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okay you can turn in your bibles to exodus chapter five exodus chapter five we saw in chapters three and four the caller commission of moses god appears to him through the theophany of the burning bush and employs him as the deliverer for for uh israel out of the land of egypt and so here in chapter five we have moses and aaron aaron's first meeting with pharaoh so we'll look at that the first meeting with pharaoh in verses 1-14 and then secondly the negative reaction of the israelite officers so essentially moses and aaron are rebuffed by pharaoh and then they are rebuffed by their own countrymen so i want to read beginning in verse 1 of chapter 5. afterward moses and aaron went in and told pharaoh thus says the lord god of israel let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness and 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 so they said the god of the hebrews has met with us please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the lord our god lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword then the king of egypt said to them moses and aaron why do you take the people from their work get back to your labor and pharaoh said look the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor so the same day pharaoh commanded the task masters of the people and their officers saying you shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before let them go and gather straw for themselves and you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before you shall not reduce it for they are idle therefore they cry out saying let us go and sacrifice to our god let more work be laid on the man that they may labor in it and let them not regard false words and the task masters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people saying excuse me thus says pharaoh i will not give you straw go get yourself straw where you can find it yet none of your work will be reduced so the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of egypt to gather stubble instead of straw and the task masters forced them to hurry saying fulfill your work your daily quota as when there was straw also the officers of the children of israel whom pharaoh's task masters said had set over them were beaten and were asked why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as before then the officers of the children of israel came and cried out to pharaoh saying why are you dealing thus with your servants there is no straw given to your servants and they say to us make brick and indeed your servants are beaten but the fault is in your own people but he said you are idle idle therefore you say let us go and sacrifice to the lord therefore go now and work for no straw shall be given you yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks and the officers of the children of israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said you shall not reduce any breaks from your daily quota then as they came out from pharaoh they met moses and aaron who stood there to meet them and they said to them let the lord look on you and judge because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of pharaoh and in the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hand to kill us 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 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 amen so we've met the oppressor we've met the people being oppressed we've seen the birth of the deliverer and the god who is above both and now god has called moses as i said earlier on this commission to go and to deliver israel from egyptian bondage so obviously this first meeting with pharaoh doesn't go very well and one of the things that is obvious is that when god has made promises of blessing to his people it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to come to pass right away and it may often be the case that things get worse before they get better and that's certainly the situation that obtains here in the lives of god's people israel so as i said we'll look at the first meeting with pharaoh in verses 1 to 14 and then the negative reaction of the israelite officers in verses 15 to 20 won but we also read the 6-1 because i didn't want to or i'm sorry we read uh it goes to 23 but we read 6-1 because i didn't want to sort of leave it dangling god definitely responds to moses and we'll pick up that response the lord willing next wednesday night but as we look at this first meeting we see first of all the demand of the lord notice in verse 1 afterward moses and aaron went in and told pharaoh thus says the lord god of israel so this wasn't moses and aaron idea it wasn't the people of israel it wasn't a sort of a sort of a social construct where the people of israel said you know enough is enough let's deal with this or let's get rid of you know this oppression that's over us this is of god it is god the lord who called moses it's god the lord who specifies to moses in 318 b what his task is supposed to be he is to go before pharaoh and he is to indeed tell pharaoh a demand to let my people go and i would suggest that this indicates the courage of moses and aaron the fact that moses and aaron went in and told pharaoh thus says the lord god of israel let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness is quite outstanding i mean pharaoh was the sovereign in all of egypt he was the king of kings he was the lord of lords when he says who is yahweh or who is the lord he's essentially saying what other sovereign is there i'm over this i have absolute control and authority whatever i say goes and so we have this courage expressed by moses and aaron when they go in and tell pharaoh and i would suggest that the promise of god feeds the faith of the people of god go back to chapter 3 at verse 18 then they will heed your voice this is god telling moses that israel will be convinced that what he has to do is of the lord and you shall come you and the elders of israel to the king of egypt so it may have been that some of the elders were there alongside of moses and aaron when they went into the pharaoh but back to 318 they will heed your voice and you shall come you and the elders of israel to the king of egypt and you shall say to him the lord god of the hebrews has met with us and now please let us go three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the lord our god so that is the promise of god that feeds the faith of moses and aaron when that faith has permeated the heart it promotes or produces courage and so we see the people of god living with a consistency with reference to the things believed on if you believe that god is in fact going to deliver you from bondage you're going to live that way perhaps our lack of courage perhaps it isn't us specifically though i would suspect that it is to some degree or others is because we don't always believe the promises of god in other words as the people of god we need to be fed by the word of god trusting in the promises of god so that we may engage in those mighty exploits that the lord calls us to and may i just say mighty exploits today will simply look like faithfulness getting up out of bed going to work loving our families going to church every sunday being faithful in our lives and in our callings that is a great expression of courage when the world around us is suffering under chaos and under all manner of lawlessness and wickedness we have the words of moses and aaron it's very clear it's very simple it is precisely what god had commanded let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness this holding a feast to me involves worship it involves sacrifice it involves the stated means of grace that god has given to his people in other words god praises the corporate worship of his people and he wants them to leave this bondage in egypt such that they can gather together and worship him in spirit and in truth now we notice the rejection by pharaoh verse 2 the question who is yahweh that i should obey his voice to let israel go again as the sovereign in egypt he doesn't take orders from anybody he doesn't listen to anybody he's not beholden to anybody there's nobody above him in the chain of command so now you have moses and aaron come in the name of a of another god the god of the hebrews and he demands or they demand under that god that that uh pharaoh let their people go or let his people go and so he refuses by saying very simply i do not know the lord nor will i let israel go in essence he is saying i'm not going to submit to this yahweh i'm not going to listen to this god of the hebrews i'm not going to do what you're bidding me to do i'm going to go ahead and dig in my heels i'm going to double down and i'm going to take it out on the people themselves and that brings us to this interchange well back up for just a moment the irony is is that he will certainly come to know who yahweh is he will know it in spades by the end of his dealings with the god of israel he will know it he will learn it he will ultimately be convinced of it but for right now he's arrogant he's proud and his hubris is obvious and what he says is i do not know yahweh nor will i let israel go now that brings this interchange between moses and pharaoh moses expands or explains in verse 3. so they said the god of the hebrews has met with us please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the lord our god lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with sword some have suggested that perhaps what moses is saying here is that if we don't do this then he's going to kill your labor force i don't think that's probably what's in view i think rather moses is highlighting the god with whom we have to do in other words disobey god or disregard this god at your own expense in other words when you disobey this god there are repercussions and while it is not the case that pestilence or sword will fall upon the children of israel it will most certainly fall upon egypt and upon the entirety of that particular nation so again pharaoh responds with anger verse 4 the king of egypt said to them moses and aaron why do you take the people from their work get back to your labor some suggest he's now telling them to go along and serve alongside the slaves whichever it is he wants the people of israel to do the work that they are called to do and pharaoh said look the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor this was something that was interesting in the very first chapter of the book of exodus remember when the children were multiplying greatly the pharaoh at that time was fearful if these people multiplying as they do start to mix with our enemies then they will all sort of gather together in opposition against us so they set task masters over them to keep them too busy to continue to multiply well even though they were afflicted greatly and even though they may have been too busy they still found time to procreate and they still found time to have a great multitude of children so what we find here is pharaoh is operating with that same sort of assumption pharaoh said look the people of land are many now and you make them rest from their labor and i think the reality is that with reference to this great amount of people egyptian economy had become dependent upon that in other words moses and aaron we're not going to do this because we'll see the utter collapse of the egyptian economy robert alter says the most likely sense and highlighting the fact that there are many now he says uh uh is that the hebrew workforce has become so vast and so the egyptian economy has come to depend on this multitude of slave laborers and can scarcely afford an interruption of their work be like persons going to the you know the the head of a company and saying why don't you give all of your employees a week off yeah that's not going to happen if they all have a week off they don't make widgets if they don't make widgets we don't sell widgets and we don't make any money so you can just get that out of your head right now so if pharaoh recognizes the great challenge to the egyptian economy if these slaves don't engage in their work even for three short days that will still have economic impact upon society now notice in the in the third place the sanctions imposed by pharaoh verses six to nine notice in verse six so the same day pharaoh commanded the task masters of the people and their officers so i take the task masters as being egyptians and then the officers of verse 15 are hebrews so you've got the task masters who are under pharaoh and they command israel with reference to their slave labor the officers are israelites that were probably you know elders or or tribal heads or whatever they may have been but they were over the rest of the workforce so it was a matter of mediation it was a matter of you know the pharaoh commands the task masters the task masters can command the officers and then the officers command the slaves and they get the deed done so with reference to verses six and seven he says in ver it says in verse seven you shall no longer give the people the straw to make brick as before let them go and gather straw for themselves originally the egyptians supplied the straw as far as i can tell they mingled in the straw for a binding agent and so they provided that but up to this point or at this point now pharaoh is going to meet this request or this demand from yahweh with harder and more increased labor so the quota is still the same you have to produce the same amount of bricks but now you've got to find the straw on your own you don't have the egyptians supplying that to you rather you need to add that to your already busy day in making these bricks notice the need uh that's in verses six and seven and then the need for the israelites to produce the same quota verse 8 you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before you shall not reduce it for they are idle therefore they cry out saying let us go and sacrifice to our god now business owners may i encourage you not to follow pharaoh here this is probably not the way to build up your business with good morale and all that sort of thing this is a tyrant this is a despot this is a man who has absolute sovereignty or authority at least in his realm and he is not afraid to use it so moses and aaron come to challenge him and to demand that he releases the slaves so they can go worship in the wilderness for three days and he crushes that rebellion he crushes it by uh maintaining the quota of bricks and then taking away the necessary supplies and making them find those supplies and then verse nine again the need for the israelites to engage in more work let more work be laid on them on the men that they may labor in it and let them not regard false words it's another issue if they are working and they are busy they don't have time to entertain thoughts about freedom they don't have time to entertain thoughts about liberty they don't have time to entertain thoughts about living their own life in the worship of their true and living god and so with reference to this stuart makes the good observation the remedy proposed by the king was predictable if work was the way to keep the israelites quiet and obedient a method that had worked well for decades more work was the way to restore quiet and obedience so he meets this opposition and meets it head-on and seeks to crush it calvin pastorally comments thus when god had engaged to be the deliverer of the israelites their trouble became greater and i think that's a big lesson that comes from this particular chapter our brother and his prayers seem to intimidate this kind of foreseeing what we would talk about tonight again when god gives promises of deliverance they don't come right away there may be a season of affliction there may be a season of trial and i think jesus serves as a great example of that in hebrews 5 8 the son of god learned obedience through suffering and if we are going to be conformed unto his image more likely than not we will have to go through a degree of suffering as well those sons of zebedee they're jockeying for position in matthew 20. grant that we may sit on your right and your left when you come in your kingdom and jesus says you don't know what you're asking i've got a baptism to undergo i've got a cup to drink that you know nothing of they arrogantly assert of course we can lord and he reminds them that they will undergo those particular things he reminds them of that that biblical reality that the cross precedes the crown and you see that with the life of the people of god here in egypt so calvin says when god had engaged to be the deliverer of the israelites their trouble became greater by the tyrant adding to their ordinary tasks that of gathering straw for themselves for thus it pleases god to prove the faith of his people and we don't always like that but that's one of the remedial ends in the afflictions and trials that the people of god suffer it is to prove the faith of his people he also adds this helpful comment the more god exerts his power the more is satan's rage excited on the other side and the wicked become more fiercely cruel you see that the manifestation of god's grace is not typically received with reference to the enemies of god in a favorable way remember that parable of the sower specifically in luke 8 when jesus talks about those various types of soil when the man goes out to plant a seed he likens the birds of the air to the devil the birds of the air come and collect that seed and he parallels that or uh uh puts the analogy with reference to the devil the devil steals the scene so that persons won't hear it and post persons won't believe it and persons won't be saved i've often thought the devil is most active in churches that are actually preaching the gospel why would he be active in joel osteen's church there is no threat there whatsoever why would he be active in in benny hinn's church there's no threat there whatsoever it is churches that seek to preach christ and him crucified that more often than not are attacked by the devil himself and i think what calvin says is right on point the more god exerts his power the more is satan's rage excited on the other side and the wicked become more fiercely cruel so always expect that to one degree or another so we have this the sanctions imposed by pharaoh verses six to nine and the the impli implementation of that agenda or those sanctions in verses 10 to 14 by the task masters and they basically rehearse what pharaoh had said verse 10 the task masters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people saying thus says pharaoh i will not give you straw go get yourself straw where you can find it yet none of your work will be reduced imagine that it's a tough one hey your quota's not going to be relaxed but the supplies that you were previously supplied with we're not giving you that anymore so now you need to add your already busy day the actual activity of finding uh the supplies to make the bricks so go get yourself straw where you can find it yet none of your work will be reduced so the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of egypt to gather stubble instead of straw and the task masters force them to hurry saying fulfill your work your daily quota as when there was straw so you see they are lowering the boom they're trying to squelch this desire on the part of the people for freedom for liberty to go into the wilderness to worship their true and living god verse 13 the task masters for uh forced them to say fulfill your work your daily quota as when there was straw also the officers of the children of israel whom pharaoh's taskmasters has set over them were beaten and were asked why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as before so you see this is a a a a a pressure cooker this is a a horrible situation and thus it sort of explains why we get the latter half of the chapter understandably the people of god the covenant community of israel they're not thrilled about this not only has their workload increased uh tremendously but now they're being harassed by these task masters and they're even being beaten if they do not produce as they've been commanded so that brings us to the negative reaction of the israelite officers beginning in verse 15. notice their meeting with pharaoh the fact is that these officers of the hebrews go and meet with pharaoh and they complain verses 15 and 60. now i don't know if this was courageous on their part or or what it was but they certainly exhibit some hutzpah going before the sovereign of the of the nation and essentially saying we don't like what you're doing but that's precisely what they do so the officers of the children of israel came and cried out to pharaoh saying why are you dealing thus with your servants there is no straw given to your servants and they say to us make brick and indeed your servants are beaten but the fault is in your own people now if you didn't already know what the next verse said you probably would surmise pharaoh's not going to do well with this he's not going to say oh thank you for educating me on how to treat a slave force i'm i'm so thankful that that you have wisely perceived the issues and the problems affecting us as a as a civil polity with a with a large workforce i i'm thankful that you've corrected me that's not the pharaoh brethren this is a death spot this is a tyrant this is a dictator that cannot be reasoned with that cannot be negotiated with thus the ten plagues we know that god had said that he would harden pharaoh's heart but he doesn't do that with a judicially innocent man he doesn't do that with a tabula rasa or a blank slate he does that with an already wicked man a man who's already resistant to the god of heaven and earth a man who's already enslaved the covenant people so with reference to pharaoh he is not a good person rather he is a wretch and ultimately god is going to knock him off his perch so verse 17 he said you are idle idol therefore you say let us go and sacrifice to the lord therefore go now and work for no straw shall be given you yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks and the officers of the children of israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said you shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota now that then leads them to blame moses and aaron what happens with pharaoh moves them to go and complain to moses and and aaron that's what we have in verses 20 and 21. notice the text then as they came out from pharaoh they met moses and aaron who stood there to meet them certainly moses and aaron are waiting to hear how they were received by pharaoh and they said to them let the lord look on you and judge because you have made us abhorrent the margin has uh our sent to stink before pharaoh made us abhorrent in the sight of pharaoh and in the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hand to kill us now it is intriguing the officers desire the intervention of god they they in uh excuse me the officers desire the intervention of god to judge moses and aaron not pharaoh which is absolutely incredible they want god to intervene and deal with moses and aaron moses and aaron simply did what god had commanded them to do which had already been agreed upon and had already been received vis-a-vis chapter three god gave them the mission at the end of chapter four they do the miracles that god had given and the people believed and the people worship well as soon as the going gets tough what do the people do they abandon that and they ask for god's intervention not to smash the mouth of pharaoh not to destroy the egyptians but rather to smash the mouths and stop moses and aaron that's a very typical response and one that moses probably had to grow a thick skin with because that is pretty replete in his life and experience when moses sends out spies to recon the land of promise they go and the spies bring back work two of the spies joshua and caleb says it's a great land there's giants in the land but god's promised us the land so let's go at once and take the land joshua and caleb are fired up and raring to go but the ten spies say yeah it's a great land but but there's giants and those giants are formidable and we just don't think we can do it guess who the nation listens to it's not joshua and caleb they listen to the ten whiners and they pick up stones to throw at joshua and or to throw at moses that has become or that will become commonplace in the life and ministry of moses so this is a foreshadowing at least for moses of things that are going to come they're going to get upset at pharaoh and want god to judge you they're going to get upset at their circumstances and want god to judge you they're going to get upset at their surrounding environment and they're going to want god to judge you it's a typical sort of response on the part of the people of israel instead of god judge our enemy they want him to judge their friend the officers blame moses and aaron for the wickedness of pharaoh it's your fault that we're in this mess and again brethren that's a pattern that you'll see consistent with these people when they go out to the wilderness what do they do when they get out there they whine and want to go back they prefer slavery if it means food for the day than living in liberty and trying to find their own food for the day this is the sign of cowardice this is the sign of faithlessness this is the sign or an expression of apostasy when we would rather live in slavery because our our bellies are full than be in freedom where we can worship our living and true god this is something that is going to affect these people throughout the entirety of the pentateuch and beyond into the prophets and is the the reason why we see them cut off in 722 bc and 586 bc and they are certainly typical and symptomatic of the professing people of god throughout the history of the world so i suggest that as we move through these narratives we not only keep our eyes on moses we not only keep our eyes on the enemies we certainly keep our eyes on the god of heaven and earth but we ought to learn a thing or two about how not to act as the professing people of god we did that on sunday night with saul what a great example of apostasy if you got a bit of saul and you repent forsake forsake sin and ask god to forgive you well if you've got some of this israelite blood in you that whines and cries at the first whiff of difficulty or hardship then we should pray to god to increase our faith so that we're not such whims the officers don't want to be abhorrent in the sight of pharaoh they want everything to go back to status quo sure we're okay making bricks as long as they supply the straw you're slaves you're building an empire for pharaoh you have no interest in you benefit nothing from it you're in a sustenance living situation and you're willing to embrace that i would rather side with moses and aaron and let the cards fall where they may brethren this is the sign of cowardice on the part of the people of god steward says behind this rebuke the rebuilt uh rebuke that that these men gave to moses and aaron behind this rebuke appears to be the conviction that moses and aaron needed judgment because the nation's god yahweh would not have let such a thing happen without his will having been thwarted by these leaders in other words their logic is it's your fault god hasn't delivered us no we're just the messengers you've heard that before right don't shoot the messenger it's not his responsibility it's not his fault if he is faithfully proclaiming to you the word of the living god it's god who's responsible and it's god who's behind it he goes on to say the presumption that a good god never lets dangerous or harmful events happen to his people false as it has always been is a very old belief it's the reality brethren there is a life of danger out there even under a sovereign god there is risk there is hardship there is affliction there is turmoil when the master of our religion promises us in john 16 in this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer i've overcome the world then guess what we're gonna have some problems when his chief apostle says all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution brethren it's not the presence of persecution that should ever uh surprise the child of god i would argue it's the lack of persecution that ought to surprise the child of god but thankfully we may be looking at a lot more as the days proceed if what we're seeing in our current political climate is any indicator there may be more on the horizon for the people of god but i think that's key the presumption that a good god never lets dangerous or harmful events happen to his people falsehood is false as it has always been is a very old belief and again it's so unscriptural bad things happen to jesus he was wholly harmless and undefiled separate from sinners he was perfect and yet he had suffering he had hardship he had difficulty for those of you who are reading robert murray mcshane's uh scriptural the calendar to read the scripture you just read second corinthians 11. what's the chief apostle face in his life rolls royces summer homes 600 dollar t-shirts 800 sneakers that's not what paul faced paul faced a whole lot of hurt a whole lot of affliction a whole lot of hardship and a whole lot of trial so behind their complaint is simply that if god is for us to deliver us and he hasn't immediately then it must be the fault of moses and aaron let's blame the messenger instead of being patient and waiting upon the god who has all of this under his sovereign control so then from there it's the next logical step for moses to go to god and thus blame him notice in verse 22 so moses returned to yahweh 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 he had been told of god's plan beforehand chapter 3 18 be but he'd also been told of god's plan beforehand that pharaoh wasn't going to submit right away chapter 3 verse 19. he as well had been told that god would harden his pharaoh heart pharaoh's heart in chapter 4 at verse 21. so moses had this information but what he hadn't figured on what he hadn't calculated was that pharaoh's cruelty would be vented on this people why he didn't think about that not really sure but remember moses is new at this i guess when you asked him many many years later he would have known a whole lot better but at this particular point he didn't calculate he didn't anticipate that this sort of pressure would be turned against the people he didn't he underestimated the tyranny of this particular tyrant perhaps he thought like so many do oh he's a pretty good guy no he's not you'll hear that about certain political figures or certain sort of famous persons oh they're pretty good people brethren i got a basic fundamental operating thought if somebody's committed to murdering babies they're not decent people whatever we may say otherwise they've got big problems if they're in the business or they endorse or they condone or they promote the murder of babies or the the destruction of cities or the the promotion of you know blm which is marxist communism that's not good people brethren these are rebels against god's order and they ought not to be esteemed as being good people i'm not suggesting moses looked at it that way but he didn't anticipate the cruelty of this particular tyrant so basically in chapter 6 verses 1 and following i wanted to make sure i i got that in because moses goes to the lord and pours out his heart to him he says what he says in verses 22 and 23 and brethren that's honest praying 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 so god doesn't say how dare you question me god answers god affirms god confirms his plan he appeals first to his power in verse one the fact is you're going to see these mighty acts and mo uh pharaoh is going to let us let the people go but then verses two and following appeals to his covenant so it is power and covenant that brings the assurance to moses that it is the reality that god will deliver his people now as we conclude i want to just make a few few observations one i'm going to borrow heavily from john calvin in the first place the opposition to moses and aaron the opposition to moses and aaron we saw something similar the other day in acts chapter 20. remember when paul says therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the holy spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of god which is purchased with his own blood paul then speaks or gives two reasons why they need to take heed to themselves and to all the flock because there's two threats there's an internal threat and there's an external threat the external comes first there are savage walls that are going to come in and they're not going to spare the flock that's understandable we get that living in a world filled with sin and filled with the curse of set we understand why janice and jamers would would oppose moses we understand why hymenaeus and philetus would oppose paul we understand that or rather outsiders would oppose paul but it's the insiders that are that are very much in effect and we find that here so you've got the opposition of pharaoh in verses 1 to 14 and then you've got the opposition of israel israel opposes moses and aaron i would imagine brethren at this particular point moses isn't feeling great he's not going wow this is awesome already he's shown hesitation remember god calls him and he says who am i i'm just insignificant i'm not up for this and then he says who shall i send say sent me and then we get to chapter four and he says oh lord i i can't really talk very well i'm not skilled i'm not an orator i'm i'm not able to stand before pharaoh and say let my people go and god says i'm sovereign over that you don't need to worry i'm with you well well here are my lord sen send someone else because i'm i'm just not up for the task he's already skittish he's already hesitant he's already got this in him now he stands before pharaoh perhaps he thought that pharaoh would say sure thing moses let him go let him worship but you know let just let him go forever that that that's even the best way that doesn't happen so he understands that with reference to the external threat and now he's got to face his own people that are basically blaming him for their woes and their trials and their hardships kaiser says it is one thing to receive opposition from the expected quarter of the enemy but it is another thing to be rebuffed by the very friends you are trying to deliver the children of israel had had the promises of god the children of israel had seen the miracles of god according to chapter 4 and the children of israel still are recalcitrant they are still rebellious they are still murmuring and grumbling and complaining they would rather have status quo brick making where pharaoh and their task masters are all happy even though they're slaves even though they get nothing from their labor except the sustenance living they like that rather than challenging the status quo with moses and aaron and going as god called them to go now the the second thing the longest thing that i'm going to say is owing to calvin calvin's treatment on this is very excellent if you have calvin's commentaries the first page the first verse he gives five reasons why god does what he does in this situation because i wouldn't think that there you know that there isn't some israelite in some of us i mean we read this and we say yeah that doesn't seem right you know god's going to deliver them but before he delivers them it has to get worse and it has to get more difficult and there's more hardship for them well i think calvin's very very pastoral and very perceptive in his treatment the first place he says it is to demonstrate god's power we already saw that last week chapter three at the end he indicates that paul in romans chapter nine that gets 14 to 17 indicates that for this reason i raised you up pharaoh to demonstrate my power remember it's not just pharaoh that god is opposing it's not just the nation of egypt it's not some liberation theology nonsense where it's just slavery that's the big problem god is executing judgment against the gods of egypt exodus 12 indicates that these were idolaters they were polytheists and god is going to display there is but one only the true and living god so calvin says if pharaoh complied immediately the glory of the victory would not have been so illustrious so it is to demonstrate his power all of these plagues ultimately converge to bring glory to god secondly to demonstrate his love to israel you might say wait that doesn't seem like love again brethren god loves us even when we're in affliction god loves us even when we're suffering god loves us even when we're tried it's not that we're in trial we're in affliction we're in suffering we're in hardship and for that time god doesn't love us and we're waiting for him to reactivate his love on the other side of the trial yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me god is with us in the valley of the shadow of death that's the teaching of david in psalm 23 this is a demonstration of his love to israel thirdly to teach his servants patience to teach his servants patience calvin says he wished to accustom his servants in all ages to patience lest they should faint in their minds if he does not immediately answer their prayers and at every moment relieve them from their distresses that's a good lesson for us as well we don't get what we want immediately we stop praying we don't get what we want immediately we stop following god do we say those things that foolish unbelievers like well you know i tried to pray but nothing happened oh really you tried to pray and nothing happened i know people have prayed all their lives for specific things and all their lives they've heard the answer no from god fourthly to demonstrate that his hand must always prevail he says against all the strivings and devices of satan against the madness of the ungodly and all worldly hindrances this is one of the reasons why he does what he does in the ensuing narrative fifth to prepare the church he says by detecting the illusions of satan and the magicians he would render his church more wary that she might carefully watch against such devices and that her faith might continue invincible against all the machinations of error it's a good thought man or brethren it's the reality that what he is showing with reference to these magicians we'll see they're able to duplicate a few things they need to be wary not everybody that does something is doing it based on the power of god you get to deuteronomy chapter 13 there's a caution there against false prophets the the caution isn't oh they're never going to do anything the caution is that if they do it but it isn't for the glory of god then do not regard that that's the reality there are lying deceptive things that happen owing to satan and what calvin says is he would render his church more wary that she might carefully watch against such devices and then oh sixly he says to convince pharaoh that his folly was inexcusable he quote i quote him he says he would convince pharaoh and the egyptians that their folly was not to be excused by any pretense of ignorance and at the same time by this example he would show us how horrible a darkness possesses the minds of the reprobate when he has deprived them of the light of his spirit that'll certainly come out in spades as we move through these things ten plagues pharaoh really it took the actual burying of your first born child to actually believe that this god was in fact true i mean that shows hard-heartedness completely i've mentioned before they're in the you know the red sea while the waters are walled up and the the chariot wheels start to fall off if i'm an egyptian soldier i'm really rethinking my life and my commitments and my fidelity to pharaoh thinking he's not the wisest leader i've ever met and of course that water collapses and destroys them and they are strewn on the seashore like sand brethren those are some very good pastoral lessons again if you have calvin's commentary you can find them online those are some very helpful things to keep in our minds as we move through this section of narrative well let's close in a word of prayer father thank you for your word and thank you for the fact that you have revealed yourself in the scriptures of the old and new testaments i pray for all of us that we would feed our hearts our souls our minds on the word of god that we would steady our hearts with reference to the promises of god that we would have an increase of faith we know father that you give the grace of faith so that we can close with christ but we know as well you increase it in our daily walk you increase it through our reading and through our praying and through our our attendance upon the corporate means and so god i pray that everyone in this church would grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ and grant us courage god flowing from that faith and help us not to shrink back from declaring truth help us not to shrink back from confessing our our faith in our savior and grant us grace to shine his lights in this crooked and perverse generation and give us the courage and boldness that we see here and moses and aaron to hold forth the word of truth and we ask this in the name of the lord jesus christ amen