YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

Moses' encounter with God continued. God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh let Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses told God that the Israelites would never believe that God had appeared to him.

God asked Moses, “What do you have there in your hand?" Moses replied that he had a shepherd's rod. "Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So he threw it down - and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it! God said, "Grab it by the tail!" Moses did as God said, and the serpent became a rod in his hand again! God told Moses to do that before the Israelites and they would believe him and realize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob really had appeared to him.

God continued showing Moses miracles that would surely help the Israelites to believe him. This time he was to put his hand in his robe next to his chest. When he pulled it out it was white with leprosy! God said, "Do it again!" When he pulled his hand out again, it came out normal.

God gave Moses yet a third miracle just in case the Israelites still didn't believe that God had appeared to him. He was to take water from the Nile River and pour it upon the dry land. It would turn to blood! After all this, would you have been willing to follow God’s instructions to go before the Israelites and tell them that God had appeared to you?

Moses became a great man of God. But at this point, he really didn't want the job and said, "Lord, please! Send someone else." He gave the excuse that he was not a good speaker. God was equipping Moses with all the tools he would need, yet this was taking Moses out of his comfort zone. The very miracles God was doing through Moses should have convinced Moses he could do this! God became angry. But He agreed to have Aaron, Moses' brother, be the spokesman. "And you will be as God to him, telling him what to say." God reminded Moses to take his rod so he could perform miracles.

Moses went home to talk over his godly assignment with Jethro, his father-in-law. He asked permission to visit his relatives in Egypt. So Moses took his wife and sons on a donkey and returned to Egypt. He kept a firm grip on the "rod of God.” God gave Moses further instructions to go to Pharaoh, do the miracles He had shown him and say, "Israel is my eldest son, and I have commanded you to let him go away and worship me, but you have refused: and now see, I will slay your eldest son."

Moses and his family stopped for the night and Jehovah appeared to him and threatened to kill him. Zipporah, Moses' wife, took a flint knife and circumcised their son and accused Moses of being a bloody husband. After that, God left Moses alone and didn't kill him.

While Moses was on his way to Egypt, God spoke to Aaron, Moses' brother, and told him to go to Mount Horeb and meet Moses. They greeted each other warmly. Then Moses explained the assignment God had given them and told him about the miracles they must do before Pharaoh. The two of them went to Egypt and called all the elders of Israel together, told them what Jehovah had said to Moses, and performed miracles as the elders watched. That made believers out of the Israelites. They must have been thrilled to hear that God was going to rescue them from Egyptian slavery. They bowed their heads and worshiped.

Now it was time to go see Pharaoh.They told him, "We bring you a message from Jehovah, the God of Israel. .. ‘Let my people go, for they must make a holy pilgrimage out into the wilderness, for a religious feast, to worship me there.’" Pharaoh wasn't thrilled with this demand. He arrogantly retorted, "Is that so?. . . And who is Jehovah, that I should listen to Him, and let Israel go? I don't know Jehovah and I will not let Israel go." Doubtless, Pharaoh didn't know Jehovah, or he would have been more careful with his attitude.They pressed further, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. We must take a three-days’ trip into the wilderness and sacrifice there to Jehovah our God; if we don't obey Him, we face death by plague or sword."

"Who do you think you are?" Pharaoh shouted. He gave orders to not give straw to the Israelites to make bricks and insisted their production quotas remain the same.The taskmasters whipped the Israelite work-crew bosses asking why they hadn't met their quotas.They complained to Pharaoh about their unjust treatment. Pharaoh said, "You don't have enough work, or else you wouldn't be saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.' Get back to work. No straw will be given you, and you must deliver the regular quota of brick."

Discouraged, Moses went to God asking, "How can you mistreat your own people like this? Why did you ever send me, if you were going to do this to them? Ever since I gave Pharaoh your message, he has only been more and more brutal to them, and you have not delivered them at all!"

How would you have felt if it had been you going to Pharaoh? If you had been one of the unjustly beaten Israelites, would you have continued to have faith in God? God always knew exactly what was happening with the Israelites, but His timetable is not always ours. He has things He wants to accomplish, things He wants us to learn, character He wants us to build. 1 Peter 1:7 tells us, "These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it - and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold; so if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of His return."