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The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

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One of the most controversial phrases in the Bible has to be when God says that He will “harden Pharaoh’s heart.” (See Exodus 4:21 and 7:3 for two examples.) For the longest time, this statement has troubled me. It seemed as though Pharaoh didn’t even have a choice. I always imagined in my mind that Pharaoh was willing to let the people go earlier but God wouldn’t let him. As if God wanted to make a point using Pharaoh, like some judge who decides a massive punishment for a small crime just to make an example of the person. How could a God who says He is love do such a thing?

As I was recently studying the whole story of Pharaoh and the Exodus I saw a different side of God than I had before (and a different side of Pharaoh). I realized that I had come to the wrong conclusion. The problem was that I was reading God’s statement wrong. Let me explain.

I noticed that throughout the story, the “source” of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart changes. While God does say He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, in some passages (ie: Exodus 7:3, 9:7, 35), it simply says his heart “was hardened.” In others (ie: Exodus 8:15, 19, 32), it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Why the difference? Which is it?

I also learned that the passages use three different Hebrew words* to describe this “hardening” experience. One of the words means “to make rigid or obstinate” (for another place it is used, see Jeremiah 5:3). Another word (used only once—by God) meant “to make stubborn” (for another place this word is used, see 2 Kings 17:14). And the third word (used mainly when Pharaoh hardened his own heart) means “to make dull or unresponsive,” carrying the idea of being insensible (you can also find this word used in Isaiah 6:10). I had always thought “hardening” meant he wasn’t compassionate, or that he had become mean. Yet, these words carry more of an idea of Pharaoh being unwilling to accept or understand things differently than he did going into this experience.

Then I saw a similar scene in the book of Revelation. In chapter 16, John describes the seven bowls of God’s wrath that are poured out on those who have the Mark of the Beast (that’s a whole different, but fascinating, study for another day). As the bowls are poured out, some of the plagues that come upon the earth are similar to those in the story of Pharaoh. What was the reaction of the people that experienced the plagues? “They cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory” (Revelation 16:9). The plagues that fell on those who did not love God already, didn’t convert them. If anything, the plagues made them hate Him even more. You could say that their hearts were “hardened” further towards God.

As I considered these points, it hit me: God’s statement about hardening Pharaoh’s heart was not a plan to force, but an admission that He’d be the cause of it. The signs and wonders that God would do would not make Pharaoh believe, it would only make him more stubborn. It wasn’t that God would force Pharaoh to become obstinate against his will, it was that Pharaoh would choose to become increasingly unresponsive toward God.

God has that affect on people. We always assume that if God showed His power, everyone would automatically believe and bow down to Him. Yet, we only have to look at how the people reacted to Jesus to see that this is not the case. When Jesus performed a miracle of casting out a demon (Matthew 12:22–24), there were some who were convinced of the power of God and began to believe in Jesus. However, the Pharisees, who had already set their hearts against Jesus, only hated Him more, claiming it was through the power of Satan. In fact, the more influential Jesus became, the more they set their hearts against Him—even to the point of plotting to kill Him (see Matthew 12:9–14, or John 11:45–53).

The truth is, when we are confronted with God—with His power, His counsel, or even just the idea of Him—there will be one of two reactions in our heart. Our heart will either be softened towards Him resulting in a relationship with Him, or our hearts will be hardened towards Him, pushing us further away. It all depends on how we enter into the experience.

You see, Pharaoh believed he was a god, so God’s presence and power would only threaten his position. The Pharisees believed they were the epitome of righteous living, so God’s wisdom and grace would threaten their authority. Thus, when God stepped in and revealed His power and wisdom, neither of their hearts were changed, but instead, they both stubbornly resisted and hated Him even more.

God will not force you or me to go against Him, or force us to become mean and hardened, but His presence will affect us. How it affects us is our choice.

_____________________

*For those who might like to know which Hebrew words these are, the first is chazaq, the second is qashah, and the third is kabed.

Learning to Live by Faith

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The last few months have been an emotionally bumpy ride for me. On my recently updated rollercoaster of life (now fifty percent faster with higher hills and loop-ier loops!), I found myself in several situations that have made me confront my understanding of living by faith. I thought I knew what it was, but like many concepts in life, you really don’t understand something until you’ve experienced it. Well, my experience is that I still have a lot to learn about living by faith. You see, our lives do not always match our beliefs. Let me explain: We may witness God’s amazing power and love and say that we believe in Him, but what do our actions say? When the world is falling down all around us, do we really trust Him? We may talk about having faith, but do we live by faith? Does it really matter? We believe, isn’t that enough? We’ve heard of the importance of faith. Yet, sometimes I think we forget how important it really is. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” This is pretty clear. The Greek presents the idea of impossibility based on our being powerless. In other words, without faith we are powerless to please God. I am emphasizing this because we have somehow come to the conclusion that we can easily please God with our own actions. We sing God a song and since we thought it was beautiful and well done, it must have pleased God. We give God our tithes and offerings and since it was not a meager amount and we were pretty cheerful when we gave it, it must have pleased God. We talk to God and read His word when we get a chance, volunteer at the church fairly often, and fulfill many other prescribed church “duties”—basically, we are good Christians—therefore we must please God. Yet, the verse is clear, we can do all of that but if we do not have faith we are not pleasing God. An earlier passage in Hebrews takes this idea up a notch. “But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). You see, according to the Bible, God’s people will not only believe—not only have faith—they will live by this faith (see also Habakkuk 2:4). We may be familiar with this concept, but unfortunately, we are not as familiar with how it looks in real life. Yes, faith must be active and will be revealed in what we do (James 2:17), but it is not mere actions, it is obedience. This passage showed us the alternative—not living by faith—and described it as “shrinking back.” It is talking about not starting or not continuing to do something due to fear. Thus, not doing something, or stopping something, that God asks of us because we are afraid is the opposite of living by faith. Which, again, leads to not pleasing God. What then is living by faith? This is how Paul described it in his life: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). To live by faith, Paul had to die—not a literal death, but a symbolic death—he no longer lived but Christ lived in him. Living by faith was him giving up control of his life. Jesus was making the decisions instead. In order to live by faith, he had to become completely dependent on Jesus. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Walking by sight means living by human wisdom—trusting in human traditions, ideas, ingenuity, resources, etc. It is being dependent on human sufficiency; trusting only what we can see. It is believing that we must succeed on our own efforts. Walking by faith means living by Christ’s wisdom—fully relying on His grace, power, counsel, and promises. It is completely dependent on Christ’s sufficiency. It is understanding that we can only succeed with His help. Walking by faith requires obedience, even when you cannot see. Of course, when you walk by faith you will want to obey, because you trust that although you cannot see, God can. So, when God says start walking, you start walking. When God says stop, you stop. When God wants you to follow where He’s leading, you don’t question His wisdom, you obey. It does not guarantee us an easy life, it only guarantees that in the end we will be where God wants us to be. Living by faith is giving up the final say in your life; it is changing your dependence from you to God. This is what it means to live by faith: hold on to Jesus and let Him do the walking. As Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We no longer attempt to live this life on our understanding and choices, but fully trusting in Jesus’ leading. We will become fully dependent on Jesus. We will depend on Him for correction and for direction. We will want to know and follow His will, even when we don’t understand it. I’m not suggesting this is an easy thing to do. This concept is against our nature. It may take time to fully trust God. So start with the little things; it will become easier to trust Him with the bigger things later. Then, we can learn to say, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

All Design and No Flavor

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It has been a while since I was last able to write to my blog. Life, family, and church has kept me pretty busy the last couple of months. I have had the privilege over the last few weeks to participate in a training session for newly graduated Theology students (soon to be pastors) from my Alma Mater, Southwestern Adventist University. My church hosted them as they learned, hands on, to do evangelism. It has been a wonderful experience for me and my church. While I’m sure they have learned a lot in their field school classes, I continue to learn as well. As I sat in some of their training classes, accompanied them as they visited with people, or listened to them preach, I remembered when I was in their position and felt the excitement, and the apprehension, of entering ministry.

One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was out with one of the students doing visitations when we stopped briefly to get rehydrated. As we considered the moderate offerings of the gas station, a bottle grabbed the attention of the student. It was a unique bottling concept for ice tea. It had a small separate container at the top which contained the tea. The idea was that after opening the bottle you twist the container which would dispense the concentrated tea into the purified water below. After a good shake, the tea was ready to drink. The uniqueness of the tea and its delivery system intrigued him, so he bought it.

He was excited by the potential of this novel drink. The design of the tea’s packaging, as well as the writing on it, promised a fresh, distinctive tea experience. He followed the instructions and watched with a smile as the caramel color of the tea mixed with the water. So far it was just as great as the bottle advertised. Then he drank some. I asked him how it was. “Eh.” It wasn’t anything special. In fact, according to him, at best it tasted like watered down tea. Definitely not what he was expecting.

We marveled at how much thought had gone into the design, while seeming little had gone into the taste. While the bottle and the concept looked great, there was no flavor.

As we talked about it more, we soon wondered how much this product could parallel our Christian experience. Could it be possible that we could put more thought into our presentation than we do for its content? Could we work hard to present beautiful churches, exciting music, and unique ministries, yet have no substance—no flavor? Not only is this possible, it was prophesied by Paul:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1–5, emphasis mine).

Sadly, this passage is not describing the moral decay of society in general, since it describes people who have a “form of godliness.” It is speaking of those claiming to be God’s people—this is about Christians. In other words, Paul warns that in end times there will be Christians who work hard to advertise godliness, while in reality, they have no spiritual substance. He warns that, in these last days, some Christians will become all design and no flavor.

How does this happen? In Romans 1, Paul gives a similar description of people and says they become this way because “they did not see fit to acknowledge God” (Romans 1:28). Another way of saying this, is that they didn’t think it was worth it to to have God in their knowledge. (The Greek word for “knowledge” in this passage refers a knowledge through experience. Therefore, they didn’t want God in their experiences.) A few verses earlier, he describes the actions of these people: “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).

I mention this passage because I believe that we will become the people described in Romans 1 and 2 Timothy 3 when we stop having a relationship with God. If we put the appearance of our ministries, our churches, or our “Christianity” ahead of truly knowing our God, we might present “a form of godliness” but we are rejecting its power. Because all of our beautiful buildings, trendy ministries, and beloved doctrines are worthless outside of a relationship with Christ. Honestly, claiming to be a Christian without having a personal relationship with God is false advertising.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want these passages to be a reflection of my life. So I want to worry less about having the most unique “packaging” in Christianity and to be the most original in my ideas, and focus more on truly knowing my God. I want God to be in my experiences; I want to know Him. Because it is our experiences of, and with, Jesus that puts the substance—the flavor—into our church services, our ministries, and our witness. It is our experience of Jesus that adds power and hope to our lives.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3, emphasis mine).

A Lesson from a Rubik’s Cube

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About a year ago my son became interested in the Rubik’s Cube. After purchasing him one, he went straight to internet help sites to learn how to overcome the cube’s challenge. It took some time before he memorized its specific moves and was able to solve it with no help.

Interestingly, solving the challenge did not make him bored of it. Instead, he played with it daily, asking us to “mix it up” in different ways and naming a color he would begin with. Then, he wanted to see how quickly he could solve it—many times it would be under a minute. It wasn’t long until he made solving the cube look easy. Lately, he will even casually look away while solving it because he has become so comfortable with it. No matter how difficult we thought we’d made it, he’d soon have all the sides and colors solved. No matter how messed up it was, the Rubik’s Cube was no longer a challenge to him.

Then, one day, he began a campaign to encourage me to learn to solve it. After awhile of asking, I finally gave in (just this week) and began my quest to find the solution. I also studied the specific moves and learned its patterns. I’ll admit, it was a lot of fun trying to figure it out—I had wanted to solve it since I was a kid (of course, back then I could only ever solve one color). The first several times I found myself having to peek at a cheat-sheet in order to be successful. However, I was soon able to see the patterns, and even more, the solutions and was able to successfully solve it without any help! (My son got very excited when he watched me do it by myself.)

And then I noticed something my son had already learned: I wasn’t able to mix up the cube in any way that would make it unsolvable. No matter how messed up I made it it never looked more difficult. This dawned on me even more when I heard one of my son’s friends say, after thoroughly mixing up the colors, that there was no way it could be solved. I remembered thinking the same way not long before. Yet, as I watched my son quickly (way quicker than me!) solve it once again, I understood why he had such confidence with it—why my confidence was also growing: I knew its solution.

All of a sudden a thought came to me: this is similar to our struggles in life and God. Let me explain. We think things in our lives can get so messed up that there’s no solution (no cure, no forgiveness, etc), yet we only feel this way because we don’t know how to solve such situations. Yet life, no matter how “mixed up” we might make it, is just as easy for God to solve because He knows the solution. Just as Jesus told His disciples, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Yes, our lives may become so mixed up we cannot see a way out, but we do not have to worry, Jesus knows the solution. He won’t panic or become worried that He won’t be able to solve our messy lives, because He has already conquered any problems we may face.

I believe that if we could see our situations from His point of view (able to see every pattern and every resolution), we would never think anything was impossible (for Him) and would never view any situation as unsolvable (to Him). Maybe this is why it is easier for us to have faith in Him in the situations He has already brought us through—because we’ve witnessed His hands solve the problem. Yet, if we will fully trust our jumbled lives in God’s powerful hands, no situation we ever face will be impossible or unsolvable!

Prayer: Power in Numbers?

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It happened again, just this week. A situation arose in which our family desperately needed prayer. As we began our own prayers, we invited others to join us in prayer as well. It is a familiar scene. I would guess that this scenario has played out in many other homes. As I was asking others to pray though, I was reminded of a question I was asked not long ago: is there more power in our prayers when there are more people praying? I have to admit, I did not have an immediate answer to this question. On the one hand, it is very natural for us to default towards the idea that more is always better—basically, if one prayer is powerful, two must be twice as powerful. On the other hand, I cannot believe that God could be manipulated simply because of a large number of people start praying—there isn’t magic in numbers. Then, of course, more questions are raised: If there was more power in numbers, what number would be the most powerful? Also, if having many people praying was so much more powerful, why aren’t those prayers always answered how we think they will be? As I searched for answers to these questions, I learned some things that may help. First, praying in groups is not a bad thing—it’s even encouraged—but it does not guarantee more power in your prayers. We have plenty of evidence in the New Testament church of Acts that the people gathered in groups to pray. The Apostles were gathered together for prayer right before the Holy Spirit came upon them on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Also, when Peter was rescued by God from prison, he went to a house where many were gathered together and praying (Acts 12:12). Paul even encourages the people of Corinth to help him in prayer, “then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:11). However, Jesus warned us not to pray like the pagans, who hope to be heard because of many words (Matthew 6:7; see also Isaiah 1:15). Consider the showdown on Mt Carmel in 1 Kings 18: it describes the many prayers of all the priests of Baal, and reveals them to be powerless. Granted, it could be argued that they weren’t praying to God anyway. Yet, it appears that they held to the belief that their many prayers should have been more effective than the one prayer of Elijah. Another thing I found was that the Bible places more emphasis on the individuals’ relationship with God, rather than the size of the prayer team. James tells us that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Proverbs 15:29 says, “the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.” (1 Peter 3:12 says something similar.) At first glance, this may look like extreme bias, as if God is playing favorites. Yet, if our sins separate us from God, how can He hear our prayers (Isaiah 59:1, 2)? Just to clarify: a righteous person is not the one who simply does more good things than bad things, but is the one who has repaired the broken relationship with God by accepting the sacrifice of Christ and receiving His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:12). This is why God promises in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and will heal their land.” This is a promise to His people; those who have a relationship with Him and follow Him. It will be those who humble themselves, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, that will be heard when they pray (this also explains the power of the “sinner’s prayer,” when a person realizes their need for God and prays for forgiveness and salvation). If this is the case, why would we need to pray in groups? Why gather together to pray if the prayer of one righteous person is effective and powerful? I think this questions rises because we forget the purpose of prayer. I wrote a blog specifically on this topic, so I will not go into a lot of detail, but in brief: prayer is not a wish-list, or an information network, it is communication with our God. When we pray, it is not to inform God about our wants and needs, or to demand we get what we ask for, it is to align ourselves with His will and give Him control over our situation. You see, prayer is the way we vocalize our dependence on God and when we pray as a group, we become united in that dependence. I have found that praying with other people can create a powerful bond between me and them. So, is there more power in the prayers of many? Not exactly. The amount of people praying does not make the prayers more convincing to God. Having prayer vigils all over the world can be a wonderful thing to unite the people of God, but those prayers will not have added power simply because many are saying them. The Bible is clear, it is the prayers of the ones who will humble themselves, seek to know God, turn from their wicked ways, and fully depend on Him, that are powerful. Do you want a more powerful prayer life? Follow God’s counsel in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Strengthen your relationship with God. The power is in the relationship, not the numbers. Yet, imagine the transformational power that would fill the prayer lives of a righteous group of God’s people, humbly united, and fully depending on Him?

The Covenant: What God Requires

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It wasn’t the question that was strange, it was the one who was asking (Mark 10:17). The parallel story in Matthew 19 says the man was young; Luke 19 says he was a ruler; all three of the Gospels agree he was rich—he was a rich, young ruler. But a question was eating away at this rich young man. So He ran up to Jesus and blurted out the question: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It may have been his youthful, business oriented boldness that caused him to ask, but he asked what everyone wanted to know. What does God require of me?

Jesus answered by listing off commandments—mainly the last 6 commandments (Mark 10:19). He didn’t start with number one, like we might think. Even if it was in His plan to get to the first four, He was interrupted before He could. The young man cut in to say, “All these I have kept since I was a boy” (Mark 10:20). The young man’s boldness is a very interesting thing. Think about it: he actually interrupted God to speak of his own perfection. There may have been a big smile on the young man’s face. So far, he was passing the test with flying colors. This may have been a regular thing in his life.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t finished. I like that Mark says that Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Selling everything was not a general requirement for all people, it was the essence of what this young man needed. It revealed to him the real issue in his life: what really came first in his life?

The core of Jesus’ requirement to the young man is summed up in an answer to a question from the pharisees about the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, Jesus summed up God’s requirements—“the one thing” the young man lacked—“the one thing” many lack: putting God first in life. How do we do this?

If we look at the first four commandments in Exodus 20—the ones Jesus skipped when talking to the young man—we will see what He was talking about. In the first part of the covenant God says, “have no other gods before Him” (Exodus 20:3). He asks us to be faithful to Him. In order to love God with all that we are we must remove anyone or anything that might take His place in our hearts. Our first priority, our only allegiance, our greatest love should be towards God. Our agreement with God says that we will not put anyone else in His place.

Next He says, “do not make any idols or worship them” (Exodus 20:4–6). God is asking us not to “make” anything, or allow anything, to take His place in our lives. Idols often steal our worship and rule our lives—whether it is money, a symbol, a celebrity, or even our favorite religious writer/ speaker. We can even get to the point where we think that we are God’s greatest example to mankind pushing the only perfect example, Jesus Christ, aside. But, putting God first means that we will not allow any created thing to replace God, or what He does, in our lives, and therefore take our worship and service from Him.

Then He says, not to take His name in vain (Exodus 20:7). It literally reads, “do not take my name upon yourselves in emptiness.” This means more than the misuse of God’s name in your speech, but more importantly, improper representation of God’s name in your life. He’s basically saying, “honor my name, represent my character well.” It is easy to build up or tear down someone’s name, or reputation. 2 Timothy 3:5 describes people “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” These are those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk—representing God with an empty life. Loving God with all that we are means that we will live in such a way as to keep His name holy and honorable.

Finally, He says, “remember His Sabbath by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8–11). Part of our covenant with God includes remembering to meet with Him on His special day, the Sabbath. In fact, we would do everything to make sure we spent the whole day with Him—not just one or two hours—because He is our God and we love Him and want to spend time with Him. If we love God with all our heart, mind, and soul we would look forward to and protect our time with Him on His holy day.

Jesus was clear about what God wanted: total devotion to Him. The young man’s response to Jesus answer? “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Mark 10:22). What a tragedy! To be in the presence of Jesus and yet walk away sad. This was obviously the hardest thing the young man could have heard. What God required was impossible for him. He was asked to put the Kingdom of God before his own kingdom and he could only walk away. His desire for eternal life was not as great as for his earthly riches.

This is what the covenant requires of all of us towards God as well. God asks you and I to put aside our kingdoms and seek His. He asks that we love Him above all else. He asks that we follow Him. This is what God requires. So we have two options: uphold our end of the covenant and put God first, or walk away. But know this: Jesus says that not one who has left anything behind for His sake and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this life and in the life to come (Mark 10:29, 30). It may be the most difficult choice of your life, but don’t let another tragedy happen. Don’t walk away sad—choose Christ!