Chapter 32. Exodus 5-7. Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh.
MOSES and Aaron went together to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and said to him: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.”
But Pharaoh answered “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?....I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” 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.” The king answered, “Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.” That same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people not to give them any more straw to make their bricks; but to let them gather their own straw, and to see that they should turn out no less bricks than formerly. When the message was carried to the Hebrews, they went to Pharaoh, to plead with him to lessen their burdens, but he told them they were idle, and that was the reason they said, “Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.” Pharaoh was acting very much as Satan does with souls when he sees they are feeling the weight of their sins. They cry for deliverance, but Satan renews his efforts to keep them, and will not let them go. And as they, like the poor Hebrews, cannot deliver themselves from Satan’s power, where is help to come from?
“I will lift tip mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Ps. 121:1, 2. God alone could help those poor enslaved people, and the Lord alone can save the sinner from Satan’s power.
The Lord Jesus, who saw our helpless and lost condition, came down to redeem us. from Satan. He bought us with His blood, for on the cross, He stood in our place and died “the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).
The poor Israelites felt the increased burden very much and went to Moses and Aaron and told them how they had made them to be abhorred by Pharaoh and his servants and they said: “The Lord look upon you and judge.” Moses and Aaron felt very badly, and cried to the Lord who answered them, saying, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” He had not forgotten His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and He had heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and He would redeem them from the burdens of the Egyptians, and take them to the land He had sworn to give to them. And God said to Moses “See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” He was to speak all that He commanded him to say, but Pharaoh would not hearken, for He would harden his heart, that he may learn that He was God.
God gave Moses power to do wonders and to work miracles before Pharaoh. They went to him, and Aaron threw down his rod before him and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh called his wise men, and told them to try to do the same. They did so with their enchantments but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. Pharaoh did not care for this, nor did he obey the command to let Israel go; and God said He would punish him by turning his river into blood.
The river Nile is very useful in Egypt. No rain falls there to water the ground; but in the summer, the river rises, and overflows the country and makes the land soft, and then the people sow their seed, and the grass and corn soon spring up. Did Pharaoh and the Egyptians thank God who gave them the Nile to water their land? No, they made their river a god, and worshipped it. But the Nile had no power to make the country fruitful; it was God who made it and who swelled up its waters, and watered the land.
God told Moses to go and stretch his rod over the waters when Pharaoh goes to the river. As soon as he had done so, it became blood in the sight of the king and his servants. And the fish that were in the river died, and the river smelled badly, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river, but they dug round about the river for water. Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.
ML 10/31/1909