Exodus 7:1-7 ~ 20101010 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

10/10 Exodus 7:1-7 God to Pharaoh


Introduction

We are at the climax of the exodus story. God is about to unleash his mighty acts of judgment against the gods of Egypt. And just before this most intense action sequence unfolds, we have a genealogy outlining who Aaron was, where he came from, and where his descendants were going. He was from the tribe of Levi, the tribe who would serve as priests of God, and his grandson Phinehas would be zealous for the honor of the Lord and take action when others were standing idly by.

6:26 These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said: “Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” 27 It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron. 28 On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” 30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

7:1 And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

See I have made you God to Pharaoh

Moses is sniveling again, questioning God, complaining that the plan won't work, that he is inadequate for the task. So far he's been a failure. God's own people won't even listen to him. Pharaoh will have no reason to pay any attention to what he says. Moses confesses that he is morally unqualified to speak God's words. This is when God announces: 'look, I have made you God to Pharaoh'. This is an amazing declaration. You have asked 'who am I that I should go?' You feel inadequate and incompetent and unqualified? God says 'I will grant you to be God to Pharaoh'. Our translators have softened this by inserting the word 'like'. But there is no 'like' or 'as' in the original. Our translators are afraid we might run with a passage like this and use it to argue that men can become gods.

Only One God

The bible is clear as can be that there is only one God, one uncreated Creator, independent and sovereign over all that is.

Deuteronomy 4:35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. ...39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:21 ...And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 46:9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

These are just a few of the very clear statements in scripture plainly stating that there is only one God. The bible is monotheistic from cover to cover. There is and can be only one supreme being. Then what do we do with a passage like this, where God says 'I will make you God to Pharaoh'? Certainly we can't make the leap to say that Moses suddenly became an eternal sinless independent supreme being. That is nonsense. To understand this passage correctly we need to put it in the context of the whole bible. We need to look backward and forward.

God's Purpose in Creation

We need to look all the way back to God's purpose in creation.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Man is unique in creation. Of no other created being is it said that they were created in his image and likeness. We were created to be a reflection of the invisible God, to put the unseen creator on display to his creation. Man was created in the God-like image of ruling – having dominion over every other created thing. We are designed to display God's character and nature to the rest of creation.

Psalm 8: 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

This is the reason given for the severe consequence for killing a man as opposed to killing a plant or an animal or a bird or a fish.

Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Murder (and James 3:9 says even slander) defaces God's image. We have been crowned with glory and honor and given dominion. And from the garden on we have done a stupendous job of botching our purpose as image-bearers. Rather than being content with reflecting God to others, we wanted to be out from under the sovereign thumb of our Creator and be the master of our own destiny. We wanted to be autonomous like God. We wanted to create our own reality and take up the right to decide for ourselves what was good and what was evil, rather than submitting to God's right to rule and reflecting his good and wise and loving care for his creation.

We look back to God's purpose in creating us as image-bearers of his character and nature, ruling everything entrusted to us with wisdom and love and care, and we see how we have distorted this image by our rebellion against him.

Man's Purpose Fulfilled in Jesus

Now we need to look forward to Jesus, to see how our purpose is perfectly fulfilled and ultimately restored in the one God-man.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ...14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

2 Corinthians 4:4 ... seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ...6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has put the nature and character of his own essence as God on display in a visible tangible way that is the crowning pinnacle of God's revelation to us.

Jesus Restores Image-bearing role to Fallen Humanity

But not only did Jesus perfectly fulfill the role of man as image-bearer of God, but he restores that role to fallen humanity.

1 Corinthians 15:49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Colossians 3:10 ...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

In Jesus we become a new creation and are restored to our original image-bearing purpose.

How does this all relate to Moses? God said “see, I have made you God to Pharaoh”. God has placed Moses in a role as his image-bearer to this pagan king. Moses is to represent God to Pharaoh. Indeed, Moses is the voice of God to Pharaoh. Moses speaks with the authority of God. Moses will bring God's mighty acts of judgment crashing down on Pharaoh's head, and through this interaction, Pharaoh will get a taste of what God is like. Ironically, Pharaoh believed himself to be the incarnation of some of the most powerful gods of Egypt. Moses, the shepherd from the wilderness, and leader of the slave-people, armed with nothing but his shepherd's staff, would beat the Pharaoh at his own game. The humble shepherd shows himself a more powerful god than the most powerful monarch in the world.

In this way, Moses foreshadowed Jesus, the true God-man, who faithfully represented God to man. Moses also foreshadows our role as Christians, restored by Jesus' work on the cross to our created role as image-bearers of God. We are to put God on display to those around us.

Our Image-bearing Role

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5:17 to see this role spelled out for the believer:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

We all are new creations in Christ. God has restored in us the creation mandate to be his representatives to the watching world. God has reconciled us to himself through the cross of Christ, and has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. We have been commissioned as ambassadors for Christ. You and I are to be God to the world around us. We are to be living reflections of God's holy character and nature. We are to speak with God's absolute authority. We are to warn of the dangers of neglecting God's grace. We are to remove any obstacles out of the way and by our own character put the glory of God on display.

The exodus was a lesson to Moses that he could not accomplish anything in his own strength. God did not expect him to accomplish anything. God is the main actor – God will harden Pharaoh's heart. God will multiply his signs and wonders. God will lay his hand on Egypt and bring his people out by great acts of judgment. God will stretch out his hand against Egypt. What God required of Moses was simply to 'speak all that I command you'.

7:1 And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

You shall speak all that I command you. Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the LORD commanded them. Simple trust. Simple obedience. It was God's promise that through this the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. This is what Jesus demanded of his followers. Do not act in your own strength. Wait for the promise of the Father.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The Apostle John sums up our role as ambassadors this way:

1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By our love, and we love because he first loved us, we put the unseen God of love on display. God is making his appeal through us to the world – be reconciled to God.