We return this week to our study in Exodus. The context of our passage is God sending Moses back to Pharaoh to deliver a message that is abhorrent to Pharaoh: let the people of Israel go. Moses is hesitant because he has seen Pharaoh’s reaction to this demand before; severe punishment for the Israelites.
In verse 29 Moses points to an objection he had to God’s commission for him from the beginning. He is not able to speak well or persuade people. To Moses, this has been proved by his failure to accomplish what he was sent to do. Israel will no longer listen to him, and so how is Pharaoh going to listen to him?
In verse 7:1, God responds to Moses beginning with the word “See,” or “Behold.” This word means listen carefully. Block out everything else and listen to me right now. God tells Moses he has made Moses like God to Pharaoh, startling words to be sure. What does God mean? He means Moses will be speaking God’s word, thus carrying God’s authority.
This will not be about Moses ability to persuade anybody. This will be about the God over all heaven and earth confronting an earthly king. Moses is to be clear about this. He is to deliver what God says; all that God says. God’s power and authority will be behind this confrontation.
You will remember that after Jesus was crucified he was raised from the dead, vindicating his work and word as from God. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he met with his disciples and gave them a commission. They were to go into all the nations and make disciples. The Lord prefaced this commission with the statement, “All power and authority has been given to me.”
Jesus was sending his disciples into situations and confrontations with kings and rulers. He was sending them to confront sinful men with his word and the authority behind it. God’s authority is behind the message of the gospel when he promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Christ. His authority is also behind his warning that no one comes to God except through Christ.
Therefore we should remember this important doctrine from our text in Exodus; God is the supreme authority. This might seem obvious, but our sinful nature resists this truth. Pharaoh is a picture of all men. Pharaoh was regarded as divine by the Egyptians, and he regarded himself this way. So when Moses comes to him with demands from God he rejects the implication God has authority over him.
The apostle Paul in Romans 8 indicts all men as having similar dispositions toward God’s authority. He says the sinful nature is hostile to God, it does not submit to God; indeed it cannot. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Pharaoh displays his sinful nature in a more stark rebellion against God than other men. He is an emblem of our great need of a Savior.
The salvation God gives in Christ weds God’s authority with God’s goodness. The devil sought to be like God (not submit to God) and persuaded men to doubt God’s goodness behind God’s authority. “Has God said?” was the question he put to Eve. He was questioning God’s goodness behind his command to not eat of the tree. He then denied God’s actual authority to keep his warning to Adam and Eve; “you will not surely die.” Pharaoh is acting out the devil’s teaching.
In order for us to be delivered from sin, to be saved, we must believe in God’s goodness and authority. God displays it in Christ. All things were made through the Lord Jesus Christ, displaying his divine glory and authority as the eternal Son of God. Yet he willingly lowered himself to take our nature and be obedient to death on a cross to take our judgment; displaying the love and goodness of God.
When God commands we come to him through Christ, he is commanding what is good. He is displaying his love (and his authority) when he says, unless you lose your life for my sake you cannot be my disciple. There is but one road of life; the way with Christ. All other ground is sinking sand.
When we see Moses sent to confront Pharaoh with God’s word, we should remember the authority of God’s word when we hear it. There is goodness and life behind his word, but it makes demands upon us we are prone to resist. We have need of grace to humble ourselves.
