Exodus

I was reading in Exodus recently from my morning Spurgeon devotions, and even though I, and I presume everyone else know the story AND I saw the movie... I was struck by the one verse that came in my email... 7:12, “And Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”



In Exodus and anywhere else in the Bible, you can’t just read one verse and call it a “devotion” in my humble opinion. One must read one or two chapters back and one or two chapter forward. So, backing up to chapter 3, God introduces Himself to Moses on Mt Sinai and tells him what He is going to do for the Hebrews. But Moses has no confidence in himself and doesn’t want the job.

In chap. 4:2-5, the LORD says to him, “What is that in your hand?” Moses said, “A rod.” And the LORD said, “Cast it on the ground.” So Moses cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and he fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand, “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

These were to be “SIGNS” to the Hebrews to prove God sent Moses.

How many signs did Jesus do to prove to the Jews that He was not only the Messiah sent from God, but Immanuel …their very God, Jehovah in their midst?
Enough to convince me! But not the Jews. Moses actually made things much worse for the Hebrews when he went to pharoah. So he comes back to the Lord and prays in 5:22-23, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?  For since I came to pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”

Then, in Ex. 6:1-3, the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to pharaoh. I am YHWH. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shaddai (God Almighty) but by My name Jehovah, I was not known to them. The name Jehovah is difficult to define in three words or less. The basic translation is “the existing One” or self-existing One, or pre-existing One.

Exodus 3:14 identifies His name as I AM. YHWH is the “tetragrammaton” …the name the Hebrews gave for God which they would not utter, except with the vowels… (YaHoWaH) which the Jews would then pronounce as Adonai (Lord). See what I mean?

So then God gave instructions to Moses to go to pharoah once again and tell him to let the Hebrews go, in chap. 7:10-13 we read, Moses and Aaron went in to pharaoh, and they did just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his ROD before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

The “rod” in scripture, besides being a literal staff, is a metaphor of discipline, correction, chastisement, control, restraint, authority, punishment, and judgment. In this passage, we read of Moses and Aaron sent by God to pharoah to demand that he let the Hebrews, God’s people, go. But pharoah wanted to see a “miracle” from them.

So we know the story… Aaron put down his rod and it turned into a snake and pharoah’s “magicians” attempting to control the situation, put down three of their own staffs/snakes.
And then, Aaron’s “snake” swallowed all the other snakes. When he picked it up again, it became his rod. But pharoah would not let the people go, just as God said. It is interesting to note that in 7:1 it is written, “See, I have made you (Moses) as God (great, mighty, a judge) to pharaoh, and your brother shall be your prophet.

About 1500 years later Jesus came in much the same way (God and Prophet), for much the same reason (release my people from bondage). Moses and Aaron were sent to pharoah in Egypt (metaphor for satan and the world) and Jesus was sent to Israel, corrupt and captive in the world. Moses succeeded in the physical release of God’s people from captivity; Jesus succeeded in the spiritual AND physical release from captivity to sin and death. But satan, even witnessing his own defeat by Jesus’ resurrection, will not cease to try to “recapture” what WAS his... just as pharoah tried in chasing after the Hebrews.

Jesus said, “It is finished.” It is done. Redemption is accomplished. But in today’s world, deceit is a strong tool of the devil. Religion will not prevail against the “snakes” satan throws at all of us. Only those professing a saving faith in Jesus Christ will prevail and persevere.

In Exodus 8:25-28 we read of pharaoh’s deceit...
And pharaoh (remember...pharoah is also a metaphor for satan) called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go and sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as HE shall command us.”
And then, the trap for some is verse 28, pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away.”

This was the compromise offered to the people of God... “Go ahead and worship your God, but don’t go too far. Many professors in many religions hold onto worldly comforts and affiliations while claiming to follow God. Three days journey for worship; 4 days back in the world. But the Bible says, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1

In the Old Testament, redemption for the Jews was through Moses by Jehovah. Yet most of them, everyone 20 years and older, died in the 40 years of wandering in the desert, because of unbelief. In the Gospels, redemption came to the Jews through Jesus AS Jehovah. But they rejected it, because of unbelief.

Today the Gospel of Grace given to Paul for us Gentiles… I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Eph. 3:1-4) …is rejected by many, because of unbelief.

Believers, today, are still in a “wilderness” as were the Jews. We are, as they were... sojourners; we are pilgrims. Theirs is a terrestrial land. Our home is in heaven. We who are in Christ will be taken out of this land and up to heaven, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, 1 Thess. 4:17.