Exodus 9:22-35 - I know that you do not yet fear the Lord

9:22-26

Moses was then to stretch out his hand over the land and the hail would start to fall. He did so and thunder, hail and fire came down from heaven. The reference to fire flashing is presumably referring to lightning. This was the most terrible storm. So any man or beast out in the open was killed by the storm, and crops were also ruined, along with the trees. The storm had a devastating effect. However, the storm did not affect Goshen. Once again, God drew a distinction between His people and the Egyptians.

9:27-30

Pharaoh appears to be taking things more seriously now, saying that he has sinned and was in the wrong. He pleads with Moses to pray for the storm to stop and promises that he will let the people go. It seems that he has eventually learnt his lesson, but, of course, he hasn’t. Moses says that he will indeed stretch out his hands to the Lord and the storm will stop, but he knows that Pharaoh has not changed his heart, and that he will not keep his promise.

9:31-35

While some of the crops were destroyed, others that were to come later were not affected. The primary purpose of God’s judgement was that men should come to repentance. However, man is stubborn, and Pharaoh is an example of this. Moses went out and stretched his hands to the Lord, and the Lord brought the storm to an end. True to form, as soon as Pharaoh so that the storm had ceased he refused to let the Israelites go. His heart was well and truly hardened.

John 15:24,25 - They hated me without cause

15:24

The people were totally without excuse. Now to some all this may seem a little unfair, or someone might think that it would have been better if Jesus had not bothered coming to them, but this is to misunderstand the situation. It can be useful to see Israel as a microcosm of all humanity. God loves Israel, but Israel was completely unfaithful. She had all the advantages, yet still refused to trust God. Jesus came and did various works and wonders, but that made no difference, they still rejected Jesus, and so rejected God. Men sometimes say that if only God had given them more evidence then they would believe. This is simply not true. Hatred and unbelief is deeply rooted in the soul of man.

15:25

“ But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’” This is most likely a quote from Ps 69:4, though it could have come from Ps 35:19. The Law given to the Jews said that they would hate God without cause.  The disciples may have thought that all this hatred was not such a good idea, but it had to happen that way, it was all part of God’s plan.

Exodus 9:17-21 - You are still exalting yourself

9:17-19

9:17 gets to the heart of the matter, Pharaoh was “exalting himself against God’s people”. This gives us an important insight into what is going on and God’s reaction when Christians are persecuted. The persecutors are subjecting themselves to God’s judgement. The words against Pharaoh are then followed by the warning of the nature of the coming plague, a terrible hail stone storm, like one never seen before. It is also coupled with advice on how to avoid being killed, how to protect  oneself from the storm. They are to get man and beast under shelter so they are not killed.

9:20,21

Those who” feared the word of the Lord” got their slaves and livestock under cover, those who did not fear the Lord didn’t bother. Those who “feared the word of the Lord” here were not Hebrews, but were servants of Pharaoh. And we see that “fearing the word of the Lord” means taking it seriously and acting upon it.

John 15:22,23 - Whoever hates me, hates my Father also

15:22

“ If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” This does not mean they would somehow have been totally innocent if Jesus had not come to them! Rather, it means that Jesus coming to them and speaking the truth highlighted their sin, brought their rebellious nature to the surface. They now had no excuse for their sin. Previously they could have said they were trapped in their sinfulness with no way of escape. They would still have been guilty. However, now they had been presented with the way of escape and had rejected it.

15:23

“Whoever hates me, hates my Father also”. This is a two way relationship, for Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father. So if someone hates God, they will also hate Jesus. And if someone hates Jesus, then they will also hate the Father, for they already know exactly what the Father is like. Note the frequent use of “hate” in this passage. Man’s sinfulness is not just a matter of the occasional failing, but rather of hatred of God.

Exodus 9:13-16 - For this purpose I have raised you up

9:13

We now come to the seventh plague, which receives more attention than the previous two. This may be because of the number seven (which represents completeness), or it could just be coincidence. We are back to Moses going to Pharaoh early in the morning and issuing the command to let God’s people go, “that they may serve me”. We were created to serve the Lord, and when Christ sets us free it is not so we can carry on in our own not so sweet way, but so we can serve the Lord.

9:14-16

God also tells Pharaoh that this time the plagues will fall directly on Pharaoh and the people. The purpose is that they will recognise that “there is none like God”. God is not one god among many gods, but is the only true God. If he had wanted to, God could have just killed Pharaoh straight off. But God’s purpose is that His name is proclaimed throughout the earth. In sending the judgements God is actually being merciful, giving Pharaoh, and the people, a chance to repent. In our own life and times we may often wonder why God does not act more quickly, we need to recognise what God’s purposes are. We can always trust Him, and know that His purpose is higher than ours.

John 15:20,21 - A servant is not greater than his master

15:20

“A servant is not greater than his master”. This applied in the way that they served Christ and each other (John 13:16), it also applies in the area of persecution. Jesus washed His disciples feet, so we should be ready to do likewise. Jesus was persecuted, so it should come as no surprise if they persecute us. Conversely, if they accepted Jesus’ words, then they will accept our teaching when we teach the word of God. So often we just focus on the “nice” aspects of being like Jesus, being like Jesus includes the whole package!

15:21

The world will do all these things “on account of Jesus”. Now this applies if we are being faithful to Christ. If we are going our own way, or just being obnoxious or stupid, then the problem lies with us and we need to change our ways. But we should be seeking to be evermore faithful to Christ. And when we do this, and make progress, we may well experience opposition. In these circumstances the “problem” does not lie with us. It lies with the world’s opposition to Christ, and it is normal. And the world acts like this because it does not know the one who sent Christ. I.e. they do not know God.

Exodus 9:8-12 - Boils breaking out in sores

9:8-12

The sixth plague is a plague of boils. This is another plague where there is no prior warning, or command. It is more a judgement upon Pharaoh’s earlier disobedience. Before all these plagues there is usually a demonstration of some sort, either Aaron waving his staff, or some such action. Here it is Moses who performs the action, and he is to throw soot from the kiln into the air. These actions are to demonstrate that the results are happening because of a deliberate act of God. So boils would break out on both man and beast. This would occur throughout the land of Egypt, Since it is the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart that is the cause of all this, one might think that this is rather unfair on the people. First, it is a simple fact, repeated throughout history, that what the rulers do, for good or ill, has a profound effect on the nation as a whole. Secondly, we are to some extent responsible for the leaders we have. “We get the leaders that we deserve” has a significant element of truth in it. Of course, the leaders themselves bear the greatest degree of guilt, but they cannot gain and keep power without some consent from the people.

The boils came upon the magicians as well. By now they had completely given up on trying to replicate the signs, and now they were directly affected by them as well. We now read that the Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Hardening of the heart is a combination of an act of God, an act of Pharaoh, and the “natural” effects of sin.

John 15:15-17 - You did not choose me, but I chose you

15:15

We now get the friendship aspect looked at from the perspective of Jesus towards us. He no longer calls us servants (or slaves), for the servant just obeys his master. He does not have any right to know what the content of the master’s plans are. But Jesus is revealing to His disciples the nature of God’s plans and purposes. We are brought into those plans. We are more than mere cogs in the machine, God reveals His heart to us. Jesus reveals all that the Father has shown Him.

15:16,17

Just in case the disciples think they had earned this privilege, Jesus disabuses them of any such notion. It was not the case that the disciples had earned this by making such a wise decision in leaving their nets and following Jesus. Leaving their nets was indeed a wise decision, but it was Jesus who called them. It was Jesus’ idea, not theirs! Jesus had chosen them in order to bear fruit. He has chosen us for fruitfulness, and that this fruit would last. Then we get another prayer promises, and as with the others it is in the context of the disciples fulfilling the will of God.

Exodus 9:1-7 - All of the livestock of the Egyptians died

9:1-5

In this chapter we have the fifth, sixth and seventh plagues. The fifth plague applies to livestock. As we work through the plagues more and more aspects of Egyptian life are being targeted. This one begins with the command to Pharaoh to “let my people go”. Various sorts of livestock that are in the field will be affected. There is a distinction with this plague in that the Hebrews will not be affected, they will be protected from the plague. A specific time was set for this happening. The specificity helps to demonstrate that this is no random occurrence, but a deliberate act of God.

9:6,7

Pharaoh, of course, did not obey, and so the plague came and had the effect that Moses had foretold. This included the Israelites being unaffected. This reminds us of Ps 91:7 “a thousand may fall at my side ...”. “But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened ...” Here there is no mention of Pharaoh hardening his heart, nor of God hardening his heart. When we harden our hearts it becomes increasingly difficult to unharden it. That is why early repentance of sins is so important, we must not let sin take a firm root in our lives.

John 15:12-14 - Love one another as I have loved you

15:12,13

“This is my commandment , that you love one another as I have loved you”. So how did Jesus love the disciples? Our first thoughts go to the cross, Jesus laying His life down for us, taking upon Himself the punishment that we all deserve. However, there is more to it than that. Jesus lived a life of obedience to the Father. And this obedience continued even when the disciples did not understand it at all. Jesus then does point towards His laying down of His life “for His friends”. So there must be a deep commitment, one prepared to pay any price. The giving up of one’s life is the ultimate price.

15:14

Jesus then expands on the theme of the disciples being His friends, and He does this in both directions. When the disciples do what Jesus commanded them then they were His friends. We should not look at this in the context of earning friendship, but of simple fact. We are called to a life of obedience. When we do obey Christ it may involve us in paying a significant price, but if it comes to that we should know that we are living as friends of Jesus.

Exodus 8:28-32 - Pharaoh hardened his heart

8:28-32

Pharaoh agrees to this, but insists that they do not go too far away. The reason for this that he is afraid of losing his slave labour. There are lots of incidents these days about someone being “cancelled” because of some, often very tenuous, link to the slave trade. People need to realise that slavery was endemic in virtually all societies. Moses accepts this, but warns Pharaoh once again reneging on his promise. So Moses left and prayed to the Lord. The Lord answered Moses’ prayer and the plague came to an end. “But Pharaoh hardened his heart”  (no surprise there) and did not let the people go. Note that here it says Pharaoh hardened his heart, rather than that God hardened his heart The two are not exclusive. As I have said before, the sovereignty of God and human responsibility are not mutually exclusive concepts.

John 15:10,11 - That my joy may be in you

15:10

So how do we abide in that love? This is a mere emotional state of mind. We abide in Christ’s love by obeying His commands. Jesus demonstrated this in His own life. It was a life of perfect obedience to the Father. There will be times when obeying Christ will be hard, but if we continue to obey we are assured that we remain in His love, and ultimately we will be rescued. Jesus had to go to the cross, but He was also raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven.

15:11

Life was not going to be easy for the disciples, but the Christian life is not one just of suffering, it is also one of indescribable joy. People are always looking for happiness, and various gurus will claim to have the secret of happiness. Jesus gives us the true secret of perfect joy, and that is a life of trust and obedience.

Exodus 8:20-27 - Egypt shall be filled with swarms of flies

8:20-23

And so to the fourth plague, a plague of flies. This time Pharaoh is given a warning. The previous plague was probably given partly in response to Pharaoh’s reneging on his promise to let the people go if Moses stopped the plague of frogs. So Moses reissues the command to Pharaoh to let God’s people go. There is another key difference this time, the land of Goshen, where God’s people dwelt, will be exempt from the plague. Pharaoh may have thought that God would only go so far because He would not destroy His own people. This distinction between God’s people and the Egyptians would show that that would not hinder God.

8:24-27

True to form Pharaoh does not respond to God’s command, and so the fourth plague is enacted. Pharaoh tries a form of compromise, so he is at least getting worried at this point. He wants the people to worship the Lord within the land of Egypt. Moses refuses, offering the argument that their religious practice would be an abomination to the Egyptians. This could then lead to the Egyptians attacking the Hebrews. 

John 15:8,9 - As the Father has loved me

15:8

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” We need to appreciate how committed the Father is to our success. Not success in worldly terms, but in our being fruitful servants of Christ. So there are two main sources of opposition to this. One is our own weakness and sinfulness; the other is opposition from the world and the devil. In both cases God has given us all that we need for “life and for godliness” (2 Pet 1:3). In fact the whole passage 2 Pet 1:3-11 is highly relevant.

15:9

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Jesus has spoken a lot about the relationship between Himself and the Father. In these latter chapters He develops this to show how it extends to His love for us. The word used for “has loved” is aorist, meaning it is a completed and perfect action. Likewise, Christ’s love for us is perfect and completed. In saying it is completed we do not mean that it has stopped. It is the perfection of the love that is the point, and its eternal effect, going both backwards and forwards. We are more deeply loved than we can ever imagine and we need to abide in that love. This means both following Christ, but also knowing the security that we have.

Exodus 8:16-19 - Gnats in all the land of Egypt

8:16

Now to the third plague, this time gnats. This time there is no warning to Pharaoh, no command to obey, just the imposition of the penalty. Following the usual pattern of God speaking to Moses, and then Moses passing on the instruction to Aaron, Aaron stretches out his hand over the land so that gnats would cover the land. As well as there being no warning to Pharaoh, this one involves the land, rather than the water.

8:17-19

So Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and gnats arose and got absolutely everywhere, on both man and beast. Another difference is that this was something that the Egyptian magicians were unable to replicate. The magicians were rather concerned about this and so went to Pharaoh and told him that “this is the finger of God”. They recognised that they were up against something more serious. However, Pharaoh refused to listen to them. A common feature of tyrants is that they will even stop listening to their own advisors.

John 15:6,7 - If you abide in me

15:6

There is then a severe warning, harking back to 15:2. Someone may have the outside trappings of being a Christian, but if they do not truly reside in Christ then they do not belong to Him, they will not bear fruit for Him, and they will be thrown away. These branches are thrown into the fire and burned. Repentance and faith are the only ways to abide in Jesus.

15:7

Like the earlier promise with regard to prayer (John 4:13), this needs to be read fully in context. This is not saying “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. I know that is what the latter part of the sentence says, but in the immediate context the first part of the sentence is crucial, along with the wider context. It is all about us living as Christ’s disciples and God fulfilling His purposes through us. It is definitely not about us doing what we like! The words are addressed to people who are committed to following Christ, and are fully aware of their own weaknesses and shortcomings. We have been called into unity with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don’t appreciate the absolute security there is in walking in step with the Spirit, and the absolute insecurity of going our own way.

Exodus 8:8-15 - Plead with LORD to take away the frogs

8:8-11

Pharaoh was fed up with all the frogs, understandably so, especially if his magicians had actually produced more of the things! So Pharaoh asks Moses to plead with the Lord to take the frogs away. Moses asks when he wants him to do this. One might have thought that “at once” would have been Pharaoh’s reply, but instead he said tomorrow!

8:12-15

So Moses and Aaron left and went to plead with the Lord. The Lord answered Moses’ prayer and all the frogs died. The Egyptians gathered the dead frogs and heaped them up in piles. This of course meant that all the dead frogs started to produce a tremendous stink. As soon as Pharaoh saw that the immediate problem was over he hardened his heart and refused to let the people go. This was just as the Lord had said it would happen.

John 15:3-5 - Abide in me

15:3

“Already you are clean ...” The words of Jesus may have put fear into the heart of the disciples, Jesus assures them that they are already clean. Whilst washing the disciples feet Jesus told them that they were clean (John 13:10), and the word spoken may be referring directly to that. Or it may be a more general reference to Jesus’ words.

15:4

So fruit bearing is essential, but if we look at ourselves the situation can look pretty hopeless! Am I going to be a bearer of good fruit? On my own merit the answer is definitely not! But it is not just down to me or to you. We will bear fruit if we remain in Jesus and He abides in us. A close connection to Jesus is what makes all the difference. We are branches, the nourishment comes from the main part of the vine itself, which is Jesus. He is the source of life. 

15:5

Jesus now makes clear our respective roles. He is the vine, i.e the main body of the plant, we are the branches. The point He is making is our utter dependency upon Him. Without Him we can do nothing, yet so often we try to disprove this! The converse, and the positive point that He is making is that when we abide in Him and He in us, then we will indeed bear much fruit. Note that it is not just a little fruit, but much fruit. Now this fruit is not just seeing others come to Christ, but also the building up of the body, honouring Christ in the face of opposition etc.

Exodus 8:1-7 - The Nile shall swarm with frogs

8:1-4

In this chapter we get the next three plagues, the first of which is a plague of frogs. Things start with God telling Moses to issue the command to Pharaoh again, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” At any point Pharaoh could have avoided all the trouble by obeying the Lord. This is true of humanity as a whole. Refusal would result in the ensuing plague of frogs. The frogs would get absolutely everywhere, making an absolute nuisance of themselves. The frogs would come from the Nile, and would affect everyone.

8:5-7

God speaks to Moses, who in turn speaks to Aaron, and Aaron is to stretch his hand with the staff over the rivers, canals and pools. Basically anywhere where frogs could come from. Aaron did so and the frogs duly appeared in vast numbers. The magicians did the same using their secret arts. Again, this seems strange. This is just a thought, but maybe it just means they were able to do this? Though why they would do this is perplexing, but if Aaron and Moses have produced this plague of frogs, how could the magicians produce anymore?

John 15:1,2 - I am the true vine

15:1

This is the last of the “I am” sayings, it is also significant that it includes the Father as well. The Father and the Son are working together. Jesus is the true vine. The vine or vineyard is used of Israel in the Old Testament, most relevant is perhaps chapter 5 of Isaiah, while Psalm 80 is also highly relevant.. Israel failed as the vine. Jesus is the true vine. He lived a life of perfect love, faith and obedience to the Father. But it is not just about Jesus, the Father is the vinedresser. He takes care of the vine.

15:2

The Father’s prime role, as described here, is taking away branches that do not bear fruit, and pruning those that do. The Father is actively looking after the vine. Fruitfulness is seen as a key indicator of whether someone is truly part of the true vine. We look at this taking away in two ways. One is to view it as a Father disciplining a son, as in Heb 12:4-11; the other is in God executing judgement on individuals or parts of the church that are not truly believing in Christ, i.e. in a much more severe sense. Both are relevant. If we are true believers we still require discipline from the Lord, but there are also severe warnings for those that fall away. We do far better to take the severe warnings seriously, rather than trying to argue them away!

Exodus 7:20-25 - All the water in the Nile turned to blood

7:20-25

Aaron did as commanded, and the effects were just as the Lord had said. The fish died and this produced a stink, and also contaminated the water. The Egyptian magicians managed to do the same thing. This does actually raise some questions. If the actions of Aaron had turned all the water to blood, what was left for the Egyptians to do? Also, would it not have been better for them to reverse the effect? Anyway, the key thing is that Pharaoh’s heart remained hard.

The normal drinking water sources were now all polluted. So the people dug along the side of the Nile. The sand would have had a filtering action and this made the water drinkable. This would tend to imply that God used some natural phenomenon. The situation lasted for seven days.

John 14:30,31 - I do as the Father has commanded me

14:30

“I will no longer talk much with you”. Jesus actually had quite a lot more to say as we have about three chapters worth, but in a short time He would no longer talk with them. Satan is then referred to as the “ruler of this world”. Satan does have significant influence in the world, and the world, meaning the people, are under his jurisdiction. But he has no claim over Jesus. When Jesus was being nailed to the cross it might have seemed as if Satan was getting his way, and did have authority over Christ, but nothing could be further from the truth. On the cross Jesus was breaking Satan’s hold over us.

14:31

Jesus did as the Father commanded Him, and the Father had commanded Him to go to the cross. “So that the world may know that I love the Father”. Those who speak of the cross as “cosmic child abuse” have no idea what they are talking about. The cross was an act of love, both of God towards us, and between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Exodus 7:15-19 - You have not obeyed

7:15,16

So Moses and Aaron are to go to Pharaoh, and they are to tell Pharaoh that he has not obeyed. Notice the phrasing here. Letting the people go was a command, not a suggestion nor a request from God. As we see our world adopt godless ways they are disobeying God. The fact that they may say they don’t believe in God has nothing to do with it, they are still acting in disobedience, and there will be consequences. This does raise some questions about the way we interact with the world. We usually do it by reasoned argument, and this seems a reasonable thing to do. But does there come a point where we need to realise that this is a power struggle, and to tell the world plainly that it is disobeying God and if it continues on this path there will be consequences?

7:17-19

So we now get the first plague. They would strike the Nile with the staff and it would turn to blood. What exactly happened? We cannot say for sure. There may have been a chemical change in the water. This is not impossible, but seems unlikely. Equally unlikely, in fact absolutely impossible, is the suggestion that the way the sun reflected off the water made it look like blood. This would not explain much of the account at all, namely the water stinking etc. God may have used a natural phenomena, such as red clay being washed into the water (there is a phenomenon called “red Nile”), or large numbers of red plankton or algae. Whatever the case, the water was changed and this had observable and real effects.

So Moses told Aaron to take the staff and stretch out his hand over all the waters of Egypt. The effect was to be very widespread.

John 14:28,29 - The Father is greater than I

14:28

The reason that the disciples were greatly troubled was that Jesus had told them that He was going away and would come to them. Now He tells them that if they genuinely loved Him they would have rejoiced instead of being sad. Why? Because He was returning to the Father and the Father was greater than He. Now if you want you can find all sorts of trouble in these words thinking it means that Jesus is not fully God, as the Arians did. This is not what Jesus is saying. In His earthbound state the Father was greater than the Son. Jesus was returning to His heavenly state. This was the best thing that could happen to Jesus! We also need to distinguish between the economic trinity and ontological trinity. Jesus was subordinate to the Father in that He came to do the Father’s will, to obey Him. This is the economic trinity. But this did not make Him in any way less God. In His inherent being Jesus was and is always fully God.

14:29

Jesus knew that at that moment the disciples would not grasp anything like the full importance of what He was saying. But He told them this ahead of time so that when it did take place they would begin to fully understand. The Holy Spirit would remind them of these words and open their minds to understand.

Exodus 7:10-14 - Pharaoh's heart was hardened

7:10-13

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as they had been told. And the staff did indeed become a serpent. Note that earlier Moses had seen a similar thing happen. However, Pharaoh got his wise men and sorcerers, and they managed to do the same thing. When we get to the plagues, the Egyptian magicians were able to replicate the first two plagues, but none after that. We are not told how or why they were able to repeat some of the miracles. However, Aaron’s serpent swallowed up all the other serpents.Outwardly the signs may have been the same, but there was a difference. However, despite seeing the sign Pharaoh would not change his mind. In Jesus’ day the religious leaders were forever asking for a sign, but refused to acknowledge the multiple signs that they saw. Their hearts were hard like Pharaoh’s.

7:14

The plagues now begin. As we read the account it may seem that they happened in quick succession, but that is not necessarily so. They may have taken place over a number of months, or possibly even longer. God reminds Moses that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. Pharaoh’s reaction to Moses’ initial request resulted in the hardening of his heart. When we sin or make sinful decisions, as Pharaoh had done, it produces a hardening of the heart. It demands that we persist in our rebellious ways.

John 15:18,19 - If the world hates you

15:18

Jesus has just said some quite amazing things, stressing the closeness of the relationship that the disciples can expect to have with Him and with the Father, through the Holy Spirit. Now He focuses on the opposition they will face. One might have thought that if we know God then all will be well, but this neglects the fact that the world is in rebellion against God. We so often forget this, thinking that if only we are nice enough everyone will like us! Also in evangelism the impression is often given that if we do the job properly then people will believe the gospel.This is not true. It takes the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God to change the heart of a rebellious person, and in all evangelism we are speaking to rebellious people (and we too were once rebels). So if the world hated Jesus, which it did, we should not be surprised if it hates us because of Christ. And John was well acquainted with persecution.

15:19

This verse expresses the situation very clearly, and is a lesson that the church so often forgets, in fact gets it completely the wrong way round. If we were of the world then the world would love us, but we are not of the world. Indeed, Jesus chose us out of the world. When the church tries to be like the world or to be liked by the world, then it is being utterly foolish, and is being unfaithful to God. Moreover, we are not helping the world! The world and its ways are on a fasttrack to destruction. Why would anyone who genuinely loves the world (i.e. in the God sense of loving the world) want to encourage it along that road? Yet this is what a lot of the church is doing! In Christ we have the solution that can get people off this destructive road to hell, and bring them to the way of life.

John 14:25-27 - The Holy Spirit will teach you all things

14:25,26

Jesus now tells them more about the work of the Holy Spirit. So far He has essentially told them that they will not be alone, the Holy Spirit will somehow mediate the presence of the Father and the Son. This could be taken as being a bit woolly, we now get down to specifics. Jesus had been teaching them, throughout the three years, and especially in the last few days before the resurrection. The Holy Spirit would continue to teach them, and to remind them of the things that Jesus had said. It is worth noting that Greek uses the masculine pronoun for the Spirit, rather than the grammatically correct neuter, this could be seen as a recognition that the Spirit is a person, not a force. He would remind them of the things that Jesus said, this has relevance for the reliability of the gospels. Many of the things that Jesus had said went right over the heads of the disciples, i.e. they did not understand. The Holy Spirit would enable them to understand.

14:27

The disciples’ hearts were troubled, and trouble would indeed lie ahead. Jesus tells them that He is leaving His peace with them. This is not a worldly peace. Worldly peace depends almost entirely on circumstances. Feeling secure, having plenty of money etc. The peace that Jesus gives is quite different. If we look at the ministry of Jesus we see that it was a time of almost continuous conflict and threat, yet Jesus was at peace. Why? Because He knew the Father. So we will face trouble, but we do not need to be troubled. In Phil 4:11 Paul says that he has learnt the secret of being content in all circumstances. So we do not need to be troubled and we do not need to be afraid.

Exodus 7:6-9 - They did just as the Lord commanded them

7:6,7

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded them, this was despite their misgivings. Just like Peter and the others when Jesus told them to cast their nets over the other side, despite the night’s fruitlessness. Peter thought it was a waste of time, but because Jesus had said so they agreed to do what Jesus said. Faith is often the act of obedience, rather than a feeling. Moses was eighty at this time, and Aaron eighty three. So far God had limited the age of man to one hundred and twenty years old.

7:8,9

God gave quite explicit commands and information to Moses. Sometimes God does give detailed information, sometimes He doesn’t! We must not make any hard and fast rule on this matter. Abraham was called to leave his land, but was not told where he would be going (Heb 11:8). Pharaoh would demand that they prove themselves, and at this point Aaron is to cast his staff down on the ground and it would become a serpent.

John 14:23,24 - He will keep my word

14:23

Jesus again talks about what it means to love Him, and sentimentality is out of the window. The proof of loving Jesus is keeping His word, which is the same as keeping the Father’s word. If we do so the Father will love us. Believing in and obeying Jesus is the “method” that the Father has specified. Remember at the time that the Jewish religious leaders taught that following the Law was the way to please God, and this was a deeply ingrained belief in society of the time. Jesus is the only way to the Father. “And we will come to him and make our home with him”. This is revolutionary. God comes to dwell with an individual. This indwelling takes place through the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are completely united and speak and act with one voice, but they are also distinct.

14:24

“Whoever does not love me.” We now get the converse, and it is a clear warning to all who think they can disregard, or completely overturn, the Bible’s teaching on sexual ethics. Or any other area of Biblical teaching, for that matter. And the words we hear from Jesus are also the word of the Father. Jesus had previously said that He only spoke what He heard the Father say, and only did what He saw the Father do. When we see or hear Jesus we see or hear God.

Exodus 7:4,5 - Pharaoh will not listen to you

7:4

Pharaoh would not listen to Moses, but Moses was still to declare the word of the Lord to him. We do not only speak to those who have ears. God would then lay His hand upon Egypt and bring out His people. So again we see God binding the strong man and ransacking his goods (Matt 12:29). “My hosts”, hosts literally means army. We are the army of the Lord. The people would be brought out by great acts of judgement,  For our freedom there need to be acts of judgement. But we are also sinners, so there also needs to be acts of cleansing.

7:5

“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord”. God is not just our God, He Lord of all the earth and all the universe. Every knee shall bow and acknowledge Christ as Lord, Phil 2:9-11. Every atheist, every Muslim, every Hindu, every agnostic will acknowledge Christ as Lord of all. God is not one god among many, He is the Lord of Lords and the King of kings.

John 14:21,22 - He who loves me will be loved by my Father

14:21

So how do we know if we love Jesus, or if someone else loves Him.? It is by our obeying His commandments. Obedience is a crucial part of the gospel. It is not that we earn salvation by our obedience, but our obedience is the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And it means that we are loved by the Father and also by the Son. And the Son will “manifest His love to us”. While Jesus was with them they obviously experienced Him, but we can still experience the presence of Christ in our lives. We often give warnings about living by experiences, and rightly so, but we also need to recognise that experience is part of the normal Christian life. God is not just a theological truth, but also a lived truth.

14:22

Judas here is Judas the son of James (Lk 6:16), and he asks how it will be that He manifests Himself to the disciples, but not to the world. There is a clear distinction between those who know Jesus and those who do not. I guess we have all wondered why some people cannot see the goodness of God, the glory of Christ, and we wonder why this is so. Why can they not see what we can see?

Exodus 7:1-3 - I have made you like God to Pharaoh

7:1

At the end of chapter 6 Moses has again expressed doubts about his ability to confront Pharaoh. This is another example of the chapter division being in a rather dubious place. Anyway, God is having none of Moses’ doubts and tells him that he will be like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron will be his prophet. God has far more confidence in our ability to fulfil the tasks given to us than we have, and God knows all our sins and weaknesses.

7:2,3

Moses would tell Pharaoh all that God commanded, and Aaron would tell him to let the people go. However, God would harden Pharaoh’s heart. I’ve said this before, but will say it again because it is such an area of misunderstanding. This does not in any way absolve Pharaoh of responsibility. The Bible has no problem with God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Paul faced questions over this matter in Rom 9:14ff. We could perhaps phrase it as “I know Pharaoh’s heart will be hard and he will not listen”, but that is not right. For while it rightly says Pharaoh has responsibility for his hardness of heart, and God is not taken by surprise, it neglects to say that God had ordained this situation. All three aspects are crucial, God ordaining the situation, man’s responsibility, and God’s foreknowledge. If any one of these elements is missing, our teaching is not Biblical.

John 14:19,20 - You will know that I am in my Father

14:19

While Jesus was walking on the earth the world could see Him, “world” here referring essentially to the Jews. But after the cross they would see Him no more. The disciples, however, would see Him, for He would appear to them. “Because I live, you also will live”. The resurrection that Jesus went through is the same as the resurrection we will experience. Death is not the end for us, for we will be raised from the dead. That this verse is so clearly referring to the resurrection is the reason why some see the previous verse as referring to Jesus meeting the disciples after the resurrection. The general trinitarian nature of the chapter is the reason I favour the Holy Spirit view as noted above. In one sense we do not need to make a hard and fast choice. Jesus was not leaving them alone, God has not just left us to get on with it. God is with us.

14:20

“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” We cannot be dogmatic about what “that day” refers to. The resurrection encounters with Jesus obviously brought some light to them, and the work of the Holy Spirit brought even more light. They would appreciate the complete unity between the Father and the Son, and our unity with Christ. In Rom 6:3,4 Paul talks about out being united with Christ is His death and His resurrection.

Exodus 6:14-30 - I am the Lord, tell Pharaoh

6:14-25

We then get something of an interlude, with a genealogy of Moses and Aaron being given. Moses was an important figure in Israel’s history, and this established exactly who he was. He had a background, and was definitely not some mythical character. Something to note about Biblical genealogies is that often, as here, they do not include every generation. Their purpose is often to simply establish key facts, not every fact.

6:26-30

“These are the Aaron and Moses ...” They were real people and we are reading about real events. Moses and Aaron were charged with leading the Israelites out of Egypt. And it was Aaron and Moses who confronted Pharaoh. God spoke to Moses and told him to tell Pharaoh all that the Lord had said to him. Moses repeats his objection that he is of “uncircumcised lips” and why should Pharaoh listen to him. The Bible does not gloss over the weaknesses of its heroes!

John 14:17,18 - I will not leave you as orphans

14:17

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He will not lie, but also He will not go along with the lies on which the world is based. Then we are told that the world cannot and will not accept Him. The world cannot receive Him, “because it neither sees Him nor knows Him”. Now this might seem a bit unfair. If they cannot see Him how can they be expected to receive Him? The reason they cannot see or receive Him is that they are in rebellion against God. A man or woman needs to be born again in order to receive Him. In contradiction to the world, the disciples are told that they do know Him. “He dwells with you and will be in you”. How did He dwell with them at this stage? Jesus dwelt with them! After Jesus ascended to the Father He would send the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would dwell within them. So we see the unity of the Son and the Spirit. There is one God who exists eternally as three persons.

14:18

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” When the Holy Spirit comes into someone's life Christ comes into that person’s life (as does the Father as we will read shortly). The disciples feared Jesus leaving them, for they had invested their lives in Him. But Jesus’ going away was actually a good thing, and also an essential thing. God was committed to them. “I will come to you” refers to the Holy Spirit. So just as if they saw Jesus then they saw the Father, if we receive the Spirit then we receive Jesus. All the gospels are trinitarian, but John’s gospel perhaps brings this out the most clearly. It should be noted that there are some who see “I will come to you” as referring to the resurrection when Jesus would meet them again.

Exodus 6:12,13 - How then shall Pharaoh listen to me?

6:12

Moses is far from convinced. Again, this is understandable in human terms. He has already gone to Pharaoh and asked “nicely”, and that did not get him very far. The burdens on the people were increased and the people he had gone to set free hated him. Now he has gone to the Israelites and told them the word of God and they have not listened to him. Why should Pharaoh listen? The salvation we see here in Exodus is all the work of God. The Israelites did not want to be set free, Moses did not have a great deal of faith, Pharaoh had no intention of letting the people go. But God had determined to set them free, and that is what would happen.

6:13

“But the Lord spoke ... and gave them a charge ...” God had little time for Moses’ excuses! One of them had been “I am of uncircumcised lips”. Moses could see no reason why Pharaoh would listen to him, but God had determined what would happen. This would not be a simple matter, it would take ten plagues! But it would happen. God had determined that Moses would take the people out of Egypt, and so it would be.

John 14:15,16 - If you love me, you will keep my commadments

14:15

So Jesus has just been talking about His disciples doing greater things and having their prayers in His name answered. How can this possibly be? The answer is the Holy Spirit, who could only be sent after the cross and resurrection. So far most of Jesus’ teaching has been about the Father. For the rest of John’s gospel there will still be teaching on the Father, but also an awful lot about the Spirit. This is a most trinitarian gospel! But first there is a most important verse, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So anyone who claims to be following Jesus but is quite happy to reject some of His teaching is badly mistaken. The salvation in the gospel is a bringing us back to God, to live our lives in obedience and fellowship with Him, with Him as Lord of our lives. It most definitely not a matter of letting us carry on in our own not so sweet way.

14:16

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper”. So we see here an example of Christ’s prayers being answered! Asking in Jesus’ name is accompanied by a certainty of a positive answer, but asking in Jesus’ name means asking with the heart of Jesus. The word that ESV translates as “Helper”  can also be translated as “Advocate” or “Counsellor”. The Greek word has its roots in the legal context, though it does go beyond that, hence “Advocate”. It can also be translated as “Comforter”, this was appropriate when “comforter” meant encourager (and possibly quite forcefully so), rather than its present meaning as someone who encourages you in your misery (I am being a little unfair, but the point remains). “Counsellor” also suffers from its modern connotations with being a therapist. The best thing is to see what the Bible actually teaches us about Him, and not to allow ourselves to be influenced by modern meanings of words. The first thing is that the Father sends Him. So the Father sent the Son, He will then send the Spirit. The word “another” implies that He is in some way a replacement for Jesus, i.e. He will do many of the things that Jesus did.  And He will be with us forever. It is worth remembering that in Matt 28:20 Jesus promises to be with us always. This signifies that the presence of Jesus is mediated through the Holy Spirit.

Exodus 6:9-11 - But they did not listen

6:9

Moses went and reported all this to the Israelites “but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labour”. The effects of the slavery made them unable to hear the message. We are mistaken if we think that merely presenting the gospel in a reasonable way, explaining how it all works, will be enough to bring people to faith. Occasionally it will (usually built on a host of other things that God has been doing in the person’s life), but often it won’t. Either harshness of circumstances, or the relentless bombardment of secular ideology, binds people up and makes them deaf to the gospel. So is all lost? Definitely not! As we shall see in the next verse.

6:10,11

It needs acts of power to set people free. Jesus spoke of binding up the strong man (Matt 12:29). Note that the miracles done before the Israelites did not “work”, it was the miracles done against Pharaoh that “worked”. “Worked” here meaning bringing freedom. We do need to proclaim and explain the gospel, and to demonstrate it, but it is an act of God to bring someone to faith. So Moses is to go directly to Pharaoh and to command him (not merely ask) to let the Israelites go.

John 14:13,14 - Whatever you ask in my name

14:13,14

“Whatever you ask in my name ...” We only have problems with this verse if we look at it in the context of God answering all our prayers. Instead we should look at it in the context within which it is given, as we have already said in comments on the previous verse. First it is about asking in Jesus' name. As is often said, this does not mean merely adding “in the name of Jesus” at the end of a prayer. It means when we are walking in the will of Jesus. Then it says “that the Father may be glorified in the Son”, and then “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it”. So in this context, prayer is about God’s will being done, not our will. Now this does not mean we should never pray about things we want or about our circumstances, we certainly should and are encouraged to do so, it is just that that is not what the focus of these three verses is. Someone might object that if God is promising to answer prayers that are according to what He wants, that is a bit of a cop out. But such a question demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what the gospel is all about. Right at the beginning in Genesis the plan was that we would have dominion over the earth as God’s stewards. We rebelled against that and have thus encountered all the problems associated with sin. In Christ we are called back to God, our rebellion ends and we become His sons and servants. In Christ we are enabled to be the children of God, and in Christ the world will not defeat us.