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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 36 Moses Returns To Egypt - Meeting Aaron The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart
Scripture is many times full of strange contrasts to non-believers. These certainly would not make sense to just a superficial observer, but only to a true believer who was looking for a miracle from God to relieve dire circumstances. God has great power, but many times He chooses to manifest it through humble means and circumstances. Moses didn't go back into Egypt as a man of power and royalty like he had left so many years before. On his return from "the mount of God," Moses had gone to his father-in-law and told him that he needed to go back to Egypt. From what we gather from Scripture, Moses and Jethro didn't seem to have a really special relationship, or at least one where Moses could share the Divine Vision that he had just been given by God. Nevertheless, God was working on the part of both Jethro and Zipporah, his wife, and neither one of them objected to him leaving. Also, after he had set his heart upon leaving for Egypt, but before he actually set out, God gave him an encouraging word by telling him that all the men were dead who had sought his life before. God also gave him threefold strengthening for the work which lay before him. First, he pointed him to the Divine rod in his hand, by which he was to use to do the great miracles before Pharaoh. Second, God specifically told Moses that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh on purpose so that he wouldn't get discouraged when he saw that Pharaoh would not let the people go. Third, a double assurance was conveyed about the message that he was to bear to Pharaoh. Jehovah demanded freedom for the people because "Israel is my son, even my firstborn," and He threatened, in case of Pharaoh's refusal, to "slay his son, even the king's firstborn." Before Moses ever went to Egypt, God basically told him what would happen. There was no real reason for him to be afraid or discouraged. He knew what the outcome would be before he ever started to make the journey. It is very significant to note that Israel is only called the "firstborn", not the only child. So in accordance with the promise to Abraham, other sons would be born into the Father's house. So even the highest promise spoken to Israel included in it the assurance of future blessing to the Gentiles. Moses, the one whom God had chosen to declare Israel the heir to the "firstborn" legacy, was himself at the time, though, living in neglect of the sign of that very covenant. His own second son had not been circumcised according to the Divine commandment. We don't really know if it was from neglect, or if he was just really discouraged. It seems that Zipporah had come to oppose much of what Moses felt that God was leading him to do, and he may have just been really depressed. Either way, though, Moses could never have been fit to be a great instrument used by God while he was neglecting this commandment. Things had gone so far that God was starting to look at Moses as the enemy and his life was even in danger. Finally Zipporah had to submit to the ordinance of God, but her mood and manner showed that as yet she was not prepared to be a helpmate to Moses in the work that lay before him. He seems to have understood this and he sent her and the children back to his father-in-law. Jethro only brought them to Moses when he had "heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people." After Moses had purged his life of sin, he continued his journey and met his brother Aaron. God had already directed Aaron to go into the wilderness and meet Moses. Aaron willingly joined Moses and together they went to Egypt and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. When the Israelites realized that God had sent them to be their deliverers, "they bowed their heads and worshipped." It seems that even the people's long stay and bondage had not extinguished their faith in the God of their fathers, or their hope of deliverance. The fact that "Jehovah had visited" his people did not seem strange or incredible to them. More than that, their faith was mingled with humiliation and worship.
Pharaoh's Heart Hardened We remember that God had already told Moses about this very thing before he even left his father-in-law. Exodus 7:3 - "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt." This is something that God promised He Himself would do, and also He let Moses know that this was a future event. The announcement was only made in order to explain to Moses what he needed to know so that his faith would not be discouraged. The expression "hardening" occurs 20 times in the course of the history that is connected with Pharaoh. In our English version only the word "harden" is used, but in the original Hebrew there are two other words that are employed. Exodus 7:3 literally means "to make heavy", or unimpressionable; and Exodus 14:4 means "to make firm or stiff", so as to be immovable. Of the twenty passages that speak of Pharaoh's hardening, exactly ten ascribe it to Pharaoh himself, and ten to God. In both cases precisely the same three terms are used. Thus the making "hard," "heavy," and "firm" of the heart is exactly as often and in precisely the same terms traced to Pharaoh himself as to that of God. A German writer remarks that "The effect of the one is the hardening of man to his own destruction; that of the other, the hardening of man to the Glory of God." Except for the two passages where God explicitly told Moses that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh, the hardening process was during the course of the actual history, and at the first traced to Pharaoh himself. So before the ten plagues started, Pharaoh's heart was hardened by his own selfish nature. Also after each of the first five plagues, the hardening is also expressly attributed to Pharaoh himself. It was only after the sixth plague that the Bible says that God hardened his heart. Even with this, God must have left some space for repentance, because after the seventh plague we read again in the Bible that Pharaoh himself hardened his heart. It is only after the eighth plague that the hardening is talked about as exclusive to God. We must also consider the progress of Pharaoh's hardening heart to a point that at last his sin became ripe for judgment. After the third plague, even the magicians confessed to Pharaoh that these miracles were way beyond anything they could do and said that it had to be "the finger of God". Surely Pharaoh should have seen that it was God when all the Egyptian cattle died, but not one of the Israelite cattle died. By this point at least some of the Egyptians had started to see what Pharaoh could not see, and they put all their cattle into barns so that they would not be killed. It took seven terrible plagues for Pharaoh to even start admitting that he was wrong. Then when he did, he quickly took it back after the plague was lifted. It's no wonder that such high-handed and inexcusable rebellion would have been ripe for judgment. The same manifestation of God which to the believer is "a savour of life unto life," is to those who resist it "a savour of death unto death." Also "the sunlight shining upon our earth produces opposite results according to the nature of the soil." A person who hardens themselves to sin will fall at least under the Divine judgment of hardening, with all the terrible consequences which it involves. We can learn some significant things about the actions of Pharaoh. First, we can learn the insufficiency of even the most astounding miracles to subdue the rebellious will, to change the heart, or to subject a man unto God. Jesus even told the rich man that his brothers would not believe even if he himself went from hell and tried to get them to change their minds. This observation has only been verified time and time again. Religion is a matter of the heart, and there is no intellectual conviction that can really change a person at all without the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Even though we read about other people who have been rebellious and caused the judgment of God to fall upon them, we have not learned very well from what they have done. It seems that we think the same thing will never happen to us because what we are doing is not nearly as bad as what they did. We need to be very careful that we do not continue on in rebellion until our heart is completely hardened to the things of God. It is wisdom and safety to watch for the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and to throw open our hearts to receive what He has for us. For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also. This text is taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim. Permission has been granted to use this book.
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