Moses: Faith to Endure Pharaoh's Wrath (Hebrews 11:27)

All right, let's open in prayer before we begin.

Our Father, we pray that you would speak to us this morning in your word. We have sung to you the desires and the affections, the sentiments of our hearts, as we have trusted in you, as we wait upon you, as we long to see you and to know you more deeply.

It is our desire now that you would reveal yourself to us in the pages of scripture. In your word is all of the wisdom that we need and all of the knowledge that we need concerning salvation and you and our future together.

We thank you that your word is sufficient and we pray now that you would instruct us and teach us and encourage our hearts together as we look at your word. Open our eyes to it and our minds that we may see in your word, truth and wisdom and righteousness and light, that we may know you more as we leave here than we do even now as we open your word with great expectation.

We thank you and we praise you in the name of Christ our Lord, amen. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 23, we'll read through verse 29. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,.

For he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Example after example in Hebrews chapter 11 shows us that faith is not just a New Testament principle or a New Testament idea, but rather that the men and women of the Old Testament, believers, were marked by faith and they lived their lives by faith.

Their good works, which are highlighted in Hebrews 11, flowed from their faith. Their faith issued in and produced the good works in their lives. We understand that concept in the New Testament era that we are not saved by works, we do not please God by works, but rather that our good works are the results of faith.

Faith comes first, the good works flow out of our faith. Our faith motivates those good works and actually gives life to those good works. That's a concept that we're familiar with from what is taught in the New Testament.

And it is a concept that was true also in the Old Testament with all of the saints of old. Their works did not please God any more than our works would please God and they were not saved by works any more than we are saved by works.

Their works, likewise, flowed out of faithful hearts, hearts that had faith and believed God and trusted God, and out of that faith came all of the works and the good deeds that we read of in the Old Testament.

The author reads the Old Testament through the lens of faith, and I think that there's something instructive to that in us as to how we should approach the Old Testament as well. When we read the Old Testament, we should not read it as though we're just reading a bunch of stories that are told for our moral betterment as if they're a bunch of morality tales.

You read the story of David and Goliath and David picks the five smooth stones and meets Goliath down in the valley and slays the giant and the preacher preaches through that or you read through that and then you're asked the question in your mind or by the preacher or in your study guide, what are the giants in your life that the Lord would like to slay and what are the five smooth stones that you need in your life in order to slay the giants?

And that perspective on the Old Testament just makes the Old Testament into a series of morality tales or little stories like, not the parables, but the Aesop's Fables, like Aesop's Fables that we can read and draw out little lessons here and there and it is entirely unbiblical approach to the Old Testament.

Instead, the author of Hebrews is showing us that we can read through the Old Testament and we should be able to read it through the paradigm of faith. To see in the lives of all of these men and women of the Old Testament, like the ones that are cataloged here in Hebrews chapter 11, to see how it is that faith motivated their good works, that these are men and women who responded to God on the basis of not of their works, but on the basis of faith and how that faith issued itself out in lives of obedience and in submission to the word and to the will of God.

By his own admission, the author of Hebrews is not giving us a comprehensive list of Old Testament characters. Look down at chapter 11, verse 32. What more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and the prophets.

It's a good indication that the book of Hebrews was originally a spoken sermon as opposed to a written word because this is what every preacher says. Look, time running out of time. Time would fail me if I were to go on to all of the other things that I could say on this subject.

But he is admitting there that this list of Hebrews 11 is not comprehensive. He doesn't even go into Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, but he just lists them. And not only is the list of characters incomplete, but the list of examples of faith in the lives of the characters that he mentions is incomplete.

See, when he camped on Abraham back a few verses ago, there are far more examples of faith in the life of Abraham, but the author cherry picks a few of those examples, and when he slows down to talk about Moses in this passage, it's not just these incidences in the life of Moses that are examples of his faith or that are indicative of his faith.

There are four of them that are mentioned here. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Verse 27, he left Egypt. Verse 28, he kept the Passover. And verse 29, they passed through the Red Sea.

That's not a comprehensive list. In fact, we could add to that list from the life of Moses the following. This is just, again, a cherry-picked sampling. By faith, Moses picked up the serpent that had turned and turned it into a staff.

By faith, Moses picked up the serpent after it had been turned from a staff into a serpent. By faith, Moses returned to Egypt. By faith, Moses announced to the elders of Israel God's promise to deliver them.

By faith, Moses stood before Pharaoh. By faith, Moses commanded Pharaoh to let God's people go. By faith, Moses commanded water to turn into blood. By faith, Moses stood before Pharaoh again. That list could go on.

We could go through all the 10 plagues of Egypt. So this sampling that we have here, these are chosen from the life of Moses, and they are instructive. And we've looked at the first incident of Moses' faith.

He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter as he was looking forward to the reward. Now we turn in verse 27 to the next example of Moses' faith because we're not yet done with Moses. Verse 27, by faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen.

I want you to make a few, we're gonna make a few general observations before we get into the nitty-gritty of this verse and what it is referring to. I want you to notice the verbs that the author uses beginning in verse 24, Moses refused.

These are all examples of Moses' faith. He refused, verse 25, he chose, verse 26, he considered, and verse 26, he looked. So he refused and he chose, he considered and he looked. And now in verse 27, there are two more verbs.

By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and he endured, he left and he endured. Both of those verbs are examples of faith, they're expressions of his faith. Those two phrases in verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king and as seeing him who is unseen, those two phrases really describe the manner or the how of Moses' action.

He left and he endured. How did he leave and how did he endure? What sustained him through that? He left not fearing the wrath of the king, that describes his faith, and he endured as seeing him who is unseen, that describes what it is that sustained Moses for his expression of faith.

How it is that he was able to leave Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. Now one of the main questions of verse 27 is what incident is this referring to? Verse 27, what incident in the life of Moses is this referring to?

Because there are two times when we could say that Moses left Egypt. One of them we looked at a couple of weeks ago when Pharaoh tried to kill Moses after he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

Pharaoh tried to kill Moses and Moses heard that word had gotten out, he was afraid, and he fled Egypt and went out to Midian where he lived for 40 years. That is one of Moses' leavings of Egypt. The other one is in the Exodus proper, 40 years later after the 10 plagues and the Passover and Israel looting the Egyptians, Moses and all of Israel with him got up and left and went out of Egypt.

So there are typically two times that Moses departed Egypt and the question now is which one of those two times is the author referring to? I want you to notice one last thing. Verse 27, 28, and 29, there is an order there.

He left Egypt by faith. Verse 28, he kept the Passover. And verse 29, they passed through the Red Sea. He left Egypt, kept the Passover, and passed through the Red Sea. Just notice that order and keep that in your mind.

Left Egypt, kept the Passover, and went through the Red Sea. Now in order to find out what incident is it from the life of Moses that is described in verse 27, he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, I want you to turn back to the book of Exodus.

Keep your fingers here in Hebrews 11 because we will be returning here. Turn back to Exodus chapter two. Exodus chapter two. There is some disagreement amongst Bible scholars and commentators as to which of these, which of these incidences is meant by the author in verse 27, by faith he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king.

He endured as seeing him who was unseen. Now there are two options as I mentioned. The first is Moses' flight into Midian which is briefly mentioned at the end of chapter two, verse 11 and 15, or toward the middle of chapter two, verse 11 through 15.

Now it came about in those days, this is the first possibility, I'm gonna give you these two possibilities. Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors.

And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. He went out the next day and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other.

And he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion? But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Look at the end of verse 14.

Then Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has become known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Now according to Acts chapter seven, Moses was 40 years old when he fled Egypt that first time and went out to the land of Midian. Midian is a little bit south of Egypt where Moses and the children of Israel were at in the land of Goshen and east over in the Arabian Peninsula.

That was the land of Midian. So it was far enough out of Pharaoh's reach that Pharaoh could not find Moses. The second option is the Exodus itself, and we're gonna skip over a little bit of material, but flip over to Exodus chapter 12.

This is after the Passover, after the death of the firstborn. Egypt drives them out in Exodus chapter 12, verse 40. Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years, and at the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went up out of the land of Egypt.

That's Moses with them. So Moses leaves Egypt twice, once to the land of Midian and once alone, and once with the children of Israel in the Exodus itself. Now which one of those two events do you think is described in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 27?

Don't turn back there just yet, but I'll read it to you. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, he endured to seeing him who is unseen. Nearly every source that you check, and I say nearly because it's not all of them, but nearly every source that you check will tell you that verse 27 in Hebrews 11 refers to either Moses fleeing Midian, or Moses fleeing, sorry, Moses fleeing for Midian, or Moses fleeing Egypt with the children of Israel in the Exodus.

All of those sources except for one, and if you count me as a scholar, you can now say two, because I have a third option, but before I give you the third option, I wanna set a little bit of the context for that and describe why it is that I don't think that either one of these two departures from Egypt is meant by this in verse 27.

The first one, our first option, Midian, back in Exodus chapter two, it is interesting that that flight from Egypt is directly attributed to Moses' fear. Did you notice that? Exodus chapter two, verse 14.

But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has become known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.

Moses' first flight from Egypt is attributed to his fear. Now, there are Bible scholars who believe that that's the one mentioned in verse 27 of Hebrews chapter 11. They'll say, yeah, Moses was afraid, but he wasn't afraid afraid.

I don't know what that means, but basically they're saying that he was, sure, he was fearful. Who wouldn't be fearful of the most bloodthirsty tyrant on the face of the planet at the time? A man with a military like that seeking to kill you, who wouldn't be afraid?

So of course Moses was afraid, but it wasn't a fear that caused him to flee. He was just fleeing to save his life. I don't know, maybe Moses was not really afraid afraid. He was just afraid, but I think that the statement in Exodus chapter two is a little difficult to reconcile with the Hebrew statement, he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king.

So I think there has to be an incident in the life of Moses where he stood before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's wrath was aimed at him, and Moses did not fear that, and Moses left instead. The second possibility is that this is referring to the Exodus, but if that's the case, the order of Hebrews chapter 11 does not work.

Now, I mentioned before we went back from Hebrews chapter 11, he left Egypt, they kept the Passover, and he went through the Red Sea. Now, if we're going through Hebrews chapter 11, and it's chronological, you'll notice that something is out of order there.

They celebrated the Passover, then they left Egypt, then they went through the Red Sea. But Hebrews 11 says he left Egypt, then they celebrated the Passover, then they passed through the Red Sea. I would submit to you that the order does not work because everything in Hebrews chapter 11 so far has been chronological.

Now, you might say, well, maybe the reference to these incidences in the life of Moses is not intended to be chronological. If it's not intended to be chronological, it kind of doesn't fit the rest of Hebrews chapter 11 because everything else in Hebrews chapter 11 has been chronological.

Remember, we started with Cain and Abel back at the beginning of this chapter, and every person that has come up has been brought up in a chronological order as you're going through time. And furthermore, when he focuses in on Abraham, zooms in on the life of Abraham and Sarah, and gives us multiple examples of faith in the life of Abraham, those multiple examples are in chronological order.

So if he is referring to the exodus of Egypt here, it doesn't fit the chronology of Hebrews chapter 11. It suggests that the author has something in mind, something that happened before they celebrated the Passover that refers to Moses leaving Egypt.

Furthermore, it would be more proper for the author to say, if he's talking about the exodus itself, that by faith they left Egypt, rather than to say by faith he, Moses, left Egypt. As he does down in verse 29 of Hebrews 11, by faith they passed through the Red Sea.

Refers there to the whole company, the whole host of the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea by faith. Now, of course, Moses was leading that, but it's a reference there to the entire nation.

So if this is referring in verse 27, Hebrews 11, to the exodus, it seems more appropriate they would say, by faith they left Egypt, not he. So again, there seems to be some incident in the life of Moses where Moses himself was standing before Pharaoh in the face of Pharaoh's wrath that the author is in, it means here.

Third, when the children of Israel left Egypt, Moses was not full of wrath. Moses was a broken man.

He was not full of wrath.

In fact, check Exodus chapter 12. Look at verse 29. Now, it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle.

Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go worship the Lord as you have said.

Take both your flocks and your herds as you have said, and go and bless me also. Does that sound like Pharaoh's wrath?

Not at all.

So the Exodus doesn't seem to fit that description. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath. There is a third option. The third option, and I didn't invent this out of whole cloth, I actually saw this in a commentary by John Owen, his series of commentaries, a series of books, commentary on the book of Hebrews.

Owen suggests a different incident that is meant in verse 27. But in order to get that, I want you to go back to Exodus chapter two, we're gonna set a little bit of context so you can see what sort of leads up to this.

In Exodus chapter two, Moses does escape to Midian, that's not what the author of Hebrews is referring to. He meets the daughter of a priest of Midian and marries her, Zipporah, and has a son. Pharaoh eventually dies.

Exodus chapter two, look at verse 23. Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage and they cried out. And their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God, so God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them. Now that doesn't mean that God was oblivious to their existence or oblivious to their plight before that, not at all, but it does mean that under their cry when the time came about for God to deliver them according to his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that God took notice of them in the sense that his attention was directed to them with the intention of redeeming them and taking them out of Egypt.

The time had come for that to happen. So it's not that God woke up suddenly and said, oh, that's right, Israel, I forgot, I made a promise to Abraham 430 years prior. I should probably do something about that.

But rather that when in the providence of God that time came for them to be delivered by God's power, God's remembered his covenant when he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the actions that he takes from this point forward are intended to fulfill the word that he gave to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

So in chapter three and four is the incidence of the burning bush and Moses' call. Moses being out in Midian now with a son and a wife and he is shepherding his father-in-law's sheep. Moses is out in the wilderness now 40 years have passed and Moses meets God at the burning bush in Genesis, sorry, Exodus chapter three and chapter four.

And Moses is called to be God's deliverer, his instrument through which he would go deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. And you remember the story Moses came up with, every excuse unto the son that he could possibly come up with?

I don't know, Lord, I don't think that they're gonna know.

Who you are.

And God said, no, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. My name is Yahweh, you're gonna introduce me to the sons of Israel and I'll take care of this. Well, I don't think Pharaoh's gonna really pay attention to who you are, Pharaoh's not gonna care who you are.

And God said, it doesn't matter whether Pharaoh cares who I am or not, I'm gonna do many signs and wonders in the presence of Pharaoh and I will crush his heart and I will bring up my people. And Moses said, but I'm not really a good articulate, I've never been to homiletics class or to speech class and I've never really spoken in front of people, I'm not the guy, not my mouth, Lord, choose anybody's mouth but mine.

And the Lord dismissed that and said, I'll give you Aaron. And he said, well, the tent cleaners are coming on Tuesday and the sheep shearers on Thursday and we got the fam this week, this whole week, Lord, is just not good for me.

Finally, the anger of the Lord burned against Moses and Moses relented and God humbled him and directed him back to Egypt. Moses goes back to Egypt, chapter five, Moses confronts Pharaoh and demands the release of the children of Israel and Pharaoh politely declines.

Chapter five, verse one, and afterward, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?

I do not know the Lord and besides, I will not let Israel go. It's gonna be a hard pass for me, bro, is what Pharaoh said. Not gonna do this, I don't know this God that you speak of, I'm not interested in this God that you speak of, so it's not gonna happen.

And then Pharaoh increased the workload of the children of Israel by taking away from them the straw and making them go fetch their own straw so that their burdens became heavy. And then the children of Israel lashed out at Moses and said to Moses, the Lord should judge you for making our burden heavy.

Everything was better before you showed up and started demanding our release and now things are worse than they have ever been. Chapter six, verse one, the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.

For under compulsion, he will let them go and under compulsion, he will drive them out from this land. Now the Hebrews would not listen to Moses, the Jews did not, they resented the fact that Moses came back and because he confronted Pharaoh, their workload was worse than it had ever been and they were suffering more than they had ever suffered prior to Moses' arrival.

And Moses now doubts that Pharaoh is going to listen but the Lord encouraged him and now here's where everything heats up. Chapter seven, verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, see, I make you as God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

You shall speak all that I command you and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh and that he will let the sons of Israel go out of this land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my host, my people, the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.

So Moses and Aaron did it as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh. So at this point, Moses is 80 years old, 40 years have passed with him being in Midian and now he shows up in front of Pharaoh to demand the release of the children of Israel and God says in verse three of chapter seven, look at it, I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders.

Here's an interesting little sidebar homework assignment for you. Read through the first, let's call it 11, 12 chapters of the book of Exodus sometime and take note of all the times when it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart and take note, list all the times when it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

And you know what you will find? That both of those things are true.

And here's why.

Because every time that Pharaoh responded to God's revelation and a deed that God did, Pharaoh's act of rejection and rebellion is described by Moses as Pharaoh hardening his heart. And because Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not repent, God's judgment upon Pharaoh was that he hardened Pharaoh's heart.

So God ended up giving to Pharaoh exactly what Pharaoh deserved and exactly what Pharaoh wanted in hardening his heart so that Pharaoh would respond by further hardening his own heart by which God responded to Pharaoh's act of hardening his heart by hardening Pharaoh's heart.

And back and forth it goes all the way through the Exodus narrative so that we see two things working in tandem, the sovereignty of God in hardening Pharaoh's heart so that he would accomplish judgment upon the Egyptians and the responsibility of Pharaoh in rejecting God's truth and God's revelation and thus his heart was hardened.

Now what follows in verses, chapters I should say, seven through 10 are what we call the 10 plagues of Egypt or on Egypt. The first one, and we're not gonna go into depth on all of these, the first one is water turned into blood.

Oh, one thing I will say about all of these in particular, the case has been made, I think it's a convincing case that each one of these plagues is intend as something of a polemic against one of the gods of Egypt because the gods of Egypt and the multiplicity of gods and the way that they worship, they worship the Nile, they worship frogs, they worship flies, they worship all of these things and all of these 10 plagues represent some aspect of Egyptian culture, Egyptian religions or Egyptian polytheism that God is assaulting with each plague, showing them, it was almost like if you had a god, like if you worship cows for instance and then God said, I'm gonna wipe out all the cows and just wipes out all the cows and you're an Egyptian, you'd be sitting there thinking, hold on, we worship a God who's a cow, like you couldn't keep the cows from living and yet this God, this miracle, this Moses does this to our cattle.

That is the case with all of the plagues of Egypt. Everyone is intended to assault one of the Egyptian deities or one of the Egyptian false religions. All right, the first one is the water being turned into blood.

Pharaoh was rather unimpressed with that. The second plague was frogs all over the land. In response to that, Pharaoh promised to release the children of Israel but then relented when the plague went away.

The third plague was the gnats or the lice. Pharaoh was unmoved by that. The fourth plague was flies. Pharaoh promised release and then again relented. The fifth plague is the cattle dying. Like for instance, if you worship cattle, for instance, there's an illustration I gave, it was right out of the passage.

The cattle die, Pharaoh was unmoved by that one. The sixth plague was the plague of boils. Pharaoh was unmoved by that one. The seventh plague is flaming hail and Pharaoh, in response to that plague, promised release to the children of Israel but then again he relented.

Chapter, sorry, the plague number eight was the plague of locusts and Pharaoh's response to that was a shallow repentance. And finally, the ninth plague was a darkness that encompassed the entire land and Pharaoh gave them permission to leave, kind of, sort of, and by this point, you should be in Exodus chapter 10.

Look at verse 21. Now keep in mind with each one of these that the children of Israel were supernaturally protected from all of those plagues. So God made a distinction between Israel and Egypt just in how he protected his own people from all of the judgments that fell upon the land of Egypt.

Exodus chapter 10, verse 21, the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward the sky that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

They did not see one another nor did anyone rise from his place for three days but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said,.

Go serve the Lord,.

Only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Now here's Pharaoh's, sort of, quasi-repentance, his quasi-acknowledgement that they could leave. Verse 24, Pharaoh called to Moses and said,.

Go serve the Lord,.

Only let your flocks and your herds be detained. You can leave but you gotta leave all your stuff. Can't take anything with you, you guys wander off into the wilderness. The thought being, obviously, they would wander off into the wilderness, maybe find some animals to sacrifice, they would get tired of wandering around with nothing and think, well, we might as well go back to Egypt, I mean, that's where all of our stuff is.

Verse 25, but Moses said, you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us, not a hoof shall remain behind.

For some reason, I love that phrase. Not a hoof shall be left behind but we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God and until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know what we shall serve with what we shall serve the Lord.

In other words, we gotta take all of our stuff because we don't know until we get out there what the Lord is going to require of us in terms of service and sacrifices. So we obviously can't go out into the wilderness.

Without any animals,.

So we're gonna take all of our animals because we're gonna get out there, then the Lord will reveal to us what it is that he wants of us and we will have all of our stuff to offer to the Lord. Verse 27, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he was not willing to let them go.

Now, here's the crisis and here I think is the third option. Just to remind you, since it's been a while since we covered the first two options, there are two options, right? Moses leaving Midian and Moses leaving in the Exodus, neither of which I think fit the description in Hebrews chapter 11.

We're all up to speed now because it's been a while, so if you're waking up now, you've missed all of that, here's the third option. I think it is this exchange at the end of chapter 10, the beginning of chapter 11, between Moses and Pharaoh, verse 28.

Pharaoh said to him, get away from me. Beware, do not see my face again for in the day you see my face, you shall die. Now, does that sound like Pharaoh's mad? Just a wee bit?

He's mad?

That's Pharaoh's wrath. Verse 29,. Moses said, you're right, I shall never see your face again. Does it sound like Moses is afraid? Moses run out of there?

Moses didn't run out of there.

In fact, this heated exchange continues. I want you to ignore the chapter division because that's not in the original. The heated exchange continues in chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse one. Now, in chapter 11, the Lord reveals something to Moses, something to the children of Israel, and something to Pharaoh.

Chapter 11, verse one, is the Lord speaking to Moses. Lord said to Moses, one more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here completely.

Again, after this plague, this last and final plague of the killing of the firstborn, Pharaoh is not angry when he drives them out. He wants them to get out. Pharaoh's anger has just been expressed. Leave my presence.

If I ever see you again, I will kill you. That's the threat. That's the wrath of the king. Then the Lord has something to reveal to the children of Israel. Here's the instructions for them. Verse two, speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.

The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Now, up to this point, you might be asking yourself, why is it that Pharaoh just didn't kill Moses at any point along this whole story until now?

The very first moment when Moses steps into the presence of Pharaoh and says, thus saith the Lord, let my people go, why didn't Pharaoh just right then say, you, take him out of here, kill him, deal with him, I don't want him anymore, get rid of this guy.

Pharaoh's the most powerful man in the world. Why didn't Pharaoh kill Moses at that point or after the first plague or after the second plague or after the third plague? You see where this is going? Or after the fourth plague or at any point up until now?

The end of verse three is the answer to that. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. So Pharaoh threatened Moses and Israel was embittered against Moses and it is Moses' esteem in the sight of the Egyptians that has kept Pharaoh from killing him, I think, up to this point.