Exodus 4:18-7:13, I Chronicles 6:1-4

When you read this Scripture today were you bothered by the fact that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart? The way it reads sounds like God might have a “harden heart” button He can push at will. Is that what happened here?

Here’s what I think I know about God. He loves you. He loved Pharaoh and would like to have had a different story recorded here. If things had been different we might read about a king who recognized the One True God and willingly allowed the Israelites to go home. But since God knew the end from the beginning He told Moses that Pharaoh would reject all the signs and each time he did, his heart would grow a little harder toward God.

So did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Of course He did. Scripture says so. But it wasn’t against Pharaoh’s will. It WAS Pharaoh’s will… his choice to reject God.

God didn’t make Pharaoh reject Him. That would not be consistent with the God who so loved the world. But as created beings with the ability to choose, God created pliable hearts. The lesson we can learn from Pharaoh is this: If we respond to God our hearts remain pliable. We are convicted of sin and we repent. Our pliable hearts can nearly burst with joy just by praising the One who forgives. God can tug at our pliable hearts and we obey.

But if we reject God, if we ignore guilt over sin, our pliable hearts become hardened. That’s just the way we were created. And with each denial of God’s Truth our hearts grow harder still.

We, like Pharaoh, run the danger of allowing our hearts to become so hard we no longer fear God.

I hope you are going to go to church today where the gospel is preached, where Christians gather to worship, and where you can re-charge to continue God’s work this week. As we gather, let’s do so with pliable hearts. And if there is some hardening going on, I pray that we will allow God to do some heart surgery right there in the pew!