PHARAOH IN THE BIBLE STUDY

When we left off last time, God told Moses to go back to Pharaoh a second time and tell him to let His people go. Moses, still not convinced that he was the man for the job asked God, Why should Pharaoh listen to me, of all people?

God answered, You see, I have made you a god to Pharaoh and Aaron will be your prophet. You'll tell Aaron everything that I say and Aaron will tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and show many signs in the land of Egypt, but Pharaoh won't listen to you. I will lay my hand upon Egypt (when God says something is done by His hand, it means by His power) and bring out my armies, and my people out of Egypt with great justice. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

So Moses and Aaron did what the Lord told them to do. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 when they went to speak to Pharaoh. Forty years has passed since Moses killed the Egyptian.

Now you may be wondering, because it's been mentioned a few times now, why did God harden Pharaoh's heart. Well, these were God's people and He not only wanted to free them from slavery in Egypt but He also wanted to show the Egyptians that He is God. You can bet that the Egyptians wouldn't believe it if Pharaoh let over 600,000 slaves go free just because an 80 year old man suddenly showed up on Pharaoh's doorstep one day out of nowhere with his big brother and said, okey dokey, you're gonna free all the Israelites that have slaved for the last 430 years making Egypt a rich nation. You can see that it just couldn't happen that way. No, ladies and gentlemen, God would have to show them a thing or ten. Don't forget about what God told Abraham about blessing those who blessed him and cursing those who cursed him, Genesis 12:3. If you remember, when Joseph was alive in Egypt, the Pharaoh at that time was kind to Israel, Genesis 47:5-6, and Egypt prospered better than any other nation through the great famine. Egypt wasn't going to get away with the imprisoning of God's people without some consequences. Just a lil Daily Bread Crumb for ya.

Getting back to our story, God told Moses, Pharaoh will want you to show him a miracle. You will tell Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh and it'll become a serpent. So they went in to Pharaoh and did what the Lord told them in front of Pharaoh and his servants and the staff became a serpent.

Pharaoh called on his wise men and wizards and the magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their witchery. They all threw down their staffs and they became serpents, but Aaron's staff swallowed up all of theirs.

And God hardened Pharaoh's heart and told Moses, Pharaoh is stubborn, he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. He will be going to the river. You will wait at the river's edge until he gets there. Take the staff with you that was turned into a serpent. You will say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews sent me to you saying, Let my people go so they may serve me in the wilderness, and you wouldn't listen. Now the Lord says, By this you will know that I am the Lord, watch, I will take the staff in my hand and strike the water in the river and it will turn to blood. The fish in the river will die, the water will stink and the Egyptians will hate to drink the water.

The Lord told Moses, Tell Aaron to take your staff and stretch out your hand on the waters of Egypt, on their streams, on their rivers, on their ponds and on all their pools of water so they all may turn to blood and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, both in containers of wood and of stone.

So Moses and Aaron did so, and all the waters of Egypt turned to blood. The fish died, the river stank and the Egyptians couldn't drink the water. There was blood throughout all of Egypt.

The magicians of Egypt did the same with their witchery and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. He didn't listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. (We'll be learning a bit more about these magicians in a later chapter.)

Pharaoh went home and didn't let the matter bother him at all. Pride is a very stubborn thing to overcome. The Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink because the water in the river was undrinkable.

In our last chapter, God sent a plague into Egypt that turned all the water of the land into blood because Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel free.

God sent Moses back to talk to Pharaoh again. This time the message was that if Pharaoh didn't let God's people go, He would send frogs into Egypt. He said, They will come up out of the river and go into your house, into your bedroom, and on your bed, into your servants houses, and among all your people. They will be in your ovens, and where your food is, and everywhere.

God told Moses to tell Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and rivers and ponds and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt. And Aaron did what Moses said. Imagine if you will, frogs in your own house, all over your kitchen, in the oven, even in your bed. How disgusting.

Well, those crafty magicians of Pharaoh's did the same thing and brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt. It didn't take long for this to annoy Pharaoh a bit, and he called for Moses and Aaron and said, Ask the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people and I'll let the people go so they can do sacrifice to Him.

Moses was very happy about this and to make sure that credit was given to God, he asked Pharaoh, When do you want this to happen? Pharaoh answered, Tomorrow. Moses said, It will be as you say so that you will know there is none like the Lord our God. The frogs will leave you and your servants and your people, and remain in the river only.

Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh and Moses prayed to the Lord with Pharaoh's request. The Lord answered Moses' prayer, and the frogs died. They gathered them together in piles and the land stank terribly. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart again and didn't keep his promise to let God's people go.

So the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron to stretch out his staff and strike the dust of the land so that it becomes lice throughout the land of Egypt. Aaron did what Moses said and the dust of Egypt became lice on man and beast. You know, it makes a person itch just thinking about it. It seems silly to want more lice, but Pharaoh's magicians tried to do the same thing with magic, but they couldn't. They told Pharaoh, This is the finger of God, meaning only God could do this. But Pharaoh's heart was still hardened and he would not listen.

Next, the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and go to Pharaoh at the river again, and say to him, God says, Let my people go, so they may serve me, and if you don't, watch tomorrow, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses and all over the land. But I will protect Goshen, where my people live, and no flies will be there.

The next day the Lord sent the flies and the land of Egypt was filthy with them. Now a few dozen flies can ruin just about anything, but swarms of them must have been horrendous. They irritated Pharaoh enough to call for Moses and Aaron again and he said, Go and sacrifice to your God here in this land.

Moses said, We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he will command us. Pharaoh relented, I'll let you go, only ask for me, that you don't go very far away. Moses answered, I'll ask the Lord to take the flies away tomorrow, but don't lie again and not let the people go. He left Pharaoh's presence and entreated the Lord, and the Lord removed the swarms of flies so that not a single one remained. And you guessed it, Pharaoh hardened his heart this time too, and would not let God's people go.

Four plagues have been brought upon Pharaoh now and he acts like it's a game between him and God, but we all know that trying to deceive God will only end in disaster.

We're about ¼ of the way through the book of Exodus now and we're learning about the plagues that God brought upon Pharaoh and Egypt because he wouldn't let the children of Israel out of bondage. Moses and his brother Aaron are our key figures in the story as they do God's will and take His messages to Pharaoh.

The Lord told Moses, Go back to Pharaoh and know that I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants so I can show my signs to them. You'll be able to tell your son and your grandson the things I've done in Egypt, to show that I am the Lord.

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, The Lord God of the Hebrews says, How long will you refuse to bow down to me. Let my people go so they may serve me. If you don't, tomorrow I'll bring locusts into your land and they'll cover the face of the earth, so many that you can't see the ground and they'll eat whatever survived the hail. Your fathers and your grandfathers have never seen so many locusts to tell about from the time they lived until today.

When Moses and Aaron had finished telling Pharaoh about the plague of the locusts, they left and Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long will this man disrupt us? Let the people go and serve the Lord their God. Haven't you learned yet that Egypt is destroyed?

Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, Go, serve the Lord your God, but who exactly will go? And Moses answered, We'll go with our young and with our old, our sons and daughters, our flocks and our herds. All of us will go, because we must hold a feast to the Lord.

But, Pharaoh started playing games. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Then he said, Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. Pharaoh was suggesting that only the men go and not the children. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

Of course this was not acceptable as it was not God's will ... The Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand over the land of Egypt so the locusts would come to the land and eat everything growing in the land that the hail had left. So Moses stretched out his staff over the Land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind that lasted all day and all night and when the morning dawned, the east wind brought the locusts.

The locusts covered the land from border to border. There have never been so many locusts anywhere and there never will be again. There were so many that the land was darkened and they ate every single thing that remained from the hail.

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in a hurry and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Forgive me I beg you, just this once and ask the Lord your God to take away this grief only.

Moses left Pharaoh and prayed. The Lord sent a strong west wind that took away the locusts into the Red sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let the children of Israel go.

The Lord told Moses, Stretch out your hand toward Heaven, so that darkness falls over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. Now that doesn't sound like your usual darkness. This was darkness that was darker than dark. And Moses stretched out his hand toward Heaven and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They couldn't see one another or move for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their homes.

Pharaoh called for Moses and said, Go, serve the Lord, only your flocks and your herds will stay. Let your little ones go with you too. Moses said, You must give us sacrifices and burnt offerings too so we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God. Our cattle will go with us, and not a single hoof will be left behind. We must take everything to serve the Lord because we don't know what we'll need to serve Him with, until we get there.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart still, and he wouldn't let them go. And Pharaoh said to Moses, Go away, mind your own business, and don't let me see your face again, because the day you see my face, you will die. And Moses answered to Pharaoh, You said it well, I will never see your face again.

It's time in God's plan to bring everything to a memorable conclusion for Pharaoh. The Lord said to Moses, I'm going to bring just one more plague to Pharaoh and Egypt and after that, he'll let you go. When he lets you go, he will throw you out altogether.

Go and tell the people to ask their neighbors for jewels of silver and gold. And God gave his people approval in the Egyptians eyes and Moses was very respected by Pharaoh's servants and people.

Moses told the people, both the Egyptians and the children of Israel, This is what the Lord says: About midnight I will go out amidst Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the maidservant that works behind the mill and all the firstborn of the beasts.

There will be a dreadful cry throughout all the land of Egypt like there has never been before or will ever be again. But of the children of Israel, none will be harmed so that you'll know how the Lord feels differently about the Egyptians and Israel. And all of Pharaoh's servants shall bow themselves to me and say, Get out and all the people that follow you, and after that I will go out. Moses was very angered when he left Pharaoh.

Then the Lord told Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you so that my wonders may grow in the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron did all these wonders in front of Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Let's talk about Moses' character for a moment. It bears mentioning that Moses believes strongly in justice. Don't forget that forty years earlier, he killed an Egyptian that was beating a Hebrew slave, and Moses, even though he was by blood a Hebrew, was raised as an Egyptian. However, in the name of justice, he felt it necessary to defend righteousness. It's no wonder that by the time he delivered the announcements of 10 plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt, that he would become a little angry with Pharaoh. And it's no wonder that God chose Moses for the job of delivering His people out of bondage in Egypt.

In the next chapter, we'll find out more about this last plague on Pharaoh, and how the children of Israel were protected from it. It's called the Passover.

Did you ever notice that the children of Israel were saved by the blood of the lamb, and we as Christians are saved by the blood of the Lamb of God? It is not a coincidence that Jesus died for us at Passover, and that He, like the sheep in the Passover was unblemished. The Lord's Passover was a shadow of things to come and to show you how important that is, God even told them that it was a law to observe this holy day and whoever didn't, that soul would be cut off from the children of Israel. That's a pretty serious consequence.

Moses gathered all the elders of Israel together and told them, Everyone take a lamb for your family and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, (a plant used by the Hebrews for sprinkling blood when purifying things) dip it in the blood of the lamb and strike the side posts and the upper door post of your houses. Don't go out of your house until morning. The Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians and when He sees the blood on your doorposts, He'll pass over the door and won't let the destroyer come in to your houses to kill you.

You must remember this thing and observe this holy day. You must pass it on to the generations after you for ever. When you get to the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you must celebrate this holy day and when your children ask you what it means you will tell them, It is to remember the Lord's Passover, when He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he killed the Egyptians and saved our families.

The people bowed their heads and thanked God and they went to their homes and did what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

That night at midnight the Lord killed all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the cattle. And Pharaoh woke in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt. There wasn't one single house where there wasn't one dead.

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron immediately and said, Get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. Go serve the Lord as you asked. Take your flocks and your herds and go, and bless me also.

The Egyptians insisted to send God's people away in a hurry because they feared for their lives. So the children of Israel took their bowls of unleavened dough and wrapped them up in clothes on their shoulders and they borrowed jewels of gold and silver and clothing from the Egyptians just as Moses told them to do.

The Egyptians were supportive of God's people and they lent them everything they asked for and the children of Israel plundered the Egyptians. They traveled from Rameses in the land of Goshen to Succoth, about 30 miles. There were about 600,000 on foot that were men, beside children. Their flocks and their herds and all their cattle were with them too.

Now here's a little unleavened Daily Bread crumb for you. The Lord knew that His people would be hurried out of Egypt and that is why He said that they should have unleavened bread in their houses. They baked their unleavened cakes of dough and they didn't have any other food prepared.

The very day that the children of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years, all the hosts (multitudes) of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. It is a night of watching, and for the children of Israel to honor the Lord for ever, for bringing them out of bondage in Egypt.

God gave Moses and Aaron the laws of the Passover celebration. No stranger should eat the Passover. For an owned servant to eat it, he must first follow the Hebrew customs. Foreigners and hired servants may not eat it. It will be eaten in one house, not carried out of the house or any bones of it broken. (Not one of Jesus bones were broken either.) All the congregation of Israel will honor the holy day. When a stranger stays with you and wants to celebrate the Passover, all the males of his house must follow the Hebrew customs and become as one that is born in the land. The same one law applies to both the home born and the stranger that stays with you.

All the children of Israel followed what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And the very same day, the Lord brought His children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. They were called armies because army means a great multitude and each of the twelve tribes stayed together in groups. God referred to them as His armies.

When we come back next time, we'll talk more about Israel's exodus from Egypt and Pharaoh's reaction after they left. Remember first he refused to let them go, then he said you can sacrifice to God here in Egypt. Then he said, go, but not far. Then, only the men can go. Then, you and your little ones can go, but your flocks and herds stay. Each time, Pharaoh changed his mind and wouldn't let them go at all. Is the death of his firstborn enough to make him honest this time and soften his heart?

We learned about the unleavened bread and a little bit about the Passover celebration that God told the Hebrews to observe each year, and now it's time for a little trivia!

When God told Moses how He wanted Passover to be celebrated each year by the Hebrews, He said, This month will be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2). Now that wasn't in January. In Hebrew, it's called Abib. The Hebrew calendar has 360 days in the year. Over the centuries mankind (not God) has found it necessary to create a calendar for their own convenience and have disregarded the plan that the creator of time had in mind. The "new and improved" calendar has even been changed a number of times and it seems that because nobody knows the exact calculations of when one calendar was retired and another implemented, it makes it very difficult to figure some things out concerning dates.

This much, we do know ... The current calendar that we use has 365 days in a year. Over a period of 6000 years (which is an approximation of how long it's been since the creation of man, you can understand why adding 5 days per year to God's time clock of 360 days/year would cause the seasons to be out of place.

Now many say that it was necessary to "adjust" God's calendar because of the moon or some such reason. Do you think "Father Time" didn't consider those things when He created the world? Does He not know everything? He does. This is just an example of how man can never, no matter how smart he thinks he is, improve what God has done (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Now, back to our story. The Lord said to Moses, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. What does that mean ... Sanctify? Sanctify means to set apart for a sacred purpose. It also means to free from sin or to purify. Moses will explain this better in just a moment.

Moses spoke to the people and told them again about keeping the service of the Passover and the unleavened bread. He told them to pass this on to their children and when their children ask why, to tell them it's because of the greatness of the Lord when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Moses' way of relating to the Hebrews, what God said, was just so awesome. Here is an example of that, concerning Passover. "And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in His season from year to year."

Moses then explained in detail about sanctifying the firstborn. God saved the firstborn of the Israelites during the Passover, so every firstborn belongs to Him. Of every firstborn that comes from a beast, the males are the Lord's. They must be sacrificed to God. Every firstborn mule should be substituted with a lamb to sacrifice, and if they didn't, the mule's neck must be broken. Of course, God didn't want them to kill the children as a sacrifice to him, as the lambs are but for every firstborn child a sacrifice must be made. Leviticus 12:6-8 explains that a firstling lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove was redeemed for the child and offered to God, but if a lamb couldn't be given, then two turtledoves or two pigeons would be offered.

Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God didn't lead them through the land of the Philistines even though it was the shortest route. God thought that if the Hebrews saw war there they would regret and return to Egypt. Instead, God led the people through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and they went out of the land of Egypt armed.

Listen to this. This shows the integrity that the man of Moses possessed. When he left Egypt, Moses took the bones of Joseph (Jacob's son) with him because before Joseph died, he made an oath with his children saying that God would surely come to visit (help) them and "ye shall carry up my bones from hence." (Genesis 50:25) You may remember that, and think, "That is so considerate of him," but when you think of the responsibility that Moses had on his shoulders and to do all that it involved to exhume and transport a man's bones who died over 400 years past, is truly admirable.

They left Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. The Lord led the way in front of them in a pillar of a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire so they could travel day and night.

Just imagine it. You are with 600,000 of your relatives and people. You've just been freed from slavery that your family and people have endured for 430 years. You have taken the Egyptians riches with you and you're on your way to the Promised Land with the Lord leading the way in front of you in a cloud by day and fire by night. You have no food except unleavened bread. You're about to follow an 80 year old man who is going to take you (on foot) about 600 miles. It's quite a scenario.

If you hadn't seen the wonders that God performed in Egypt with your own eyes, you might be thinking about finding a new travel agent, but with bricks and no straw on the one hand, and a land flowing with milk and honey on the other, traveling with God looks like the definite choice to make.

Let's continue following Moses and the children of Israel as they travel through the wilderness in our next chapter.

Welcome to the wilderness of Egypt. We're following Moses and the children of Israel as they make their exodus from Egypt. We have the Lord leading in a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

The Lord told Moses to take the children of Israel to camp by the sea and Pharaoh will think that they're trapped and the wilderness has shut them in. Pharaoh's heart and all of his servants was turned against God's people AGAIN and they said, Why did we do this? Why did we let Israel go free from serving us? You didn't really think Pharaoh's heart would ever soften, did you? Neither did God. (Wink)

Pharaoh got his chariot and took his people with him with all the chariots of Egypt and captains over each one and they followed the children of Israel. They caught up with them camped by the sea and when God's people saw that the Egyptians chased them, they were very afraid and they cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, Did you bring us to die in the wilderness because there were no graves in Egypt? Why have you done this to us? Didn't we tell you in Egypt to leave us be and let us serve the Egyptians? It would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Surely they were afraid that Egypt would capture them and they would be put through worse turmoil than being beaten for not making enough bricks without straw.

Moses however had seen the Lord work His wonders against Pharaoh and Egypt ten times now and his faith was firm. He answered the people, Don't be afraid, stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord that He will show you today. The Egyptians that you've seen today, you'll never see again for ever. The Lord will fight for you and you'll keep your freedom.

The Lord said to Moses, Talk to my people, tell them to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and my people will walk on dry ground through the middle of the sea. I'll harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they'll follow them and I'll get my revenge on Pharaoh and all his people, his chariots and his horsemen, and after that, they'll know that I am the Lord.

The angel of God that was in front of the camp of Israel in the pillar of the cloud, went and stood behind them between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. It was a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians but it gave light to Israel so that the Egyptians couldn't reach God's people all the night long.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back with a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land. The waters were divided and God's people went into the middle of the sea on dry ground. The waters were like walls to their right and to their left.

Pharaoh and the Egyptians, his horses and his chariots and his horsemen all pursed after them into the middle of the sea. At dawn, the Lord looked at the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and troubled them by taking off their chariot wheels. The Egyptians said, We'd better run from Israel, the Lord is fighting for them.

When the Israelites had reached the other side, the Lord told Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea so the water will close on the Egyptians, their chariots and their horsemen. So Moses did, and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not a single one of them lived. God's people saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore and Israel feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.

It must have been so amazing. There is no strength like God's strength. There is no one as clever. His humor is incomparable and His grace is the most astounding of all. His people doubted Him so many times, as you've seen several times and will see still more, and yet He stretched out His hands to them over and over again.