A Heart of Stone

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.’” Exo 4:21

Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Seems rather unloving, doesn’t it? I mean if God directly intervened that would mean He created evil in Pharaoh’s heart. Is God the author of sin? Yet it is written, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” (James 1:13-14). So what gives? God did not actively harden Pharaoh’s heart; He hardened his heart passively.

How can God do so passively? He gave Pharaoh over to his sin, the sin that was already there in his heart. In regards to mankind, it is written, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts…They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised…Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done” (Rom 1:24-28).

God gave Pharaoh over to his sin and removed His hand of restraint. Have you ever heard the saying “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”? Think of the men in history who have had absolute power - Hitler, Stalin, etc - and think of how corrupted they became. In a way, you could argue the sin in their hearts had already been there, having absolute power merely allowed for the expression of it.

H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done…The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Rev 20:12-15

I would like to attempt to explain something that is I know many find very difficult to understand: why a good and loving God sends people to hell. This post will not make sense unless you’ve read my previous post. Therefore, you should prolly read that before proceeding. Ultimately, God cares for us and values our affection, therefore He is Jealous. He wants our heart, and He is not willing to share first place. First, we must recognize that God does go to extremes to show His love for us. His love goes against nature - when someone betrays you, do you die for them? Do you go to them to attempt reconciliation without them coming to you first? Well, God did. He went to extremes in His love and wants reconciliation, it is His heart.

Jealous Love

“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exo 34:14

Is God a selfish God? Is His love for us self-interested and self-motivated? The answer to that question is both yes and no. Confusing? Let me explain. Have you ever been in love? If so, then you would know that when you love someone you want to do selfless things for them and make that person happy. But you also want that person to love you back and enjoy you. You want them to be devoted to you. You want them to love you back.

Yet, love opens you up to do more selfless things for that person that you don’t normally do. You love them for their own benefit, but let’s not lie, when you love you do it also for your own benefit. We like how love makes us feel and we like feeling good about ourselves when someone loves us back. Made in God’s image and understanding that, is it so surprising at that we do crazy things to have love? We need to be honest. When we chase after love we are not doing it for a hundred percent sefless reasons; we want love for our own benefit. We can’t live without it. We’ve got to have it.

Looking in the Mirror, It Ain't Always Easy to See

“You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves as in the day of feasting.” James 5:5

I know what it is like to live a self-indulgent life. It is a life where you are at the center. Living self-indulgently means you give in to every whim and desire. Most of us would probably claim not to live self-indulgently. But indulgence does not always look as extreme as it sounds. Where does most of your money go? Do you spend most of your money on yourself? Do you indulge yourself in how you eat? The truth is, you could be handling your money responsibly by not overspending yet still be self-indulgent - because it’s all spent on yourself. And America’s increasing obesity rate would suggest that we are indulging ourselves “as in the day of feasting.” Self-indulegence is not easy to see in the mirror. In America, we are so used to seeing the way we live as “normal” that we may not detect what living self-indulgently means.

Longings

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Prov 13:12

Longings of the human heart run deep. It’s amazing the things men will do just to have what their heart longs for. Longings imply a lack, therefore they are accompanied by pain. The trouble with longings is figuring out what to do with them. What do we do with longings? To relieve this ache, men will do almost anything. Longings test the heart in a way nothing else can.

Some of us take matters into our own hands to fulfill our longings. Sarah wanted a child desperately. God had promised her one. “God just needs a hand,” she probably thought. After all, she couldn’t very well just wait around and expect God to drop what she wanted in her lap. God would help her only if she helped herself. She wasn’t getting any younger. She was getting older, already well past the age of being able to have a child. The women around her already had children. Perhaps she believed God would give her a child, but this whole idea that she should wait on Him to make it magically work out didn’t make sense. Life doesn’t work that way. So she decided to give God a hand and urged Abraham to sleep with Hagar so Hagar could be a surrogate mother.

Communion

“Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” Matt 20:22

As humans we tend to often become upset with God about our suffering or the suffering we see in the world. Although He did share in our suffering by becoming human and experiencing the sorrows of a human life, we want to know that He shares in our personal suffering. We question Him, wanting to know why He doesn’t care about our suffering more or share in it.

Although, upon asking God this I received an interesting reply. Why don’t you share in My suffering? God has a tendency to answer a question with a question. He did that to Job. Jesus did it with the Pharisees. What’s more, His questions tend to silence anything else you could possibly say in protest. You may come to God with the intention of questioning Him, but He throws it back onto you. If you are like the Pharisees, when this happens you will probably walk away (Matt 21:23-27). The other response of course, is taking it to heart.

You Can Only Hear a Whisper When You Listen

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jer 33:3

I believe God speaks. I dont think it’s for a select few who are super religious. I don’t know if it comes in an audible voice, at least that’s not my experience nor anyone else’s that I know of. How does God speaks? I don’t like putting God in a box, but I believe He speaks very clearly in His Word. I also believe God can speak outside His Word through people, circumstances, and impressions. I believe God will speak to each person in a specific way if that person is willing to listen.

Why does God speak? God speaks because He isnt hands-off with the world He created. I don’t believe He created the world and sat back to watch it. He speaks because as Creator of this world He longs to be known. He speaks because He cares. God is very involved. Chances are, you don’t doubt that God can speak; if you’re like me, you struggle with doubting that He will speak. But if we dont believe that He will speak then we will overlook, ignore, or explain away the times when He actually does. I’ve noticed that those who live with a profound awareness of God throughout their day are in a position where to hear from God the most.