Category Archives: Bible people

MOSES

It is commonly assumed that Moses was unaware of his Abrahamic heritage when he was growing up in Pharaoh’s court. But scripture indicates that Moses knew all along from whence he came. His adventure as an infant in an ark of bulrush, purposefully placed among the flags of the river, was probably not just an act of desperation on his mother’s part, but possibly all part of a well-laid out plan to save this special child alive. It just happened to be where Pharaoh’s daughter was wont to bathe and she just happened to want a son.

Furthermore, his sister was strategically placed to allow her to suggest to Pharaoh’s daughter a very special woman to nurse the child–the child’s own mother! Would she, could she, withhold from her own son the knowledge that he was a Hebrew, a thing which Pharaoh’s daughter already knew? He apparently did know it for when he was grown the Text says “he went unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens” (Ex. 2:13). Paul said Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” and chose to “suffer affliction with the people of God” (Heb. 11:24,25). Upon seeing the fate of his Hebrew brethren, he sought to rectify an injustice and slew an Egyptian and hid him in the sand (Ex. 2:12).

If he had some knowledge that God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, as some rabbinic traditions suggest (cf. also Heb. 11:23; Ex. 2:2), he may have thought he might do it on his own. But such a course of action never, ever works. God’s designs will be carried out in God’s own good time and in His own way (e.g., Gal. 4:4). Regardless, his actions incurred the wrath of Pharaoh and Moses’ own hopes of saving his brethren were dashed. Moses failed and fled for his life but God had His own plans for him.

Out in the dried up, harsh and unforgiving climes of the backside of the desert, on Mount Horeb, God appeared to Moses and informed him that he would deliver Israel out of Egypt (Ex. 3:7-10). Though he was once anxious to deliver his brethren out of bondage, Moses now only offered excuses to God as to why he was unfit to lead. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Ex. 3:11). “What shall I say unto them” when they ask “What is His name” (Ex. 3:13)? “But they won’t believe me” (Ex. 4:1)! But “I am not eloquent . . . but am slow of speech” (Ex. 4:10). “Send someone else, but not me” (Ex. 4:13). These are excuses, perhaps, with which none of us are unfamiliar. But when the LORD God almighty commands a thing, it will be done! And Moses went.

Whatever else might have been racing through Moses’ excited mind, from this point on he acted in great faith. Paul said “he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27). He faced great obstacles. His own people murmured against him ten times (Num. 14:22). Paul explicitly named Jannes and Jambres as having withstood Moses (II Tim. 3:8). Israel constantly joined themselves to false gods and acted sinfully. Enemies, like the Amalekites and the Midianites, constantly stood in the way as he led God’s people out of Egyptian bondage and to the promised land. But Moses endured and sang a song of triumph and faith after he and Israel were baptized in the sea and in the cloud (Ex. 14:21-15:19; I Cor. 10:1,2).

God spoke with Moses as He spoke with no other. God spoke “face to face, as a man speaketh unto a friend” (Ex. 33:11). This was not literal. What Moses saw was the similitude of the Lord, for no man could see God’s face and live (Ex. 33:20; Num 12:8). But because Moses was faithful in all his house, he could speak to God intimately and freely, and God would not speak to him in dark speeches (Num. 12:6-8). In this respect, there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew (Deut. 34:10). However, Moses, by inspiration, did prophesy of One Prophet, like unto Moses, which was to come from among them and to Whom they should hearken (Deut. 18:15-18).

When the Lord stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, along with Moses and Elijah, Moses was able to speak with the Lord in person (Matt. 17:3; Mark 9:4). Then Moses spoke to God face to face. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know the contents of their conversation! There, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter foolishly suggested that three tabernacles be built, one to honor Christ, Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17:4). But God spoke from heaven saying of Christ, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt. 17:5). After Pentecost, Peter finally understood, that Jesus was the One to Whom Moses’ prophesy of another prophet like unto him pointed (Acts 3:19-24).

Moses gave the children of Israel the law. The underlying principles of that law are the foundation for all the laws in western, civilized society. The law, itself, however, was given to the Jews. It served it’s God ordained purpose to expose sin and bring us unto the Christ (Rom. 3:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:24). As John states, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). That Old Covenant was nailed to the cross and now we have a better Covenant, based on better promises and better blood (Col. 2:14; Heb. 7:19,22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:35, 40; 12:24). And now we, after we have passed through the waters of baptism, may sing the New Song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 14:1-3; 15:3) as we strive to enter that better, heavenly country (Heb. 11:16).

Eric L. Padgett

PHARAOH

Lessons can be learned, not only from those who are held out in the Bible as examples of faith and good works, but also from those who were not. On one occasion Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), a woman who infamously “looked back” on Sodom and Gomorrah and was turned into a pillar of salt. She is held up not as an example of faith and obedience, but she is set forth as a warning to those who would be otherwise. Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, is another such example (II Pet. 2:15). Pharaoh is another.

The word Pharaoh, which means “great house,” was the title of the ruler of Egypt. Throughout the Bible, there are over ten different Pharaoh’s mentioned. The Pharaoh with which this study is interested is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, which was probably Thuthmose III, who would have been ruling in 1446 B.C. when the Exodus took place. If this is the Pharaoh, then we can look on his mummified face, for it is still extant. We can look in the face of the man who opposed Moses and God.

When Moses had received a commission from God to demand the release of His people from Egyptian bondage, Pharaoh responded, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Ex. 5:2). Pharaoh’s attitude toward God is not unlike the attitude which many manifest today. They do not retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28). God is not in their thoughts (Psalm 10:4). But Pharaoh would learn just Who God was and is.

Through a series of ten, horrific plagues, the Lord God of Israel would strike fear into the hearts of Egypt’s population, confound their magicians and humble their defiant king and bring him to his knees. These plagues were designed to strike at the very core of Egypt’s pantheon of gods, including the Pharaoh, himself. They were designed to show that neither Egypt’s gods, nor Pharaoh, who viewed himself as a god, could stand against the LORD God of Israel. A great cry went up in Egypt when the Lord smote the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast, and there was not a house where there was not one dead (Ex. 12:30; Psalm 135:8). Pharaoh was powerless to stop it.

God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 4:21; 7:3,13). Yet, in reality, it is the Pharaoh, himself, that hardened his own heart (Ex. 8:15, 32; 9:34) when he rejected the Lord’s commands and His warnings through the plagues. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). Like Nebuchadnezzar, it was hardened through pride (Dan. 5:20). It was hardened when he harkened not unto God or inclined his ear to God’s word (Jer. 7:26). While Moses said God would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 14:17), Samuel tells us it was the Egyptians and Pharaoh who hardened their own hearts (I Sam. 6:6).

While the Bible tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it does not tell us the means by which He did this. Often, when God is said to have done a thing, the agency is not immediately mentioned. God said “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” (Gen. 6:7,13). But the agency through which this was accomplished was the waters of the Flood (Gen. 6:17). Abraham is said to have pursued and brought back Lot and all the goods that were taken with him (Gen. 14:16). But who doubts that his servants carried out much of the work (Gen. 14:15)? Jesus “made and baptized more disciples than John” (John 4:1), though Jesus, Himself, never personally baptized anyone (John 4:2). God hardened Pharaoh’s heart through the instrumentality of circumstances and His word (cf. e.g. Ex. 7:2; 8:15,19,32, etc).

God raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of demonstrating His sovereign power and proclaiming His name throughout all the earth (Ex. 9:16). Paul quoted this verse to show that God, like a potter over the clay, can do with it whatsoever He wishes (Rom. 9:17-21). Nothing in this suggests that God chose one and rejected the other with regard to salvation. Nothing in this suggests that Pharaoh could not have changed. Indeed, God calls upon Pharaoh to repent (Ex. 10:3). God knew and foreknew the character of the men involved and used them to glorify His name.

Today, we are solemnly warned not to harden our own hearts. “Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15; 4:7). Jesus asks this question: “Have ye your heart yet hardened?” (Mark 8:17).

Eric L. Padgett