"The contest begins" by Rod Bayley, 30 May 2010, Exodus 4:19-6:12

[Danny]

I don’t know if you have seen the movie “Groundhog Day” but it is one
of my favourites. It stars actor Bill Murray who is a TV reporter,
and after being sent to cover “Groundhog Day” at a small town in
America, he re-lives this same day over and over. Whatever he does
during the day, even if he dies, he wakes in the same bed the next
morning at 6am to the same song on the radio, and re-lives the same
day. Although initially seeing this as his worst nightmare, he
eventually begins to enjoy it as the days roll on, because he can do
anything without facing consequences. He can steal the groundhog and
have it drive, he can eat as much junk food as he wants for
breakfast. But more importantly, he gradually learns everything that
will occur during that one day, and so he knows what will happen next
before it happens. There are huge advantages obviously, as he knows
exactly how conversations and events will unfold. He naturally feels
god-like because he knows the end from the beginning, a knowledge that
only God has.

Imagine having such knowledge of the future if you had a very daunting
event to face, a meeting with someone which might threaten your life.
Imagine the reassurance you would have if you were told how it would
turn out beforehand by God. Well, that is exactly the experience of
Moses, who has been commissioned by God to go and tell the greatest
king in the world, from the largest superpower of the day, what to
do. In verse 19 we see that “the LORD had said to Moses in Midian,
‘Go back to Egypt’,” and in verse 21-23 Moses is given his
instructions for his meeting with Pharaoh. Notice in verse 21 that
God tells Moses what will be result of his confrontation before it
takes place: “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before
Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will
harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Nothing like
being sent on a mission which is doomed to fail - God tells Moses up-
front that Pharaoh isn’t going to listen to him because that’s how God
has planned it. Once Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, then
Moses was to give the message that God relays in verses 22-23 - “this
is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you,
‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go;
so I will kill your firstborn son.” Perhaps foreknowledge of future
events now seemed frightening to Moses - but this was God’s plan.

In verses 27 and 28 Aaron meets up with Moses on the way to Egypt, and
is filled in about what the LORD has sent Moses to do and the signs he
has been given to perform. Then in verses 29 to 31 we suddenly change
scene to Egypt where Moses and Aaron have now arrived, and we are
given the response of Israel’s elders to the LORD’s message to Moses.
As God had previously told Moses in chapter 3 verse 18, the people
believe and worship God in response to His concern for them. So Moses
and Aaron appear to be off to a good start, but now they have to go
and face Pharaoh - a man who they already know will not listen.

In verses 1 to 5 of chapter 5, Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh and
pass on the LORD’s message. The initial reaction of Pharaoh in verses
2 and 4-5 is negative, as predicted. Pharaoh’s comment in verse 2 is
telling, and sets up a showdown between himself and the sovereign
creator God: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel
go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” Pharaoh
acknowledges no-one’s authority except his own, and so steps into what
will be a very one-sided contest. Notice in verses 4 and 5 that
Pharaoh’s only concern is for his building program, which is dependent
on the slave labour provided by the Israelites, and he won’t have them
stopping work.

Pharaoh’s statement, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him”, smacks
of incredible arrogance, but this pride has been paralleled throughout
human history. In 1715, Louis XIV of France died.. Louis, who called
himself “the Great”, was the king who apparently made the infamous
statement, “I am the state!” He ruled for 72 years at the peak of his
country’s royal wealth. His court was the most magnificent in Europe,
with the nobility commanded to wait upon him at the palace he built to
convey his majesty - Versailles. He was surrounded by attendants when
he approached death, and as you’d expect, when he died his funeral at
Saint Denis Cathedral was spectacular. His body lay in a golden
coffin. To dramatize the deceased king’s greatness, orders had been
given that the cathedral should be very dimly lighted, with only one
special candle set above his coffin. Thousands waited in hushed
silence at the funeral service to hear what would be said about Louis
‘the Great.’ Then Bishop Massilon began to speak, as he stood by
Louis’ coffin. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle and
said, “Only God is great!”

Perhaps these sound like extreme examples, but they only differ from
you and I because of the power they held - the words and actions of
Pharaoh and Louis XIV are reflected in the way people live their lives
today. To seek to run our own lives without reference to God, indeed,
to thumb our nose at God as if we will not be brought to account for
our actions, is really the height of sinful pride. Sadly, such an
attitude is almost the cornerstone of our secular Australian culture -
you know, the idea that ‘no-one rules me - I make the decisions in my
life - I’ll do what I want, when I want, and no-one can tell me what
to do.’ As Christians, we have recognised that we had rejected God’s
authority over us in this way in the past, in wanting to run our own
lives our way without God, and have repented of this sin and received
forgiveness through Christ’s death.

As a result, we should do two things. Firstly, we should desire to
share this truth with others, because God will not allow mankind to
continue to rebel against Him, and judgment will come, just as it was
coming upon Pharaoh and Egypt. As 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 says: “Those
who do not know God and ... those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus ... will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut
out from the presence of the Lord.” Pharaoh said he didn’t know God
and so wasn’t going to obey Him - but to know God through His son and
obey Him is crucial. Secondly, if you are a Christian you need to
continually watch your own life to ensure that your old sinful nature
doesn’t see you disobeying God’s word in some area of your life, and
therefore effectively rejecting His authority over you. Let’s not
think that because we’ve been forgiven through Christ we are free to
ignore God’s authority where it suits us - let’s not just give lip
service to the Lordship of Christ in our lives. We will still have to
give an account of our lives - we will still be judged, although we
are assured of the verdict of ‘not guilty’ if we have trusted in
Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says: “For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for
the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Coming back to Pharaoh’s reaction to Moses, the result of this initial
confrontation is that Pharaoh takes an active response to the
situation immediately - his edict or command and its unfolding effect
on the Israelites is provided in verses 6 to 14. Notice in verses 6
to 8 that before the end of the day, he had given the order that no
straw would be given any longer for the Israelite slaves to make
bricks, and yet the same quota of bricks would be required. His
reasoning in verses 8 and 9 is that they must be lazy if they have
time to think about going out to the desert to make sacrifices - he is
going to punish them by working them even harder so they “pay no
attention to lies.” In verses 10 to 14 the effect of this command
unfolds, and we see in verse 13 that pressure was applied to the
Israelite slaves by the Egyptian slave drivers. Further, in verse 14
physical abuse follows for the Israelite foreman who failed to
maintain their quotas of bricks.

Well, this brings us to point 3: ‘Israel’s foreman confront Pharaoh
and Moses.’ The result of these beatings, this suffering, was that
the foreman firstly went and complained to Pharaoh. This is outlined
in verses 15 to 23. In verses 15 and 16 the Israelite foreman outline
their case saying, “Why have you treated your servants this way?”
Pharaoh’s response in verses 17 and 18 goes to the heart of this
question by indicating again that he views their desire to ‘go and
sacrifice to the LORD’ as a sign of laziness. This negative result to
their appeal, naturally leads to the Israelite foreman blaming Moses
and Aaron. They say to them in verse 21, “May the LORD look upon you
and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials
and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Moses, no doubt hurt
by being blamed for all the trouble, and confused by the unfolding of
these events, decides to deflect the blame back to God. In verses 22
to 23 we read that Moses said: “O Lord, why have you brought trouble
upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to
Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this
people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” Moses is
unhappy about being the scapegoat, and basically says ‘what’s going on
God?’

It appears that Moses didn’t quite take in God’s prediction back in
verse 21 that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, who would refuse to let
the Israelites go. Not only that, the Israelites who worshipped God
at the end of chapter 4 because of His concern for them, are also
doubting. It all seems too messy and chaotic, and they doubt God’s
concern - they basically suggest that God either isn’t in control, or
He doesn’t know what He is doing.

The story has been told of a museum guide who would take his tour
group to a darkened room, shine a light on a mass of string, colour
and apparent chaos, and ask the group: “What do you think it is?” “I
don’t know,” was the inevitable reply. He would then say, “Stand over
there and watch.” As the group moved over to the other side of the
room, he would turn on a spotlight. It was instantly apparent that
the mass of jumbled colour string seen just a moment earlier was in
fact an enormous tapestry - from the back side. The real work had to
be seen from a different perspective to understand what the artist was
creating. So it is with God and his ways - we often look at them and
ask questions such as “Why?” and “How?” not because there is no
purpose in what God is doing, but because we are on the wrong side of
eternity to be able to have the perspective that would enable us to
see the order and pattern to God’s work. And we’re impatient - we
want things fixed right now.

I wonder if you can relate to the Israelites and Moses - you face
trials and difficulties and you blame God, and complain to Him that He
doesn’t know what He is doing - ‘How could you let this happen to
me.’ I know I can relate - we can be so impatient for God to act - or
so ‘put-out’ that any suffering should come our way, as if we have
been promised a perfect life by God. Yet in Acts 14:22 Paul and
Barnabas promised the new believers at Derbe: “We must go through many
hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” We need to count the cost as
a disciple of Jesus, to take up our Cross as He instructs us. Why is
that, and what should our reaction then be to life’s trials? In James
1:2-4, we are told: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your
faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so
that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Without
trials our Christian faith will lack perseverance, and therefore
maturity. God uses our trials to help us grow, much as we’d like to
grow some other way, and so James says we should be joyful in the
midst of trials. That is we should be able to give thanks to God in
all circumstances, because we know He is trustworthy. We are to have
an eternal perspective now, to persevere for our later reward.

In the last part of our passage in chapter 6 verses 1 to 12, God
reaffirms His covenant with the Israelite fathers, and thus His
promise to bring about the rescue of Israel from the bondage of
Egypt. In verses 1 to 5 God assures Moses that He has not forgotten
the groans of the enslaved Israelites and that He is about the rescue
them because of His covenant. Notice in verse 1, that following
Moses’ bitter complaint about the state of play, God says that He will
act to save soon, according to His timing - “Now you will see what I
will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go;
because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.” In
verses 2 to 4 God reminds Moses of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, and in verse 5 He says that He hasn’t forgotten it.

In verses 6 to 8, the results which will flow from the covenant are
spelt out to doubting Moses, who is to pass them on to the doubting
Israelites. The covenant means that Israel will be redeemed, while
Egypt is judged, and that they will take possession of the promised
land of Canaan. Furthermore, a unique relationship between God and
Israel is foreshadowed in verse 7, which is to ensure that Israelites
know that Yahweh, the LORD, is their God. Sadly, when Moses passes on
these amazing promises to the Israelites in verse 9, they don’t even
listen - their suffering has led to them losing faith in God, or so it
seems. Even Moses, God’s chosen instrument, is lacking faith. When
God instructs him to now go and speak to Pharaoh again in verses 10
and 11, Moses responds in verse 12 by basically saying, ‘what’s the
point”- if the Israelites won’t listen to him, why is Pharaoh going to
listen to him. Unfortunately, Moses still hasn’t grasped the point -
it doesn’t matter that Pharaoh’s reaction will be negative - God is in
control and Has promised to rescue Israel. What Moses is called to do
is take God at His word - to trust and act. God’s salvation plan
cannot be thwarted by human beings - God will keep His covenant and
redeem His people despite the actions of mankind. God is sovereign -
He will overrule all events to save His people. In fact, God will
ultimately use Pharaoh’s rejection of His authority, to proclaim His
Lordship, to devastatingly demonstrate His total authority and mock
all human pretense to authority.

Did you know that God demonstrated this same sovereignty in the New
covenant through which you and I are saved. We have been saved by
God’s faithfulness to His new covenant, to bring about a unique
relationship which would be lasting and surpass the old covenant. In
Jeremiah 31:31-34, God had promised, “The time is coming’, declares
the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made
with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out
of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to
them,’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the
house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my
law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
and they will be my people..... For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.” We learn elsewhere in Isaiah
53 that God could forgive and forget our sins through the ‘suffering
servant,’ the promised Messiah. We are the new Israel that Jeremiah
foretold, and Christ is the promised Messiah who made this radical new
covenant possible. And just like the escape from Egypt, the sinful
actions of humans were actually used by God to effect His rescue
plan. It may have seemed to the Jewish religious leaders that they
had effectively killed off another threat to their power and
importance with the help of the corrupt Roman justice system - that
this Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, had been
proven to be false when he died a victim of their scheming. But they,
and all Israel were to soon learn that they were wrong about Jesus,
that he was no victim, and that God had orchestrated the unfolding of
these seemingly chaotic events. The apostle Peter says in Acts
2:23-24: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death
by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead,
freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for
death to keep its hold on him.” God clearly demonstrates His
sovereignty in the fulfilment of His new covenant in Christ’s blood.

We may not understand the suffering that unfolds in this world, but
never doubt that God is in control, and knows what He is doing. In
John 16:33 Jesus said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take
heart! I have overcome the world.” Your very salvation is a testimony
of God’s sovereignty. Don’t doubt like Moses and the Israelites in
Egypt. Let me leave you with the challenge that the writer to the
Hebrews left his listeners with in 12:1-3: “... let us run with
perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such
opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart.”