Moses—Let the Smackdown Begin!

 

In our last episode, Moses–The Set Up for a Divine Smackdown (from Exodus 5-6), we watched as the two parties in the conflict over Israel squared off.  In this conflict, which we are calling The Divine Smackdown, Pharaoh has positioned himself on one side, posing as the God of Light, when in reality he is nothing more than the front man for Satan, the Prince of Darkness.  On the other side is Moses, the reluctant Prophet who is standing in for God—the Redeeming, Covenant-Keeping Bridegroom of Israel. 

At the heart of this conflict are the questions of who the Real God is and just who the Children of Israel belong to—Pharaoh/Satan or Moses/God? So, in His first word to Pharaoh—when God ordered Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go—He declared unequivocally that they belong to Him.  Of course, Pharaoh didn’t see things the same way so he refused to release the people to go and worship God, and then proceeded to increase the hardships placed upon them.

When we last saw them, the people of God were suffering tremendously, blaming Moses and Aaron for making things worse rather than better—with Moses was complaining to God that He had not kept His promises.  In response to his servant’s complaints, God reassured Moses that the time had indeed come for Him to act and that He was ready to fulfill the terms of His Covenant with Abraham. He then repeated His previous instructions to Moses.

Consequently, in this episode the Divine Smackdown will get underway in earnest and it will take us all the way from Exodus 6:28-13:16.  Before getting started on it, though, let’s pause briefly to get an Overview of this Colossal Showdown.

As illustrated here, this Smackdown will be played out in ten Rounds arranged in three groups of threes, with one final takedown round at the end.  Each Round will consist of a Plague accompanied by an announcement to Let My People Go—the tenth one being the only exception.  In the first round of each group, Moses will make an announcement to Pharaoh when he meets him in the morning; in the second round of each group, he will make an announcement to him in the palace when Moses comes in to meet with him; while in the third round of each group, no announcement will be made.  Following each of the nine Rounds/Plagues, a notice will be given as to the condition of Pharaoh’s heart in response to each round.

 

 

Episode #4 of Act 1, Scene 2 of God’s One Big Story
Cast:     Narrator     God     Moses     Pharaoh     Magicians

Round 1–Waters to Blood

Narrator:  And it came to pass, on the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, that the LORD spoke to Moses, saying…

God:  I am the LORD. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.

Moses:  Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?

God:  See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.  You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.  But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

Narrator:  Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the LORD commanded them, so they did.  And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.  Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying…

God:  When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’  

 

 

Narrator:  So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.  But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.  For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.  And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.  So the LORD said to Moses…

God:  Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go.  Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.  And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness’; but indeed, until now you would not hear!  Thus says the LORD:  ‘By this you shall know that I am the LORD. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.’ 

Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’  

Narrator:  And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the LORD commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.  The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.  And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this.  So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river.  And seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.

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Round 2–Frogs

Narrator:  And the LORD spoke to Moses…

God:  Go to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the LORD: ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me.  But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs.  So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls.  And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants.’

Narrator:  Then the LORD spoke to Moses…

God:  Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.’ 

Narrator:  So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.  And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said…

Pharaoh:  Entreat the LORD that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD.

Narrator:  And Moses said to Pharaoh…

Moses:  Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only.

Pharaoh:  Tomorrow. 

Moses:  Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.  And the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.

Narrator:  Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh.  So the LORD did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.  They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.  But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the LORD had said.

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Round 3–Lice

Narrator:  So the LORD said to Moses…

God:  Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’ 

Narrator:  And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.  Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast.  Then the magicians said to Pharaoh…

Magicians:  This is the finger of God.

Narrator:  But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.

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Our Review…

…takes us once again to…

The Most Important Points in this Episode—

Round 1

— I have made you as God to Pharaoh/Aaron is your prophet—In his initial encounter with Pharaoh back in Chapter 5, God instructed Moses to ask Pharaoh politely to let His people go, but that is no longer the case here. Instead, God tells Moses that He has made him a god to Pharaoh—and as such, he is the one who is supposed to act in authority over Pharaoh, and not the other way around.  That is, act God’s agent, he is to act as God Himself would act in that situation—with Aaron serving as his prophet or spokesman.

— You Shall Speak all that I command you—After Moses reasserts his inadequacies for the task at hand, God insists that You Shall speak to Pharoah and say whatever He tells him to say. Instead of adding to or taking away from God’s Word, Moses is told to speak only what God commands him to speak.  From this point on, Moses is no longer the timid, hesitant, or discouraged man that he once was.

— The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord—the Egyptians falsely believed that Pharaoh was the incarnate son of the Sun god Ra and that as such, he was the source of wisdom for and the maintainer of order (ma’at) in the nation.  Through His judgments upon Egypt, the Lord will show that that isn’t true and He will reveal Himself as the Only True God.

— Moses was eighty/Aaron was eighty-three—God’s choice of these two old men proves that no one is too old to be used by God, and  it will be through His power and strength (not theirs) that His purposes will be accomplished. This demonstration before Pharaoh is described as a miracle and not a plague because unlike the plagues to come, no harm was done to either Pharaoh or the Egyptian people. Its purpose was simply to validate or establish Moses’ credentials as the prophet—or the authorized representative—of the God of the Hebrews.

— Show a miracle/cast your rod before Pharaoh—Pharaoh’s asks for a miracle to test them and when he does, Aaron is told to cast his rod before him—and it becomes a serpent.  Unlike the sign that was shown to the elders of the Israelites, he does not pick the serpent up and turn it back into a rod.  Neither is the sign of the leprous hand given. These signs were given to convince the Israelites that it was God who had sent them.

— Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods—but however powerful their magic was, it paled in comparison to that of the Living God.

— Pharaoh called the magicians/their rods became serpents—It’s quite possible that the serpents in question here were cobras because cobras were important religious and national symbols in Egyptian culture. In fact, several of their gods took the form of a snake, with two cobra-headed goddesses acting as the guardian of Pharaoh and the patron deity of area of Egypt where the Hebrews lived.

That the magicians were able to do the same thing as Moses and Aaron was no indication that they had supernatural powers. Snake charming was such an accomplished art in Egypt that the practitioners could put snakes into a catatonic-type state, and they would remain there in a stiffened state until released by their handlers. What the charmers couldn’t do, however, was make their serpents swallow up the others. In exercising His authority over the serpents in this way, God was demonstrating that the powers that Pharaoh was counting on to protect him were actually under the control of his opponent in this conflict.[1]

We are told in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 that counterfeit miracles such as these will again be the order of the day at the end of the age, when the Antichrist—the one for whom the Pharaoh serves as a type—comes to power …

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 

— Pharaoh’s heart grew hard/Pharaoh’s heart is hard—it grew hard and it was hard at the same time. Pharaoh was probably well aware that his magicians were using sleight-of-hand tricks and so he did not consider Moses’ demonstration to be legitimate either.

— Go to Pharaoh/out by the water—this is the second time that Moses is told to go out to Pharaoh by the river in the morning.  We don’t know it Pharaoh came out every morning to bathe in the river, to carry out some kind of religious ritual, or merely to check on the depth/status of the river.

 

 

— Say, Let My People Go…or else—once again, God claims that Israel belongs to Him and commands Pharaoh to let them go—or else, He will turn the waters of the land into blood.

— Take out your rod and stretch it out over the waters—once again, Aaron uses his rod of authority to accomplish God’s will.

— They became blood/the magicians did so—since the Nile River was the source of all life in Egypt, turning its water into blood symbolized death to the nation—and that ma’at, the righteous order that Pharaoh was supposed to maintain, had been violated.  Although classified as a plague, this action was meant to serve more as a warning to Pharaoh and to Egypt that God was coming to bring judgment upon them for the enslavement of His People, the murder of the Hebrew babies, and their idolatry.

— Pharaoh’s heart grew hard—how could it grow harder? In Revelation 16, during the Great Tribulation, we are told that when one bowl of God’s wrath after another is poured out on the inhabitants of the earth, their hearts were so hard that…

They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. (Revelation 16:11)

— Seven days passed before the real plagues begin—Try to imagine the desperate need of the people for water.  Egypt has a desert climate so most of the country gets an inch or less of rain per year, while the areas along the coast get up to seven or eight inches per year.

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Round 2

— Go to Pharaoh/say Let My People Go…or else—again, God stakes His claim to Israel and commands Pharaoh to let them go—or else, He will bring up frogs out of the river.  As we learn from Revelation 16:13-14, frogs symbolize the powers of evil and represent uncleanness…

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.  For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

— Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams/cause frogs to come up—the rod is used again to call up frogs—an object of worship to the Egyptians—from the river.

— The magicians did so with their enchantments—although they could call them out, they could not get rid of them.  As magicians operating with the power of the devil, they could bring in uncleanness but they could not make it go away.

 

 

— Entreat the Lord/name the time—when Pharaoh asks Moses to pray to God for relief, Moses tells him to name the time, as a way of demonstrating that it was the Lord who was in control of the situation, and not Pharaoh.

— Pharaoh hardened his heart—in spite of another demonstration of God’s power.

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 Round 3

— No announcement was given, just a command to stretch out your rod and strike the dust—in this third round of the first three, no warning is given.  Aaron is told to use his rod to strike the dust of the ground.  The idea of dust takes us back to the Garden of Eden where God tells the serpent…

Because you have done this, ​​you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life (3:14-15). 

He then says to Adam…

Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  ​​Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.  ​​In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return (3:17-19). 

The dust speaks of the curse, which has not only contaminated all of human kind, but here proceeds to contaminate the bodies of the Egyptian priesthood.  Since no one could approach the altars in Egypt with any kind of bodily contamination, the priests always went to great lengths to keep that from happening.  They shaved their entire bodies every three days and wore only the purest linen garments.  So, as long as they remained infested with lice, they could carry out no acts of worship.

— The magicians could not bring forth lice—when the magicians could not duplicate this plague, they acknowledged that this kind of power could only come from God.  After this, the magicians exit and are not heard from again.

— Pharaoh’s heart grew hard—in spite of everything that has happened, Pharaoh’s heart continues to remain untouched.

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In Summary

When trying to summarize this episode, two questions immediately came to my mind…

#1— Looking at the chart describing God’s the plan for this showdown—it being so precise and so calculated—it made me wonder why God would choose to go in for such an elaborate scheme. Surely, He could have delivered Israel in an instant, so why opt to “drag” out their deliverance in this way? Hadn’t His People already suffered long enough?

If we go back to the very beginning of this episode, when God was giving Moses his marching orders, He explained that by doing things in this way…

• • He would demonstrate His power over the false gods that the Egyptians were worshipping;
  • He would bring judgment on the Egyptians for their treatment of the Israelites;
  • He would deliver His People from their bondage; and,
  • He would demonstrate that Pharaoh was a phony and that He alone was the true God.

With respect to the people involved, each of these objectives would take some time to achieve…

• • Since the gods that the Egyptians worshipped were nature gods, they would have to be dealt with through individual and superior acts of nature over them.
  • Because God is a god of mercy as well as justice, He would not bring judgment on the Egyptians without first giving them a warning and an opportunity to repent.
  • As for the Israelites, after being slaves for all those years, it would take some time and effort to prepare them to go from that state to a state of freedom.
  • And concerning Pharaoh, the divine king whose job it was to judge righteously and maintain order in the country, it would take one challenge after another to reveal how wicked and corrupt his heart truly was—a process that would be triggered by God’s hardening of his heart!

#2— So, what does it mean when God says that He hardened the heart of Pharaoh? Wouldn’t that be unfair on God’s part—a violation of Pharaoh’s free will? If not, just how did God go about doing it?

In Jeremiah 17:9-10, we are told that…

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?  ​​I, the LORD, search the heart, ​​I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

Taking this verse into account, when we say that God was hardening the heart of Pharaoh, what He was actually doing was searching his heart and testing his mind to reveal—or squeezing out of it—what was hidden there for all to see. He did this by presenting Pharaoh with truth after truth that he was not willing to accept—that being that the God of the Hebrews was the true God and that Pharaoh wasn’t! Each time Pharaoh was presented with this truth, he was given an opportunity to accept it, repent, and acknowledge God’s superiority. But each time he refused to do so, his heart became harder and harder.

Only God knew the true condition of Pharaoh’s heart—that it was already hard to begin with—so before the confrontation even began, He told Moses that…

I will harden Pharaoh’s heart. (Exodus 7:3)

Then, following the business with the serpents and Pharaoh’s indifference to that whole experience, we are told that…

Pharaoh’s heart grew hard. (Exodus 7:13)

In response to that situation, and as a means of encouraging His servant, God reminded Moses that…

Pharaoh’s heart is hard. (Exodus 7:14)

When his magicians were also able to duplicate the miracle of turning water into blood, and he dismissed out of hand the claims of God, we are told that…

Pharaoh’s heart grew hard. (Exodus 7:22)

Following the plague of frogs, after Moses provided the people with relief from them, we learn that in response to that relief…

He [Pharaoh] hardened his heart. (Exodus 8:15)

And when his magicians could not replicate that plague of lice and they acknowledged that a greater power was at work there, still…

Pharaoh’s heart grew hard. (Exodus 8:19)

So, at no time during these confrontations was Pharaoh’s will ever violated—at each presentation of the truth by God’s prophet, he was given the opportunity to exercise his will to either accept it or to reject it. All God did was arrange a showdown between the one who was claiming to be god of the then-known world and Himself, a showdown that would reveal who was really telling the truth.

This showdown is by no means over, so be sure to join us next time as this Divine Smackdown continues!

 

Original for featured image courtesy of pixabay.com.
Original for serpents image by James Tissot, courtesy of freebibleimages.com.
Originals for other images courtesy of freebibleimages.com.

[1] Duane A. Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 2014), 275-276.