How Hard is Your Heart?
Notes
Transcript
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in 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.
But if you refuse to let them go and keep holding them,
then the Lord’s hand will bring a severe plague against your livestock in the field—the horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that the Israelites own will die.”
And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.”
The Lord did this the next day. All the Egyptian livestock died, but none among the Israelite livestock died.
Pharaoh sent messengers who saw that not a single one of the Israelite livestock was dead. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not let the people go.
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of furnace soot, and Moses is to throw it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
It will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt. It will become festering boils on people and animals throughout the land of Egypt.”
So they took furnace soot and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw it toward heaven, and it became festering boils on people and animals.
The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had told Moses.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth.
By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.
However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you my power and to make my name known on the whole earth.
You are still acting arrogantly against my people by not letting them go.
Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
Therefore give orders to bring your livestock and all that you have in the field into shelters. Every person and animal that is in the field and not brought inside will die when the hail falls on them.”
Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the Lord made their servants and livestock flee to shelters,
but those who didn’t take to heart the Lord’s word left their servants and livestock in the field.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt—on people and animals and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.”
So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the land, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.
The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both people and animals. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field.
The only place it didn’t hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “I have sinned this time,” he said to them. “The Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the guilty ones.
Make an appeal to the Lord. There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t need to stay any longer.”
Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth belongs to the Lord.
But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the Lord God.”
The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe and the flax was budding,
but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops.
Moses left Pharaoh and the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land.
When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials.
So Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.
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 do these miraculous signs of mine among them,
and so that you may tell your son and grandson how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the Lord.”
So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may worship me.
But if you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.
They will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder left to you that escaped the hail; they will eat every tree you have growing in the fields.
They will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians—something your fathers and grandfathers never saw since the time they occupied the land until today.” Then he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.
Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”
So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” Pharaoh said. “But exactly who will be going?”
Moses replied, “We will go with our young and with our old; we will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds because we must hold the Lord’s festival.”
He said to them, “The LORD would have to be with you if I would ever let you and your families go! Look out—you’re heading for trouble.
No, go—just able-bodied men—worship the Lord, since that’s what you want.” And they were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.
The Lord then said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, and the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land, everything that the hail left.”
So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts.
The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there never will be again.
They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.
Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to the Lord your God, so that he will just take this death away from me.”
Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord.
Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west wind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the Israelites go.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.”
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.
One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.
Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord. Even your families may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.”
Moses responded, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for the Lord our God.
Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind because we will take some of them to worship the Lord our God. We will not know what we will use to worship the Lord until we get there.”
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go.
Pharaoh said to him, “Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”
“As you have said,” Moses replied, “I will never see your face again.”
Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the Lord.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.
They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.
Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.
Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
He will repay each one according to his works:
eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;
but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.
What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.
For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.
So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?”
On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction?
And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—
on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?