December 8, 2023

Exodus 8: 28 Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.” (NIV)

If we aspire to get a person to change his mind about anything, we have a responsibility to understand at least where he has come from or what has made him what he is.*

From the moment that Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden, the world has been a mess. Is it worse today – or does it seem worse because societies no longer live in isolation? Does it matter? Our mission is the same: go into our godless and depraved world and share the Good News. So what does that have to do with Moses and Pharaoh? What can we learn from this episode in history?

Moses had the interesting and challenging task of negotiating with the leader of a pagan nation. In any such exchange, the involved parties should look for some common ground. It may not be obvious, but Moses and Pharaoh did have a foundation to build upon. While the Egyptians, like other pagan cultures, did not believe in the one true God, their instinct to worship something led them to invent gods. With that mindset, they had no trouble accepting the concept of a higher power. “Pray for me,” Pharaoh said. He may not have worshipped God, but at least he was willing to acknowledge the possibility of God and his power.

Our witness to lost individuals is easier if we can find that common ground. If they believe in God, or if they only acknowledge the existence of a higher power, we have a starting point. If the person believes that we are all alone in the universe, we may have to dig deeper – into their in-born need to worship. If we are going to move them beyond their foundational point to Pharaoh’s “pray for me” moment, however, our personal story must speak of God’s power in our lives. While Moses had plagues to demonstrate it for him, our faithful, Spirit-led walk can quietly witness to what God can accomplish in any surrendered soul.

The power of the message resides heavily in the experience and life (and personal testimony) of the messenger.*