Exodus 7 English Standard Version (ESV)

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 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. ⁵ The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

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.

REFLECTION

• Read the passage. For a better picture read the whole chapter.
• God appointed Moses to be His representative to speak to Pharaoh. As weak as Moses felt he was, especially in leadership and eloquent speech, his obedience to God has put him in the position of deity. “I have made you like God to Pharaoh.” (v1) He has a strength and a substance and an authority he never possessed before, even if he didn’t see it.
• When we stumble after God in our humility and ignorance, we often have words and thoughts that were not available to us before. Therefore, when we act in obedience, we no longer act as individuals, but it is God who at work in us to will and act according to his good purpose (Phil. 2:13). To others it may seem like we are not ourselves.
• When has God asked you to do something beyond our natural abilities? Did you obey God? How was the task accomplished?  
• Do you obey God humbly and simply? Or do you have too many agenda and couldn’t follow God single-mindedly? Talk with God about this.