God Shows His Power (Exodus 6:28-7:13)

Bible Passage: Exodus 6:28-7:13

After the early chapters of Exodus that set up the call of Moses and deal with some of his objections, we now hit the moment that the story has been building to: Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh. What happens next is a showdown of power, where God looks to establish his divine sovereignty in the face of a Pharaoh who had set himself up as a God. Through Moses and Aaron, God is out to show Israelites and Egyptians that he is the LORD.

Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart: At the beginning of this passage, Moses still has doubts about whether Pharaoh will listen to what he is saying. God’s response is not to assure Moses that Pharoah will take the message on board, but quite the opposite. Pharaoh will not listen, and this will be because his heart is hardened. As the story continues, the state of Pharaoh’s heart is mentioned on several occasions (e.g. 7:13, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19: 8:32, 9:7, 9:12, 9:34, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10) and there is ambiguity over who is responsible for his heart hardening. Some of the time we are told that God did it. Other times we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Sometimes it just says that his heart became hard. What is going on? As God presents a challenge to Pharaoh that he doesn’t want to hear, it forces him to make a response. By refusing what God said, that response was one of hardening. God knew that this would be the effect of presenting the message to Pharaoh, so in this way both God and Pharaoh are responsible for the outcome of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. Something similar happens today when the gospel message is shared. Each of us have a choice how we respond to the message, and we may choose to do so with a soft heart that receives the message or with a hard heart that rejects it.

I am the LORD: Twice in these verses we see the phrase ‘I am the LORD’, both times from the mouth of God himself. It seems like this is the reason why God is doing things the way he is. By bringing a message to Pharaoh that hardened his heart, the result would be that God performed signs and miracles that demonstrated his power and the Egyptians would know that he is the LORD. God wanted to make himself known and was acting in a way that showed him to be superior to the false Gods of Egypt. God being made known is a theme that runs throughout Scripture, and this happens in many ways – from power encounters like we see in this passage or Elijah’s confrontation in 1 Kings 17, to the commission to Israel to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 60:3) and the church to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). Ultimately, God has made himself known through his Son, and it is as we look at him that we get the clearest perspective of who God is (See Hebrews 1:1-2).

God’s Greater Power: As God had predicted, Moses and Aaron’s message was not immediately accepted by Pharaoh, and he asked them for a sign to prove the power of their God. The sign chosen was for Aaron to throw his staff to the ground and for it to become a snake. It is fascinating that this sign did not end the conversation, but was something that the Egyptian magicians were also capable of doing! It is important to remember that God is not the only source of spiritual power, and there are real supernatural deeds that occur through occult and other spiritual means. Nevertheless, the staff that Aaron had thrown down swallowed those of the magicians. Whilst other spiritual power exists, and can sometimes cause certain results to occur, it does not rival the power of God. His power is greater, and is used for the purpose of bringing freedom rather than the oppression that the Egyptians were inflicting.

Potential Applications:

• Pharaoh’s heart was hardened to God’s message. You could share the gospel and invite people to respond to it with a soft heart.
• Some people may have dabbled with occult spiritual power. You could pray for deliverance for them and for them to know the greater power of God.
• God wants to be made known. There is a challenge about how we are sharing the good news and helping those around them to know that ‘I am the LORD’.