Who is in charge of your heart? Who has the ultimate, final, fundamental sway in the inclinations, motivations, and desires of your heart? The answer is that the Sovereign Lord of the Universe is also the Sovereign of our hearts!
The Lord tells Moses in 7:3 that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh will not let the people of Israel leave Egypt. Sure enough, when Moses gives Pharaoh the sign of the serpent and thus far through the first four plagues, Pharaoh’s heart is hard. In fact, twice (8:15,32) Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart. (For clarification, the Lord’s ultimate control of hearts does not remove your agreement to, allegiance with, and approval of the bent of your own heart!) In other words, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but Pharaoh himself liked it that way!
Why would God do this? Why would he ever harden someone’s heart? As the Exodus narrative unfolds, we begin to see that the Lord had larger purposes in mind beyond just rescuing the people from Egypt. Just imagine, without the hard heart of Pharaoh, the people might have been released as soon as Moses’ serpent swallowed the magicians’ serpents! That could have been enough to scare Pharaoh to death! Then there would not have been ten plagues that demonstrated the supremacy of God above the gods of Egypt. The people of Israel would not have been lavished with the goods of Egypt, which was their provision. There would have been no Passover, which is a direct historical link to the cross! There would have been no Red Sea, which is the most remarkable deliverances in all of Scripture! God has a purpose for his glory in everything he does, even when he hardens a heart!
I have a couple of questions.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you suppose that God had Moses ask for permission for the Israelites to go into the wilderness to hold a feast to honor their God? Pharaoh suspects, and Moses knows, that a short holiday is NOT the ultimate goal for Moses' requests for Israel. And there IS no feast with sacrifices to God when Israel DOES leave Egypt. Of course, Paraoh would also have said, "NO!" to "Let My people go permanently", but why the "watered down" request?
Second question, and one I am certain will sound like I am a true product of our culture (or at least our movie culture!): from Pharaoh's viewpoint, why did he not hire assassins to get rid of Moses and Aaron?
1. Does the text specifically say the Lord told Moses to state things this way? I don't think it does. If so, let me know. Otherwise, it's just Moses trying to "get out of Dodge!"
ReplyDelete2. I think he instinctively knew that he better not touch God's man! He threatened Moses but never carried it out. He knew he was fighting a losing battle, but his pride would not let him submit!
Well, you caught me!! Good for you! I will go back and read more carefully. I am glad to see that request of Moses' as his own "contribution" and not a command from God. And it does sound like something that Moses would try, right along with trying to liberate the Israelites by killing the first abusive Egyptian slavedriver he encountered.
ReplyDeleteHow amazing that God uses us even when we get the orders mixed up, or add to them. It's a good warning though, along with the warning to read the Bible carefully and not ASSUME that I know how the story goes, as I did this time!
Double OOPS! I went back and checked 5 minutes after I typed the last comment! In Ex. 3:18 the 3 day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to God IS part of God's instructions to Moses. Now, I hurried up here to the computer to get that message typed in before you might post my LAST comment, so I didn't keep reading to see if God repeated that part of the "marching orders" anywhere else. So I guess my original question still is out there, but not all questions have answers, I've found! I appreciate you!!
ReplyDeleteGREAT DIGGING CANDY!!! I didn't think of going back to the original command in Ex 3! Plus, you have helped me locate another biblical example for a thesis I have been working on for several years! So, thank you! Your question is a good one, and one which raises an issue in ethics that has been debated for some time. I have to give a short answer in a blog such as this, so we can talk later if you want clarification.
ReplyDeleteThe debate revolves around two positions: Absolutism, which says every law of God stands (.) period! So for example, it was a sin for Germans to hide Jews and lie about it. Graded Absolutism says some laws are higher than others and in our fallen world we are forced to choose between them at times.
My proposal - Moderated Absolutism - there is only 1 law that outweighs the others, the law of Life. So if one lies to protect life, it is still a sin to lie but it is not held against them in that situation. For example, the Hebrew midwives, and as you have just pointed out, Moses' reason for the Israelites leaving Egypt!!!!!!
You have read Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place", yes? I didn't know the names for the two positions you listed above, but I encountered them in Corrie's wonderful book. (I highly recommend it to anyone else who is reading this!) Corrie's family, Christians in Holland during Nazi occupation, are hiding Jews. Two stories in the book illustrate your positions.
ReplyDeleteFirst story: Corrie's sister, Nollie, has Nazis burst into her house and demand to know where she is hiding her Jews. Nollie's daughter, who has been taught to NEVER lie, and to leave the consequences to God, says, "They are under the kitchen table." (They were under the floorboards.) When the Nazis lift the tablecloth to look, she bursts out in hysterical laughter. The Nazis feel that this young girl is making fun of them, slap her and leave. (After that, the underground decide to not hide any Jews at Nollie's home!!) Second story: All the Dutch people must turn in their radios to the Nazis. Corrie takes the large ornate family radio, but keeps the small radio which is needed to keep contact with the "outside world" and to support their work hiding Jews. When she is asked if the one radio is all her family owns, she replies, "Yes." When she comes home to her family, she is shaking, not with fear, but with the awful realization that lying came so easily for her.
I have often thought about the two stories. I wonder where I would stand. How glorious for God's people to watch God work when they are pushed back into untenable positions and still choose to obey His commands! It would be like the Israelites cornered at the Red Sea! But I, like Corrie, have been amazed at how easy it is to lie, and in situations that bear NO resemblance to her desperate one. Thankfully, I have not been able to tell a lie and shrug my shoulders about it for a long time--that is HIS grace, and He has helped me to confess lies quickly. But what choices would I make in situations like Nollie's or Corrie's? How should I PLAN to behave? Because the standards I choose now DO have bearing on how I will react when it becomes much harder to live as a Christian, right?
I have never heard of Absolutism, Graded Absolutism or Moderated Absolutism (is the last one one that you "invented"?). I suppose the terms would help us to talk about sin and when we feel "forced" to sin. But I expect for us, living in the good old U.S.A., being "forced" to sin is not an issue at all, for NOW.