Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them…

Exodus tells us three things about Pharaoh’s heart: that the Lord hardened it; that Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15), and that his heart “became hard” (7:13). It is important to keep these statements together in our thinking.

‘In other words, it is possible to tell two stories about Pharaoh’s heart…One is the story of Pharaoh’s moral choices, whereby his heart became increasingly ‘set in its ways’, committed more and more irretrievably to a course of genocide regarding Israel. The other is a mere statement that from the perspective of the Lord as moral ruler of his world, the point of no return had been reached and the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart must now be judgmentally imposed on him as the justly due consequence of what his own choices had made him.’ Alec Motyer, p.122.

Motyer points out that all three elements are brought together in 9:34 – 10:1:

“When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart…”

He then adds:

‘With these words we are forcefully reminded that choices are the privilege and price of being human. Our privilege is that of being responsible beings, recognising our moral values, called to make responsible choices, and given the opportunity and obligation to live in the light of the foreseeable consequences of our actions. The price we pay is that every choice, for good or ill, goes to fashioning our characters, and whether in the long or short term – or both – makes us answerable to the Judge of all the earth.’

Someone said, ‘Sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.’

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. 35 So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.

It’s been said that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things

    and beyond cure.

    Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

Alec Motyer writes helpfully on the subject of Pharaoh hardening his heart in his book on ‘Exodus’, in ‘The Bible speaks today’ series:

‘Humans are so created that the choices they make contribute to forming character, and character thus formed promotes the making of similar choices in the future. Sometimes it takes a very long series of choices to produce a fixed habit, sometimes one choice is enough, sometimes a prolonged series of choices still leaves the issue in question open. Choosing and habit forming are things we all know about. What none of us knows is when the ‘point of no return’ will be reached. None of us can say, ‘I can risk one more choice and still retain freedom to give up this habit.’ Sadly, we can pass the point where freedom to change has been lost and still retain the illusion that ‘I can give it up any time I want!’ Thus the situation in which Pharaoh found himself was not peculiar to him but is intrinsic to the human condition. Only God foresees the decisive, freedom-destroying choice, and only he knows at once when the choice that kills freedom has been made. Indeed, the Bible goes further and claims that because he is God, it is he that fixes that point.’ (Pages 121, 122).

Jeremiah was right to say that the heart is “beyond cure.” That is, it is beyond human help. No psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, no doctor, will be able to fully deal with its impenetrable depths. But there is a heart specialist who can heal. Indeed, He can perform a heart transplant. His Name is Jesus.

Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.”

31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. 32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)

33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.

What an example of power and authority in prayer. Prayer changes things – even in the natural world.

But Moses is also an illustration of the place of the prophetic in prayer. He stood ‘in the counsel of the Lord’, just as Elijah did, who was to appear many years later (James 5:17,18). They did not randomly pray for changes in the weather patterns. They wielded such influence in heaven (and on earth) because they were in tune with what God was doing, and was going to do. They operated with revelation knowledge, and this made them so effective. They had an understanding of what God wanted. Maybe this illustrates the principle of ‘pray until you pray’? Spend time with God until your spirit has insight into how God wants you to pray. For both Moses and Elijah, prayer was not a matter of ‘hit and hope’.

We also see in this section the ultimate purpose of prayer. It is that the Father’s Name should be hallowed (29b). What god does in answer to our prayers is for His glory.

What a text for these times:

“…so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.”

Sadly, we repeatedly treat it like it is ours and we have raped, rather than stewarded it. May God have mercy.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.” 23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. 26 The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.

27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”

Repentance is a change of mind leading to a change of behaviour. It is a turning – to God and away from sin. Pharaoh did not repent. He used repentant sounding language. But as the rest of the story unfolds we will again see that his heart and conduct remained unchanged. He was still the same Pharaoh. He regretted the consequences of his sin. He didn’t like it hailing and thundering, and wanted it to stop. But he didn’t want to stop sinning. Not really. He just wanted to stop suffering. Pharaoh had regret, but he did not repent.

I’ve started to re-read a book I first worked through many years ago: ‘Revolution of Character’, by Dallas Willard and Don Simpson. It was published in 2006. Today I came across these words, and thought them relevant to our passage:

“In our present thought world, the horror of our ruin is hidden from polite  and enlightened conversation. Sin as a condition of the human self is not available philosophically or ethically to explain why life proceeds as it does. For example, why do around half of American marriages fail, or why do we have massive problems with substance addiction and with the “moral failures” of public leaders? The thinkers who are supposed to know such things are lost in speculation about “causes.” Meanwhile, the real source of our failures lies in our choices and the factors at work in them. Choice is where the potential for sin dwells.”

The weather is going to change, and then Pharaoh is going to continue with choosing badly. It will be his ruin. You can’t resist God and win!

Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. 21 But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.

This is the story of the progress of the gospel in the world in two verses. There are those who believe and those who don’t; there are those who repent and those who won’t; there are those who turn and those who (seemingly) can’t. Life and death are always in the balance.

Reading verse 21 you might think, ‘Why?’ ‘Why would you do that when you already have such a build up of evidence that the Lord says what He means and means what He says?’ There is always something illogical about the stubborn refusal to believe. But someone observed that the original temptation in the garden of Eden involved doubting the truth of judgment, and we see it played out again in the plague stories. We are seeing it appearing today even among some so-called evangelicals who appear to be losing their nerve around this doctrine.

I seem to remember a couple of quotes from Jim Packer’s excellent book, ‘Knowing God’, which I read in the late 1970’s. As I recall he wrote that Adam and Eve first hid from God before they were removed from the garden. Also, I believe he said that all that God ultimately does in judgment is to underline the choices we have already made.

“My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! “I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2: New Living Translation).

Whenever we hear God’s Word, life and death are in the balance. The highway of obedience is the way of life, and the way of disobedience is the road of death. Life and death are not only eternal destinies, they are routes through the world now.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, 14 or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. 16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. 19 Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’”

The plagues started out like a warning shot across Pharaoh’s bows. If he had responded well, there would have been no need for this intensification.

However, ‘God wanted to make Pharaoh a permanent example to all people of the folly of resisting Israel’s God (verse 16). Evil men are sometimes raised…up so that God can demonstrate His justice and power in dealing with them (see Romans 9:17). No ruler – good or evil – sits in power without God having placed him there (Romans 13:1).’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.221.

God is rightly and supremely interested in glorifying His own Name, and He has the right to do it in whatever way He chooses.

‘God is most jealous for his own glory, fame, and honour. He desires above all else that His name be preserved and promoted and He will act quickly and powerfully to vindicate His glory.’ Nigel Lloyd.

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. 9 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on people and animals throughout the land.”

10 So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on people and animals. 11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.

You never know what God is going to use in His purposes. We may be surprised! A car, a home, a ten pound note, a particular personality trait, a book, a possession, an ability…”handfuls of soot from a furnace”. The thing is to stay tuned, try to walk with God, and do what He tells you. Then see what He does with what He’s told you to take hold of.

When a certain boy left home one sunny morning, carrying his picnic of 5 loaves and 2 fishes, I’m sure he had no idea how the Lord He was going to listen to would use it. Surely more than he could have asked or thought.

So…

…the words of Mary to the servants at the wedding in Cana are always pertinent for Christ’s followers:

“Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5).

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” 2 If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, 3 the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats. 4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”

5 The Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. 7Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.

I am reminded of a story I read about a lawyer who was confronted with the evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Having examined it he said, ‘The resurrection is established beyond all doubt as fact. But I find I am no nearer to conversion because my problem is not with my head but my heart.’

Whether the story is true or apocryphal, it is certainly true to life. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

We make our choices and then our choices turn around and make us.

Pharaoh was being formed in his repeated rejection of the light.

Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message

    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 For this reason they could not believe… John 12:37-39

‘True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.’ Karl Popper

And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

25 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.”

26 But Moses said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? 27 We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as he commands us.”

28 Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

29 Moses answered, “As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only let Pharaoh be sure that he does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

30 Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, 31 and the Lord did what Moses asked. The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained. 32 But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.

Someone observed that we see in Moses now, something of a man ‘growing into the job.’ There is such a calm assurance about him, and for all his great power, there is just a sense that Pharaoh cannot win. The transformation is somewhat akin to Peter, pre and post-Pentecost. Moses is a changed man.

In this section of the plague of flies story, I recognise that we can be like Pharaoh in saying to obviously committed people, ‘Steady on now. Don’t go overboard. It’s all well and good to be a disciple, but don’t take it too far.’

Someone said, ‘The devil is always telling us it is dangerous to get too near to God.’ I think that is true, and we can feel threatened by people who have obviously gone further than we have.

“The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal…” (Ezekiel 1:4). This refers to Ezekiel’s vision of God. Could it be we are scared to get too close to the “centre of the fire”? Fearful of what might be burned up?

PRAYER: Lord, please give me a desire to go deeper into you. May nothing hold me back.