A Preparation For the Plagues

Sermon 15 in Series

Exodus 7:1–13
[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.
DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   Why is this a particularly low point for Moses? How does God’s Word reassure and reorient his people when we are discouraged in our vocations?
2.   Why does God respond with a summary? What does this tell us about our need to be reminded?
3.   Why does God harden Pharaoh? How would this have helped Moses to reinterpret supposed failure moving forward?
4.   What does it mean to say that God rescued through judgment? How does this point us to the Crucifixion and the Second Coming?
5.   How does this passage highlight the importance of obedience in the Christian life? How has God impacted you with this theme over the last few weeks?
6.   What does the devouring serpent communicate about Yahweh? How does it anticipate the plagues?
References: Exodus 6:12, 30; 4:10; 5:21; 6:9; 4:14-16, 21; Romans 12:19; Exodus 12:38; Matthew 24:24.