Well, from my perspective, the hardest part of the sermon is over.
I made it through those names, I think, fairly well.
I can't guarantee the accuracy of the pronunciations.
But if you're anything like me, when you come to a genealogy in Scripture,
it's my temptation to just kind of skip over it, right?
Because we may not know how to pronounce those names.
We don't know who those people are.
We don't know the significance of the genealogy.
And so we kind of just move ourselves forward.
And interesting, someplace in the Bible where there's genealogies, it makes sense where they are.
At the very beginning of Matthew, there's this genealogy that leads up to the birth of Jesus that makes sense to us.
After the creation story, we see this genealogy that tells us of man as they multiply on this earth.
But in our passage today, we see this genealogy seemingly pop out of nowhere.
It seems like it's kind of randomly placed smack dab in the middle of this text.
I wonder if any of you are familiar with the American artist named Bob Ross.
He passed away a number of years ago.
He had this TV show in the States that spanned decades.
I don't know if it was popular here in the U.K.
But he was a guy.
He just had this big hair.
He was very soft-spoken.
And it was a 30-minute TV show, very low production value,
where he's in this dark room with an easel and a canvas and his palette of paint,
and he just talks you through this painting that he's doing over the course of his show.
And whether you're into art or not, this would just mesmerize people.
I remember as a child watching this and just seeing him, his tone of his voice,
and you hear the tapping of the paintbrush on the canvas,
and you just sit still and you watch this masterpiece come together.
But it was interesting.
Almost in every single one of his paintings, there's a point in time where you're like,
no, don't do that.
Because he'd paint these beautiful backgrounds first, this scene of mountains or lakes,
and then he'd start working on the foreground.
And oftentimes he'd paint these big black lines right down the middle of his painting,
and you think, what are you doing?
You're destroying your art.
And then he'd explain this is actually going to be a tree or trees,
and he finishes the finer details, and he recognizes how that fits together.
That works.
That's creating this masterpiece.
It makes sense.
And I think we can find it kind of the same way about this genealogy.
We wonder, why in the world is it placed smack dab in this narrative that's kind of reaching this climax?
It seems to be a bad decision.
And so I think it's important for us to ask, why is it placed here?
What does this have to do with the Israelites in slavery?
And then when we answer those questions, I think we begin to see the beauty of it
in the place and where it sits in this narrative.
And so that's what I want us to focus on this morning.
I want us to consider, first of all, how this genealogy illustrates for us God's sovereign plan.
And then secondly, as we move into chapter 7, to consider man's response to this plan.
So just two points, God's plan and our response.
So let's consider God's plan.
I think as we think of this genealogy, it's important to think about the cultural context in which this passage was written.
In ancient times, a lineage would be something that was really important, that would hold great significance,
particularly to the people of Israel.
Maybe some of us have dabbled with some of those websites like genealogy.com or others
where you can kind of figure out your own genealogy and people in your family tree.
But I would dare say there's probably not many of us here could even name their great-grandparents.
But in this day and age, we see this genealogy being very important.
And it's interesting also that this is a rather incomplete genealogy.
It's rather selective in who it names.
Because while genealogy can be important for historical purposes,
this is important for theological purposes.
It's placed here in this passage because it shows us how God is shaping his people
and the events of this world in order to accomplish his purposes.
And so if we go back to the beginning of Genesis,
we encounter this man named Abram who God comes to.
A pagan man, not worthy of God's attention or affection,
but God chooses to bless him.
And he changes his name to Abraham and said that he, through him,
his family is going to be great and that all nations will be blessed through him.
But just a few chapters later in Genesis,
we see also that God says that his descendants are actually going to become slaves in a foreign land.
And that God will bring judgment on that nation and bring this people of Abraham,
this people known as the Israelites, out of that land with great possession.
And so this promise that was made to Abraham is not simply for Abraham,
but also for his descendants.
The Israelites would have known of this promise.
And that's why they would have cried out to God for deliverance.
And so this genealogy, it connects the past to the present,
tracing the reality of God's sovereignty and grace.
And so that's why it makes sense that it's in the middle of this narrative
to remind the people of Israel of God's covenant promise to them,
that they are a part of a family,
that they are a part of a tribe and a nation that has been ordained by God.
And it's interesting that this specifically highlights the priestly line of Aaron.
Aaron is from the tribe of Levi.
It is the Levites who will be the priests in the years to come.
And so that's all the more important when we think about what Aaron and Moses have been called to do here,
to go before Pharaoh, to enter into this crucial conflict,
to request the release of their people.
So I think I might have mentioned this before,
but when I was in uni, I played rugby,
and I had a part of a really good team.
Even though rugby is not hugely popular in the States,
it was a big deal at my school.
And one of the reasons for the success of our program was because of our coach.
He was a great coach at teaching the sport.
He was great at kind of creating a game plan,
but also at motivation.
And so before games,
especially toward the end of the year when we were in tournament play,
I remember he'd have a circle around him on the pitch,
and he'd give us this motivational speech,
and he'd point to each one of us in the name of our university on our kit.
And he'd say,
that name means something.
That name means excellence.
That name means aggression.
You do not play for yourself,
but you play for this team and this program
and for every player who has gone before you.
He wanted us to recognize our identity as players of this program
who had won three national championships in a row in just years prior.
And so that makes sense here.
What God is doing here,
he's reminding Aaron,
he's reminding the people of Israel of their own role,
their own calling as God's people.
Aaron specifically,
this priestly heritage and identity he has,
his identity being rooted in God is going to enable him to speak God's words to Pharaoh.
And so you may expect then that after this genealogy,
being in the middle of this passage,
okay,
that's going to change Moses and Aaron's attitude, right?
They were reluctant at first.
This genealogy is inserted here,
so we're going to see a change of attitude for them.
They're going to go forth with great boldness and confidence.
Not so much.
God commands Moses to tell Pharaoh all that he's told him,
just like he did earlier in the chapter,
and Moses again exhibits his self-doubt.
Me?
I'm not a good public speaker.
How is Pharaoh going to listen to me?
The people of Israel didn't even listen to me.
And it's a credit to Moses,
who's the author of this book,
that he doesn't try to paint himself as falsely as some hero here,
because he repeatedly shows himself to be reluctant
and to be nervous and to be doubtful.
But it's actually in Moses' weakness
that emphasizes to us all the more the deliverance comes from Christ alone.
It is God who made a promise.
It is God who has a plan.
It is God who has the power to save his people.
And so that brings us then to point number two.
If this is God's plan that's revealed through his genealogy,
that has been told to Moses and his people,
this is how I will rescue you,
how does man respond?
Well, as we move forward in chapter 7,
in the next few chapters of Exodus,
it really focuses in on two men,
Moses being one and Pharaoh being the other.
And we see these two men,
they act very differently in response to God's plan.
And so I want us to consider Pharaoh's response first,
and then I want us to consider Moses' response.
So how does Pharaoh respond to this plan?
It's resistance.
It's rejection, right?
Look at verse 2 again.
You are to say,
Everything I command you and your brother Aaron
is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country,
but I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
And though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,
he will not listen to you.
Now think about my rugby program again.
If my coach before the game,
he gives us the strategy,
this is what we're going to do.
We're going to be aggressive in the backs,
or in scrum.
We're going to spin the ball out in the backs.
But you know what?
Even if we stick to our game plan,
if we do all this stuff,
it's likely not going to work for us.
You think,
Well, that's a horrible game plan then.
Like think of a new game plan
that's actually going to work
that's going to give us some sort of motivation here.
But we see here that even though Moses is told,
You're not going to be able to convince Moses,
or you're not going to be able to convince Pharaoh,
this is still the plan for success,
because success would actually come
through God hardening Pharaoh's heart.
And I think this can be a point in the scripture
where we can become really confused
or actually really angry at God and his will here.
Because we can ask the question,
How is it fair that God would judge Pharaoh
when he's controlling Pharaoh's actions?
It's almost as if Pharaoh's like,
it looks like he's a puppet on a string.
And God's going to bring him to judgment
without ever giving him the choice of what he can do
if he's hardening his heart.
But I think even though this is kind of difficult
for us to wrap our heads around,
I think we can say confidently
that God is not actively working evil
in the heart of Pharaoh.
God is not the source of evil.
Pharaoh's heart was already hard.
Just like your heart and my heart,
we came into this world hard-hearted people.
We see this actually throughout the book of Exodus early on.
This proves that he was this evil tyrant.
He ordered ethnic cleansing.
He was killing firstborn sons.
He was working his slaves to death.
He was treating the Israelites as subhuman.
And so this hardening of heart,
I think it's worth thinking about
what it means in this context.
Because oftentimes now when we think of this word
hardening hearts,
it means someone who lacks compassion
or is cruel, they're hard-hearted.
That's not what it means here in this context.
When God is talking about hardening Pharaoh's heart,
it means that he's conveying a sense of being determined
or resolute in purpose.
And so Pharaoh's heart is being strengthened
toward his evil agenda.
He's being allowed to be steadfast and unchanging
in his rejection of God.
And so to say that God is hardening Pharaoh's heart
doesn't mean that he's forcing Pharaoh
to act against his will.
Quite the opposite.
God is withholding his restraining grace,
giving Pharaoh the boldness to pursue the pathway
that he so desires.
It's not like Pharaoh longed to submit to God,
but he wasn't allowed to do so.
He was given countless opportunities
over and over again,
these signs and these plagues.
Every single time he rejects God.
We see in this passage,
Aaron throws his rod on the ground
and it becomes a serpent.
Does that impress Pharaoh?
No.
His own magicians do the same thing.
Aaron's staff swallows up their staff.
Is he impressed?
Still not impressed.
With every plague and sign to follow,
we see Pharaoh still not impressed.
His heart still hardened.
No change comes.
And so it's like we see concrete
when it begins to harden.
At some point, there's just,
it cannot make,
you can't make any impression upon that concrete anymore
because it becomes so hard.
And we see the effect of this hardening
in verse 4 and verse 17.
It says his heart was hardened
and he would not listen.
A hardened heart makes him hard of hearing.
And this is true not just for Pharaoh,
but this is true for you and me as well.
We sang this in Psalm 95 earlier.
It says today if you hear God's voice,
do not harden your hearts.
Certainly at all times in our life,
we've probably faced this temptation, right?
To try to close God out for some reason.
We don't want him involved in our life.
We don't want to hear what he has to say.
We want to deal with things our own way.
Many of you know that my family and I moved here
from the States and I practiced law
for a number of years there
and I loved what I did
and I loved who I worked with.
But we started to sense this calling
that God was putting on our lives.
And the temptation for us
was to refuse that calling,
to kind of close our ears off to that calling,
to not even want to spend time in the word
or in prayer out of fear
of what he may tell us to do.
We were tempted to just kind of
enclose ourselves off
in this bubble of comfort and success
and ignore the voice of God.
Maybe we've experienced
similar things yourself.
Maybe it's been tragedy in your life
and you're left asking God,
why?
Why would you allow this to happen?
And we're left maybe questioning
God's love for us
or maybe questioning
whether God even cares.
And so we start to shut down.
We don't want to hear from God
because why in the world
would we want to hear from a God
who doesn't seem to care for us at all?
Maybe we see this in relationships.
Maybe there's been a relationship
that's been in turmoil,
that there's been conflict
with you and another
and you're no longer friends
with that person.
And in fact,
you have withheld forgiveness
from that person.
Maybe even the thought of that person
makes your blood boil a little bit.
And as that develops
in our own hearts,
we refuse to listen
to God's own voice
who tells us
and reminds us
of His forgiveness
and grace in our lives
that we should also extend to others.
Maybe it's a secret sin in our life.
Maybe rather than try to fight
and expose the sin,
we just want to feed it secretly.
Maybe we try to compartmentalize
our lives around it
and rather than expose it,
rather than listen to God's call
of purity and repentance,
we just grow harder and harder
of heart.
It's a horrible thing
to allow our hearts
to become hard
that we fail to hear
the voice of God.
Ultimately, in this passage,
we see the purpose
for Pharaoh's hardened heart
in verses 4 and 5.
Moses is told that
Pharaoh's not going
to listen to you
and that I will lay my hand
on Egypt
with mighty acts of judgment.
I will bring out my divisions,
my people of Israel.
It says,
the Egyptians will know
that I am the Lord
when I stretch out my hand
against Egypt
and bring the Israelites
out of it.
Why does God
harden Pharaoh's heart?
So that Pharaoh
and all of Egypt
will know
who God is.
The first time
that Moses
goes to Pharaoh
in Exodus chapter 5
and he tells him
who God,
who this Yahweh is
and what he's supposed
to do,
Pharaoh says,
who is Yahweh?
And why would I listen
to him?
But through these signs,
through these plagues
that are to come,
we see that Pharaoh
will come to know
the power
and the authority
of the one true God.
And as we read on,
Pharaoh's heart
becomes brittle
and it does break,
but it only breaks
through the knowledge
of that God
that comes through
the judgment of God.
And so the same
is true for us.
If we are hard-hearted,
if we fail
to listen to God,
there will come
a day of judgment
when our hearts
will be broken.
God warns this
through the prophet Jeremiah.
He says,
is not my word
like a hammer
that breaks rocks
into pieces?
There will come a day
when God will break
the heart
of every rebel.
But the thing is,
at that point
of judgment,
it will be too late
for any of us
to listen.
But we see
in this passage
there is an alternative.
Though Pharaoh
rejects the plan of God,
we see Moses
do something quite different.
And again,
it's easy to put Moses
on a pedestal,
to think that he's
the hero in this passage
and in this book.
But if we look back
to the beginning
of Exodus,
we see over and over again
that it's not just
Pharaoh who's hard-hearted,
but it's also Moses
who is hard-hearted.
We see multiple examples
of Moses being a coward.
He's a murderer.
He's a blasphemer.
He lacks faith.
He continues
to question God.
And yet God
extends his mercy
to Moses.
And as a result,
his heart is softened.
And we see this
play out elsewhere
in the Old Testament.
If we go to the book
of Ezekiel,
the people of Israel
are no longer captive
in Egypt.
They're held captive
by the Babylonians.
And this is what God
says through the prophet
Ezekiel to his people.
He says,
I will give you
a new heart
and a new spirit
I will put within you.
And I will remove
the heart of stone
from your flesh
and give you
a heart of flesh.
And I will put
my spirit within you
and cause you
to walk in my statutes
and be careful
to obey my rules.
Does this not
describe exactly
what happens
to Moses?
This is exactly
what God can do
for us.
When we think about
the softening
of our own hearts,
this is not something
that we can do
on our own
if we just try harder
or try to be better
to think God
will accept us,
to think we're
some means
of softening
our hearts
toward God.
Our hearts
are softened
when we receive
the mercy
of our generous
forgiving God.
It is he alone
who can transform
our hearts.
And so we see
the effect
of this transformation
in Moses' life.
He begins
to listen
and he begins
to obey.
Verses 6
and verses 10.
Moses and Aaron
did just as the Lord
commanded them.
So Moses and Aaron
went to Pharaoh
and did just as
the Lord commanded.
We see this pattern
that begins to repeat
over and over again
in the book of Exodus.
It says,
the Lord said
to Moses
and Moses did
as he commanded.
And it's really
interesting.
I think it's
important that it
actually includes
Moses' age here
and the age of Aaron.
It says,
Moses is 80 years old
when he goes to Pharaoh.
Aaron is 83 years old.
And so does this
not give us hope?
It took Moses
80 years
for his heart
to be softened,
to become sensitive
and tender
to the things
of the Lord.
Is there not hope
for each one of us?
When we recognize
our rebellious hearts,
when we recognize
the path of sin
that we have lived,
that we have a God
who is willing
to forgive
and extend
his mercy to us
that we may receive
his mercy.
And so you think,
no,
I've been apart
from God
for too long.
I've done too much
to earn his shame.
No, you haven't.
I've done too many
bad things
in my life.
I have too many
skeletons
in my closet.
No, you don't.
You are never
too far
from the mercy
of God.
You are never
too far
from the mercy
of God.
But you know what?
It's not ultimately
Moses who's our example
in this passage.
Because if we turn
to the book of Hebrews,
this is what we read
earlier in chapter 3.
It says,
While Moses was faithful
in God's house,
Jesus was counted
worthy of more glory
than Moses.
For while Moses
was faithful
as a servant,
Jesus was faithful
as a son.
And so as we look
back at our passage,
this is not just
some moral lesson
to teach ourselves
to be soft-hearted.
I don't want
to simply encourage
you to see
what you can glean
from the life
of Moses,
but rather
to look at
to who
Moses' life points.
Because a soft heart
is a believing heart.
And so the encouragement
for us,
the call for each
one of us
as we listen
to the voice of God
is to believe
that God's saving plan
that was promised
to Abraham,
that was claimed
by Moses,
has found
his fulfillment
in Jesus,
God's son.
It's Jesus
who's the better Moses,
who's the true
high priest
who came to earth
to deliver
his people
from the slavery
of sin
through the shedding
of his blood
on the cross.
It is only
through his sacrifice
that we can receive
God's mercy.
It is by grace
through faith
in what Christ
has done
that our hearts
can be softened.
And so the reality
of the situation
is,
is just like Pharaoh
and just like Moses,
we are all
hard-hearted.
And we can either
choose to refuse
God's plan
or we can accept it.
And so know this,
God's mercy
has been extended
to you.
God's mercy
has been extended
to you.
And so the invitation
for each one of us
is to receive
this gift of grace
through faith
in the completed
work of Jesus.
And maybe this is
the first time
you have heard
this message
and the Lord
is softening
your heart
even now.
Praise the Lord.
But maybe you've
heard this message
before.
Maybe you have
come to the Lord
in faith
and your heart
has been softened.
But recognize
this gift of mercy
is not a one-time gift.
His mercies
are new
every morning.
And we still
are tempted
to allow our hearts
to be hardened.
And so recognize
with His mercy
our lives
are to be transformed.
Our identity
is to be found
in Christ.
And so may we learn
to hear His voice
and to obey
His will.
knowing that we serve
a loving
and powerful God
whose plans
will always be accomplished.
Hear His voice
and harden not your heart.
His love