The Egyptians had enslaved God's personally chosen people, generations of Hebrews who suffered under the lash as they were forced into hard labor. They were helpless shepherds upon whom the captivity came so suddenly they had no time to react before they found themselves in bondage and servitude. They were downtrodden, oppressed, living under the constant threat of pain and death. Finally, the orders came for their babies to be stripped from the breasts of their mothers and cast into the Nile. Pharaoh's final solution would end the hated Hebrew race once and for all. The anguished cry went up from the throats and souls of millions of God's people, calling on Him for deliverance.
And God heard.
Prepared in Egypt's courts and universities for leadership, prepared in the wilderness and sheep pastures of Midian for shepherding, 80-year-old Moses was ready to assume the role of deliverer and lead his people out of slavery. His self-doubt and constant questions plagued him, but they did not deter him from following the leading of the Lord. With his brother as his spokesman, he stood before the cruel and heartless king of Egypt and issued God's demands: Let My people go...or else.
Pharaoh picked door number two. For six chapters in the book of Exodus, the Scriptures record the work and wrath of God against Egypt, Pharaoh's heart growing harder with each passing hour. Moses never said or did anything he wasn't first directed to do by God, but when God ordered, Moses obeyed. Water was turned to blood, giving the Egyptians nothing to drink. Frogs, flies, and lice infested the land. Cattle died. The trees and plants were pounded by hail, burned up with fire, eaten by pestilential swarms of locusts. Human and beast alike were covered in open and painful sores as a darkness so deep it could be felt enveloped the land. God's power devastated Egypt at the height of its greatness, reducing it to rubble and ruin with crisis, disaster, tragedy, and death. Finally, the ultimate warning came. God said to Pharaoh, "You have enslaved my firstborn son. If you do not let him go, I will kill your firstborn son, and the firstborn son of every family and animal in all the land of Egypt." Surely Pharaoh knew it would be so.
The people of Egypt begged Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. The story is told in the annals of Hebrew history that on the day before the final plague, the firstborn sons of Egypt rose up in a rebellion against the king in hopes that their lives would be spared, but their efforts were turned back. Pharaoh had decided. Pharaoh was determined. Pharaoh was willing to risk the loss of his son, and every woman's son, in his defiance of God Most High.
In all of this, the Bible does not record one word regarding Moses' feelings about the matter.
But I know Moses. I know him through his story and his words. And I know him as one shepherd knows another. Moses was the man who stood between God and the congregation of people and said, "Kill me and blot my name out of Your book, but spare these people!" even though he knew they deserved God's judgment. So I wonder... Did Moses weep each night of Pharaoh's defiance, hoping that tomorrow would be different? Did Moses pray and intercede, asking God to change the heart of the one man who could put a stop to all the carnage? When Moses announced the judgments of God, did he do so with a catch in his voice, a knot in his throat, a sting in his nostrils as he held back the knowing tears? I think he probably did.
Because I have.
Through the many years of ministry, I have been up close and personal with crisis and tragedy in people's lives. Some of them were the sweetest people I've ever known. They loved God and served Jesus Christ with all of their hearts. They were the most deserving people of blessing that I've ever known. And yet they had troubles. But I've also known others who weren't as deserving of blessing as they were of a kick in the behind. Some I was allowed to warn ahead of time in hopes that they would change. Others I was forced to stand silently by while they reaped what they had sown. The hardness of their own hearts brought about so much havoc and heartache, and all I could do was watch.
Pastor, did you pray? You better believe it! I remember many sleepless nights when all I could do was toss and turn on my bed or in some other place of prayer, groaning and weeping and calling out people's names in intercession. I have stood in the gap for the most unworthy of people, begging God for mercy and grace, begging God to postpone judgment until I could make people see the light. And I have also heard the response of God telling me I was standing in His way, and it was time for me to move. I usually try to be immediately obedient to the Lord, but I wept as I complied, knowing that time was up. And I have witnessed up close and personal the judgment of God on those who had resisted His Word and rejected His grace. It was not a happy time for me, even if I believed they had finally gotten what they deserved.
Surely Moses did not want the children of Egypt to suffer. Surely he did not wish the grief of losing a child upon any mother in the land. Surely he did not desire an entire nation reduced to ashes and dust because of the obstinacy of one man. Surely he did not want deliverance of his own people at the cost of destruction paid by their oppressors. But there was nothing he could do about it except obey God and accept that God's actions were Divinely just. He would go mad, otherwise.
At the end of the day, sometimes that is all you can do. Trust God, and let Him do as he must.
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