Pharaoh was a natural man. (Exodus 7-13)

7:4

“But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.” I’m not picturing the Israelites at this time as a great army. In fact, God doesn’t need a traditional army. He can wipe a people out with a thought. If we are an army, who and what are we fighting?

• Temptations of Satan.

• Influence of wicked men.

• Natural man.

God’s work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. His work is not conquering people and acquiring land or the riches of the world - which is the purpose for manmade armies. He calls us his army because we really are in a fight. There is an enemy who is fighting to prevent us from receiving eternal life. We have to proactively fight. We can’t just go with the flow and let whatever happens, happen!

Many of us can’t see the battle and don’t know we’re part of an army. We have to see things as they are now… We’ve got to fight.

8:7

There are a few times that Pharaoh’s magicians are able to replicate the signs. “And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.” I think this is a tool of Satan - to duplicate the actions of the Lord and mimic righteousness. It’s confusing for people.

Here are some examples:

• Love can never be wrong.

• It is MY experience and MY truth that is important.

• All religions can bring your closer to God.

• Organized religions can never be good because they are led by flawed humans.

These are taking a true principle and twisting it slightly. There’s an element of truth. These are true principles that may feel right but are meant to counterfeit real truth. These ‘truths’ distract from the full truth. They can be sufficient to lull someone away from the real truth.

8:15, 9:32

When the Lord removed the frogs, Pharaoh‘s heart hardened again. “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.” This is human nature to do this.

When are are up against the ropes, when we are desperate, we turn to the Lord. When things are going well, we lose that urgency and forget Him. The moment we don’t feel the desperation of an immediate need, we settle into normalcy.

They say that there are no atheists in a trench when you’re being shot at. There are plenty of atheists in penthouses. Truly, for some people, affluence is their trial. It can be the hardest thing in the world to be faithful when you’re experiencing the ’respite’ of luxury.

Moses knows this about Pharaoh. When the hail came and destroyed the barley and flax, Pharaoh wasn’t going to let them go because ”…the wheat and the rice were not smitten: for they were not grown up.”

It wasn’t sufficiently desperate for Pharaoh. His people could live on the wheat and rye. He didn’t need the Lord’s help so his pride remained and his heart was hardened.

How many of us live like this? We experience small trials and inconveniences but we aren’t sufficiently desperate to turn to the Lord. We need to be careful that we don’t require extreme trials to be faithful.

10:7, 11, 24

Finally, Pharaoh’s servants became convinced that the Israelites needed to go. “And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?” This helped a little in convincing Pharaoh to relent.

However, he only wanted to let the men go. Moses said that he wanted the men, women, children and flocks to go. Pharaoh responded, “Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire.”

Do we ever try to be partially obedient or faithful? Do we fast until lunchtime? Do we pay a little less than 10% on our income? Do we mostly keep the sabbath day holy?

Most of us can admit that we sometimes settle on a portion of obedience. We feel good about doing something.

Our Heavenly Father is not a God of half-measures. For us to want to become like him, we must be fully committed and not just go partway.

Because of Pharaoh’s half-measure, the locusts came.

After the 3 days of darkness, Pharaoh allowed Moses to leave with his women and children - but not the flocks. It’s almost as if he believes he can negotiate with the Lord. Do we ever negotiate with the Lord? I can’t remember a time when I consciously negotiated - but my memory isn’t so good…

13:17, 21-22

It’s interesting that God didn’t want them going through the land of the Philistines. “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.” God knew the Israelites. He knew what they could handle and what they couldn’t.

I imagine God shepherds us in exactly the same way. He wants us to succeed. He knows what life events and challenges will provide the experiences we need to let God prevail. He’s not setting us up for failure - putting us in positions where there is no eternal benefit for us.

We all must have faith that God is looking over us the same way that he did for the Israelites!

He led them in a very obvious way. “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” The Israelites needed these obvious signs to keep them on the path. We don’t have clouds and fires but we have general conference and scriptures.

The point is that we have what we need to stay on the path. Again, God wants us to succeed and ensures that we can see the right way. We are not left alone in this wilderness. God is good.