In Exodus 7-9, we see a curious tension as we're told that God will harden Pharaoh's heart, but we're also told that Pharaoh hardens his own heart. Which is it? As usual, we'll look to the rest of God's Word to give us clarity... and even when it is hard to understand, we will trust that His ways are higher than ours. We're not coming to the Word to confirm our view of God, we are coming to learn more about who He truly is. And He could not be more worthy of our worship.

Did you get our February Reading Plan? Go to the podcast page on our website, fill out the short form, and get access to our free printables: www.entrustedministries.com/podcast

Tell me more about that "giving clear guidelines and being consistent in parenting" idea... You bet! Entrusted with a Child's Heart does it better than anyone we know!

Plagues of Egypt Video: https://www.gotquestions.org/ten-plagues-Egypt.html

John Piper speaks to the Hardening of Hearts: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/when-does-god-harden-a-sinners-heart

Today's Reading: Exodus 7-9

Scripture Referenced or Read:

Romans 9:14-23

Ezekiel 36:26

Exodus 8:8-15, 19, 28-32

Exodus 9:5-7, 13-21, 27-28

Welcome to The Dwelling Place

from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Cock.

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Today we're looking at Exodus

chapter seven through nine.

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In chapter six, God issued a sevenfold

promise of things that he would do.

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He's definitive, he's clear, and

he will be faithful to his word.

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In chapter seven, God begins to send

the plagues upon Egypt, the phrase

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that they may know that I am the Lord

appears many times throughout Exodus.

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God is revealing his power and

might to the Egyptians, to Pharaoh,

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and also to the Israelites.

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He's showing them that he will rescue them

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and with it there will be a systematic

dismantling of the Egyptian Gods.

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God reveals he is the one true God.

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We see a curious tension as we're

told that God will harden Pharaoh's

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heart, but we're also told that Pharaoh

hardens his own heart my MacArthur

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commentary says that 10 times God

hardened the king's heart and 10

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times the king hardened his own heart.

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In Romans nine, Paul

talks more about this.

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Romans nine 14 begins,

what shall we say then?

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Is there injustice on God's part?

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By no means for, he says to Moses,

I will have mercy on whom I have

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mercy, and I will have compassion

on whom I have compassion.

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So then it depends, not on human will

or exertion, but on God who has mercy

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for the scripture says to Pharaoh for

this very purpose, I have raised you

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up that I might show my power in you.

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and that my name might be

proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on whomever he

wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

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You will say to me, then,

why does he still find fault

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or who can resist his will?

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But who are you O man

to answer back to God.

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Will, what has been

molded say to its molder?

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Why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the

clay to make out of the same lump

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one vessel for honorable use and

another for dishonorable use.

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What if God desiring to show his

wrath and to make known his power?

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Has endured with much patience, vessels

of wrath, prepared for destruction

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in order to make known the riches

of his glory for vessels of mercy,

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John Piper claims that Romans nine

is the chapter of scripture he has

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received the most questions about in the

history of his ask Pastor John podcast.

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It feels complicated to

reconcile this tension of.

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How was Pharaoh's heart hardened?

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Was it God or was it Pharaoh?

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But I learned a new word

studying my moody commentary.

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It says, this is a classic case of

compatible, not cannibalism compatible,

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which simply means that the determined

plan, purpose, or action of God.

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Is compatible with the

free act of an agent.

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Meaning God knew Pharaoh's heart

was hard, and as Pharaoh hardened

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his heart, God continued to harden

it and in this act of hardening one

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man's heart, the Lord was able to

rescue and redeem an entire nation.

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I want you to think about this as

though it were someone like Hitler.

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Someone who was already so evil and was

oppressing an entire nation, and then

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what if the Lord allowed the destruction

of that man for the saving of many?

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What's unfair is not that Pharaoh

was devoted to destruction, but that

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we get to receive the righteousness

of Christ and that we get his mercy.

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if we look at the whole of scripture, it

overwhelmingly points to the fact that God

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softens hearts and draws people to him.

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One of my favorite of these

verses is in Ezekiel 36, verse 26.

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God says, I will give you a new heart

and a new spirit I will put within you,

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and I will remove the heart of stone from

your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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And I will put my spirit within you

and cause you to walk in the statutes

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and be careful to obey my rules.

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This is a prayer I often pray both

for non-believers, but even in my

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own heart, when I'm struggling to

love or forgive as God would have me.

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With that understanding, let's

look more at today's reading.

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In the first of the 10 PLAs, God

turns the Nile River to blood.

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This isn't red dye.

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This is actual blood.

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It's their source of water and it's a

direct attack on hoppy who they believed

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was the spirit of the Nile and on Osiris.

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And it was said that the

Nile was his bloodstream.

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The magicians were able to duplicate this.

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If we look at other verses in scripture,

we realize this would probably be rooted

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in demonic activity the second plague,

the plague of frogs, would've also

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been an attack against hapi and hacked,

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One of them even had a frog head.

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this was a revered symbol, in their

culture, and Pharaoh is pretty

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fed up with the frogs everywhere.

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In chapter eight, verse eight we're

told, then Pharaoh called Moses and

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Aaron and said, plead with the Lord

to take away the frogs from me and

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from my people, and I will let the

people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

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Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to

command me when I am to plead for you

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and for your servants and for your people

that the frogs may be cut off from you and

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your houses and be left only in the Nile.

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And he said, tomorrow.

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Moses said, be it as you say so

that you may know that there is

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no one like the Lord our God.

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The frogs shall go away from you and your

houses and your servants and your people.

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They shall be left only in the Nile.

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So Moses and Aaron went out from

Pharaoh and Moses cried to the Lord

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about the frogs as he had agreed

with Pharaoh, and the Lord did.

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According to the word of Moses, the frogs

died out in the houses, the courtyards

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and the fields, and they gathered them

together in heaps and the land stank.

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But when Pharaoh saw

that there was a respite.

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He hardened his heart and would not

listen to them as the Lord had said.

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Then the Lord brings the third plague of

the lice or the nats, this was an attack

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against Seb, the Earth, God of Egypt.

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Fascinatingly, the magicians

could not produce this.

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And I can't help but laugh in verse 19,

when the magicians say to Pharaoh, this

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is the finger of God, makes me think about

whenever I've been attacked by mosquitoes

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or had fruit flies or flies in my house.

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It's amazing how obnoxious

such a tiny thing can be.

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And in that same verse we're told, but

Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would

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not listen to them as the Lord had said.

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And then the fourth plague

comes with the flies.

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And in verse 28.

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So Pharaoh said, I will let

you go to sacrifice to the Lord

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your God in the wilderness only.

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You must not go very far away.

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Plead for me.

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Then Moses said, behold,

I'm going out from you.

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And I will plead with the Lord that the

swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh,

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from his servants and from his people.

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Tomorrow only let not Pharaoh

cheat again by not letting the

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people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

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And the Lord did.

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As Moses asked and removed the

swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from

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his servants and from his people.

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Not one remained, but Pharaoh

hardened his heart this time also.

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And did not let the people go.

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God is thorough.

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Not one fly remains.

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That's incredible evidence

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of his power, but Pharaoh doesn't listen.

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I'm amazed at the continued

intercession that God allows.

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God had allowed Job to intercede

on behalf of his friends.

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Abraham to intercede on behalf

of Sodom and Gomorrah and

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for Pharaoh over and over.

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He allows intercession on behalf of

people that do not follow him, and I

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love the specificity of the prayers.

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When do you want this to happen, Pharaoh?

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These are not random acts.

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They're happening exactly as God said.

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In most of the plagues, God warns fear

in advance with only a few exceptions.

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He is a God of clarity, and that's one

of the things that I've learned most from

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Scripture about how to parent my kids.

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God sets clear boundaries

and clear guidelines.

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He says, this is a line you may not cross,

and if you do, this is what will happen.

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We're not called to be wishy-washy

or to confuse our kids.

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They should know these are

righteous choices and these are not.

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And when you do this, this

is how I will respond.

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That's loving and it's helping guide them.

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In nine five, we read and the Lord

set a time saying tomorrow the Lord

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will do this thing in the land.

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And the next day, the Lord did this thing.

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All the livestock of the Egyptians

died, but not one of the livestock

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of the people of Israel died.

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And Pharaoh sent and behold, not one

of the livestock of Israel was dead.

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But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened

and he did not let the people go

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in the fourth plague.

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God had began to make a distinction

between his people and the Egyptians.

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It's a dramatic separation

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the Egyptians revered

bulls and cows as holy.

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The male god of fertility was

often represented as a bull

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and hathor, the goddess of the

sky was represented as a cow.

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God is continuing to bring down

their polytheistic beliefs.

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In 13 then the Lord said to Moses, rise up

early in the morning and present yourself

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before Pharaoh and say to him, thus,

says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews.

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Let my people go that they may serve me.

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For this time, I will send all my plagues

on you yourself, and on your servants and

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your people, so that you may know that

there is none like me in all the Earth.

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For by now, I could have put out

my hand and struck you and your

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people with pestilence, and you

would've been cut off from the earth.

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But for this purpose, I have raised you

up to show you my power so that my name

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may be proclaimed in all the earth.

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You are still exalting yourself against

my people and will not let them go.

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Behold, about this time tomorrow I

will cause very heavy hail to fall,

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such as has never been in Egypt from

the day it was founded until now.

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Now therefore, send, get your

livestock and all that you have in

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the field in a safe shelter for every

man and beast that is in the field

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and is not brought home will die.

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when the hail falls on them, then whoever

feared the word of the Lord among the

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servants of Pharaoh, hurried his slaves

and his livestock into the houses.

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But whoever did not pay attention

to the word of the Lord left his

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slaves and his livestock in the field

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on the Lord does what he says he will do.

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There was hail and fire flashing

continually, and in verse 27, then Pharaoh

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sent and called Moses and Aaron and

said to them, this time I have sinned.

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The Lord is in the right.

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I and my people are in the

wrong plead with the Lord.

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For there has been enough

of God's thunder and hail.

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And when Pharaoh sees that the rain

and the hail and the thunder have

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ceased, we're told he sinned yet again

and hardened his heart, let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we are truly grateful

that you have softened our hearts

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to the gospel, and we ask that you

would continue to soften them where

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there is bitterness, unforgiveness,

apathy, or indifference, transform

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us into the likeness of your son.

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We pray also for our kids

where they haven't been

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softened yet, to your goodness.

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Oh Lord, draw them to yourself.

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Guide us to be clear and consistently

follow through with discipline,

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but also to be gracious knowing

we have needed your mercy.

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Many times we thank you for your power

over creation, and we think of Jesus, that

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even the wind and the waves obeyed him.

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Lord, may we trust in your power

to move in our lives and be aware.

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Of where you already are.

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We pray you would use us

so that all around us would

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know that you are the Lord.

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In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.