Thoughts on Hebrews: God's Rest, Part 8

In the last post, we looked at God hearing and God responding. We saw that in the example of Hagar and Ishmael, but we also read God’s own words about his hearing in Exodus and various promises He made to Israel after hearing their cries. God did not harden his heart.

To flesh out hardening of heart, let’s look at Pharaoh before we turn to Israel in the wilderness. The real tragedy here is Israel mirrored Pharaoh’s heart. Let’s review Hebrews 3 citing Psalm 95 again:

So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways. ’So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

Keep your mental finger there while we read about Pharaoh.

In Exodus 4, God directs Moses back to Egypt, and He says:

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. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

In Exodus 5, Pharaoh begins the heart-hardening:

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

Here is what’s awful about Pharaoh’s statement, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?” Effectively the man asked that question in the garden. Right? That’s an extension of the serpent’s question to the woman in the garden, “Has God said?” And ultimately, Israel asks Pharaoh’s question too, “Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice?”

What is particularly convicting about this question is the writer of Hebrews brings that crisis to Today, as in “Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts . . . “ In other words, we all can choose to be the man and the woman, or Pharaoh, or Israel. On that happy note, let’s continue to look at Pharaoh.

In Exodus 7, we read:

And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Pharaoh saw many signs and wonders. Israel too, in the wilderness, and again when Jesus performed many signs and wonders in Palestine. See Hebrews 2:4 (“how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, and was affirmed by God through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.”)

But their sight and their hearing was not mixed with faith. See Hebrews 4:2 (“for we also are having good news proclaimed, even as they, but the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard . . ..”). How about us?

Let’s return to Pharaoh. Aaron’s staff had a hardening effect on Pharaoh:

Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The blood in the Nile had a hardening effect on Pharaoh’s heart:

In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.

And with the frogs in Exodus 8:

The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

And again with the gnats in Exodus 8:

So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

And again with the flies in Exodus 8:

And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. 32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

And again with the dead livestock in Exodus 9:

All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

And again with the boils in Exodus 9:

So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

And again with the hail in Exodus 9:

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

And again with the locusts in Exodus 10:

Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 19 And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

And again with the darkness in Exodus 10:

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”

And in Exodus 11 we read: Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

Pharaoh seems at first to relent:

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

But,

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea . . ..

Pharaoh’s hardness of heart unto the bitter end.

10 miraculous signs and wonders (12 if you count the cloud that separated Israel from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea)—and they caused him to walk away from God, and also from his fellow man. Notice his hardness of heart wasn’t limited to God but extended to the Egyptians also, who were suffering greatly under the hand of God. The opposite of this is likewise true—a man who has a soft heart towards God will walk to God and also grow increasingly sensitive to the needs of his neighbor. We see this in Acts 2:42 et seq. and Acts 4:32 et seq.

Pharaoh shows us that some simply will not believe despite direct evidence; and worse than that, some will harden their hearts when God is merciful. I note Pharaoh would often harden his heart when God would remove a plague after his request for Moses to pray for him and the Egyptian people.

Pharaoh also shows us that we have to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. The one fruit Pharaoh was to bear was letting Israel go, but in spite of his words, “I have sinned against the Lord,” his heart was far from God.

In a twist of irony, Pharaoh’s heart was like the clay the Israelites used to make bricks. The light of God shone upon Pharaoh in a remarkable way; but as the Nile clay hardened into bricks in the Egyptian sun, so too Pharaoh’s heart became hard as a brick.

In the next post, we will try to identify the good things God did for Israel, and then we will see whether their hearts continued to soften and cleave to the Lord. Or, would they harden like Pharaoh?

But before we go, i’ll leave you with this to think on. It’s one of Jesus’ parables that Luke records in the 16th Chapter of his gospel account:

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

This is where we are. Someone has risen from the dead. And, as a result, we are in a far more precarious position than Pharaoh ever was when confronted by Moses and Aaron. So, while it is still Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Image courtesy of Unsplash and Darin Metzinger