Presented to
Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 29 June 2014
By Captain Michael
Ramsay
We will be looking
at the plagues of the Exodus in a little more depth over the weeks to come.
Sarah-Grace is working on a sermon about the plagues. She has been asked to
preach in Maple Creek in August as a guest preacher, so we will have her use us
as guinea pigs once she has finished the sermon. We can be her trial audience.
Today I am going to look at the signs that Moses and Aaron offer to Pharaoh in
advance of the plagues. In Chapter 4, which we looked at the last time we spoke
together here, God mentions a number of signs that He wants Moses and Aaron to
show to the Israelites and/or the Egyptians and in our pericope today we see one
of maybe two of them play out before Pharaoh: the sign of Moses’ / Aaron’s
staff turning into a snake (the other sign might be the Nile turning to blood).[1]
We will look at that first sign today. Before that though, I have some comics
for us from Dr. Was. [2]
Let's take a look again at Exodus 7:8-13:
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take
your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did
just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and
his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and
sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret
arts: each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff
swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not
listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
There are a number
of items and ideas that jump out at one as we read through this sign that God
performs for Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron.
1)
We notice that not only can God do
this sign but so can wise men, sorcerers and even Egyptian magicians. They can
all turn their staffs into snakes.
2)
Aaron’s staff snake eats and swallows
the others
3)
Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he
won’t let them go.
First let us get a
bit of an image in our mind of the scene painted before us in Exodus 7:8-13.
Aaron and Moses are coming into Pharaoh’s palace.[3]
This must be like an old homecoming of sorts for Moses. This past week, the
Comp Grade 12 students and their parents just celebrated Grad. Now I think that
I may have gone to my 10th Grade 12 Grad reunion but I know I didn’t
go to my 20th, 25th, or any others. I do know that many
people tell stories about what happens when they do go to reunions. They notice
who has lost hair and they notice who has gained weight; they notice who has
children and who has even grandchildren; they notice who has become rich or
famous; they notice who is divorced or never married. They also notice how much
the school has changed or remained the same. Anyone here every gone to a school
reunion? Think of your old school and your old friends; when you see them the
old stories and feelings come flooding back.
Moses in our story
today is returning to a palace that he would have spent some time in and around
– at least as a teenager or young adult (Exodus 2:5-10) - and a pharaoh who is
probably in some way related to him: a step or foster brother or cousin,
someone he may have even known with as a teenager or a young man, or this
pharaoh may even be the child or grandchild of someone he may have grown up
with. Moses in our story today is eighty years old and his brother Aaron is
eighty-three (Exodus 7:7). It has been a long time since he left the Egyptian
Composite School (had their been one, of course!). Picture yourself as an 80
year-old returning to your high school for the first time or visiting the old
family homestead that you haven’t seen since before you got married. This is
what it may have been like for Moses as he stands before Pharaoh - who is
probably a relative of his foster mom or a step-relative of some kind who he
hasn’t seen since he was a young man. Now Moses is eighty, standing in the halls
of this building he once knew so well, talking to types people he used to know
so well and challenging these people like maybe he used to do sixty or seventy
years ago in this very building. This is the scene before us today: an 80
year-old at a school and/or a family reunion.
Now this 80
year-old Moses and his 83 year-old brother throw his cane –that’s what a staff
is – this octogenarian throws his cane to the ground, it turns into a snake and
then – I guess – while this snake is moving along the ground, Pharaoh sends
messengers out to find wise men, sorcerers, and even some magicians. I doubt
they were all in the palace. They probably weren’t even all in the city.
Pharaoh’s men would have had to go find them. I don’t know what they did in the
interim whether Moses and Aaron picked up the snake staff and waited outside or
whether they all just stood there and looked at this snake. At any rate these
wise men, sorcerers and even magicians finally arrive and this brings us to our
first observation for today:
1)
Not only can God, Moses and Aaron do
this sign but also all these wise men, sorcerers and even the Egyptian
magicians. They all turn their staffs into snakes.
Does anybody else
find this interesting? I can’t turn a staff into a snake. Now some people have
suggested that all of these wise men, sorcerers, and magicians somehow
hypnotised some snakes so that they would stand rigid for a long time and
disguised them as canes and then as soon as they throw them to the ground they
snap out of it and wriggle along the floor.[4]
That would be a neat trick – unlikely – but a neat trick nonetheless. Now some
other people have suggested that all of these wise men, sorcerers, and
magicians had somehow simply done a slight of hand merely creating the illusion
of making the staff a snake but there is a problem or two with that idea as
well: the main one being that the Bible doesn’t pretend that they were
tricking.[5]
It simply says that they could do this just like Moses and Aaron could do this.
And as you read through the other sign that Moses and Aaron perform for Pharaoh
at the commencement of the plagues – turning the Nile to blood – the magicians
can do that too and even the subsequent plague; the Bible records that the
magicians – on command - conjured up frogs to further devastate their own
lands. This seems to be more than a slight of hand. At any rate,
Observation 1: this turning of a senior gentleman’s cane
into a snake doesn’t seem to impress everyone and it appears that anyone in
this field of work was able to do this same thing. [6]
In the end, this
miracle, this sign, seems to be something that the magicians, the politicians
(the officials) and Pharaoh himself can simply write off as an insignificant
trick that many people can do. And this brings us to observation #2.
2)
Aaron’s snake staff swallows up the
others.
Again let us
picture this scene together. There could possibly be a very packed room with
Pharaoh, his officials and possibly a whole bunch of wise men, sorcerers and
even magicians here (cf. 2 Timothy 3:8).[7]
It may even be like us in this room today. Imagine that Pharaoh is sitting or
standing up by me here. Imagine that these two men in their 80’s throw this
staff on the ground in front of us here and it becomes a snake and then either
one-by-one or all-at-once the person beside you and everyone around you - these
many wise men, sorcerers and even magicians - they throw their canes on the
ground and there are all of a sudden all these snakes crawling everywhere. This
is what it would be like.
Now imagine that
this snake up here sees all of the others down there and one-by-one goes and
fights and eats those 20, 30, 40, 10 or however many other snakes there are
sliding around on the ground.[8]
That is the visual image of this first sign for Pharaoh. I’ve been in a snake
pit or two before – I can’t say that I would necessarily be so eager to watch
these duals.
Picture this
further with me. When Pharaoh and everyone see that anyone in the room can
seemingly throw her cane on the ground and have it become a snake, they are
probably thinking that it is no big deal and maybe they are feeling a little
bit smug too. Pharaoh probably thinks that Moses thought that he had come up
with this impressive feat so he calls together this room full of people to show
Moses up: “Look Moses. What’s the big deal? You thought you could convince us
to do what you want by doing this? We can all do it!” Now we can imagine
Pharaoh or one of his officials or a magician, a sorcerer or two start giggling
or laughing to themselves that someone dares make demands of Pharaoh when he
can’t do anything more special than any of the rest of the wise men, sorcerers
or even magicians. How can Moses think he is so special? They are possibly
enjoying the humour of the moment when someone notices – and then the next
person sees – and then someone else watches as Aaron’s rod, Moses’ staff, this
older gentleman’s snake cane is not only attacking but is actually eating,
swallowing up all of the other snake canes. Can you picture that?
You can picture how
the mood would change in a moment, right? One minute they are enjoying their
illusion of victory probably laughing in celebration; the next they are
shocked, embarrassed and maybe even the object of scorn themselves as their
canes are eaten by Moses’ or Aaron’s staff. In one moment, they believe they
have proved they are superior, in the next minute God shows them that He has
defeated them. Their defeat has been swallowed up in His victory.
Remember not the
last Grey Cup, which we won, but the final we were in before that against
Montreal? Remember how that ended? Montreal just had to make a simple field
goal before time ran out and they would win the game. They missed though. We
all celebrated as apparently Saskatchewan had won the Grey Cup; everyone was
happy and then one by one each person in whatever room you happened to be in
happened to notice something was happening; something was wrong. The players
were lining up again. Someone had miscounted. Saskatchewan had too many men on
the field. Montreal was allowed to kick again. They did and this time they won
the game; they won the cup. As we from Saskatchewan felt on that day, losing
after we thought that we had won, that is how it must have been for Pharaoh’s
magicians on this day. As the Montreal kicker and his team must have felt when
the next kick went through the uprights that must have been exactly how Moses
and Aaron felt as God through their snake cane carried the day. This brings us
to our third observation.
4)
Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he wouldn’t
let them go.
Now we can
understand how Pharaoh would not be so happy, seeing defeat snatched from the
jaws of victory in this way as the work of his magicians, sorcerers, and wise
men is gobbled up before his very eyes. You can understand how he would be more
than a little upset. Now this upsettedness is further exasperated. Have you
ever seen those Egyptian headdresses? Picture King Tut – he’s a famous pharaoh.
What does his headdress – his hat – what does it look like?
– A Snake, a
Cobra. Pharaoh has just not only seen all these snakes eaten by the staff of
this guy who was run out of the kingdom decades ago but he has also seen this
powerful symbol of his family, this powerful symbol of himself, and this
powerful symbol of his whole country mocked and devoured before his eyes. It
would be like if we went to visit the president of the United States and
suddenly chopped up and burned and American flag right in front of him; what
would he do? At the very least he would have us arrested; if we did it in a
very public fashion like Moses and Aaron did here, they would probably do even
worse to us. Just ask Noriega or others who have spent decades without charge
in an American prison for threatening to embarrass today’s equivalent of
Pharaoh, the US President.[9]
Pharaoh has just
been shown up and Pharaoh’s heart is hard and it is going to get hardened
either again or even further many times until he finally does concede God’s
victory. At this stage however Pharaoh hasn’t learned his lesson but what lessons
can we learn from this first sign, the sign of the staff that turned into a
snake and devoured Pharaohs’?
I think it is
this: Pharaoh thought that he was master of his own destiny. Pharaoh probably
didn’t care too much about the disparate religious beliefs represented before
him in our pericope today. He thought anything that either God could do or that
people thought that God could do, Pharaoh seemed confident that he could find
someone else who could do the very same thing. He probably saw the miraculous
as mundane and explainable, at least he saw them as duplicate-able. He then
errs by trying to copy the work of God, instead of submitting to God.
Pharaoh tried to
do in his own strength what can only really be accomplished in God’s strength.
In Pharaoh’s time of trouble, the LORD wanted Pharaoh to turn to Him but he
trusted in himself and turned to magicians rather than turning to God.
How many times in
our own lives when we are faced with a crisis like Pharaoh was, do we act
exactly the same way? Do we really believe that God is the one who can deliver
us? Do we acknowledge the signs He is doing right in front of our eyes, right
now, in our lives, or do we try to conjure up snakes of our own fancy? When we
can’t pay the bills do we go to God in prayer and meditation and reading our
Bible to see how He is transforming us like Aaron’s staff or do we try to make
our own snakes and answers? Do we try to make our own miracles by trying find
money on our own, or borrowing money, or gambling, or taking out a loan, or
selling something, or conjuring up any other magician’s snake instead of
seeking God? If something tragic happens in our lives, if something desperate
happens in our lives, do we follow the signs of God’s snake cane or do we try
to do the work of God all on our own?
Make no mistake my
friends, if we oppose God, working against Him by trying to do things on our
own instead of seeking Him, those snakes of self-reliance will be shown to be
as useless as Pharaoh’s magicians’ snakes - but there is good news and the good
news is this: Jesus, the Son of God Himself, provides a very real deliverance
from whatever problems we face in this world. Numbers 21:4-9 records
that when Moses lifted up a bronze snake in the dessert, all who cast their
eyes upon him, even those who were dying were saved and John 3:14 records,
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be
lifted up;” Jesus is like Moses’ bronze snake in that – even today - any of us
who cast our eyes upon him will be saved for now and forever,
So I encourage all
of us today, to cast aside all those inferior magicians’ snakes of our text
today. They can’t save us and they will not survive. Let us not miss the sign;
instead let us look upon Jesus, who was lifted up, lived, died, and raised
again. Let us look upon Jesus and let us live for now and forever more in his
loving embrace.
Let us pray
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1] Cf. Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Mi.,
2000), 195.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Dr. Was: Daily Rations with a Smile,
(Sheepspeak: Vancouver, 2005). Available on-line at www.drwas.blogspot.ca
[3] But cf. Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids,
Mi., 2000), 194.
[4] Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Mi.,
2000),198.
[5] Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus, (OTL:
Westminister Jihn Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 2004), 152.
[6] Cf. Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis
CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/D. Judgment
and Salvation Through the Plagues (7:6-11:10)/1. Presenting the signs of divine
authority (7:6-13), Book Version: 4.0.2
[7] Cf. Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and
Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries 14), S. 176
[8] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers
Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S.
95
[9] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, (NIB I: Abingdon
Press: Nashville, 1994), 740
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