The Sovereignty of God - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Exodus 6:13-7:13, Moses must reckon with the reality of God’s sovereignty and goodness in the face of the opposition from Pharaoh.
Transcript:
Then the Lord said to Moses, see I have made you like, like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 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. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, through, and though I multiply my signs and wonder and wonders in Egypt, 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. Exodus seven, one through five.
Alexander the Great became great thanks in large part to his father who came before him. Philip II was the king of Macedonia and his conquest of the city states of Greece provided Alexander the platform to pursue his dream of empire. When Philip II came up against the Spartans, he asked whether he should come to them as friend or foe. The Spartans in their laconic fashion, replied neither. Philip then threatened, if I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out. And to that they replied, if. If, now that has a Clint Eastwood, cool, steely-eyed air about it, but as things would turn out, Phillip the second invaded them and overthrew them and they didn't stand a chance.
Still though, technically speaking, the Spartans were correct, it wasn't absolutely certain that Philip would be able to invade and be victorious. Any number of things could have stopped his plans-- even Phillip the second of Macedon was at the mercy of if.
This is another way in which God is different from human beings. There is no if with God. When God created the universe, he did so from the position of eternity, outside of space and time. He intentionally brought the universe into existence with complete knowledge of all that it contains in space and all that would transpire in time. What appears to us to be a series of actions and time and space is one creative act of God from eternity. When an infant comes into the world, each body part is revealed to us one at a time, first the head emerges, then the shoulders, and and so on, but the baby is one whole all the same, even before we ourselves see the child completely.
God, God has never had to wait to see what will happen, he's not reacting, he's not coming up with secondary plans. He has had one plan and one purpose from the beginning that includes everything that is now appearing before us, one at a time. This world is the best of all possible worlds -- if it were not so, God would not have created it. And it is the best of all possible worlds because it will in the end reveal the fullness of the glory of God. Now, at this time, we can't fully comprehend how this world brings this about. We are confronted both by mystery and truth, the mysterious truth, this mysterious truth that surrounds life.
As we look at today's passage, I want you to remember that there is no if with God. His sovereignty is absolute and his goodness is sure. Moses is reckoning with these realities in the face of the opposition presented by the Pharaoh of Egypt. As we left off, Moses is wondering why God has not yet rescued the Israelites from Pharaoh's hand, and Moses is doubting his own role in God's plan because of his weakness as a spokesman. Before that narrative continues, we are presented with an interlude that accounts for the lineage of Moses and Aaron and reiterates some of what has transpired.
Picking up in verse 13, it says, 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. These were the first, these were the heads of their families: the sons of Reuben the firstborn of, son of Israel were Hanok and Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These were the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon. These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. The Sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei. The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi according to their records. Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri. The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. Aaron married Elishaba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans. Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she born Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan. It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions. They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, this same Moses and Aaron. Now, when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, he said to him, I'm the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you. But Moses said to the Lord, since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me? A lot of verses.
In the middle of a story, we wonder why, why this? Now, the reason is it's trying to, what Moses wants to do here is make clear his own lineage, his lineage, and the lineage of that, of Aaron, because he's the prophet of, of Israel. He is the leader of, he's going to be the leader of the people, and Aaron's going to be the first high priest. And even as they begin to list the heads of the families, we notice he doesn't list the heads of all the families, of all the tribes. He only works out through the list until he gets to Levi, which is his own tribe, and then he stops there, which tells us that the real point here is just understanding who he and Aaron are, and it'll be important later on as we think about the priestly line lineage that will follow once the sacrificial system is established. Now in verse 26, we see that it says it was this Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said. It's an interesting reversal of seeing Aaron put first before Moses and it, it seems to be pointing to the fact that Aaron is going to act as this spoke person of Moses before Pharaoh. Aaron has a very important role here to play in God's plan.
This accounted for, we return back to the main line of the narrative in chapter seven, picking up from Moses saying, I've got faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me? But in Exodus seven verses one through five, then the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and you, your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 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. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I'll lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I'll bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I'm the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.
By saying that Moses is going to be like God to Pharaoh, what God is telling Moses is that you're my ambassador. You're coming before the presence of Pharaoh with my authority. So even while at first glance, it would seem like his authority is greater than Moses, this is not the case because Moses is acting as God's emissary. And earlier in chapter four, verse 16, God had told Moses he was gonna be like God to Aaron, because since Moses won't be doing the speaking here, he's gonna be telling Aaron what should be said, he's going to be overseeing Aaron.
Now, what we have here all together then is God's assurance that he's going to be with them and that he's going to bring his plan and to pass, and whatever they say is going to be what God tells them to say, not what they themselves are coming up with thinking that it might be a good idea to say this or that 'cause it would be, persuade Pharaoh. No. They're only going to say what God tells them to say. But then God reminds Moses as he told them already, that he is going to harden Pharaoh's heart. Verse three he says, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and then when I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Now as we read that, as we see God saying that he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart, it may seem peculiar to us, maybe kind of a one-off kind of weird thing from the Bible.
'cause we don't think about God hardening people's hearts very often, but as we read across the scriptures, we see that this is in fact no aberration. We see God working this way in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. When we go to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah six, eight through 10, this is the commission of the prophet Isaiah.
And Isaiah says, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, here I am. Here, here am I. Send me. He said, go and tell this people: God said, be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
Notice what God's commissioning Isaiah to do here. He's commissioning to have a ministry that will, in the end, only harden the people of Israel against God, they'll become callous. Now we can see why this occurs, because what it's doing is building the stage for the appearance of Christ. Now, what's really interesting is when we turn to the gospels, we see Jesus talk about his own ministry in a similar way in Mark four verses 10 through 12.
Mark tells us that when Jesus was alone, the 12 and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that, they may be, they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, and ever hearing, but never understanding; otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven!
And we see parallel testimonies of this at different times. Jesus said this in Matthew 13, Luke eight, and also in John 12. In Matthew 11 verses 25 through 27, Jesus says, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. So what Jesus is saying here very clearly is that some are intentionally by God left in the dark, they're left in their stubbornness.
In fact, God ensures that they will remain in their blindness while others, Jesus reveals the Father to them. Now in terms of this kind of activity on God's part, the apostle Paul speaks to this directly in Romans nine, and he touches specifically upon the case of Moses and Pharaoh, explaining how God has his purpose even in rebellion against him. In Romans nine, verses 15 through 19, Paul says, for he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this very purpose, that I may might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Now in making this statement, Paul anticipates there's gonna be some objections here, some pushback. People saying, well, how can I be to blame then? And what he's going to explain here is that essentially we don't have any right to our existence, our very lives, ourselves, are gifts from God. We did not bring ourselves into existence. We are not immortal beings by nature. We have no claims before God. And what God is in fact doing here is intending that his glory would be revealed. And we see this happening in the case of Pharaoh, and this is in fact his purpose throughout his creation. In verse 19, Paul says, one of you will say to me: then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will? But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, why'd you make me like this? Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-- prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory-- even us whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. Now I've underlined and bolded those verses there to see, to point out to you what God's purpose here is, that everything is transpiring in order to reveal God to the world.
To reveal God to humanity so that his glory might be known. And apparently apart from these things happening, we would fall short of that. We would not fully comprehend the glory of God. Now, these are very difficult things to understand, and we're gonna do our best to try to wrap our minds around them. What we have to do, at the very least, is make clear what we don't mean though, and the scripture helps us do that. We understand, okay, God has his hands in these things, but it's also the case that God does no evil thing. In James one verses 13 through 15, James tells us, when tempted, no one should say God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when, it is fully grown, gives birth to death.
What James is saying here is that it's not as if God takes sin, he's got like a syringe of sin and, and injects it into the human heart. That's not the case. God doesn't tempt us in that kind of way by, by getting hands on in that sort of way. Now does he allow us to face temptations and trials? Yes, he does that throughout the scriptures. So that's not his meaning of temptation here. His meaning is that you can't blame God for your own sinful desires that comes from within yourself.
We see this, for instance, in the case of the Garden of, of Eden, God purposed that Adam and Eve would be tempted. And it was in his plan and will that they would, they would fall and that they would rebel. Even while in accordance with his moral will, he did not approve of that rebellion. It was something that he did not delight in. But we noticed here the difference, that it was that serpent who told them lies and sought to lead them astray. It was not God. God simply told them the truth. And he put this test before them. Now, I'm gonna move on to offer some analogies and you know, every week as a pastor, I spend some time usually thinking through analogies to try to help explain things. I don't think I've thought more about analogies than I have this week in trying to explain these things. And what I wanna say is, is that first, is that these are analogies to help you understand a mystery. These are analogies to help you understand a mystery. I'm not going to dispel the mystery to you this morning. And the other thing is, is that analogies are not perfect. They're not comprehensive. I, I can help you understand bits and pieces, which is why I'm gonna tell you several analogies. If I just had one analogy, then I would probably just be describing God. But we can't completely capture God by earthly things, those things that are familiar to us.
The first analogy I want you to consider is that of the sun. And here in Exodus we've been talking about mud bricks, we consider of how the sun can have two effects upon two different objects. Upon the mud brick, it causes it to harden. Upon a stick of butter, it causes it to melt. Now, how this relates to our human situation is this. Is that in our sinfulness, no matter what God does, but especially even when he reveals his truth to us, we will tend to rebel and harden ourselves against him. So whether it's God's doing a, revealing a truth, or causing certain circumstances to surround us, that's the leaning of our hearts because of our sinfulness. God is not the one who is making our hearts mud bricks. If we are to in fact, repent and turn to God in belief, there's a transformation that must occur. A true miracle in which God transforms our hearts from mud bricks into sticks of butter so that we would melt before him.
Now, some might say, well, maybe the mud bricks just don't melt because they're choosing not to. But we see again here very clearly, God talks about reliably hardening hearts. So I want you to consider how tragic it would be if God could only reliably harden hearts, but also not reliably soften the human heart. Of course, God has the power to soften the human heart, and so if he has the power, then it comes down to his will, and yet responsibility for our actions remains with ourselves. Anything good that appears in us is from God, anything that is sinful within us is from ourselves, which leads us to think about another analogy I would offer.
A quarterback. Now I know not all of you're familiar with football, so maybe this will be lost on some of you, but when a quarterback is looking to pass the ball down the field, sometimes what he'll do is a move called looking off the receiver. He'll use his eyes to move the defender so that his receiver is open, can receive the ball and you'll hear sports commentators say, oh, he moved the defender with his eyes. Now I want you to think about that though. Didn't the defender have a choice in where he was going to move? Yes. He only moved to a certain part in the field because that's where the defender wanted to move. And yet you could also say, very rightly, that the quarterback moved the defender with his eyes. Same action, but that might be described in different causes. Now, of course, the difference with God is that God is absolute. There is no if. Here, I mean, the quarterback could try to move the defender with his eyes and maybe the defender wouldn't. But God knows for certain what will, and he does those things. He does those things.
Now, the, the one of the last ones I want you to consider is well, ok, if this is the case, then how is it possible that God could be opposed to evil, not delight in evil, and yet cause and intend that evil should occur. I want you to think about a stakeout operation, a sting operation by police officers. Now, their desire is that in that moment that a crime would occur, in order that they can bring someone to justice, maybe even bring down a whole criminal network. Now, does that mean that the delight in criminality? No. Otherwise they wouldn't be police officers. And so it's possible to will, to intend that a crime would occur, even while you despise criminality. And so it is with God, that God can intend that certain evils would transpire, even while he utterly condemns them.
But we don't always need analogies either. We can just look at other stories of scripture to understand how God is working through these things. We think about the story of, of Joseph and his brothers, God intended that they would become jealous from the favor that Jacob showed him, specifically through the gift of his beautiful coat, such that he'd be thrown in a pit, such that he'd be sold into slavery, but in the end, so that good would result as Joseph himself tells his brothers in Genesis 50:20, you intended harm to me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. We think about Jesus and how it was necessary that he would go to his cross, go to the cross. Now, God obviously did not delight in Judas's betrayal of Jesus, and yet he willed that it would occur so that Christ may offer himself as a sacrifice for sin.
And we see how this is going to even happen, even in the future. In Revelation 17, 12 to 13, it talks about 10 kings who will give their authority to the beast. And in verse 17, it says, for God has put into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority, until God's words are fulfilled.
Now, obviously based on what we've just talked about, especially in James one, when, when we're talking about God putting it into their hearts, we're not talking about him literally injecting evil into them, but they're, he's leading them along in their actions by these external circumstances in order that his will might be accomplished and his glory revealed.
And so in thinking about this, thinking about what God is doing in, in hardening the human heart, there's a couple of, observations made, both old and new, by Christian theologians. So think about Thomas Aquinas. He says in his Summa Theologica that God directs the blindness of some to their spiritual welfare, is due, and that is due to His mercy; but that the blindness of others is directed to their loss is due to His justice.
And Martin Lloyd Jones, who was a pastor in the mid 20th century says, what God does is to aggravate what is already there. He doesn't create it. He doesn't put it there, but he aggravates what is there for his own great purpose. God never made Pharaoh an unbeliever. But because he was an unbeliever, God aggravated his unbelief in order to bring to pass his own great purpose of showing his power and his glory.
Now, what Martin Lloyd Jones is meaning here is that what is in place here is a sinful nature, and that is what God is working upon in order to accomplish his purpose. Now, God did not create us sinful. He created us with a good human nature, but sin corrupts that human nature. It twists it and perverts it.
You think about someone who maybe designed a bike, and then someone decided to twist it in all kinds of ways to make some kind of sculpture out of it. It's not in keeping with the desires, not in keeping with the design of the creator. It's a departure, and yet in the case of God, he created all these things knowing and willing that yes, these corruptions would transpire in order to accomplish his great purpose.
So in thinking about how God does harden, it's through certain events. It's, it's by allowing certain things to transpire. It's even through divine revelation, but all apart from his grace, which only creates greater rebellion and hardness of heart. And maybe the best picture we have of this is just simply Jesus, thinking about, think about this, that we had the one in the same Christ who spoke to the crowds, and as he spoke to them, upon some, he had the effect of melting their hearts, and upon others, it hardened them in accordance with God's plan. It hardened them to the point that they wanted to crucify him.
Without the work of the spirit, all of us will remain callous, deaf and blind. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 2: 14. He says, the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they're discerned only through the Spirit. Now, this is a very humbling realization. To recognize that you're not a Christian here because you are a good person. You're not a Christian because you're smarter than anyone else. It is only because God and his mercy regenerated your heart by the Holy Spirit, so that you would put your faith in Christ. Apart from that, our hearts would remain mud bricks, and we would receive what is due to us.
Now moving forward with our closing verses, verses six through 13, we're now in a position to appreciate God's complete sovereignty in everything that transpires. Verse six, it says Moses and Aaron and did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh says to you, perform miracle, then say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it'll become a snake. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same thing by their secret arts: each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would out listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
So despite their previous concerns about this not going anywhere, upon hearing God's assurances, Moses and Aaron go and do what he's told them to do. They've already spoken to Pharaoh once, so now they go to him with a sign. Moses tells Aaron that he should take his staff, throw it on the ground and will turn into a serpent. Now, what's interesting is that the magicians match this wondrous occurrence, but they do it by their secret arts. And this is something important to understand, that Moses and Aaron were not magicians. They were simply men who had faith and trust in God, and it was God who provided these signs. But these magicians by their secret arts, now, whether that's a trick or whether it's some demonic power, were able to do the same with their staffs, except when they did it, the serpent that had come from Aaron's staff consumed all of theirs. Now, that's a sign, right? I mean, it's kind of cool. I mean, that's one thing to turn the staff into a snake, but then to see that staff, that snake consume all the others, that's even a more powerful sign than if the magicians hadn't turned their staffs also into snakes. And so we see God's power standing behind Moses and Aaron, but we see God's power in other ways also, that just as the Lord said, Pharaoh's heart, rather than becoming softened in seeing this, saying, oh man, I better listen to these guys, it became hard and he would not listen to them.
So in all in all, from signs to resistance, we see God's playing out in everything, and this plan is not limited to the immediate circumstances here. If we step back, we see how this applies to all of life.
As one complete act of creation, God willed that we should be created in his image, that we would know him and be known by him. He willed that we should be tempted and fall, even as he does not delight in human disobedience, he willed that all human beings consequently be born with rebellious sin natures, even as he condemns such evil and promises punishment, he willed that some would remain fallen and double down in their rebellion, even as he does not delight in sin and its consequences and expects that every person should repent. And he willed that others would be regenerated in their hearts and turn with repentance to Christ and be restored with him, unto him with all, with all of creation. Now, this is important. If this was not the case, if this was not the case, we would not have the world we have. There is no if with God, God has created this world from beginning to end. Even so, we should not think that God morally approves of the sin found within it, which is why sin will one day be no more.
A passage, probably very familiar to you now since I, I refer to it often is Revelation 21 verses three through five. The Apostle John in his revelation says this, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They'll be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I'm making everything new! Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.
In his complete sovereignty, God is working everything unto this end, a mysterious universe that altogether is revealing God to us. How can the infinite make himself known to the finite? How can he make himself known to us, not in part, but as a whole? God only knows. God only knows and he's working all of this to that end. What we can know is this-- there is no greater good that we could be given than to know God, to truly know him and enjoy him forever. That knowledge of God is directly connected to what is happening now-- apparently anything less than what is in the past, anything less than what is in the present, and anything less than that which is to come would fall short of that purpose of knowing God. All of reality is working together to reveal his glory. We know now only in part; when Christ returns, we shall know God fully, even as we are fully known by God. Let us pray.
Father, we come before you humbled. We come before you with awe and wonder.
We come before you, father, with with questions because we don't understand everything. But Father, we come to you in faith. Father, we thank you for your patience, for welcoming our, our questions asked as an honest child, as a curious child, father, we pray, father, that in our doubts and questions, we would not turn them into allegations against you.
Because we know that you are perfectly good. We know that you are perfectly wise. We know all of this Father, even as we don't understand it all, and so Father, we pray that you would lead us to trust in you. Just as we see Moses and Aaron finally begin to trust you. Even in the face of disappointment, they move forward even as perhaps they don't completely understand.
Even as while you've told them Father, and you've shown us so much, father, and we thank you for that and our hope, father, our desire is that we would know you, is that your glory would be revealed. And Father, we trust that you are working in all things unto that good end. We give you praise in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)