Facing Off with Pharaoh

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Exodus chapter 5. Exodus chapter 5. And as we embark on this fifth chapter of Exodus. We will realize that there's going to be a great conflict between two men, Moses and Pharaoh, that will last all the way to Exodus chapter 14. And so we're going to spend a lot of time looking at Moses and Pharaoh, looking at their wits, their words, and the wonder of God as he would operate in the life of both of these men. Let's read the text, chapter 5, verses 1 to 23.

And afterward, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence.

or with a sword. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors. Again Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors. So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously. Let them go and gather straw for themselves but the quota of the bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them.

You are not to reduce any of it, because they are lazy. Therefore, they cry out, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it, that they may pay no attention to false words. So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and spoke to the people, saying, Thus says Pharaoh: I am not going to give you any straw. You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it. But none of your labor will be reduced. So the people scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

And the taskmasters pressed them, saying Complete your work quota, your daily amount, just as when you had straw. Moreover, the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them. were beaten and were asked, Why have you not completed your required amount, either yesterday or to day, in making brick as previously? Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, Why do you deal this way with your servants? There is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep saying to us, Make bricks.

And behold, your servants are being beaten, but it is a fault of your own people. But he said, You are lazy, very lazy. Therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. So go now and work, for you shall be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks. And the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks. When they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron, as they were waiting for them.

And they said to them, May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight. In the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, O LORD, why hast thou brought harm to this people? Why didst thou ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has done harm to this people, and thou hast not delivered thy people at all. Chapter 5. Hard to believe, we'll get through one chapter in one week.

But this is Moses facing off with Pharaoh. All that God had planned. Is put into operation on this day. And Moses begins with a confrontation with Pharaoh. From there, the conflict with his people, and then he will pour out his complaint before God. And then, Lord, willing, time permitting, we will look at some comments for For us today, as we seek to examine the life of Moses and what God wanted to teach him in light of the rejection he faced on this day in Exodus chapter 5.

But we'll begin first of all with the confrontation with Pharaoh about to embark on telling Pharaoh the plans of God Moses and Aaron move out to fulfill God's plan For their lives.

And yet, they did not know what kind of reception they would have. So they go into the presence of Pharaoh and they tell him about the God of Israel. Now that's a problem because you see Pharaoh sees himself as God. They were his slaves. And so who is your God to tell me? The supreme God of Egypt to let my people, the slaves, the Hebrew slaves, go. So we look at this confrontation with Pharaoh and begin with a requisition.

Moses and Aaron go in and tell him very clearly, thus says the Lord God of Israel, you need to let my people go. And the number one reason you need to let them go is because they need to worship me.

That was the requisition that Moses would give. Now you might ask, well, why did they have to leave Egypt to worship God? Could they not just worship God in Egypt? You see, the sacrifice that the Hebrew people would give would be a sacrifice of animals to their God. To the Egyptian people, those animals were special, and it would be an abomination to them if the Hebrew people did that in Egypt. That's one answer as to why God wanted them to take a journey three days into the wilderness. But on top of that, there is something very significant here that we need to understand concerning worship.

That there needs to be a separation from the world if there's ever going to be an effective kind of worship. Egypt, throughout the Bible, is referred to as the world system. God was going to show Moses that even a simple request of three days out. One day to worship and three days back, seven days, not even Pharaoh would allow them to do that. But I want you to notice Phar's rejection when he says these words in verse number 2.

Who is the Lord? Who is Jehovah? I've heard of many gods, but I haven really heard of this God. Where did he come from? And you see, the problem is: if Pharaoh says, okay. You can do that. He is sub to a higher God. Well, he 's not about to do that. Who is the Lord? And then he says, This. That I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I do not know him. I don't know this God. And besides, I will not let Israel go. You see, the reason he wasn't about to let the Hebrew people go is because he didn't know Jehovah God.

If you know God, you obey God. If you don't know God, you disobey God. That is so important for us to grasp. Because you see, Pharaoh is the mark of the unbeliever here. Who is this guy? Remember on the Damascus road in Acts chapter 9? Same question. Saul says, Who art thou? Who are you, Lord? And what was the very next question? What will you have me now to do? Once Saul realized who he was speaking to, the natural byproduct was, okay, what is it now you want me to do? I'm going to obey you. I'm going follow you.

I going to serve you. That's just a natural byproduct of being a Christian. But Pharaoh says, Well, who's Jehovah? That I should listen to him, that I should do what he asks. Listen to this. Remember these words? 2 Thessalonians 1, verse number 8? That when our Lord returns, listen, he will deal out retribution to those who do not know God. And to those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Do that? But Pharaoh's rejection would lead to several ramifications. One would be the cruelty to the Israelites.

They had to meet the same quota, but they had to gather their own straw. This was impossible. They couldn't do it. And so the demands became more string. They became stronger upon the people of God. And the taskmasters had no sympathy for down in verse number 14, they would beat. The foremen. And the foremen were the men who were Hebrews, who were made to be the overseers of their own people, to lead them and to guide them. And they would be beaten unmercifully because they would not meet. The quota.

The whole purpose. Listen, the whole purpose behind Pharaoh was to strike fear in the nation of Israel Was to get them to fear him more than anything else. Was to get them to realize that he was the God, he was the Pharaoh, he was the king. So he thought. That was his objective. That's what he wanted to see happen. And he would attack the words of God. Over in verse 9, he says, Let the laborer be heavy on the men, and let them work at it that they may pay no attention to False words. See, he att the words of God.

God said to Moses, This is what you tell him. You go tell him exactly what I say. So Moses goes, tells him exactly what God says.

And what does Pharaoh do? He attacks the words of God. Those are false words, he says. Those are empty words. Those are vain words. Don't pay attention to what this Hebrew God has said. Pay attention to what I say. And if you don't, here will be the punishment. Here will be what will happen if you think that your God will bring a sword on you. If you don't worship him correctly, you just wait and see what I will do to you as the supreme God of Egypt if you don't fulfill your quota every single day.

That was his motivation. That was his drive, and that was his desire. He would inflict cruelty upon the Israelites. But notice the ramification of this for the Israelites.

Look what it says in verse number 15. Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came, and what's the next phrase? What's it say? They cried out to who? Pharaoh. Notice they didn't cry out to God.

They cried out to Pharaoh. When things weren't right in the workplace, they went to the guy in charge of the workplace and cried out to him. At no time do we read of them crying out to God for the situation. And notice, their cry, listen, their cry was not about the fact that they couldn't worship.

Their cry was about the fact that their work was too hard. You see, their work took precedence over their worship. Whenever that happens, you cry to the wrong person. And that's what they did. They cried to the wrong person. They should have cried out to God. You see, man really truly is more concerned about his material needs than his spiritual needs. That's why God said in Matthew 6:3, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all your material needs to be taken care of.

But if you don't do that first, you will always, always be struggling with the material needs. Always. And that's the truth. So we move to point number two: the conflict with his people.

These will go a little quicker. Notice, first of all, the foreman, verses 17 and 18. But he said, You are lazy, very lazy, therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. So go now and work, for you shall be given. No straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks. And the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, you must not reduce your daily amount of bricks. The foreman are putting two and two together. Who went and told Pharaoh about letting the people go?

Well, there's only two guys we know that would do that: that's Moses and Aaron. How would he know about the sacrifice to the Lord? How would Pharaoh know about us celebrating the feast in the wilderness? How would Pharaoh know that unless Moses and Aaron went to him and made a request? So, the reason things are the way they are is because the guys over us, the leaders, made a decision about our lives, and we don't like it. Because it affects us. So let's go see them. Let's go see Moses and Aaron.

So, sure enough, in verse number 20, when they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them, and they said to them, may the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight, and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to Kill us. Listen, they were more afraid of Pharaoh than they were of God. So the foreman and their fear. Lead us to a foretaste of things to come. Folks, this is the way it's always going to be from here on out.

Hate to break the news to you, but this is the way the Israelites were. They would complain. They would bellyach, they would grumble, and on down this series, as we move toward the end of this series, we will talk to you about the consequences and the cure of complaining because that's coming. If you look vertically, if you look upwards, you'll fear God. But if you look horizontally, you'll fear that which is around you. And that's what they were doing. And I just trust and hope that we are not these kind of people.

Which leads us to Moses' complaint before God. Listen to what he says. He asks the question we always ask, why? I read this. I had to laugh. I had to laugh at myself. I had to laugh at you. Granted, I laughed longer at you than I did at myself. But we do laugh because, why, Lord? Why? Look what he says. Moses returned, at least he went to the Lord. You know what I'm saying? I got to give that to Moses. At least he went and poured his complaint out to the Lord, and that's what we should do, right?

And God is so good because God will answer the why question for Moses in chapter 6. God will answer Moses and God will give him great encouragement. And so you come back next week because I want to give you great encouragement, but you to wait seven days to get it. But yet, what he says right here, why? O Lord, why hast thou brought harm to this people? Why? Listen, why have you punished them? Who did he blame? God. Right? You ever did that? No. You don't blame God for the way things are going, do you?

You never go oh, gee, thanks a lot, God. Why are you making things worse for them, Lord? As if it's God's fault. We're so quick to blame God. God forbid it should ever be our fault. God forbid that we ever did anything wrong. God forbid that we are a stiff-necked, sinful, rebellious people and are afraid to admit it. Why? Why do you punish them, God? Why do you do that? Here's Moses, and he's experiencing, listen, what every eff leader will experience, and that it's always lonely at the top. Listen, if you want to be a leader and you don't like to be lonely, don't be a leader.

Don't do it because you'll be a bad leader. A terrible leader. You want to be a leader? You got to be prepared to have no one but God by your side. You got to be prepared to stand alone. When everybody else is against you, and Moses would constantly, that's why 40 years on the backside of the desert, being all alone, prepared him to be alone for the next 40 years. You got to be alone, Moses. You got to be able to stand strong alone because nobody else is going to stand with you. And you got to stand against Aaron.

You got to stand against Miriam. You got to stand against all the leaders. You got to stand again all People, and if you don't do it, Moses, you're going to falter. You got to stand alone. Got to stand with me alone, Moses. And he goes to God, he pours his comp out to God and says, Lord, why have you harmed them? Why have you punished them? Question number two.

Why have you picked me? This is what it says. Why didst thou ever send me? Now he's questioning his calling in life. But a lot of times that's our mentality, right? Why did you punish them as if it's God's fault? Lord, why did you call me? You made a mistake, Lord. You made a big mistake. And then he says, Why haven't you kept your promise? He says, Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has done harm to this people, and thou hast not delivered thy people at all. You didn't keep your promise.

You said you were going to do this and it hasn't happened. You ever been there? Sure, you have. You've prayed for something, and you've asked God to do something, and you've read the promises in God's Word, and it doesn't happen when. Today, right? It doesn't happen tomorrow. It doesn't happen in your timetable. God, you haven't changed my husband. You said you would, and you didn't do it. So you broke your promises. You didn't keep your promises, God. Why did you call me in this marriage? Why did you put me here?

Why have you punished me? Is that not our attitude half the time? Oh, we set our sights on this ministry or this job, and we move our family to this location, and all of a sudden we go to work and everything falls apart. Instead of getting promoted, I get demoted. The car they offered me is no longer in existence. I got to buy my own car. The house I thought I was going to get, I can't get now.

Lord, why are you punishing me? Why am I here? Why have you done this to me? Why didn't you call somebody else? And Lord, why didn't you make me happy? Why didn't you fulfill your promise? How many times do we do that? You know, usually we forget what God has already said. God did say these words in chapter 3, in verse 18. He says, and they will pay heed to what you say, and you, with the elders of Israel, will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, so now please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord.

So that's all happen, just like God said, right? Verse 20, 19, I'm sorry. But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go except under. comp, so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles, which I shall do in the midst of it and after that. He will let you go. Wait a minute. It hasn't happened as God has said yet. And yet, Moses, like us, shows us how impatient he is. We expect God to move just like that. We expect God to make it happen today. And if He doesn't, He must not be powerful enough, or He must not be my God, or He's too slow.

And we exem our impatience. That's what Moses did. His disillusionment led to disappointment, led to despair, led to depression. God, what happened? You ever been there? Why? If we were honest, we'd have to all say we've been there. And maybe you're there today. And you're asking, how come? Why? God wants to answer Mos. He wants Moses to understand that Moses, it's not about your way, it's about my way. And God is going to offer Moses. Some of the greatest counsel of encouragement he would ever receive because that's the way God is.

You see, he poured out his complaint to God. He asked the questions, and God, in his grace and mercy, will answer him. Because that's what God does, and God wants to answer you as well. But you're going to have to come back next week to figure out how God's going to do that. In the meantime, let me give you two comments.

Two comments. One, on worship, work, and the will of God. And two, on your call, conflict, and the confidence of God. First of all, in terms of your worship, your work, And the will of God.

Those who worship well will always work well. Wors is the prerequisite. To fruitful work. Worship is the human response, celebration, and consecration to divine revelation. What is the human response to divine revelation? To celebrate my God and to consecrate myself to my God through sacrifice, through service, and through separation? That's what worship is. When that happens, my work will flourish for God. This is the will of God for your life. To present your body a living sacrifice that's holy, acceptable, separate, and distinct unto God.

That is your reasonable service. That you may be able to prove what is that perfect will of God. God wants you to worship Him, and God wants you to work for Him in that order. About your call and the conflict you face, the call to a job, the call in your ministry at the church, the call into your marriage, God putting you together, and the conflict that's there, there needs to be strong confidence in God. That God is who He says He is and is completely true to His word. You see, when God calls you anywhere, be guaranteed of one thing: conflict.

God called Moses to do a great work, and Moses faced one conflict after another. When God calls you, there will be conflict. You must be willing to face that conflict. Like when Paul was chosen, it was Saul in Acts 9. God told Ananias, You tell Saul how much he must suffer for my name's sake. He's going to bear my name to Gentiles and the kings. But on the other hand, he is going to suffer greatly for me because in the ministry there is conflict. But he must have confidence in me. He must trust in me.

He must believe in me. He must depend upon me. And that's where all of us need to be. You see, the Israelites weren willing to depend upon their God and have confidence in him. They cried out to Pharaoh. At least Moses would cry out to God, but his confidence began to wane because he didn't realize all that God had said. To its completion. And we read it in Exodus chapter 3, verses 18 and 19. Except by compulsion we not let them go. So I will stretch out my mighty hand and I will cause him to let you go.

And then you will leave. But Moses was impatient to wait for the plan of God to unfold. He needed to have confidence in his God. In Exodus chapter 6, God will instill that confidence in him by reiterating one more time exactly what he said. And God says, if you understand what I have said and you believe in what I have said, you trust me, and you watch and see what happens.

That's how God works. So, whether it's Moses facing off with Pharaoh, or whether it's you facing off with your spouse, or whether it's you facing off with your boss at your workpl God says, You trust me.

And watch me work. Let's pray together.