A Summary of Pharao's Actions

Before continuing, remember the following:

God has called Moses to be the redeemer of His chosen people, and all the events we have so far read about are for the sole purpose of attaining their release from slavery. God, as we have discussed before, could easily have willed their release and it would have been done, but He has decided to attain their release while also humbling the power of the day, Egypt. Egypt represents at this time all that is against God. They practice the worship of natural things, and they fail to acknowledge the Creator of the universe. Pharaoh, unfortunately for him, rules this kingdom, and God will show His power through the humbling of this most powerful man.
How has Pharaoh acted so far, and what kind of man is he? He reacts to God always in antagonism.

1st. he refuses to even recognize God, saying “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice….I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” (Ex 5:2)

2nd, Pharaoh tells the Israelites to sacrifice to their God in the Land, in other words, within Egypt. So while Pharaoh certainly seems to be softening, what is he really saying? Do not obey your God! The Lord wants the Israelites to worship him in the wilderness, separate from the stench of false gods. God has called us to be separate from the world, and Egypt represents the world. By being separate, it does not mean merely physical separation, but spiritual separation. We must not mix the things of the world with the things of God. What does this mean…in what way does the Church stand in danger of doing this?

*Our services are geared to the non-Believer rather than the instruction of the Saints.
*We dress up to go out with our friends but not to enter the house of the Lord.
*We place an emphasis on how we feel about the message rather than if it was Scriptural.
*We want entertaining messages rather than deeply theological ones.

Are these examples of compromises with the world? You bet they are!

We should be concerned when a non-Believer enters a service and feels completely comfortable and leaves thinking that was the greatest message in the world...don't you think?

The next example of Pharaoh’s antagonism is from 8:28, he tells Moses to take the people to worship , but not to go too far. Yet God demanded total separation. He called Israel to be separate. In like manner, the world wants us to be close to them. Do not go too far the world says…do not be fanatical, do not be extreme, balance your religious life with the rest of it, do not be narrow-minded…don’t let Christianity get in the way of enjoying your life…this is what the world says to us.

Read Colossians 3:1-3, Hebrews 3:1-3, and 1 John 2;15-15.

The happiness of the Christian is in being separate, being holy, being in bondage to our Lord. Our happiness stems from being absorbed with the Word of God and by meditating upon His promises and doing His will everywhere and all the time…this is the source of a deeper, fuller, and lasting satisfaction, which God imparts to His children!

Finally, Pharaoh is also quite revealing when he says to Moses that, “you who are men, go and serve the Lord.” (10:11)

What is Pharaoh really saying here?
Do not involve your children in the worship of God! Does not the world attempt to tell us the same today?

Do not force your religion on your family, do not force them to attend services.

Yet, it is in the home that our religion should be most abundantly clear! There is where we set the standards, there is where we protect and nurture our children, fending the world so that it does not unduly influence and corrupt them, and there is where we have the best opportunity to prepare them to take their rightful place in the Church, as future pastors, elders, teachers, and deacons. We must NOT relax the godly discipline of our children, we must not allow the Holy Scriptures to gather dust until the following Sunday! If anything, our personal Bibles should be in constant need of replacement from falling apart because we use them so much!

A wise and God-honoring parent will guide their children into the ways of the Lord, and will certainly regulate how they dress, model how they should speak and be vigilant over whom they choose as their closest friends.