# 28 2024 Dev. Ex.7: A Great Commission! Read all of chapter seven first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ex. 7:1 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.”
Ex.7 The book of Exodus Is about three main subjects: God’s deliverance, God’s morality and how to worship. God chose the time for liberating His people Israel from Egypt. God chose the method and He chose the person to accomplish it. But Pharaoh was not ready to listen, as God had warned Moses, Pharaoh hardened his heart. The back story is that Satan is behind the destruction of the Israelites. There are people and countries today, helping Satan to destroy the Israelites.
Vs.1-5 God makes a proclamation about how He will use Moses and Aaron; “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet…” God gives them a great commission, as God has given us, to reflect God’s light, in Christ, to light up this dark world. God tells them what to say. “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…” Pharaoh already had a unbelieving heart and God did not intervene. In spite of the many signs and judgments, he did not listen up to the very end. The heart of an unbeliever is rock hard, only by the gentle urging of the Holy Spirit does the human heart soften, then we are able to respond.
Vs.6-7 They did what God told them. “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty three when they spoke to Pharaoh.” God uses us at every stage of our life’s but most of us would like to retire at that point. God calls and empowers as He sees fit. Amen!
Vs.8-13 God tells Moses and Aaron to turn his staff into a snake. But the Egyptian magicians performed that feat as well. But Aaron’s snake swallowed up all the other snakes. Yet, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.
Vs.14-24 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.’” God sends Moses and Aaron to the river Nile when Pharaoh goes there in the morning. “Say to him… ‘The God of the Hebrews has sent me to say to you: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.’” Because Pharaoh did not listen to Moses, Aaron lifted up his staff and turned all the water in Egypt to blood, the river, the ponds, all the containers holding water. “But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.” We all make choices based on what we know and what we see. This is what Pharaoh did, he chose. We may not blame God for our personal choices, we are responsible as Pharaoh was responsible. Amen!
V.26 Seven days later God is planning an event that the magicians will not be able to duplicate.
On this fourth of July, in light of Exodus and the history of the USA, freedom is a “fickle Mistress”; difficult to attain and even more difficult to maintain, only accomplished by faith, prayer and hard work!
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