Exodus 7:1-5

And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

The Lord tells Moses to go speak to Pharaoh, but at the same time He also tells him Pharaoh will not listen. That almost sounds strange at first. Why send Moses if the answer is already going to be no? Because God is doing more than simply getting Israel out of Egypt. He is also making Himself known in Egypt.

That is an important thing to see. Deliverance was certainly coming for God’s people, but it would not come in a way that only benefited Israel. The Lord was also going to use the whole conflict to reveal His power, His authority, and His name to the Egyptians. What looked like resistance from Pharaoh was really going to become the backdrop against which the hand of God would be seen more clearly.

That helps us understand why the Lord sometimes allows His people to remain in difficult places longer than we would choose. We want the problem fixed immediately. We want the pressure lifted now. We want the hard thing removed before it digs any deeper. But the Lord is often doing two things at once. He is indeed bringing His people toward freedom, but He is also showing those around them that He is the Lord.

That is what was happening in Egypt. God was going to bring His people out, but He was also going to speak to a watching world through the plagues and through the judgments that followed. The Egyptians would not be able to say they had not seen His hand. They would know there was a God in Israel, and that He was not like the powerless gods of Egypt.

There is a word in that for us. Sometimes we cry, “Lord, get me out of this.” And He may very well do so. But in the meantime, there may be Egyptians watching. There may be people around us who know nothing of the Lord, but they are watching how we walk through pain, disappointment, weakness, sickness, family strain, financial pressure, and all the rest. They are listening to what comes out of our mouths. They are noticing whether there is a steadiness in us that they cannot explain.

Anyone can praise God when the sea is calm and the sun is shining. But when a man or woman keeps walking with the Lord in the middle of deep waters, that says something. That shows something. It reveals that God is not just a doctrine we talk about, but a present help, a sustaining strength, a living reality.

So the Lord says to Moses, in effect, “Speak anyway.” Pharaoh would resist. The conflict would intensify. The pressure would increase. But through it all, the Lord would stretch out His hand. Israel would be delivered, and Egypt would be shown who He is.

That is still the way the Lord works. He does not waste the hard places. He does not abandon His people in them. He uses those very places to move us toward His promise while at the same time showing others that His grace is real. Sometimes the trial is not only about what God is doing for you. Sometimes it is also about what He wants to show through you.