Series: Moses: Adventuring with God

Getting Pharaoh’s Attention
Exodus 10 v.21-29 and Exodus 11 v.1-10
February 2nd

Liz Marlow
 
Icebreaker
If you have not yet watched the short animated explanation of the first part of Exodus from the Bible Project, I recommend you take a few minutes to watch it in your group. You can find it at thebibleproject.com/explore/exodus1-18/
There seems to be a lot of uncertainty about which Pharaoh is the one referred to in this part of Exodus but it is clear that he is quite a nasty character. Who do you think are the “Pharaohs” of today who may exercise power unfairly and/or reject God? An earlier Pharaoh had welcomed the Hebrews into Egypt back in Joseph’s time.

Have you any ideas on why attitudes towards the Hebrews might have changed?

Read Exodus 10 verses 21-29
We read in this passage about the ninth out of the ten plagues that God inflicted on the Egyptians. This one is the plague of darkness.
 
Q.1: How would living in darkness for 3 days have felt for the Egyptians?
 
Q.2: The Egyptians worshipped many different Gods including Hopi the God of the Nile and Hathor the cow goddess but the chief of their gods was Amon-Re who was the God of the Sun. What was God’s message to Pharaoh through the plague of darkness? How do the qualities of Yahweh compare to the qualities of the Egyptian Gods?
Encourage the group to think about the connection between the Egyptian Gods and the plagues, demonstrating the power of the God of the Hebrews in contrast to the powerlessness of the Egyptian Gods. For example the one powerful God who is living and has a relationship with his people, as opposed to many Gods whose power was limited to one area.

Q.3: In verse 24 it looks like Pharaoh finally relented and gave in to Moses’ demands – had he?

Q.4: Why didn’t Moses agree to Pharaoh’s terms allowing the people to leave without their livestock? (Verses 25-26). Note that worship was central to Moses’ argument here.

Q. 5: In verse 27 it states that “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” What does this mean?
You may want to think about how earlier in the story Pharaoh is reported as hardening his own heart (see Exodus 8 vs 15 and 32).
 
Q.6: Why do you think Pharaoh was so reluctant to let the Israelites go?  They seemed to be a source of cheap labour which could have been one reason.
 
Read Exodus 11 verses 1 – 10
 
Q.7:  In verse 2 the Israelites were instructed to ask their neighbours for silver and Gold as the Egyptians were favourable disposed towards them. Why do you think this was? (See Exodus 3 vs 21-22) maybe they were becoming fearful of them?
 
Q. 8:  In verse 7 Moses says to Pharaoh that God will make a distinction between Egypt and Israel. Why is this so important here? Remember that the Israelites were not living in their own country here, so could not be distinguished on that basis.
 
Q.9: How was Moses feeling now and do you sympathise? (Verse 8)
 
Q.10: Why do you think that Pharaoh continued to refuse to recognise God’s power? What does his stubbornness indicate about his own beliefs when even his own advisors seemed to be wishing that he would relent?  (See Exodus 10 v. 7)
 
Application
 
Read Hebrews chapter 11 verse 27
 

• What can we learn from Moses’s faith and character here?
• Do you think that sometimes God hardens people’s hearts today? How can we identify and deal with this?
• Can we learn anything from this passage about how we could approach people who are very stubborn about refusing to acknowledge God?

 
Prayer


You may want to pray for people you know who can behave a bit like Pharaoh and ask God to show his power to them and /or soften their hearts.
 
 
Liz Marlow Jan 2020