By Teena Myers

Moses’s return to Egypt started a revival. The elders brought their congregations to Goshen. Aaron preached and did the signs Jehovah gave Moses. The Israelites believed their ancestors God had come to help them, and they worshiped him.[1] But their worship was not sincere.

God’s Perspective

Centuries after God delivered the Israelites from Egypt their government collapsed, and they were taken into captivity. Some of their elders asked Ezekiel to inquire of God. God refused to answer them and told Ezekiel why.

“On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.” On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. And I said to them, “Each of you, get rid of the vile Images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.”^[2]

God made more than a promise of deliverance during the revival. He gave them a light and easy burden.^[3] Make him their one and only God.

Request to Worship

The people who needed deliverance did not have to deal with Pharaoh. God had already prepared a man who did not need deliverance to deal with their oppressor. All Israel had to do was love God and God alone while he destroyed the lies that made them slaves of a religious tyrant.

The Egyptians were a religious people accustomed to taking vacations so they could worship one of their gods. In Exploring Exodus, the observation is made that, “…the request for temporary relief from drudgery in order to celebrate a religious holiday was not something unreasonable or exceptional in the Egyptian system of state-imposed servitude.”^[4] Moses, Aaron and the elders entered Pharaoh’s throne room to make a common request.^[5]

I DO NOT KNOW THE LORD

Aaron stood before Pharaoh to deliver God’s message. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.”^[6]

Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”[7]

The Egyptian’s revered Pharaoh as a living god on earth. He governed with absolute authority. As high priest of every temple, he was expected to keep their gods happy lest they brought disaster upon their nation. The more than 2,000 false gods worshipped in Egypt rose and fell in prominence at the ruling Pharaoh’s whims. Allowing a God he did not know to be worshipped jeopardized his control over their religion that he used to control the nation.^[8]

Not content with Pharaoh’s “NO,” the Israelite delegation repeated their request with an appeal to Pharaoh’s goodness. “The God of the Israelites has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”^[9]

Pharaoh was not the only one in the meeting who did not “know” Jehovah. Why did Jehovah’s ministers think he would destroy them with pestilence or with the sword? Jehovah already told Moses that Pharaoh would refuse, and he would display his mercy, so everyone can know him. Everyone in this meeting of religious leaders knows about gods, but they did not know Jehovah. The Egyptians were the only ones in jeopardy of plagues and death if their Pharaoh denied Israel’s request for religious freedom.

The struggle between God and Pharaoh was never about them leaving Egypt to possess the land God promised to Jesus and Abraham. God could not fulfill the covenant of grace he made with Abraham, who was dead, until Abraham’s seed/Jesus, who had not been born yet conquered death.[10]

Moses fulfilled his calling when he returned to the mountain with over a million people and Jehovah set up a temporary government based on law that contained a blessing for obedience and curse for disobedience. After the law was established, they experienced plagues and swords for their disobedience.

No one can possess the city built on eternal foundations of justice Abraham left Ur to find until Jesus fulfilled his ministry as a servant. Today, he is fulfilling his ministry as an intercessor seated at the right hand of God.[11] Jesus will fulfill his destiny when he returns as a king to possess the land God promised to give him, and he establishes an incorruptible government on earth.[12]

WAITING

Jehovah gave the people Moses brought out of Egypt a nation with different borders than the borders he promised to Jesus and Abraham. The eastern border of Abraham’s covenant of grace is the Euphrates River.[13] The eastern border of the covenant of law Jacob’s children agreed to obey is the Jordan River.[14] We are still waiting for Jesus to return as the king he was born to be.^[15]

After Jesus resurrection, the Apostle John wrote, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”[16] To this day, we experience the same problems the Israelites did in the land of Egypt, and later as a nation. Jehovah gives authority to individuals so they will edify the people they govern.[17] But fallen human nature easily distorts Jehovah’s intent. Instead of the governed being edified, they are often exploited.

Jehovah’s people were miserable in Egypt, because “Jehovah’s minister,” Pharaoh,[18] did not know where his authority came from and why it had been given. Rulers who resist Jehovah make life miserable for everyone, but they cannot stop the fulfillment of Jehovah’s plan.The desire to be governed by Jehovah alone is created as we suffer under the tyranny of people in the church and in secular governments who abuse their God given authority.

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[1] Exodus 4:1-9, 4:29-31

[2] Ezekiel 20:5-8,

[3] Matthew 11:28-30

[4] Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus (Schocken Books, 1986), 55-56

[5] Exodus 3:18

[6] Exodus 5:1, 7:2

[7] Exodus 5:2

[8] What were a pharaoh’s roles and responsibilities? – History Skills 

[9] Exodus 5:3

[10] 1 Corinthians 15:50

[11] Mark 16:19, Acts 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25

[12] Revelations 11:15

[13] Genesis 15:18

[14] Numbers 34:10-12

[15] Hebrews 4:1-11, Psalms 95:10-11

[16] 1 John 5:19

[17] 2 Corinthians 10 :8

[18] Romans 13:1-5