Thru the Bible: Moses Part 2 (The Standoff Between God and Pharaoh)

In today’s conversation, we’ll continue on with our exploration through the 3rd Era of the Bible—the Exodus. We’ll pick back up with the story of Moses and the Israelites as God brings their time in slavery to an end, and we’ll discover that sometimes things get more difficult before they get better. We’ll discuss how God often shares the promise without sharing the process and how those times can cause us to become more deeply aware of our spiritual deficiencies and our reliance upon Him. We’ll confront some spiritual realities that often go overlooked and untalked about, and which might be a bit uncomfortable for many of us. So, pull up a chair at our table, and let’s dive into the conversation.

Scriptures:

• Exodus 5:1-2, 6-9, 19-23
• Exodus 6:6-13
• Psalm 130:7-8
• Ephesians 1:7
• Jeremiah 6:10
• Leviticus 26:41
• Exodus 7:2-12, 20-24
• Ephesians 4:17-18
• Romans 1:18-23
• Exodus 8:18-19

TEACHING & DISCUSSION:

• When things get worse before they get better—when you’re walking in obedience in response to a command/promise!
• Re-Introduction, Redemption, and the covenant. 
• The people didn’t believe because their spirits were broken. When this is the case, there’s nothing we can say…….we have to let God do it His way and in His timing…
• “Uncircumcised lips” — I think this is not just about efficiency. Before he said he was “slow of speech,” but now he describes his inadequacy as “uncircumcised.” Same word is used when God is speaking to his people in Jeremiah 6:10 & Leviticus 26:41
• Sometimes when we walk into something, and the reality of it is much more difficult than we anticipated…..God brings us face to face with our own spiritual lack. Moses was talking more about his spiritual insufficiency here rather than his physical insufficiency… Before he was like, “I’m not physically qualified” and now he’s more like “I’m not spiritually qualified”
• There were 10 plagues, each one basically a judgment on a specific god of the Egyptians (Nile was life, frogs were fertility, etc.)—because in verse 5 God said The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.
• The revelation of God and Pharaoh’s hardness of heart. God reveals Himself to ALL people, so Pharaoh’s hardness of heart was his own doing. God worked from Pharaoh’s hard heart because Pharaoh himself had hardened his heart.
• The magicians. The magicians could do the first three signs—the staff becoming a snake, the water to blood, and the frogs. Later we find out that the next one they could not do—the gnats…
• Only two supernatural powers exist—God and Satan. So anything at all in the supernatural realm (magic, sorcery, witchcraft, ghosts, spirits, etc….) that is not God is Satan…GUARD YOUR HEART & YOUR MIND.