Heeeey everybody how are you all doing today, we are still on this Moses and Pharaoh matter oo, we are not done yet but I am sure you are enjoying every bit of the read!.. so today I studied Chapters 5&6 and if you have any questions or contributions please reach out to your girl(i will leave my Instagram handle at the end of this read ….. Let’s just dive into this lol
Pharoah had this egocentric behaviour and belief that he was a ”God”, when Moses and Aaron introduced the instruction of God to him he deliberately despised and dismissed them on multiple occasions. First of all, they said ”This is what the Lord God of Isreal has commanded,” Let my people go! Pharoah was not comfortable with that word because he had a difficult time believing that a God of enslaved people, even if He did exist could present or pose a threat to him. Pharoah felt insulted; remember he saw himself as a ‘god’, this made him harden his mind and greatly increased the labour of the Israelites, who were now expected to perform twice as much as they did with the same amount of time.
Moses went back to God with his report to tell him that Pharoah has hardened his heart towards the Israelites, but God was not surprised, He knew Pharaoh was not going to easily let his people go because He had mentioned earlier that he was going to harden the heart of pharaoh. But why though? The Bible says in vs1 of chapter 6”Then the Lord said to Moses,” Now you shall see what I will do to Pharoah, for with a strong hand he will let them go and a strong hand he will drive them out of his land”. Have you ever wondered why God will harden the pharaoh’s heart towards letting his people go when ordinarily that shouldn’t be so? I believe this is because if you say or call yourself a ”God” it comes with the tendency to prove. God Almighty wanted to prove to Pharoah that he is ”LORD”, vs 2 of chapter 6 says ”And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them”. God wanted to prove to Pharoah that he is not God.
Secondly, I strongly believe that God’s idea was not only to deliver the Israelites, if God wanted to deliver the people of Israel he would have with very little effort or don’t you think so? But God wanted to prove to the Israelites that he was still their God, He wanted to show them that He still cared for them, they knew God existed but they thought that he had forgotten them, these are generations of Israelites who had suffered terribly and worked under pharaoh. Some of them had accepted their fate and believed that nothing was ever going to get them out of the hand of Pharaoh, God had to prove to them that he had heard their cry, He was going to deliver them of the bondage of the Egyptians and show to them that He is still their God; indeed the hand of God was mightier.
God had made a covenant with their forefathers(Abraham, Issac and Jacob) and was set to reaffirm that covenant with them. We see that after Pharoah had let them go they came to a point where they believed that it was impossible to move forward at the red sea but God proved to them through Moses that he is a waymaker, these Israelites saw the wonder of God in raw form, they saw the red sea divide and walked on dry land. God also proved to Pharoah that he is not God, there cannot be two gods to a people. Egypt like the rest of middle eastern culture was a land where magic flourished. Wise men were those who knew the occult art, sorcerers muttered magic formulas and incantations, and magicians were the bearers of magic books. Their temporary success shows satan’s power to imitate certain miracles and the pharaoh felt because he was surrounded by all these it puffed him up as a god, but we see in the following chapters how God dealt with him. God even multiplied His sign and wonders in the land of Egypt so the Egyptians will know that He is the Lord.
Conclusively I want to reassure you that God is All-powerful. Choose not to go the rebellious part with him, the heart of Pharoah was hardened, he was arrogantly unbelieving, and he said ”Who is the Lord to tell me what to do?” This goes beyond pride. God is the person of covenant and the Lord that remembers, He will never abandon you.
Culled by
Eseosa
Instagram handle – riem.e123