Rough Start
Commentary for the July 19, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"Pharaoh said, 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.'"
Exodus 3:2, NIV
Torah tells us Abraham foresaw in a dream that Israelites would be prisoners and eventually slaves in Egypt for four centuries. (Genesis 15:12-14) Jacob and his sons with their families traveled to Egypt to escape widespread famine in Canaan. Joseph one of Jacob's sons had been sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers but rose to power under the pharaoh thus paving the way to save his family during a later period of famine. This was a miraculous intervention that saved his people from the famine and was a gift from God in that the Israelites found favor with Pharaoh through Joseph. However, 400 years is a very long time and memories can be short. Eventually a pharaoh arose who did not know of Joseph and felt threatened by the number of immigrants in his country whom he felt could be a force that might one day challenge his throne. To prevent that outcome the Israelites were enslaved and their lot, which appeared like paradise and salvation at first, over the centuries became grievous. It is amazing they somehow managed to keep vestiges of their faith alive under such oppression over such an extended period. Enough of it survived that Moses was able to understand the distinction of being an Israelite, and he knew enough that God could speak to him through the burning bush without him fleeing in fright.
If we consider the history of these peoples in the Bible, we will understand that Pharaoh and the Egyptians are descendants of Ham through Canaan, while the Israelites are descendants of Shem, two of the sons of Noah. In an interesting turn of events Noah had placed a curse on Canaan saying that they would be slaves to the descendants of Shem, the Israelites. (Genesis 9:26) But as Exodus tells us, the opposite happened with the Israelites as slaves to the descendants of Ham in Egypt. To be true to both Noah and Abraham, God needed to set things right. Moses, metaphorically baptized in the Nile at birth, covenanted through the blood of circumcision, and anointed to leadership at the burning bush was God's chosen vessel to deliver the enslaved. Moses may have had a sense of this calling early on when he sought to begin liberating his people by slaying an Egyptian taskmaster. But having a sense of destiny without the intimate connection with God cannot help but breed arrogance and narcissism if not checked early on. While Moses must have felt a failure in what he thought was his calling when he was forced to flee Pharaoh's wrath to the land of Midian. God's plan was to weed out the arrogance and impetuousness of his servant that he might find the humility to give the glory to God and not to his own will and character. The man who stood before the burning bush forty years later had become that man.
But being God's chosen servant is not all parting of the waters. God's servant, and even his son, Jesus, faced rejection, betrayal, and calumny at the very hands of those being rescued. We see Moses as type, and Christ as antitype with the exception that Jesus completed the mission while Moses fell short. Instead of having the honor of bringing the people home to Canaan, another took his place. Moses was the type for Christ before the tomb. Joshua became the type for Christ taking his people home. They even shared the same name. Both Joshua and Jesus mean "God is salvation." Moses' ministry was filled with challenges and troubles as he led a recalcitrant band through hostile desert in search of their promised "Eden." Overcome by the constant complaining, the man who refused to let God destroy the Israelites and start over with him, finally snapped and took personal affront, thus losing the opportunity to enter the Promised Land himself. Jesus was also challenged and betrayed as he sought to call the people to return to the promises of God. But though the burden was great even to the point of sweating blood, he did not waiver in his purpose and always sought to glorify the Father. He therefore rightfully entered heaven to prepare a place for us.
Despite his failing, Moses endured great challenges. He and Aaron stood before one of the most powerful rulers of his time who adamantly refused to humble himself before God, even when it meant the destruction of his land and his people. He challenged the very existence of God. Even the people of Nineveh, renowned for their wickedness, when faced with a judgment pronounced by Jonah, repented and renounced their wickedness, and even the king humbled himself with sackcloth and ashes. Their repentance found salvation for their city, and the people of Nineveh will rise to condemn Pharaoh for his arrogance and wickedness at the judgment. God's compassion warned Nineveh and saved them. His desire for Egypt was much the same for his character is consistent. Pharaoh's narcissism and arrogance, elevating himself as though he was God brought nothing but death upon his land, even costing him the heir to the Egyptian throne.
What lessons can we take from this in our various countries around the world today? We have little control over who is to rule over us. We do not even understand God's purposes when he sets up rulers. To our way of thinking, God should only set up righteous rulers. But what if God sets up rulers to save them, even if they are arrogant and beastly and undeserving of such an honor? A case in point would be Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. His story is in the book of Daniel. When his advisors could not reveal a dream to him, he ordered to have them all killed. God revealed himself through Daniel, sparing the lives of the condemned and reaching out to the dissolute king.
With time Nebuchadnezzar's arrogance brought him to challenge God's revelation of the future by creating an idol that represented the Babylonian kingdom lasting forever. God's patience with our failings and his love for his creation spoke into the situation once again. Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to bow down and acknowledge the king's twisted vision of the future. Incensed, his narcissism was unable to contain itself, he ordered their death, incineration in an over-heated brick kiln. This time, God did not send a man to speak to the king. That impression had not lasted long enough. Instead, a divine presence entered the furnace and walked with the condemned, shielding them from harm. Astonished, the king ordered their release. Not yet ready to honor God as his God, he nonetheless ordered that no one should say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
God did not give up on Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, he sent him another dream and again Daniel presented the interpretation to the king. If the king persisted in his narcissism, he would lose his mind until he acknowledged God as the ruler over all humanity. God was not just Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's God. He was Nebuchadnezzar's God. Despite this warning, the king one day stood up to glorify himself and all he had built. At that moment, he went insane and did not recover sanity until he recognized God's sovereignty over all, even rulers.
Pharaoh did not learn that lesson and instead opposed Moses' request in every way possible. He was intransigent, deceptive, and cruel in response to Moses' pleas. Even when his people were pointing out how his arrogance and desire for revenge against the Israelites was destroying the nation, he persisted. So many rulers throughout the ages have done the same. They are like the cruise ship passenger who if he cannot be the captain would sink the ship out of spite. Such a person has no understanding of empathy, mercy, or compassion. They have no concept of the meaning of love. Those who sacrifice their lives out of love for others seem like suckers to them. The most frightening thing for them is that one day, whether soon or farther down the road, their cold-as-death fingers will be pried loose from all they have built. Empires always crumble to dust, whether Babylon, the temples of Egypt, Constantinople crumbling under Ottoman cannons, or any more modern empires. They collapse because faithless rulers sought to put themselves in the place of God, and no amount of faith on the part of their followers can sustain that much arrogance forever.
We should learn the lessons Pharaoh could not. While individuals may be able to cruelly assert their will over others for a time. It never lasts, because as Nebuchadnezzar found out it is God who rules over humanity. So many of us are like children stopping their ears that they might not hear God speaking to their hearts. But all the same, he continues to speak. Those who are his will hear his voice and will be drawn by his love for us, even some of those who have been stopping their ears. And for those who are willing to listen, their love will echo his. Their voices will join the chorus of peace and love in even the direst times. This is foolishness to the narcissist, but it is life itself to those who are called to be the sons and daughters of God.
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This Commentary is a Service of Still Waters Ministry
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