Exodus 7 Explained

well hello everybody thank you for joining me for today's uh devotion we are in exodus chapter 7 whether you're watching on video or listening to the podcast today we're going to talk about a difficult subject it's the the fact that pharaoh's heart was hardened and who hardened his heart let's um read in chapter 7 some verses and then we'll talk about it a little bit in chapter 7 verses 3 and 4 god is speaking to moses and says but i will harden pharaoh's heart that i may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of egypt when pharaoh does not listen to you then i will lay my hand on egypt and bring out my host my people the sons of israel from the land of egypt by great judgments and of course god would send the plagues to do that in verses 12 and following the bible says for each one of them threw down his staff and they turned into serpents this was after aaron had thrown down moses staff and it turned into a serpent the magicians of egypt empowered by satan if you will did the same but then it says in verse 12 that aaron's staff swallowed up their staff so aaron snake god snake swallowed up the magician snakes if you will verse 13 yet pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the lord had said and then also in chapter 7 verses 21 and following the bible says the fish this is when god turned the the water of the nile river to blood says the fish that were in the nile died and the nile became fouled it smelled so that the egyptians could not drink water from the nile river and the blood was through all the land of egypt and the magicians of egypt did the same with their secret arts and pharaoh's heart notice this pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them didn't listen to moses as the lord had said god said this is what he was going to do so the question is did god force pharaoh to say no to disobey god to not listen to moses and aaron did god harden his heart well those that in theology we refer to as calvinists those of a reformed theology would say yes god did this god hardened his heart god is the reason that he said uh no that it appears like man has a choice but he really doesn't that everything is determined by god but man is still responsible for well i'm not a calvinist never have men never will be and for me their position in my opinion distorts the biblical evidence i think sometimes what happens is some people take a minority of verses and use those to interpret what a majority of verses say and i think the better approach is for the majority of verses that say something to help us understand what a minority of verses say to me that just makes a lot more sense and that's the case when it comes to the hardening of heart and other things in exodus 7 it is pictured as you know very clearly pharaoh's heart is hardened and a couple of times that god is the one doing it uh but it's also true that more times uh in exodus is pictured as pharaoh hardening his own heart for example in chapter 8 which we'll look at tomorrow in verse 15 the bible says but when pharaoh saw that there was relief when god had had removed one of the plagues from the land i think it was the frogs that he hardened his heart pharaoh hardened his own heart and did not listen to them did not listen to moses and to aaron also in that same chapter 32 after another plague the the flies and and so on it says uh that pharaoh hardened his heart and this this time also again there pharaoh did it now um what you're going to see in in the book of exodus is sometimes it just says his heart is hardened other times god hardened his heart and other times that pharaoh hardened his own heart so what's going on let me illustrate it this way some of you have had a teenager and if you haven't you've seen others who was in a period of rebellion making bad decisions disobeying doing what's wrong getting into trouble and no matter how much the parents tried to help tried to correct tried to confront tried to teach try to guide the teenager just got worse and they blamed their parents every you know every time uh they did something wrong they they blamed their parents as their heart got harder the rebellion got worse they became more defiant who's to blame the parent for trying to teach for saying for correcting for punishing or the teenager who is disobeying well i think it's the teenager and i think it's the same with human beings god speaks to us but our response determines what happens in our heart in verse 14 of exodus 7 the bible says that god told moses that pharaoh's heart is stubborn and he refuses refuses to listen refuses to obey and it's that consistent refusal to listen and obey that hardened his heart just like with the rebellious teenager verse 13 in that same passage said that pharaoh did not listen to them and the lord had said look god knows what you're going to do before you ever do it now listen because god knows something does not mean god determines something there's a difference in knowing and determining um so god knew pharaoh's heart pharaoh's heart and how he would respond and no matter no matter what god did or what god said pharaoh was going to respond with no no and his heart was going to get harder and harder and god was speaking to him through moses through the circumstances through the plagues each time pharaoh said no each time his heart became more like rock more like stone what did god do in all of this here's what god was doing he was forcing pharaoh to hit rock bottom so he would eventually obey so he would eventually do what is right god told moses in exodus chapter 5 before he ever sent him to egypt that the only way pharaoh would obey and let the people go would be under compulsion you know you could say in one sense it's it's like god was doing his own intervention with pharaoh to get him to hit rock bottom so he would do what was right even if it was under compulsion and in the end that's what happened and god was glorified and the hebrew people were freed how you and i respond to god to what he says to what he does shapes our heart shapes our life shapes our relationships shapes our relationships not only with family and friends but with jesus himself so if you want your heart to be soft just keep obeying jesus if you're if you want your spiritual heart to get hard just keep disobeying god because your response will determine what happens to your heart hey god bless you i'll see you tomorrow as we look at the next chapter

Channel: First Baptist Church of Rock Hill

Views: 206

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: exodus explained, exodus 7, bible, study, hogg, steve, pastor

Id: TezQhN-oJLk

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021