Moses was God’s appointed messenger to Pharaoh. He was told exactly what to say to Egypt’s ruler. The message varied somewhat, but it always included words such as these: “Thus saith the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me” (Ex 8:1). Ultimately they were the words of One who has supreme authority over all human beings – including heads of countries, like Pharaoh. The Lord had revealed Himself as “I Am That I Am”, One who is not dependent in any way on any other being. Rather He is the Creator of all things and can direct all His creatures to act as He pleases. Pharaoh, in particular, was duty bound to obey all God’s commands, whether spoken to him directly or through God’s servant Moses. And Moses was duty bound, God told him, to speak “unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee” (Ex 6:29).
God still sends out men to speak in His name to their fellow sinners. Paul describes them as “ambassadors for Christ”. They have no real authority of their own, but as sent by Christ they do have real authority; indeed it is dangerous for those who hear them to reject what they have to say – provided the ambassadors stick to the message that they have been entrusted with. The message is to be found in the pages of the Bible; it is a message centred on the solemn fact of sin and on the glorious remedy which God has provided in His Son. And when the messenger has expounded the gospel, he is to issue the command, “Repent . . . and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15). When first spoken, these were the words of Jesus and clearly had divine authority. And when repeated by any of His ambassadors, in any part of the world, these words have fundamentally the same authority, the authority of King Jesus; no one has any right to reject them.
When God sent him to speak to Pharaoh, Moses hesitated. “Behold,” he responded, “I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?” Here was a man who was deeply conscious of his unholiness; he knew he would come far short of giving perfect glory to God when he would speak on behalf of the Most High! Besides, he had previously referred to his limited speaking gifts. “I am not eloquent,” he had told the Lord, “neither heretofore,
nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Ex 4:10). Moses no doubt felt his task specially difficult because he had to speak to Pharaoh, whom he may well have known when he used to live in the palace and may have been very conscious that he would be dealing with a really difficult man. But Matthew Henry says wisely: “Though our infirmities ought to humble us, yet they ought not to discourage us from doing our best in any service we have to do for God. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.” And Moses found it so.
Yet it seemed altogether a pointless task. Pharaoh was a heathen; he did not know the Lord. How was it possible that he would listen to Moses? But Moses must go, for God was sending him. And God had a purpose to accomplish, which nothing and no one could prevent, not even a man as powerful as Pharaoh. Moses was being commissioned by the all-powerful God to lead the Children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. By God’s grace, he obeyed and ultimately, by divine power, his work proved successful.
Ministers today may well be conscious that they are inadequate for the responsibilities that God has laid on their shoulders. They have to preach the gospel to an ungodly world, to sinners whose hearts are hard and rebellious, who are unwilling to have Christ “to reign over” them (Lk 19:14). But it is always men with human limitations that God sends out with the treasure of the gospel. Paul emphasises, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Cor 4:7). Moses could not have the glory of delivering Israel from Egypt; no more could Paul take glory to himself from the remarkable success of the gospel when he preached it in various places around the Mediterranean. To that end he suffered the thorn in his flesh and was painfully conscious of indwelling sin. God is always jealous of His glory in the salvation of sinners; so for a preacher to boast of his gifts or of his success is to displease God – however thankful the preacher ought to be if he is in any way an instrument in the conversion of a sinner.
Preachers have no power to change hard hearts; they cannot make their hearers flee from the wrath to come and lay hold on eternal life; they cannot bring lost sinners into the way of salvation. They may be conscious that some of their hearers, who come more or less regularly to listen to the Word, have no desire to live to the glory of God and are seeking fulfilment in their possessions or what they hope yet to possess, or even in worldly entertainment. But ministers must speak as they have been commanded, however pointless their work may seem. And it seems particularly pointless when one considers the strength of the opposition. A slave people such as Israel could have been no match in battle for Pharaoh’s forces; how much more powerful an
influence does Satan exert on unconverted sinners, through his temptations, than any preacher!
But the preacher’s task is by no means pointless. His supreme aim must be the glory of God – even above the salvation of sinners and the building up of believers in their most holy faith. These are solemn words: “We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life” (2 Cor 2:15,16). Either way God is glorified, but no wonder Paul goes on to ask, “And who is sufficient for these things?”
Unlikely as it seemed, Pharaoh at last obeyed the command of God relayed to him through Moses. He did let the Children of Israel go free, although he soon changed his mind. Yet this became a further opportunity for God to display His power, by bringing Israel safely through the Red Sea. And the great fact of God’s infinite power is what we must bear in mind as we consider the preaching of the gospel to hard-hearted sinners today.
How were 3000 souls saved on the Day of Pentecost, who had the same natural resistance to the truth as Pharaoh? It most certainly was not because of Peter’s eloquence or the force of his personality. Such factors may have been relevant on the human level but, at most, they were only means through which God was pleased to exercise His power. Always the excellency of the power must be of God, and not of Peter or of the other disciples – or of any of God’s servants in later ages. The real reason was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who powerfully applied the truth, as it was being proclaimed, to the hearts of those who heard it. Again, when Paul and others preached the gospel to ungodly sinners in such places as Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi and Thessalonica, the conversions were ultimately not the result of human gifts, but because the Holy Spirit applied the Word with power, according to the Saviour’s promise to send the Spirit, who, “when He is come . . . will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement” (Jn 16:8).
As a result of this powerful work, multitudes of sinners trusted in Christ and were saved. They went on to live godly lives, even in the midst of abounding sin. Satan had clearly demonstrated his power in these places before the gospel came. “Such were some of you,” Paul reminds those who had turned their backs on the gross sins he named, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified . . . by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). Satan cannot continue to work his evil effects in the hearts and lives of those on whom the Holy Spirit is poured out, as was the case in all the places mentioned above and in many more – though others remained hardened in their sin.
During many later centuries, the power of the Spirit was largely, though by no means totally, withdrawn in the inscrutable purpose of God – although
we must remember that He takes glory to Himself in all that happens. As Roman errors developed, they drew people’s hearts away from a religion of pure grace towards one of works and superstition, in which Christ crucified was no longer the focus of attention. Here we can recognise a prolonged campaign by the god of this world, doing his utmost to blind “the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor 4:4).
At the time of the Reformation, God raised up men of remarkable gifts and grace, as preachers, pastors, writers and theologians – men such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox. And there were many others whose names are recorded in history, whom we may admire as we recognise their intellectual ability, their diligence, their godliness and their success. Yet what would they have achieved apart from God’s blessing, apart from the powerful work of God’s Spirit on the minds and hearts of those who heard them preach or who read their books? And there were no doubt many others whose names have faded from history, yet whose work was greatly blessed, perhaps in various out-of-the-way corners far from the notice of those who chronicled the success of the gospel. But the work of these men has not been forgotten by the One who sent them out as His ambassadors and who gave His Spirit to apply the truth with power, so that their preaching became effective in the salvation of sinners.
Today God is still sending out labourers into His harvest. Yet, in the face of the sheer indifference of such a large proportion of people in Western countries today, it may seem altogether pointless to preach the gospel. Ours is a generation largely given over to materialism; under the influence of the idea of evolution, it does not take God seriously; it does not respect His commandments; and it assumes that the Bible is totally out of date. And in some countries, false religions are so entrenched that Christian preaching is illegal. But when it will please God, by the Holy Spirit, to apply the Word powerfully throughout the world, peoples and rulers will not be able to resist it, any more than Pharaoh could in the end resist the claims of God.
But it is not a pointless task to preach the gospel, even today; it is the special ordinance that God in wisdom has appointed to bring sinners into His kingdom. Nor is it a pointless task to translate and circulate the Scriptures, even where false religion or atheism adopts the most militant of stances. And it is our duty to pray that the Lord would bless His own Word, whether preached or read – and send out labourers into His harvest. God’s power remains unchanged since Moses’ time, and He has promised that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Is 11:9). How complete His triumph will yet be! Not even the devil can prevent it.