Exodus 6:14-7:13 - Two Great Battles We All Face

Hey, I'm going to invite you this morning to Exodus. Chapter six is where we're going to be together today. In fact, we're going to look halfway in Exodus chapter six, starting in verse 14, and we're going to end in Exodus chapter seven, verse 14. So we're kind of in the middle of some chapters here, but I want us as we get ready to engage this chapter, I'm going to lead us in a word of prayer as you turn to Exodus chapter six. And then I'm going to give us a little bit of introduction of where we're going to be together today. Let's pray.

God, we just want to use this moment to acknowledge the sacredness of your word and the power of your word to transform our lives. And God, just ask that our hearts be one, just given fully over to you, that our desire would be to worship you, to know you more deeply, and that the truth of your word would reveal that to us. And God, in so doing, that we wouldn't just be hearers, but we would live it out with our lives, that we would encourage your body, your church, your bride to know you more deeply in the way that we care for one another, and that we would live as a light here in this valley. So God bless our time together. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, just by way of reminder of where we've been in Exodus, and especially if this is your first Sunday, if I just share with you what Exodus is about. Exodus shares a story of redemption of the children of Israel, going from this place of slavery to this place of freedom. And ultimately freedom is discovered in the purpose for which we were created, which is in a relationship with the Lord. And so the exodus begins as God delivers them from slavery. But the majority of Exodus focuses on them walking in the newness of this relationship with the Lord, that God has been faithful to them even when they're unfaithful. God is faithful, and the book ends with them in the presence of God. And the book of Exodus really becomes the story of what all of the Bible is about.

Just as the children of Israel are in this place of slavery, so we as people on earth find ourselves as slaves to sin, Satan, and death. But God sees us in our struggle. God cares about us in our need, and God becomes flesh, and he offers us his life as that path of redemption, that as we come to the cross of Christ and we ask the Lord for forgiveness, he frees us from our past, and he brings us in the promise of a relationship with him that offers us a future and a hope. So the story of Exodus really becomes a grander story of our story. And understanding what Exodus is about is important to understand your own faith journey in the Lord.

So as you read the book of Exodus, you discover at the beginning of the book that the children of Israel find themselves in slavery. But God chooses an individual to be his representative as a deliverer for the children of Israel. And he chooses a man named Moses. Moses lived — even though he was a Hebrew, he grew up in Pharaoh's household, and for 40 years he was there. And then he has to run for his life into the wilderness. And he spends 40 years humbled in the wilderness as a shepherd. And it's at that point, at 80 years, God calls him from the Midian desert to go back to Egypt, to declare to Pharaoh to let God's people go from slavery into the place of promise with the Lord.

But Moses is reluctant to do so. Finally, Moses relents and he pursues. And you find at the end of Exodus chapter four, when he gets to the land of Egypt, he first declares to the children of Israel that God has brought me as a deliverer. And at the end of chapter four, the children of Israel are elated, and they worship, and they're thankful that God saw them in their despair. God heard their cry. God is bringing to them deliverance, and so they rejoice because of this.

But then in Exodus chapter five, Moses comes before Pharaoh and says, God said for me to tell you to let the children of Israel go from slavery, that they may worship him. And Pharaoh responds in Exodus five, verse two — I don't know this God, ain't no way that's happening. That's my version. But that's not happening, right? And then he determines that because Moses has done this, the children of Israel need some discipline. So he brings upon them further punishment. And then when you look at the end of Exodus chapter six, you start to see the children of Israel despairing because of the circumstances that they find themselves now being further oppressed. They were in slavery, but now circumstances have gotten worse. And they think to themselves, Moses, what were you thinking? Like you came and you promised this to us. But rather than find deliverance, what we found is more harsher treatment to us as people.

In fact, in Exodus six verse nine, it says, Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, go and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips.

And here's really what Moses is saying — God, I don't feel adequate for this. In fact, I feel inadequate. The idea of uncircumcised lips is saying defiled for holy service. It's often used — the idea of uncircumcised in comparison for the Hebrew people to the Gentile people, saying they're profane or they're unholy, they've been defiled. But Moses is looking at his own life and saying, because of this, God, I don't feel adequate for this.

And it's showing us the reality of the circumstances of life that we often find ourselves in, that there's the truthfulness for which God proclaims, and then there's the experience that we have in light of that. In a broken world and in the challenges of the broken world, we tend to waver in that battle. And this is where Moses and the children of Israel are finding themselves, that sometimes we hear the truthfulness of who God is, and then as God's people, sometimes we might have this expectation of what we anticipate. But then when rubber meets the road, what we think should happen in our mind isn't exactly the way that God is working it out. And so because we have this expectation, sometimes we despair and we think to ourselves, wait a minute, was I crazy? Or is God not true? Like, what's happening in this moment? And we start to waffle in the circumstance.

And this is where Moses is finding himself. But then you discover in the next verses that God tells Moses, go, I've called you to go. And so go be faithful to what I've called you to.

But while Moses and the children of Israel in this moment are teaching us really about our own faith journey — the reality is as we come to know Christ, we're going to encounter types of pharaohs in the way we interact in this world. And the question is, what will you do? In fact, we're talking about today two great battles we all face. Knowing that there is the truth of what God says, but then there's the way that we live. And the way that we might be tempted to live may not be in alignment with who God says he is. And as we're facing that battle, the question is, what do we do?

And in light of that, I want to talk about two battles. These battles are really intertwined. They're distinct enough to bring them up as two, but they're really intertwined in the way that we face them as people. And we're going to use the life of Moses and the children of Israel to think about how they move through this moment, to ask ourselves, what's going to determine my path in my life?

First battle is this: we face a battle with unbelief. We face a battle with unbelief. And this is where in that battle we might doubt the sufficiency of God to deliver us.

You know, last week I gave us the comparison like this. If you were not here, I'll just give it to us again as a little bit of an example. I reminded you last week, we all need a rose in our life. And if you remember, we used that illustration from a man named John Sargent, who was a famous oil painter, an American oil painter, at the end of the 1800s into the early 1900s. And it was said of John Sargent, there was one time in his life that he painted a rose that he considered so perfect that he refused to sell it. In fact, it became known that John Sargent had this rose that he painted, that he considered so perfect, that he refused to sell it. Many people offered him an exceptional amount of money just to purchase it, because he treasured it so highly. And no matter how much temptation people brought to him in trying to pay him for this rose, he continued to refuse to sell it. And the reason he refused is because he knew in his life there were going to come days where he was going to doubt, days where he might feel depressed, days where he might question his ability. But in those moments he would go to the room where he hung that rose, and he would look at that rose, and it would remind him of the possibilities of what could be. And he would go back to his studio and he would begin to paint.

All of us should recognize there are going to be times in our life where life is going to throw things at us, and in those challenges might bring us to a place where we start to question the greatness of who God is. And you can imagine for Moses how he might anticipate this moment. Even for those that are reading this story, they're captivated by what's taking place. Like God shows up in this miraculous way, hearing the desperation of these people who have been enslaved for generations. And God has called this one who is his deliverer in a profound way through this burning bush. And he's come back and the children of Israel have received him. And it's just this moment of jubilation. They were elated that God cares for them this way. And it's looking so great for the children of Israel. All of a sudden, he encounters Pharaoh. Pharaoh says no. And now Pharaoh has made it harsh.

It's as if in this moment of the story, people would lean in and say, God, now that Moses is struggling and the children of Israel are struggling, what's going to happen? And so the next thing that Moses says becomes important for us, because this is going to determine, is it all going to just fall apart? Now in this adversity, are the children of Israel going to move? Are they going to respond? What's going to take place?

And Moses does something profound. Moses then in this moment shares genealogy. You think of all the things Moses could say. It's like he majorly disrupts this text. He's like, you know what, we just need to take a pause here, kind of like a commercial break for station identification, and I'm just going to share with you genealogy. And you look at this and you might think, why is Moses — he's lost his mind. Why is Moses disrupting this text to suddenly just say, you know what, we should probably talk about genealogy now? It just seems absurd and a little bit out of place.

But then when you look at the significance of why Moses is doing this, it becomes important. So in Exodus chapter six, it says, these are the heads of their fathers' houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi. And these are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul. I know I pronounce them all right. You don't have to check me on my Hebrew on that at all. And if anyone's looking for some great baby names, I know we got some more on the way. So here you go. I haven't met anyone in this church with any of these names, so you can grab what you want.

The son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi — except I named my kid Levi — according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari, and the years of the life of Levi being 137 years. One of my kids is named Levi. I said, okay, that'll work.

But when you look at these names, here's what I want you to see. Moses is stopping. He's saying, let me just tell you the names of the children of Israel. Out of all the chaos, of all the doubt, Moses pauses this moment and he says, let me just tell you the names of the children of Israel. The question we should ask is, why? Why would you disrupt this story to all of a sudden infuse into this passage genealogy?

And there are several reasons we could point out here, but one of the predominant reasons I want you to see is because this is Moses saying to the children of Israel, God hasn't forgotten you. We might have this expectation of what we think God might do, but sometimes God has a way of disrupting even the plans that we might perceive he should be doing, for something greater. And he hasn't forgotten you. In fact, if I just remind you of the children of Israel — God remembers all of our names. God is faithful to his promises, and God's going to fulfill his promises to his people.

This is what Moses is reminding them, because they're focused so much on the problem. Moses just takes a step back and says, you know what you need? You need a rose. You need something that will solidify the ground that you're on, to remind you of the circumstances that you're in, that this is not beyond the ability of God to intercede. And in fact, God cares about you and he hasn't lost sight of you. And God is faithful to what he's going to fulfill in his promises. He's given that to you.

This is what God is doing by starting with the children of Israel. In fact, when he's going through the clans of Israel, he's also going in the order of their birth, from the oldest to the youngest. So he starts to share. But then as Moses is sharing this story, something interesting also happens. As you start to read the names of the genealogy, he gets to the name of Levi. And what becomes really unique here is that he doesn't go beyond Levi, which should bring another challenge to us, because we should say in this moment, wait a minute, there are 12 tribes of Israel and you all of a sudden just stopped after the first three. It's like a dad trying to remember the names of all his kids. He's like, I don't know, just the three of you — can we just count that as all of you? Sometimes I get the names all messed up. He's got three of them and it's like, wait a minute, did you forget the latter half?

But again, God is doing this intentionally through Moses. Moses is saying to us, look, I want you to understand, God's not forgotten you. And then he's interweaving into the story of Exodus this grander story of what God is declaring for us.

In fact, when you start to read in verse 20, you start recognizing what Moses is actually interjecting into the book of Exodus — a preparation for what the tribe of Levi will ultimately become to the children of Israel. And the Levites represent the priesthood line. They're not there yet, but God's going to establish the Levites as the priesthood line, which means they are the people's representative to God. They're the ones that stand in the gap between heaven and earth. And so they become this connection to the relationship with the Lord, which is a declaration of saying, God hasn't forgotten you. God is faithful to his promises. God wants a relationship with you, so don't perceive the challenges of your circumstances as the path in life you're to follow, but rather continue to pursue me.

And so he shares this idea of the Levites, saying to us, look, it's not important to just list all the tribes of Israel. I want you to understand — I want my faithful presence with you forever. And so when he comes to the Levites, I want you to see this in verse 20. It says, Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his father's sister. Which if you just read that again, you might think, what in the West Virginia is happening here? Right? Like this is a little different than what I'm accustomed to. And Israel is going to have some laws on this that God will deliver a little bit later.

But here's what I want you to know. It's a way of saying that no matter how your family operates, even dysfunctionally — God's mercy and grace is not beyond you. And no matter what brokenness you've come from, no matter how adverse your circumstances — and we go through some messed up things in our life, and sometimes we contribute to that mess — but God's faithful.

And she bore him Aaron and Moses. And it goes on from here, and it shares the line of Aaron and the line of Moses. And it particularly focuses on the line of Aaron, because it's from the line of Aaron that the high priests will come from.

And so I want you to see the hand of God and the way God desires to move in this world, that God is faithful to what he's declared. And when Pharaoh is attempting to oppress his people, what God is saying is, look, don't put your eyes on Pharaoh. Maybe we could say it like this for you and for me: when we face challenges in life, you're going to have all sorts of pharaohs that you encounter in your life. But don't let the pharaohs of your life dictate the person God has called you to become. Rather than put your eyes on your circumstance, find the rose of the consistency of God and his promises to you. Because in discovering who he is gives you the foundation for understanding who you are. And that becomes the basis for which you are to be guided in your life.

The idea of genealogy seems somewhat out of place. All of a sudden Moses just interrupts this and he starts to share it. But I want you to know that Moses is also saying this in hindsight — meaning the book of Exodus isn't Moses just writing the story as things are happening. This is years later, after the story has taken place. Moses is writing this. And in writing this, he's choosing to interject this thought for the children of Israel and for all of God's people. And the reason he's doing this is saying, look, I know you're captivated by the story. I know you might be wondering what's going on in the minds of the children of Israel in this circumstance, but I don't want to get so focused on this for a moment that we fail to realize, as people in general, we're all going to be in situations like this.

So what Moses is saying is, I want you to see the faithful hand of God threaded throughout generations. And so Moses is interjecting the idea of this priestly line as if to say, God wants a relationship not only with us in this moment we're facing with Pharaoh, but he wants this relationship with you in every battle and every season of life. And so this is as if to say to all generations, let's recognize who God is in the midst of our circumstance.

And then Moses goes on from here, in almost the humblest of ways, as if to say, and even in realizing this, I still struggled. Even in sharing this with you, there was still this intimidation welling up in my heart, wondering, God, will you carry me through?

In fact, in verse 28, on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, all that I say to you. Meaning, Moses, what are you going to bow to? Because what you pursue here will determine that. But Moses said to the Lord — look at this — behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?

He's saying again, God, I feel inadequate. So here's Moses on one side saying to you guys, here's what you need to see. You need that rose. You need the faithful hand of God. You need the promises of God. You need reminded of those things. And then Moses turning around and saying, and even when I know that's true, I struggle too. Because we all have this battle of unbelief. We all have this temptation where circumstances are not what we want, or our circumstances aren't necessarily exactly everything that we thought. But there is a God on the throne and he does care about me. And so I need to start to make the connection of who God is with where I am, so my eyes could see my circumstance by faith rather than simply just by my desires. Lord, help me.

I mean, think about this battle. What Exodus chapter six is — I think if we attributed it to maybe a spirit animal. Some people — I don't want to get too loosey-goosey with this, but let me just say it like this. I think Exodus chapter six is written for those people whose spirit animal they might say is more like the Chihuahua in life. And if you know anything about Chihuahuas — I find that those animals, and I'm sorry if you've got one, I'm not trying to knock your dog, I'm sure your Chihuahua is the best one ever — but I feel like sometimes you're around those animals and those animals are bred for one purpose, and that is just anxiety. Right? Because they're just barking. They have the heart of the lion and they're dinky. They're the size of a baby turtle. And they're just full of that anxiety. They come in circumstances and it's like, okay, Chihuahua, everything's going to be okay, you're alright. Someone knocks the door, they lose it. It's just over for them. They can't even contain themselves.

It's the same for us in the challenges of life. We suddenly see the truthfulness of what God says, and then all of a sudden here comes Pharaoh, and then we just lose our mind. We forget everything. It's like James chapter one, verse 23 and 24 says it like this. Don't just be merely hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. Because if you're merely a hearer of the word, you're like a person who goes and looks at himself in the mirror. And then in verse 24, when you walk away, you forget it. And there's something about the significance of God's word that empowers God's people for the foundation for which he has called us to in this world. And if anything is going to sustain, it's not the temporal circumstances of life, it's the greatness of God and the promises for which he's given to us.

When I think about the significance of this, this is why the Bible says to us some 200-plus times throughout Scripture — it's somewhere closer to 250 — some idea or form of the word "remember." The Bible says to you over and over, remember this. Remember this. Because there's going to come times in life where it's going to get complicated and difficult, and you might even have expectations and it's not working exactly the way that you thought. But it doesn't make God unfaithful. You need to remember.

In fact, there's another word the Bible tells you to practice. It's one of thanksgiving. And there's almost 150 times in Scripture the word thanksgiving is expressed in some way. It's this way of churning in your soul the greatness of God and the preparation for the circumstance, because God knows there's a part of us that likes to live like a Chihuahua. The path of unbelief. God, help me practice this in my life.

In fact, in the book of Philippians chapter four, Paul says it like this from prison — mind you, from prison. He says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's anything of excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

That's what I need. Peace in the storm. God, give me that peace in the storm.

You know, sometimes people look at this passage and they're like, yeah, it's the power of positive thinking. As long as you think more positively, then you'll live more positively. And I want you to know it is more fun to be around positive people than not positive people. That's true. But also there's a part of just positive thinking that's stupid. And I'm not trying to knock positive thinking. If you're a positive person, that's great. But here's what I want you to know. Sometimes when you're just going for the power of positive thinking, it can be fine. But there could be some cases where whatever you're being positive about is a totally terrible thing to be positive about. It could be completely wrong in its foundation, in which case that positivity is not going to work out for you very long.

But I want you to see where this passage starts, because this foundation to your positivity becomes important. He begins this by saying, finally, brothers, whatever is — are you alive? There we go — true. When you have the truth, you need to cling to it like a dog and a bone. And understanding there are going to be things in my life that might try to rock me from this, but rather than let the pharaohs of my world determine the path that I follow, I want it to be the goodness of my God. Because if there's one thing that will endure in faithfulness above all things, it's who God is and what he has said to me. And the Bible gives us passages like this over and over, because our tendency as people is to forget it, and it becomes important for us.

It works like this. If you've got a husband and wife, they want to get married. They come to the altar and they share their vows. And the husband says, I love you. And he doesn't just mean love like I love chicken wings. We're talking covenantal love, which is the greatest of loves, because the Bible tells you in Ephesians five, verse 25, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. This is unconditional, sacrificial love. You giving all of yourself to help her become all that God has called her to be. You're thinking of her well-being all of your days in faithfulness to her. That's covenantal, consistent love.

The Bible tells you in First Corinthians 13, it does not end. This kind of love. Now suppose for a moment the wife comes to the husband maybe a week or two after their marriage, maybe a month. And she says to her husband, do you love me? And the husband's only response back is, lady, I told you once. Is that the marriage? Can't that be good enough? That's not how it works in life. In an enjoyment of the relationship, we want the affirmation of that love and the stability of that place, that reminder over and over again, especially when we face challenges. Knowing in any relationship there are challenges, and it's the reminder of that covenant that reorients us to the circumstances of everything that we're going through. That becomes the rose to the relationship. Here's who I am for you, giving my life for your well-being.

And this is why the Bible says over and over, remember, give thanksgiving. This is your identity. This becomes your place. Remember.

You know, the reason this becomes important for us is that when we face the battlefield of life, and especially the temptation of unbelief, there are two paths that we could follow on that battlefield. Sometimes these paths can converge and sometimes these paths diverge. But when they diverge, we need to ask the question of ourselves, which path am I going to follow? And the one path is the path of feeling. And the other path is the path of faith. Sometimes those paths converge together. But then there are times they diverge from one another. The question is, what's going to determine your life — the greatness of what God declares, or the way that you feel?

And we have the opportunity to honor God in that. One of the passages that I think speaks to this maybe more colorfully than any other is in Mark chapter nine. There's a story of a father with his son who has an unclean spirit, the Bible tells us. And what makes this story even more interesting is at the end of Mark chapter eight, Jesus has just declared to his disciples he's going to die — a very pivotal moment in the book of Mark. And then in chapter nine, he goes to the Mount of Transfiguration with just a couple of his disciples. And when he's coming back from the Mount of Transfiguration, the majority of his disciples stay behind. But those disciples are trying to minister to this young boy who, when you read the description, looks like he might be going through kind of an epileptic seizure. He suffers from that. But then as you start to read the story further, you find that the father says, this young man often throws himself into fire, or he even tries to drown himself in water. So it looks like there's even this demonic possession there of this young man. And so that's why it's called the unclean spirit.

But Jesus comes down from this mountain. He sees this huge crowd in commotion because his disciples want to see this young man healed. This young man's not being healed. And at that moment, there are these religious leaders with the disciples and they're arguing. So you can imagine how chaotic this moment is. There's a massive crowd, people are arguing, yelling at each other. And this whole thing is centering on the identity of Jesus. And the religious leaders of the day are sick of Jesus. In fact, they want to kill Jesus. And now this moment is built with incredible tension. And all this father wants to see is his kid healed. All he wants is to know everything's going to be okay with his child.

And can I tell you, when you read the gospel stories, there are incredible miracles that take place. But I want you to know in reading about those miracles, those miracles are never ends in themselves. Those miracles are intended to point to something greater, and that is the validity of the true Messiah and that he's come. In fact, when you read about the miracles in Scripture, there are certain miracles Israel anticipated that when the Messiah truly comes, he would be able to do. And those miracles include bringing sight to the blind and healing the deaf and raising the dead and curing leprosy and casting out demons. And so they were looking for these signs of the Messiah. And Jesus being able to do this is the evidence of who he truly is, which is offering us something so much greater than simply temporal healing in this world. It's eternal hope in him.

And this man with his child, just seeing all the chaos, all the things, all the pharaohs just screaming at him, he just responds this way. He simply says it like this: the father cried out and said, I believe. God, help my unbelief.

You know what this is like in life? So many opinions and so many thoughts about what you should do and what you should believe, and what church you should or shouldn't be at. But more than anything, seeing the greatness of God and what he's promised you reminds us — we'll face this battle. But what is your rose? What will you depend on?

So that we can also get to point number two, which is this: we face a battle with sin. These two are certainly interconnected to one another in ways. But if I just distinguished it, we face a battle with sin.

And I'm not going to talk about fully Exodus chapter seven, verse 8 to 12, because we've already talked about this. This is where Moses comes before Pharaoh and he does this first miracle, which is he turns a stick into a serpent. And if you haven't been here, the reason God did that is because in the northern part of Egypt, their symbol, their animal, was the snake. Pharaoh wore it on his headdress. By Moses coming before Pharaoh and declaring this and showing a staff turning into a serpent, it's showing that God has authority over Egypt, over the gods of Egypt, and even over Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh responds and does the same thing. His staff turns into a snake through the power of his sorcerers around him. But then Moses's snake devours Pharaoh's snake, as if to say again, God has ultimate authority. So you're seeing this.

But what happens in chapter seven is this battle within Pharaoh. And here's what I want us to do. I just don't want us to look at Pharaoh and be like, ooh, Pharaoh's evil. I want us to realize that the same battle Pharaoh is facing is the battle all of us face. That Pharaoh is not that different from who we are. And in fact, they reflect it in this word of the hardening of heart.

I want you to see in Exodus seven it says, and the Lord said to Moses, you shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of the land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 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. He says this in verse five: the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

This is the greater battle, really, of Exodus. If you remember Exodus five, verse two, Pharaoh said, I don't know him. And chapter seven, verse five, God says, you're going to know me. This is God declaring what this battle really is. It's the glory of God made known. He says, when I stretched out my hand against Egypt to bring out the people of Israel from among them, still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let my people go.

Now, what does this mean? Some people look at the idea of hardness of heart and think, well, this is to be a theological debate over the sovereignty of God and free will of man. And I want you to know, yes, there's room to talk about the sovereignty of God and free will of man there. But I would rather look at the particulars of the passage before I start any kind of debate, understanding what it's saying in this story.

The first thing I think God is saying to Israel by saying, look, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart, is to say this: you're going to go out there and you're going to do what I called you to do, but know that it's also going to be met with adversity. Don't be shocked by the adversity, because even though Pharaoh's heart is hard, I am going to work out my will. I'm ultimately in charge. So no matter who it is, no matter how great you think they might be, no matter if they're a superpower in this world or not, that doesn't matter because I'm God. And so God is using the idea of hardness of heart to share this with them.

And I've got five minutes to paint this picture for you, but here's what I want you to know. When you look at the idea of hardness of heart in Scripture, the idea of a hardened heart is translated only one way in English. But I want you to know it's actually two different Hebrew words, and you have that in your notes. And the majority of time that it's related to Pharaoh, there is one particular Hebrew word used. And then a good chunk of the times where it's related to God, there's another Hebrew word that's used. And then there are some times in the book of Exodus where it's not given credit to Pharaoh or the Lord, and it's just saying there were hard hearts. So it's really three different ways it's used.

But the majority of time when it's related to the idea of Pharaoh, the idea of hard heart is the Hebrew word kabod, and it literally means to make heavy. And it comes from the idea painted through an Egyptian book called the Egyptian Book of the Dead. And it comes from their theological idea of what happens in the afterlife, where when someone dies, they go to the afterworld and their heart is put in a jar and put on these scales. And on the other side of the scale is a feather. And if their heart weighs more than the feather, they are guilty. And in so doing, there is this underworld god who will devour their heart, and they do not receive immortality or eternal life.

And so Pharaoh's heart being heavy is saying he is guilty. Pharaoh's heart — in his own heart, he is guilty, and therefore he is condemned. It's Pharaoh choosing to live contrary to what God has declared. His heart is guilty before the Lord. He has a heavy heart.

But then there's another way in which the heaviness of heart is used, and that is the word chazak. And this literally means firm. So it's as if God is saying to Moses, look, I already know Pharaoh is rejecting me. I already see the heaviness of his heart. And no matter how strong he might make that heart in its heaviness and turning against what I say, I want you to know it will not stop me. In fact, I will firm that heart to still accomplish my will, that my glory will be made known. And this is a way to remind Moses that even in the challenges we might be brought against God, nothing will thwart the plan of God. He holds you in his hands. God's going to work all things out, even when they're looking at the challenges before them.

Because I say all this — one, because you need to understand the passage. But two, I also want you to understand that Pharaoh, while he looks like the enemy in this story, can really be the place of all of us. When God says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, what's interesting in this passage is that the same root Hebrew word for the firmness here is also the word from which God derives the thought of his mighty hand. The image on that right is showing, as Pharaoh has a mighty hand coming against his enemies — if you remember in Exodus chapter three, verse 19 and 20, God said, I will deliver you with my mighty hand. God's going to deliver you with that strength. He is stronger.

And it's to help us think through in my life, am I that way towards God? Because one of the responsibilities of Pharaoh in Egypt was to maintain what they called Maat. And if they didn't maintain Maat, they were guilty. They had a heavy heart. And Maat is order. It's justice. It's peace. That was Pharaoh's responsibility to the people.

And so Pharaoh was to establish this to the children of Israel. Pharaoh during his day — if you looked at the Egyptians, he would have been considered a morally good person. If you asked people, name someone that's good, they would have looked to Pharaoh and said, well, he's got to be, because he holds the balance of Maat for us as a people.

And in Exodus chapter seven, verse 15, Moses is told to meet Pharaoh by the Nile River. And the question people ask is, how did they know that Pharaoh would be by the Nile in Exodus seven, verse 15? And the idea is it's because Pharaoh would faithfully go down to the Nile every morning in worship to his gods. He was maintaining Maat because he is, quote, good or moral.

But the problem with that is the comparison of good and morality isn't based on one another. It's based on the holiness of God. And sometimes we say this as people. We say, you know, I may not do everything I should, but I'm still a good person — because our standard of goodness is really looking at other people around us and determining that. But the reality is your standard of goodness is not based on other people in this world, or even what religion says. It's the perfection of who God is. And because of that, all of our hearts are heavy.

In fact, in Matthew — if I just ended with this — Matthew seven, Jesus says this. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. We might ask, what's the will of your Father? Well, verse 22: on that day many will say to me, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name? They're good people according to our definition. But then verse 23, Jesus says, then I will declare to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Here they are listing all these good things. But what does Jesus say? They're lawless. Why? Because their heart didn't do the one thing, which is give their lives to the Lord. Jesus says it like this: I never knew you. God didn't primarily create you in this world to simply do good things. And I hope you do many wonderful, good things. The primary reason God created you is for a relationship with him. And it's not until your life is given over to him that you start to live the purpose for which he has created you for. But if your heart is not given over to him, you're just like Pharaoh. Your heart is heavy. It's rebelling against the very one who created all things for his glory. And in so doing, you're finding yourself not as a friend of God, but an enemy to him.

There are two battles we all face: unbelief and sinfulness. Rather than give our lives to him, we all need that rose. And the greatness of who God is is what we're made for.