Exodus 7 to 10: If God Is King, I'm Not

Introduction

"If God existed, I still wouldn't worship him." Matt Fuller, curate of Christ Church Mayfair in London, opens his message with a line he heard in a student's video that popped up in his feed. Her reason was simple: nobody was going to tell her what to do, because she was in charge of her own life.

This message belongs to a series on the book of Exodus and covers a long passage, chapters 7 to 10: the first nine plagues. The preacher warns that he will look at the same passage twice, from two angles. Tonight he focuses on Pharaoh's stubbornness. The following week, he will talk about God making his name known.

His thread can be summed up in one sentence: "If God is king, I'm not." Pharaoh never accepted that. Matt Fuller follows three steps: Pharaoh's unbending heart, his heart hardening from plague to plague, and then the man with a humble heart, Jesus.

Message outline

1. A certain madness in defiance

The preacher recasts the student's line: "If food is necessary for survival, I still refuse to eat. If water is necessary, I still refuse to drink." You can go a few weeks without food, a few days without water, and then you collapse.
And why deprive yourself of what is good? You were made for God, to rejoice in him and worship him. "Why would you go without?"
Saying "if there is a God, I won't worship him" sounds good on the surface. But if a sovereign being made me, directs every detail of my life and can give me eternal life, then rejecting him is absurd. And one day there will be an account to give before him.
The reason is probably the same as it was for Pharaoh. The whole struggle is set out in Exodus 5:2: "Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go?" In other words: "I am Pharaoh. I rule the greatest nation on earth. Don't tell me what to do."
Pharaoh would rather see his country burn than admit that he is not king of his own life and that God is.

2. Why ten plagues?

Why does it take so long? Why doesn't God settle everything with a snap of his fingers? The longest explanation is in Exodus 9:14-16: God could have struck Egypt and wiped it out, but he let Pharaoh stand "to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."
So two reasons go together: God shows his power and his name, and he reveals just how stubborn Pharaoh can be.
The first nine plagues come in three waves. In the first (plagues 1 to 3), Aaron lifts his staff. In the second (4 to 6), Yahweh acts alone. In the third (7 to 9), Moses stretches out his staff.
The first plague of each wave begins with a meeting with Pharaoh in the morning, the second at the palace, and the third comes with no warning at all. They are waves that crash against Pharaoh again and again.

3. Pharaoh's unbending heart

Before the plagues, Aaron's staff becomes a serpent. The magicians do the same, but Aaron's staff swallows theirs (Exodus 7:12). The word used for serpent evokes a sea monster, and the only other time Exodus speaks of swallowing is when the sea swallows Pharaoh and his army (Exodus 15:12). A foretaste of the end.
Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and the result is that he doesn't listen (Exodus 7:13). From chapters 4 to 14, the hardening of his heart is mentioned eighteen times. "This is the Bible for cardiologists."
The text states two things with equal force: Pharaoh hardens his heart (Exodus 8:15), and Yahweh hardens his heart (Exodus 7:3). God is sovereign over the worst of dictators, and even over the worst of enemies, death. And Pharaoh is fully responsible: he can never say he had no choice.
How do the two fit together? Matt Fuller admits he doesn't know, but he tells of a scene at a friend's home. The friend's ten-year-old son had just received a Swiss Army knife for his birthday. On the sofa, several stab marks in the cushions.
The father, very calm: "Did you stab the sofa?" "No." "I'll ask you again, think carefully." "No." A week of pocket money lost, then two. This went on about five times, until the father walked away. The question was perfectly fair, and yet it hardened the child's heart.
"Pharaoh, let my people go." "No." There is nothing unjust in what Yahweh does. And as early as Exodus 7:14, before the first plague, God describes Pharaoh's heart as hardened. He is not a neutral man, he is a brutal dictator.

4. First and second waves: he asks for prayer, then he haggles

Blood: the Nile, Egypt's source of life, becomes a place of death, even in the wooden and stone vessels. The magicians do the same. "Everything has turned to blood, can you fix that?" "Yes, we'll make even more blood." Not very helpful. And Pharaoh doesn't listen (Exodus 7:22).
Frogs: same scene, the magicians add frogs to the frogs. But this time Pharaoh asks for prayer (Exodus 8:8). Moses lets him choose the time: "Tomorrow." The prayer is answered exactly at the time requested. Yet "when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:15).
"You can see a prayer answered in your life at the very moment you asked for it, and it changes nothing in you. You just become more stubborn." The gnats follow, and Pharaoh still doesn't listen (Exodus 8:19).
Flies: Pharaoh offers to sacrifice to God within the land (Exodus 8:25). Moses' answer, in essence: you don't haggle with Yahweh. Our wives, our children and our flocks will go with us. "He speaks, you obey. That's how it works."
Moses warns Pharaoh not to deceive him again (Exodus 8:29). The flies leave, not one remains, and Pharaoh hardens his heart again (Exodus 8:32).
Then the plague on livestock: all the livestock die, Pharaoh sends to check, but his heart remains hardened (Exodus 9:7). Finally the boils: this time humans are struck, and the magicians can't even stand before Moses (Exodus 9:11). Pharaoh's heart stays hard.

5. Third wave: he confesses his sin, but does not fear God

The hail: "For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart" (Exodus 9:14). God warns them to bring their animals to shelter. Those among Pharaoh's servants who fear the word of Yahweh obey, while the others leave everything in the fields (Exodus 9:20-21). Some Egyptians respond, and in chapter 12, some will leave with Israel.
A major new development: Pharaoh says "I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked" (Exodus 9:27). The preacher smiles: not just this time, Pharaoh, every time.
Moses isn't fooled: "As for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear Yahweh God" (Exodus 9:30). The hail stops, and Pharaoh sins again (Exodus 9:34).
The locusts: the question is put in Exodus 10:3, "How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?" Everything is there: when will you bend the knee, and admit that Yahweh is king and you are not?
Even his servants plead with him: "Don't you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?" (Exodus 10:7). Ecological disaster, economic ruin, a traumatized people. And still: "I am Pharaoh."
He goes further: "I have sinned. But please forgive my sin again this once" (Exodus 10:16-17). He asks for forgiveness, yet his heart hardens again.
Darkness for three days: an un-creation, a judgment. Later in the story, darkness will fall for three hours. Pharaoh haggles again: the children may go, but not the flocks. Then: "In the day you see my face you shall die" (Exodus 10:28). He will never see Moses again, but he is the one who will die, and Moses will live because he knows that Yahweh is king.

6. And you, and me?

Pharaoh's behavior is astonishing: he asks for prayer and it is answered, he acknowledges his sin, he asks for forgiveness, he knows God is real and irresistible. But he will not bend the knee. "I'll take the forgiveness, but I won't have you as king."
Nobody in the congregation governs a great nation. But the student's attitude is the same, with less power over the consequences.
To those who don't yet call themselves Christians, Matt Fuller tells of a conversation with a longtime friend he met at university. The friend explained that what kept him from becoming a Christian was a doubt about the resurrection. Then he stopped: "No, that's an excuse. If I'm honest, I don't want my life to change. And I know it would."
That is much gentler than Pharaoh, and yet it is the same madness, because Yahweh is king and there will be an account to give. And yes, your life changes if you follow him. Some things and some relationships are different, but on the whole, it is better.
To Christians, he recalls Hebrews 3:13: don't let your heart be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The danger is to say: "I'll take the forgiveness, I'll take the blessings. But it's my life, my time, my money, my decisions, my future. I'm king, and you aren't, even if you're quite useful at times."
"Don't carve out areas of your life where you are king and God is not."

7. The man with a humble heart

Only one man has truly lived on this earth with a humble heart: Jesus. "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29).
He is God come to earth, and yet he says: "Not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). He doesn't demand his kingship. That is how he can offer salvation and rest.
"Learn from me": a way of life that is livable and joyful, the one you were made for. Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).
A man in his sixties, who had attended church for about ten years, suffered from angina. Every morning he had to take three pills. He told the pastor that this was his choice as a Christian every day too: let his heart harden, or let God soften it.
Submitting to God is freedom. Yielding to him is liberation. Bending the knee before him is being lifted up as a child of the living God, who answers prayer, who forgives and who leads all the way to the promised land.
"Jesus is God, and I am not. And that is excellent news. So listen to him."

Key takeaways

If God is king, you are not. That is the question Pharaoh refused from beginning to end.
God hardens Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh hardens his own heart: God is sovereign, and man remains fully responsible.
You can see prayers answered, confess your sin and ask for forgiveness without ever bending the knee before God.
Christians can also keep areas where they remain king. Hebrews 3:13 calls us not to let our hearts be hardened.
Jesus, gentle and humble in heart, is the only one who fully said "not my will, but yours, be done." He offers rest to anyone who comes to him.

Personal application

Is there a reason you give for not following God that comes down, deep down, to "I don't want my life to change"?
Have you ever seen God answer a prayer without it changing how you live?
In which area (your time, your money, your decisions, your future) do you still act as the king?
Where do you tend to haggle with God, obeying him halfway rather than fully?
What simple daily gesture could remind you, every morning, to choose to soften your heart before him?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why did God send so many plagues on Egypt?

Exodus 9:14-16 gives the explanation: God could have struck Egypt all at once, but he raised up Pharaoh to show his power and make his name known throughout the earth. For Matt Fuller, the length of the plagues reveals two things that go together: the power of God's name and Pharaoh's stubbornness.

Does God or Pharaoh harden Pharaoh's heart?

Both, and the text insists on both equally. God is sovereign, even over the worst of dictators. Pharaoh remains fully responsible for his decisions. Matt Fuller compares this to a father who asks his son a perfectly fair question: there is nothing unjust about the question, but with each refusal to tell the truth, the child's heart grows harder.

What does Pharaoh's story say to a Christian today?

Like Hebrews 3:13, it warns us not to let our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You can accept God's forgiveness and blessings while keeping areas where you remain king: your time, your money, your decisions, your future. The preacher invites us to choose every day to soften our hearts before God.