12 CONFRONTATION AND TEAMWORK

Moses had spoken to God and now God responds. He silences Moses’ complaints with the assurance of success in this negotiation, repeating the promise He gave him in Exodus 3:20 which says, “So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.” When Moses was at his wit’s end, wishing he had stayed in Midian, rather than have come to Egypt to make bad worse—when he was quite at a loss as to what to do— “Then the Lord said to Moses” (1). This was for the quieting of Moses’ mind, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh” (1). This was as though to say, “. . . now that the affair has come to a crisis, things are as bad as they can be, Pharaoh is in the height of pride and Israel in the depth of misery, now is my time to appear.” Psalm 12:5 says, “‘Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,’ says the Lord.” Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he will really see what He will do.  Moses had been trying to do what he could do, and could do nothing. Well, says God, now you will see what I will do; let me alone to deal with this proud man. Job 40:12, 13 says, “look at all who are proud and humble them, crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave.” Then the deliverance of God’s congregation will be accomplished, when God takes the work into His own hands, “because of my mighty hand” (1), that is, being forced to it by a strong hand, “he will drive them out of his country” (1). Some are brought to their duty by the strong hand of God’s grace, who are made willing in the day of His power and others by the strong hand of His justice, breaking those that would not bend.

God gives Moses further instructions, that both Moses and the people of Israel might be encouraged to hope for a glorious result in this matter. Take comfort, from God’s name, Jehovah. “God also said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them.’” God begins with this, I am Jehovah, almost the same as, I am that I am, the fountain of being, blessedness and infinite perfection. The patriarchs knew this name, but they did not know Him in this matter by what this name signifies. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is a God performing what He had promised and inspiring confidence in His promises, a God perfecting what He had begun, and finishing His own work. In the history of the creation, God is never called Jehovah until the heavens and the earth were finished, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord (Jehovah) God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4). When the salvation of the saints is completed in eternal life, then He will be known by a better even more complete name, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” In the meantime, believers will find Him to be their strength and support, El-shaddai, a God all-sufficient, a God that is enough and will be so as Micah 7:20 says, “You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.” That is the kind of God who is calling you to set slaves free today.

God could affirm from His covenant which was expressed in verse 4, “I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners.” The covenants God makes He also establishes; they are made as firm as the power and truth of God can make them. We may completely depend on this truth. He could also affirm from His compassion expressed in verse 5, “Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.” He means their recent groaning because of the additional hardships put on them with no straw being provided. God takes notice of the increase of His people’s calamities, and observes how their enemies increase or press harder. God could also affirm from His present resolutions outlined in verses 6 - 8,“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’” God gave it to them line upon line, to assure them that they would be brought triumphantly out of Egypt and would be put in possession of the land of Canaan. Let us be humbled that we need so many reminders and let God have the glory of His condescending grace, which gives us, in our weakness, such repeated assurances for our satisfaction.

Even with these strong statements, the people did not believe. Worldview is an unconsciously held set of assumptions. We all have a worldview. Our problem is that humans’ worldview trumps contrary input; even with evidence to the contrary, we continue to believe our worldview—what we unconsciously hold to be the true nature of things. This is why the people did not believe Moses. Their worldview taught them otherwise. Verse 9 tells of their reaction and why, “Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” One would think, all these good and comforting words, would revive the drooping Israelites and cause them to forget their misery, but not so. They were so taken up with their troubles that they did not heed Moses. They were so cast down with their their recent disappointment that they did not believe him. They had such a dread of Pharaoh’s power and anger that they dare not move in the least towards their deliverance. Disconsolate spirits often resist the comforts they are entitled to and maintain their own erroneous negative opinions. God understands psychology, the human mind and psychological momentum. We don’t believe new things easily. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. Strong passions oppose strong consolations. When we yield ourselves to discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have both from God’s Word and from His sovereign plan for our lives . In such cases we can only thank ourselves if we go comfortless. It helps us Christian leaders to remember this is how people react. We will have to be patient with the people we are trying to deliver.

God sends Moses the second time to Pharaoh on the same errand as before, to command him, at his peril, that he must let the children of Israel go. God repeats His precepts before He begins His punishments. Plagues will follow, but Pharaoh gets a second chance. Those who have often been called in vain to leave their sins must yet be called again and again, whether they will hear or not.

Moses makes objections, as one discouraged, and willing to give up the cause as is expressed in verse 12, “But Moses said to the Lord, ‘If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?’” He pleads, the unlikelihood of Pharaoh’s hearing. My own people give no heed, no credit, to what I have said; how then can I expect that Pharaoh would hear me? If the anguish of their spirit makes them deaf to what should affirm and comfort them, how much more will the anger of Pharaoh’s spirit, pride and insolence, make him deaf to what will only exasperate and provoke him. Moses was aware that he did not have the gift of fine utterance and felt he had little command of language. Those were not his strengths. We too have weaknesses, but watch what God says in verse 13, “Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.” To Moses’ repeated objection, God had earlier given a sufficient answer and should not have had to be insisted on a second time. Yet God graciously repeated the same commission. The sufficiency of God’s help can compensate for the defects of nature anytime. Though our weaknesses may humble us, yet they ought not discourage us from doing our best in whatever service we have to do for God. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

God again summons Aaron to serve in commission with Moses, and puts an end to Moses’ objections  by exercising His own authority, and giving them both a solemn charge in their partnership to their great Lord, to carry it out with all possible steadfastness and faithfulness. When Moses repeats his baffled arguments, God will argue with him no longer, but gives him a charge, and Aaron with him. God’s authority is sufficient to answer all objections and binds us to obedience without murmuring or disputing. Today we have Paul’s admonition, found in Philippians 1:14 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing,”

Moses concludes this part of the story with a particular mark of honor on the people he is writing about, even though he himself was one of them. In verse 26, Moses writes, “It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, ‘Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.’” And he further explains the address they made to Pharaoh in verse 27, “They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.” Communion with God and being available to obediently serve Him and His congregation are things that, above any other, Christian leader, put true honor on men. Those are great with whom God converses and whom He employs in His service. Today, He needs you to deliver another group of slaves.

Next, God further encourages Moses to go to Pharaoh, and at last silences all his discouragements. He clothes him with great power and authority, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.’” God has the authority to appoint men and women whom He chooses to be vice regents, little rulers in His name, who represent the Almighty Ruler, the only God. Moses was authorized to speak and act in God’s name and stead, and, under divine direction was given divine power to do what is certainly above the ordinary power of nature. Moses was invested with a divine authority to demand obedience from a sovereign prince and punish disobedience. Moses was a ruler, but he was only a made ruler, not essentially one by nature; he was no regent but by commission. He was a regent, but he was a regent only to Pharaoh. The living and true God is God to all the world.

It is an evidence of God’s condescension, and an example that His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace, that when He deals with men, He is also willing to be dealt with by men. He speaks and listens to us as we speak and listen to Him. We greatly respect Him, fear lest we displease Him, but we to not actually fear Him, Himself. We are not afraid of God. He does not make us afraid. We simply fear displeasing the One we love.

God again appoints Moses’ brother, Aaron as an assistant. He was not a man of uncircumcised lips, but a notable spokesman: Verse 2 of Exodus 7 says, “You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.”  You will, as a ruler, inflict and remove the plagues, and Aaron, as a prophet, is to announce this and threaten Pharaoh with them. God tells Moses the worst of it, that Pharaoh would not hearken to him, and yet the work would be done at last, Israel would be delivered and God would be glorified in it all. Verses 4, 5 say, “. . . he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” The Egyptians, who do not want to know the Lord, will be made to know Him. It is, and ought to be, satisfaction enough to God’s messengers that, whatever antagonism and opposition may be given to us, God will be glorified in the success of our mission and all His chosen Israel will be saved. Eventually, we will have no reason to say we have labored in vain. We may see here how God glorifies Himself; He makes people know that He is Jehovah. Israel is made to know it by the performance of His promises to them, and the Egyptians are made to know it by the pouring out of His wrath on them. In this way God’s name is exalted both in those that are saved and in those that perish.  We can also see what is the method He takes to do this: He humbles the proud, and exalts the poor as the wise and informed Mary of Nazareth will declare many years later as recorded in Luke 1:51, 52 “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” The God who calls you to serve Him and His people today is a faithful God who will complete the work He begins in you. Don’t give up.

Moses and Aaron apply themselves to their work without further objection as recorded in a short sentence in verse 6, “Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them.” Their obedience, all things considered, was well worthy to be celebrated, as it is in Psalm 105:28 which criticizes Pharaoh for disobedience, “He sent darkness and made the land dark—for had they not rebelled against his words?”

It took 80 years for God to prepare Moses, but in the end we see that God used him mightily. God is working on you now. He is preparing you. Let us yield to the preparation process.