God Displays His Power

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AStudying God’s Word

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Studying God’s Word

Introduction

Last week we looked at how God called Moses to return to Egypt and free the Israelites from their bondage. Moses had spent his first 40 years in Pharaoh’s palace and his second 40 years as a shepherd in the desert—two very different experiences. But God had used both to prepare him for the task at hand.

• • Write on the board, “How were Pharaoh’s magicians able to replicate the signs God gave Moses?”
  What was God’s ultimate purpose in sending Moses back to Egypt? God had promised to make Abraham a great nation, give his descendants a land, and bring a Seed that would bless all mankind. He had also prophesied the bondage in Egypt. So, God intended to use Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt so that he could fulfill his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• What significant ideas about himself did God reveal to Moses at the burning bush? God identified himself as I AM. God is eternal, self-existent, all-powerful, and able to carry out all his plans..

  Despite Moses’ protests, God still intended to use Moses to call Pharaoh to set the Israelites free. Moses was worried about how the Israelites would receive him and how Pharaoh would respond. But God wasn’t worried—he knew what would happen. He gave Moses three signs to perform to establish his authority as a prophet of the one true God. He also sent his brother Aaron to join him as a spokesman. With his family and the staff of God in hand, Moses set out for Egypt.

  Today, we are going to look at his encounters with Pharaoh.

Showdown in the Palace

We are going to cover a lot of ground in the text today, so we will definitely want to go back and read this section to get the full story.

Turn to Exodus 4 and listen as I read verses 29–31. Read the verses aloud.

After the Israelite elders had received Moses, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. Chapter 5 describes this first encounter. Listen as I read verses 1–5. Read the verses aloud.

After that, Pharaoh made the labor harder, requiring the Egyptians to make the same number of bricks but gathering their own straw. This confused Moses, and he asked God why he had not delivered his people. God reassured Moses in the opening of chapter 6 that he would deliver his people. The last part of chapter 6 gives us some genealogical details and then we have the second encounter between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh.

Let’s read Exodus 6:28–7:13 together to understand what happened in this encounter. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• What was the first command God gave Moses? Moses was to tell Pharaoh all that God said to him.
• What role was Moses fulfilling? Moses was a prophet, speaking the words of God to Pharaoh.
• Did Moses respond to God’s command with obedience? He did not obey, but objected, noting his own frailty of speech with the phrase “uncircumcised lips.”
• What three-part relationship is described in 7:1–2? God would speak to Moses as his prophet, and Aaron would physically speak for Moses, imitating the first relationship. It may be that Moses spoke in Hebrew as Aaron translated into Egyptian.
• What does God reveal to Moses about the outcome of the meeting? God would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that even in the midst of the miracles, Pharaoh would not listen.
• What other events are foreshadowed in verses 4–5? God was revealing to Moses that there would be great acts of judgment on Egypt before the Israelites left Egypt.
• What would all of these judgments reveal? The Egyptians would know that God is Yahweh, the Lord .
• How did Aaron and Moses finally respond? They did “just as the Lord commanded them.”
• What do we learn about the brothers in verse 7? Their ages are given, showing that Aaron is the older brother by three years.
• While it is not recorded, Aaron and Moses must have called on Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. What sign did they do to prove themselves before Pharaoh? Aaron’s staff was thrown on the ground, and it became a serpent.
• Was Pharaoh impressed? Apparently not, as he called his magicians.
• Were Pharaoh’s magicians able to replicate the miracle? Yes.
• By what means did they do the miracle? By their “secret arts.”
• What does the phrase “secret arts” mean? This is the only place this word appears, and it is related to the idea of “flaming.” It may refer to some type of illusion, like a puff of smoke or flame, used to obscure the trick or distract those watching. It also may be that these sorcerers were tapping into the power of Satan to accomplish these tricks.
• While the Egyptians were able to present snakes, what did the face that Aaron’s snake swallowed the others indicate? It shows God’s authority over Pharaoh.
• What response did Pharaoh have? He would not listen (let the people go).
• Why did Pharaoh refuse to obey God? His heart was hardened.
• How was Pharaoh’s heart hardened? The text implies that it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart (4:21 and 7:3). If we let the context guide us, the statement in 7:3 must be linked to 7:13. Later, the text says Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but not until after the second plague.
• Did God know Pharaoh would reject the offer? Yes, the passage tells us it happened just as God had said.

Discover the Truth

Despite his hesitation, Moses took the message to Pharaoh again, this time displaying one of the signs God had given him. But even as Aaron’s staff turned to a snake at God’s command, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to produce their own snakes. But I don’t think God was surprised. He knew what was going to happen and had told Moses what to expect. In fact, there is much more to come. Pharaoh’s magicians are going to use their “secret arts” to imitate other miracles, but their tricks can take them only so far.

Moses gave Pharaoh a second chance to let the Israelites leave to worship God, but he refused. We might be tempted, as Moses was, to think God wasn’t really working or that he wasn’t capable of doing what he said he would do. But we would be wrong, misunderstanding God’s ability to bring about all that he has planned. Pharaoh might think his magicians are just as powerful as Aaron and Moses, but he doesn’t recognize Yahweh as the God of all.

Plagued

Now we are going to pick up the pace and move through the next several chapters. This worksheet has space for you to jot down some notes as we look at the plagues of judgment that God brought on the Egyptians. Pass out the Ten Plagues of Egypt Worksheet to each student.

We are going to jump and skip through Exodus 8–10, getting a snapshot of each of the nine plagues God brought to the Egyptians. You can note the nature of the plague in the first column. The passage is in the second column. Then we will note how Pharaoh and his magicians responded to these plagues and to God’s demands to free his people. But we are going to stop after the ninth plague and look at the final plague in our next lesson. So, hang on to your worksheet, and we will finish it next week. As we go through each plague, I will give you a short description of the Egyptian god listed in the last column so we can see how Yahweh is directly challenging the power of the Egyptian deities.

Use the Plagues of Egypt Answer Key to walk through the passages, taking time to note what belongs in each column. As you go, read the description and discuss how what God does in the plagues is a direct attack on the power of the gods that the Egyptians trusted in. You will finish the final plague in the next lesson.

Discover the Truth

• What is the big-picture message that we can see as we have looked at how God interacted with Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron? This section shows us that God is the ruler over all things. None of the magicians or any of the gods that the Egyptians worshipped were able to stop what God wanted to do. God brought his judgment on Egypt for their wickedness. Pharaoh was shown to be weak, even though he thought he was strong. God demonstrated his power over both people and nature, bringing his plans to pass as he saw fit.
• What can we conclude about the gods of the Egyptians? They were weak, even powerless, before the true God.

  God had promised to judge Egypt, harden Pharaoh’s heart, show many signs and wonders, and free his people from Egypt. All of those have been accomplished except for the last one—but that will have to wait until next week. In all of this, Moses has been used by God to bring about his judgment. The Israelites are still groaning, but they can see the power of their God on display in all of these plagues. Their hope must be building along with their trust in the God who promised to deliver them.

Plaguing Q uestions

We are going to look at two question that naturally arise out of this passage. One addresses the apparent contradiction between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, and the other asks how there were any animals left to be killed in the successive plagues. In your Student Guides, you will find the Plaguing Questionsactivity to help you to consider these questions. We will discuss them in a few minutes. Have the students work in groups to complete the activity and then discuss the questions with them.

For each of the following passages in Exodus, note who is credited with hardening Pharaoh’s heart and write it next to the reference.

4:21 The Lord

7:3 The Lord

7:13–14 The Lord (Both)

7:22 The Lord

8:15 Pharaoh

8:19 The Lord (Both)

8:32 Pharaoh

9:7 The Lord (Both)

9:12 The Lord

9:34–35 Both

10:1 The Lord

10:20 The Lord

10:27 The Lord

11:10 The Lord

14:4 The Lord

14:8 The Lord

14:17 The Lord

• Slide #17

  Slide #18
  Do you notice any pattern in the passages above? The first instance tells us that God intended to harden Pharaoh’s heart. A few of the instances are not explicit, but the majority speak of God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart to bring about his plans.
• What does Proverbs 21:1 teach us about how God relates to rulers? God guides kings’ hearts like a stream of water—God is sovereign over even mighty rulers like Pharaoh.
• What do you conclude about the relationship between Pharaoh’s responsibility for his actions and God’s involvement in how the events unfolded during this period? Discuss this relationship. This is an area of disagreement between different camps within orthodox Christianity. Be aware of your church’s position on this relationship, discussing the idea with grace and truth. Ultimately, the Bible sees no contradiction between man’s responsibility for his free choices and God’s guiding of the events involving man.

• If we look at the claims of the fifth and seventh plagues, there seems to be a conflict in the text. Read Exodus 9:1–7 and 9:19–26 and describe the apparent conflict. 9:6 seems to indicate that all of the livestock of the Egyptians died from the fifth plague, so there would not be any livestock alive to die from the seventh plague involving the hail.
• Slide #27

  Slide #28
  What are some reasonable explanations that might account for this apparent contradiction? Some or several of the following: 1) Some of Pharaoh’s servants brought their livestock in “out of the field” so they were not killed by the plague; 2) Goats and other animals are not mentioned in the fifth plague; 3) “Servants of Pharaoh” might be limited, and so other Egyptians’ animals survived; 4) There was enough time between the two plagues for the Egyptians to import more animals; 5) the Egyptians took the animals from the Hebrews since they were spared the fifth plague; 6) “All” doesn’t always mean all individuals, but may be referring to some of all types of animals.
• Would Moses have recorded these events so close to one another in the text if he thought they were contradictory? To suggest that these ideas contradict one another within a few pages is to suggest the author didn’t recognize such an obvious contradiction. This makes the idea of a contradiction implausible.

Connect to the Truth

Thinking through these apparent contradictions is an important part of learning to trust the Bible, and it helps us answer the questions of skeptics. Since the Bible is truly the Word of God, and God cannot lie, it must tell the truth. Anything that seems to be a contradiction to us must have an explanation, though some are more obvious than others.

As we encounter these passages that raise questions, we can’t be afraid to examine them carefully. If the Bible really is the Word of the Living God, as we trust it is, it will not break under the weight of such scrutiny. These explanations may not be satisfying to everyone, but we know that there is some reasonable resolution. Our faith rests in God and the truth he has revealed to us.

Application

As Moses came to Pharaoh with the demand from God, Pharaoh tried to play God. He called on his magicians to show Moses that his gods were just as powerful. His heart was hardened against obeying God, and that brought just judgment. As the magicians tried to imitate the signs from God, they were able to dupe Pharaoh for a time. We can’t be sure whether they were doing this through illusions and trickery or through demonic power, but God was still in control and much more powerful. Eventually, their powers were too small, and they had to admit that the true God was in control.

But Pharaoh still didn’t relent. He hardened his heart. Sadly, this is the nature of man since the Fall. Man rebels and seeks to be God rather than submitting to God. It has been this way since Adam and Eve believed the lie of Satan—you can be like God. If we are honest, that is the way each of us looks at the world. We want to be in control. But for those who are in Christ, we have a new nature—one that is no longer a slave to sin (consider reading Romans 8:1–11). God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. But Pharaoh persisted in his sin and rebellion, and God brought his just judgment. The plagues are a vivid reminder of how serious God considers obedience to be and how awesome his power is.

Just as the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance from slavery, all those who call out to God for deliverance from their slavery to sin will be saved through faith in what Jesus has done.

Let us make sure that we think of how we can apply these ideas as we leave and go out into the world we live in. We want to make sure that we are not merely hearing the Word, but seeking to be doers of what we read in it.

• Slide #29

  Slide #30

  Slide #31

  Slide #32

  Slide #33
  What kind of objections have you heard from skeptics regarding the plagues or what kind of questions do you still have? Discuss various answers.
• Some skeptics of the Bible, both Christian and non-Christian, try to explain away the miraculous nature of the plagues by appealing to natural explanations such as: Red algae bloomed in the Nile to make the water look like blood. The algae produced a toxin that killed the fish. Frogs fled the tainted water, and then flies came from the dead frogs, etc. How would you respond to someone who brought these challenges to you? Discuss various answers, especially focusing on trusting the Bible to tell us what happened more than trusting someone to explain it thousands of years later. Those who try to explain away the miracles are seeking to diminish the power and authority of God.
• Why don’t we see miracles like this happening today? Many skeptics and those who question the Bible want to see some miracle so they can have “concrete” proof that God exists. But the Bible makes it clear that God has revealed himself in nature and that people suppress that truth. We cannot demand that God do anything for us, but should submit to him as Lord over all.
• Moses often questioned God’s wisdom in sending him before Pharaoh. He said he was untrained and had “uncircumcised” lips. But God always provided the words for Moses and backed them up with the miracles. How does this relate to our ability to do the things we are called to do as Christians? God will provide the grace and means to accomplish all that he calls us to do. By the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we can walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have from God.
• How does what we have read today give you a better understanding of God? Discuss various answers.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God for his power and sovereignty over all of his creation.
• Ask God for courage and strength to obey all he has called us to do.
• Thank God for giving his Spirit to empower us.