Proove Yourself

Are Calling and Gifts Enough?

8  Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,  9  “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’”  10  So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.   11  Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.  12  For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.  13  Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. -  Exodus 7:8-13 ESV

The people of Israel have been held in cruel bondage by the Egyptians. In their agony, they cried out to the Lord and He sent Moses and Aaron equipped with His word, signs, and wonders to deliver them from bondage. 

Arriving in Egypt, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh with the word of the Lord God. In Exodus 5:1 we read:

 1  Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”  - Exodus 5:1 ESV 

Israel knew this God to be the Creator of heaven and earth, and the source of all life. He was an all-powerful and all-wise God, whose word alone put the heavens and earth in place. He was also a holy God who demanded obedience and punished those who rebelled against His purpose. This was the God who told Moses and Aaron to go to Pharoah and proclaim: “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.” These words carried weight, even before Pharaoh. They were spoken by God through His servant Moses. To refuse them was to refuse God.

Notice, however, the response of Pharaoh to this word from God:

2  But Pharaoh 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.”  - Exodus 2:2; 5:2 ESV

Pharaoh boldly rejects the word of the Lord through Moses. “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice,” he said. His words are blasphemous, bold and proud. “Do you know who I am? I am the Pharaoh of Egypt. Why should I listen to your God? Who is He that I should even entertain what He has to say? His words mean nothing to me. He has no authority over me. I do what I please. As shocking as those words are, they are all to common, even in our day.

The word of God confronts Pharaoh and he doesn’t bat an eye. He doesn’t see why he has to listen to it. He is his own authority. As powerful as that word is, we have all seen people respond to it in the same way. We speak the word of God but they don’t see that it has anything to do with them. It goes in one ear and out the other. They close their minds and hearts. The reality of the matter is that until the Spirit of God softens their heart, this word will not have any impact on their lives. This world will reject it and walk away untouched. Moses felt deep pain in the rejection of the word given to him. Crying out to God that day, he said:

 22  … “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?   23  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” - Exodus 5:22-23 ESV

When Jesus was on this earth, the religious leaders turned against Him and despised what He taught. Should it surprise us that if they rejected the word of our Lord, they will reject us and what we share as well?

One day the Lord appeared to the prophet Isaiah and said: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” When Isaiah heard that call, he volunteered to go as His messenger saying: “Here I am! Send me.” Notice what God tells the prophet as he goes:

 9  And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10   Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” 

God was telling His servant that while he would deliver His message, the people would not listen. Their heart would be dull, their ears heavy, their eyes blind. When Isaiah asked how long he was to preach to a people who would not listen, God responded:

11  Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12  and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. - Isaiah 6:8-12 ESV

God told Isaiah to preach His word until the judgement came, there was no one left in the cities and the streets were deserted and lay in waste. Moses proclaims the word of the Lord. God does not always call us to preach to those who will respond. He sometimes asks us to speak to those who reject our message. We are called to share the truth whether people respond to it or not.

Speaking directly to Moses in Exodus 7 God says:

 2   You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.   3  But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,   4  Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. - Exodus 7:2-4 ESV

Pharaoh would resist to the end, but Moses was not to stop speaking what God commanded him to speak. Don’t let the hardness of people’s heart keep you from speaking the truth. God commands the preaching of His Word, and the teaching of His precepts. We must persevere in this work until there is no one left to hear what we have to say.

When Pharaoh rejected the word of the Lord, God sent Moses back again.  Note, however, that this time the approach was to be different. Listen to God’s command this time:

 8  Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,   9  “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’”   10  So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.  - Exodus 7:8-10 ESV

God knew that Pharaoh would demand a sign to prove that Moses spoke on His behalf. When God called Moses to go to Pharaoh, he not only gave him a word to speak, but also a sign to perform before him to prove he spoke on God's behalf. 

Approaching Pharaoh, Moses cast down his staff on the ground and it became a living serpent. As impressive as this was, Pharaoh then summoned his magicians and sorcerers and they performed the same sign using their occult arts. While Exodus 7:12 tells us that Moses' staff swallowed the staffs of the magicians and sorcerers, Pharaoh's heart was not moved to let the people of Israel go.

The next morning God told Moses to return to Pharaoh with another sign. This time Moses was to stretch out his staff over the waters of Egypt. When he did, the waters turned to blood, killing the fish in the Nile River. Everywhere there was water, it had turned to blood. Nobody could drink it. Seeing this, once again Pharaoh called his magicians and sorcerers. Exodus 7:22-23 tells us that they did the same thing using their secret arts.

 22  But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.   

Notice the response of Pharaoh, when he saw that the magicians and sorcerers did the same thing:

23  Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.  - Exodus 7:22-23 ESV

This second miraculous sign had no impact on Pharaoh whatsoever. For seven full days, the Egyptians suffered with this bloody water. Only after those seven days without water were over did God send Moses back to Pharaoh.

This time, Moses told Pharaoh that if he did not let the people go, the Nile would swarm with frogs and they would come out of that river into their homes. They would find them in their bedrooms, their ovens, and kneading bowls. Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters and frogs came up as Moses predicted. Once again, however, the magicians and sorcerers performed the same sign and made frogs come up out of the river onto the land. 

6  So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.   7  But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. - Exodus 7:11; 8:6-7 ESV

While Pharaoh was not convinced, the inconvenience of having so many frogs did move him to petition Moses to have his God remove them from the land.

The battle between Pharaoh and God continues. Moses returns time and time again, only to see the forces of evil repeat the same signs he had performed before Pharaoh. While God was not finished with what He intended to do, these first meetings between Pharaoh and Moses have much to teach us. 

Consider first how Pharaoh resisted the word for the Lord spoken through Moses. When Moses returned with a sign from God, Pharaoh continued to resist. When he saw how his magicians did that same thing, he hardened his heart. The passage shows us something about the hardness of the human heart. A staff took on life and became a serpent, water was turned to blood, frogs infested his land at Moses’ command, but none of that opened Pharaoh’s eyes or softened his heart. 

Revelation 9 has always spoken powerfully to me about the human heart. Here we read of how the bottomless pit is opened and demonic beings are released to torment those who did not know the Lord. They afflicted them with such pain and agony that they wished they could die but couldn’t. Plagues were unleashed on the earth killing one third of humankind. Then we read the following words:

 20  The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,   21  nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. - Revelation 9:20-21 ESV

It will take more than the worst pain imaginable and the death of one third of humanity to change the sinful human heart. Greater than changing a stick into a serpent, or changing water into blood is the softening of the human heart to God. If your heart is tender toward Him today, understand that this one the greatest of all miracles, and a true work of God in your life. 

Second, understand that not all miracles or signs are from God. Pharaoh’s heart was not touched, in part because his magicians and sorcerers were able to repeat the same signs as Moses and Aaron. Those who repeated these signs did so, however, by magic arts and demonic influence. 

Revelation 13 speaks of the Beast predicted in the end times. Listen to the words of the apostle John about this beast:

 11  Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12  It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.   13   It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,   14  and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.  - Revelation 13:11-14 ESV 

This great enemy of God will have the power to bring down fire from heaven and perform great and miraculous signs to deceive the inhabitants of the earth.

Speaking about the judgement to come, Jesus said:

 22   On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’   23   And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ - Matthew 7:22-23 ESV

Preachers and miracle workers will stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgement but He will declare to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” They did mighty works in the name of Jesus, but did not belong to Him. Satan has the power to deceive. He will deceive many through these signs. Not all signs and miracles are from God. We must carefully examine not only the signs but also the message these people present along with their signs.

Understand that God did sent Moses with signs for Pharaoh but he resisted them. God does equip His servants for the work to which He calls them but that does not always guarantee that you will see people repenting of their sin. It takes more than the Word to convince a sinner of his or her need. It taks more than miracles and signs for people to be saved. This work belongs to God alone. He will used His word. He may even use miracles and signs, but make no mistake. it is the Spirit of God alone who can break that hard heart of stone and soften it to the truth.