And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Before the long contest with Egypt begins, God gives Moses his final briefing. He opens it with a startling word: Moses will stand in God's own place before Pharaoh, and his brother Aaron will speak for him.
The title describes a role, not a nature. The ESV says God made Moses "like God to Pharaoh"; older translations read "a god to Pharaoh," and that is the wording in the quotes below. One writer sets out the orders the two brothers were given.
after
The dealings with Pharaoh were now to start in earnest. So the first seven verses of Exodus 7 give us the instructions under which Moses and Aaron were to act. Moses directly represented God before the king, and Aaron was to act as his "prophet," or spokesman. God is invisible, so Moses was to be His visible representative. Aaron was to speak and act under the direction of Moses, though in fact he was the older brother. Once more we see how the first has to give place to the second.
Moses had objected that he could not speak well. The answer he receives is that Pharaoh will not be able to brush him aside.
Moses had protested that he was a man of uncircumcised lips. Even so, God assured him that He was making him a god to Pharaoh, so Pharaoh would not be able to ignore him completely. Aaron was to be Moses' prophet. He would speak all that Moses passed on to him as the command of God. The only object was to demand that Pharaoh release the children of Israel.
Most people assume a prophet is someone who predicts the future. This verse, with the earlier promise about Aaron in chapter 4, points to a different meaning.
A few words about this term, which is so often misunderstood. The common idea is that a prophet was someone who foretold things to come. But this will not do. Many passages that use the word "prophet" make no sense on that basis at all. Of Abraham the LORD said to Abimelech, "he is a prophet" (Genesis 20:7)... Moses argued with the LORD about going before Pharaoh. The LORD told him, "your brother Aaron shall be your prophet"; and again, "he shall speak for you to the people" (Exodus 4:16; 7:1). Here we get the divine thought. The prophet was God's spokesman to the people; he was a forth-teller rather than a foreteller.
Exodus calls Moses a god twice. The two uses point in different directions.
Twice the LORD said that Moses should be a god. A god to Aaron (4:16) and a god to Pharaoh (7:1). He received divine authority and power over Pharaoh. To his spokesman Aaron he was also a god, because the word he gave him to pass on to Pharaoh was the word of the Lord.
The plagues that follow are not just a run of disasters. They take aim at Egypt's religion.
The ten plagues were especially suited, in the wisdom of God, to humble Egypt. It was not only a blow to the land. It was not only deep pain and anguish for the people, growing worse and worse. It was a solemn contest between the LORD and the gods of Egypt. God aimed the plagues to strike them most sharply in what made up their religion. For instance, take the Nile: we know how Egypt boasted in that river, which they thought was the great earthly symbol of God.
God does not only give orders here. He tells His servants how the whole thing will end before it starts.
The Lord in this way told His servants what He intended to do, and how it would be done. He unrolled the scroll of the future before their eyes. He did this to prepare them for their task and to strengthen their faith. In the same way He has revealed to us the course of this world's history... He wanted Moses and Aaron to share His own purposes about the world, the god of this world, and his poor, wretched slaves. He wants the same for us. How it strengthens the heart and braces the soul to be filled with the thoughts of God!
- Sent. Moses is not made great in himself. God is invisible, so He put Moses in His own place before Pharaoh as the man Egypt could see.
- Strengthened. The title answers Moses' excuses. The man who said he could not speak is now the man Pharaoh cannot ignore.
- Spokesman. A prophet speaks for God; he is not mainly a predictor of the future. Aaron speaks Moses' words as Moses speaks God's, so the line runs from God to Pharaoh's ear.
- Struggle. The plagues are a contest between the LORD and the gods of Egypt. They strike at what Egypt worshipped.
- Shared. God tells His servants the outcome before the fight begins. He still shows His people where history is going, and that braces the soul for the work.
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
In Exodus 7, Moses stands before Pharaoh as God's visible stand-in. Verse 2 divides the work: Moses receives the words, Aaron carries them to Pharaoh, and the demand is settled before either man speaks.
The instruction divides one task between two brothers. One stands in God's place; the other opens his mouth.
Moses directly represented God before the king, and Aaron was to act as his "prophet," or spokesman. God is invisible, so Moses was to be His visible representative. Aaron was to speak and act under the direction of Moses, though he was in fact the older brother. Once more we see how the first has to give place to the second.
God calls Aaron the prophet of Moses. Two verses set side by side show what the word means.
Perhaps we will find God's own definition of this word by comparing Exodus 4:16 and 7:1... Perhaps this gives us the clearest definition of a prophet in the Word of God: he is God's "spokesman to the people." Often God speaks of judgment or blessing to come, and then the spokesman tells what will happen in the future. But his first duty is to be God's spokesman. That duty often includes rebuke, or urging people on. Let us always remember the most important thing about a prophet. He speaks for God, not for himself, and not out of his own mind.
Moses is not given a topic to develop. He is given words, and the word "all" leaves him no room to select among them.
There was a way in which he could have been put to shame before the people. The way to avoid it was to "speak to them all that I command you". If we bring our own thoughts into our service, we must not be surprised when it fails. But if we minister God's own word in the power of the Spirit, He will stand by His own word.
The danger runs both ways for any servant with a message. He can cut it down, or he can add to it.
It is unworthy of a servant to cut down the message of his Master. Only let him take care to add nothing to His words, and nothing to the tone in which he should deliver them. Much depends on this, especially in dealing with others.
The message has one point. Israel must go, and the reason lies in whose they are.
He claimed full deliverance for the people, because they belong to Him, and so that they might hold a feast to Him in the wilderness. Nothing can ever satisfy God about His chosen people except their complete freedom from the yoke of slavery. "Unbind him, and let him go" is the great motto of God's gracious dealings with people who are held in Satan's chains and are still the objects of His eternal love.
God's aim reaches past the border. And behind Pharaoh's refusals stands another opponent.
In Jehovah's demands to let His people go we see His purpose. He must bring His people right out of Egypt (the world) and set them apart for Himself. Before they could worship and serve Him, He had to deliver them from Egypt. It is so with us. Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, the god of this age. He raised his objections, just as Satan opposes a full and complete deliverance of God's people.
Before Moses speaks a word, God tells him how the confrontation will end. The briefing is not information only; it is equipment.
So the Lord told His servants what He intended to do, and how He would do it. He unrolled the scroll of the future before their eyes to prepare them for their task and to strengthen their faith... He wanted Moses and Aaron, as He also wants us, to share His own purposes about the world, the god of this world, and his poor, downtrodden slaves. How it strengthens the heart and steadies the soul to be filled with the thoughts of God! And what grace on His part to share those thoughts with us, so that we may speak to others with authority and power!
- Sender. God Himself is invisible, so Moses stands before Pharaoh in His place. The authority is borrowed, not his own.
- Spokesman. "Prophet" here means mouthpiece — Aaron's whole job is to say what he was given, not what he thinks.
- Script. "All that I command you" rules out both trimming and adding. A servant who mixes in his own thoughts should expect his work to fail.
- Summons. The message never softens. Israel must go out of the land, because only full release satisfies God for the people He calls His own.
- Certainty. God tells His servants the outcome before the struggle starts. Sharing His thoughts is what lets them speak with authority.
And I will render Pharaoh's heart obdurate, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
Before Moses meets Pharaoh, God tells him how it will go. He will harden the king's heart, and His signs in Egypt will multiply. That raises the question people stumble over. If God hardened Pharaoh, how could Pharaoh be at fault?
These words are not where the story starts. They answer something Pharaoh has already done. One writer treats the difficulty as a problem of reading verses out of context:
The doubt Satan would suggest here is this: where was Pharaoh's sin, if God hardened his heart like that? Or, how could God righteously destroy someone He had hardened to resist Him? If people had looked at where these words occur, the difficulty would have gone... So note this: God does not say it of Pharaoh until Pharaoh has rejected the claims of the Lord with contempt. He had said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." He rejected the word of the Lord. He set himself in open opposition to Him and to His people. Only now is his heart hardened by God's judgment.
The Hebrew keeps the two hardenings apart. The order they come in settles the question of blame:
"But I will harden Pharaoh's heart." God said this before, in chapter 4:21. Eighteen times we read of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. However, the Hebrew uses different words to show an important distinction. One means to "make firm" or "strong." The other means "to make stubborn." These two words show two different acts. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God hardened it later, after Pharaoh kept on in his wicked way. After it is five times declared that Pharaoh hardened his heart, then God began His hardening... God never hardens first nor compels a man to be an unbeliever.
Commentators do not soften the statement. One describes the hardening as God withdrawing and leaving a man to the direction his own heart had already chosen:
There is no need at all for anyone to try to avoid the full, plain sense of this most solemn statement. If a man resists the light of divine testimony, God gives him over to blindness and hardness of heart as a judgment. God leaves him to himself, and then Satan comes in and carries him headlong to destruction. There was plenty of light for Pharaoh... But his heart was really set on acting against God. So God left him to himself, and made him a monument for the display of His glory "through all the earth."
The announcement was given to the messengers before they went in, so that the refusals ahead would not read as failure:
Again He tells Moses that He will harden Pharaoh's heart and will use Pharaoh's stubbornness as a cause of multiplying His signs and wonders in Egypt. There was no reason for Moses and Aaron to be discouraged by Pharaoh's refusals, for God was in perfect control of this. Egypt would only incur the greater judgment by their defiance, and would find by painful experience that God is absolutely Lord.
The signs were not for display. They taught who God is, and they reached more people than Pharaoh's court:
The other miracles He worked in Egypt were to show Pharaoh the mighty power of God. God said, I will "multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt... The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt." Then came the ten plagues. They were miracles, or signs of the power of God. They were signs not only to the Egyptians but also to the Israelites, as their later references to them show.
Romans 9 uses this king as its example of a man raised high and then judged. One writer points to the exact wording about how such people reach ruin:
Though God does not choose anyone for judgment, He does sometimes harden the hearts of wilful rebels. He may even take up such a man and "raise him up" (Romans 9:17). That is, He lifts him to a place of great prominence and fame, as He did with the Pharaoh of the exodus. He does it to make a warning example of him, and to declare His own power throughout all the earth... Pharaoh was one of those "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." Scripture does not say God had prepared them. They had fitted themselves by their sin and rebellion.
The same writer says God still deals this way:
God still acts on the same principle. In 2 Thessalonians we read that He will send a strong delusion on some, so that they believe a lie. Why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved... God has fixed a limit to His day of grace, just as He did for Pharaoh. Once someone passes that limit, nothing remains but judgment.
- Refusal first. God speaks only after Pharaoh has said, "I do not know the LORD." Hardening never causes unbelief. It is the sentence passed on it.
- Two words. The Hebrew uses one word for Pharaoh making his own heart firm and another for God making it stubborn. Scripture records Pharaoh's act five times before God's begins.
- Left alone. Hardening is God leaving a man to himself, in the direction he insisted on. Satan then carries him the rest of the way.
- Signs multiplied. Pharaoh's stubbornness became the occasion for wonders. The ten plagues taught Egypt, and Israel too, who the Lord is.
- A warning. In Romans 9, Pharaoh is a vessel of wrath who fitted himself for destruction. God has fixed a limit to His day of grace, so anyone still resisting His testimony should take warning.
And Pharaoh will not hearken unto you; and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
God speaks this word to Moses before a single plague falls. He tells him in advance that the king of Egypt will refuse. He also tells him that the refusal will change nothing. The verse holds two things together: a man resisting God, and God saying in advance how that resistance ends.
Moses goes back to a king who has already refused him once. God does not promise that Pharaoh will soften. He promises that the ending is fixed either way.
Now God repeated to Moses, in substance, what He had told him at Horeb. Pharaoh would refuse to let the people go. But go they would, after the Lord had struck Egypt by His direction and by His power. Everything was working out as God had foreseen and had already declared. So Moses was not to lose heart.
God had already said that He would harden Pharaoh's heart. So readers ask a fair question: how could Pharaoh be blamed for refusing? The answer lies in where those words come in the story.
Here is the doubt Satan would suggest: where was Pharaoh's sin, if his heart was hardened like this? Or how could God justly destroy a man He had hardened to resist Him? If people had noticed where these words come in the story, the difficulty would have vanished... Note this, then: it is not said of Pharaoh until after he had scornfully rejected the claims of the Lord. He had said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go." He rejected the word of the Lord and set himself in open opposition to Him and to His people. Only then did God harden his heart as an act of judgment.
Pharaoh had claimed he did not know the Lord. He would know Him now — but not in the way God first offered.
It was the day of judgment for Egypt, as later it was for Canaan... Egypt had despised the day of grace that came through Joseph. Now comes the day of judgment through Moses... Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord, but Pharaoh would have to know Him. If Pharaoh would not own Him in His goodness, he must know Him in His righteousness. God's judgments were now to be shown openly, and "the LORD has made Himself known; He has executed judgment."
God does not call the Israelites runaways. He calls them His hosts — His armies. They are still slaves, and He already speaks of them as an army.
At the very moment when the people were in their deepest distress, the Lord gave Moses and Aaron a charge concerning the children of Israel and Pharaoh king of Egypt. God recognised that the oppressor really did hold authority, and the power of Satan today is just as real. The charge was to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And how were the slaves to be brought out? As runaways? No — they came out in their armies, with all the dignity of the Lord's own host.
Israel does not walk out by agreement. God forces the door open by judgment. But a God who judges sin cannot judge only Egypt's sin, so Israel needed shelter too.
Pharaoh refused to obey the Lord's demand and let them go. So their deliverance had to come by judgment. But when God acts in judgment, He shows no favour to anyone, because He is righteous. So He must judge sin wherever He finds it, in an Israelite as much as in an Egyptian. In grace He gave Israel a shelter. They sprinkled the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their houses and on the beam above the door.
God did to Egypt exactly what He said He would do. Commentators hear a warning in it for readers now, not only a piece of old history.
This terrible story still speaks to people today. God was acting as the judge who avenges sin. Pharaoh and his people had openly defied His commands. Plague followed plague, and still they refused to let Israel go. Even God's patience has limits... He laid Egypt waste long ago, and just as surely He will lay the whole earth waste before long. No one will escape His avenging hand except those who shelter under the Saviour's blood.
- Refusal first. Pharaoh rejected the Lord before God hardened him. The hardening followed his refusal; it did not cause it.
- Foretold, not uncertain. God announced the refusal in advance so His servant would not lose heart when it came.
- Known either way. Egypt despised God's grace, so God made Himself known by His judgment instead.
- Slaves named armies. Still slaves, they are already God's hosts, His people — brought out with dignity, not as runaways.
- Judgment needs shelter. Great acts of judgment fell on Egypt. Only blood on the door kept them from falling on Israel. That shelter still stands today.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
God tells Moses the end of the story before the first plague falls: Egypt will learn who He is. Pharaoh had already dismissed the name of the Lord. So the question is not whether he will know Him, but how — and at what cost.
Egypt's king had thrown God's name back at Moses as a name he did not know. That refusal is why the hand of power is now stretched out.
Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord, but Pharaoh must know Him. If Pharaoh would disown Him in goodness, he must know Him in righteousness. He would now make His judgments plain, and "the LORD has made Himself known; He has executed judgment."... God would make Himself known in grace. But if Egypt refuses that lesson, she must know Him by the uplifted hand of power, as she now does, until her strongest and finest men lie on the banks of the Red Sea.
Another writer weighs that boast against what the plagues taught Egypt about its gods.
Those were the words of a mortal creature. But the Lord makes Himself known by the judgment He carries out. Pharaoh found that out to his cost, and so will men by and by... When these judgments struck, the Egyptians found out how empty their idols were.
The plagues were signs, and Israel was watching as well as Egypt.
The other miracles Moses worked in Egypt were to show Pharaoh the mighty power of God. God said, I will "multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt... The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt." Then came the ten plagues. They were miracles or signs of the power of God — signs not only to the Egyptians, but also to the Israelites, as later references to them show.
The second half of the verse ties God's self-revelation to Israel's rescue. By the far side of the Red Sea, Pharaoh's question had its answer.
Pharaoh's question, "Who is the LORD?", now has its full answer. Egypt was destroyed. The firstborn in every family was dead. The chosen chariots of Pharaoh and his captains lay buried in the sea... What redemption was — redemption by power — they now understood, and began to enjoy it. God had worked in Egypt for them. God had sheltered them in Egypt from His judgment. God had redeemed them with an outstretched arm at the Red Sea. In these ways He had made Himself known.
Just before this promise, God said He would harden Pharaoh's heart. That troubles many readers. One writer answers by asking where those words fall in the story.
The fact is that this is not said of Pharaoh until after he had rejected the Lord's claims with contempt. He had said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." He rejected the word of the Lord. He set himself in open opposition to Him and His people. Only then does God harden his heart as a judgment. And God still acts on the same principle. So we read in 2 Thessalonians of some on whom He will send a strong delusion so that they believe a lie. But why? Because they refused to love the truth and be saved.
Another writer states the same balance: hardening is real, but it never comes first.
Notice this about the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. It was in no way the case before Pharaoh declared his unbelief. God never compelled a man to be an unbeliever... Two errors are equal here. One says that God hardens a person when He first sends a testimony. The other denies that He hardens a man after that man has refused His testimony.
God told Moses and Aaron the outcome before the struggle started. He does the same for readers today.
In this way the Lord told His servants what He intended to do, and how He would do it. He unrolled the scroll of the future before their eyes. He did it to prepare them for their task and to strengthen their faith. In the same way He has revealed to us the course of this world's history and warned us of the coming judgments... At the same time He cheers us with the sure prospect of redemption by power out of it, when the Lord returns to receive His people to Himself.
- Refusal. Pharaoh said, "I do not know the LORD." Everything that follows answers that sentence.
- Hardening. God hardens a heart only after a man has despised His testimony. He never makes a man an unbeliever first.
- Judgment. Egypt refused the lesson of goodness, so God made Himself known by the judgment He carries out. His blows showed Egypt's idols to be empty.
- Deliverance. The same outstretched hand that struck Egypt brought Israel out. They grasped this redemption by power only on the far shore.
- Knowledge. God makes Himself known one way or the other. He told His servants the outcome beforehand to steady their faith, and He has told us ours.
And Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them so did they.
Moses had spent chapters objecting to the work God gave him. This one short line ends that argument and turns the story toward Pharaoh.
Up to this point Moses had answered God back more than once. He had pleaded his poor speech and the people's refusal to listen. Commentators see his objections as the wrong way to measure a task:
It is always a fatal mistake when we measure the difficulties of service by what we are. The question is what God is. The difficulties look like mountains, looming through the mists of our unbelief. To Him they are nothing but an occasion to display His almighty power.
Against that, notice what this verse leaves out:
At this time (v.6) we are told that Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, and no mention is made of any further complaints on their part.
God had already told them what He was going to do, before any of it happened:
The Lord in this way told His servants what He intended to do, and how it would be accomplished. He unrolled the scroll of the future before their eyes to prepare them for their task, and to strengthen their faith... He wanted Moses and Aaron to share His own purposes about the world, the god of this world, and his poor, downtrodden slaves. He wants the same for us. It strengthens the heart and steadies the soul to be filled with the thoughts of God!
The words "as the LORD commanded them" point back to the previous verses, where God gave each man a defined place:
The dealings with Pharaoh were now to start in earnest. So the first seven verses of Exodus 7 give us the instructions under which Moses and Aaron were to act. Moses directly represented God before the king, and Aaron was to act as his "prophet," or spokesman. God is invisible, so Moses was to be His visible representative. Aaron was to speak and act under the direction of Moses, though in fact he was the elder. Once more we see how the first has to give place to the second.
The older brother taking the second place is itself part of what they obeyed.
Moses was eighty when God sent him, and commentators read that age as God's timing:
God had used various circumstances to prepare Moses for this time. Then He tells him He is sending him to Egypt to deliver Israel from their slavery. Perhaps by now he thought he was past the age of being usable by God at all, for he was 80 years (Acts 7:30). But God knew that at 40 he was not ready. Eighty is just the right time. God does not use someone because of his strength, but more likely because of his weakness.
Writers also note that Moses' weakness was worked into the plan rather than removed from it — his slow speech is why Aaron stands beside him, and Darby reads even this as God using our weakness "and puts all in its place through this; He that glories must glory in the Lord."
One writer applies this kind of obedience to our own progress:
Be assured of this, dear friends, it is useless talking about response if we are not obedient to the voice of God. Someone has said, "That which is light becomes law to us," and that is very true. If we do not answer to the light God gives us we shall not receive more. Suppose we ignore His voice and refuse to obey what God tells us. Then it is no surprise if we make no progress in the things of God... The communication became a command to Aaron, and in obedience to God he did as he was commanded. This is the path of true progress.
- Commanded. The verse points back to orders already given: Moses stood for God before the king; Aaron spoke for Moses.
- Convinced. God told them His whole plan before it happened. Knowing His mind steadies a servant for the task.
- Corrected. The excuses stop here. Measuring a service by what we are is a fatal mistake — the question is what God is.
- Chosen weak. At eighty Moses was ready. God takes up a servant not for his strength but more likely for his weakness.
- Carried out. "He did as the LORD commanded" is the mark of real response. Light received becomes law to us, and obeying it is the path of progress.
And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Just before the plagues begin, the record stops to give two ages. Why note that at the door of Pharaoh's palace? Because the numbers say something about how God prepares the people He sends.
Eighty is not just Moses' age. It is the length of his training.
God had not only to raise him up. He also had to train him, in one way or another, for eighty long years — first in the house of Pharaoh's daughter, then at the back of the desert. To our shallow thoughts this would seem an immense amount of time to devote to the education of a minister of God. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts. He knew the need of those forty years, twice over, in the preparation of His chosen vessel. When God educates, He educates in a way worthy of Himself and of His most holy service. He will not have a beginner do His work. The servant of Christ has many a lesson to learn in secret. There he undergoes many an exercise and passes through many a conflict. Only then is he qualified to act in public.
By eighty, Moses may have thought his useful years were gone. God counted the years differently.
Perhaps by this time he thought he was past the age of being usable by God at all, for he was 80 years (Acts 7:30). But God knew that at 40 he was not ready, and that 80 is just the right time. God does not use a man because of his strength, but more likely because of his weakness.
The desert years did not only add something to Moses. They also took something out of him.
Moses needed forty years at the back of the desert. They fitted him to lead God's people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. No doubt God used his education in Egypt to form the vessel for His service. But He needed those forty years to empty the vessel of what had filled it during its making.
The verse tells us Aaron was the older brother by three years. Yet God gave him the second place.
Moses directly represented God before the king, and Aaron was to act as his "prophet," or spokesman. God is invisible, so Moses was to be His visible representative. Aaron was to speak and act under the direction of Moses, though in fact he was the elder. Once more we see how the first has to give place to the second.
Verse 6 says they did as the Lord commanded. Verse 7 tells us who "they" were: two old men, still strong for the work.
At this point (v.6) we read that Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, and the record mentions no further complaints on their part. It also gives their age — Moses 80 years and Aaron 83. We may wonder at their physical energy at that age. Yet even when Moses was 120, "his eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated" (Deut. 34:7). It is Moses who wrote Psalm 90. That psalm tells us: "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away" (v. 10). But God made Moses himself a striking exception!
The ages here also settle an old objection. Stephen's speech in Acts 7 splits Moses' life into three stretches of forty years. Some have said the Old Testament does not back that up.
If we turn to Exodus 7, we are told that "Moses was eighty years old … when they spoke to Pharaoh" (v. 7). These eighty years of Moses agree with Stephen's account. Stephen says Moses was forty years old when it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. He then spent forty more years in Midian. This also fits perfectly with Exodus 2:11, 15 and 7:7. Stephen makes Moses' age one hundred and twenty years in total. Deuteronomy 31:2 and 34:7 also say he died at one hundred and twenty. Where is there any discrepancy?
- Prepared — the eighty years were not wasted. They were God's training course, and He will not put a beginner into His work.
- Emptied — Egypt filled the vessel; the desert emptied it. God uses a man for his weakness, not his strength.
- Placed — Aaron is the elder, yet he stands second as spokesman: the first gives place to the second.
- Obedient — the two now do as the Lord commanded, with no further complaints. God keeps them strong past the span Psalm 90 gives.
- Verified — the ages here match Stephen's three forty-year periods. The claimed clash between Acts 7 and Exodus disappears.
And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Here God speaks to Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh has said a word. He tells them what to do when the king demands proof, and what follows is a contest of signs on Egypt's own ground.
God knew what a king with no faith would ask for.
Pharaoh had no faith. He was sure to demand some visible, miraculous sign to prove Moses' authority. So the sign of Moses' rod becoming a serpent was given.
The message left Pharaoh with only two ways to explain the man in front of him.
Moses brought an extraordinary message. It came after Israel's own plea for some relief had been ignored. So Pharaoh demanded a sign of authority and power. Moses was either mad, or he was the messenger of a God mighty indeed.
Moses and Aaron arrive at court with proof of who sent them.
Moses and Aaron go in to Pharaoh and present their credentials, backed by a miraculous sign — the sign which the Lord had taught Moses at Horeb… The wise men of Egypt, the magicians, did the same with their rods. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, and so the Lord proved the mission of His servants.
A rod is not a random object. Scripture gives it a settled meaning.
The point of this wonder was the change of power into something Satanic. In Scripture a rod means power. The rod is the symbol of authority, and it may also stand for chastening. But no chastening is right unless it comes from just authority. That is why the two ideas are linked in this emblem. The sign first given to Moses seems to mean power taking Satanic form. That was the state of things in the land of Egypt.
The sign also told Pharaoh who was really in control.
This is a picture of God using even Satan as a rod of His authority to carry out His purposes. It would tell Pharaoh that even his own power, moved by Satan, was under the control of God.
Of all creatures, the serpent was the one Pharaoh could not miss the meaning of.
The serpent belonged in some form or other to the gods… The serpent itself formed part of what we might call the royal arms of Egypt, which decorated the entrances to the temples… And now one man's firm hand gripped Egypt's own special sign and wielded it. That sign was Egypt's own idea of life and majesty, its emblems on the crowns of its kings, its own proud boast. And that man stood before Pharaoh in the name of Jehovah his God and demanded the release of Israel.
Two details carry weight here: whose rod is thrown down, and which Hebrew word the account uses.
Moses did not use his rod, as he had before the elders of Israel. It was Aaron's rod that was cast down and became a serpent. The word for serpent is also different. In chapter 4:3 it is nachash, the same word as in Genesis 3. But the word used in chapter 7 is thanin, which the early Greek translation renders dragon. This does not show that there were two different records, but that the two events have a different meaning. Aaron's rod, which later blossomed, is a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the mighty victor over Satan, sin and death.
The magicians matched the outward act, and there the resemblance stopped.
Of course, they could not truly copy so great a miracle. In it Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, showed Himself to be the Creator. All the power of Satan could not bring the smallest creature into being. The words here only mean that to outward appearance the thing was done.
That way of resisting God did not die with Egypt.
The most Satanic resistance to God's testimony in the world comes from people who imitate the effects of the truth but only have the form of godliness and deny its power. Such people can do the same things, keep the same habits and forms, use the same words, and hold the same opinions as others. The true Christian, moved by the love of Christ, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, hands out Bibles and leaflets, supports the gospel, prays, sings praise, preaches the gospel. A person with only the outward form can do every one of these things.
- Anticipated. God tells Moses and Aaron what to do when Pharaoh demands proof. The sign is ready before the king even asks.
- Credentials. The wonder is not decoration. It proves who sent these two men, and the Lord had taught Moses this sign at Horeb.
- Rod. A rod means authority. Thrown down, it turns satanic — a picture of what power in Egypt had become.
- Serpent. Egypt's royal emblem ends up gripped in the hand of Jehovah's messenger. Even Pharaoh's own power, moved by Satan, stands under God's control.
- Swallowed. The magicians copy the look of the miracle, but they cannot create. Copying the form without the power is still how people resist the truth.
When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Do a miracle for yourselves, -- then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy staff and cast [it] before Pharaoh -- it will become a serpent.
God speaks to Moses before Pharaoh speaks a word, telling him what the king will demand and what to do about it. The sign is not random: a rod thrown down in a palace whose gods wore the serpent.
Unbelief always asks for proof. God had His answer ready before the question came.
Pharaoh, who had no faith, was sure to demand some visible and miraculous sign to accredit Moses, so God gave the sign of Moses' rod becoming a serpent. Aaron performed this, but the magicians of Egypt showed that they also could bring this wonder to pass.
Moses had already seen this miracle at the burning bush. There he had to pick the snake up; here that step is missing.
To silence every hesitation and sense of unfitness, God clothes him with power. The Lord says to him, "See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh." More than that, He tells him to repeat before Pharaoh the miracle that had already reassured his own soul at the burning bush — turning his rod into a serpent. At the bush he had to take the serpent in his hand, so that his own faith might be settled. Here the aim is rather to show Moses before Pharaoh as clothed with the power of God. So this part of the miracle is not repeated.
The Hebrew word behind "serpent" here is broader than the snake we picture.
The word is not exact, and probably has a wider meaning than serpent. It is the same word used for sea monsters in general... The point of this wonder was the change of power (which a "rod" means in Scripture) into something satanic. The rod is the symbol of authority; it may also represent chastening. But no chastening is right unless it flows from just authority. That is what ties the two ideas together in this emblem. The sign first given to Moses seems to mean the rod of power taking satanic form. That was the state of things in the land of Egypt.
Writers describe the rod differently. One says it was Aaron's rod, not Moses' own, that was cast down; he also marks a change of Hebrew word between chapter 4 and chapter 7, and looks ahead from the rod to Christ:
Moses did not use his rod, as he had before the elders of Israel; it was Aaron's rod that was cast down and became a serpent. Another word is also used for serpent. In chapter 4:3 it is nachash, the same word as in Genesis 3. But the word used in chapter 7 is thanin, which the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Old Testament, translates as dragon... Aaron's rod, which later blossomed, is a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the mighty victor over Satan, sin and death.
The rod lying on the ground raises a question: has God lost His grip on the world? How it got there answers it.
The rod seems not in the hand of Him to whom it belongs, but on the ground, and satanic. But notice how exact this picture is, and the comfort it has ready for us. The rod was cast out of Moses' hand; it did not slip out. God has not lost control of the world, after all. Of His own will, and for His own wise purposes, He has put man under the rule of the prince man chose for himself.
Of every possible wonder, God picked the one image Pharaoh could not miss.
The serpent itself formed part of what we might describe as the royal arms of Egypt, which decorated the entrances to the temples. On the crowns of the gods of heaven, of earth, of hell, the serpent is still there... And now one man gripped Egypt's own sign in his firm hand: its picture of life and majesty, the emblem on the crowns of its kings, its own proud boast. He stood before Pharaoh in the name of Jehovah his God and demanded Israel's release.
The magicians copied the sign. The copy is where their limit shows.
Even if the magicians imitated it, Aaron's rod swallowing up their rods shows how weak the imitation was. Of course they could not truly copy so great a miracle, one that proved Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, to be the Creator. All the power of Satan could not bring into being the smallest creature.
The scene has a lasting lesson for anyone who feels outnumbered.
God's people and His representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents, who wanted to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today.
- Rod promised — God names the sign before Pharaoh ever asks for one. Unbelief never catches Him unprepared.
- Rod given — the rod stands for authority, and God clothes Moses with His own power, with Aaron acting for him.
- Rod cast down — on the ground, authority takes satanic form. But Moses cast it down; it did not slip out of his hand. God has not lost control of the world.
- Rod aimed — the serpent was Egypt's own royal and religious emblem. The sign struck at what Pharaoh trusted.
- Rod victorious — the magicians could copy the shape but could not create the smallest creature. God's rod swallowed all the rest.
And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent.
In the palace, Moses and Aaron do what God told them: a shepherd's rod hits the floor and becomes a serpent in front of the king. Two questions follow: why this sign for Egypt, and why did God let Pharaoh's magicians copy it?
The sign was not a show. It proved that these two men came with a commission from God. It was the same sign God had taught Moses earlier at Horeb.
Moses and Aaron go in to Pharaoh and present their credentials. A miraculous sign backs them up — the sign which the Lord had taught Moses at Horeb… The wise men of Egypt, the magicians, did the same with their rods. But "Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." In this way the Lord vindicated the mission of His servants. But, as He had foretold, Pharaoh was not convinced.
Of all possible signs, God picked the one image Pharaoh could not misread. The serpent was stamped on Egypt's crowns, temples and gods.
The serpent was common in some form or other to the gods. As an infant, Pharaoh had been placed under the protection of Rannu, the serpent-headed god. The serpent itself formed part of what we might call the royal arms of Egypt, which decorated the entrances to the temples… And now the man who stood before Pharaoh and demanded the release of Israel gripped Egypt's own special sign in his firm hand. He held it in the name of Jehovah his God. That sign was Egypt's own idea of life and majesty, its emblem on the crowns of its kings, and its own proud boast.
Scripture also gives the serpent a name.
Satan is called that old serpent who deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). By deception he brings about the fall of men and nations, as he did with Adam and Eve at the beginning. It is striking that God should give this serpent sign to Pharaoh.
A rod in a man's hand stands for power. One writer looks at that rod on the ground and sees what was holding Israel captive.
Pharaoh demanded proof of their divine mission. So Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a serpent. The rod (the sign of power) had become satanic, and this was the power holding the people captive. It is just the same in the profession of Christianity. There the form of godliness had all its power from the enemy, and no power of life from the truth.
The same picture carries a message aimed straight at Pharaoh's throne.
The first sign… was Aaron's rod being thrown on the ground and turning into a serpent. This is typical of God's using even Satan as a rod of His authority to carry out His purposes. It would tell Pharaoh that even his power (moved by Satan) was under the control of God.
The court sorcerers never argued that Moses was a fraud. They did something cleverer. Commentators see in it the pattern of how people still resist the truth.
The way "Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses" was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. We do not find that they said his actions came from a false or evil energy. Instead, they tried to cancel their power on the conscience by doing the same things. What Moses did, they could do. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses worked miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in.
Then the copy collapses. One writer notes what the magicians could never do, however convincing the show looked.
The rod turned into a serpent showed the whole power of Egypt handed over into Moses' hand. For Pharaoh, it was a challenge of the completest kind. Even when the magicians imitated it, the weakness of their copy was clear: Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Of course they could not truly copy so enormous a miracle. That miracle showed Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, to be the Creator. All the power of Satan was unable to bring into being the smallest creature.
The same outcome speaks to anyone who feels outnumbered.
God's people and His representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents, who wanted to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today… "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods!
- Credentials — the sign was not a show. By it the Lord backed the mission of His servants before the king.
- Chosen ground — God picked Egypt's own royal emblem. Its proud boast ended up in the hand of the man who demanded Israel's release.
- Captive power — a rod stands for power. Cast down, it became satanic, and that power held the people — as a form of godliness without life still does.
- Counterfeit — the magicians never denied Moses. They copied him, so one thing looked as good as the other, and the conscience felt no weight.
- Swallowed — Satan could not create the smallest creature. The one rod on God's side ate up the many: greater is He who is in you.
And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments
Pharaoh has just seen Aaron's rod become a serpent, and instead of bowing to the sign he calls for men of his own. What follows is not a denial of God's power but a copy of it. That copy sets the pattern for how the enemy has fought God's truth ever since.
The verse names three groups of men, and each had a place in Egypt's religion. One writer explains what their titles meant:
The priests were among the greatest of the Egyptian nobles, and many were of royal blood. Moses knew their wisdom well, for he had been raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter and had been let into some of their mysteries. The wise men were priests who knew the dark secrets of their religion, and that knowledge armed them with hidden powers. The sorcerers were priests whose special powers let them drive away evils by muttering magic formulas. These formulas often had to do with charming snakes or driving them away. The "scribes of the sacred house" stored them in their secret books.
Some translations call the third group "the scribes of Egypt." Moses faced men trained in the court that had once trained him.
The New Testament names two of these men: Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8). They never argued that Moses was a fraud.
Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses in one way only: they imitated whatever he did, as far as they were able. We do not find that they said his actions came from a false or evil energy. Instead, they tried to cancel the effect of his works on the conscience by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so that after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle.
This tactic came second. Force had been tried first:
Look at the forms of Satan's opposition to the truth of God. His method has always been the same. First he opposes the truth by open violence. Then, if that does not succeed, he corrupts it by producing a counterfeit. So he first tried to kill Moses, and when he failed at that, he tried to imitate his works.
How much of this was real power? One writer sets careful limits:
We may ask how far the devil can work miracles. I know of no limit, if God allows it (as in Egypt), to his use of natural laws or to his producing of appearances. On people who cannot explain them, these have the same first effect as miracles... God alone can create, or by His own will produce what accomplishes His purpose. He disposes of nature as its Master and does what He pleases. Satan uses power, but it is an inferior power, and it works only inside the created world. He cannot go beyond modifying that world, and he cannot even do that whenever he wants.
God fixed how far the copy could go:
God allowed them to keep pace with each step of Moses. Then the very simplest fact showed that their power had come to the end of its rope. They could go no further. They could no more get life-giving power than Simon Magus could buy the power of the blessed Spirit.
One thing lies beyond every counterfeit:
The imitation might be so good that no one could match it. The counterfeit might come so near the truth, so alike, that it deceived everyone. But there is the life of Christ, to be lived out on earth. Christ lives in His own and produces the deep reality that no imitation can ever reach. That makes the folly of all plain, as it made theirs plain.
The rods matched; the outcome did not.
God's people and their representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents, who wanted to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today... "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods! Their imitations still kept up with Moses and Aaron, and hardened the king against Israel, until Aaron brought life out of the dust of the earth. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."
The shape of the attack has changed since. The danger is no longer the sword but the disguise:
Again and again, violence has given way to something far more cunning and dangerous: a powerless form, an empty profession, a human counterfeit. The enemy, instead of appearing with the sword of persecution in his hand, walks about with the cloak of profession on his shoulders. He professes and imitates what he once opposed and persecuted.
- Copy, not contradiction. The magicians never called Moses a liar; they matched him, so that "one was as good as the other."
- Copy has a source. They borrowed their power, and it had limits — it could modify what already existed, never create.
- Copy has a ceiling. They kept step until the sign called for life. Then they confessed, "This is the finger of God."
- Copy gets swallowed. Aaron's rod ate theirs in front of the king.
- Copy is today's danger. The enemy has traded the sword of persecution for the cloak of profession, imitating now what he once attacked.
they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staves.
In Pharaoh's court Aaron's staff becomes a serpent, and the king's wise men copy the wonder — until Aaron's staff swallows theirs. How far can God's enemy copy His work, and why did Pharaoh still refuse to bend?
A rod in Scripture stands for authority. The first sign given to Moses turned that authority into something satanic.
The point of this wonder was the change of power (which a "rod" means in Scripture) into something satanic. The rod is the symbol of authority… The rod of power taking satanic form seems to be what the first sign committed to Moses means. That was exactly the state of things in the land of Egypt.
The sign struck Egypt where it was proudest.
Egypt's own emblem — its idea of life and majesty, the sign on the crowns of its kings, its own proud boast — was now gripped in the firm hand of the man who wielded it. In the name of the Lord his God he stood before Pharaoh and demanded the release of Israel.
The magicians did not argue with Moses. They copied him — and the New Testament names two of them.
The New Testament names the chief of these. We read, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth" (2 Tim. 3:8). This reference is very important. It shows that what the magicians did embodies a principle of how Satan works. What, then, was its special character? It was, in one word, IMITATION… In Timothy those who resist the truth are described as "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). This is one of Satan's most dangerous subtleties. If he can succeed in open opposition to the truth, he will not hide himself. But if that door is shut, he will disguise himself as an angel of light.
The tactic outlived Egypt. It no longer needs miracles.
The way these opponents worked was by imitating Moses as far as they could. They could only do it within limits, until the power of God rose in such display that it was hopeless for them to follow. In Christendom imitation is easier, since it is not a question of miracle but of the semblance of truth. Strikingly, the new and withering seductions of the enemy are typically imitations of truth. They come so close that they would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
One writer sets the limit of the enemy's power at creation itself.
We may ask how far the devil can work miracles. I know of no limit, if God allows it (as in Egypt), in the use of natural laws or in producing appearances… But beyond nature or deception they cannot go. Ask them to create a louse, and Satan's instruments are at their wits' end (Exodus 8:16-18). God alone can create… Jannes and Jambres helped to harden Pharaoh's heart. But it only brought out the display of God's own power and government in judgment.
The record shows where the copying stopped.
The magicians of Egypt could imitate the servants of the true and living God in only three things. They turned their rods into serpents (Ex. 7:12), turned the water into blood (Ex. 7:21), and brought up the frogs (Ex. 8:7). But the fourth sign involved the display of life. It left them totally confounded, and they had to admit, "This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:16-19).
The odds in that court were against Moses. The outcome showed whether Egypt's serpent was a god at all.
There was but one rod on the side of God; there were many on Satan's side. "But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs." How conclusive this should have been to Pharaoh, that the serpent he worshipped was no god!… This first miracle stands by itself, in that it was not a plague. It was simply the Lord executing judgment on the gods of Egypt.
The magicians lost more than a contest; they lost the emblem of their standing.
But look — Aaron's rod devoured theirs, and he took the serpent by its tail and so took up his rod again. The magicians were empty-handed. Their token of authority was gone. They could only look at one another.
The sign was decisive. Pharaoh still would not bend.
The next move they did not expect, and it was beyond them. Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Divine power, even when cast down, proved itself stronger than the power of the foe. But in spite of this there was no softening in the heart of Pharaoh.
The margin between the two sides has not changed.
God's people and representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents who sought to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today… "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods!
- Challenge. The rod stands for authority. Cast down before Pharaoh, it took satanic form — God's challenge to the serpent on Egypt's crowns.
- Counterfeit. Satan's method here is not denial but imitation. It returns later as the appearance of godliness without its power.
- Limit. Copying stops where creation begins. Satan may use appearances and natural forces, but he cannot give life — and the magicians said so themselves.
- Swallowed. One rod stood against many, and theirs were gone. The serpent Egypt worshipped proved to be no god.
- Confidence. Divine power, even when cast down, is stronger than the enemy's. The same margin guards a despised people today, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
And Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.
Aaron's rod had just swallowed the rods of Egypt's magicians, and the king watched it happen — yet his heart stayed unmoved. The verse adds that this happened "as the LORD had said". So who hardens here — Pharaoh, or God?
The sign came in two stages. Egypt's experts matched the first; the second left them empty-handed.
Pharaoh had no faith. He was sure to demand a visible, miraculous sign to prove Moses was sent, so the sign of Moses' rod becoming a serpent was given. Aaron performed this, but the magicians of Egypt showed that they too could bring this wonder about. They acted under the power of Satan, who is the serpent. So they too could show that casting down authority produces what is satanic. The next move they did not expect and it was beyond them. Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Divine power, even when cast down, proved itself stronger than the power of the enemy. But despite this there was no softening in the heart of Pharaoh.
The men whose trade this was knew what they had lost. Their reaction and Pharaoh's went opposite ways.
These magicians were in close touch with their god. We might almost say they were in spirit-contact with the hosts of the old serpent, the Devil. They had sought their god's power and had obtained it. Then, suddenly, the sign of that authority vanished. The loss of their rods ended the argument for them. That they were shaken in their hearts no one can doubt. But Pharaoh hardened his heart. He would not heed the word of God.
The wording here does not yet place the act on God's side. It describes a heart made strong against God.
Mercy had been within his reach, but he refused it again and again. Six times over terrible plagues warned him about the folly of resisting God, but each time he hardened his heart. Exodus 7:13 should read, "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened (or strong) so that he did not listen." The Lord did not harden him as a judgment until chapter 9:12.
Both truths stand: man hardens himself, and God hardens. The order between them settles the sense.
God sent a testimony to Pharaoh, as He does to everyone in some form or another. But man left to himself always refuses the testimony of God. He knows it is God. He is conscious that he is doing wrong in refusing it. Yet he refuses, because he does not like God and dare not trust Him, whose word interferes with everything he likes. So man gives himself up to unbelief. Then God may seal a person up in a judicial hardness, either at that time or later, according to His own wisdom. That hardness is a distinct positive act on God's part... God hardens because man refuses His word. So the hardening is a judicial act on God's part. It comes in after man has proved himself an unbeliever and has kept on in it. It was so with Pharaoh. His is a typical case — the permanent warning in the New Testament, and the first recorded instance in the Old.
Each time God lifted a plague, He showed mercy. That mercy is what the king used against Him.
Where does the sovereignty of God come in here? Is it not seen in this — that again and again, God acted in sovereign mercy in removing the plagues? But this mercy only became the occasion of Pharaoh hardening his heart (see Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). In the end, after Pharaoh had hardened his heart, we read that "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12).
This account is not just about one ancient king. It describes what happens to anyone who keeps refusing clear light.
If a man resists the light of divine testimony, he is shut up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. God leaves him to himself, and then Satan comes in and carries him headlong to ruin. Pharaoh had plenty of light. It showed him the extreme folly of his course in trying to detain those whom God had commanded him to let go. But the real disposition of his heart was to act against God, and therefore God left him to himself.
- Sign given. Aaron's rod swallowed the magicians' rods. Divine power, even when cast down, is stronger than the enemy's — and Pharaoh saw it.
- Sign refused. The magicians themselves were shaken by losing their rods; the king was not. He would not heed the word of God.
- Self-hardened first. Here the wording describes Pharaoh's own heart as hard. The Lord's hardening is not stated until chapter 9:12.
- Mercy misused. Every removal of a plague showed sovereign kindness. Each one became the occasion for further hardening.
- Then hardened by God. God hardens only after a man keeps refusing His testimony, never before it. That makes Pharaoh a standing warning to anyone who resists clear light.