(Exodus) Exodus 7:2-9 — J. Vernon McGee

God’s Command to Moses and Aaron

Now, listen, verse 2, "'Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of the land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.'.

What It Means That God Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart

And maybe at this time, I ought to take a moment, because it will come up later, and say a word about what does it mean to harden Pharaoh's heart. Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Yes, He did, but only in the way that He means it here.

God didn't take Pharaoh's heart, or let me put it like this. Pharaoh was not a tender-hearted, sweet fellow who just wanted to turn to God and desired to turn to God and was so happy to have Moses come down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel because Pharaoh wanted to do something for them.

And then God hardened his heart, and it was mean of God to harden the heart of this wonderful, lovely Pharaoh. Well, if that's the way you read it, friends, then you're not reading this right. Harden here actually means, it's a very figurative word, I'm told, it means like a rope that is twisted.

It means God twisted the heart of Pharaoh. And why did He twist it? Well, He was going to squeeze out what was in it. The rebellion was in there, but He was covering it up all the time. You know, that is one of the things today that I guess makes a politician.

A politician is really not to say what he thinks. He's to defer it. He's to find out how the people think. And he won't come out and say it. Yet in his heart, he feels one way, but he won't speak out on that.

And there are a great many people like that today. They compromise and won't come out on it. Actually, that's the position Pharaoh wanted to take. Pharaoh did not want to let the children of Israel go.

Yet he wanted to appear as a very benevolent ruler and wanted to be known as one who was very generous. Yet in this particular matter, he was hard. Well, God's going to make him come out with that. In other words, it's as if God's bringing him into court and making him.

You know, there are certain men that have to be taken into court and made to do what they've agreed to do. And a man here in Los Angeles who's a contractor, he told me that he had to take a certain man into court and make him do the thing that he agreed that he would do.

He wouldn't do it, but he took him into court. Now, that's exactly it. He hardened the man's heart. In other words, he made this man's heart firm to reveal what was really in it by his actions. Pharaoh had to face up to it.

And that's what God is doing here to Pharaoh. That's what it means to harden Pharaoh's heart. And therefore, God sends Moses and Aaron in, and Pharaoh now is going to have to put it on the line. God's hailing him into court.

God is saying, you're going to reveal the thing that is actually in your heart. You can't say one thing and do something else. God's going to force his hand in this particular matter. Now, that is the way that is to be understood and not the idea that, dear old Pharaoh, he was a generous-hearted old fellow.

He's like old King Cole, who called for his, well, I can't even repeat that any longer, and he called for his fiddlers three. Just a jolly old King Cole. The fact of the matter is, Pharaoh is this kind of a man, and God's going to make him reveal it.

And by the way, that's exactly what God's going to do with every individual. Someday when you come into his presence, you'll be seen as you really are. There'll be no more camouflage, nothing phony. You'll be just as you are.

We shall know even as we're known then. And that is something that's rather frightening, is it not, for some of us. But this is a very important matter here for us to nail down at the very beginning. And I've taken time to do that here concerning this matter.

Pharaoh’s Defiance and God’s Great Judgments

And Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring mine armies and my people and the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. That's verse 4 of the 7th of Exodus.

God Reveals Himself to Egypt

Now verse 5, And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. In other words, Pharaoh will stand revealed and then God will be revealed.

Moses and Aaron’s Obedience and Calling

And the Egyptians will know and the children of Israel will have it confirmed and Moses and Aaron will be justified. Verse 6, And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore years old and Aaron fourscore and three years old when they spake unto Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Rod as Pharaoh’s Credential

You see, Aaron's three years older than Moses. Now verse 8, And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

Now, what happens here is that they're to use Aaron's rod in this particular connection. And the thing Pharaoh will ask for is, Where are your credentials? You've come here before me to make this very excessive demand upon me.

What are your credentials? And God says, Now this will be your credential. That rod Moses had, you remember.