God says to Moses, you go up to Pharaoh’s door, knock on the door and tell him. Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn. Let him go.
Let him go into the wilderness that he might worship me. He said, Now you go and offer him that option. The offer is genuine. The offer is genuine. When God sends Moses to Pharaoh, he says, Pharaoh, let my people go into the wilderness that they might worship me. The offer is genuine. Pharaoh was capable of saying,
Well, okay, and let them go. Or he’s capable of saying, wait a minute, who is this Yahweh? And Moses has this conversation with him and he says, well, okay, in the light of that, I’m going to let them go. He’s capable of doing that. And the offer is there for him to do it.
But God knows that he won’t, for he tells Moses, but he won’t. He won’t. Because God knows that Pharaoh won’t doesn’t mean that Pharaoh couldn’t have. But when God approaches him in Moses, he makes him make a choice. Yes. If God had never said to Pharaoh, Let my people go. Pharaoh would never have had to make a choice.
That means he never would have made a choice to say no to Yahweh. So God’s confronting him with the opportunity of obedience, even though God knows he won’t obey. The offer is real, but God knows even as he offers it, he won’t do it. And God is going to use his making Pharaoh choose.
God’s going to use that to glorify himself by bringing them out with 10 plagues. Is that clear? Let me say, we’re nearly finished here at this little session. So let me take a moment to say this again. God comes to Pharaoh, says to him, let my people go.
Pharaoh could have either chosen to let them go or not to let them go. The choice was his.
God didn’t send Moses to somebody who was a puppet and was going to say what God said. God sent Moses to a man who could have let them go and was responsible for keeping them in slavery. That was his business. That’s what he did. Listen, God said to Pharaoh, make a choice. What he doesn’t say, make my choice.
God doesn’t choose for Pharaoh, but he makes Pharaoh choose. And he makes him choose that he might be glorified in the redemption of Israel.