Exodus 5:1 – And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

Exodus 5:2 – And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

Exodus 5:3 – And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Hello readers, new blog time today. Let my people go. We are in Exodus, we are dealing with Moses who’s returned to Egypt and he’s standing before Pharaoh. Pharaoh is pretty much king of the known world… he’s a big, bad dude. He’s got power and authority and status and standing. When he speaks you listen and obey. That’s why he’s got slaves… people don’t have a say, what he says goes. And little Moses comes in with the authority of God’s word and completely trumps him. Today, we are speaking about authority. Because God’s word is the authority for my life, and hopefully for yours, and having God’s word gives me great authority in a world of lies, opinions, philosophies, wisdom, theories.

This is little pipsqueak Moses, who still smells like the flocks he’s been shepherding… a nobody. Where did his power lie in? He didn’t have an army. He didn’t have great physical might. He wasn’t intellectual and smart. And he speaks to Pharaoh and says under the authority of God’s word… God said, let my people go.

Moses, who are you to say this? But the secret is, which isn’t a secret, Moses didn’t come in his own authority, he came under God’s authority on God’s behalf. The Bible speaks of Christians today as ambassadors for Christ… and when an ambassador comes from a far country, he speaks on behalf of that country. We can speak on behalf of God, because we, like Moses, aren’t coming in our own strength, power, might, knowledge, wisdom… oh no. But we are coming in the name of “Thus saith the LORD God”. That’ll make the big difference. Moses would never have amounted to anything if he’d come with anything bar the word of God.

So here is Pharaoh, leader, ruler, king. And Pharaoh challenges him. Pharaoh has authority, what can be greater and make demands of him? He makes demands of people. He tells people what to do and where to go. And they do it. So who is this God who’s saying to me? Let my people go. Who is your God? But the thing is, God is capable of fighting his own battles isn’t he. By the time Moses was done, Egypt would be utterly wasted and destroyed. Turns out God’s word is a greater authority than Pharaoh, and if his word trumped Pharaoh, who was and had everything… his word trumps you and me as well. God’s word is the secret to Christian living that will make a difference, and stand out, and have power in this evil world.

Moses had come to deliver the people of God. Let my people go, that they made hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. See, the “me” is God. Moses is saying God’s word. Moses didn’t come with his own way of delivering the people. He’d tried that and failed. He’d tried to make Israel see… and they didn’t. He’d tried to deliver… and couldn’t. His own strength, intellect, wisdom, might, ability, reasoning… his person… it wasn’t enough to deliver one soul. We can’t deliver anyone in our own strength and our own way. We can only deliver through “Thus saith the Lord”. Hold forth the gospel, the word of truth, to people… and you’ll make a delivering difference in life. People do need deliverance. This world is under the power of Satan… look around you… people need deliverance.

So today we’re talking about authority. Jesus spoke with authority the Bible said. He was different to all the other religious figures… of whom there were many. What separated him from the rest? The same thing that will separate you from the rest. Jesus said what God had told him to say, he came to do his Father’s will, to say what his Father told him to say. You can have authority in your life, authority for how to run your life, your home, your family… and it work. There is a source of authority… of light and truth… there is certainty though we are swamped in this world of lies. God’s word has such authority, it broke a nation of slaves out without them having to do anything. This was a deliverance like no other… Moses didn’t come with weapons and lead a rebellion, he came with God’s word. The gospel still has power, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. This is a salvation story, Israel was SAVED out of Egypt.

As I’ve said in numerous blogs before, it’s so easy to just read past stuff. And really the Bible is a gold mine of infinite wealth, that we barely scratch the surface of the first rock of. But I’ve been thinking, and in my own life I get into discussions and debates with people. People dispute stuff. People have their own opinions, philosophies and wisdom. Everyone thinks they know everything. And they speak like they’re an authority. But the authority of God’s word is the greatest source of authority in existence. When will Christians get back to God’s word… where the power is. Where the salt and light comes from. Christians cast away God’s word and put off faith… and they lost all authority in their life. They don’t know what’s what, they’re useless and good for nothing, just as Jesus warned of.

In the sea of opinions and theories all which attempt to rival the truth… a Christian should be different. A Christian should stand up and stand out just like Daniel did in Babylon. But this world will attempt to rival the truth. You read on here and you’ll see Pharaoh disputing the authority of God’s word. Who is God? That’s this world today, they live that exact question just like their spiritual father. And you’ll see his attempts to rival and match and counterfeit and compromise the authority that Moses had. You and I as Christians have authority with the word of God… but most of us are not like Moses, who did not fall into the trap that many of us do. Many Christians today have ceded authority in debates, discussions and dialogues.

Many Christians need deliverance rather than being deliverers. One Moses… but a big old nation. That’s quite a ratio. A Christian is called to be a deliverer. You can be used to deliver people from lies, from Satan, from sin, from hell. You can make a difference. Remember, God was using Moses to deliver his people.  He’d taken a good number of decades to get there, but he was finally a man who was confident enough in God’s word to risk everything to go into a wicked king and demand a nation of slaves to be just “let go”. We know from reading that these slaves were being used to build treasure cities… they were an extremely valuable workforce for Pharaoh. Pharaoh was benefiting enormously from the free labour. You think he’s just gonna let them go?

God is bigger and stronger than Pharaoh. You can hold to something that is bigger and stronger than everything and everyone else. You can have the authority Moses did, and you should have that authority. It’s a shame to Christians today that they don’t have authority. There is no strength or power in how they speak and live. Nobody gets delivered from nothing anymore. So many people are Christians, but they’re undelivered and unsaved aren’t they. They’re not out of Egypt, they’re not out of anything.

One thing that struck me in these verses was that Moses said that they were to be let go so that they could hold a feast to God in the wilderness. If you think what a feast is… that’s a celebration, that’s a good time. They’ve been stuck in Egypt for 400 odd years. I’d imagine that’d be quite a feast. Getting saved is a happy, joyous time in your life. We often don’t have that attitude to salvation, probably because we’ve been saved from nothing, thus nothing to be happy about. Christianity should be a feast, but it’s more a famine. Being delivered from sin is the best time of your life. When they got out they had a number of feasts that would commemorate their deliverance. And it was God’s word that did it, God’s authority trumped Pharaoh’s. Moses was in and of himself nothing. He just obeyed God’s word.

We live real lives in a real world. I have conversations with people each day… and so do you. So when it comes to discussions over what’s right and wrong, what do we believe and why, what is truth… you begin to see the need for a definitive source of authority. Pilate said to Jesus “what is truth?” That’s our society today. Because without authority, your life and society becomes a mess. If you look in the book of Judges, you see a time where the Bible says there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You see, a king represents authority. But with no king, everyone was just doing their own thing. Nobody could or would tell the other what to do, everyone was just doing their own thing however it seemed right to them… and it was a mess. We live in a similar time today, everyone has their own truth and there is no authority. There is no “this is the truth”. Authority has been ceded to the devil, something Moses did not do. Pharaoh offered Moses compromises, he tried negotiating and doing deals and giving a little ground, but Moses said “there shall not be a hoof left behind”.

If you don’t have authority in your life, you’ve got nothing. By what authority do you say and do what you do? If God’s word isn’t the authority, you don’t have a foundation for your own life, how are you going to make a difference in anyone else’s? There’s no rock. There’s a reason why Satan chips away at God’s word in your life. He wants to disconnect you from God’s word. He knows that’s the source of authority both for your living and your ministry. If he can cut you off from that source of authority, you’re done. Authority has to do with power, rule, sway, credibility, order. The questioned by what authority Jesus was doing what he was doing. Who told you to do and say what you’re doing Jesus? Who are you to say this and that? They did that to Moses and Jesus… you think they’ll do it to you? What will you say? Are you acting on God’s authority, or on your own authority. Moses had tried delivering the people under his own authority, and it ended in a dead Egyptian and Moses on the run.

In today’s society we are told to trust the scientists. Why? Because they’re considered authorities. Trust the experts! Trust us because we’ve got degrees and this is our areas of expertise and field of knowledge. When someone speaks authoritatively about something, it’s because they know what they are talking about (or perceived to be so). Because I’ve grown vegetables before and gotten half decent at growing them, I can speak authoritatively to a beginner on how to grow, what to do and what not to do. I say all this to establish that you really do understand authority. Relate that to God’s word, God’s word is what gives us authority. It gives us authority over the lies of the devil, it gives us authority in debates and discussions and dialogue.

People just don’t want to come under the authority of God’s word. Pharaoh didn’t. He went against God’s word… and it cost him everything, including his own life. Going against God’s word is bound for failure, because he is bigger and stronger than you. God knows more than you. God can do more than you. As Pharaoh’s servants said to him… knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? Can’t you see Pharaoh? You’re killing us with your crazy going against God’s word. He destroyed his own nation and people because of his hard heart to God’s word. You’ll destroy your own life senselessly as you butt heads with God.

When someone speaks from God’s word, they speak with authority. So when you’re in tune with God’s word, you do have power to influence others. You have deliverance power. A born again Christian abiding in the word of God has power. They have power with God and with others. You can make a difference in life. A little boy with a slingshot came up against a giant and whipped him one day, and that boy became king of Israel. Don’t miss your shot in life. Fear could’ve stopped David from ever taking his shot in life. But he trusted God and won a great victory. Don’t think it was that easy for Moses… he was rolling in to a place where he’d been a wanted man, he was rolling up to a leader who could have him killed on the spot and making outrageous demands of him. But God’s word was greater authority than all the authority and power Pharaoh had. Crazy!

I was going to do a different blog today, but this has become clear to me. What sets us apart from the sea of ideas, opinions, theories and blah… it’s God’s word. If you speak God’s word, if you believe it and live it and hold it forth and base your life upon it… you have authority. More than you know. He is the stone that although the builders rejected… the same is the head of the corner. Pharaoh rejected the word of God… but the Lord God triumphed and his people were gloriously delivered.

Think about this… Israel was stuck in Egypt for hundreds of years. You think any of the slaves ever wanted to go? Why had it taken this long? You think anyone ever said to Pharaoh… let us go? Pharaoh would’ve just said, you’re kidding pal. How did Moses’ word carry so much weight and make such a big difference? The authority of God’s word. It wasn’t anything special about Moses, it was the message he was carrying that was special, because God always backs his own word up. His word doesn’t return void. His word is with power. That’s why his word matters. God can fight his own battles. God can execute his word. He doesn’t just say it… he does it.

Moses knew God’s word. He said what God’s word said. No fancy rubbish, no debate or negotiation. God has said, Let my people go. Moses didn’t roll in with an army. The only backing he had was God’s word. That was his sole source of strength. GOD said do this. This is what God’s said. So naturally Pharaoh said… who is your God? Oh Pharaoh thought he was so much greater than God. So does this world. Moses didn’t enter into a debate and discussion and try and do a deal. He just said, this is what God has said and I’ll settle for no less. So many of us Christians would bomb out where Moses did. Moses could’ve got a few plagues in and think hey, I’ve done pretty well here, let’s just take the deal Pharaoh is giving us. He could’ve settled for a compromise and disobeyed God’s word in the process. We need to learn from Moses. It wasn’t a negotiation and a let’s have a chat about it… it was God said this… and you’re gonna do it Pharaoh. He TOLD Pharaoh. Think about it? No hand wringing, no uhhh Pharaoh I think it’d be a good idea to let God’s people go. Please Pharaoh, please let them go. No. Moses said. Hey Pharaoh, God has said, LET my people go. He didn’t ask him, he didn’t seek permission, approval, validation… he TOLD him.

Moses didn’t cede his authority. Many Christians have and do. Pharaoh offers some compromises and brokers a deal and they shake hands on it. So often Christians don’t stick with God’s word and don’t obey it. That’s why Christianity is powerless and weak and without authority today. Pharaoh tried rivalling Moses’ authority… hey his magicians threw down their rods as well and they became snakes too. Like they were on par with God, like they were equal! Yeah, you put your equal truths head to head with God’s word of truth… you’re gonna lose. Moses rod that became a snake ate all their snakes up. Pharaoh really attacked the authority that Moses came under, but he couldn’t beat it, and he couldn’t rival it and couldn’t corrupt it. Why did we ever cede our authority as Christians? Why did we ever lay down the word of God? We have the incorruptible, perfect, eternal word of God… and we stopped believing it, we stopped living it, we stopped speaking it… and we’re just like those slaves… 400 years was a long time to finally get delivered.

So today, you have access to the word of God. You are so privileged. You can have authority to base your life on, and authority to impact the world around you. You can reach lost sinners, you can have deliverance power. But the key is to get in God’s word, believe it yourself, be saved and then base your life and actions upon his word. God will lead you in accordance with his word, just like he did with Moses. You have authority that trumps every other authority system in this world, you have the word of God. Depart from it, and you’ll have nothing. Let my people go. Have you gotten out yet? We all need deliverance. And the gospel was given to you, because it is the power of God unto salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ will save you. Believe on him, trust in him, and obey him… and you won’t be in Egypt anymore. All the power over your life, it can be broken, and your life can be a feast to God. All Moses had for his return to Egypt was the word of God. But God’s word is ultimate authority, that same word of God still gets the job done today, believe on him, get saved, and stay with it, stay the course, stick with the tried, tested and true word of the Lord today… that’s where the authority and power of God is.

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