A Godly Pattern — Bill McLeod

A Godly Pattern for Christian Conduct

I'd like to read from 1 Timothy 4, 12, read from 12 to the end. Let no man despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give yourself wholly to them, that your profiting may appear to all.

Take heed unto yourself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will both save yourself and them that hear you. Verse 12 again, let no man despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conversation, that is in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Let's just pray. Father, we ask you to be our teacher by your spirit. We were brought up yesterday, the Bible says, and know nothing. We agree to that, we know it's true. And Father, we need light from you.

We trust you for it. In Christ's name, Amen. The Apostle Paul, an older preacher, was writing to a younger preacher and exhorting him along certain lines, as we know, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. He says, let no man despise your youth.

That's not my problem. They may despise me because of my age. When they find out I'm 73, what can he say? You know, today, if you're past 30, you've lost half of your marbles, and if you're past 70, you've lost all of them.

I mean, that's how they feel. If they get a resume, they ask a lot of questions that the Bible doesn't ask, and the questions the Bible doesn't ask, they don't even consider. I mean, when calling a pastor.

Ordaining councils, I've sat on them, I've moderated some ordaining councils, and the questions the Bible asks about a pastor, you know, they're never asked. Somehow, it's all taken for granted, 1 Timothy chapter 3.

And, of course, it's wrong. You know, there's an old saying, marry in haste and repent at leisure, and churches have had to do the same thing, if you know what I mean, in calling a pastor. The questions they want to know, of course, are these, where did you get your training?

Well, I'm finished right there. I never got any. That is, not in formal schools. Of course, Moody wouldn't have made it either. Finney wouldn't have made it. Charles Spurgeon wouldn't have made it. They never had any training either.

That is no formal training. We all have training, but in different ways. And there are other things considered as well. Let no man despise your youth. When Gypsy Smith, before he became an evangelist, he pastored a Methodist church in England, his first church.

He sat on the platform at the opening meeting. They were considering him as a pastor, and he sat there about ten minutes past starting time and said nothing, just looking the congregation over. And finally somebody said, young man, don't you realize it's ten minutes past starting time?

He said, yes, I'm aware of that. He said, did you ever hear of a doctor prescribing a remedy without diagnosing the case? So whoever it was sat down. A few minutes later, a lady got up and said, you are altogether too young for us.

Lady, he said, stick around. I'll be older. And, you know, at the end of the first year, so many people have been saved. The church had grown dramatically. Nobody was asking these kind of questions any longer.

Would you believe it? I had a crusade in Washington several years ago. And before I got there, I discovered that the pastor was 75 and the youth pastor was 81. And I thought to myself, now, you know, we're going to have about 30 people, old people with marks on their eyebrows.

I mean, with this kind of a leadership. I couldn't have been more wrong. I mean, they had a fantastic church. Lots of young people, lots of young married couples. And these two guys, I mean, it did my heart good, you know.

They really had it going. The only first, I mean, first time in 50 years in the ministry I saw anything like this. But it was sort of encouraging. Moses never got started until he was 80. Apparently, in some things, God doesn't look at us the way we do.

Let no man despise your youth. But this meant that Timothy somehow had to gain respect. It wasn't going to come naturally because he was young. We have a tendency to write people off if they're young.

They don't have much to say. So somehow he had to gain respect. And Christian workers, we have to gain respect. It doesn't come because we've got a lot of training and so on. My wife and I once saw the resume of a pastor who had just been kicked out of his church, asked to resign, to put it more politely.

And he had, I mean, the training he had. There was just no end to it, and degrees and degrees and degrees and degrees, the whole thing. I'm not opposed to that in the slightest. He couldn't find a church.

Because his track record wasn't there. He had the training, but somehow he couldn't, the people didn't respect him. And it's something we have to gain. Whether we're a Christian worker or not, we have to gain respect before we can expect people to listen to what we have to say.

That's not true in all circumstances, I know. Let no man despise your youth, but be an example. You know, conduct speaks louder than words. And sometimes we nullify what we say by the way we live. And our example can preach louder sometimes than our sermons do.

I know a pastor in western Canada. He started several churches. When you meet him, he doesn't have any charisma, whatever that is. And when he preaches, it's not any big deal. But every church he started, it just grows and grows and grows.

I had meetings with him one time, and he said, you know, I can't explain it. He said, we're growing on the average of 30 people a month. I don't even know where they come from. People, I think it was his example more than anything else.

He just loved people. He just loved everybody. And he was faithful. And he set a godly example in every respect and aspect of his walk with God. And it spoke louder than the sermons could. I remember hearing a preacher one time in Akron, Ohio years ago.

He only had grade five education. He murdered the Queen's English every time he spoke. His preaching was like the book of Proverbs, all text, no context. He preached like this. Now watch it, you people.

And he'd say something great. Now watch it, you people. He'd say something else that was great, totally unrelated, you know. And that's how the sermon went. His printed sermons were dull. But when the guy preached, there was a power there.

It was totally different. And he met a fellow named Notley Nash, I think it was. They shook hands, and he said to this fellow, he challenged him, he said, Listen, let's build, for the glory of God, let's build the biggest Sunday school in the world.

And they did. For years they had the biggest Sunday school in the world. I think God had tried with others and couldn't get through to the public on them. So he got this guy who didn't know anything, but who obviously had some administrative gifts, obviously.

The church had 16 ,000 members, and my wife and I were there. We were not there for a crusade. We were there as observers. The church now has 22 ,000 members. They have to build a larger building. When we were there, it just seated 5 ,000.

It seats 7 ,000 now. And the son of this fellow is now the pastor. Anyway, for it to be an example. In 1 Timothy 1, Paul spoke about this matter of example. He said that, So Paul, as you know, if you read 2 Corinthians 11 and other places in the New Testament, you know how Paul went through a lot of problems.

He was mobbed, left for dead, stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, spent a day and a half drifting in the ocean, it says, in perils among false brethren. I mean, it's a terrible catalog of bad things that happened.

But he said he was a pattern. God intended him to be a pattern to those who should hereafter believe on him. And certainly he's been a challenge to me, and I'm sure to thousands, no doubt millions of other people.

When Paul wrote to Titus, another younger preacher, chapter 2, verse 7, he told him to be a pattern of good works. This was something different again, a pattern of good works. In doctrine, showing uncorruptness, purity, uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.

Like it says in Ephesians chapter 5, There's nothing wrong with a little humor, but, you know, sometimes we get caught up in this and it's all humor. And sometimes you have a speaker who spends ten minutes telling jokes.

They call it breaking the ice. You know what it really does, people? It builds ice. It's not the way to do it. I can't imagine the apostle Paul standing up and cracking jokes for ten minutes. Can you?

Well, I can't either. A pattern, doctrine, uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that isn't the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

You know, Spurgeon in his younger days, he said himself he was very bombastic at times. Someone asked a liberal preacher in London what he thought of Spurgeon, and he said he's a very saucy dog. And he had that reputation of being a very saucy dog.

But he had a grandfather who helped him. And when he had been a little too bombastic, he'd come home and find a Bible stuck on his bed or beside his bed and a pen in Titus 2, 7. Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that isn't the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

Oh, Spurgeon said, he really helped me. And then a lady one time, she came to reproach him because he used a little humor. He didn't use a lot of it, but he used some. And he said, lady, if you knew how much I held back, you'd feel sorry for me.

Christians Are Watched by the World, Angels, and Demons

A pattern. Ever think of it that way? Your life, a pattern that others see. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul said, we are made a spectacle. And the Greek word there is the word from which we get the English word theater.

We're made a theater, that is we're on stage, to the world, to angels, to men. I think he means Christian men. The world sees it, Christians see it, demons see it, good angels see it. We're on stage whether we like it or not.

We're being watched. So it matters how we live, what we say, where we go, how we spend our money, how we spend our time. It says in Hebrews 12, make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame, that's the sinner, be turned out of the way.

In Isaiah it says, they've made them crooked paths, whosoever goes therein shall not know peace. And sometimes sinners following Christians get so tangled up because the Christian walks in crooked paths that they just never make it.

They get turned away, totally. I've known a few cases like that over the years, and possibly you have as well. Well, let's make sure that we are not like that. A sinner may be watching you or watching me, and taking what inspiration he can get from our life, let's walk straight.

I remember hearing, I think it was Ralph one time in a meeting, where a fellow got up to share, and the rules of the sharing were no preaching, and if you can't find the landing field, we'll help you come down.

And he couldn't quite find the landing field, and then he was stopped. I forget exactly how that was done, but we have polite ways of doing that. And so he said, well, I'm just flying so high. And Ralph said, we don't care how high you fly, as long as you walk the straight path when you come down.

And Ralph didn't know that was a shaft from God, because this particular man shortly afterwards was disciplined by his own church, on a rather serious charge, anyway. Be an example to the believers in words.

It says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edify, that it may minister grace to the hearers. Now, corrupt means rotten. Don't let anything rotten come out of your mouth that will hurt somebody else.

It says of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, that in her tongue was the law of kindness. Her tongue was guided by the law of kindness. She was careful what she said, lest she should hurt some other person intentionally or unintentionally.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. So we should think before we speak. And think in terms of trying to say something that will help somebody else.

They said Harry Ironside, he's dead now, which means he's more alive than ever. He was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago for many years. Under his minister, they often had to have double services to get the people in.

The church seats almost 5 ,000. It's not quite that way today. I think when Irvin Lutzer took over, they were down to around 800. They've come up over 2 ,000 for Sunday mornings, I know. I'm not sure where it's at now.

But Ironside had a happy facility of turning conversations into spiritual channels. They said he worked at it constantly. If he's in a home having coffee with a bunch of Christians, he was always trying to get the conversation around the spiritual things, things that would edify, and not waste time.

Contentment, Compassion, and the Trials of Faith

One of my nephews, my youngest brother's oldest son, pastor of the church I attend in Winnipeg, is dying of cancer. They say he probably has no longer than two weeks to live. Forty-six years of age. Two children, a wife that's not well.

If you think of him, pray for them. His name is Gary. His wife's name is Dorothy. I mention him because just recently he met with two of the board members and said something like this. I thought I had 20 or 30 years more to serve God.

I don't have. He said, brethren, tell the board, give it all you've got. Give it all you've got while you can. Because you never know what the future holds. None of us know. In words, be careful what you say.

Jesus in Matthew 15 said, It's not that which goes in your mouth that pollutes you, it's what comes out of your mouth that defiles you. What we say defiles you, he said, because it comes from the heart.

What you say comes from the heart. Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so we speak what we are. Sometimes we can camouflage that to an extent, but basically we speak what we are. And further along that same line, sin is really an extension of myself.

I sin because of what I am. I love to blame it on my wife or my husband, my kids or my parents, my neighbor or my job. But Jeremiah 3 .13 says, Only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God.

Only admit it, God says. Only acknowledge it. Stop blaming it on something else. You know, hold you to chapter 5. There's an interesting insight there along these lines. It says, they, that's Israel, they'll go with their flocks and with their herds, they're going to sacrifice to God.

They'll go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him. He has withdrawn Himself from them. I read that, I say to myself, why? I read further in chapter 5 and I find out in the last verse.

God said, I will go and return to My place until they acknowledge their offense and seek My face. They were seeking the face of God. They were not admitting their failures. They were not admitting their sins.

So they never got through. And that's still true, of course, today. Why is this in the Bible? Romans 15, Paul said about the Old Testament Scriptures, Whatever things were written before were written for our instruction, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.

So Hosea 5, 6 and 15, that was written for us today. Now, my reading says until they be guilty. That's what the Hebrew says, until they are guilty. So I'll go and return to My place until they're guilty and acknowledge their offense.

That's what God has said. In words, a pattern, in word and conduct. It says in Hebrews 13, Let your conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Are you content with what you have? Having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Oh, wait a minute, this is North America. We've got to have more than that. Really? Really? In James chapter 2 it says, Hearken, that means listen.

Hearken, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him? Why are poor people rich in faith? Dear people, they're rich in faith because they have to be in order to survive.

It is never a bad thing to be poor. Never. It's there that we learn how to trust God. And you pray and God answers, and your faith is increased. In North America, in our evangelical culture, we try to avoid problems of any kind.

The political system is built on that. They're trying to erode away everything they can that would stand in a person's way. Forgetting that we need these things. You remember it says in 1 Peter chapter 1, about the Lord Jesus whom having not seen you love, in whom though now you see Him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy and speak unto Him full of glory.

But in the same context He says, Now, for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Let the trial of your faith, being much more precious than the gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

You know we pray, God give me more faith, so God gives us more trials. Hey God, what's going on here? I ask for more faith, so God gives me more trials. People, it's through trials that our faith is increased.

I don't know of any other way. I know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. As a young Christian, I came across this verse in Mark 11, Have faith in God. I don't know why, it really spoke to my heart.

So, I was reading the Bible through for the first time. At the top of every page, I still have this Bible at home somewhere, I wrote across the top the page, Have faith in God. I did that for every page in the Bible.

But I can't honestly say that writing that down like that did anything for me. Well, I remembered the verse, of course, Have faith in God. And we have to have the Bible to increase our faith. That's part of it, but it certainly isn't all.

Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.

I think of my nephew. He got sick last January, dear people. He had headaches so bad, he would just curl up in the bed in the fetal position and hope to survive. Day after day, everything he did, he had to throw up.

He got pains in his legs, he would shriek with the pain at times. I haven't yet heard a word of complaint from him or his wife. He knows it's all in the hands of God. And a lot of us have been learning watching him.

You know, the trial of our faith. Much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. And it may be. Yours may be. Mine may be. We've had lots of trials in the past. But you know, I think of that verse that says, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Not worthy to be compared. I never heard of anybody getting to heaven early and then complaining. Did you? Of course not. We do the complaining down here. But to go back where I just started a few moments ago, having food and clothing, let us be there with content.

Listen. Do you know something? I can give your total biography in four words. Do you believe it? You can give me mine in four words. Do you know what they are? Nothing in, nothing out. 1 Timothy 6. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And did you know that's based on a verse in Ecclesiastes that says basically the same thing? I mean, people, that's our total biography. Nothing in, nothing out. So, let's live for God. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Bodily exercise profits for a little time. But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and also of that which is to come. Exercise yourself, it says, rather unto godliness.

There are people that have exercised their hearts with covetous practices and Peter calls them cursive children. Let's not be that. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses.

Even in our evangelical circles, dear people, we tend to think of a person who's made a million dollars as being a real success. I mean, why do we do this? This is from the world. Here's a person, he may be a thousand dollars in the red.

He may mean more to God than a person with a million dollars in the bank. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And that's true for you. It's true for me. Let me say something else.

If you aren't content with what you have now, you won't be content no matter what God gives you. The eye is not filled with seeing and the ear is not filled with hearing. And he that loves abundance will never be satisfied with increase.

It says that. You want more? You'll always want more. I heard about a lady in Scotland, very poor. She didn't have much to eat, just a little crust of bread. And she held this up like this and she said, Dear God, all this and heaven too?

Oh, I thought that was great. I mean, it spoke to my heart. Full spirit in love. And you know, the Bible just exhausts language in talking about love. It says we're to walk in love, Ephesians chapter 5.

Let love be without hypocrisy in Romans chapter 12. Keep yourselves in the love of God in the book of Jude. Follow after love, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into a patient waiting for Christ.

This I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge and all judgment. In Philippians chapter 1. We sometimes think, you know, that when you talk about a Christian being filled with the love of God that should happen long after conversion, a real deep and powerful work of the Spirit.

But in 1 Peter 1 .22, it's linked to being born again. Let's look at it again. Seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth of the Spirit unto unfaithful love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again.

People, it should start automatically. How does faith work? Faith works by love, Galatians 5 .6. As a matter of fact, faith and love occur together 32 times, at least, I found that many times, and maybe more.

Faith and love. Remember the love ceasing in your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of God and our Father. Your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all towards each other abounds, a pattern in love.

Are we really that? Why is it, you know, when the door slams shut behind us in the house that the growling starts and the complaining and the criticizing and all the rest of it. Now, the kids watch that, they pick up the vibrations and they turn out to be the same as we are and we wonder why.

We prayed so much for them. How come they turned out like me? Oh, because you were the example they had. I mean, what else? It's not always true. Moody had a son that became a liberal preacher, and Torrey took him to task publicly.

Billy Sunday had a son who died a drunkard. John Wesley's wife used to drag him around the floor by the hair. And I'm not exaggerating, she actually did. And so, you know, there are exceptions to every rule.

Love as a Daily Pattern of Self-Denial

Walk in love. 1 Corinthians 16, 14, it says, Let all your things be done with love. Everything. Everything. But what we do in Christian circles, we think that love is strictly for emergencies. Like, you know, relatives calling that we didn't invite.

They let you know on the phone they're coming to stay for three days. You say to yourself, how in the world can we put up with those, you know, those clods for three days? So you practice smiling in front of the mirror, you know.

Well, you put on this front and they come, and you make it, you know, you make it. You're nice to them for three days. You pray day and night, God, give me love, give me love, give me patience. And then they go and you thank God they're gone.

Who? People. This is what we do see.

Love is not for emergencies. Your people are supposed to be a way of life. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the whole week. You're out, you're in, you're out. Walk in love. I say again, let all your things be done with love.

And let love be without hypocrisy. Genuine love seeks not her own. That guides me whenever I think of love. Love seeks not her own. I was at Life Action a couple of years ago. Ralph was there too. I don't think he was there when this happened, but I spoke on love.

And a fellow went home from this meeting, and he decided to really do it, see. So he's going along, and he saw a guy who left his car lights on, and he was in a hamburger, and he roared by, and then it hit him.

Oh, hey, wait a minute. This guy's lights are on. His battery might be dead. So he whirled around, came back in. The guy's door was open, and so he turned the lights off. Felt better. He's driving along, and he sees a camper pulled over off the road, and there's a couple of ladies sitting in it.

So he pulls in. Anything wrong? And the lady says, Yeah, my mother, she seems to be going into a coma. She's a diabetic, and I just don't know what to do. He says, Lady, stay here. I'll get help. So he roars away and gets help, you know, takes care of that.

He starts, and this all happened one afternoon, or one evening, whenever. I'm not sure. Was it the next day or whenever? He was driving along, and he saw a huge camper sitting there, and a couple of people in it.

And so he pulls in alongside. Can I help you? And again, it was two ladies, and this lady said, Well, I'm lost. He said, You know, we've come down here for a family reunion, and I don't know where. I can't find my relatives.

He said, Do you have a phone? Yeah, I've got a phone number. He said, Give me the phone. You just stay right here. I'll go and get you help. So he goes a couple of miles down the highway, and there's a telephone booth there, and there was two booths like, you know.

And so he's in here, and he's phoning this number, and the girl in the next booth was watching, and she saw the number down. She said, Who are you phoning? And he said, Well, what's it to you? Well, he said, I met a couple of people down the highway.

They're lost two ladies, and they gave him this, Oh, it's my mother. I'm looking for her. So she goes tearing down, and he felt so good about it. I guess it was in the morning session that I preached on this, because it was in the evening when he gave his testimony.

And he was talking about this one lady in the car, I guess the second time he stopped, and he said, and she was an old lady. She must have been, oh, close to 70. And a voice spoke up and said, 68, dearie.

And she happened to be in the meeting, and he didn't know it. But he said he just felt so good to interrupt his schedule to help somebody else. Love seeks not her own. I mean, most of us would sail by, wouldn't we?

Well, sure, of course. I mean, there's the telephone a mile down the road. Why not put it on the telephone, you know? This is how we, you know. Like, for example, in the wintertime, there's a blizzard.

Candid, we know all about this. And you hear somebody stuck in a snowbank. And you look out the front window, you and your wife, and it's your neighbor stuck right in front of your house. And his wife is driving, and he's pushing, and the kids are up there.

They're shoveling and pushing. You look at your wife. I wonder how long it'll take them. Ah, it took them 18 minutes. 18 minutes. Well, spring comes, the snow, of course, is gone, and you're having special meetings in the church in June.

And so you decide to go and invite some of your neighbors. So you're calling this guy. And boy, is he crusty and cold. You walk back and wonder to yourself, man, all right, what's wrong with that guy?

Ooh, is he ever angry? Oh, he's headed for hell. He's headed for hell. The problem is, when this neighbor was stuck in the snowbank, he saw this guy and his wife looking out the window, and he doesn't believe in the reality of the Christianity.

You know? And he's got a right to make that kind of a judgment. Because we're supposed to be different in the world. We're supposed to be ready to put ourselves out there to help other people. Do you read the Peanuts comic strip?

I read it whenever I can. Shultz, the author, is not a born-again believer. He's a religious person. He's always trying to get religious ideas across. And I remember seeing one cartoon, Snoopy the dog was up a tree and there was a path here, and Snoopy was just growling at the people down below.

And I discovered, I have a book about these things, and this represents an evangelist. You see, Shultz thinks evangelists, he thinks they're leaping on people trying to scare them into the kingdom of God.

But even a stop clock is right twice a day. And he's not always wrong. And one time he had a picture, you know, Snoopy the dog in a heavy, wet snowstorm. He's here with one foot off the ground. He's shaking and trembling like this.

He's obviously, he's cold, he's wet, he's cheerless and friendless and all the rest of it. And the kids gather around and they put their hands on his head and they say, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled.

And then they all walk away. And that's a takeoff from the book of James. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled.

Notwithstanding, you've given not the things that are needful to the body. What is the problem? What's that all about? So Schultz was right. In word, in conduct, in love, in spirit. Did you ever notice Jacob's testimony to Pharaoh in Genesis 47?

Pharaoh said, How old are you? And he said, Few and evil to the days of my life be. I haven't attained to the days of the years of the pilgrims of my fathers. It's been awful, Pharaoh. Who will tell you?

I had to run away from home. One of my brothers was threatening to kill me. He didn't tell him why. I worked for a guy named Laban. Oh man, 14 years. I had to work 14 years to get my two wives. He changed my way just 10 times.

In the night time, the frost got me. In the day time, the drought got me. He said it was terrible. I've had an awful time serving God. And I'm only 130 years old. You know. I say to myself, You know what the next verse says?

He blessed Pharaoh. Rather, he neither. He just cursed him. You know. He blessed Pharaoh. You know, I don't know. I could be wrong. I wonder if after he was gone, Pharaoh tried to shake the blessing off.