HARD HEARTS (EXODUS 7:1-13)
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HARD HEARTS
HARD HEARTS
Exodus 7:1–4 (ESV)
1 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you.
NOT A SIMILE, ‘LIKE GOD’ BUT A METAPHOR ‘I HAVE MADE YOU ELOHIM TO PHAROAH’
HARDEN: DIFFERENT VERB FROM 4:21. qšh MEANS TO MAKE HAVY, HARD OR DIFFICULT. STUBBORN.
IT’S THE SAME VERB THAT WAS USED OF PHAROAH’S ACTIVITY TOWARDS THE HEBREWS IN EX. 1:14:
14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
GOD IS GIVING PHAROAH WHAT HE GAVE.
GOD HARDENING PHAROAH’S HEART IS NOT UNJUST BUT ACTUALLY HIS JUSTICE IN JUDGEMENT.
GOD IS NOT PUSHING AN OVERIDE OF FREEWILL BUTTON.
PHAROAH IS NOT INNOCENT. HE HARDENS HIS HEART THE FIRST 5 PLAGUES.
1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. 6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” 7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. 8 He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; 9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might. 11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” 12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted. 13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”? 14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none. 16 The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. 17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Exodus 7:4–5 (ESV)
4b Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
NOT JUST PHARAOH BUT EGYPT WILL PAY – THEY WILL NEITHER LEGALLY NOT MORALLY GO UNPUNISHED AND YHWH WILL REDEEM ISRAEL AS A SLAVE IS REDEEMED FROM A CRUEL MASTER.
KNOW: IN EX. 5:2 PHAROAH SAYS “WHO IS YHWH…I DO NOT KNOW YHWH”
MULTI-PURPOSE: REDEEM AND FREE ISRAEL AND JUDGE EGYPT AND BE KNOWN
KNOWING YHWH IS MENTIONED 10 TIMES IN THE PLAGUE NARRATIVE. GOD IS DEMONSTRATING HIS RIGHT AND POWER TO RULE OVER ALL PEOPLE. EVEN 40 YEARS LATER WHEN THE PEOPLE FINALLY ENTER THE PROMISED LAND THE NATIONS REMEMBER:
Joshua 2:9–10 (ESV)
9 “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt,
YHWH IS MAKING A POINT IN WHAT HE DOES AND HOW HE DOES IT!
6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
THIS PRECURSOR TO THE PLAGUES IS SYMBOLIC OF THE BATTLE BEING WAGED.
SERPENT IS NOT NACHESH BUT TANNIN – DRAGON/SEA MONSTER
PHARAOH WOULD HAVE BEEN WEARING A CROWN WITH THE URAEUS SERPENT - A FEMALE COBRA READY TO STRIKE. APOPHIS AND WADJIT EGYPTIAN SNAKE GODS.
YHWH CLEARLY DEMONSTRATES HIS SUPERIORITY AND YET PHARAOH HARDENS HIS HEART.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS TEXT? WHAT DO WE NEED TO LEARN?
FIRST, DON'T BE LIKE PHAROAH. DON'T HARDEN YOUR HEART!
THERE ARE TWO PROVERBS THAT COME TO MIND:
14 Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
FIRST. DON'T BE LIKE PHAROAH. DON'T HARDEN YOUR HEART.
SECOND. RUN TO JESUS - THE INITIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.