Exodus 4:21-6:2, "Why Now?"

Exodus 4:21-6:2 and the Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

Exodus chapter 4, starting in verse 21, we'll be reading to chapter 6, verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power.

But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.

So he let him alone. It was then that she said, a bridegroom of blood, because of the circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses, so he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.

Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. 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. Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.

The same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them.

You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore, they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.

So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves, wherever you can find it. But your work will not be reduced in the least.

So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather double for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, complete your work, your daily task, each day as when there was straw. And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had sent over them, were beaten and were asked, why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?

Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants. Yet they say to us, make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten.

But the fault is in your own people. But he said, you are idle. You are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.

The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce the number of bricks your daily task each day. They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh.

And they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people?

Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.

For with a strong hand, he will send them out. And with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Why now? Why is this happening to me now?

I've kept the rules. I've tried to do the right thing. I've gone to work on time. I did my job. I've done my part. I've been faithful. I've applied myself to be sweet and understanding, easy to get along with.

I've tried to raise these kids best I know how. I've gone to church, given my money, I've pulled my weight. I've prayed and hoped. And now this. Been fired, laid off, I'm unemployed. I've been served with divorce papers, or had to serve them on a cheating, abusive spouse who's abandoned me.

My children have betrayed everything they were raised to believe. Or look what's happened to them. My business has failed. My house has been being foreclosed on. My car repossessed. I'm having to declare bankruptcy and go on welfare.

The tests have come back positive. I'll have to take chemo, or worse, I only have a few months to live. Or maybe I'm just lonely and tired, stuck in a dead-end job with nothing to look forward to. And year after year, I'm stuck and will grow old and die with no way out and no one caring.

Why is this happening to me? Where is that abundant life I was promised? Well, that's the way a lot of people feel, even church-going people. They are wondering why they're going through what they're going through, especially if they feel they've been keeping their end of the bargain.

And it's got to be really hard on those who think the Bible, Christian life, church, is all about principles for how to have a good marriage and how to raise good kids and manage your money and stay in good health, insights for living.

That's what it is, which is really kind of a watered-down, less magical version of the prosperity gospel, the version where God sort of vaguely promised. The prosperity gospel says He specifically promises it.

This watered-down version says it kind of vaguely promises, if you follow these steps, your spouse will love you better. Your kids will get better grades and stay out of trouble. Your cholesterol will go down.

Your life expectancy will be a little bit longer. Maybe you aren't promised a Cadillac, but you're kind of promised, maybe, that your Ford Escort won't be repossessed. God has given His children, they say, secrets to success, here and now.

It's all about benefits. It's perks, advantages you get from being a Christian, they believe. Now, what do they do when things don't work out? I guess they think, most of the time, they need to double down.

They need to try the principles harder. They haven't been reading enough chapters or being gone to church enough, whatever. That's why they're not getting the advantages yet. What about the people around them?

What do they think when they see their neighbor, fellow church member going through these problems? They might think that they didn't turn their heart toward home. They didn't apply basic youth principles.

They mustn't have read five psalms and a chapter of Proverbs every day, or else their kids wouldn't have gotten arrested or pregnant out of marriage. They didn't cut up all their credit cards and put cash in envelopes to be dispensed only as the envelopes mark, or else they wouldn't be unable to buy a house.

They didn't eat the Daniel diet. Or else they wouldn't have got the diagnosis. After all, they're a child of the king. They're a prince or princess, and should be enjoying that high life. That's what the guy on TV says.

That's what happens when you think God works automatically according to what we do. We put in the coins, push the button, out comes the Coke. We put in the prayers, the confessions, the tithes, push the button, and out comes from God the healing, the financial peace, the family tranquility, whatever it is you want.

So we're promised. And if or when it doesn't work, we cry, why is this happening to me? Why is it happening to you? Well, that's what the Israelites, including Moses, are crying by the end of this chapter.

God, if we're your sons and your daughters, why are we suffering this? Things have gotten worse since we bleak. We see here in six parts why God's people are going through what they're going through. One, the control, the carelessness, the confession, the confrontation, the condemnation, and finally, the conclusion.

It's hard to count six in one hand, sorry, but I try. Well, first, there's the control. Who is in control of this situation? Now, after the burning bush, chapters 3 and 4, and after Moses had told his father-in-law he needs to go back to Egypt, he sets out from Midian for Egypt, and soon the Lord speaks to him to tell Moses that he is in, that he, the Lord, is in control.

Chapter 4, verse 21, God tells Moses what to do. Specifically, do before Pharaoh the miracles. The word there actually means wonders that I have put in your power to do. Moses should feel confident. He has these wonders on his side.

He has some power. He'll be able to dazzle people. And they will show God's power. And people today often assume if we have miracles on our side, if only we could do them, people would be amazed and they would believe.

But God then immediately says, I will harden his heart. So God will control his heart so that he will respond as the Lord determines. This is already at least the third time since the burning bush that the Lord has expressed his absolute control.

First, he told Moses, remember, that he makes people eloquent or not. Moses said, hey, I can't go. I can't speak well. I'm not eloquent. And God said, well, I make people eloquent. What do you think you, why do you think you became a stammering speaker?

Because I made you that way. I make people eloquent or not. He says, I make people sing or also mute or deaf or blind. It's kind of hard, but it's what he says. Second, the Lord said that he will control the hearts of the Egyptian people as a whole so that they will see the Israelites, whom they used to dread, it says earlier in Exodus, they dreaded them.

They will now see them favorably by the end of this thing. And they will give them whatever they ask for. That's pretty nice. And now on the way back to Egypt, the Lord declares that he will harden Pharaoh's heart.

God is in control. Now, some will argue that actually, well, actually, we're in control. And God kind of goes along with whatever we decide. After all, they say, you know, it says later in Exodus that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

And so they will say, aha, that's it. Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. And God just let him do it because God refuses to override our free will. So I believe there are at least three replies to that.

That's the common answer. In fact, I used to see this week, I tried to look up YouTube videos on the hardening of hearts. I found a lot of bad ones. And they would obviously, the apologists for the Christians, would try to answer that one because it's so objectionable to them that it says God hardened people here, that he hardened Pharaoh's heart.

And the common answer back was, well, Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. And God kind of let him do it because he didn't give people free will. I believe there are three replies to that. One is the inclination, second, the causation, and third, the biblical indication.

First, the inclination, the inclination of our hearts. Now, yes, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Exodus will say that later. I believe it says five times he hardened his own heart. It says nine times God hardened him.

As a sinner, but that's what sinners do. They're hard-hearted toward God. They are, the Bible says, these are all quotes from different parts of the Bible, they are always inclined to evil all the time.

Exodus chapter 6, verse 5. Always inclined to evil all the time. They are desperately sick and beyond pure. They're slaves of sin. Wait, free will, slaves, how does that work out? Unable to accept the things of God.

Dead in sin. Hostile to God. Talk about an inclination. The inclination is hostility. So their inclination is against God. So when faced with the will of God, people will choose to rebel against God unless God graciously softens their heart.

So here, when Pharaoh is faced with a command, let my people go, Pharaoh hardens his heart and he refused to do it, even after the miracles and the plagues. Why? Because that's what people do when left to themselves to respond to God.

I don't believe, you've got this phrase, God says, I will harden his heart. I don't believe that that means that Pharaoh would have let the people go if only he had been left to himself. If only God would have left him alone, God would have, Pharaoh would have had the sense to let the people go.

God had to, as though it means God had to intervene and turn his heart against Israel in order to get the outcome he wanted. God didn't have to do that. God doesn't have to intervene in the lives of sinners to make them sin.

Sinners will sin by nature. That's the way they are. And God knows that. He knows how Pharaoh will respond. And he knows, of course, that he's not going to soften Pharaoh's heart. In other words, he's not going to give him grace to believe Moses' word.

He's not going to soften his heart. And when the word of God comes to a sinner's heart that has no grace to accept it, it will do, they will do what they're inclined to do. The word will harden his heart.

Second is the causation. Now, the problem with those who say, see, first, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And then as a result of that, God, who they say is, is bound by his own determination to honor our, quote, free will, he had to affirm Pharaoh's sovereign decision.

He wished Pharaoh didn't decide that, but he had to go along with it because he had to give him free will. The problem is that that makes the human will the ultimate cause of everything that happens, including salvation.

So someone's decision is first. Someone has to have either us or God. Someone has to have the first decision, the free decision, that determines the other decisions. Is it God or is it us? The free decision that results in us being saved or damned, otherwise, the finger that pushes over that first domino that starts the chain of events that results in all the other dominoes falling, and so results in, eventually, our final destination of heaven or hell, glory or destruction, that first cause is what?

Our will or God's will? Now, both sides will say that God and people make decisions, but they disagree on whose decision is ultimate. The ultimate cause is the first one, is the free one that is uninfluenced by the other one, the free one that determines the other one.

Does Pharaoh first choose to be hard-hearted? That's his free choice, and then God lets him, because he has to now. Or does God make the choice that then determines Pharaoh's choices? In other words, who acts first?

Does Pharaoh first do it, harden his heart, and then God has to go along with it to allow him his free will? Or is it the other way around? Does God first decree that Pharaoh will be hard-hearted, and that determines what Pharaoh does?

Don't think so abstractly, theologically. What's the scripture say? I think here it's telling that first, God says, he will harden Pharaoh's heart. It's one of the passages we read. This is the first occurrence of it, that phrase here in all of Exodus.

Only later, and I think as a result of God's first decision, does Exodus say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Whose will is ultimate? When God first says he will harden, he answers that question, and says that he, God, is the ultimate cause.

Finally, and most simply, and most quickly, third is the biblical indication. Scripture interprets scripture. Romans 9 answers this question, point blank. Pharaoh is the example of the one who God hardens as he wills.

Let it speak for itself. Romans 9, verse 18, so then he, God, has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. He's in control. So the Lord tells Moses of his control. I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.

Now, just here, Moses should have listened carefully. Maybe all he heard was the expression of control. You know, great, the God I'm for is in control of everything. You've got people's hearts. He didn't hear the implication.

He heard the expression of control, but didn't hear the implication of trouble. Moses missed something. If Pharaoh was not going to let the people go, even to the point where God has to kill his own son, kill Pharaoh's son, after the request to let them go, after the wonders, Pharaoh's still going to say no after all that.

That means, pay attention, Moses, that means that in this world, you will have tribulation. Today, Christians like to celebrate that God is in control. We did some of that in our songs already this morning, that Jesus must reign until he has put every enemy under his feet, that one day, we'll be able to taunt death and say, death, where is your sting now?

And often, we miss something in all that celebration of God's sovereignty and power. If Jesus must reign until he has put every enemy under his feet, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, that means there are still enemies out there, doesn't it?

If it will be in the future, when we say, where death is your sting, that means it still has a sting now, doesn't it? Don't tell a widow at her husband's funeral that this is a celebration. You've missed something.

The result, when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, things are falling apart, and we cry out, why is this happening to me? Why isn't God in control? We're assuming that if he's in control, the troubles are supposed to go away.

We're his child. He's in control. He's going to control everything to our benefit, isn't he? We missed something. I don't think Moses would have been complaining to the Lord, like he is at the end of this passage, if he had heard carefully what God said to him at the beginning of this passage.

God says he is in control. He says that he is in control of Pharaoh's heart. He says that his people are his children. Israel, the people of God, he says, is my firstborn son. And so Pharaoh had better let him go, or else the Lord will kill his, Pharaoh's, firstborn son.

Now that's tough talk, but Moses missed something. If Pharaoh will not at first let Israel go, then for a time, Israel will have tribulation. If it will take the death of Pharaoh's firstborn son to rescue God's firstborn son, his people, then Pharaoh's heart and his resistance is going to be very hard.

Now think about that. God assures Moses of his absolute control, but then says he is going to control the situation, at least for a while, to make things more difficult for Israel. Why cause Pharaoh to make the situation worse?

Well, second, we see Moses' carelessness. In chapter 4, verses 24 to 26, that mysterious odd passage, Moses is on the way back to Egypt to lead the covenant people to serve God. Sounds great, but wait.

He hasn't even led his own family to do that yet. He's been totally careless. So the Lord meets him, probably in the form of a disease or a seizure or some kind of attack, we don't really know, but something that incapacitates him, leaving only his wife, Zipporah, to act.

And she does. She realizes that they have not obeyed the Lord's command, that his old covenant people were to be circumcised, and so she does it, noting that this covenant with God comes through blood.

And Moses was careless, like people today are often careless, thinking that they can be in a relationship with God, God will be fine with them without blood, that they can be just, you know, they can be fine with God just by being good, they can keep laws, maybe they're just relatively nice people, that no one has to die for their sins, because their sins aren't that bad, that God is not so holy as to demand death for their sins.

That's carelessness. So God may meet them one day, hopefully before the judgment day, and may surprise them. And they, too, may cry out, why is this happening to me? Maybe it's to bring their attention to their carelessness, because you've been careless about something.

You've not seen that everyone not in a covenant with God sealed with blood will be judged. Well, third comes the confession. And this sounds like good news. In chapter 4, verse 27 to 31, the Lord tells Aaron to go meet Moses.

And so they meet on the same mountain where God had appeared in the flame, the mountain of God, and it was Mount Sinai. Aaron kissed Moses, it says at the end of verse 27, beginning now the partnership of brothers that will last for the next 40 years.

They go together to the elders of Israel. They tell them the words of God. They show them the works of God. And the result is they believed. Now, here, they're still in slavery. They're still suffering ruthless oppression, having their baby boys thrown in the river.

But now, for a moment, they stop crying out to the Lord, complaining, wondering why this is happening to them. No more, for now, crying, why us? Why now? But they confess that the Lord had, indeed, visited them.

And so they bowed their heads and worshiped. They confessed the Lord was with them and was going to save them. Well, now, their fate will be put to the test. In chapter 5, they are ready, they think. You're just going to cash in on God's promise.

They got the promise. We believe it. It's going to be easy sailing from here on out, they think. So Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh with the rod of God in his hand, confident God is in control, swaggering into the throne room and declare, probably with an attitude, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go.

Charlton Heston did it nice. Aaron probably said it with authority. Moses probably gave him a high five. Yeah. And they're probably on their way out. But wait. That's not what they were supposed to do.

The Lord told Moses how to approach Pharaoh at chapter 3, verse 18, at the burning bush. The Lord specifically said, gave someone specific instructions. One, take the elders of Israel. There's no indication here that they did that.

And then they were supposed to say, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, that's what the Egyptians would know them as. They didn't know Israel. That's not what they considered them as. Moses called him the God of Israel.

OK. Like they're saying they're a nation. And they're supposed to say, God has met with us. Pharaoh would know what that means. That's an encounter with God. And they're supposed to say, now, please, let's be courteous or to be respectful.

Let us go three days' journey. They were supposed to understate the request to help Pharaoh save face. They were supposed to do the wonders. They kind of be like, take Theodore Roosevelt's advice. Speak softly.

Carry a big stick. That's what they were supposed to do. But in chapter 5, verse 1, they come in speaking loudly. And they didn't say they did the wonders, either. They didn't show the big stick. They come sauntering into the throne room, like a confrontation.

Thus says the Lord. The Lord didn't tell them to say that. In verse 10, Pharaoh's taskmasters mocked them by saying, thus says Pharaoh. Uh-huh. Take that. Also, you think you can come in. Here, tell us what to do.

We're going to show you what's what. So now they have a confrontation. And Pharaoh scoffs back in verse 2. Who is the Lord? Who is Yahweh? Who is he that I should obey him? Because they basically commanded the king what to do.

And what do you think that's going to do to your average king? God will soon school Pharaoh on who the Lord is. But then Pharaoh determines, probably with his ego, Israel, I will not let Israel go. So now it's a confrontation of wills.

It's Pharaoh's versus the Lord's. Now, when people's pride is challenged, especially the ego of powerful men, they are not likely to back down. They're not likely to do what they may have done if they had been approached more humbly and more respectfully.

In verse 3, Moses and Aaron, to me, they sound like they're trying to backtrack, trying to start over. Hey, wait, that's not what we thought, that God was in control and we would get what we want. And so now they're trying to approach the situation like God had originally told them to.

They mention now the God of the Hebrews. They say, please, now, for the first time. Once you've been so rude, probably please later is not going to really help. You start with please first, OK? But they didn't do that.

They only asked for their three days journey. They add that disease or disaster might fall on them if they don't go sacrifice, trying to play on his sympathy, I guess, his superstition. But God never said to tell him that either.

But it's all too late now. Pharaoh has declared that he will not let them go. And so to change his mind now in front of all his officials would be to lose face. So now it's a confrontation. It's a battle of wills.

Now, I wonder, is this how the Lord ordained that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened? That is, he was provoked by Moses and Aaron, speaking too bluntly, too rudely, too provocatively. Was there blundering God's instrument to provoke Pharaoh to thinking, I'm going to show them.

No one comes into my throne room and tells me what to do. Was this what God used to get him to dig in his heels and refuse to let them go, which causes the confrontation that comes? Maybe. We don't know for sure.

But what we do know for sure is that God was in control of the whole situation. So now provoked, the king of Egypt accuses Moses and Aaron of distracting people of Israel from their work. It's like he's thinking, if you have time to bother me with this, you must have too much time on your hands.

And so that brings the condemnation. Verses 6 to 21, Pharaoh condemns them, Israel, that very day, as soon as Moses and Aaron leave. You're probably leaving wondering what in the world just happened. This is not turning out like we thought.

But Pharaoh condemns them that very day to the same quota of bricks. But now they have to gather the straw themselves. They don't get all their ingredients to work with. They've got to go gather themselves.

You people have, it's like his attitude, you people have too much free time on your hands. So now you must have the time to go get the straw. The people are idle, Pharaoh accuses them in verse 8. So he's incensed.

And he will impose on them heavier labor, so that at the end of verse 9, they will, quote, very important there at the end of verse 9, pay no regard to lying words. That's his intention. That's his goal.

And he's talking about the word of God. Why does God bring affliction on us, for his children, and he's in control? Well, first, why does the world, the flesh, and the devil, our enemies, why do they afflict us?

And Pharaoh shows us. Our enemies afflict us to get us to pay no attention to God's word. That's their goal. And we're tempted with sexual immorality, so we won't pay any attention to God's command to be holy with our bodies.

The world threatens to call us bigots if we regard what God's word says about homosexuality. We're tempted to give our lives to making money. We're told, basically, you really can't spare a few hours on Sunday morning away from money-making to go to church, because you've got to serve the money god.

You've got to have this stuff, that nicer house, everything. We're tempted to say with our lives, we really can live on bread alone. We can get along fine with just a big bank account and a nice house and a luxury car, without God or his word.

We're tempted to call good what the world calls good, even if God says it's evil. And all of that is a temptation to pay no regard to God's word, to say with our lives that God's words must really be lying words, because we can live in contradiction to them and get along fine, we think.

That's why Pharaoh intends to show Israel here in his condemnation of them that the Lord is lying and that he, Pharaoh, Pharaoh's words are stronger. So the order goes down from the Egyptian taskmasters to the Israelite foremen in verse 11.

Go get straw yourself, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. And now they have more work to do in the same amount of time. So they scramble to do it. The taskmasters are urgent in verse 13.

Get it done. When they fall behind, the Israelite foremen are beaten and taunted. And they cried out in verse 15. Cried out, same word as used before. They cried out to the Lord. Now they're crying out to Pharaoh, calling themselves Pharaoh's servants.

Wait, they're supposed to be God's firstborn son. They're calling themselves Pharaoh's servants. Crying out to Pharaoh, why are you doing this to us? They blame the taskmasters. But Pharaoh is unrelenting.

You are idle. You are idle. That's why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Now, the foremen, they hear this from Pharaoh, know they're in trouble. Says that, they know they're in trouble now.

They've already felt crushed by the ruthless oppression. And now their work has been multiplied. They can't keep up. And if they fall behind, they're getting beaten now. Maybe it's going to be worse next time.

Surely, they begin to think, this is all part of a plan to destroy them. How have things gotten this bad? So on their way out from that scolding from Pharaoh, probably with the words, you are idle, still ringing in the halls, they meet Moses and Aaron.

And now, instead of believing them, remember before, they believed, and bowed, and worshiped when they heard from Moses and Aaron. Here now, they condemn them. Look at that. The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.

Things have gotten worse. And it's Moses and Aaron's fault. At the end of chapter 4, these same people were bowing and worshiping. And now, they are pointing fingers and bitterly complaining. Why? Because they didn't understand that in this world, they will have tribulation, that the road from slavery here and now to freedom and glory later is a hard, narrow one.

Moses and Aaron came with miraculous signs, promises of leading them out, the Egyptians even giving them gold and silver on their way out. Sounded great, a great new land to go to. All true, but they missed something.

They didn't think that if Pharaoh's heart is hard, he will make things hard on us first. They didn't think that it's necessary to go through many afflictions to enter the kingdom of God. Why did Israel collapse so soon, go from worshipfully bowing to bitterly blaming?

Sure, at first, they received the word with great joy. But just as the Lord Jesus told us in the parable of the seeds, when trouble and persecution came because of the word, they quickly fell away. They had no root.