As the story develops, Pharaoh even places his own reputation and pride above the well-being of his own people. You get an Egypt building its wealth and security on the backs of an abused, oppressed, and enslaved Israel. Pharaoh is what happens when an entire nation redefines good and evil apart from God’s wisdom. He embodies the strange and tragic turn the human heart can take when one person or society places their own values and well-being above another person or society. This king, or sequence of kings, is the epitome of human evil. Rather, he wants us to see Pharaoh as an archetype of the pattern of human rebellion that began in the garden and culminated in Babylon (Genesis 3-11). The author doesn’t want us to focus on one single king. It raises the interesting question of why the author doesn’t actually name the Pharaoh who opposed Moses (was he Thutmose II or III, or Ramses I or II?). If you pay attention, you’ll see that this royal title refers to a sequence of Egyptian kings over many generations. He has sent me on this mission to love on college kiddos, and so it is now my privilege to surrender my heart to the Lord and turn my fear into faith.Pharoah is not one single king in Exodus. He will give me the words I need to teach people and He will fill my heart with love for people that might be difficult to love. He has blessed me with gifts that He will use to further His kingdom, but He is going before me to make a way for me. When I was ready to listen to Him, He reassured gently that none of this is even about me. I don’t even know if I like college kids that much! What can I teach people? I don’t know anything! God must’ve been laughing (lovingly) at me that whole time, knowing how He will answer all of these questions. I want to work in sports marketing, I want to work in public relations and use the degree that I’ve worked so hard for. I want to do so many other things with my life. My job would be like a youth pastor, but on a college campus.
Through my final months of school, God was slowly showing me that I am called to college ministry, which is similar to youth group for college kids.
The final year of college is a scary time, full of uncertainty and fear and nerves about what lies ahead. By the time you are reading this, I will have already graduated college. The shift in my life was quite similar to Moses. Moses did lead all of the slaves out of Egypt, by God’s strength and guidance. He kept His promise and gave Moses everything he needed. But the Lord never, never, never let him down and was faithful and loving. Spoiler alert: Moses’ journey was not easy and he made many, many mistakes. It’s not about what Moses CAN’T do it’s only about what God CAN do. Moses can have faith that the Lord will provide all that he needs during this journey. The shift occurs in this conversation where God shows Moses that He has gone before him and that He will never abandon him. Moses needed to shift from fear to faith, from doubt to peace. Slowly, God is shifting Moses’ mind to see that only by God’s grace would he be able to accomplish this daunting mission. The only way that Moses could do anything that he did was because of God’s strength and provision. What Moses doesn’t get is that it’s really not about him at all. “What if they don’t believe you sent me?” “What if they don’t listen to me?” “What if I’m scared?” “What if I don’t speak well in front of crowds?” Finally, he pleads with God, “Please, send someone else.” Moses, understandably, throws every excuse at God that he can think of. God was asking Moses to confront his brother, the Pharaoh, the most powerful political figure in the region, to set thousands of slaves free, ending a several hundred-year tradition of enslaving the Israelites. This was no easy task that God assigned to Moses. In this moment, God placed a great task on Moses’ shoulders: “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt (Exodus 3:10). One day, Moses followed a wandering sheep into the wilderness and came upon a burning bush where God chose to speak to him. We catch up in Exodus 3-4 with Moses in the desert where he has been living as a shepherd with a new family of his own. Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince until he discovered his true identity and ran away from Egypt. His mom, who had great faith, put him in a basket in the Nile River and Moses was then rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter. But, if you want to read what really happened, you can check out the beginning of Exodus. For those of you who have seen The Prince of Egypt (the animated cinematic MASTERPIECE depicting the Biblical story of Moses), this story is familiar to you.