Chapter 5. I have six points
I'm going to use tonight as we go through this chapter. First,
the time of confrontation, verse 1. And afterward, Moses and Aaron
went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. The word afterward, notice it
says an afterward, that might include all that we have seen
thus far in the book of Exodus. It might include Moses meeting
the Lord at the burning bush and God revealing to Moses his
name, I am that I am. It might include all of the objections. We saw there were four objections
that Moses raised as to why he shouldn't be the one who should
go before Pharaoh. And then, of course, it could
also include Moses and Aaron, as we saw last time at the end
of chapter four, who went in and spoke to the elders of the
nation of Israel. Afterward, the time has now come
to speak to Pharaoh. The time has now come to speak
to this mighty monarch. According to Exodus 3, if you
look back in just a few pages, Exodus 3 and verse 18, it wasn't
only Moses and Aaron who go in this first time to meet Pharaoh,
because God had told Moses, chapter 3 and verse 18,
And they shall hearken to thy voice, that is, the elders, and
thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king
of Egypt. And you shall say unto him, The
Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go. We beseech thee three days journey
into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. So it wasn't only Moses and Aaron
who go in this first time, but the elders accompanied them before
Pharaoh. And what I see in this, first
of all, is we see God's grace. God's grace in giving these men
boldness, the fortitude that allowed them to go in and speak
these words to Pharaoh, and especially Moses. You remember the last
time Moses had met with a Pharaoh, not this Pharaoh, but another
Pharaoh, he had attempted to take Moses' life. And in the
court there, There could well have been some who were still
alive. Moses was still alive after 40
years, who might have remembered Moses. But I see his courage,
all of these men, their courage going into this mighty, mighty
ruler. And they were aware, not only
was he a powerful ruler, but he was a cruel ruler. I mean,
they were well aware of the fact that he had caused them to cast
the children, the babies that were born, into the ocean. You know, there's just something
about taking the life of children that is especially hateful, isn't
it? Especially deemed to be awful. I'm sure you notice over in Israel,
just recently, Hamas, took those hostages and many of them have
died. But when they returned, the bodies
of those two little boys, both of them less than three or four
years old, the hatred, the evil that all of Israel and all of
the world should have felt, right? To kill a baby. Of course, we see it in our country,
and not only our country, but all over the world all the time.
They take the lives of unborn babies, and no one thinks anything
about it. But it was something about taking
the lives and the way they strangled with their hands, evidently,
those two small boys. That just brought out the rage
of the world, and rightly so, because of the evil that they
had perpetrated upon that family. And Pharaoh, he was like that. This Pharaoh, I mean, he had
no regard to the life of babies. Throw them in the river. He told
the midwives, remember, destroy them. I see the grace of God
in giving Moses and Aaron, his brother, and the elders of Israel
the courage they had to go in before this man with such a command. You know that verse in 2 Corinthians
12 and verse 9 where the apostle Paul gave his confession. He said that God told him, my
grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. And what we see here is these
men, in comparison to the ruler, they were all weak. They had
no power in themselves, but yet God gave them the strength and
gave them the grace to do so. And notice what they say. This
is not a request. This is not a request that they
presented to Pharaoh, not at first. No, no. Let my people
go. Let my people go, that they may
hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. That wasn't a request, that was
a command. God Almighty, through Moses,
through Aaron, gave this command. Now according to A.W. Pink, He
made these comments here. So far as Pharaoh was concerned,
this was God addressing his responsibility. When Moses spoke, let my people
go. This was God addressing Pharaoh's
responsibility, giving him opportunity for obedience, speaking to him
first in grace, Before he dealt in wrath, he acted in mercy. And then author Pink gave two
examples of this, how that God first deals with men in mercy
or in grace, and then pours out his wrath. Never reversed, but
always, first of all, mercy and grace. And the examples he gave
was, first of all, Noah. Before God sent the flood, and
destroyed all flesh outside of that ark, what did he do? He
sent a preacher, a preacher of righteousness, Noah. And for
120 years while the ark was being prepared, Noah was preaching. And every time, I don't know
if it was just vocally or every time that they nailed a nail
into that ark, God was preaching, God was testifying. and he was
a preacher of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Well, the
only righteousness that God will accept is the righteousness of
Christ. He was a preacher of righteousness. I'm a preacher of righteousness.
I like to think of that, that I'm in the line with Noah. He
was a preacher of righteousness and he had to be preaching the
righteousness of the one who was promised to come, yes. But
now I preach the righteousness of the one who has come and has
established righteousness by his obedience. And that righteousness
is yours, it's mine, it's everyone who believes. The second example that Pink
gave, not only about Noah before the flood, but the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's son, before God destroyed Jerusalem. And he did that in AD 70, of
course, with the armies of Rome. But before he destroyed the city,
Jerusalem, the capital, and many of the people All of them who
remained in Jerusalem, God first of all sent his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, a message of mercy. And we remember how the Lord
Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem, didn't he? Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He wept over Jerusalem because
he knew what was coming, what was coming upon that city and
upon all unbelievers. I wonder sometimes myself, I
just wonder if I have the compassion, the passion that I should have
for lost men and women. I don't, I know I don't. I mean
to think of what men are going out into eternity to experience. It should cause us to weep, shouldn't
it? Weep and pray and testify and preach and do everything
we can. Send the gospel out to missionaries
and pastors. Well, this is the first time
in our text here tonight, this is the first time that God has
called the God of Israel as a nation. Now, he was called once before
this the God of Israel, but he was speaking only of Jacob when
he changed Jacob's name to Israel. But now, this is what Moses and
Aaron and the elders tell Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Remember last week when God referred
to the nation of Israel as his firstborn? We know that is a
type, of course, of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ was
born and Joseph, his supposed father, was warned of an angel,
of what Herod was going to do, what did he do? He took his son
and married. into Egypt, and they stayed there
for a while, that the scripture might be fulfilled out of Israel,
have I called my son, my firstborn. Well, here's the second point. The haughty monarch's answer
in verse two, and Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should
obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go." Now, I've read that the Egyptians worshipped
80 different gods, 80 different gods, and the description in
Romans chapter one of man's depravity. We know that was true of the
Egyptians. Remember, let me read this verse
from Romans one that tells us about the depravity of men, all
men. Change the glory, men change
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man. and to birds, and to four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." When God brings these plagues
upon Egypt in the chapters that follow, remember one of those
plagues was the flies. They worshiped the flies. Isn't
that amazing? I mean, think about it. Isn't it amazing that a man who
originally was created in the image of God has fallen into
such sin and such depravity that a man would worship a fly or
a frog or a calf? And yet we know they did. That's
humankind, isn't it? And one of the commandments that
God gave to Israel, thou shalt make unto thee no graven image. It is such an insult to God to
try to represent him by anything that we can see, anything that
we can make ourselves. It's such an insult to God because
of who he is. the incomprehensible spirit. We must worship him in spirit
and in truth. Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Now, Pharaoh knew of all these
other gods. I don't know if he knew of 80,
but that's what they tell us. The Egyptians worshiped 80 different
gods, but he knew a lot of gods. He knew their names. He'd heard
of them. But he had never heard, he says,
of the Lord Jehovah. Jehovah he had never heard. Never heard of the living God.
And so he confessed, I don't know him. Never heard of him. And why, now think about this,
and why should I obey him? When I rule over the people that
you say he is their God. And I rule over those people.
I reign over those people. Why should I allow Israel to
go? You know, this also reminds us
of Paul when he was in the New Testament, when he was preaching
in Athens. Now, Athens was known as the
seat of learning at that time, wasn't it? It was all the philosophers. They're still quoted and people
still study their philosophies, and yet Paul said he found in
that city all those various altars, and he found that one altar to
the unknown God. Paul said, that's the God I want
to talk to you about. He liveth not in temples made
with hands. Oh, what a message Paul preached
there to those people on Mars. And some believed, and some laughed. They especially laughed at the
resurrection. A man is dead for three days
and you say he comes back to life? Yes, that's what we say. He died, we know that, but he
didn't stay dead, did he? He's alive. Some laughed, some
believed, and like always, some said, well, Consider this another
day, another day. The gospel is not an invitation. You know, that's the way it has
been presented for so long. But the scripture is very clear
that the gospel is not an invitation. It is a declaration of what God
demands of sinners. What does he demand of sinners? commanded every man everywhere
to repent, all men. God now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. That's what Paul preached there
on Mars Hill. And then the apostle John in
his first letter said, and this is a commandment. This is a commandment. Sometimes people say, well, I
don't know if I have a right. I don't know if I feel what I
need to feel. No, no, this is the commandment
that we believe on him whom God has sent. We believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ. Why should I? This is Pharaoh's
reasoning. Hardy, yes. Why should I obey
the word of the God of a people over whom I'm ruling? Doesn't
look like he's helped them. They're slaves. Why should I
obey him? Well, notice thirdly, Moses'
response to Pharaoh in verse three. And they said, the God
of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee,
three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the
Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the
sword. It's interesting if you lay verse
one down alongside of verse three, these comparisons. You notice in verse one, the
demand. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Now that is from God's divine
side, let my people go. But then notice in verse three,
the human side is a request. The God of the Hebrews has met
with us, let us go. We pray thee, three days journey
into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God. You know,
for years I didn't understand that verse in 2 Corinthians 5
and verse 20, where we read, we pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled unto God. That's not God speaking. God
never says to anyone, I pray you, be reconciled unto me. That's the voice of the preachers,
the apostles. That's the voice of men, we pray
you. And we see the same thing here.
God's command is, let my people go. The voice of Moses is, we
request, we pray thee, let us go. We pray thee, three days
journey. Another comparison that we see
between the two verses is, in verse one, it is that we may
hold a feast. But then in verse three, it is
that we may sacrifice unto the Lord. A feast speaks of rejoicing,
doesn't it? Rejoicing. And a sacrifice is
what makes rejoicing possible. We couldn't have any reason for
rejoicing if there were not a sacrifice. And that sacrifice we know is
Christ. We notice also why Moses said
they needed to sacrifice. Notice what he says, lest he
fall upon us with pestilence. We need to go and we need to
make a sacrifice lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with
the sword. And isn't that a confession of
guilt? Isn't that a confession of the
need that they recognized of the shedding of blood? Because
the scriptures tell us without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission. There must be an acceptable sacrifice. There must be an acceptable substitutionary
sacrifice for God to turn his wrath away from sinners. Lest, he said, we need to go
sacrifice unto God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with
the sword. There's only one way of reconciliation
with God, to God, and that is through that substitutionary
sacrifice of Christ. I'm so thankful it's this way,
aren't you? There's only one way. Wouldn't it be confusing
if there were five or ten different ways? You never would know if
you took the right way or not. But there's one way, and Christ
is that one way. The only way to the Father. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Pharaoh's response to Moses now, beginning with verse
four. And the king of Egypt said unto
them, wherefore do you, Moses and Aaron, let or hinder the
people from their works, get you unto your burdens? Pharaoh
said, behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make
them rest from their burdens? Pharaoh commanded the same day
the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, now,
before I read on, There's a division here. The taskmasters evidently
were the Egyptians. The officers were Israelites. They were kind of under the taskmasters,
but between the slaves who were doing the work. And Pharaoh commanded the same
day the taskmasters of the people and their officers sang. You
shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw
for themselves. And the tail of the bricks which
they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them. You shall
not diminish ought thereof. For they be idle, therefore they
cry saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work
be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein, and let them
not regard vain words. And the taskmasters of the people
went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people,
saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go you, get
your straw where you can find it, yet not aught of your work
shall be diminished. So the people were scattered
abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead
of straw, and the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfill
your works, your daily task, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children
of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten.
Not the taskmasters, but the officers. These were Israelites. They were beaten and demanded,
wherefore have you not fulfilled your task in making bread? Both
yesterday and today is heretofore. Then the officers of the children
of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh saying, wherefore? They must have thought that these
taskmasters had just done this on their own. commanding them
to continue to make the same amount of bricks, but not furnishing
them the straw that they used, either in making the bricks or
burning the bricks. I'm not sure which it was, but
they come to Pharaoh saying, wherefore dealest thou thus with
thy servants? There's no straw given unto thy
servants. And they say to us, the taskmasters
say to us, make brick. And behold, thy servants are
beaten, but the fault is in thine own people. The fault, they're
telling Pharaoh, the problem here is not us, it's your people,
the taskmasters, because now they're commanding us to make
these bricks, same amount, and they don't furnish us the straw. But he said, you are idle. You are idle. Therefore, you
say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now
and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall
you deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers of the children
of Israel did see that they were in evil case after it was said,
you shall not minish aught from your bricks of your daily task. Pharaoh's response was to charge
these slaves, these Israelites, with idleness. You're lazy. You're slothful. That's the problem. When you look at the cities that
the Israelites built, the pyramids, evidently, that these slaves
built, you know they were not slothful. They were not lazy. They worked hard. And they were
driven hard. But now, Pharaoh says, you're
idle. You're slothful. The only reason you're saying
now let's go worship God, let's go offer sacrifice unto God,
is because you want a three-day vacation. You want to go three
days out and three days back. No. Notice also in verse 9 something
that I want to point out. What Pharaoh thought of the word
of God in verse 9. Let there more work be laid upon
the men that they may labor therein, and let them not regard vain
words, empty words. And I point this out because
this is so characteristic of lost men and women. That's what
they consider about the word of God. They hear of God, they
hear of God's holiness, They hear of man and his sinfulness,
and that there's only one Savior. But to a lost person, to a person
dead in trespasses and sins, it's just idle, idle words, that's
all. Just idle words. When you think
tonight about people you know and people you see, and they
don't have any interest. And they don't have any concern
for their soul. You know God has made the difference
in you. Or we would be just like that.
We would consider a message, any message of the gospel, we
would just, that's just idle words, that's old wives tales,
that's things that preachers have used, this old idea of hell
and punishment, that's things preachers have used to scare
people all these years. And so they just live on and
die. Many without Christ, don't they? Oh, how we should praise the
Lord that he has revealed himself unto us, revealed our need to
ourselves. Here's the fifth thing. Here's
the first of many times when the elders will accuse Moses
in verse 20 and 21. And they met Moses, that is the
elders of the Israelites. They met Moses and Aaron, the
officers who stood in the way as they came from Pharaoh. And
they said unto them, the Lord look upon you and judge because
you have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh.
and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand
to slay us. How many times, how many times
as you read through the book of Exodus are you going to see
this over and over and over again? Every time there's a problem,
the elders, what do they do? They blame Moses. Why did you
bring us out here in the wilderness to bury our children? Why did
you do this? From the very beginning, they
are stiff-necked and rebellious people. They were slaves. You would think they had the
life of ease if they were living in a bed of roses here in Egypt.
They were slaves. And yet, the first problem, first
difficulty that arises They accused Moses of mistreating them, bringing
them to this place where now Pharaoh's gonna kill us. But
here's my last point, and this is so good. Moses takes his burden
to the Lord. And Moses returned unto the Lord. You know, that's what the Bible
teaches us to do. And when we have problems and
difficulties, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6 and 7 tells us
if there needs be a problem, a trial, that we're to take our
burdens unto the Lord and cast them upon Him. Remember the hymn, take your
burdens to the Lord. and leave them there. It's so easy to take them, isn't
it? The problem, the difficulty, is to leave them there. But His
shoulders are strong. We're weak. We have no strength
in ourselves. But the Lord God Almighty, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's able to bear our burdens. And that's
what we see here. Moses, yes, he complains, but
still he did go to the Lord and lay his case out before the Lord. May the Lord bless his word to
us here this evening.