Exodus 6-8 Chapter
Study
I. The Exodus • Chs. 1-13:16
A.
B. Moses Is Born •
C. Moses’ Call • Ch. 3-4:17
D. Moses’ Return To
E. Moses’ First Encounter With
Pharaoh • Ch. 5-6:27
Thanks to Derek for covering
Chapter 5 last week.
Since Ch. 6 is a set piece
and continues the story of chapter 5, we need to recap as we begin tonight’s
study.
Moses & his elder brother
Aaron have met with Pharaoh to request that they be allowed to lead the
children of
Pharaoh refuses and grows
irate, calling the people lazy and Moses and Aaron trouble-makers.
Pharaoh
then gives the order that the children of
From
then on, they will have to gather their own straw, adding to their already
overbearing workload.
When word reached the elders
of the Jews, they grew irate with Moses and Aaron.
When
Moses had first told them of his calling by God and that they would soon be
free, they had been excited – but this turn of events seemed to them to be the
very opposite of what Moses had said would happen.
They
were expecting freedom, instead their slavery becomes
more onerous.
Moses himself becomes
discouraged and complains to the Lord.
22So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You
brought trouble on this people? Why is it You
have sent me? 23For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name,
he has done evil to this people; neither have You
delivered Your people at all.”
Moses’ reaction to all that’s
happened is so typical.
God
had told him he would lead the people from their bondage, and as is so typical
for human nature, we immediately jump ahead in our thinking and figure out how God is going to work.
We
devise a lovely scenario for how God will reveal His power and unfold His will.
Rarely
does the path we devise lie through trouble and difficulty – not, it’s smooth
sailing.
But the deliverance of
God
had far more in mind, far more to accomplish than simply lifting His chosen
people out of their oppression.
You
see, not only did He plan on taking
He
needed to reveal His absolute power over the nations of the earth so that the
Jews might realize He was not just one among many gods – He is THE GOD.
In the world of that day –
people thought there were many deities who exerted their power and authority
over a certain geographical region, over a particular ethnic group, or over on
of the forces of nature.
They
believed that whichever nation or ethnic group was ruling over the others had
the most powerful deities.
When
one nation fought another, it wasn’t just a contest to gain land or resources, it was a showdown between one people’s god and
the others.
Every
war and battle was a religious contest.
As
As
God now set about to effect the deliverance of His people, what had to be
demonstrated to them was that He was not merely one deity among many, and a
defeated one at that!
He
is the Maker of Heaven & Earth = the ONLY GOD!
Renewing
the covenant with the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob meant first of all,
to make Himself known as God Almighty.
The
way He would do this was by having a showdown with the supposed unconquerable
deities of
He
would bring them low, and so show Himself to be the Supreme God.
But Moses knew none of this
at this point.
All
he knew was that the little scenario he’d worked out in his head for how God
would use him was not coming to pass as he’d envisioned.
And
he was bummed!
Do you know that God has good
planned for you?
Do you know that He has a
glorious future and a bright hope set before you?
Jeremiah 29:11 For I
know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future
and a hope.
Do you know that he is able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or thing?
Ephesians 3:20 Now
to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us,
We
can’t even imagine the things God has in store for us!
1 Corinthians 2:9 As it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those
who love Him.”
What
we don’t realize is that the path to such glory and blessing often, usually, leads through deep valleys,
over rocky pathways, and through dark tunnels.
But
that difficult journey is necessary because it’s part
of the process the Lord uses to mold and shape us so we can more fully enjoy
and appreciate the glorious blessing that awaits us.
Tell me, who appreciates a
cup of cold water more; the man who’s been sitting in the lap of luxury, or the
one who’s just hiked 5 miles through the blistering heat?
Who
appreciates the hot bubbling Jacuzzi spa more; the woman who’s just had a
massage, or the woman who’s just spent 6 hours cleaning the house?
Who
will appreciate the glory and power of God more, the one whose
lived a life of luxurious plenty, or the one who’s life has been known
suffering and trial?
Well, God is going to reveal His plan now to Moses . . .
1Then the Lord
said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong
hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his
land.”
Pharaoh may have begun with a strong hand to resist God & keep the Jews, but in the end he will drive them out just as strongly!
2And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am [YAHWEH]
the Lord. 3I
appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as [El Shaddai]
God Almighty, but by My name [Yahweh] Lord I was not known to them. 4I
have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan,
the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. 5And I
have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep
in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
God is a covenant keeping God
and the promises He made to the fathers of the children of
6Therefore say to the children of
God is impressing on Moses
the absolutely certainty of the success of his mission.
He
is to go and tell the discouraged leaders of
9So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but
they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.
Here is a classic challenge
for the people of God – to believe God’s Word or to believe one’s
circumstances.
In
this case, the children of
But
that wouldn’t change God’s faithfulness – He will still keep His covenant &
promise!
10And the Lord
spoke to Moses, saying, 11“Go in, tell Pharaoh king
of
Not for a three-day holiday
in the wilderness, but altogether.
12And Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, “The children of
If his own people whom He is
supposed to be leading haven’t accepted his message, how will his
opponent? And then Moses brings up the
same sorry excuse he’d used before, that he was not good at official
speech-making.
13Then the Lord
spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel
and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of
God
will have none of Moses’ excuses! His
word is final – “Go to Pharaoh and tell him to release the Jews!”
Now we get a listing of the
elders of the children of
These
are the guys with whom Moses and Aaron met to tell them the Word and counsel of the Lord.
14These are the heads of their fathers’
houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben.
15And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel,
Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
16These are the names of the sons of Levi
according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were one hundred
and thirty-seven.
17The sons of Gershon were
Libni and Shimi according
to their families.
18And the sons of Kohath were
Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath
were one hundred and thirty-three.
19The sons of Merari were
Mahli and Mushi. These are
the families of Levi according to their generations.
20Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s
sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of
Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven.
21The sons of Izhar were
Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
Korah will come to play in the story later, so notice here
that he is Moses’ cousin, the son of
his uncle Izhar.
22And the sons of Uzziel [another
of Moses’ uncles] were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri.
23Aaron took to himself Elisheba,
daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon,
as wife; and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
These 4 are the sons of Aaron
– remember them because they will play an important part in the story later.
24And the sons of Korah were
Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph.
These are the families of the Korahites.
25Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took for himself one of the
daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas.
Here’s another man who will
play an important role in the nation later.
Moses gives this listing of
names so as to provide some background for later events.
These are the heads of
the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families.
26These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the children of
Verses 14-27 are a
parenthesis to the narrative of Moses’ confronting Pharaoh, so as he returns to
that narrative in v. 27, he sort of recaps . . .
28And it came to pass, on the day the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of
Egypt, 29that the Lord
spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the Lord.
Speak to Pharaoh king of
30But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?”
1So the Lord
said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your
brother shall be your prophet.
In ch.
5, Pharaoh had asked – “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey Him?”
God
is telling Moses now that He will reveal Himself through Moses to Pharaoh;
He’ll do this through the wonders and miracles Moses performs before his eyes.
Since
Moses doesn’t think he’s a capable speaker, Aaron will be his spokesman.
2You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your
brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of
God will speak to Moses, who
will in turn speak to Aaron, who will then speak to Pharaoh.
3And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the
There it is – God’s plan why Pharaoh didn’t just let the people
go upon the first instance of Moses coming before him.
As I mentioned a couple weeks
ago, at first reading, it appears that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, just so
that He could bring the plagues on
Pharaoh
hardened his own heart first! Then he hardened it again and again.
God
simply honored his choice to not let the children of Israel go, and turned it
to an advantage by using Pharaoh’s hardness
and rebellion to His command as the backdrop upon which to exercise His power
and supremacy over all the gods of Egypt – which is what the plagues were all
about.
Here’s how it worked – Moses
came to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go.”
Pharaoh,
in his arrogance as the visible manifestation of the chief deity of
Having
said “No” once, it made each subsequent refusal easier, even though the heat kept getting turned up as a
repercussion to his hardness & resistance.
At
first, the Spirit of God was striving with Pharaoh, urging him to yield, but
Pharaoh neglected this conviction of the Spirit and dug in his heels.
With
each refusal, the ante was upped until the Spirit halted His striving with the
king.
Since
the only thing might have lead to his surrender was the striving of the Spirit,
once that striving was removed, there was nothing left but his resistance.
So
really God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by simply honoring his choice and
withdrawing His conviction.
6Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the Lord commanded them, so they did.
Meaning they went in again
before Pharaoh and demanded that he let the people go.
7And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three
years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8Then the Lord
spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 9“When Pharaoh speaks to you,
saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take
your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a
serpent.’” 10So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh,
and they did so, just as the Lord
commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants,
and it became a serpent.
11But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the
sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments. 12For every man threw down his rod,
and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. 13And
Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said.
Pharaoh was worshipped as a
god among the Egyptians, and indeed, he had godlike powers of life and death
over his subjects.
The
monuments of
So
when Moses and Aaron appeared before this man who claimed deity, he would ask
what their credentials were.
God
told Moses to show the sign he’d learned in Exodus 4 when he stood before the
burning bush – of turning the staff into a serpent.
Sure enough, Pharaoh asked
for proof they were the emissaries of God and Aaron cast down his staff to have
it turn into a snake.
But
this didn’t seem so impressive to Pharaoh who called for his court spiritual
advisers who were able to accomplish the same feat.
In 2 Timothy 3:8 the Apostle
Paul names the chief magicians who took Moses’ challenge as “Jannes and Jambres.”
There are some modern day
commentators who say that what the magicians did was merely an illusion; that
they came in with serpents who had been trained to appear as rods but when released
form the hand would retain their normal shape.
This is unlikely. What we are seeing here is real, supernatural
power.
Remember
that God is going to be showing his superiority over all the gods and powers of
These
men were deep into the occult arts and had tapped into demonic power.
It
was this which helped hold the people of
But
God here shows His superiority to the gods and powers of
Actually,
this is pretty humorous! Imagine the look on their faces!
Never forget that miracles
are part of Satan’s arsenal.
As
it says in 2 Thess.
2:9-10, when speaking of the coming of the antichrist, “The coming of the
lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and
lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish,
because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they may be saved.”
Miracles
only prove that something is supernatural,
not that it’s necessarily true.
A
bit later, when God gave the Law at
He
said that we must always check the message that follows the miracle – it too
must square with the Word and revelation of God. If it doesn’t then it has to be rejected.
Today, we have large meetings
in which supposed healings are taking place.
There
are a few televangelists who make wild claims about the miracles associated
with their ministry.
They
then use all this as explicit validation of their ministry and message, which
is inevitably the health and wealth success gospel – which turns godliness into
gain.
Investigations of the
healings and miracles claimed by these charlatans all too often turn up bogus
claims and fakery.
People
who work for the supposed ministry masquerade as attendees, and engage people
as they stand in line waiting to get in.
They
discover what healing they are looking for and a bit about their personal
lives.
This
they then print up on cards and hand to the miracle worker who memorizes them
and then later has a supposed word of knowledge while on stage, calling out
people’s ailments, healings, and so on.
The
crowd gets whipped into a frenzy of excitement, and then the buckets are passed
and guilt is applied to make people fill them.
Does God heal today –
absolutely! Does God still perform
miracles – of course!
But
Christ came to show us how the Spirit
of God works – quietly and with tender compassion.
No
one performed more healings or dramatic miracles than did Christ.
Yet
consider the humble and quiet way He did so.
It’s
difficult in the extreme to imagine Jesus show-boating
as the modern televangelists of today do.
Listen to the message! That’s the key. The presence of the supernatural is not
enough.
Listen
to the message – is it faithful to the Word of God?
14So the Lord
said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the
people go.
This is a simple diagnosis on God’s part – He is telling
Moses how Pharaoh himself has responded to the sign of the serpent.
15Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the
water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which
was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16And you shall
say to him, ‘The Lord God of the
Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not
hear! 17Thus says the Lord:
“By this you shall know that I am the Lord.
Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod
that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood. 18And
the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the
Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the
river.”’”
19Then the Lord
spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over
the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds,
and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall
be blood throughout all the
God told Moses & Aaron to
approach Pharaoh when he went to the riverside in the morning.
The
Khnum
was the guardian of the
Hapi
was the spirit of the
One
of the chief Egyptian gods was Osiris who was
thought to have the
Pharaoh’s morning trip to the
river’s edge was probably a formal religious ritual in which he went and
bathed, or performed some rite which renewed the river’s life-giving virtue.
It
was fitting that Moses and Aaron arrive just at that moment to affect this
first plague.
Aaron lifted his rod over the
river, and when he did so, the water turned to blood, as did all of the stores
of water drawn from the Nile throughout the land.
There
was only one source of water left unchanged – that drawn from wells . . .
22Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their
enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said. 23And Pharaoh
turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this. 24So
all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they
could not drink the water of the river. 25And seven days passed
after the Lord had struck the
river.
It’s been asked were the
magicians got fresh water in order to duplicate the miracle and so enforce
Pharaoh’s resistance to God.
V.
24 tells us.
Any water whose source was the Nile was turned to blood.
The
only water not struck was well water.
1And the Lord
spoke to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus
says the Lord: “Let My people go,
that they may serve
5Then the Lord
spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod over the
streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the
land of Egypt.’” 6So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of
Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the
With the first two plagues,
Moses went to Pharaoh and first said, “Let my people go, or such and such will
happen.”
Both
times Pharaoh refused, and so the plague came.
This
second time, it was frogs everywhere!
The Egyptians worshipped a
goddess named Heqt who was always pictured
with the head of a frog.
Frogs
were considered sacred by the
Egyptians because they lived along the banks of the Nile, much as the entire
nation did.
The
frog was sort of a mascot, the
national symbol for the people and culture of Egypt.
And
if they wanted to worship frogs, then God would give them frogs galore.
V.
3 says there were frogs everywhere – in their bed,
even in their cooking pots and bowls.
When Pharaoh called for the
magicians, they too were able to duplicate the miracle – that is, they were
able to make frogs too.
But
this isn’t really the help Pharaoh would have liked from them.
Not
more frogs, less frogs was the order of the day.
But
the magicians weren’t able to do anything about the abundance of amphibians.
8Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said,
“Entreat the Lord that He may
take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go,
that they may sacrifice to the Lord.”
Oh, so it looks like the
plague of frogs is going to work! Not
quite.
9And Moses said to Pharaoh, “Accept the honor of saying
when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to
destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the
river only.”
10So he said, “Tomorrow.” And he said, “Let it be
according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 11And the
frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from
your people. They shall remain in the river only.”
12Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses
cried out to the Lord concerning
the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh. 13So the Lord did according to the word of
Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of
the fields. 14They gathered them together in heaps,
and the land stank. 15But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said.
Pharaoh went back on his
word.
16So the Lord
said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the
land, so that it may become lice throughout all the
The third plague comes
without warning and it was one which struck a mortal blow to the arrogance and
pride of the Egyptians.
You
see, they considered themselves superior to all others because of their
fastidiousness in personal hygiene.
Most
body hair was plucked or shaved and they practiced the most elaborate cleansing
procedures. The priests were especially
fastidious.
But
lice were an affliction for the unkempt, for those whose personal hygiene left
much to be desired.
A
plague of lice would be a heavy burden, not only for the personal discomfort it
would bring, but for the crippling effect it would have on their national
psyche.
No
priest would be able to officiate in the essential daily rituals that were
supposed to sustain the life and prosperity of the nation.
18Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to
bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast. 19Then
the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But
Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.
As defiled priests, the
magicians would be contaminated by the lice and so cut off from laying hold of
the power of their deities.
They
saw in this third plague a brilliant strategy on the part of Yahweh and
confessed his superiority over the gods of Egypt.
But
Pharaoh still considered himself a god and wasn’t going to admit defeat just
yet.
20And the Lord
said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes
out to the water. Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Let My people go, that they may serve
With the fourth plague, God
once again warns Pharaoh, and again Pharaoh refuses, so the plague descends –
billions of flies that come over all Egypt, but do not inflict the realm and
homes of the Jews.
This
means that for the first 3 plagues, the children of Israel had been afflicted
along with the Egyptians.
The
purpose for this was to show that God recognized
& honored Pharaoh’s rule over
the land and all it’s inhabitants, and that his actions affected and afflicted
others.
But
with the 4th plague, God is moving now to show that Pharaoh doesn’t in
fact have authority over the children of Israel; the day of his dominion over
them is at an end!
24And the Lord
did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into
his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted
because of the swarms of flies.
25Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said,
“Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.”
Pharaoh appears to relent,
but it’s only a partial compromise, not a genuine yielding to the Lord; he says
the people can take a break from their labor to worship after their fashion,
but only within the borders of Egypt.
But Moses knows that the
Egyptians would never allow the Jews to worship according to the way God
commanded, which was by offering sacrifices of cattle and sheep.
Cattle
were sacred while sheep were an abomination!
If
the Jews set about to start offering such sacrifices as worship, the Egyptians
would have been incensed and would have attacked them.
26And Moses said, “It is not right to do so, for we
would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we sacrifice the
abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us? 27We
will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He will command us.”
28So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may
sacrifice to the Lord your God in
the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.”
Pharaoh gives in – the flies
are too much to contend with so he relents and asks that Moses quickly pray to
his God to remove the plague.
29Then Moses said, “Indeed I am going out from you, and
I will entreat the Lord,
that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from
his servants, and from his people. But let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore
in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.”
30So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. 31And the Lord did according to the word of
Moses; He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants,
and from his people. Not one remained. 32But Pharaoh hardened his
heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.
V. 32 shows us that all
along, up to this point – it’s been Pharaoh who’s hardened his own heart, while
the Lord has been striving with him,
both outwardly through the plagues, and inwardly with his spirit to move him to
surrender.
But
as soon as the distress is lifted, Pharaoh always reverts to his rebellion and
refusal to yield to the Lord.
I wonder if there are any
Pharaoh-like ones among us tonight -
A man or woman who’s been confronted with the reality
and power of God again and again but who resists and refuses to yield to the
Lord.
A man or woman who keeps getting into trouble, and
asks for help from the Almighty, but as soon as the trouble passes, forgets all
about the Lord and lives as though there is no God.
You’ve heard the gospel time
and again, but have always resisted.
God
has striven with you, urged you to come, but you’ve held back.
Listen
– there will come a time when God will no longer strive with you.
He’ll
honor your choice – and you will be truly lost!