Women’s Bible Study
Exodus 4 – Miraculous Signs of Pharaoh
4:1 “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The Lord has not appeared to you”
How gracious God is in responding to questions that men may consider to be real and legitimate roadblocks to faith, even though there is enough basis for action in the Word of God!
John 4:11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
- The signs given to Moses were for his sake, to prove that God was with him.
- The principle behind the miracles was to operate just as it did for the Zarephathite woman when Elijah raised her son from the dead in 1 Kings 17:24 “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.”
Serpent was worn on the headdress of Pharaoh or the Serpent in Genesis 3:1
Question:
God was audible and people believed. Is this why we don’t believe? What about the Holy Spirit? HIS involvement in our daily lives? When JESUS CHRIST came, the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled when HE ascended into heaven. See: John 14: 16 - 18
- Excuses: 4: 10-12
- Truth is out! 4: 13 – 17 Moses could think of no more good objections, for God had met every one point by point. God’s unwilling servant revealed the true nature of his heart: literally he said, “Send, I beg you, by the hand of whom you will send” -- i.e. “choose someone else, not me! (NIV “please send someone else,”)
4: 14 “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses….
The Anger of God – is one of the most misunderstood aspects of His love. When Moses encounters God’s anger, it is not the wrath of an indignant monarch but the intensity of a loving God. Moses was on the verge of missing a great destiny. Rather than leave Moses to his mediocre existence, God flashed His anger in an attempt to capture Moses’ attention and provoke him to obedience-not because God was so egocentric that He wanted His will done at all costs, but because He cared enough for Moses not to let him miss his opportunity.
The anger of the Lord is not to be avoided; it is to be embraced, for it is God’s protective love in action. He doesn’t get angry at us; He gets angry for us, because He does not want us to miss the best (read: Hebrews 12:7-10). God is slow to anger, but if we become obstinate or even simply neglectful, God expresses His anger as a means of spurring us to action. So, let us receive it gladly. It is a sure sign of His love. God’s anger may startle us, but His indifference would devastate us.
Indifference – unresponsiveness, lack of sympathy, lack of interest, unconcern, coldness
Key features of the LORDS directive to Moses:
- Perform miracles before Pharaoh
- Pharaoh will harden his heart and not release the people
- Inform him that since Israel is “my firstborn son” the Israelites must be set free so that they might worship Me.
- Pharaoh’s refusal will lead to the death of his firstborn son
- In all there were 10 places where “hardening” of Pharaoh is ascribed to God (4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17) but it must be stated just as firmly that Pharaoh hardened his own heart in another ten passages (7:13, 14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34, 35; 13:15) Thus the hardening was as much Pharaoh’s own act as it was the work of God. Even more significant is the fact that Pharaoh alone was the agent of the hardening in the first sign and in all the first five plagues. Not until the sixth plague, was it stated that God actually moved in and hardened Pharaoh’s heart (9:12 “but the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses) as he had warned Moses in Median that he would have to do.
- The announcement that Israel was God’s son, his firstborn – does not mean “first” on chronological order, because Jacob (Israel) was actually born after his twin Esau. Here God meant “first in rank,” firstborn by way of preeminence, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of a “firstborn.” Thus what has previously rested on natural rights of primogeniture (the right of the firstborn child, usually the eldest son, to inherit the parents’ entire estate) now rested on grace. With it went the privilege given by God to the seed of Abraham by means of this “firstborn” all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Accordingly, God declared David and each of his sons in the line of Messiah to be my “firstborn” (Psalm 89: 26-27); and later Christ himself is called the “firstborn” (Romans 8:29). Hebrews 12: 23 include all believers in God’s “firstborn.” Israel was to be set free; for they were sons of God, the Lord, who graciously had adopted them as his special inheritance and had set them apart from the nations to be his instrument for bringing blessing to all the nations of the earth.
Election:
- The right or ability to make a choice. See Synonyms at choice.
- Predestined salvation, especially as conceived by Calvinists.
