Pharaoh's Hart Heart
080730 Pharaoh’s Hard Heart
Exodus 4:21
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
· One phrase that has always bothered me about the Exodus from Egypt is the phrase, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”
· Some may read right over that passage saying Pharaoh deserved what he got. If that is the case we are all doomed.
· What concerns me most is that if I do not understand this phrase then I am forced to live in the fear that I might possibly be chosen by God to do the same.
· So it all boils down to: Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart.
· I believe the answer lies in the word of God and that the Word will reveal His character and reveal His ways.
1) Let My People Go! Moses/ET prophets. They have the word of the Lord.
A) Here’s your sign!
i) Ex. 4:9,17,28,30. Each passage uses the word sign.
ii) Heb. -- owth — a sign, a signal, a token, an ensign, a standard, a miracle, a proof (from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.) Signs point to something—in this case to God. Miracles, signs and wonders are the movement used by God to point us back to Him.
iii) Notice the response of the Israelites: Ex 4:30-31 Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. NKJV
B) God is introducing Himself to the Israelites and to Pharaoh.
i) Ex. 4:21-ff. Thus says the Lord…
(a) Jehovah, Yaweh. The one true God. The self existent one.
(b) The announcement of Moses is the introduction of Pharaoh to Jehovah
(c) It is the character of God to introduce himself or reveal himself to Pharaoh. And He intends to use the signs to let Pharaoh know that He is the omnipotent God, more powerful than his magicians.
ii) Pharaoh-was to blinded by his gods to recognize the God of the Hebrews to be the one true God.
(a) God says that is o.k., I will give him 10 reasons to understand that I am God and that there is none other like me.
(b) The judgments at the end of the age is not God out to kill sinful humanity. It is to demonstrate that He/God is the omnipotent One!
C) The judgments are the revelation of God’s mercy!
i) God is shaking nations to bring them to a place where they cry out to him.
ii) It will happen to Israel as some point. All her enemies will come. She will be alone and on the verge of destruction. She will cry out to God and God will answer.
iii) The judgments are meant to reveal God.
(a) People are afraid to hear that truth today. It is not politically correct—ask Pat Robertson, John Hagee and others who have publicly connect tragedy to judgment.
(b) Because people understand judgment as a bad thing—God hurting them—“how could a loving God do that?’ they miss the sign! When you miss the sign the second thing happens.
(c) This is why the church has to hear accurately so we will be able to announce accurately in such a way that hearts will be turned to God.
1) Oh No, They Can’t Go! Pharaoh/Spirit of the Antic Christ in the ET. Refusing the word of Lord.
A) Ex. 4:21 I will harden Pharaohs heart. NKJV
i) Heb.=chazaq — to strengthen, to prevail, to harden, to become strong, to be firm, grow firm, to be resolute, (from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)
ii) Some translations render the word: I will make Pharaoh’s heart firm, strong, heavy, etc.
(a) Five times it says God hardened Pharaohs heart and five says Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
iii) I do not believe for a moment that God reach out, picked Pharaoh and said, “You will do!” and then made his heart hard. That would be totally inconsistent with God’s character.
(a) Ezek 33:11 Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God , 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?' NKJV
(b) 1 Tim 2:3-5 God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. NKJV
(c) 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us,* not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. NKJV
(d) God delays the inevitable in order to give the sinners a chance to repent and the Saints a chance to rejoice in the God of their salvation.
B) Ex. 5:2 Nor will I let them go! Pharaoh said, “NO GO! I do not know your God!”
i) Understand! I do not know your God, Says Pharaoh. Moses responds, “Let me introduce Him in the next plague then!”
ii) Pharaoh missed the signs. The signs are Gods mercy as He seeks to reveal himself to Israel and Egypt. Ex 7:3-5 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord , when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them." NKJV
C) What is stopping Pharaoh?
i) Pride—Is. 14:13-14. I will ascend…Words of Satan looking to overthrow God. Look what it got him!
(a) It is the same thing found in Pharaoh! It will be the same thing found in the heart of humanity at the end of the age.
(b) Each time Pharaoh encounter a plague/sign and refuses to see God his heart become seared, firm, strong, hardened. See Ex 8:19 Pharaoh now refuses to listen to his magicians who are saying, “This is the finger of God.
(c) Even after he had been obliged to confess, "I have sinned, Jehovah is the righteous one, I and my people are unrighteous" (9:27), he sinned again, as soon as breathing-time was given him, and would not let the people go (9:34-35). Thus Pharaoh would not bend his self-will to the will of God, even after he had discerned the finger of God and the omnipotence of Jehovah in the plagues suspended over him and his nation; he would not withdraw his haughty refusal, notwithstanding the fact that he was obliged to acknowledge that it was sin against Jehovah.
(d) Pride is an unholy desire that is born of sin and fueled by people trying to get their significance out of themselves or anything but Christ.
ii) Process of hardening. James 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. NKJV This is the process of those who refuse to heed the sign. Notice the end—death!
(a) Romans 1:18-32, man was without excuse he knew God but chose not to worship him. His thoughts became futile and his heart darkened.
(b) Eph 4:17-ff
iii) This is what happens when men refuse to know God. Moses is saying, “Hey let me introduce God to you.” Pharaoh says you are a slave, I do need your God. The tougher the plagues became the more resolved Pharaoh become in not letting the Israelites go. It was a pride issue that hardened his heart.
(a) Every time men refuse God their put a ‘hot iron’ to their heart and it gets seared, or calloused, firm and hard.
1) Aw Oh!
A) Ex 4:22-23 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord : "Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn."' NKJV This is straw that broke the camel’s back. Pharaoh now acknowledges there is a God, but I will not bow to Him.
i) It is the curse of sin, that it renders the hard heart harder, and less susceptible to the gracious manifestations of divine love, long-suffering, and patience.
ii) Ie. The enforcer on Calebs back side when he refused to pick up his toys.
B) The more you harden your heart the worse the judgments become. At death it then becomes wrath-hell.
i) At some point, (mark of the beast possibly Rev. 14:10) the judgments become the wrath of God. There is a big difference.
(a) Seals – judgments
(b) Trumpets - judgments
(c) Bowls – wrath. Rev. 15:7; 16:1.
C) At the end of the age the judgments will increase and people will refuse to acknowledge God because of the spirit of the anti-Christ and it is going to get real ugly.
Conclusion:
· Having last weeks message makes tonight’s more understandable and visa versa.
· This message should give you perspective.
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