The Set-Up (Exodus 5:1-7:13)
After an incredible, visible, audible call from God, Moses and Aaron head to Pharaoh to deliver the message. God has promised to act and ordered them to be His voice. To their surprise—to the surprise of the children of Israel who had rejoiced that God remembered them—things do not work out… at least at first.
How often do we go through God’s set-up and take our eyes off of Him? God has plans for us; good plans. But what makes those plans good is often a set-up designed to demonstrate God’s power and goodness in the midst of darkness.
Here, Moses had even been told what God’s plan was. Yes, He was going to save His people, but He was going to do so in a way that would show His glory and reveal His power to the whole world. That required a dire situation from which to save the people. And, their situation was not dire enough yet. Pharaoh’s heart was evil, but not yet evil and hard enough. After all, he was going to have to resist in the face of very powerful manifestations from God.
So, don’t lose faith in hard times. They are often just the set-up for something amazing.
And, speaking of Pharaoh and his evil heart, we get another glimpse in 5:4-9. The pattern is one that we see again and again in the powerful throughout history. They disdain and fear the masses and the downtrodden. Pharaoh won’t let the slaves go, he needs their labor for his economy to work. At the same time, he fears them. So, he treats them harshly to keep them in line while he keeps them under his heel. As R. Alan Cole puts it in his commentary,
After all, in today’s context we more often find ourselves in the position of Pharaoh (powerful and rich) than in the “hard times” place of God’s people in Egypt.
How often do we go through God’s set-up and take our eyes off of Him? God has plans for us; good plans. But what makes those plans good is often a set-up designed to demonstrate God’s power and goodness in the midst of darkness.
Here, Moses had even been told what God’s plan was. Yes, He was going to save His people, but He was going to do so in a way that would show His glory and reveal His power to the whole world. That required a dire situation from which to save the people. And, their situation was not dire enough yet. Pharaoh’s heart was evil, but not yet evil and hard enough. After all, he was going to have to resist in the face of very powerful manifestations from God.
So, don’t lose faith in hard times. They are often just the set-up for something amazing.
And, speaking of Pharaoh and his evil heart, we get another glimpse in 5:4-9. The pattern is one that we see again and again in the powerful throughout history. They disdain and fear the masses and the downtrodden. Pharaoh won’t let the slaves go, he needs their labor for his economy to work. At the same time, he fears them. So, he treats them harshly to keep them in line while he keeps them under his heel. As R. Alan Cole puts it in his commentary,
“Christians should carefully ponder their attitudes to such [immigration] laws on the basis of Scripture, noting how readily fear leads to hatred and cruelty, as here.”
After all, in today’s context we more often find ourselves in the position of Pharaoh (powerful and rich) than in the “hard times” place of God’s people in Egypt.
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