Year 2 Day 7

Year 2 Day 7 

Pray (ACts)

Read - Exodus 7:8-13

Message - Alan Burke

Have you ever looked around and wondered what on earth is going on? These verses (7:8-13) give us a clearer understanding not only of the book of Exodus but redemptive history and what is being played out around us today. That may seem absurd, but over the next few days we are going to draw out what is happening in the text and see how that applies to the world today and think about that more this coming Lord’s day. Here these verses begin with Moses being sent to Pharaoh and he is to preform a miracle. This is unlike the signs that he had been given to preform before (4:1-9), this was a miracle that would make clear that as it was preformed this Moses had been granted divine authority , thus making it clear that he was as God to Pharaoh (7:1). We’re not told of the conversation that took place between Pharaoh and Moses, rather as the passage continues it gets strait to the point, they went to Pharaoh and Aaron cast down his staff and it became a serpent. 

Even if Pharaoh did not know Moses the first time, he would have known him now and likely found out that this was once a prince of Egypt before him. Believing that these men before him were nothing more than trouble makers, leaders who needed to be silenced for their insurrection. But the Lord had preempted Pharaoh’s request for proof and there in the royal courts, with Pharaoh and his servants looking on, Aaron cast down his staff as the Lord commanded and as the Lord had said it would be it became a serpent. This was a direct challenge to the power and authority of Pharaoh. You might wonder how, but do a web search for a ‘Pharaonic headdress’. When you see it, it will be instantly recognisable, covered in gold, they are ornamental, striking to all who seen them, and right in the centre about the forehead, it has what looks like a cobra. The reason why was because the snake represented Egyptian power. Moses and Aaron, throwing this staff to the ground, which then turned into a serpent was nothing less than a direct challenge to the power and authority of pharaoh. 

Many have attempted to explain what is going on here, that fits in with our western scientific rational. One of those explanations are that this was all illusion, and that Aaron just like the Egyptian magicians knew how to paralyse a snake by putting pressure on the back of its neck so it would be come rigid. There is something so much more that is going on here which we already know as the Lord had sent Moses, giving this to preform, which is evident at how the staff of Aaron we are told swallowed up their staffs. There were ten plagues but this was the first of what were eleven miracles. This might seem like nothing more than an insignificant or unnecessary prelude to what was going to follow, but what we are told here, what we learn from these six verses, is that the LORD God indeed would triumph over the false God’s of the people of Egypt. In everything that would follow, the God of Israel would show that he had dominion over the gods of Egypt, and that he has dominion over all of creation. We will think about this more on Wednesday but right now I want to leave you with the reminder that the LORD God has triumphed, not only over Egypt, the false gods of this wold, over sin and death and even when we look around wondering what is going on we know that He is and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. (Ps. 103:19, Matt. 10:29–31).

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q 22 How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, (Heb. 2:14,16, Heb. 10:5) and a reasonable soul, (Matt. 26:38) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, (Luke 1:27,31,35,42, Gal. 4:4) yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15, Heb. 7:26)