“I will harden Pharaoh's heart...”
2 Thou
shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto
Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. 3 And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken
unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and
my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that
I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the
children of Israel from among them. 6 And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them,
so did they. 7 And
Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when
they spake unto Pharaoh.
(Ex 7:2-7)
Though the Lord has called you, are you too old, too halt, to glib with your
tongue, to speak on the Lord’s behalf? Not Moses! He was a chipper eighty-three
years old when he braved the wrath of the most powerful sovereign on earth and
went boldly before the courts of Pharaoh and “did as the LORD commanded
them, so did they.” This was not fearful cringing before the
powers of bad government, but a courageous choice as to who to obey – God, not
Mammon. They regarded their DUTY before God above any presumed duty to the
state. Have we done so? Read the words of a great Christian general:
Duty –
Honor - Country — those three hallowed words reverently dictate
what you want to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying
point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there
seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of
imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a
slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic,
every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an
entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of
mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do. They
build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the
custodians of the nation’s defense. They make you strong enough to know when
you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur, West Point, 12 May 1962
His sense of duty to God gave Moses the courage to go before the Pharaoh with
the demands God laid out for him in the face of awesome fear. That my friend is
courage and bravery – to act on conscience even when to do so brings with it a
bone-chilling fear – to act and do the right thing in spite of our fears and to
give little counsel to them. This, Moses did!
A great Pastor and writer wrote, more than one hundred years ago, this comment
on verses 1-8 of this chapter:
1. The message (verses 1-8), in
its substance and its circumstances, was fitted to arrest the people's
attention and win their love. In that message, whether you regard its Author,
its bearer, or its nature, everything tended to entice; nothing to repel them.
Its author was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; its bearer was
Moses, a man who for their sakes had sacrificed his position among the princes
of Pharaoh, and taken: refuge in a desert; its nature was hope to the
desponding and freedom to the enslaved. The time, too, seemed fit: when the
bondage had become unbearable, word is sent that the bondage is almost done.
Before the slave a prospect of liberty is opened; before the weary a prospect
of rest. Will the drooping spirits of the multitude revive at this intelligence?
will they shake of the inert submissiveness of a lifetime, and boldly strike
for freedom in concert with their deliverer?
2. No. The promise, although it
was exceedingly rich and precious, stirred not the sluggish mass. It wasa
spark of fire that fell, but it fell on wetted wood, and kindled therefore no
flame. "They hearkened not unto Moses." Why? No people could
be in deeper affliction; to no afflicted people could a kinder message come, no
kinder message could be better authenticated, and yet they heeded not.
They neither denied the truth of the message, nor injured the messenger who
bore it. When God's great salvation was provided and offered, the people
neglected it. This is the head and front of their offending. They said nothing
against it, but they let it alone.
As American staggers deeper and deeper into spiritual, social, political, and
economic bondage to the taskmasters of their own making, do the words of
Exodus, of great generals, and of great Christian writers not awaken us to the
clarion call of DUTY, first, to God, and then to our fellow man? Does God’s
Word no longer “stir the sluggish mass?”
God brings great judgments against Egypt but, remember, if the people of Israel
had failed to do precisely as God commanded, the same final judgment would have
fallen with equal severity upon them – and the first born of Israel would also
have been taken that dreadful Passover night in Goshen. I fear that each man
and woman of America today votes without regard for their duty to God first. We
compromise our duty to God by opting for economic advantage over the lives of
millions of unborn innocents.
We have, in America, recently experienced an amazing
expression of dissatisfaction of the American people for the belligerent and
ungodly leadership with which we have been cursed for the past years. But will
the turning of the tables result in real change? Will our country continue to
pursue, in more sophisticated and silkened-gloved rule, the same old abuses
that led to the revolt at the polls? Will the unborn still have no defense
against a decadent and murderous institution of abortion? Will we continue to
dishonor the first institution of marriage for the sake of ‘political
correctness?’ Will our beloved land yet remain exposed, as a virgin to ravening
wolves, to illegal usurpation of her pborders? When will the water become so
hot that we recognize that we are dying? Did this happen to Israel in Egypt?
When they awoke to their bondage, was it too late to brake the shackles without
the direct intervention of God Almighty?
God is unrelenting, as long as faith remains, in warning and
cajoling His people from their self-imposed hazards. He may demonstrate many
marvelous wonders in order to awaken the sleepers at the gate: “8 And the LORD spake unto
Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 9 When Pharaoh shall speak
unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take
thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. 10 And Moses and Aaron went
in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down
his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh also called
the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in
like manner with their enchantments. 12 For they cast down every
man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
13 And
he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had
said.” (Ex
7:8-13)
It was not the ‘unresisting’ of the Will of God that
hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but the ‘resisting’ of that Will. Above all else, it
was not in the mind of Pharaoh to allow the Children of Israel to go free. So
no matter the marvelous and undeniable miracles, he was only hardened in his
resolve rather than receptive of God’s demand. There are a great many
demagogues in Washington, D.C. today who are of the precise same mold.
The next miracle would add further inarguable evidence that
Moses was sent by God. Though Pharaoh did not relent, I believe, just as the
Pharisees truly knew who Jesus was – and denied, so will Pharaoh know that God
is moving, but rebels against Him. “14 And the LORD said unto Moses,
Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. 15 Get thee
unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt
stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a
serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. 16 And thou shalt say unto him, The
LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that
they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not
hear. 17 Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which
are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that
is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall
lothe to drink of the water of the river. 19 And the LORD spake unto
Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters
of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon
all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be
blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels
of stone.” (Ex 7:14-19)
It is far more desirable to have rivers of blood, than the
spilling of the blood of our firstborn. Pharaoh will, in due course, feel the
mournful sting of the latter. Moses and Aaron again obey the precise counsel of
God: “20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he
lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of
Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the
river were turned to blood. 21 And the fish that was in
the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the
water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 And the magicians of Egypt
did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did
he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and
went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. 24 And all the Egyptians
digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of
the water of the river. 25 And seven days were
fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.” (Ex
7:20-25)
The extent that ungodly governments will go to reject the
Word of God is awe-inspiring. My father used to tell me that there are some
particularly reprobate men who would rather climb a rocky cliff to tell a lie
than to stand flat-footed upon the earth and tell the truth. That pretty much
summarizes governments unrestrained by the moral law of God. When Jesus
referred to Caesar, he spoke of unrestrained power; but who is Caesar in the
American government if it is not the people themselves? WE are responsible for
ungodly political choices and decisions. When will we recognize that all
legitimate government and law comes down from God? “When the righteous
are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the
people mourn.” (Prov 29:2)
Have we not mourned enough in recent years?
