Hi Friend,
When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Israelites, the king of the most powerful nation on earth laughed. Moses was a shepherd. Of all animals, sheep may have held the distinction of being the creature most despised by the Egyptians. For forty years Moses had followed a herd of sheep around the sparsely populated desert regions to find food and water. Now he was standing before the formidable monarch to make the presumptuous request of taking the workforce of Egypt for a vacation in the wilderness.
Rather than listen to Moses, Pharaoh decided to do something to make the Israelites hate Moses. He increased the slave’s workload and spread the word that Moses was the cause. The ploy worked. Some of the Israelites hated the man God sent to save them. Who could blame them? They were working in the hot sun for a pittance and now they were beaten with whips—all because of Moses.
God upped the ante. He sent Moses and Aaron to Pharoah to announce plagues on the land. The water was turned to blood and now the Egyptians were forced to drink blood—retribution for the past eighty-plus years the people had shed the blood of so many Israelite babies. Pharaoh was incensed. Moses came back with a plague of frogs that covered the land, their homes, their streets, and their yards. They could not go to bed without frogs jumping in between the sheets or cook food without frogs on the countertops.
Pharaoh called on his priests. The magicians made frogs too which only exacerbated a bad situation causing the king more frustration. Pharaoh wanted fewer frogs and his priests added to the problem.
Pharaoh hated Moses, the despised shepherd who was getting the best of the king. The Bible says that “Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exodus 8:15, 32) or as we might say, he developed a Moses Derangement Syndrome. The powerful monarch insanely opposed everything Moses said even though his nation was being destroyed.
Solomon said that ”What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) What Pharaoh did over 3,000 years ago is being done now. Today we use the phrase Trump Derangement Syndrome and those who coined it claim that the previous president is so hated by his political opponents that they have lost touch with objective reality. Even policies that had obvious benefits are opposed because the minds of politicians are deranged with hatred for the person. As a result, the nation is being destroyed.
Some scholars recognize a Moses Derangement Syndrome among Christians. Some people consider Moses an outdated character from the Old Testament who has no relevance to modern Christianity. They teach that the Law of Moses is not relevant outside ancient Israel because it is not the Law of God. They say it cannot apply to 21st Century mankind. The problem with that idea is that the Prophet Ezra said the Law of Moses was given by God. Later Malachi quotes God as saying that the Law of Moses is His Law. (Malachi 4:4) And the next verse places this statement in an end-time setting at the return of Christ.
There was the time when Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, up on a mountain and was “transfigured” before them. His face shone like the sun and Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus. (Matthew 17:1-4) This event tells us that Moses will be in the Kingdom of God and the Law of Moses will again be respected.
The man Pharaoh was an example—a bad example for mankind to avoid. Pharaoh had Moses Derangement Syndrome. He hated Moses so much that he chose the opposite of every word Moses spoke. Today, the world is in a crisis. A good strategy for survival is to listen to the words of Moses. Even the Egyptians who rejected Pharaoh and listened to Moses were able to escape some of the plagues and some of those people left Egypt with the Israelites to journey to the Promised Land. Thereby they gained freedom from an insane tyrant.
Moses will always be emblematic of a leader who guides men to freedom. Those who want to be free should embrace him.
Until next time,
Jim O’Brien