Moses—The Set Up for a Divine Smackdown

In our previous episode of Act 1, Scene 3 of God’s One Big Story (Exodus 3-4), we witnessed Moses’ life changing encounter with God which took place at a burning bush, close to the place where he was caring for his faither-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness of Midian. It was there that God called a very reluctant Moses and commissioned him to go back to Egypt to deliver His people from their bondage in Egypt.

In this episode (Exodus 5-6:27), we will watch as Moses and his spokesman/brother, Aaron, appear before Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrew slaves. During this initial confrontation, there will be a lot of posturing taking place as the two sides position themselves for the Giant Smackdown that will soon ensue. In addition, there will be a lot of promises given by God to His People to encourage them as this epic struggle commences.

 

Episode # 3 of Act 1, Scene 3 of God’s One Big Story
Cast:     Narrator     Moses/Aaron     Pharaoh     Taskmasters     Officers/Elders    God

 

 

Setting the scene: At the end of our last episode, Moses had met up with his brother, Aaron, and they were on their way to Egypt to confront Pharaoh. Here, we see that they have arrived and been granted an audience with the king.

Narrator:  Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh…

Moses/Aaron:  Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ 

Pharaoh:  Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.

Moses/Aaron:  The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

Pharaoh:  Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.  Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!

Narrator:  So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying…

Pharaoh:  You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.  And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’  Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.

Narrator:  And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying…

Taskmasters:  Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw.  Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ 

Narrator:  So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.  And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying…

Taskmasters:  Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.

Narrator:  Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked…

Taskmasters:  Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?

Narrator:  Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying…

Officers/Elders:  Why are you dealing thus with your servants?  There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.

Pharaoh:  You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.

Narrator:  And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, ‘You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.’  Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them.  And they said to them…

Officers/Elders:  Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.

Narrator:  So Moses returned to the LORD and said…

Moses:  Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.

 

 

Narrator:  Then the LORD said to Moses…

God:  Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.  I am the LORD.  I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them.  I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.  

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.  Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.’ 

 

 

Narrator:  So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying…

God:  Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Moses:  The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?

Narrator:  Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

[Narrator:  These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben.  And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.  These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven.  The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimi according to their families.  And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirty-three.  The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations.

Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven.  The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.  And the sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri.  Aaron took to himself Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife; and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.  And the sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites.  Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families.

These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, ‘Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.’  These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are the same Moses and Aaron.  (Gen. 46:8–27 )

 

 

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Our Review

As stated earlier, in this initial encounter between Moses, Aaron, and Pharaoh, we’ve seen a lot of posturing taking place. To be clear, posturing means…

• • to place in a particular posture or attitude;
  • to position, especially strategically;
  • to develop a policy or stance for (oneself, a company, government, etc.);
  • to adopt an attitude or take an official position on (a matter)…

…so here, in the Exodus 5 portion of this episode, the representatives of the two powers at work in the world have placed themselves in particular postures or attitudes, positioned themselves strategically, developed a policy or stance, and taken an official position on the matter of to whom Israel belongs….

 

 

This posturing can best be seen played out as we review…

The Most Important Points of the Episode

 

— Let My people go—Remember that…

• • God told Moses to go to Pharaoh with the elders of the Israelites, however, the elders weren’t mentioned here;
  • God told Moses in Exodus 3:18 that when speaking to Pharaoh, he was to refer to Him as “The Lord, God of the Hebrews,” but he didn’t;
  • God told Moses that he was to ask Pharaoh politely for permission for the people to leave Egypt to worship—but he just demanded that Pharaoh release them instead;
  • In his demands to Pharaoh, Moses also failed to explain that they would only be gone for a short time.

— Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice—Given Moses’ failure to approach Pharaoh in the way that God had instructed him to, it is not surprising that Pharaoh would respond in this way.

—  I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go—Since Pharaoh considered himself to be divine and the Egyptians regarded him as a god, to submit to the demands of another unknown god, was not something that he would do.

— The God of the Hebrews has met with us—please…Apparently, Moses realized his previous mistakes and corrected himself by addressing Pharaoh politely and identifying God correctly. He also specified the amount of time that they would be gone.

— …lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword—But then Moses includes something of a back-handed threat, saying that if the Hebrews failed to worship their God as they had been commanded to do, God might punish them with sickness or death. If so, Pharaoh would suffer loss if and when his slaves had become incapacitated.

— …you take the people from their work/you make them rest from their labor—In response, Pharoah tried to shift the blame to Moses and Aaron for what he was about to do—that is, ordering his taskmasters to withhold the straw used for brickmaking from the people. (To clarify, there were two groups who exercised authority over the Hebrew people—the Egyptian taskmasters who were accountable directly to Pharaoh, and the officers of the children of Israel who were the Hebrews responsible for conveying Pharaoh’s demands directly to the people.

— So the people were scattered abroad—Without the straw previously provided to them, the people were forced to scour the land for whatever material they could use to make the daily quota of bricks that was  demanded of them. When they failed to meet that quota, they were beaten severely by the Egyptian taskmasters.

— Why are you dealing thus with your servants—Bypassing the taskmasters, the officers of the children of Israel went directly to Pharaoh to complain. But instead of doing anything to remedy their situation, he cast the blame for their current difficulties on Moses and Aaron in an effort to create division among the Hebrews and their leaders. (Here and in the next two verses, the officers and elders referred to themselves as servants rather than slaves because the word for servants and slaves in Hebrew is the same.)

— …they met Moses and Aaron—Faced with going back to their people and breaking the bad news to them, when they met up with Moses and Aaron, the officers and elders of the Hebrews did just what Pharaoh had hoped and blamed them for all of their troubles.

— Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people/ever since I came to Pharaoh—Even though he had been told at the burning bush that Pharaoh would not comply initially, Moses immediately began to complain to God. Given his laments, you would have thought that he had been engaged in a long, drawn out conflict when this was just the first round of the Smackdown. Even so, God did not become angry with Moses.

— Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh—Instead of reacting to Moses’ complaints and accusations, in the Chapter 6 portion of this episode, the Lord reassured him with some incredibly important Promises…

• • First, God identifies Himself as the Covenant Keeping God—the One to whom Abraham betrothed Israel in Genesis 17.
  • Then, God “remembers” His Covenant—which is another way of saying that it is time for Him to act on that Covenant. In other words, the Betrothal Period is over because the Bridegroom has come for His Bride at last.
  • Most importantly, God reaffirms the principles set forth in the Covenant by making these promises…

 

 

In Summary

In these two chapters, the stage has been set for one of the greatest showdowns in human history—I say “one” of the greatest because there are a few others that this one prefigures…

• • Israel’s later release from captivity in Babylon and Persia, and her return to her homeland;
  • Christ’s defeat of Satan on the Cross, and His victory over death; and,
  • The deliverance of Israel from the tyranny of the Antichrist during the last half of the Tribulation, and Christ’s defeat of the Antichrist at the end of this age.

It also is a reminder to us of the contest that takes place on a personal level where we daily do battle in the conflict known as Spiritual Warfare. As in this case, our Spiritual Warfare…

1. 1. Is also a Question of Authority—

Who is really in charge here—God or Satan? Whom do we serve? Because of Christ’s victory on the Cross, we are no longer at the mercy of the prince of the power of the air and the authority that was lost to him at the time of the fall has been restored to us through the overcoming death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ! (For more on spiritual authority, please see https://histruthmyvoice.org/spiritual-warfare-a-question-of-authority/.)

1. 2. Is also Preparing us for our Destiny—

God has designed us to be spiritual overcomers who will one day rule and reign with Him in His coming Kingdom. To help us prepare for that glorious destiny, we must learn how to battle and defeat His enemies now through spiritual warfare. (For more on preparing for our destiny, please see https://histruthmyvoice.org/spiritual-warfare-preparation-for-our-destiny/.)

1. 3. Is also a Contest for the Wills of Men and Women—

It is important for us to understand that the conflict we’re engaged in is a cosmic battle of wills that will determine which Kingdom, God’s or Satan’s, will rule over earth.  Incredibly, the decision as to which one will prevail at any given time will be determined by the will of each human being living on this planet. When a person brings his will into alignment with God’s will and does what is pleasing to God, the Kingdom of God advances and prevails—but when a person chooses to do what will satisfy his or her own selfish desires, he is actually aligning himself with and advancing the kingdom of Satan. So, to put it simply, the contention for the free will of man is what this war is all about. (For more on the nature of the conflict, please see https://histruthmyvoice.org/spiritual-warfare-understanding-the-nature-of-the-conflict/.)

1. 4. Can also only be Won with Spiritual Weapons—

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13) 

(For more on these spiritual weapons, please see https://histruthmyvoice.org/spiritual-warfare-gearing-up-for-battle/ and https://histruthmyvoice.org/spiritual-warfare-taking-the-offensive/.)

 Now that all of the key players are in their positions, we are ready for the Divine Smackdown that will begin in our next episode–so be sure not to miss it!

 

Original featured image courtesy of pixabay.com.
Original images of Moses and Aaron are from the James Tissot collection at the Jewish Museum, New York, courtesy of freebibleimages.com.