An Unstoppable God

Exodus 3:18–22 (NASB95)

18“They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ 19“But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. 20“So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go. 21“I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. 22“But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians.”

Commentary – An Unstoppable God

There are moments in Scripture where we are given a window into the mind of God before events unfold. Exodus 3:18-22 is one of those moments. God speaks to Moses not just with instructions but with a preview of everything that is about to happen. He tells Moses what to say, who will resist, what will follow, and what the outcome will be. It is a section full of assurance, wisdom, and a profound sense of divine purpose. As we walk through these verses together, I want us to see four truths that speak as powerfully to our lives today as they did to Moses at the burning bush. 

God instructed Moses and the elders to go before Pharaoh and identify themselves as Hebrews, a term Pharaoh would recognize. They were to speak in the name of Yahweh and ask permission for a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to their God. On the surface, this sounds like a modest and reasonable request. But in the ancient Near East, a "three-day journey" was an idiom for a major trip with formal and lasting consequences. Pharaoh would have understood immediately that this was not a request for a short holiday. The Israelites were asking to leave Egypt permanently. The request was also a direct challenge to Egyptian religion. Moses was, in effect, asking Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to sacrifice animals that the Egyptians worshipped as gods. Even in a moment of divine authority, God modeled graciousness in how His people were to approach those in power. 

Before Moses ever stood before Pharaoh, God told Moses exactly how Pharaoh would respond. He said plainly that Pharaoh would not let the people go. This raises a question that has occupied theologians and ordinary believers alike: if God predicted Pharaoh's resistance, did Pharaoh truly have a choice? The answer is clear. God predicted Pharaoh's behavior, but prediction is not the same as compulsion. Pharaoh was given a genuine choice. He could comply with Yahweh's demand and release the Israelites willingly, or he could refuse. God did not reach into Pharaoh's heart and manufacture stubbornness. What God did was demonstrate His foreknowledge, His perfect understanding of who Pharaoh was and what Pharaoh would choose when tested. The hardness of heart that recurs throughout the plague narrative was a pattern that emerged from Pharaoh's own character, his pride, and his unwillingness to yield power. I will talk more about this when we get to those verses. God's knowledge of what a person will choose does not eliminate the reality of that choice. Pharaoh was not a puppet. He was a man with enormous power who faced a genuine moral decision again and again. Every time a plague came, God gave Pharaoh another opportunity to relent. Every time Pharaoh hardened his heart, that was Pharaoh's own decision. God honored Pharaoh's freedom even as He knew how it would be used. 

While Pharaoh retained his freedom to choose, his choice did not and could not stop God's plan. God told Moses in advance that no human power, even the might of the most powerful king in the known world, would be sufficient to block what He intended to do. The plagues were not a desperate backup plan. They were always part of the design. God's sovereign purpose for His people was going to be accomplished, and the only variable was whether Pharaoh would participate in that purpose through willing cooperation or through stubborn resistance that would eventually be broken. God's will advances. It may take longer than we expect. It may come through paths we did not anticipate. But it arrives. Human opposition, no matter how powerful or entrenched, is ultimately unable to prevent what God has determined to do. 

God said He would strike Egypt with "all the wonders" He would perform. The word used in the original Hebrew for these acts is not simply "miracles" in the sense of spectacular events. They are described as punishments. God was not planning a divine light show. He was planning acts of justice directed against the nation that had enslaved, brutalized, and sought to destroy His people. Egypt had oppressed Israel for generations. They had subjected the Israelites to crushing labor. Pharaoh's predecessor had ordered the murder of Hebrew infant boys, and the Egyptian people had been willing participants in that atrocity. This was not the guilt of a single king. This was corporate sin on a national scale. God, however, did not go directly to judgment. He required that Pharaoh be given the opportunity to choose differently. Moses had to first offer Pharaoh the option of releasing the Israelites willingly, without any plague, without any suffering. Only after that offer was rejected, repeatedly, would the plagues fall. This sequence reflects a principle that runs throughout Scripture: God acts justly, and justice requires that judgment be morally warranted before it is executed. The plagues were not arbitrary violence. They were the consequence of choices freely made by a nation that had been warned and had refused to change course. 

Amid the gravity of what was coming, God included a promise that reveals His care for the practical needs of His people. He told Moses that He would make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Israelites. When the time came to leave, Egyptian women would willingly give clothing, silver, gold, and other valuables to their Israelite neighbors. God even used the word "plunder" to describe this transfer, a word normally associated with the spoils of war. But this would be no ordinary battle. God would fight on behalf of His people, and the victory would be won without bloodshed on Israel's part. The valuables would simply be given. God would move in their hearts in a way that reversed the hostility they had carried for generations. This reversal was not merely emotional. It was God's way of providing materially for a people who were about to undertake a long and difficult journey through the wilderness with nothing to their name. The years of unpaid labor, the suffering, the injustice of slavery were not going to be the final word. God was going to ensure that His people left Egypt with something in their hands, a quiet but real act of restoration for the wrongs that had been done to them. 

For us today, these verses are as relevant as ever. We live in a world where God's purposes are often opposed, where injustice can seem to go unaddressed for long stretches of time, and where the powerful seem untouchable. But Exodus 3:18-22 reminds us that God sees everything, that He knows exactly how every person and every nation will respond to His call, and that His plan is moving forward regardless of what any of them decides. Like Moses, we are called to carry a message. We are called to tell a world that is heading toward a day of reckoning that there is still time to choose differently. God does not send judgment without first sending a messenger. He does not act in justice without first extending an invitation. The church today stands in the same position Moses stood in: bearing a word that many will resist but that no resistance can ultimately silence. We are also reminded that God's provision never fails. What He has promised, He will deliver. The same God who ensured that Israel did not leave Egypt empty-handed has not changed. He still sees the injustices done to His people. He still keeps account. And He still has the power and the will to make all things right in the end. In the meantime, our job is to be a Moses-class of people to the world, delivering the messages, in words and actions, that God gives us. 

In His Service,  

Ryan Goodnight