Sabbath School Week

Read for This Week’s Study

Exod. 5:1–23, Rev. 11:8, Exod. 6:1–13, Ps. 73:23–26, 2 Cor. 6:16, Exod. 6:28–7:7.

Memory Text:

“Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” ’ And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go’ ” (Exodus 5:1, 2, NKJV).

Many believers think that when one decides to follow God, he or she will experience only happiness, prosperity, and success. That’s not necessarily the case, however, as the Bible itself often shows. Sometimes many obstacles appear, as well as new difficulties. This can be very frustrating, and it prompts hard questions that don’t always have easy answers or, it seems, any answers at all.

Those who trust in God will face numerous trials. When we persevere, however, God brings solutions that come on His terms and in His time. His ways may conflict with our expectations for quick and instantaneous solutions, but we must learn to trust Him regardless.

Thus, the topic for this week: Moses and the command to lead God’s people out of Egypt—about as clear a call from God as anyone could have. Indeed, it included miracles, as well as God Himself speaking directly to Moses and letting him know exactly what He wanted Moses to do.

How much easier, then, could it have been for Moses, knowing that he had been called by God and even given a specific task?

It should have been simple then, right?

Read on.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 19.

Supplemental EGW Notes

Before we are delivered from Satan’s power without, we must be delivered from his power within. The Lord permits trials in order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harsh, unchristlike traits of character. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls in order that we may know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in order that we may have deep heart longings to be cleansed from defilement, and may come forth from the trial purer, holier, happier. Often we enter the furnace of trial with our souls darkened with selfishness; but if patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the divine character. When His purpose in the affliction is accomplished, “He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.” Psalm 37:6.
There is no danger that the Lord will neglect the prayers of His people. The danger is that in temptation and trial they will become discouraged, and fail to persevere in prayer.—Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 174, 175.

So it is with every other one of God’s requirements. All His gifts are promised on condition of obedience. God has a heaven full of blessings for those who will co-operate with Him. All who obey Him may with confidence claim the fulfillment of His promises.
But we must show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Often He delays to answer us in order to try our faith or test the genuineness of our desire. Having asked according to His word, we should believe His promise and press our petitions with a determination that will not be denied.
God does not say, Ask once, and you shall receive. He bids us ask. Unwearyingly persist in prayer. The persistent asking brings the petitioner into a more earnest attitude, and gives him an increased desire to receive the things for which he asks. . . .
But many have not a living faith. This is why they do not see more of the power of God. Their weakness is the result of their un­belief. They have more faith in their own working than in the working of God for them. They take themselves into their own keeping. They plan and devise, but pray little, and have little real trust in God. They think they have faith, but it is only the impulse of the moment. Failing to realize their own need, or God’s willingness to give, they do not persevere in keeping their requests before the Lord.
The more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ. We shall receive increased blessings because we have increased faith.—Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 145, 146.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Following God’s orders, Moses goes to Pharaoh to begin the process in which he, Moses, would “bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10, NKJV).

What was Pharaoh’s response to God’s demand, “Let my people go” (see Exod. 5:1, 2), and what significance can be found in this response?

“Who is the Lord?” Pharaoh declares, not in any desire to know Him but, instead, as an act of defiance or even denial of this God, whom he admits that he does not know. “ ‘I do not know the Lord’ ” (NKJV), he says, almost as a boast.

How many people throughout history have uttered the same thing? How tragic, because, as Jesus Himself said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

Egypt, with the pharaoh as king, is symbolic of a power that denies God’s presence and authority. It is an entity that stands in opposition to God, His Word, and His people.

Pharaoh’s next declaration that “I will not let Israel go” reveals even more this rebellion against the living God, further making Egypt a symbol, not only for the denial of God but for a system that fights against Him.

No wonder many saw this same attitude, millennia later, in the French Revolution (see also Isa. 30:1–3 and Rev. 11:8). Pharaoh thought he was a god or the son of a god—a broad reference to a belief in one’s own supreme power, strength, and intelligence.

“Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: ‘Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go,’ Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 269.

If someone asked, Do you know the Lord? How would you respond? If yes, what would you say He is like, and why?

Supplemental EGW Notes

When man transgressed the divine law, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. There exists naturally no enmity between sinful man and the originator of sin. Both became evil through apostasy. The apostate is never at rest, except as he obtains sympathy and support by inducing others to follow his example. For this reason, fallen angels and wicked men unite in desperate companionship. Had not God specially interposed, Satan and man would have entered into an alliance against Heaven; and instead of cherishing enmity against Satan, the whole human family would have been united in opposition to God. . . .
Satan’s enmity against the human race is kindled, because, through Christ, they are the objects of God’s love and mercy. He desires to thwart the divine plan for man’s redemption, to cast dishonor upon God, by defacing and defiling his handiwork; he would cause grief in Heaven, and fill the earth with woe and desolation. And he points to all this evil as the result of God’s work in creating man.—The Great Controversy, pp. 505, 506.

During the forty years after the flight of Moses from Egypt, idolatry seemed to have conquered. Year by year the hopes of the Israelites grew fainter. Both king and people exulted in their power, and mocked the God of Israel. This grew until it culminated in the Pharaoh who was confronted by Moses. When the Hebrew leader came before the king with a message from “Jehovah, God of Israel,” it was not ignorance of the true God, but defiance of His power, that prompted the answer, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice? . . . I know not Jehovah.” From first to last, Pharaoh’s opposition to the divine command was not the result of ignorance, but of hatred and defiance.
Though the Egyptians had so long rejected the knowledge of God, the Lord still gave them opportunity for repentance. In the days of Joseph, Egypt had been an asylum for Israel; God had been ­honored in the kindness shown His people; and now the long-­suffering One, slow to anger, and full of compassion, gave each judgment time to do its work; the Egyptians, cursed through the very objects they had worshiped, had evidence of the power of Jehovah, and all who would, might submit to God and escape His judgments. The bigotry and stubbornness of the king resulted in spreading the knowledge of God, and bringing many of the Egyptians to give themselves to His service.—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 333.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Though Moses must have known, even from the beginning, that what the Lord had tasked him with was not going to be easy (hence his attempts to get out of it), he probably had no idea of what was coming.

Read Exodus 5:3–23. What were the immediate results of Moses and Aaron’s first recorded encounter with Pharaoh?

Even before going to Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron gathered the elders and people of Israel, told them God’s words, and showed them God’s signs, which resulted in Israel’s believing that the Lord would deliver them from their slavery. Thus, they worshiped the Lord (Exod. 4:29–31). Expectations surely were high: the Lord was going to deliver the Hebrew people from their bondage—finally!

Moses then went to the king of Egypt with God’s demands, and things became even worse for the Israelites. Their suffering increased, and their daily labor became more burdensome and demanding. They were accused of being lazy; they were treated more harshly; and their service became more difficult than it had already been.

Their leaders were not happy, and the confrontation between them and Moses and Aaron was ugly, and (as we will later see) it simply portended the kind of conflicts Moses would have with his own people for years to come.

Read Exodus 5:21, and then put yourself in the place of these men as they confronted Moses and Aaron. Why would they say what they did?

It’s not that hard to see why they would have been upset with Moses (“ ‘Let the Lord look on you and judge,’ ” they said). They thought Moses was coming to free them from the Egyptians, not to make their lives under the Egyptians even harder.

Thus, besides dealing with the Egyptians, Moses and Aaron had to deal with their own people, as well.

What are some better ways you and others might be able to deal with local church leaders when disagreements arise, as they inevitably do?

Supplemental EGW Notes

[The] officers supposed that their oppression came from their taskmasters, and not from the king himself; and they went to him with their grievances. Their remonstrance was met by Pharaoh with a taunt: “Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.” They were ordered back to their work, with the declaration that their burdens were in no case to be lightened. Returning, they met Moses and Aaron, and cried out to them, “The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.”
As Moses listened to these reproaches he was greatly distressed. The sufferings of the people had been much increased. All over the land a cry of despair went up from old and young, and all united in charging upon him the disastrous change in their condition. In bitterness of soul he went before God, with the cry, “Lord, wherefore hast Thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all.” The answer was, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” Again he was pointed back to the covenant which God had made with the fathers, and was assured that it would be fulfilled.—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 258, 259.

The Hebrew nation was taken into close relation to God, as a peculiar people, a holy nation. The Lord gave to Israel evidences of His presence, that they might fear His name and obey His voice, and that they might know that He was leading them to the promised land. The power of God, which was revealed in so remarkable a manner in their deliverance from Egypt, was seen from time to time through all their journeyings.
And in these manifestations and revelations God was uplifting Israel from a demoralized condition. Great changes were to be wrought in this disorganized people; for oppression and servitude and idolatrous association had molded their habits, their appetites, and their characters.
The Lord had promised Israel that if they would obey His commandments, He would supply their necessities by His miraculous power. But the Hebrews were not willing to submit to the directions and restrictions of the Lord. They wanted their own way. They desired to follow the leadings of their own minds and be controlled by their own judgment.
The Lord heard their murmurings, and the divine presence was revealed in so remarkable a manner that they were afraid. A voice was heard from the glory, bidding Moses and Aaron draw near to the cloudy pillar where Christ was enshrouded. And the Lord talked with Moses and Aaron, and the Israelites heard His voice telling them that He had heard their murmurings. . . . In all His dealings with them, God was seeking to teach His people that it was not Moses with whom they were finding fault, but that their murmurings were directed against their divine Leader.—Signs of the Times, July 19, 1899, par. 1–4.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.