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Exodus 11:1–3
“The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people” (v. 3).
Isaiah 42:8 gives us this key statement from God Himself: “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.” As the self-existent and self-sufficient Creator who needs nothing and is perfectly fulfilled in and of Himself, the Lord cannot share His own essential glory with creatures. If we could possess the divine attributes in the way that God does, then we ourselves would be deity, and there would be no distinction between the Creator and His creatures. Scripture is clear that there is a God in heaven and that we are not Him and cannot be Him. We are finite; He is infinite.
Yet although the Lord cannot share His essential glory with us, we dare not think of Him as a selfish being who is out to advance Himself at the expense of others, especially His people. While God does not—indeed, cannot—share the essential glory of His divine being with us, He does promise to exalt us fully and finally. The way to our exaltation, paradoxically, consists in our humbling ourselves before Him. God will one day exalt all those who today humble themselves in His sight (1 Peter 5:6). Christ shows us the way: He was ultimately exalted because He humbled Himself (Phil. 2:5–11).
In today’s passage, we find an example from history wherein God exalted His people. Exodus 11:1–3 reports the Lord’s word to Moses that one final plague would afflict the Egyptians and move Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Before telling us what this plague would be, however, God tells Moses that the people of Israel are to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold (vv. 1–2). When they do, the people of Egypt favor the Israelites, meaning that they comply with the demands of Moses (v. 3; see 12:35–36). Moreover, Moses has come to be regarded as very great in the eyes of the Egyptians (11:1–3). His faithfulness as God’s humble servant has led to his exaltation before the world.
The story of the exodus is the story of what happens when people seek their own glory. Pharaoh and all those like him who exalt themselves against God will finally lose whatever glory they can achieve in this world, but those who serve the Lord without any thought of their own glory will one day find themselves exalted. Matthew Henry comments, “Those that honor God he will honor; and with respect to those that approve themselves faithful to him, how meanly soever they may pass through this world, there is a day coming when they will look great, very great, in the eyes of all the world, even theirs who now look upon them with the utmost contempt.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Human beings were made for glory, since God, who is perfectly glorious, created us in His image. Thus we see that men and women persistently seek glory for themselves. But the only way to lasting glory and exaltation is to humble ourselves and submit to God and His ways. If we trust and obey Him, we will finally be exalted and receive an appropriate creaturely glory that can never be lost.
For Further Study
- Psalm 37:34
- James 4:10