Exodus 7

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We’ve reached Exodus 7 so will you take your Bibles and turn to that chapter. See first of all the
end of Exodus 6:28, “On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to
Moses, ‘I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.’”

Now in fact, it might be good to remind you that Moses and Aaron had already spoken to Pharaoh for
the first time. That is back in 5:1-7, “Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘Thus
says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the
wilderness.’ But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I
do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go.’ Then they said, ‘The God of the
Hebrews has met with us.’” And in the study of chapter five you’ll see that God took extreme care
to try to bring home to Pharaoh, “I’m God, I’m not just nobody.” “The God of the Hebrews,” you know
— the ones who are your slaves, “has met with us; let us go, we pray, a three days’ journey,” and
God made it easy for them. He didn’t say “Let them go out of the land and you’ll lose all your
laborers,” just, “let us go three days journey” just take it step-by-step “into the wilderness, and
sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” They tried
to impress upon Pharaoh, “Be careful, this is a God.” “But the king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses
and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get to your burdens.’ And Pharaoh
said, ‘Behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens!’ The
same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foreman, ‘You shall no longer
give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves.’”

So Moses and Aaron had already spoken to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh refused and the state of the
Israelites became worse because now they had no straw to make their bricks with. This was the
situation when God spoke again to Moses in 6:28, “On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the
land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to
you.’ But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips; how then shall Pharaoh
listen to me?’”

Moses had already treated God that way before when God had chosen him, and that’s in Exodus 4:10.
“But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast
spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who has
made man’s mouth?’” God’s very patient with us. I don’t know if you’ve been in the same spot where
you’ve felt, “I can’t do it, I haven’t the ability.” And God is incredible patient with us. This
is what Moses mentioned the first time, so God says, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb,
or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” And when you think, “Oh I can’t sing, or I
can’t speak” God is saying to you, “Well, who made your tongue? Who can give the ability to
speak?”

And that’s why I think it is that people were a little surprised that we wheeled right into any
business God showed us, but that was because we always felt God has made us;
God has made our hands and our feet so God can enable us to do these things. None of us have ever
thought we had the ability but we’ve had no doubt that God has made our mouths, and our tongues, and
our fingers and he is able to give us the ability to do those things.

So that’s really what God said to Moses. And now verse 12, “Now therefore go, and I will be with
your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.’ But he said, ‘Oh, my Lord, send, I pray, some other
person.’” Moses even didn’t want to do it. “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses
and he said, ‘Is there not Aaron?” Okay, if you won’t do it yourself, “Aaron, your brother, the
Levite? I know that he can speak well; and behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees
you he will be glad in his heart. And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I
will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He shall speak
for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you
shall take in your hand this rod, with which you shall do the signs.” And that’s exactly what they
did; Aaron spoke for Moses.

Now here we are back at the same spot where God is saying to Moses, “Okay, now I want you to go to
Pharaoh and speak a second time.” And here’s Moses again saying, “Behold, I’m a man of
uncircumcised lips how then shall Pharaoh listen to me?” Part of the reason for that was he was
influenced by the discouragement of the people. And you can see their discouragement in Exodus 6:9,
“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel; but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken
spirit and their cruel bondage.” And if you listened to last Sunday’s study, a “broken spirit” is
also a despondent spirit and actually the word “ruach” can be translated “shortness of breath.”
Kiel – Delitzsch says it was shortness of breath due to their anguish inside and that the people had
become despondent and discouraged because instead of their state improving with Moses and Aaron
speaking to Pharaoh, it had got worse; they had no straw to make the bricks with, so they had grown
despondent. That despondency and discouragement had touched Moses and he had gotten heavy, so what
I shared last Sunday was you either help your leaders or you hinder them.

Actually of course, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter if you’re the most junior
member of the totem pole, it doesn’t matter who you are, you can have tremendous blessing and
influence on a leader and I’m sure Myron would testify to the same thing. Because we’re bound so
much together in heart, when you’re down, it’s a little hard for us (leaders) not to feel some of
that.

You get it a lot in husband/wife relationships, and that’s probably where you have to learn to get
up on your own feet and stand where you stand whatever, but in a group, in a family like this, or
like the Israelites, if the people get despondent and discouraged, it makes it heavy going for the
leader, and that’s what happened here. Whereas if somebody is up and bright it’s a great brightness
to the leader and a great lift, so of course, Moses had gotten discouraged himself because of the
people.

Then in 7:1, “And the Lord said to Moses,” you know, he’s so patient, now really this guy had tried
this and now he comes again, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I make you as God to Pharaoh,” that
is I’ll give you my authority in Pharaoh’s eyes, “and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You
shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of
Israel go out of his land.” So God said to Moses, “Alright, I’ll give you the authority of God and
I’ll let Aaron do the speaking.”

God will – once he gives us a commission, do almost anything to get us to fulfill it. So never be
afraid if you’re asked to do something, always be sure that God will give you the ability and God
will give you the strength to do it whatever it is. Then, it’s good to see how patient God is with
those of us who feel we are weak and feel we’re unprepared.

Now we go in to some of the more difficult theology of the Old Testament in Exodus 7:3, “But I will
harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh
will not listen to you.” Now, God puts it that way, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,” not because,
as you’ll see in a minute or two, he did the initial hardening, but he puts it that way so that
Moses will know that the refusals that he receives from Pharaoh are under God’s control so Moses
will not get discouraged by them, and that’s why he puts it like that. You’ll see in a moment that
all the hardening is not done by God, but a lot of the hardening you find in customers or that you
find in rejections that you get when you’re selling, it’s not just an unpleasant customer, it’s not
just somebody who doesn’t like your product, it’s really Satan and behind Satan it’s God allowing
Satan to do it.

Now, what God wanted to get into Moses was the ability to see beyond Pharaoh’s refusals and not to
be discouraged for one moment by them. I don’t know if you’ve got to that point in your own life,
it seems that God has to teach it to us repeatedly, but when you’re in full flight on something and
you’ve done it and it comes back at you as something negative, God wants you to see “That wasn’t
them, I was in full control of this. I actually arranged this to give you an opportunity to see
through this and to exercise your faith that I am working all things according to my will.” And
that’s really why God put it that way, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”

He wasn’t doing all the hardening, and you’ll see that in a moment, but he put it that way to get
over to Moses that the general hardening he was facing, “I’m in control of it, so don’t be afraid.
I’m your Father, I’m not sending it to destroy you, I’m sending it for a purpose.” So it’s good to
come to that. We’re all in the same boat, we’re “getting caught out” as we would say. And some of
us, we have to admit, are getting caught out longer than we should, but we get caught out and we get
caught off balance by the harsh voice coming over the phone, or something else happens and you just
get discouraged.

God is saying, “All that is under my control and it’s all almost a play that I’ve put on.” Why
Lord? “To encourage you to exercise faith; to stop getting caught out.” It’s almost like a dad who
dresses up as somebody else and comes in to see if the son will recognize him. And the son doesn’t
recognize him and says, “Who are you?” And the dad takes the disguise off and says, “Okay, we’ll
try it again.” And he goes out, puts a different disguise on, walks in and again the son says, “Who
are you?” “I’m your dad. Okay, we’ll try it again.” Well it is almost like that, the Father
arranges all kinds of trials and experiences to get us to come to the point where we at last
realize, “No dad, I’m not caught out this time. This is your doing and it is good in my eyes if it
is good in your eyes. Thank you Lord, I know you have a way through this and part of it is to
demonstrate your wisdom and your power to me.”

So that’s why God put it that way. But in fact, the word hardening means to make the heart firm and
then to make it insensible to the impressions that are coming upon it, and then to take away its
feelings so that it can’t feel what is happening. So that’s what happened to Pharaoh’s heart. But,
there are 10 times that its said in the whole account that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart but, there
are 10 times it is said Pharaoh hardened his own heart. It’s said that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart
in Exodus 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:17 & 14:8 that’s 10 times it’s said that
God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. But there are 10 times when it says Pharaoh hardens his own heart 7:13
& 22, 8:15, 9:35, 7:14, 9:7, 8:11 & 28, 9:34, 13:15 and Pharaoh hardens his own heart after Moses
and Aaron first approach him and cast down their rods and then after the first five plagues. Each
of those times Pharaoh hardens his own heart.

So it might help those of us who say this is a game that God sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and
then hardens his heart. No, God doesn’t touch Pharaoh’s heart until Pharaoh has hardened his own
heart six times. Only then does God harden Pharaoh’s heart. You may say, “Well, why does God
harden his heart at all?” It’s amazing how many things tie up and it goes back to what Sandra was
saying: if the Israelites demand a king God will eventually be forced to give them a king. And she
had a good phrase, “If you ever want a king in your life.” And then she said, “I want children, I
want a husband, I want a home. So if you ever want a “king” that’s such a terrible thing; I want, I
want.”

God will eventually bow to the human will. Eventually God will bow to the human will so when Pharaoh
hardens his heart, God will eventually withdraw his own softening grace and the withdrawal of his
own softening grace will begin to make Pharaoh’s heart firm. Why? This is interesting: so that the
evil intentions in Pharaoh will be manifested in his actions so that the entire world, both of
heaven and hell and the earth itself, will see this man is evil, and these are evil actions, and his
will is set against God, and God is justified in rejecting him.

The Hebrew means “strengthen Pharaoh’s will to do what he wanted to do.” And the reason is so that
Pharaoh’s evil intentions will be manifested for what they are so that the whole world will see that
and will see that God is just in rejecting him, and also will see God’s great mercy in forbearing
for so long. And so, in our own lives, God will not make us do anything, but if we keep on
hardening ourselves God eventually says, “Okay, let it be. Let it be hardened. I cannot overwhelm
you with my softening grace. I cannot force you to repent, so I withdraw my softening grace from
you.” And he will do that and that’s the way he did with Pharaoh. He did it so that Satan’s evil
would be manifested and so the wicked man would be seen as he is.

Let’s read through the rest of it because that’s a good deal of the theology of this. Then in 7:3,
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Pharaoh will not listen to you; then I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth my hosts, my
people the sons of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.” In other words, I
will bring it about what I have said. “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I
stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. And Moses and
Aaron did so; they did as the Lord commanded them. Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron
eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.”

Now I’m going to end here rather than go on and we’ll do the rest of the chapter next Sunday, but do
you see Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83? And it’s so easy to think, “The years are passing and
what exactly has God achieved in my life?” And it’s vital to believe the Bible that God could not
use Moses until he was 80. It’s really important to see we’re on a different track to the world.

The world itself is on a silly track anyway. They’re beginning to realize in America that at 60
they’re throwing out most of the experienced people in executive positions and they’re beginning to
waken up to it a little. A lot of these men are retiring from the presidency of General Motors and
then starting another company, so people are beginning to realize we’ve been foolish about our
attitude to age. But even so, the world is on a different track; they don’t need the same things as
God needs. God needs men and women who are tried and true. He needs men and women who have been
tried in the storm and in the heat of the furnace. He needs men and women who have had experience.
And I know it’s tempting for us think, as I thought when I was thirty, how could I be used.

But actually, God has to take time. There’s nothing to substitute for age and experience. There’s

nothing to substitute for it from God’s point of view. He sees you year, after year, after year,
being the same, being the same, eventually he gets the message very clearly, “This man is
trustworthy,” or, “This woman is trustworthy.” So there’s a sense in which you cannot substitute
for time and it’s important for all of us here to see God does not use us just because we’re young,
and bright, and strong. He uses us because we’re experienced with him and because we’ve proved our
attitude to him over the years. And I would encourage those of you who maybe have little twinges
from time-to-time about age, because I’ve certainly had more than a few little twinges, I’d
encourage you to see God does move to a different drum beat.

I mean, GM would not put an 80 year old in charge of the operations. American Airlines certainly
wouldn’t make a 70 year old president. And it all just crumbles because obviously from time-to-time
even the world sees there’s something in age and experience that is valuable and that you need. So
I would especially encourage those of you who think at times, “What have I achieved with my life?”
Probably your achievement time hasn’t arrived yet.

Anyway, finally you achieve nothing. Finally, even if you’re Billy Graham, or you’re Evans in the
Welch revival, you achieve nothing, all you do is become more like Jesus, or become less like Jesus;
that’s really all we do in this life. But it might be good to remember that. And then I think
there is one other thing that God gave me light about when I was praying about this this morning.
It’s very easy to think that this is perfectly reasonable; you have the cross on your shoulders,
you’re bearing it, you’re walking after the dear man in front of us, and you’re walking up the road,
and the people okay you’re supposed to get spitting and despising, you’re behind him because as is
your master, so is the servant and the disciple, so you bear that.

You kneel down on your knees to pray as he does and you bless God as he does, and you’re walking the
discipleship road and it’s very easy for us to think, as we look over and see two people with their
arms around each other, it’s perfectly logical in that situation to say, “Ah, I wish I had somebody
to put my arms around.” Of course it’s absolutely illogical to think that — we’re on a
discipleship road. He said, “If you want to come after me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and
follow me.” But we’re kind of saying, “Yes, yes, that’s okay but I mean I have a right to get
married so that she can walk beside me and bear the cross.” Well, that’s illogical when you think
of it; it’s one thing — this and heaven too, “I want to be a disciple, I want to deny myself, I
want to bear the cross and I know that there’s waiting for me a land of heaven and beauty, and I
know beside that I have God’s favor and love, and this is the only thing worth doing in the world.
But, I’d like this as well, maybe a wife, maybe children.”

Why does it come to us? Oh, I think partly because we’re not in a monastery. If you were in a
monastery you’d say, “This is the discipleship road. This does involve some denial. Some of us may
get married some of us may not get married. Some of us may have children some of us may not have
children. But this is the discipleship road. I’m on a discipleship road and I’ve been told again
and again in scripture we are different people. We are a peculiar people; we are God’s own people.
We are different from others. We’re walking not the way the world works, ‘Though none go with thee
still I will follow.’” That’s it; that’s the discipleship road and we’re separated from the world.

It would be easier if it were like that, but of course, you’re in the midst of London watching
everything happening. You’re an ordinary person. That’s what God has called us to, to be ordinary
people in the world. You’re among ordinary people all the time. You’re with people who have
families, and children, and all that kind of thing and it’s very easy for Satan to make you forget
that you’re not an ordinary person and I think it’s good to see that.

I think some of us will get married as we’ll find in the next few months. I think some of us will
have children, as we found last week. I think that’s true, but isn’t that God’s grace? And won’t
it be given to disciples who are not saying, “Look Lord, I’m just leaving my cross down for a minute
because look, see — she is a wife, she has a husband and they have children. Lord, haven’t I a
right to that?” And he says, “But didn’t you die to your rights?” And you say, “Yes, to my right to
respect and to be looked up to, but to my right to be like ordinary people?” And the Savior says,
“Yes, that’s exactly what I died to and that’s what I told you I was calling you to. I was calling
you to be my own people. I was calling you to deny yourselves. I was calling you not to behave
like ordinary men. Not to be filled with jealousy, not to be filled with anger, not to be filled
with love for this world’s goods.”

So I think it’s good to see it. We might get to 80, we might get to 83, and we might not be
married. We might get to 80, we might get to 83 and we might have crowds of grandchildren. We
might or we might not. But it seems it’s in the Father’s grace to give us that. And if we really
mean what we say when we say dying with Jesus means dying to your rights, then we’ll die to our
rights. I don’t know what you’ve found about walking in the victorious way. I know what I’ve
found; it’s harder to walk it and be considering sin. It’s harder to walk it and playing around
with sin. It’s a bit like a guy who has been drunk on whiskey, it’s hard to play with the bottle and
yet abstain. It’s far easier to gloriously abandon sin — completely have nothing to do with the
unclean thing. If yearnings to be like ordinary people are a temptation, then gloriously abandon
it. Don’t fiddle around with it, don’t say, “Oh, wouldn’t I like to be married.” It’s just the
most miserable way to be a victor that you could find. It’s the hardest and the most miserable way
and it can bring little joy to the Father’s heart. Jesus wants a joyful band that follows him
gloriously and that say, “Lord, if you give it to me good, but I’ll take it with joy and if you
don’t give it to me, good I’ll do without it with joy, but I won’t want it and valiantly do without
it.”

So I think there’s something with the way you walk that makes the walk easy and I think it’s good to
face it. I was very clear that when you are called to the ministry I feel you are called to be a
different person. You’re called to be without a wife if that’s what God wants, you’re to be without
children — it’s whatever God wants, that’s it; whatever God wants.

I think it’s very easy for some of us to think, “Well, we’re not in the ministry.” That’s untrue;
you are in a ministry, you are in a fellowship. God has called you, God has made you his own and
you are different, so you walk to a different drum beat and you are called to walk differently from
the world. I think that we have done everything to try and make ourselves ordinary so that other
people will say, “You can live this way.” But we’re different in that we abstain from sin. We’re
different in that we don’t insist on our rights, and that’s I think what Jesus is calling us to.

But I’d just present to you again that picture that came to me when I prayed about this verse here.
It’s of the Savior, up ahead of you with his cross and you behind with your cross. Now are you
going to keep your eyes on him and keep going after him, or are your eyes going to go over to that
couple there and say, “Haven’t I a right to that?” Because the answer is obvious; no, you have only
a right to this poor disheveled man. What he has, you have a right to that, and you don’t have a
right to any more than he has. He happens to have all of heaven, so why do we play around with the
little tinker toys when this man has all of heaven?

Let us pray.

Dear Father, we thank you for your good word and we thank you Lord Jesus, for your example and for
the great privilege of being called to follow you. We thank you that we are part of the most
glorious band in history. We thank you that we have more dignity and more power and nobility than
any other group because we are followers of the Lord of all the worlds that are. Lord Jesus, we
thank you for the privilege we have of walking in your footsteps and of dying on your cross. We
thank you for the great honor we have, so treasured by so many martyrs down through the centuries;
the great honor of giving up our rights for you. And so Lord, we would turn away from the things
that Satan would make us think we have a right to.

Lord, we followed you because we heard your call and we believe you’re real and we forsook all and
followed you. We left our nets and Lord Jesus; we have no intention of getting entangled in those
nets again, so Lord, we leave them aside. If you give us a wife, or give us children, we’ll be
glad. If you don’t, we’ll be glad. We’ll be glad for whatever you do. We realize that every year
that passes is not a year to be regretted, it’s another mile nearer our home and so it brings us
nearer to the purpose of our lives. Then Lord, we thank you that every year that passes you are
working more of yourself into us and we’re becoming more useful to you, and we’re becoming more
trusted by you. So Lord, we thank you for that.

We thank you for your kindness to us this day. Pray for each other that your dear Holy Spirit will
minister these truths to all our hearts in a life giving way for Jesus’ sake.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be
with each one of us now and throughout this coming week and ever more. Amen.