God acts according to His own worthiness, not ours.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Exodus 5 and 6
In this final set-up lesson for Exodus, we learn even more about God -- namely that He will fulfill His own promises according to His own character, not the worthiness of Moses or God's people. Further, Pharaoh really tried to thwart God, but he was never an obstacle as much as a steppingstone of God's plan. And Moses whines.
I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. (6:7)
We Didn't Study This Passage in 2017
But we did study an adjacent passage. If you have any questions about this part of Exodus, take a look at that post:
Topics covered:
Overcoming limitations (Moses' speech impediment)
Apollo 13 (following instructions with limited perspective)
Stubborn vs. self-destructive (i.e., Pharaoh)
A big section on Pharaoh's "hard heart"
Pharaoh's magicians
Some fun questions from the Serendipity Bible
Getting Started: Things to Think About
The Meanest Teacher/Boss You've Ever Had
When I googled "mean teacher", every image was of somebody wearing glasses, holding a ruler threateningly, or pointing directly at the camera. We have issues!
That said, do you have a "mean teacher" story? Preferably of someone who isn't a member of our church? I remember one teacher in middle school. I really, really didn't like her, and I told my mom about her, who just didn't listen, and I said, "Mom, she is really unpleasant." And my mom eventually did a conference with her and came home with a "Yes, that lady is very unpleasant." That conference didn't make the class less unpleasant in any way.
Or how about a "mean boss" story? Do you remember that crazy Disney movie "Holes" where somehow kids at a detention camp are forced to dig holes in the desert all day every day? That's a rather "mean boss" situation. More recent movies about horrible bosses make the classic Dolly Parton movie "9 to 5" seem quaint by comparison.
Whatever your story, whatever the situation, your boss wasn't Pharaoh.
The Hardest "Ask" You've Ever Made
I'm still trying to figure out how to set this idea up. Here's where I'm going with it -- God keeps sending Moses (and Aaron) before Pharaoh. They know that Pharaoh doesn't want to see them and is angry with them and doesn't want to grant their request and has the power to do any terrible thing to them. But they keep going back.
So, have you ever made an appearance before an authority to make an unfavorable request? Job, school, court, you name it.
The point of the question would be to stir up that emotion. Whatever you felt before that authority, you have to believe that Moses felt all of that and more.
When Obeying God Makes Someone Else Angry
This idea follows that previous idea. Moses knew that Pharaoh wanted nothing to do with his request from God. Doing what God said was going to make Pharaoh very angry with him (and with all of the Israelites).
If you are a Christian who lives for Jesus, you have been in this kind of situation: doing what you know God would want you to do would make another person angry with you. Confronting sin, stating an unpopular opinion, not participating in a sinful activity, etc.
How have you handled that kind of situation? Did you let your fear of that other person affect how you approached it.? Did you try to avoid the situation altogether? How did it go?
My point with this would be to give us a little bit of sympathy for Moses. We tend to tear him up for his wishy-washiness. But, when we have been in situations not nearly so scary, perhaps we have been wishy-washy too.
How Do You React to a Promise?
This topic may fit better in the lesson itself. This week's passage is entirely based on a promise from God. But remember that Moses still didn't really know much about God -- Moses was 80 before he met God for the first time -- so he might not have had any idea what to do with a promise from God.
It seems like every kid movie from my adolescence is based on a parent breaking a promise. (Does anybody remember Hook? No?) That tends to leave a young person very cynical about promises. So, how about you? When you hear somebody make a promise, how do you tend to react? Are you a skeptic? A realist?
Moses is going to learn (the hard way) that God keeps His promises. Really, it's the foundation of everything we believe as Christians. Sadly, the rest of us who make promises aren't quite as reliable as God...
This Week's Big Idea: The Ten Plagues
We skip this large section in Exodus -- our next lesson picks up with the Passover and the Angel of Death. I doubt you will have much time to go into this, but it's a topic that Bible readers find exciting, frightening, and confusing, all at the same time.
Basic Truth #1: These Are Miracles
I don't know how else to say this. These events are miraculous. They are the result of divine intervention in the natural order of things. Those scholars/readers who try to come up with some kind of natural explanation for them are missing the point. If you have a problem with miracles, then how can you believe that Jesus rose from the dead? And if you don't believe that, what are you doing?
Basic Truth #2: These Are Judgments
Again, I don't know how else to say this. The Bible makes it clear that Pharaoh represents the world's opposition to God, and so he faces God's wrath against rebellion (sin). The more "God is love"-oriented readers will wonder why the rest of the Egyptians have to suffer the consequences of Pharaoh's rebellion, but that is also the point. They are a part of "Pharaoh's anti-God world order"; there are no innocent bystanders when it comes to the war between God and anti-God. If you have a problem with this, you have a problem with the entire book of Revelation, and you have a problem with hell. And again, what are you doing?
Basic Truth #3: These Are Demonstrations of God's Power
Once you've realized that God's confrontation with Pharaoh works as a stand-in for God's confrontation with the evil order that stands against Him in the world in all ages (the sin in humanity being weaponized by Satan), you can see the pattern and structure behind the plagues. God is not lashing out in angry retribution; He is making the kind of point that any rational bystanders would observe and respond to.
A quick summary: they are narratively structured into three groups of three (the final plague is set apart) (you can observe this by paying attention to the timing, the nature of God's warning, and God's instruction to Moses).
Group 1: blood, frogs, gnats (nuisances)
Group 2: flies, livestock, boils (distinction between Egypt and Israel)
Group 3: hail, locusts, darkness (true danger and terror)
But behind all of this is declaration of power over Egypt's "gods".
Pharaoh is considered a god by Egypt; he is utterly powerless to stop these plagues.
The Nile is the bringer of life to Egypt; now it brings death.
The desert is Egypt's protection from invasion; now it harbors disaster.
The sky brings gentle rain; now it brings calamitous hail.
The various animal deities are helpless before God's power.
The sun (the main Egyptian god) is darkened at a word.
That's what's going on. Egypt, the greatest power on earth, is powerless before the One True God, and her pantheon is impotent against Him.
Where We Are in Exodus
In last week's passage (Ex 3), Moses "met" God for the first time. What follows is some key exposition. A very important passage for this week and next is this:
18 They will listen to what you say. Then you, along with the elders of Israel, must go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19 However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, even under force from a strong hand. 20 But when I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles that I will perform in it, after that, he will let you go. 21 And I will give these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.
Following this, Moses ramps up the excuses. "What if they don't believe me?" God then gives him three "instant miracles": staff into a snake, instant leprosy, and water into blood. Those must have been convincing to Moses because he immediately pivots to "I can't talk good", to which God patiently responds,
Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.
Now, Moses has no choice but to tell God "no" and duck. But God won't let him out of it that easily; instead, God brings Aaron into the mix. (Note: Aaron is included because of Moses' rebellion. Just keep that in mind.)
So, Moses and his family heads back to Egypt, and God brings Aaron out to meet him along the way (at Sinai). (There's a really awkward circumcision episode, but I choose to keep on moving.) Together, they report to the leaders of the Israelites, and they believe (just as God said they would). That brings us to this week's passage.
Part 1: Pharaoh Is a No Go (Exodus 5:1-4)
Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.” 2 But Pharaoh responded, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” 3 They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.” 4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Get to your labor!”
Let's start with the phrase "let My people go". I have heard it well argued that the verb better translates as "release" or "discharge". In other words, Pharaoh can (rightly) interpret this request as a permanent change.
To be sure, just as God said, Pharaoh would not let God's people go. This must have still been a letdown to Moses, especially coming off of the (what must have been) a moving worship service at the end of chapter 4 (the first Jewish worship service?). It was certainly a letdown to the Israelites, whose first experience with listening to God was immediate opposition from their local authority.
This, then, is one of the key themes in Exodus: obeying God leads to opposition from the world. This equally applies to Christians, and may even be more obvious in the New Testament:
4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? (James 4)
34 Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. (Matt 10)
Aside: The Christmas Tie-in. The KJV version of the angel song is "14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2) That has led many people to think of Jesus' coming as a time of peace on earth among all people. Perhaps that's why they like Christmas so much. A better translation of that passage is "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!" Jesus didn't come to bring peace among people, but peace between people and God. As long as there are sinners, there can be no lasting peace on the earth. Back to the passage.
Of course, many new Christians have been discouraged by the opposition they find from the world. They may have been told that when you follow Jesus, life becomes easy. Jesus never promised that, and the Bible certainly doesn't suggest that. What happened to the Israelites when they began to follow God is crushing.
But it should only make sense, right? Does Pharaoh know God? Definitely not! So why would Pharaoh listen to God? Why would we expect Pharaoh to listen to God?
Consider some role-playing parallels:
"Hey, teacher, God told me to tell you that I don't need to take that final."
"Hey, boss, God told me to tell you to give me a raise."
And they can get snarkier from there.
The point being, of course Pharaoh didn't listen! BUT, once God begins to demonstrate His power to Pharaoh and Pharaoh still doesn't listen, that's when we realize that there's a spiritual battle going on under the surface.
Aside: Did God Lie about this Wilderness Festival?
I'll admit that I've always been bothered by this. We know that God's intent was to bring His people out of slavery and into the Promised Land. So, what is this about a wilderness festival and a three-day-journey? Was God being disingenuous?
I've heard it explained in a few ways. One points back to what I said above, that "let My people go" really means "release My people [from slavery]", such that it didn't matter where the people were going. They would have been released.
Another is that "three-day trip" is not the length of time they would be gone, but the time it would take them to get where they are going. In this case, "wilderness festival" is just a common way to describe what the people would be doing -- going to Mount Sinai and worshiping God.
The solution I prefer is that this entire "what if" is meaningless. God knew that Pharaoh would not let His people go, no matter how reasonable Moses made the request. If Pharaoh had said yes, perhaps this first event would have been a short "worship retreat"; but the point is that Pharaoh said no, putting him in direct opposition to God.
In any event, Pharaoh is made to be the obstinate fool in the sight of his people -- putting cheap labor in front of his own people (and family!).
Part 2: Whiny Moses Tests God (Exodus 6:2-5)
2 Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I was not known to them by my name ‘the Lord.’ 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as aliens. 5 Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.
To understand this, we have to go back a few verses. After their first encounter, Pharaoh told the slavemasters to force the Israelites to find their own straw to make bricks.
Pharaoh thought he was being very clever -- driving a wedge between Moses and the people, thus shutting down the "rebellion" without having to lift a finger. And indeed the people were upset with Moses! And so Moses immediately whines to God,
5:22 Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? And why did you ever send me? 23 Ever since I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has caused trouble for this people, and you haven’t rescued your people at all.
Watch your tone, Moses! Clearly Moses doesn't have "the fear of the Lord" as he should (think about what he's seen), or at the least he doesn't remotely understand God's character.
[Aside on Spiritual Growth. Moses is now considered a hero of the faith, the man who knew God face-to-face. That's a far cry from this man! Be encouraged that we can overcome a rocky start as a Christian and even become a spiritual leader. God didn't let Moses give up; we can know and trust that God is just as faithful to us today.]
Ultimately, we find out that this was all a part of God's plan. God allowed Pharaoh to "flex his muscles" against God's request, probably to show that Pharaoh was not God's puppet.
This would be the time to talk about Pharaoh's hard heart (which I cover in more detail in the 2017 post, and which the Bible Project videos talk about very eloquently) -
4:21 But I will harden his heart so that he won’t let the people go.
7:13 However, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
This is a "both/and" situation. Pharaoh hardened his own heart because he was opposed to God (he thought of himself as the god of his people). But God solidified Pharaoh's bad behavior -- locked it in, so to speak. Pharaoh wanted a hard heart against God; God made sure he had it. For example,
7:2 You must say whatever I command you; then Aaron your brother must declare it to Pharaoh so that he will let the Israelites go from his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you, but I will put my hand into Egypt and bring the military divisions of my people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the Israelites from among them.
In this passage, God tells us why Pharaoh's hard heart was so important -- he represented all of the evil forces of worldly opposition to God. People have asked me, "Why does Satan keep fighting if he knows he is going to lose?" The same question must be asked of Pharaoh -- "Why did Pharaoh continue to rebuff God after all of the terrible consequences for doing so?" There can be no "rationale" or "grand strategy" for evil. Evil simply opposes God, wherever and whenever, whatever the cost.
Really, this isn't about Moses, and it isn't about Pharaoh -- this is about a promise God made to Abraham, and God intends to keep that promise.
Thank goodness we can't put God off of His promises if we whine enough!
Aside: By My Name, "The Lord"
Verse 3 is actually a hugely controversial verse in some scholarly circles. What did God mean? Here, "The Lord" is Yahweh. So, does this mean that God had not told Abraham that name? That's what the Lifeway material suggests -- that God called Himself "El Shaddai" (God Almighty) to the patriarchs but not "Yahweh". The problem with that is that "El Shaddai" is a title, not a name. And God doesn't have multiple names -- He has one name, Yahweh.
There are other suggestions. If you have ever heard of the "Documentary Hypothesis" or the "JEDP Theory", this is a big verse for them. That theory says that different people wrote different parts of the Old Testament at different times, and we can identify them based on which names for God they used. (Baloney, btw.) Or perhaps this is a rhetorical question.
One thing we can rule out is that God was elevating Moses above the patriarchs. (Abraham knew Me as "El Shaddai", but Moses knows Me as "Yahweh".) That's not what's going on here -- especially taking into account Genesis 12:8,
[Abraham] built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord.
"The Lord" being "Yahweh". With that in mind, our better understanding is that God revealed the significance of His name "Yahweh" in a way that the patriarchs did not know. They heard the promise; Moses and the Israelites would experience the fulfillment. Yahweh is the One who remembers the covenant, who conquers false gods, and who can have compassion while still judging sin. That is knowing the character of God (His name) in a fuller way.
Your Lifeway material suggests doing a comparison of "El Shaddai" and "Yahweh". That's a big job! But it's a very good one.
Part 3: God Doesn't Let Moses off the Hook (Exodus 6:6-9)
6 “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.” 9 Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.
If Moses was trying to get out of this job altogether, it didn't work. God reiterated His mission for Moses, and the people reiterated their rejection of Moses.
Too Good to Be True. You might put this into a "too good to be true" category. The people were broken. They had gotten their hopes up, and Pharaoh had crushed them. And now they would rather wallow in their own misery. Do you know people like that? People who have been hurt enough that they would rather not have any hope at all than have hope lost. Well, God cannot be put off so easily. God will rescue the people from slavery. God will bring them to the Promised Land. And most important of all --
I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.
I said that last week's passage was possibly the most important in the Old Testament. This is a close second. Here in Exodus, we learn what kind of a God God is, and we learn that God wants to have a relationship with His special creation (people). The Lifeway material points out 12 times this formula is used -- Lev 26:12, Jer 7:23, Jer 11:4, Jer 30:22, Jer 31:33, Jer 32:38, Ezek 11:0, Ezek 14:11, Ezek 36:28, Ezek 37:27, Zech 8:8 -- read those passages and get a sense of what God is saying through it. This is the basis of God's covenant with people.
It starts with the physical descendants of Abraham, but soon enough we realize that was only a placeholder for the spiritual descendants of Abraham, namely us and every other non-Jewish Christian in history.
Pay careful attention to the repetition of "I am the Lord". God started His words to Moses the same way. But to the people, God starts and ends His words with this. What does that mean? Why would God root His actions toward His people in the declaration "I am Yahweh"?
Back to the Israelites -- perhaps they thought of God's promise as too good to be true. "You're just going to rescue us from slavery? We don't have to do anything except follow Moses to the Promised Land?" This of course is a picture of salvation -- "You're going to let us live with you in glory forever, and all we have to do is believe that Jesus is Lord?"
God's relationship to His people is very action-oriented. List the active verbs. This is in stark contrast to the other gods of the world, the ones who sit on idols and need to be cared for.
But it also plays to the people's needs. Pharaoh isn't the only one who needs to be "convinced" that God is God! God's own people need to learn that this God who claimed them is the One True God. Anyone can claim to be god; the One True God will demonstrate it with great acts of judgment.
This, then, is just another picture of salvation. What did Jesus say?
Luke 5: 31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
At the end of this lesson, try to put your group in the headspace of the Israelites. You can use questions like,
When everything seems to be going wrong in your life, how do you react?
If you had been in Moses' shoes (sandals), how would you have responded to God?
Which of the promises made by God in this passage do you need to claim the most right now?
Every person looks bad in this story. Moses, the Israelites, Pharaoh, the Egyptians. But if we take a hard look at ourselves, we will see lots of failures in our own lives. God sent Moses to deliver the people from slavery to Egypt; God sent Jesus to deliver us from slavery to sin. We all need to be rescued.
Closing Thoughts: Aaron
The very next passage is a genealogy of Moses and Aaron, and then we have Moses' final whine, resulting in God sending Aaron to be Moses' spokesperson.
7:6 So Moses and Aaron did this; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Aaron gets a bad rap, and he deserves it, as this post title suggests,
I have already mentioned that Aaron was initially brought into this because of Moses' disobedience, so that's not a good start. However, God knew that all of this would happen, so we can't call Aaron the "back-up plan". Rather, Aaron simply was the proof that there is no perfect priest -- Aaron had to offer sacrifices for his own sin (Lev 16:11) before he could offer sacrifice for anyone else. Because he was the first high priest, he is still respectfully considered a type of the perfect High Priest (Ps 110:4, fulfilled in Jesus).
The siblings Aaron, Miriam, and Moses definitely fussed with one another. Miriam (who was the oldest) had pull over Aaron against Moses. Indeed, Aaron did not show strong leadership, whether against Miriam, against the people, or against his own sons. Just further proof of the need for a perfect Messiah to be Prophet, Priest, and King.