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Text: Exodus 4:18-23
Forty years after Moses, by faith, forsook the pleasures in Egypt to pursue the reproach of Christ, he found himself heading back to Egypt to deliver God’s people from slavery and bondage. Moses was a fugitive in the eyes of Egyptian law because he’d murdered a man who assaulted a Hebrew. While on the run, Moses got married, had children, and shepherded sheep in the desert. Now, the death of those who sought his life signaled the time to return to Egypt. But now with God’s power and God’s plan.
Moses tells his father-in-law part of the plan, but not the whole thing. Some people get extremely spiritual here and say Moses is lying. But I realize, and you do too, that in life you don’t always have to tell everyone everything that’s going on. And that’s wise many times.
Equipped by God for the work (vs 20)
- Consider the lie that all you need is faith.
- When Moses first attempted to rescue Israelites from Egyptian bondage by killing a man, he only had the zeal to do the will of God. Moses also had faith to leave Egypt and pursue the things of God. Apparently, he had enough faith and zeal to kill a tyrannical Egyptian slave owner. But that faith and zeal were not enough to accomplish God’s work. Moses still needed to be equipped for the work. And there had to be an opportunity to put Moses in the position to do the work.
- Now, Moses re-enters Egypt with the rod of God in his hand. That is to say, he’s now equipped to do something on behalf of God. But he’s had this rod for a little bit of time, what else is needed besides faith, zeal, and God’s equipping?
- There needs to be an opportunity. That’s found when all the men are dead which sought thy life.
- Before doing anything for the LORD, men fail in three places.
- First off, they are faithless so there is nothing the LORD can do with them.
- Second, they enter a field unequipped, and the zeal and the faith prove to only go so far.
- Third, they are impatient and attempt a ministry where there is no opportunity.
Expectations for the work ahead (vs 21)
- The hardening of Pharoah has been troubling to some folks. It sounds like the LORD is going to make Pharaoh act a certain way. But this isn’t in the LORD’s character to hold someone responsible for something they have no control over. The LORD is an excellent judge of character and knows the hearts of men. When he says he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, he means he’s going to infuriate Pharaoh first with the request to let his people go, then with plagues, knowing Pharaoh will not give in. (Example in Acts 19 when Paul goes to Ephesus and preaches in the synagogues there. Many Jews were hardened and sought to harass Paul and the Christians with him. It means they were infuriated by the preaching.)
- The hardening begins in Exodus 5:1-9.
- Moses should expect opposition in his ministry. This is very important to know ahead of time because:
- First, it clarifies what role Moses plays in God’s plan. It defines the beginning and end of Moses’ responsibilities in the redemption of the nation from bondage.
- Second, proper expectations make keeping your soul (maybe you’d say managing your emotions) a reasonable charge. If I know what to expect, then I know what I should hope for. And conversely, what I shouldn’t hope for.
Equal treatment in the LORD’s eyes (vss 22-23)
- The LORD will explain to Pharaoh His relationship to this group of people called the Hebrews. And the LORD will explain in terms Pharaoh can understand. The LORD says this group of people has been born of a heavenly kingdom. In Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph’s days, that reality was not too difficult to understand that God’s blessing and care were upon the Hebrews. But years had passed, and in this Pharaoh’s day, there was nothing of significance in the Hebrew people. And Egypt certainly didn’t believe any promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So God would send Moses, equipped with visible displays of God’s power to persuade Pharaoh that the Hebrew nation has a heavenly origin.
- Now, just because the nation was born from above doesn’t mean the individuals in the Hebrew nation were all right with God. Because the same individuals that made up the nation at this time would die in the wilderness, rejected by God.
- But within the nation was the Seed, the Christ, who would eventually be born of God. So the nation would carry the seed though most Jews would be rejected by God. Matthew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
- Jesus Christ would be the physical firstborn among many brethren.
- Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15-18, Hebrews 12:23
- As a congregation, the Hebrew people were knit together by the promise of God but were not in themselves righteous people. Because this is the way the LORD would explain His relationship to the nation to Pharaoh, when it came time to punish Pharaoh for his treatment of the Hebrews, He took the firstborn in all of Egypt. This would be an “eye for an eye”.
