Have you ever seen a friend or loved one following a path that was destroying his life? Perhaps it was alcoholism. Maybe they were gambling away all they owned. It could be massive credit card debt. Even something like working too much and neglecting one’s family could fit into this category.
What did you do? Did you confront them? Did you warn them? Plead with them to change?
Pharaoh’s pride and hardheartedness have put him on a destructive course. Back in Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Moses warned him many times that plagues were about to come, and yet Pharaoh hardened his heart, even when his people were dying, and refused to submit to the Lord’s will.
Then today, we read one of the most disturbing verses in the whole Bible. Exodus 9:12, after the sixth plague, after five devastating displays of the Lord’s power and Pharaoh consistently refusing to obey God’s Word, we read, “But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.”
The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s a scary thought.
Romans 1:24-25 says, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Sometimes, God gives people what they want. When there is a constant rejection of His loving lordship, refusal to listen to His truth, and utter defiance of His good will God sometimes gives that person what his heart desires . . . along with the consequences that go along with denying God. Sometimes God punishes sin with more sin.
Yet, God does not desire such punishment to fall on us. In Ezekiel 33:11, the Lord says to the prophet, “Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'” Every battering blow that the Lord delivered to Egypt was given in the desire that they would turn from their wickedness and know His love and salvation, and that all the nations would know God’s greatness and compassion.
Thanks be to God that He has shown His love and compassion to us; not by punishing our land and our people, but by pouring out the devastating consequences of our sins on His Son, Jesus! “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) In other words, Jesus became the worst sinner of all time on the cross, and He gave us his perfection. He stood under God’s punishment so that we could be free and live.
Lord Jesus, Thank you for your compassion and kindness to us. Help me to never harden my heart, but to always hear your Word and live in your mercy and forgiveness. Work in me to make me able to share your forgiveness with others, so they, too can know your salvation. Amen.
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