When Calling leads to Conflict (Ex 5-7:7)

Finding our place in the story

Recap - where we are and why?

recap quickly the story of genesis and the intro to Exodus

OT Reading Skill - Asking questions of the text

Hit on the importance of asking probing questions of the text - these were written as Jewish meditation literate - which means you have to slow down to understand it, you have to pause and think and then ask questions

If we want to get the most out of old testament texts - we must ask probing questions of the text.

Simple questions of fact are a great place to start. Whats happening in this text? Who are the characters, who’s doing what? What does that word mean? Why does Pharaoh take away straw? - not all of will be as meaningful, but some when given though will help us find riches in the text.

By first asking our questions, we then can stumble upon the questions the text wants us to ask. If I can submit one thing to you, its that these texts WANT you to ask questions, and there are certain questions that if asked help the story cascade out of the past and penetrate into our every day lives, and hopefully our very hearts and souls

Two types of questions that the text wants us to ask

explicit questions - questions directly stated in the text itself that when pondered will serve as a major theme, or major question that the text wants us to wrestle with.

implicit questions - questions not directly stated in the text, but ones that should be implied or asked given the circumstances of the situation and/or seeming random detail OR regarding a lack of detail or motivation of someone

Chapter 5 - Conflict, Burdens and Unmet Expectations

5:2 - Who is the Lord?

Exodus 5:2 ESV

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

This question serves as the the framework for the entire plague section of Exodus (and perhaps one could argue that this question serves as an under-girding of all of scripture) . It is the thing that the plagues will demonstrate - Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice? -

And i would submit to you that this is a question we all ask at some points in our lives, whether subconsciously or consciously.

The story of Scripture serves to show this very thing - to reveal the character of our God and why we are to listen to him, to olbey him, to follow him and to love and worship him.

What will be demonstrated in the following chapters is that God is the king of the universe, he is the only god, and he is the God of all power and will bring judgement and justice to those who oppose his reign (and his people).

Obedience stems from our knowledge of God - and our disobedience often correlates to a lie we’re beleiving about God

One note to be made is that our obedience to God, is normally always linked to our knowledge of him. However, this is not just head knowledge. Academic ascent rarely leads the type of obedience of faith that God requires of his followers. Rather it is a deep knowing that moves us - when we experience this God, when we truly know him and his character, we will move, we will act, and we will listen to his voice. If we are truly his sheep, we hear the voice of the good Shepard. If we are actively not following the commands of God in our life, perhaps we do not know him like we think we do.

5:4-9 Why does Pharaoh respond the way he does?

So pharaohs argument for not listening to God is seemingly valid though - he does not know God therefore he does not need to listen to him. YET an interesting question to ask is, is this justification for his cruelty to the Israelite people? If Pharaoh did not know God, he could have denied the request and simply let life continue as it had.

Random person on Broadway told me his god told him to make me give him 1000 dollars, i’m probably going to say know. But what I’m not going to is find his family and punish them for him asking me this.

Yet, this is not how Pharaoh responds. The king of Egypt responds to the command of this God, that he does not know by increasing the burdens of the already burdened people. Why?

I have a few theories here, and the might be linked together.

1) Pharaoh was scared of the Israelite people. To Pharaoh, the worship of this deity was a sign that the people of Israel were starting to dream dreams, they were starting to hope, they were starting to want freedom and justice and if they had time to day dream, then what comes next? time to plan a revolt? perhaps in this moment Pharaoh was incredibly insecure and threatened by the dreams of the people of Isreal. and when other peoples dreams, goals, and desires conflict with our own personal kingdom, our natural inclination is to squash them like a bug. AND WE ALL DO THIS. We all have been in this situation, where someone elses talents, or gifts, or dreams conflict with our own personal identity - maybe that person is really pretty, or is skilled at the thing that you want to be skilled at, or maybe they have a good relationship and you don't - whatever it may be - there is a tendency in us, that when our little kingdom gets rivaled by the skills, or dreams of someone else - we get threatened and we turn to harshness, cruelty, and sin. I have seen this in my own life. When someone good looking and funny and charming comes in to the friend group, i want that person gone!!! it is in our hearts to fight for ours. Yet, that is not the character of our God., as we will learn.

2) Another option that Pharoah might have despised the religious system of Israel, because it directly challenged the worship of him as god. Pharaoh is a man of extreme pride, and one who would stop at nothing to persevere his kingdom and keep his throne and his worship at the center of life in Egypt. Thus, when the Israelite bring up another God that is giving them commands - Pharaoh must destroy any notion that anyone besides him has the authority over the people. Therefore Pharaohs harshness is an attempt to display his power and might as god over the people of Israel. The irony being that in the next 5 chapters the God of Israel will do the exact same thing on Pharaoh. Pharaoh is his attempt to be God, executes his judgement and wrath on the people of Israel so secure his kingdom- YHWH, the one true God will rightly execute his wrath and justice on the head of Pharaoh and the entire religious system of Egypt demonstrating what Pharaoh was trying to demonstrate with his actions - that the LORD is the creator, the all powerful and this whole world is his kingdom. and HIS voice is the one that we are to listen to and obey. He gives life and he destroys it - everything in this universe bows at his feet. Now, what is the current posture of your heart towards God with how you are living you life? Are you actively bowing in worship and obedience to the God of Israel who give life and destroys it? are you humbly submitting to his word? Or are you trying to play god, and and control your life with every ounce of strength you can muster? When the commands of God conflict with the comfort of your life, or the desires of you heart, what do you do? Do you like Pharaoh, grasp for control? Or, do you bow in submission to the true king of the universe?

5:12 Why Straw?

Exodus 5:12 ESV

So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

This verse might back up theory number 1 in the note on V4 - Pharaoh picks straw as the ingredient he will hold back because he already has most of it, so the Israelites will have to drastically scatter to find more straw. If the people are scattered, they cant plot any insurrection.

5:22 Why does this happen?

Exodus 5:22 ESV

Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?

Perhaps the most pressing question in the entire chapter - why does the Lord let this happen?

I will not hit it all in this study, but

there is a constant theme in Scripture of the promises of God being immediately met with challenges and difficulty

Genesis examples of Promise and Hardship

Even in the story up until this point, without even going past Exodus we see this

Abraham - promise of land, blessing kids --- he’s old and immediately there is a famine in the land

Same promise to Isaac and Jacob - same issues, famine and family issues

It is a scriptural truth that the promises of God ARE SO often me with challenges and difficulty

We are explicity warned about hardship

even in Exdous, God says several times before this, that He is going to harden pharaohs heart and that he’s isnt goint to let them go

Christian we are no different, we have been warned that “in this world you have trouble” “with much tribulation we will enter the kingdom” - it should not surprise us

1 Peter 4:12 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Here is one sad truth we learn from this text the

God’s timing and our expectations do not always align

One commentary said it this way

what Moses eventually learned, all believers have had to learn for themselves: God’s timing only sometimes coincides with our expectations, and his idea of the hardships we need to go through only sometimes coincides with our idea of how much we can take.

Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 169.

So we arent going to answer all the whys God might have let this happen - we’ll get it more in the story, but i just want us to know that it is a reoccuring theme in scripture and it will certainly happen in our lives too

5:15, 5:22 - Where do we cry?

i think this text naturally raises the question, why do situations like this happen. Why does God allow hard circumstances, especially when they seemingly conflict with his promises? Yet, we see all throughout scripture this will happen. So another question that this text then raises is, what are we supposed to do when these things happen?

What are we supposed to do when we hit these moments of disapoitments, these moments where our expecations of God does not match our realitiy - because it is a soul crushing place to be. So what are we supposed to do?

Well, first - what arent we supposed to do -

notice, where do the people of Israel take their cries to?

Exodus 5:15 ESV

Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this?

Almost every other time this Hebrew verb is used, its used with God as the indirect object

how often when faced with hardships do we run back to things that cannot help us - and often we run to the very thing enslaving us in the first place. It is so much easier to run back to what has helped us in the past, to run back to the sin we are comfortable with, instead of the God who has seeming failed to act on our behalf.

So what are we supposed to do? Where does Moses take his cry?

Exodus 5:22 ESV

Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?

Moses takes HIS complaint to the Lord. This is where the person of faith is to go when we have issues. IS his question the right one? I am not sure - but i know that he has taken his need and heart to the right place - “turning to the Lord”

Chapter 6 - God’s Response

6:1-8 God’s reiteration of his promises

why does God reiterate his promise again here? - this is about the 3rd time he’s said similar things, so what is this showing us

We know, 3500 years after this event - that God does not revoke his promises - but I’m not sure the people of Israel knew that yet. For them, this is just some diety who told Moses something, but they have no idea if he can back up his claims. Are Ra and the gods of Pharaoh stronger than this Yahweh?

I think God has to reiterate his promises here to teach his people that just because your circumstances dont immediatly reflect the plan of God as you saw it going, does not mean that he is unfaithful, or that he has forgotten his promises, or that they are void.

We are often very qucik to forget the promises of God (especially when our circumstances seem to directly defy them)

What do we need to hear in times of dissapointment?

What are some elements we see in God’s response to Moses?

a promise of deleiverance - through his hand and with judgement to the promised land(v1, v6, v8)

A proclomation of identity (v2)

A reminder of his covenant (v4, v8)

Notice of the sufferings of Israel (

a promise to be their God and they, his people (v7)

a promise to teach them more about who he is (v7)

6:9 - Afraid to hope

Exodus 6:9 ESV

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

This is perhaps one of the saddest lines in the book of Exodus. It can be easy to read over this, and maybe even critizie the people here. BUT

Can you resonate with this a little bit? Have you ever been in a place like this? Where your reality, your circumstances have beaten your down so much , that not even the promises of God give you hope anymore? Have any of you ever been in a place where you’re sitting in Church, you hear the word, you hear all these promises and but you just cant bring yourself to believe it? And deep down you just feel God has forgotten about you - that he might be delivering other people - but it doesnt seem like he’s doing anything for me, for my hurt, my struggle, my pain, my lonilness, my situation with that freind - and maybe you’ve even gotten to the point where you’ve given up hope that God is ever going to do anything

Can i just say that this is a brutal place to be....but one we often find ourselves in.

6:12 - Afraid to fail…again

Maybe if you dont resonate with the israelites, maybe you resonate with Moses? We see that moses isnt afraid to hope - he’s afraid to fail.

Exodus 6:12 ESV

But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

If you are afraid to hope again, if you are afraid to fail again - my encouragement to you would be that God’s greatest act of both revelation and deliverance in the Old Testament (an event that is referenced or alluded to over 150 times in the OT alone) begins immediately following this section.

An intruding Genealogy

Why is the story all of a sudden broken up by this genealogy ? What does it show for us and do for us

(1) It begins with Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son, and thus traces the lineage of Aaron and Moses back to Israel the man, linking them with the very beginnings of their people, as a proper Israelite genealogy was expected to do.

(2) It ends with Aaron’s grandson (Phinehas, v. 25) and thus brings the genealogy into the time of the book of Judges (Judg 20:28), providing a way for successive generations to link these leaders with their own place in time.

(3) It honors Aaron and the true priesthood, one of Moses’ special concerns in Exodus.

(4) It shows the reader where Korah, the leader of the wilderness rebellion (Num 16:1–49) founded his claim to credentials of leadership.

(5) It reminds the reader that Moses was from a priestly family and tribe, thus qualified and called to perform priestly—not merely prophetic—duties from time to time (including his directing the building of the tabernacle, his right to enter it, and his offering the ordination sacrifice in Lev 8:28–29).

(6) It reminds the reader that the Israelites were not ethically pure, by specifically mentioning the Canaanite woman in v. 15.

Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 175–176.