Verse of the day: Exodus
4:21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you
do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will
harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
This
verse of Scripture should serve as a warning to all of us. We serve a God who
is gracious, merciful, forgiving, and patient, but He is also a God who will
give us over to our hard hearts. Before God told Moses that He would harden
Pharaoh’s heart, He told him in Exodus 3:19, “But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no,
not even by a mighty hand.” So it was not God who initiated the hardness
of Pharaoh’s heart, but He did give him up to it. Let us not forget that before
God ever sent Moses, Pharaoh worshiped pagan gods, and had no fear or respect
for the one true God. In Exodus 9:34, we are told, “And when Pharaoh saw that
the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he
hardened his heart, he and his servants.” In the New Testament, the
Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1 of those who refuse to acknowledge God as God,
and refused to turn from their wickedness. Romans 1:20-21, and 24-25 read, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as
God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish
hearts were darkened.” “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness,
in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who
exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” The Lord chose
to use Pharaoh’s hard heart to show His people that their God is the one true
God, and the Egyptians that their pagan gods were useless and of no help to
them. This is confirmed for us in Romans 9:17, “For the Scripture says
to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in
you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” The next verse,
verse 18, goes on to say, “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and
whom He wills He hardens.” If we harden our hearts against God for too
long, He may choose to give us up to it, and He would be completely justified
in doing so. For the unsaved, this should serve as a warning that they are in
danger of hardening their hearts to the point of no return, condemning them to
an eternity of unimaginable suffering in Hell and the Lake of Fire. For us, the
born again believer, if we choose to harden our hearts to the sin that God is
trying to prune from our lives, He may choose to use it to discipline us by
allowing consequences that we will live with for the rest of our time here, and
suffer a loss of reward when we stand before Him. The bottom line is that God’s
ultimate desire is that none should perish. In 2 Peter 3:9 we are told, “The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.” In Luke 13:34, Jesus lamented the rejection by the Jews, “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are
sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!” We are all
called to share the Gospel with everyone we meet (Mark 16:15), and as we do, we
do not know who it is that has hardened their heart against God. However, that
is not our concern or business to know. Our mission is to tell others about
Jesus, and trust that God already knows who will respond to His invitation to
receive eternal life in Christ. If we are harboring sin in our hearts, and
being stubborn about letting go of pet sins, now is the time to repent,
confess, and let them go, before God allows consequences that we will regret
for the rest of our lives. Our God is a good God, but He is also a God who will
give us over to our stubbornness, even though it is not what He desires for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment