Exodus 7:14-25

I.   Introduction

Part of the nature of our ministry is, like Moses, to proclaim judgment.

II. God displays his glory in destroying the gods of Egypt.  God judges and we are his messengers.

1.  Last week we looked at the prologue to the execution of the call of Moses.  It begins here.

2.  And critical to an understanding of the call (Moses/us) is that God is displaying his glory in destroying the gods of Egypt (today).  We have two movements:  the fact of judgment (14) the ministry thereof (15-25).

3.  The first verse contains a description of the spiritual estate of Pharaoh.  His heart is stubborn, and he refuses to let the people go.  At first blush, we might say God has a fight on his hands.  I contend it represents not the freedom or independence of Pharaoh to resist God.  Rather, this is the fulfillment of a divinely induced state.  See 4:21b.  There are 20 references to hardening.  Fifteen of the twenty acknowledge God as the cause.  And it is to be understood in the context of God destroying the gods of Egypt.  Pharaoh was the incarnation of the sun god.  Upon death, his heart was hardened with a scarab so that it would not confess sin.  His heart was weighed against the feather of truth as symbolic judgment of his character.  If the heart was lighter than the feather, he proceeded into the company of the gods.  Ironically, God is hardening his heart and making it heavy.  This is the literal meaning of the word stubborn (NAS).  It has the idea of slow or dull hence unresponsive.  Ironically, God does the same with ethnic Israel when they become idolatrous.  See Isaiah 6:10 (ears dull).  God does it here as an act of judgment.  The terrifying aspect of it is that the judgment is present and upon the heart or spiritual life of Pharaoh.  We think of judgment as distant future.  This is true today.  See Romans 9:18. 

4.  From what God has done, we shift now to the ministry of Moses who mediates a ministry of judgment.  God tells Moses to go and what to say.  His message is that the Nile is going to be turned to blood.  This too is judgment.  In Egyptian theology, the Nile river god was Hapi.  He was the source and sustainer of life.  Read vs. 17.  The phrase I am Yahweh is a statement of divinity in opposition to the national gods of Egypt.  Appl:  only one God.  Notice the phrase you will know.  See 5:2.  And Moses and Aaron go and proclaim just this.  Verse 20 reads:  They did even as the Lord commanded.  And it happens just as the Lord said.  One of the greatest deities of Egypt falls before God as mediated by Moses.

5.  The text also reads that the magicians in some way copy the act of judgment.  They counterfeit the work of God to negate the divine message.  We saw this is the prologue (7:12).  See 2 Thessalonians 2:9.  The phrase signs and wonders is used almost predominately in the Bible to refer to the miracles of the exodus.  Every religion has its own salvation story for its people.  Paul calls them false.  The most telling fact here is that the magicians cannot reverse the judgment upon the Nile.  The result of the false religion is that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he does not listen (22).  The MT has his response, “he did not set his heart even to this (23).” He does not discern the difference.  He does not care.  A Jewish Midrash has his reply, “You don’t trouble me, for if I can’t have water, I’ll have wine.”  He is unconcerned over the divine act.   I have found that most people are.  In Paul’s theology, this too is by divine initiative.  See 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

6.  It is widely believed by many that the message and messenger of judgment is an Old Testament phenomenon.  In fact, this may well be one reason that so many Christians are sheepish about such a message today.  But John, the author of Revelation, patently rejects this.  He relies on the theology of Exodus to describe that this is precisely our message, and we are the messengers.  Namely, God is destroying idols and idolaters.  And his message is to awaken Churches to their danger of compromising the message of truth.  Appl: 

7.  In Revelation 11, we have an allusion to Exodus 7 that illustrates this.  Succinctly, Revelation is a picture book with symbols that portray literal realities written to shock us.  Moses gives us literal history.  John conveys the same reality spiritually and metaphorically.  In Revelation 11, we have the Church patterned after Moses and Elijah.  John calls us witnesses (3).  He also calls us lampstands.  The lampstand is a symbol for the Church.  See 1:20.  The context reveals that the Church is under persecution (as was Israel in Egypt), but God is present with them.  Read 11:3-6.  The Church, therefore, is to convey the message of the judgment of God as Moses and Elijah did.  This is part of our witness today.  Thus, John relies on the first plague of Exodus to represent part of the message we take to the world today.  The other allusion is in Revelation 16:3-4 (cf. 8:8-11).  In Exodus, the Nile was the central economic reality for the nation.  The judgments in Revelation represent economic upheaval.  And notice how the people respond.  See Revelation 16:9b, 11b.  They act just like Pharaoh because they are under the same judgment.  This is our message too (IT, steal, false). 

8.  It is not our only witness.  We do speak of love and compassion and hope in Christ alone as the greater Moses.  But we are remiss if we keep silent to the fact that God is judging idols, idolatry, and counterfeit religion.