‘Basic Spiritual Training’ for any human being starts with Rule # 1 – Believe in the Only True God (Monotheism). That is true now and was true thousands of years ago when Moses and his brother Aaron confronted the Pharaoh of Egypt. God had heard the ‘cries’ of His people who were in slavery in Egypt, and called Moses to lead His people to freedom.

Moses is ready. Aaron is ready. The people of Israel are ready. The next step in God’s plan was to get Pharaoh ready. However, what God did to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt had a purpose that went well beyond just freeing Israel from slavery. God was about to ‘rock the world’ with one of the greatest displays of ‘supernatural power’ ever seen by humanity.

Please keep this in mind as read the following. The ‘gods’ of Egypt were made of wood and stone. Some were small, some were large. They didn’t talk. They didn’t walk. They didn’t breathe. They weren’t alive. However, Egyptians believed they were representative of ‘real gods’ that lived in the ‘heavens’ or the ‘underworld.’ They believed that their Pharaohs were ‘gods’ and needed to be embalmed and have special burial places (e.g. pyramids) filled with all of the necessities of the ‘afterlife.’ Egyptians depended on their Pharaoh making a successful journey through the underworld to ensure that the people would also make a successful journey after their death on earth. Many Israelites also shared similar beliefs about ‘idols’ and ‘false gods.’ The One True God was about to burst their spiritual balloons with a demonstration of the power of the ‘Living God.’

Moses Confronts Pharaoh

But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.’ Exodus 3:19-22

Before Moses ever left Midian for Egypt, God had told him what was going to happen when Moses confronted the Pharaoh. Pharaoh would not let the people of Israel go free, so God was going to stretch out His hand and strike Egypt with all His wonders. After that, Pharaoh would let Israel go.

Some people may wonder why God decided to handle the situation that way. The answer is simple. God was going to teach Israel that He was the ‘Only True God.’ The Egyptians believed in many ‘gods’ (idol worship – polytheism) and had influenced the children of Israel to also have some of those beliefs. God would destroy that notion with a series of ‘wonders.’

Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh and said – ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ Pharaoh said, ‘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.’ Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave and told them to get back to work. Pharaoh even made slave labor harder for Israel by taking away the straw needed to make bricks. That led the children of Israel to become upset with Moses and Aaron, so Moses presented their concerns to God. Remember that Moses also has really believe in Rule #1.

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “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. Exodus 5:22-23

God’s response to Moses?

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘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.’ And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘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.’ So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. Exodus 6:1-9

The children of Israel still didn’t believe in the ultimate power of the One True God, so what’s next? Here’s how God explained His eternal plan to Moses –

So the Lord said to Moses: ‘See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.’ Exodus 7:1-5

God was going to make Moses appear to Pharaoh as a ‘god.’ Pharaoh, who believed himself to be a ‘god,’ would relate to that. God was going to make Pharaoh’s heart ‘hard’ so that He could ‘multiply’ His ‘signs and wonders’ in the land of Egypt. God was going to judge Egypt, even as He had told Abraham many years earlier –

Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Genesis 15:13-14

That day of divine judgment had finally arrived. Here was God’s process (using NKJV headings for explainers in Exodus chapters 7 – 12). Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh to free the Israelites, but Pharoah’s heart became harder and more resistant with each of God ‘signs and wonders’ –

  • Aaron’s Miraculous Rod – Aaron threw down his rod and it became a snake. Pharoah’s magicians threw down their rods and they also became snakes. However, Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of the Egyptian magicians.
  • The First Plague: Waters Become Blood – Moses told Aaron to take his rod and stretch out his hand over the water of Egypt, including their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools. All of the water became ‘blood throughout all the land of Egypt.’ The fish died, the river stank, ‘and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river.’ God’s judgment on the water lasted seven days.
  • The Second Plague: Frogs – Moses told Aaron to take his rod and stretch out his hand over the streams, rivers, and ponds, and ’cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.’ The frogs were so many in number that they went into people’s houses, into their bedrooms, on their beds, into the houses of their servants, into their ovens, and into their kneading bowls. Pharaoh appeared to relent a bit by saying that he would let Israel go free ‘tomorrow’ if Moses would ‘take away the frogs from me and from my people.’ Moses prayed and God caused the frogs to die out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields. However, when Pharaoh saw that he had received relief from the frogs, ‘he hardened his heart’ and would not give Israel its freedom.
  • The Third Plague: Lice – Moses told Aaron to take his rod, stretch out his hand, and ‘strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’ All of the dust became lice that covered people and beasts. The Egyptian magicians told Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’ The magicians were beginning to believe in the power of Israel’s God. ‘But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.’
  • The Fourth Plague: Flies – Moses told Pharaoh that if he didn’t let the Israelites go free, he would send swarms of flies on him and his servants, on his people and into their houses. Moses also said that these flies would not bother the Israelites living in the land of Goshen, in order that Pharaoh would know that the True God was in the ‘midst of the land.’ Just as Moses said, thick swarms of flies came into Pharaoh’s house, into his servants houses, and into all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh relented again and told Moses and Aaron to take the people of Israel and ‘sacrifice to your God in the land.’ Moses prayed and God removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his servants, and from the people of Egypt. What did Pharaoh do in return? Did he keep his word? Of course not – ‘But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.’
  • The Fifth Plague: Livestock Diseased – Moses told Pharaoh that if he didn’t let Israel go, ‘that they may serve Me,’ the hand of the Lord would bring a ‘very severe pestilence’ on the Egyptians cattle, horses, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep. At the same time, God would not let anything bad happen to animals belonging to the children of Israel. God did just that the next day, ‘But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go.’
  • The Sixth Plague: Boils – God told Moses and Aaron, ‘Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh. And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.’ Moses and Aaron did what God commanded and boils broke out in sores on people and beasts. The boils were also on Pharaoh’s magicians and on all the people of Egypt. ‘But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.’
  • The Seventh Plague: Hail – ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me, for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now. Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.’ God did what He said He would do. Hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, but there was no hail in Goshen where the children of Israel lived. Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron that he had ‘sinned,’ the Lord was ‘righteous,’ and his people were ‘wicked.’ Pharaoh asked Moses to call on God to stop the hail. What happened when God stopped the hail? ‘And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses.’ Notice God’s purpose for hardening Pharaoh’s heart – ‘that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth … that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’
  • The Eighth Plague: Locusts – ‘Now the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.’ Notice God’s reasons for what He was doing in Egypt. He wanted Israel to know that He was the Only True God and He wanted their children and children’s to know it. Moses told Pharaoh that if he didn’t let Israel leave Egypt God could bring locusts into the land of Egypt. They would eat anything left from the devastating hail storms. The locusts would also eat every tree ‘which grows up for you out of the field.’ They would also ‘fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians.’ Pharaoh’s servants were so distraught by what God was doing that they begged the king to let the Israelites go, ‘that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?’ Pharaoh would not agree, so God sent the plague of locusts on Egypt. However, once Pharaoh saw the tremendous devastation of the locusts on Egypt, he called for Moses and Aaron in haste and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only.’ Moses prayed and God sent a very strong west wind that removed all of the locusts from the land of Egypt. ‘But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.’
  • The Ninth Plague: Darkness – God told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven so that there would be ‘darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even been felt.’ Moses stretched out his hand and ‘there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.’ People could not see each other, ‘nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.’ What about the children of Israel? They had ‘light in their dwellings’ the entire time. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart again and he would not let the children of Israel go. Then Pharaoh said this to Moses – ‘Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!’ So Moses said, ‘You have spoken well. I will never see your face again.’

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Next Time

God has one more terrible plague to bring on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. It will be the plague that finally frees Israel from slavery. While this plague will be great, what God will do afterward will stun Egypt and Israel. It will cement in history the ultimate power of the Only True God. We’ll look at that in the next part of our series – Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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