Rescued by God series, “Rescued by God (Week 10)”
by Teaching Pastor Eric Evje § EXODUS 7:1-13
Due to technical difficulties the sermon audio is not available this week. The sermon notes are available for you here:
EXODUS: RESCUED BY GOD – Exodus 7: 1-13
Chapter seven begins much like chapter six began last week, with God responding to Moses in the midst of doubt which is a result of the rejection he has experienced from the Israelites and Pharaoh. Exodus 6:30,
30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
Moses again is measuring his level of success based on the response of people. Moses consistently falls back to his lack of ability and his lack of results whenever he seems to fail. For many of us, this is the story of our lives. We live life the same way each day, stuck in the status quo, stuck in a cycle of life, and distracted by our problems. All we know how to do is make excuses on why things are the way they are and we fail to recognize what God is trying to say to us, “It’s not about you.” May I remind you this morning that God not Moses is the main character of not only Exodus but of the rest of the Bible. Sometimes however, we try and insert ourselves into the lead role because we want control. I have seen this movie many times and it has been remade over and over, and the result is always a box office flop. Remember this; God’s sovereignty reveals His supremacy, our need to be totally obedient, and dependent on Him.
I. God’s Sovereignty is for His glory (vs.1-5)
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 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. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 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.”
In these five verses God references Himself fourteen times, (8) times using the pronoun, “I” and (5) times using the pronoun “my”, and once as the “LORD”. Everything that God tells Moses in these five verses is much more than a confidence booster for Moses, this a reminder and unveiling of His Sovereign rule over all. Look at what God tells, Moses.
A.) “I have made you like God to Pharaoh”, this does not mean that Moses has received a divine nature, rather that Moses has been given divine authority to be God’s representative in the presence of Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron were walking into the presence of Pharaoh locked, stocked, and barreled. Are you walking in divine authority of the Lord? Many of us are firing blanks, which makes a lot of noise but never hittting any targets.
B.) The reason we are firing blanks is because we are not doing everything that God has commanded. Disobedience removes the divine authority from the believer’s life. God told Moses, “You are to say everything I have commanded.”
C.) Notice what God says next, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” Why is God doing this? This doesn’t make sense? Many of us may read into this as being cold-hearted or unfair. Romans 9:17-18 says,
17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
So from these verses we begin to see that God is going to get the message out to the world about His greatness. How does He do it? Well, He allows Pharaoh and Egypt to obtain super-power status, He allows them to grow confident in who they are and what they have accomplished, then God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, why you may ask? The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was to provide a clear demonstration of God’s power and to announcement to all the earth that He is God. God was Sovereign each time Pharaoh rejected, denied, and dismissed the Word and power of God. All this rejection, denial, and dismissal of Moses each time was only going to intensify the message of the greatness of God because in the end there would be no doubt that by the hand of God these things happened. Think about this for minute, God takes out a world-superpower with 2 guys and a stick. This is how mighty, sovereign, and glorious He is,
5 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.
What does this mean for us? This should totally revolutionize the way we live. If we truly we believe that God is this Sovereign, our prayers will be different, our interactions with people will be different, and by His mercy and grace our response to Him will be different. How will you respond? How did Moses and Aaron respond?
II. God’s sovereignty should lead to obedience (vs.6-7)
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
After Moses and Aaron hear the word of the Lord they obey it. Do we look for loop holes in the commands of God? Follow the example of Moses and Aaron and do just as the Lord commanded. What is it that God is asking of the LHB corporately? Are we obeying it? What is God asking of us individually? Are we obeying it? Some of us may not openly disobey/rebel against God in a way others can see, but privately we disobey/rebel. Some of us quietly rebel God by not being regular attendees of church (Are you sporadic at best in your attendance?), some by not being involved within Community Groups, some by not being involved within our Corporate Times of Prayer, some by not being involved within our Community Outreach efforts. We also see that the text reveals the age of Moses (80) and Aaron (83). What does this tell us? Age is nothing but a number when it comes to serving God, we have no excuse. As true followers of Christ, we don’t expire, retire, or fade out. We continue to do what God has asked of us, until He says we are done.
III. God’s sovereignty will reveal where our allegiance lies. (vs. 8-13)
8 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said
In these final verses, God tells Moses and Aaron what Pharaoh is going to say, how they should respond, and finally what Pharaoh’s response will be.
God tells Moses and Aaron that Pharaoh is going to ask you to perform a miracle, so what you need to do is throw your staff and it will become a snake. Pharaoh is not asking for proof that there is a Sovereign God, he wants to discredit the existence of God. We know this to be the case, by how he responds to the miracle he sees. What does he do? Pharaoh soothes his conscience, by having his magicians perform the same thing. Again, God shows His sovereignty over this cheap imitation of His power by having Aaron’s staff eat their staffs. Yet, even after this miracle of God, Pharaoh did not believe just as God had predicted.
Some of us are just like Pharaoh in what believe. Pharaoh believed in himself and trusted in the power of his magicians more than the Sovereign God. Like, Pharaoh we too trust in our own acts and power. How so, you might ask? We trust in prayers that we pray, we trust in that we serve people in the community, or we trust in our attendance at church. These are all things that believers and non-believers can do. Matthew 7:21-23 says,
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
As you can see from these verses and from Exodus people can look and act like Christians but not true Christians at all.
In the end we will see that Sovereignty of God will win out. He will not be mocked or deceived. My prayer this morning is that you would respond to God with obedience in whatever He is asking of you. — 10:30am Sunday Worship St. Michael’s Academy
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