God’s Word carries more weight than your burdens.
God’s Word carries more weight than your burdens.
The Israelites began to allow their burdens to carry more weight than God’s Word for some of the same reasons that I believe we sometimes allow our burdens to somehow carry more weight for our emotions, decision-making, attitude.
Distracted lives.
Selective listening.
Distracted lives
Distracted lives
How many of you are busy?
How often does that busyness distract you from seeing things from a spiritual perspective?
Pharaoh:
Exodus 5:8–9 (ESV)
8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
I’m not saying that simply having a lot to accomplish will necessarily lead to a lack or weakening of your faith.
I AM saying that the more we have going on in our lives, the greater the chances we become distracted those things in our lives.
ILLUST - my only accident - I looked to the side.
How do we battle this?
Make God primary
What is your response?
Make God a priority
What is the ratio of time spent complaining about a problem you have compared to the time spent communicating with God about it?
Martin Luther: “I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”
God’s Word is true even in the trials.
ILLUST - How many of your teenagers have TSH? It’s a fairly common issue affecting millions of teenagers each year. Doctors have yet to determine if this issue is due to auditory immaturity or a chemical imbalance in the brain. Most people will eventually grow out of TSH, although that rate is lower among males, especially among those who are married, who seem to suffer from a similar, yet slightly modified version.
What is TSH? Teenage Selective Hearing
“This is very important; I need you to listen; remember to turn off the stove when you’re done cooking, and when I get home, we will all go out for ice cream.” “When are we getting ice cream (standing among the ashes)
Selective Listening
Selective Listening
The Israelites suffered from a similar issue in regards to God’s promises (and we often do as well.
Moses should have known it was not going to go well at first:
Exodus 3:18–20 (ESV)
18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
We can’t simply take the parts of God’s Word we like and respond to them and “forget” the other parts.
Verses we like:
Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
1 John 4:8 (ESV)
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 3:16 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Philippians 4:13 (ESV)
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(we tend to forget that the “all things” that Paul is expecting strength for is prison)
Verses we “forget:”
Matthew 20:16 (ESV)
16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Luke 9:23–24 (ESV)
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
James 1:2–4 (ESV)
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
1 Peter 1:6–7 (ESV)
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
A tested faith is a tempered faith.
A tested faith is a tempered faith.
An untested faith is brittle.
ILLUST - Tempering of metal through repeated application of heat - just before the melting point.
1 Thessalonians 2:13–14 (ESV)
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
Fair weather Christians eventually become faithless Christians.
Is your faith tempered or brittle?
Which one do you want?
What are you willing to go through to get it?
GOD is the reason God’s promises come true.
GOD is the reason God’s promises come true.
Exodus 6:1–8 (ESV)
1 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”
Moses may be knocked off course by this seeming failure before Pharaoh, but God is still in control.
Moses did not hear or deliver God’s Word very well, but his failure will not cause God to fail.
Exodus 5:3 (ESV)
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
This is because the promises of God are not based on the actions of people, they are based on the character of God.
This means a failure of a person does not mean failure for God.
Has someone failed you? Hasn’t messed up God’s plan.
Have you failed? Hasn’t messed up God’s plan.
We typically sound like Moses in 5:22
Exodus 5:22 (ESV)
22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?
The key is Moses returns to God, and allows God to use him.
Exodus 6:29 (ESV)
29 the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”
Exodus 7:6 (ESV)
6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them.
Moses obeyed God.
But Pharaoh did not.
Exodus 7:2–4 (ESV)
2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
Exodus 7:10–13 (ESV)
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
Exodus 7:14 (ESV)
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.
Plagues:
Nile to blood (1st cycle) Moses stands before Pharaoh in morning
Exodus 7:21–22 (ESV)
21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
2. Frogs from Nile (1st cycle)Moses stands before Pharaoh
Exodus 8:15 (ESV)
15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
3. Dust to gnats (1st cycle) No warning
Exodus 8:18–19 (ESV)
18 The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
4. Flies (2nd cycle) Moses stands before Pharaoh in morning (distinction between land of Goshen and Egypt)
Exodus 8:32 (ESV)
32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
5. Egyptian livestock dies (2nd cycle)Moses stands before Pharaoh (distinction made between Israel and Egypt)
Exodus 9:7 (ESV)
7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
Repeated phrase
“But Pharaoh hardened his heart. . .”
ILLUST - reads like my favorite book as a child: But No Elephants!
I always knew what was coming would always be able to finish the line, “But no elephants!”
6. Boils (2nd cycle) No warning
Exodus 9:12 (ESV)
12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
7. Hail (3rd cycle) Moses stands before Pharaoh in morning
Exodus 9:16 (ESV)
16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Exodus 9:34 (ESV)
34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
(He couldn’t have sinned if God was the only agent in hardening his heart)
8. Locusts (3rd cycle)Moses stands before Pharaoh
Exodus 10:20 (ESV)
20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
9. Darkness (3rd cycle) No warning
10. Death of firstborn
Exodus 11:4–7 (ESV)
4 So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’
Exodus 11:10 (ESV)
10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
How are we to understand the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart?
It’s expressed in three seemingly different ways:
Lord hardened it
Pharaoh hardened it
It became hard
Exodus 9:34–10:1 (ESV)
34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. 1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
Choices, habits, character (indebted to Motyer)
Hail -
18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
Hail takes time to form.
but God knew when it was time
Our choices become habits which form our character
The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage a. Choices, Habits and Character
Humans are so created that the choices they make contribute to forming character, and character thus formed promotes the making of similar choices in the future. Sometimes it takes a very long series of choices to produce a fixed habit, sometimes one choice is enough, sometimes a prolonged series of choices still leaves the issue in question open. Choosing and habit forming are things we all know about. What none of us knows is when the ‘point of no return’ will be reached
The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage a. Choices, Habits and Character
Thus the situation in which Pharaoh found himself was not peculiar to him but is intrinsic to the human condition. Only God foresees the decisive, freedom-destroying choice, and only he knows at once when the choice that kills freedom hae been made
God gives grace to hardening hearts
God gives grace to hardening hearts
There is a progression of severity of plagues and yet Pharaoh refused. This indicates a progression of hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
Hardening your heart leads to a broken heart.
Hardening your heart leads to a broken heart.
For Pharaoh it meant a broken heart because he lost his firstborn son.
Whatever the consequences of our sin and rebellion against God, it will ALWAYS lead to a broken heart - a heart that is not whole.
Ever wonder why there were nine plagues that did not release the Israelites from Pharaoh’s grip when God knew perfectly well that it would take the final judgment of death to Pharaoh’s firstborn to release the Israelites?
God gave nine more chances than he needed to. God gave nine opportunities for grace.
Hebrews 3:7–8 (ESV)
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Hebrews 3:12–13 (ESV)
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Humbling your heart leads to freedom.
This leads to Passover
Another time leading to Passover was Palm Sunday
As we remember the Israelites preparing to leave the place of sin and death, Jesus was preparing to go in.
If:
God’s Word carries more weight than your burdens,
GOD is the reason God’s promises come true,
AND
God gives grace to hardening hearts
THEN
Trust and obey
Trust and obey
Pharaoh refused to OBEY (shamar) - lit., “listen and act”
Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV)
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Hearing = obeying
What is Jesus saying to you?
What are you doing about it?