Exodus 4:13
God has chosen a leader to bring the Children of Israel out of bondage. And who does he pick but Moses. One of the most instrumental leaders in history who didn’t speak well and didn’t want to be a leader!
Moses’ response to God was, “O Lord, make someone else your agent.” What a paradox. But Moses was an ideal leader because he really doesn’t want the job. All through history most powerful National leaders ached to be to be powerful, influential, famous and rich! But not Moses, he preferred to lead a simple life with his family. Or maybe his problem was he feared returning to Egypt. We can never judge another man’s motives.
Scripture says, “The Lord became angry with Moses”, but He gives him a crumb of consolation. God said, “Your brother is coming to meet you, and he speaks very well.”
Wow, God is not expecting Moses to undertake this mission alone. His brother can be his partner and he can do the talking.
God continues, “Aaron will be happy to see you, and he will be happy to speak, and I will tell both of you what to say.” God then instructs Moses to take that rod that turned into a snake, with him and to have It the rest of his life.
That rod represents Moses first encounter with God at the burning bush and it also serves as a reminder of his humble beginnings as a shepherd. Moses had his rod and David had his sling and with God on their side they overcame mighty foes.
Moses went back to his father-in-law, Jethro, and out of good manners, asked him if he could take his own wife, Zipporah, from her father’s house. The reason he told Jethro he was returning to his people was to check on their wellbeing, but he leaves out the part about meeting and getting instructions from God.
Jethro’s reply was, “Go in peace”.
The Lord told Moses, to “go back to Egypt and fear not because all the men who sought to kill you, are dead.”
With Jethro’s permission Moses took his wife and sons and mounted them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt. So, God sent Moses to Pharaoh to convince him to let his people go – BUT – He was also going to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the people go!
There were twenty different times that refer to the hardening or stiffening of Pharaoh’s heart and half of that were attributed to the direct act of God. It could seem unfair that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and made him the bad guy. But there are two ways of looking at what God did.
One. Maybe God believed Pharaoh deserved to be punished. After all, if Pharaoh released the Jews on the first effort God would not have been able to punish him and the Egyptian nation for enslaving the Israelites for hundreds of years.
Two. Or was it that if God had not hardened or strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh would have given in after the first or second plague and he would not have done it under his own free will. By strengthening Pharaoh’s heart, he actually allowed Pharaoh to do exactly what he wanted to do. God truly is just.
God told Moses he was to tell Pharaoh, that Israel is God’s firstborn son and they are to be set free so that he (that firstborn son being all the people) could Worship God, or God will slay his firstborn son. Though it is not noted or remembered by many students of the Bible, Pharaoh’s firstborn son was actually killed during the tenth plague (firstborn in all Egypt).
But poor Moses, he did not tell the Pharaoh about the killing of his son at that time. Maybe he was afraid Pharaoh would believe it was Moses who was making a threat against his family and he may have had Moses killed instead.
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