Justin Houtz

Exodus 7, Luke 13

DateVersionReading Plan
February 26, 2025ESV (2016)OT/NT Plan 2025 – 2027

Exodus 7

Observation

Exod. 7:1 – The LORD said to Moses that He had made him like Himself to Pharaoh and that Aaron would be Moses’ prophet. The LORD would thus speak to Moses who would speak to Aaron who would convey the message to Pharaoh.

Exod. 7:7 – Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. Moses was the youngest with Aaron being three years older and Miriam more than ten years older.

Exod. 7:12 – This is first opportunity to show Pharaoh the signs. The magicians were able to also transform their staffs into serpents, but Aaron’s staff showed its dominance in swallowing up their staffs.

Exod. 7:22 – The magicians again also did the same as Aaron in turning the Nile into blood but, in quoting Douglas Stuart, the CSB Notes points out that, “the magicians were able to duplicate on a small scale, by simple trickery, the changing of water into reddish water. Such a duplication (or, more technically, imitation) would have required only the ability to add something that would dye some water red through sleight of hand.” The TGCBC also makes note that, “Pharaoh’s hardened heart uses [the magicians’ imitation of the water to blood] as an excuse not to listen or even try to learn (Exod. 7:22-23), and his people suffer the sign’s hardship for a week (Exod. 7:24-25).”

Application

Despite the signs of the magicians being woefully inferior to those of Moses and Aaron, the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart enabled him to see in them what he wanted: an excuse to dismiss the existence and power of God. Exemplified in Pharaoh is the extent to which a heart can be bent against God. Apart from the Spirit’s work of transformation, the human heart will remain in stubborn, sinful arrogance, as “men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Rom. 1:18). What praise we should direct toward God who, by His sheer grace, has chosen to soften the hearts of His children. What worship we should give our God who would remove from us our heart of stone, replace it with a heart of flesh in that we may live in faithful obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Luke 13

Observation

Luke 13:1-5 – Jesus was told about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. The BBC provides some context as well as explanation regarding Jesus’ response:

Pilate, the governor of Judea, had ordered them to be slain while they were offering sacrifices. Nothing else is known concerning this atrocity. We assume the victims were Jews who had been living in Galilee. The Jews in Jerusalem might have been laboring under the delusion that these Galileans must have committed terrible sins, and that their death was an evidence of God’s disfavor. However, the Lord Jesus corrected this by warning the Jewish people that unless they repented, they would all likewise perish.

Luke 13:6-9 – In the parable of the barren fig tree, Jesus speaks of how the fig owner told the vinedresser to cut down the barren fig tree. The vinedresser answered to let it alone for another year to see if it bears fruit and, if it does not, the fig owner could cut it down. The BBC explains by saying, “The simplest interpretation of this refers it to the first three years of our Lord’s public ministry. The thought of the passage is that the fig tree had been given sufficient time to produce fruit, if it was ever going to do so.”

Luke 13:28 – In His answer regarding who will will be saved, Jesus said that those who are in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God but they themselves will be cast out. The ability to see into the kingdom from the place of separation from God is also in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus where Jesus said of the rich man, “in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” (Luke 16:23). On Luke 16:23, the NAC provides a clarifying comment:

This picture part of the parable should not be pressed to mean that those in hades are “below” Abraham’s bosom or that those in hell can see into heaven or that they can converse with those in heaven. These details are necessary to make the parable work, but there is no corresponding reality to which they refer.

Application

Through the parable of the barren fig tree, we see both the patience of God to allow adequate time to bear fruit but also the bitter end of those who do not. As G. H. Lang states in Parabolic Teaching, “Man exists for the honour and pleasure of the Creator: when he does not serve this just end why should not the sentence of death follow his sinful failure, and he be removed from his place of privilege?” Let the saints then plead with the Lord that by His Spirit we would be made fruitful in ministry and faithful in seeking His glory.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank You that You have not left us to ourselves but have chosen to intercede through the transformative work of Your Spirit. May Your name be glorified by the wonderful works You do. Lord, let Your work be done through me, that I would bear the fruit of Your Spirit and thereby make Your name known.

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