Chapter 5
Exodus 6-7
“Mother,” asked Sophy the next evening, “when Moses prayed to the Lord, what did He tell him?”
“He said, ‘Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.’ And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, ‘I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by the name Jehovah was I not known to them.’ God told Moses also that He had heard the groanings of the children of Israel and remembered His covenant with them. He promised to take them to Himself for a people and to be their God.
“That name Jehovah showed that God had taken them to be His people, to bless them and that He was a faithful God who would never change. He wanted the people to know that they belonged to Him and that He would take them into the promised land. Moses went to the children of Israel and told them what the Lord had said, but they would not listen to him because of their sorrows and their cruel bondage.
“Then the Lord told Moses to go and tell Pharaoh all He had said but Moses thought Pharaoh would not listen to him. The Lord told him to go to Pharaoh because He had made Moses a god to him and that Aaron was to be a prophet for Moses. He also said He would send some dreadful punishment upon all the land of Egypt if Pharaoh did not let the people of Israel go. So Moses and Aaron went in to speak to Pharaoh. Aaron threw down his rod before the king and his servants and it became a serpent. Pharaoh called in his wise men who also threw down their rods. They too became serpents, but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”
“Mother,” exclaimed Arthur, “could those wicked men do that?”
“Yes,” said Mother. “The wise men did this miracle by the power of Satan to make the people think that it was not God who gave Aaron power to do it. When Pharaoh saw what happened, his heart was hardened so he would not let the people of Israel go. But if Pharaoh had not hardened his heart he would have seen that the power of God was stronger in that Aaron’s rod had swallowed up their rods.
“In the morning Moses and Aaron went out and waited until Pharaoh came down to the river. Then Aaron lifted up his rod and smote the water of the river. The beautiful river and all the ponds and lakes, and even what was in their vessels were turned into blood. There was no water to drink for one whole week. In this miracle too, though, the wise men copied Aaron and they also turned water into blood. However, they could not turn it back into water again. Again Pharaoh turned away not caring about the judgment of God.”
“Did Pharaoh know that God would certainly do what He said He would, Mother?” asked Sophy.
“No, Pharaoh told the truth when he said, ‘I know not the Lord,’ but he only showed his own foolishness by fighting against Him as he did. Pharaoh was like Satan, who tries to keep people now in the bondage of sin, for he is the god of this world. He likes to keep people’s hearts in the world just as Pharaoh kept the children of Israel in Egypt to be his slaves, instead of letting them leave it to go to worship God and to enjoy the good things of heaven which God has prepared for them that love Him, for heaven is the promised land to us.
“In this story of the way He brought His people out of Egypt and destroyed the power of Egypt’s king, God would teach us how He saves us now from a wicked world which would not have His Son in it, and how He takes us out of it now in His own way to a better country where His Son is owned. And then when the proper time has come the Lord Jesus will come and take us home to the Father’s house.”