How long will you refuse to humble yourself?
That question isn’t for the Pharaohs of this world. It is for everyone who is introduced to the way of the cross.
“The Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them 2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” 3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 4 If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. 5 They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 6 They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your parents nor your ancestors have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.” (Exodus 10 v 1-6)
Our lives are not only about here and now, and they are not centred solely around this generation. Look at verse 2 “so that you may tell your children and grandchildren.
God performs His signs so that generations to come will know who He is. Coupled with this, your obedience today is a testimony for tomorrow to someone who hasn’t even been born yet.
But here comes the central question of the passage. “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?” (v3)
God’s question to Pharaoh was about the condition of his heart. Every plague was another opportunity to repent. But pride kept Pharaoh from bowing before the Lord.
Not “how long will you refuse to obey.” But how long will you refuse to humble yourself? Pharaoh’s problem was pride. He would rather watch his nation devoured than bow his knee.
Where Pharaoh refused to humble himself and was broken, Christ humbled himself and was exalted (Philippians 2:8-9).
The question hasn’t changed in three thousand years. How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Him?
The next time you are in an argument. The next time you are thinking of storming out of the church door because ‘there’s no love here’, the next time pride rises within you so that you will not back down because you are right; the next time you are about to write someone off; the next time that you are about to win and someone is about to lose, think of these verses:
“In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2: 5-8)
This is the ultimate passage because it reveals a decision made by Jesus in His pre-earthly state. That decision said, “Today, it is not about me.”
Of all that is in heaven, Jesus, Son of God, part of the Godhead, is hearing cries day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.” Beings are laying prostrate, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. “ (Revelation 4) From this position of power and of who He really is, He said, “Today it’s not about me.”
The Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz tells a famous story called “If Not Higher.” In it, a rabbi is believed to ascend to heaven every Friday morning for several hours. His devoted disciples boast that during those hours their rabbi goes up to heaven and talks to God. A stranger moves into town and he’s sceptical about all this, so he decides to check things out. He hides and watches. The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers, and then dresses in peasant clothes. He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods and cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There an old woman and her sick son love. He leaves them the wood, enough for a week, and then sneaks back home. Having observed the rabbi’s actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple. And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven, “the newcomer quietly adds, “If not higher.” Have we forgotten the way to heaven?
So here’s the question for today. Not “will you obey” for you can obey and still be proud. The question is, will you humble yourself?
Pharaoh asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” Christ answered that question with a towel and a basin, and then with a cross.
Missions Paul 