Who Does God Think You Are? Lessons from Moses, Pharaoh, and a Hard Heart

Most of us are familiar with the story of Moses and Pharaoh. But tucked inside the drama of staffs turning into serpents and rivers running with blood is a question that cuts straight to the heart of how we live our faith: not "who do you think you are?" but rather, who does God think you are, and what does he want to do through you?

What Does God Mean When He Says "I Have Made You Like God to Pharaoh"?

At the opening of Exodus 7, God says something striking to a discouraged, excusemaking Moses: "I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet." God is not saying Moses is divine. Moses knew that. God knew that. But he is saying something powerful about identity and calling.

Moses had just come off a string of failures. Pharaoh had made life harder for the Hebrew slaves. The Israelites leaders had turned against Moses. He was full of excuses: I can't speak well, I've already blown it, I'm not the right person for this.

And yet God says: get back in the game.

That is the same invitation God extends to ordinary people today.

You Don't Have to Be Impressive to Be Used by God

If you want your life to count, you don't need a high IQ, a platform, fame, money, or an impressive resume. What you need is one simple, glorious thing: to love God and to make him known.

That is what God was inviting Moses into. Not a complicated mission. Not a role reserved for the spiritually elite. Just a willingness to represent God in the place where he already stood.

Paul captures this identity in 2 Corinthians 5:20: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." An ambassador speaks on behalf of the ruler of the kingdom they represent. That is who you are when you walk into your workplace, your family gathering, your neighborhood, or your grocery store.

God Works Through People. That Is His Favorite Method.

Throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New, God cosistently chooses to work through ordinary, imperfect people. Not because he cannot act on his own, but because he loves to extend the blessing of participation to those he loves.

If you have the Holy Spirit because you have placed your faith in Jesus, you carry his presence into every room you enter. You may be the only representation of Christ that some people ever encounter.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3: "You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God on your heart." Some people will never open a Bible. But they will read your life, especially when things are not going well for you.

What Does It Look Like to Represent Jesus in Real Life?

It does not require standing behind a pulpit. For most people, faith becomes real not through a sermon but through someone who simply did life alongside them and pointed them toward Christ.

Consider this: who in your life needs to hear today that God cares about them? It might be a text message. It might be a phone call. It might be showing up. The nudge you feel toward someone is often the Holy Spirit saying, that is the person.

One story worth holding onto: a man made eight phone calls to a friend he had not heard from in years, with no response. He was ready to give up after the seventh. He made one more. The friend picked up. Do not give up on the people God has placed on your heart.

God Calls You to Act, Not to Control the Outcome

When Aaron threw down his staff and it became a serpent, and then swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians, you might expect Pharaoh to be moved. He was not. Verse 13 says plainly: "Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said."

This is a critical truth for anyone who has been praying for a hard-hearted person in their life. God does not call you to control the outcome. He calls you to act in obedience and leave the results to him.

Moses and Aaron did exactly what God commanded. That is the standard. Not success by human measurement. Faithfulness.

What Does a Hard Heart Actually Mean?

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is one of the most debated threads in Exodus. But here is what we can say with confidence: God does not override human will. Pharaoh was free to choose. And every choice he made against God made the next choice against God a little easier.

C.S. Lewis put it this way in The Great Divorce: "In the end, there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.'" The gates of hell, Lewis wrote, are not locked by God from the outside. They are locked by people from the inside.

Our choices do not just affect us. They shape the people around us. Pharaoh's hard heart brought suffering to an entire nation.

Why Did God Turn the Nile to Blood?

The first of the signs God brought against Egypt was turning the Nile River to blood. The Nile was everything to Egypt. Its economy, its identity, its gods, its life all flowed from that river. It was mercy in the form of a wake-up call. God was giving Pharaoh and the Egyptians every reason to recognize who he is.

And even then, Pharaoh's magicians imitated the sign, turning more water to blood. But notice what they could not do: they could not turn it back. They could add to the problem. They could not restore what was lost.

That is the nature of everything that opposes God. It can wound. It can destroy. It can add suffering. But it cannot heal the human heart. Only God can do that.

The Blood That Actually Sets Us Free

The blood of the Nile points forward to something greater. All of these signs and wonders in Exodus build toward a God who ultimately gives his own blood, through Jesus Christ, for our freedom and salvation. The plagues are not just ancient history. They are a picture of a God who will go to any length to free his people.

God's call to Moses was never just about escaping slavery. It was about freedom for a purpose: "Let my people go so that they may worship me." Freedom without worship is just a different kind of emptiness. We are made for relationship with God, to live as his people and make him known.

The Hard Heart Closest to Home

It is easy to read about Pharaoh and immediately think of the hard-hearted person in your own life. The spouse, the adult child, the sibling, the friend who just will not listen.

But before we look outward, there is a question worth sitting with: how many signs will it take before we ourselves surrender? The greatest danger is not always the hard heart around us. Sometimes it is the one within us.

Life Application

This week, take one step of obedience without waiting to see the outcome. Think of one person God may have placed on your heart, someone who needs to know he cares about them. Reach out. Send the message. Make the call. Leave the results to God. You are not responsible for changing their heart. You are responsible for showing up as his ambassador.

Ask yourself:

• Matt reframes the familiar question ‘Who do you think you are?’ into ‘Who does God think you are?’ How does that shift in perspective change the way you see yourself and your purpose?

• Moses had plenty of excuses: he was a poor speaker, he had failed before, and he felt unqualified. What excuses do you find yourself using when God nudges you to step out in faith?

• Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:3 that some people will never read a Bible but they will read your life. Who in your life might be reading you right now, and what do you think they are seeing?

• How many plagues will it take before you surrender? Is there an area of your life where God has been persistently calling you to let go, and you have been holding on? What would it look like to finally release it to him?

God does not wait until you are perfect or fully ready. He calls ordinary, imperfect people and says: I have made you my ambassador. Go. Act. And trust that I will do what you cannot.