Editor’s note: This article is a lightly edited transcript of a Sunday class teaching covering the same passage as the companion session (see “When God Comes Down”). This recording begins mid-sentence — the opening of the original talk was not captured. Spoken cadence (asides, self-corrections) has been preserved deliberately; mid-thought breaks are marked [interjection]. The session closes with Tiffany’s Q&A offering several textual corrections and additions. Section headings have been added by the editor to aid navigation.

God’s Timetable — Value Investing vs. Day Trading

Does God have to operate on our timetable, according to our expectations? Well, of course — to ask the question is to answer it. That’s foolishness, naturally. So are we willing to take that template of timescale and apply it to our own life?

Well, it’s like investing, isn’t it? You can be a day trader, you can be somebody who does what’s called high-frequency trading — whereby there are many trades done a second, I suppose — or you can take the value investor approach, I think they call it. That’s the likes of Charlie Munger and his business partner — what do you call him, the famous one — they say, well, let’s look at the fundamentals of a business and let’s simply extend the period that we’re looking at. And they’re the ones who make it big, but they make it big in time. It’s like the get-rich-quick schemes which never work out, as opposed to get-rich-slowly, build wealth more appropriately, slowly.

So are we willing simply to take that template and apply it to our own times and say, “Okay, God, I’m submitting myself to your timetable”? So we take 480 years, we apply it to our own time, and that takes us even further back than the great defeat of Christendom in 1660 with the restoration of Charles II. And we say, well, okay, well, that puts us into the Puritan period, the ascendancy, the growing work of God. It takes us back to the aftermath of the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, where we see great missionary thrusts in the world — Catholic and Protestant — we see all this Christianisation of the world.

Casting the Net Wider Than Ourselves

Well, we just take our eyes away from ourselves. That’s another issue — the self-focus, my nation, me, my personal circumstances. We cast the net wider than ourselves and we realise that God’s timetable is very often not our timetable.

So let’s get things in perspective — one more plague, but yes, what else, apart from that, had gone on before? To prepare the hearts of the nation, to prepare a leader, to frankly bring the Egyptians to what we might call an awareness of who they were. They said, “Okay, we’re fed up compromising. We are Egyptians. We are idol worshippers. I am God,” Pharaoh would say to himself — “Yeah, if I want something done, I’m just going to do it according to my will.” So let’s kill them all. And then we have a further hardening until you get this chap Amenhotep II, in my understanding, and he is the hardest of them all — so hard, of course, that God smashed him like a piece of pottery.

And we might also say that no matter how entrenched an evil regime might be, it can and will be overturned. But overturned when? Overturned in God’s due time. So you can point — another aspect is this — how long has Egypt been on the go, how evil is it? And you can line up whatever conspiracy you care to choose, but it wouldn’t have been as evil as Egypt would have been, or more focused on the occult, the demonic, more multi-generational than that.

Confidence in God’s Promises

So again, if we take the template and just look at what Egypt was and the timescale, we can say with confidence that God is well able — well able — to deal with those entrenched evils. So there’s no doubt. There was never a shadow of doubt when Abraham was given that promise by God that they would be for 480 years in captivity and then be released and then given the land. There’s never any doubt as to whether God would have done that. But there’s plenty of opportunity for you to look at the situation and say, “Well, according to my feelings at the time, according to my impression of the situation, my own judgement — I don’t see how this could ever work out.” And what is that called? Let’s give that the name it deserves. That is unbelief.

Worldview as Spectacles — Tinted Glass

And so we can’t afford to see. [interjection] I wear contact lenses, my wife wears contact lenses, and she’s wearing glasses now. And of course that’s what a worldview is — it colours your view of the world. Literally. She’s got blue-tinted glasses, not because she’s a hippie, but because it helps her to get her work done.

Anyway. So, you know, we can have confidence, we must have confidence. And how do we get confidence in God’s word? Well, we can just dig our heels in and say, well, I am a whatever-millennialist — I am this millennialist, that millennialist, I’m a pan-millennialist. That’s the joke, you know — you try to say, “Well, it doesn’t really matter.” But no, matter what your eschatological position is, you have to say, “Wait a minute, I have to essentially see the world as God has me to see it in his word,” and say, “Okay, God says the nations are his. Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Christ asked for it, the nations will be given as an inheritance, the nations will be discipled.”

This has to be our outlook. And the difference that it makes in your life — getting that into your heart, which is a process — but where does that come from? That comes from — because naturally we’re unbelieving — where does that faith come from? Well, we all know the scripture, don’t we? Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God. So we simply take those portions of scripture, regardless of what our denomination says, regardless of what historically the family position was. If your father or mother said, we have to just take — we have to say, “I love you, Lord, and I’m going to follow you regardless of what the family says. I’m going to hold on to you. I’m going to honour my parents. But I’m going to honour my whatever heritage I have in terms of church. But I’m going to grasp the promises that you’ve given me. I’m going to meditate, I’m going to feed my heart on that.” And naturally in that way your faith will grow.

And the difference between believing — or even coming to believe — that present nations will be brought into the orbit of Christ’s kingdom, that Christendom is nigh, is night and day compared to an expectation that the world is going to end tomorrow, or the next day, or the next year, or the next decade. Very, very different.

God Knows the Prescription — Outward Happenings

Okay. So we might say further that he knows — the Lord knows in advance — the correct prescription to apply to change our circumstances. And the big part of that is the inward, [interjection] outward action — should I say — outward happenings in the world, such as what he brought against Egypt. Distress, plague, famine, with all the ensuing economic hardship, psychological distress. I mean, they’ve just been plunged into darkness. And the very first plague was a victory of Typhon — the evil god, the god of darkness — over Osiris, the good god or whatever you might characterise it, the god of the Nile from which everything came. They were in psychological shock from the very beginning, and it only would have gotten worse.

So God knows the prescription. And let’s look around and let’s think about the turmoil affecting the world today. This doesn’t mean Satan’s on the march — it means the Lord is on the warpath, as it were. He is as he was then. He doesn’t change. He’s using these outward circumstances to affect change.

So a period of turmoil as we had with Egypt is followed by a time of change — just as sure as when the pressure builds up in the tectonic plates, eventually boom, there is an earthquake, a giving way, a tsunami. And that itself produces a lot of dramatic change in its wake. Certain things are swept away — established structures are swept away, you might say — or shaken to the ground, to extend the analogy.

”I Will Bring” — Personalism in History

So he says in the first verse again — “I will bring. I will bring. One more plague upon Egypt, when he shall let you go.” And so on. “I will bring” — I, who’s I? It’s a Triune God. So the key to a proper view of history is what? The key to a proper view of history is personalism. Number one, in the person of God.

Everything that happens in history happens because God — the person of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — brings it about. And so therefore we must reject any sort of, any other form of history, on a matter of religious principle. If we teach anything else, the kind of history that’s taught in universities, in schools, and even in Bible studies where there’s so much unbelief — we have to just throw that in the bin and say, “I will, for the sake of loyalty to my Lord, I reject that.”

But even on a personal level, if you begin to see movements at the national level, regional level, family level, personal level — “This is the hand of God, this is the hand of God, this is the hand of God” — well, again, you can walk with confidence then.

God Brings the Plague — Not Satan

Furthermore — “I will bring.” What is he bringing? He’s bringing a plague, a plague of death. So it’s God who brings not just the good things. “A good God brings good things. A bad God brings bad things.” This is the syllogism under which I believe many Christians work, and it is a lie. God alone is the master of history. He’s not just the master of good history.

It’s not a Manichean idea where there’s a good God fighting with a bad God. No, no, no, no, no. It’s just one God. And what he’s doing here is he’s mashing down the gods and making a public display of them. So no, there’s no equivalent to Jehovah. There’s no struggle going on.

If there’s a bad thing that happens, if there’s evil in the street — is it not I who have caused it? Is that Hosea? It’s one of the minor prophets. Okay. So “I will bring,” dot, dot, dot. “He will let you go.”

Moses as God’s Representative

So God brings what are terrible things. He’s brought plague after plague through the intermediary ministry of condemnation that Moses brings — and Aaron brings — through the use of their rod, which effectively is the rod of God. They’re using it in a representative fashion.

But here he comes down personally to effect change by himself. And yet, even with this deep evil — evil as in trouble, evil as in something not nice, not morally evil, but just a great distress, you might say — he lets his people go.

And so God, when he strikes — and plague means striking, it’s like you’re hitting something with a rod, a stick, something — it’s a precision blow to effect the change, the good change that God wants to bring about. It’s like a martial artist who strikes, a boxer who, for example, strikes at the liver. That one use of force to the liver is worth 20 blows to another part of the body. And he’s able to cripple at one strike, just break the person down. The fight’s over and there’s no collateral damage. He doesn’t miss. It’s not a bomb that lands on a party taking place. No collateral damage. Precision blows.

The Same Template Applied to Our Day

And so again, we should think — since God does not change and people are not essentially different now as they were then — modernism is anti-Christianism. And so therefore we should apply this template — that in our day there are precision blows being struck, and there is a liberation coming.

God Treats His Own People More Severely

Sometimes — [interjection] they’re always — we’re not worthy of it fully. You know, you might say, “Well, he’s worthy of it.” But no — for the sake of his name, God operates in history, and we as Christians bear the name of God. And so he treats us differently.

But since we find out, of course, as a footnote — he treats his people even more severely than he treats Egypt, because he just killed them to a man and woman. He left their bones bleached in the desert. He didn’t do that to Egypt. Never did anything like that to Egypt. He broke them as a nation. He uprooted Pharaoh. He dethroned — is that the word? — Pharaoh, and his son was put in his place, we reckon by his servants. But yes, God shows favouritism to his people. He’s not a Democrat. He’s not an egalitarian. Not a bit of it.

”He, the Ruler of Egypt, Will Let You Go”

Now, again, thinking deeper about the Pharaoh letting those people go. He — the ruler of Egypt, evil though he is — it is him who will let you go. Despite him being evil. Despite him being heavily into the occult. Despite him being an idolater. Despite him being perhaps the most implacable enemy of God and God’s people that ever there was.

So whether it’s a Stalin or a Hitler or a Mao or a Pol Pot or a Keir Starmer or any other Marxist through history — you know, it shows, it also shows — I mean, it doesn’t matter whose name you bring forward. I think this is the enemy of God par excellence, you know, the Pharaoh. So it shows you also how God himself works, respecting hierarchies, respecting the established authority.

He at no point said to Moses, “Ignore Pharaoh — the very much the leader of his people — ignore him and just march the people out. And I’ll just, you know what, I’ll just put some sort of angelic covering on you and I’ll throw up the cloud and we’ll just go out and forget about Pharaoh. Who needs Pharaoh?” He respects the position of Pharaoh. He put him there, after all. The people were following him very much to the last.

When God Gives the Land

And yes, he respects — he said, “Look, it’s different when he gave, when he gave the children of Israel the land of Canaan — it was theirs by rights because God gave it to them.” They were squatters on God’s territory, you might say, and God had given them hundreds upon hundreds of years to repent. He had given them the witness, the public witness of the patriarchs. I’m sure they would have taught, and it was even the witness, of course, of Noah and his righteous sons, that they would have had in that area for centuries. But they refused to hear any witness of God. And we find people like Balaam who have a knowledge of God, et cetera, et cetera.

Anyway. So God himself works through established hierarchies. Therefore we should hate any thought of revolution, just overturn. It’s not to say that we should always follow every jot and tittle and put our head in the chopping block, but we should be very reticent to be rebels. We have to be very careful and make sure that we’re in the position of the judges, or we’re in a position of — yeah, let’s just look into the doctrine of the lesser magistrate and see what God’s position for effecting political change is, effecting change in society is. And we should therefore address the civil rulers for matters of civil government, regardless of how evil they might be. I’m sure there are exceptions which the rest of the scripture will give us, but let’s have that as our starting point.

”He Shall Surely Thrust You Out Hence Altogether” — A Tour de Force

Now, “he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.” That’s a great word — altogether. We use it here in Northern Ireland. “Altogether, he’s a right fellow altogether. He’s some lad altogether.” When the Lord works, he works just supremely. It’s a tour de force.

He says — he’s not just going to let you go, he’s going to throw you out. And if that isn’t a supreme demonstration of mastery, then I don’t know what it is.

People talk about Trump and his 4D chess, 3D chess, 5D chess. Well, of course, sometimes that can be rather laughable. But the true practitioner of 4D chess — if such things exist — is of course the Lord, who takes this Pharaoh who’s determined not to let the people go and sacrifice in the desert, and then he ends up turfing them out at all haste.

So the Lord can take this man — again, this multi-generational representative of a multi-generational dynasty of super powerful demon-worshipping occultists, a world leader — and have him do his will, wholly in opposition to their own published intent. It doesn’t matter what their plan is. Pharaoh’s plan was to lock these people up forever and have them out as his creatures forever. Did that plan work out? Well, he had a 50-year plan. His father was in power for 54 years. He had a plan and he worked the plan. Where is he now? He’s sitting in a crate in a museum in Cairo, looking with his eyes closed.

Without Repentance — And Without Persuasion

So Pharaoh thrust him out. However, without a basic change of mind. He wasn’t converted. He didn’t repent. He wasn’t persuaded of the rightness of Moses’ position. And that’s sometimes something that we expect — that the only way we can get through to people is to persuade them. And persuasion is a great tool. It’s a great thing.

But it’s not the only way — far from the only way — that God can operate in the life of a nation, in the life of any tyrant. How did he bring forth the action of ejection from Egypt? How did he effect this liberation? It was through the application of power. It was God’s power demonstrated.

It was blow after blow after blow. How do you win any fight? It’s through the application of force, is it not? It wasn’t Moses delivering the punches. It was Moses as God’s servant saying, “You’re going to be punched. You’re going to be punched. You’re going to be struck. God’s going to hit you in this way, at this time, time after time after time.”

Jesus Is Not a Bellboy

So do we think of God’s power in a given situation? Or do we have an idea of Jesus — my special friend — who comes to me whenever I feel sad? Is that our idea of who Jesus is?

Now, you know, Jesus is that to those in need. He would not snuff out a flickering, guttering candle. He’d not break a bruised reed. Yes, that’s absolutely who he is. But that’s one aspect of his character. If you know anybody, are they only ever one thing? Do they only have one side to their character? And if a church or a teacher only gives you one side of God’s character — well, it’s not a full picture.

After all, there’s many ways to lie. There’s many ways to propagandise. But the best way is by telling a partial truth. You never want to tell a lie, but you just want to tell a part of the truth, and you could do a great deal of lying that way. You can effectively lie about God’s character by not telling the whole truth — by giving us always a “gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child.”

But here we have the Lord Jesus coming down personally — together with the angel of death, it would seem — just as he came down previously, working a great destruction. So let’s look, let’s worship God and give the whole counsel of God, and say, “Lord, you are terrible and beautiful and you’re full of majesty and power and tenderness.” And let’s look at Jesus as we should do.

We can’t leave him at the cradle stage. Can’t do that. We can’t think of him as he’s presented in these children’s storybooks — as an always-smiling, well-groomed, handsome, childlike figure, almost with his big eyes and big head, and his arms are always open, and he’s just there always to serve you like a bellboy waiting to take your bags or to get you up to the next floor. He’s not that. That’s not the thrust of who he is.

Force Combined With the Hardening of a Godless Nature

All right. So it was force — outward force applied — combined with the hardening of his godless nature. So force on the one hand, and a sort of grace given by God allowing him to become the sinner that he always wanted to be, as it were. So God doesn’t give him hardness of heart. He already had that hardness of heart. But God gave him this special dispensation which further hardened his heart in line with his own nature.

God never does violence to our essential nature. When we are converted, our nature is changed. So we want the things that God wants. And as we’re sanctified, our nature — the nature of the second Adam — strengthens, and the nature of the first Adam in us weakens.

Applying the Template to Our Day

So how it was — force applied to the outward world, blow after blow to the nation, economically, psychologically, in terms of his own authority being undermined, outward things — and then an inward hardening of his position as a godless man.

I don’t know if you’re willing, if you’re ready for what I’m about to say, but let’s use this as a template. Let’s say that God’s character doesn’t change. He can operate however he wants to operate, but his basic nature doesn’t change. Therefore, what about our day?

In our day, is there a blow by blow, month on month, quarter on quarter, year on year, on the British state and its authority, its ability to govern, its ability just to do the very basic things — such as provide electricity, to assuming there have been power cuts (that was just a guess by the way, but definitely look at our roads), look at the integrity of the British state, its ability to just control the fabric of the nation, you know, who is British and who’s not any longer? But you look around the place and it’s not what it used to be — the schools, the institutions of schooling, look at the kind of graduate they’re producing, look at what their health service is doing. It’s collapsing on every side.

If you’re younger, maybe you won’t get a sense of this. But if you’re a little bit older, you’ll say, “Well, things used to be stable. We used to feel more prosperous, have more time, more money.” We didn’t even — for those that are older than me — you could just buy a house and your wife could stay at home and it was easy. You’d have a mortgage paid off, no problem, job for life, all this kind of stuff. So that’s what we’re seeing — blow after blow on the nation, and we’re sinking lower and lower and lower on the world stage.

And on the other hand — do we have a repentance and moderation in our civil leaders? Or do we find a hardening of the position where they’re not willing to back down on any of their godless plans to work against the people of God? Do they show any signs of repentance? Or do they show an intense hardening of their position in ungodly directions as regards matters of sexuality and other areas? Of course, they’re as hard a bunch as you like. And France — not Sarkozy — Macron has been there for so long, and he’s just every inch, or whatever amount of inches he has, the authoritarian. We have an ossification and a hardening of positions, it seems, all around the Western world at least.

Should We Expect Never-Ending Tyranny?

Therefore, should we conclude — if we have a hardening of the position, people just being unbelievably stubborn, not willing to give an inch in terms of a godly policy on the one hand, and blow after blow upon the nations on the other — should we then expect to be delivered into this hellscape of never-ending tyranny? Or should we rather say, “Well, hang on, this is what God accomplished in Egypt. God used this to accomplish a liberation. Therefore, I shall expect a liberation.”

Are we willing to even be open to the fact that God doesn’t change and his ways don’t change, and he owns the nations, he has won the nations by what we’ve just celebrated in Christendom — the victory of Jesus on the cross? It isn’t just a victory over personal sins. It’s an inheritance, an inheriting of the whole world. Is he weaker now than he was back in those days? Well, to say it is blasphemy. To think it is blasphemy. He’s come into his full power — where he’s defeated sin, hell is defeated, the grave is defeated, you know.

The Resurrection Principle — Multiple Resurrections

So, all right. Lots to consider here, a few more things, however.

Now, we’ve just celebrated, hallelujah, Christ’s resurrection — he is risen. But there are multiple kinds of resurrections, as it were, implicit in this narrative at this point.

So Matthew 16:25 says that if you want to save your life — keep your life, save from what God wants for it — you’ll lose it, guaranteed. If you’re willing to give your life up, if you lose your life, and do what God wants, you’ll save it. That’s the dynamic in the kingdom. If you hold on to life, you lose it — want to live it on your own terms. But if you’re willing to give it up to death, willing to lose it to death, then it will be resurrected, it’ll be given back to you.

All right. Now, we see this with Abraham — he gives up his son and he receives him back by faith, knowing that God can bring him back in resurrection. It’s very clear.

Pharaoh Tries to Hold On — And Loses Everything

But in this story, we have Pharaoh. What does Pharaoh do? He tries with all his might to hold on to his own — what he sees as his own life, the vigorous Israelites, who are contributing so much to his wealth by doing all this labour for him. He wants, by all means, to hold on to them. His great fear is that they unite with foreign power and unseat him and lose his position.

So he’s holding on effectively to his own position by holding on to, controlling, and lording it over the children of Israel. And what was the result of that? Well, predictably, in terms of this principle — if you hold on to, try to save your life on your own terms, you’ll lose it — there was a total loss for him. He lost control of Egypt. He was overthrown and his son was put in his place.

Okay, well, let’s take that further. The Lord said, well, implicitly, “Look, I will take away your firstborn, your son, if you won’t give up my firstborn. So you can have the life of your firstborn son if you’ll just do this one thing.” But he said no. Supernaturally empowered to act in terms of his own nature and therefore, he was destroyed.

Hebrew Children, Abraham, Isaac — The Positive Pattern

All right. So in scripture we find other examples of this principle at work in a positive sense. When the Hebrew children were confronted with this issue of diet, they were willing to die. They said, “Okay, well, this is a principle of life and death. We’re going to obey the Lord. We’ll operate through the proper channels. We’ll make an appeal and say — and we know we’re risking our lives to do this — but we’re going to say we’re going to give it up.”

Now, there would have been no Messiah, no child of promise — and yet the insanity and arrogance of our Bible commentators, who condemn Abraham for this. They are on the side of Pharaoh, not on the side of the patriarch. They believe Pharaoh. “Oh, Pharaoh would never do anything like that. So he’s a good guy, Pharaoh. Yeah, honest as the day is long.”

What about Isaac? He does the same thing. All of the commentators say, “Oh, he’d never learned the lesson of his father. His father was terrible for doing that, and Isaac’s just like his father.” So Abimelech would have slit his throat. He wouldn’t have done it himself — he would have had some servant do it. Maybe he would have been nice and done it in his sleep, who knows, and just taken his wife, absorbed his wife, snuffed out the seed, snuffed out the Messiah. And yet the Bible commentators look at him and say, “What a poor excuse for a man.”

Oh dear — he should have just — whatever, you know. I’m exaggerating slightly there, but only slightly. But yet, what happened in both of those cases? God’s verdict was very different. He sent them away enriched by the hand of their enemy, by the hand of a wicked, wily man.

Now, the same thing happens in the case of Jacob, Rachel, in particular, as they fled another wily family clan tyrant whose name was, of course, Laban. Now, there was an effort taken there, so it’s not as clear cut, but again, it fits the mould very, very tightly and clearly.

God Is a God of Justice and Recompense

So I think we should at least reassess the situation. Okay, so what have we learned about God? Well, God is a God of justice and recompense. Did he ever condemn Abraham or Isaac for this? Ever once? He said, “Oh, Abraham, you should do better. Oh, you should have been honest. Honest Abraham, honest Abe.” All right. No. He says, “Okay, you’ve been done an injustice. Your wife has been held hostage, seized unjustly. The man would have killed you. Well, I’m going to see that you get justice. You’ve been my faithful servant. I’m going to get justice. Here you are. I’m going to give you these servants for your household. I’m going to give you gold, money. I’m going to capitalise you further.”

And we discover that Isaac, as soon as he left the presence of Abimelech, never to return — what happened to him? He sowed seed and he had a hundredfold harvest in return during a time of famine. This is the Lord saying, “Bless you further, faithful child.”

Shouldn’t we think of these people in a different way? Shouldn’t we at least be on the side of the people whom God chooses to associate his name with? “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Do you think he’s holding his nose when he says that? They weren’t perfect, I know. But let’s have our verdict of them, our judgement, be in line with God’s judgement of them, so that we don’t end up making ridiculous, or reaching ridiculous conclusions.

The Lord Disinherits the Unrighteous and Capitalises His People

What else can we learn about God? The Lord disinherits the unrighteous and capitalises his people. This is a material, earthly thing. This was a zero-sum game. In this transaction — well, that’s not entirely true actually, because the Egyptians freely gave, and they gave with the understanding that this would finally get those Israelites out of our land and this would stop the massacre. So I mean, they were paying for them not to be there. So I shouldn’t say that, but it did disinherit them. Once you give away your gold, you have no gold left, or however much you give away, that’s how much you lost.

Okay, and this was a transaction — well, again, wealth matters to God. They did not give them best wishes. “Oh, best wishes, safe travels, have a lovely trip.” No, we are people who live in the world, and in this world you need capitalisation, you need — especially if you’re undertaking a new venture, which they were, of forming a nation. God didn’t send them away with good wishes and warm feelings. He created this world we live in. He set the rules in this world. And in this world, if you want to accomplish something, you need capitalisation. Good wishes won’t do, won’t cut it.

Gold and Silver in a Crack-Up Boom

A further thing here to consider, in our time of financial instability — in the depths of an absolutely earth-shattering depression, recession, catastrophe, crack-up boom (I think it was von Mises who used that term) that affected their economy and their society, gold was still as good as gold and silver was sterling. There was no depreciation. It still worked. So if you want to know what real wealth is, start with gold and silver.

Okay, so it was a free transfer again. This is how God works. He motivates people freely. Now, that’s not how it happened in the conquest of Canaan, because they were to act as God’s, so they were to be capitalised there in a different way. They were to take wells which they did not dig and vineyards which they did not plant, and they were, by God’s special ordination — they belonged by right of conquest, by right of God’s ruling on it — to the children of Israel. All right, but in this case it was a free transfer.

Moses Very Great — Even Before His Enemies

All right, there’s a lot here. It’s a very dense passage, I think. “Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.” So Moses was very great. They feared Moses. They had a respect and reverence for Moses. Nobody said, “Moses who?” Nobody was flip about Moses.

Can you imagine the man who delivered all these catastrophic blows against the great world power? You wouldn’t dare whisper under your breath against him. This is a man, a powerful man, who’s shown to be a powerful man in the sight — in public. They didn’t love him. They certainly didn’t love his God and they didn’t follow him out of the land. But they did fear him. They respected him. They thought, “This is a great man. I’m not going to mess with that guy.”

Now, in this equation, it mentions Pharaoh’s servants — that is, the bureaucracy, the experts, the people who made his government work. Perhaps the priests, maybe, would be included in that. I don’t know. But who’s not mentioned? Aha — Pharaoh. So there’s a rift between all those at the bottom of the pyramid, towards the top of the pyramid, and the very person at the top of the pyramid who relies on all these people for his position.

Aha. The power of Pharaoh — who is the central god of Egypt, who is the pinnacle of the system of gods of Egypt. If there was no Pharaoh, that’s how — that’s who all the gods work through effectively. Then yeah, and he is effectively done at this point, and it only gets worse for him.

Moses Occupies Pharaoh’s Psychological Position

So the whole of Egypt was united, as it were — both in the governing class and the people — in their admiration and fear of Moses. All right, so Moses is, as I would say later on, Moses — in the terms of the hearts of the people — occupies, by his perceived greatness, occupies the position of Pharaoh. So God having — Moses having humbled himself, Moses is exalted to the position of Pharaoh effectively in this sense.

So effectively, in one sense, he becomes not just the Prince of Egypt — pardon me, the Prince of Israel — but also the Prince of Egypt, having been opposed for Christ’s sake, as we find out in Hebrews. “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” in line with the theme of losing your life.

“By faith, Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” This is when he moves out and starts to judge his own people, to rule his own people, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” So this was an aspect of him dying, dying to sin, “esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasuries of Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.”

Was Moses Rewarded?

Was Moses rewarded at any time during his life? Well, he never had an easy life. But was ever a man more respected and feared than this man would have been? Men are asked — and it’s a good question perhaps to ask yourself — “Would you rather be loved or feared?” And I think probably the right response is to say you want to be feared as a man — I guess, or respected, you might say better. I’d rather be respected than — is that true? I don’t know. Maybe both I’d like. But anyway, he was certainly respected. That was part of his reward.

Of course, he had many other rewards. He was the Prince of Israel, he was the leader of — Egypt, pardon me — he led them through the desert, he organised the liberation, he governed them, he was the giver of the law. And he was, in many ways, the type of Christ, being — perhaps uniquely in scripture — prophet, priest, and king. So he had an exaltation. Not an easy exaltation, but a real exaltation. Spectacular exaltation.

He wasn’t capitalised at any point. He didn’t — it seems to me — have any sort of personal wealth at any stage. But he was also buried by — was he buried by the angels, buried by God, or was his body taken by angels? Something like that. So he was an honoured, honoured man, and God recompensed him again with health throughout his life. He never lost any of his vigour, even though he died at 120 years old. Tremendous blessing.

Whereas Pharaoh exalted himself very clearly above God, and was humbled, humbled, humbled.

Abraham Bowing Before the Hittites — A Mighty Prince

And we see this again with Abraham in the negotiations for his wife’s burial place — he bows before them, and they in turn say, “You are a mighty prince among us.” So they might not follow his God, they didn’t. But they saw — wow, this is a man to be respected, he is a mighty prince, we don’t mess with this guy.

And again, the power structure thought of Moses as great. And this is something to wrap our heads around and bring into our own age. That we see, of course, in our own country, a tremendous contempt and tremendous hatred for, amongst some quarters at least, for our current Prime Minister, as being so contemptible in his actions.

But I wonder — are there many people in the governing class of the country who are saying, “This guy is just an idiot, he is causing us such problems, you know”? But what if there were men, where there were men, a class of men, who showed ability in governance, who showed competency in governance, who showed tremendous courage in the face of whatever the world might throw at them? And would these men — who are effectively the governing class, not like Pharaoh’s servants — end up doing, as it were, bow before these guys and say, “Look, you know, go where you want to go, do what you want to do, you know”?

It’s a little bit of a reach, but we need to be, as a people, not just a bunch of complainers and whiners, but people who are able and who have an established character, a godly character, a courageous character. We need to seek that within us. And then we can have even this class of people who are the governing class come before us and say, “Look” — and this is what happened with the legalisation of Christianity in Rome. You had effectively an actual governing class, a practical governing class, who were the church, particularly church courts. And then Constantine gave the Christian judges the toga praetexta, I think it was — the toga of the governing class, the toga of a judge — and they were effectively promoted to high office overnight.

And so let’s prepare ourselves through our maturity, through our walk with the Lord, for governance, for service, as Moses himself was prepared — by just being responsible people, by being faithful people. Who else is going to rule justly if it is not God’s people? The liberation wouldn’t have happened if Moses had been a happy-go-lucky character, always laughing and joking and yucking it up.

The Sting of Exaltation

Now, I think it’s easy just to let that run off our tongues — “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” And I think there’s a bit of a sting here, something that rubs us up the wrong way. We view exaltation, by itself, as a bad thing.

Here were Pharaoh’s servants coming and literally bowing before Moses. This is a tremendous exaltation. And to be feared by an entire nation, respected by an entire hostile nation — is tremendous. Especially with such a proud, proud people as the Egyptians, who usually had such contempt for these filthy barbarians, the Israelites, who wouldn’t even eat with them. And here they are bowing before them. Goodness me.

And we say exaltation — we’re a little bit — it’s a little bit like talking about money. We’re a little bit uncomfortable about it, and the accumulation of wealth. We’re the proud people do, you know. But no — exaltation should not be sought as the final goal, as an end in itself, I don’t think. But here’s the thing: if you consistently humble yourself — how, given the promise of God that whoever humbles himself will be exalted, how can you avoid exaltation? It’s a guaranteed thing. God cannot lie. If you humble yourself, you will be exalted.

So are you willing to just set this before you as part of the promise? Or are we suppressing our nature and saying, “Oh, I don’t want to be exalted. No, no, no, no, no.” Is that not simply an evasion of responsibility in our hearts?

Mordecai — Exaltation as Responsibility

Because to be exalted is not just — I mean, who was exalted? We think of — what do you call Esther’s uncle? Mordecai. He was exalted, but he was exalted because he was responsible in civil government, which involves the assumption of responsibility. And for a man to be irresponsible — for a man to be irresponsible is to be a deformed man, and really less than a man in many ways. You’re a child, and probably less than a child. It’s an evasion of manhood to be irresponsible.

But with exaltation, it’s not just a feeling. It implies an office and it implies bearing burdens and so on. Are we willing to be exalted? Are we willing to bear that responsibility?

But again, what is the price of exaltation? In Moses’s case, it was a relinquishing of all the pleasure, of all the wealth of Egypt, of all the position that he had. And it was a thunderous collapse in his status for 40 years plus in the backside of the desert, with the most menial of menial jobs — having been raised in the court of Egypt. What a complete collapse that would have been. What a downfall. But he never complained. It said he was content to dwell with those whom he dwelt with. Never a complaint.

The Nature of Biblical Humility — Not Monks, But Workers

Are we willing to? And this is another thing. What is the nature of humility and the nature of humiliation and the nature of demonstrated humility in the Bible that’s given to us?

With Moses, it was not that he went out into the desert to become a monk. What did he do in the desert? He worked a job. He bore responsibility in exchange for financial reward. He worked a humble job. That is humility.

And again, what was humility with Jacob? Jacob was the effective heir, although his father was going to recklessly give the blessing, give the inheritance, to the wicked son. But at any rate, he was the heir. He lost it all. He lost that access to the wealth. He had a shirt on his back. He had no idea whether he’d be able to return because of his murderous brother.

And yet he was willing to assume the responsibility of being a worker who worked independently without any supervision, for years and years and years, under difficult conditions. Worked ethically. Restored the livestock. Really a tried and tested man.

And additionally, of course, he took the responsibility of having a wife. And it’s not a humiliation to have a wife — but you certainly have to, by no means, and it’s an exaltation definitely. But you have to die to your stupid self, to your selfish self. You can’t be the same man — I know — and be single and then take that same man into your marriage. You have to die to that foolishness.

Blow After Blow — Are We Willing?

All right. So we are just being hit left and right, or being challenged left and right, by this passage and by the parallels we find in scripture. Goodness me, blow after blow. Are we willing to take it? Are we willing to take the inducements that God gives us and accept them? Say, “Okay, well, God says, humble yourself and you’ll be exalted.” He gives us the means of humbling yourself, the pattern for humiliation. Are we willing to undergo that?

Okay. And then we consider the plague.

The Tenth Plague — Different in Kind

It won’t take too much longer. I don’t know how long we’ve been going for, but this was a different nature of a plague than the other nine. The other nine occurred as a cycle of three threes, whereby Moses would appear — Moses and Aaron would appear — to Pharaoh when he was at the Nile. First time, second time they would appear elsewhere before Pharaoh. And the third time the plague would come with no warning.

And this was a mediated plague. So it was brought by Moses and Aaron and their staffs — you know, as the staff of God representationally. But with this plague, God comes down.

When did God come down previously in history, to judge a political entity? Well, first of all, of course, with the Tower of Babel. I can’t remember the wording of the Flood. I would say the Flood as well, but certainly with the Tower of Babel — there’s this political entity. It’s the Tower of Babylon. It was the administrative centre of Babylon. “We’re going to rule from the top down and challenge God.” Okay, he comes down, he examines it, and poof — confusion. He puts an end to that.

All right. Sodom and Gomorrah — extreme wickedness in a political entity — comes down, judges it. And we can still see the effects of that today. The massive burn layer. It’s tremendous destruction.

The Presence of God — What Does It Mean?

Okay, so what does the presence of God mean? Who is God again? Is he our “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”? Is he “Jesus good and strong”? Well, yes, Jesus is kind, but he’s kind to his people. Now, he was kind to the Egyptians as well, because he gives them a progressive blow after blow after blow. He gives them warning, I think, in the sixth plague. And he gives them the option in this plague of putting the blood of the lamb. It was an abomination for the Egyptians to kill an animal and to do that with its blood. But still, he gave them the option. And there was a mixed multitude that came with them, that were allowed to come with them in their exodus.

So again, and again, and again, he showed himself merciful. But he wasn’t just merciful. He is a very strict God at the same time. He is the God who killed every single firstborn male of the Egyptians and their livestock as well. Because God is not to be trifled with. God is no buttercup, as a man once said.

The Firstborn as Synecdoche — God Owns the First

And again, the firstborn represents the whole race. It’s a synecdoche. It’s representing the whole with a part. And we remember that God owns the firstborn just as he owns the tithe. That’s his portion. So plenty to consider there.

Do ask questions if you have them. I’m just going to pause for questions now and see if there are any questions to be asked. It’ll take a long time, I think, to upload. Anyway, I’m going to have to — all right.

Tiffany’s Feedback — Well Done

Tiffany (class member): Okay. So, I looked up — well, first of all, well done. You just tied it all just so.

Thank you. Thank you.

Tiffany (class member): Yes. Thank you. Even better than last night.

Thank you. Yeah, there were a lot of things that you brought out that were just so rich. Good, good, good, good. I was super pleased with how you brought it all together. And there were things I was listening for, and you did, yes.

Correction — Rachel and the Household Gods, Not an Ephod

Tiffany (class member): So, last night and today, you brought out Rachel with a silver ephod. But I could not find that. It’s a household god, but an ephod is a little different. Ephod is — isn’t that what they wore? And this was not an ephod. It was a household god. So let’s — I mean, you know, but that was — since it’s going to be recorded, you can go back and just fix that. But it’s not an ephod that I could find. It was a household — she stole her father’s household gods. But I couldn’t find an ephod, unless I’m missing something.

All right. Okay. Ephod vest. Okay, okay. Where is it? No, it isn’t. Yeah. Images. Yeah, okay. Well, I got that wrong.

Tiffany (class member): Yeah, that would be easy enough to fix, because all you have to do is search for ephod and say — okay. I looked that up last night, but I meant to tell you. It’s just — but it’s images. And that’s Genesis 31:19. Yeah, let me get that ephod. In verse 32, they say gods. Okay. So, images, gods. Yeah, okay, good, good.

All right.

Correction — Amos 3:6 for “I Have Caused Evil”

Tiffany (class member): Next, places where it’s possible that you were talking about that “I have caused evil in the streets.” The first one that came to my mind was the Isaiah passage, and I like how you — so it’s Isaiah 45:7. I like how you’ve been bringing in other scriptures and then given the reference for it. That’s super helpful. So if this is where you’re talking about — okay. I, verse 7, yeah. I formally — Amos 3:6. Amos 3:6. Okay, there you go.

Tiffany (class member): Because I had that one Ezekiel passage and a Psalms passage, but I didn’t know which one you were looking for. Okay, so Amos 3:6. So, just all you have to do is go back and just say, “Here’s the verse, it’s Amos 3:6, and this is what it says.” Good. Okay? All right.

Correction — Finish the Proverbs 16:7 Quotation

Tiffany (class member): And then, why did you not finish — “If a man’s ways please the Lord,” because it says, “He will make even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Why didn’t you finish that?

That didn’t — I thought it would be more — but it is more.

Tiffany (class member): Appropriate. Just finish it. “If a man’s ways please the Lord, he will make even his enemies to be at peace with him,” and go ahead and just finish it. And then give the reference. What’s the reference?

I don’t know. I can look it up for you real quick, but I don’t know.

Tiffany (class member): That’s all right. HEREDOC_END