Hardened Hearts

I have just recently begun incorporating into my daily routine a daily bible reading from BibleGateway.com I can't help but find it ironic that I just happened to land in the book of Exodus, where God has instructed Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. As I have been reading along, I first noticed that Moses was God's classic reluctant servant, but he did end up doing what God told him. One of the most intriguing things I have noticed in these chapters, however, is that, after sending Moses back to Egypt, God repeatedly hardens Pharaoh's heart through all of the plagues and wonders until after the final one (it took 10 total), where he loses his firstborn son, as does anyone in the land whose doorpost is not covered with the blood of a sacrificial unblemished lamb (a type of Christ).

As I read through, the troubling facts are there, stated over and over again ... God tells Moses that HE has hardened Pharaoh's heart and so he won't let the people go. Since God is the One who sent Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt in the first place, this does not make any sense. He seems to defeat His own purpose by repeatedly hardening the heart of Pharaoh Himself, putting Moses, the Israelites, Pharaoh, and the inhabitants of Egypt through much testing, although I should mention here that the ordeals the Israelis suffered were at the hands of Pharaoh, not God.

The irony comes in when I look at the condition our country is in today, a nation that was founded by men who loved God and dedicated this land to Him, and can't help but draw a parallel to the situation in Exodus. Then, I wonder how we ever fell so far. There are exceptions, to be sure, but for the most part, our leadership, and I use the term loosely, is arrogant, self-exalting, and in disarray ... many of our senators and congressmen, who represent themselves more than they do their constituents, should be in prison for their corrupt and sometimes outright criminal actions. Often, it is due to the fact that many uninformed, gullible, and sometimes apathetic people keep voting them back into office, expecting the government to take away all their problems, when in fact, it is responsible for creating a good many of them. It is in this state of human pride and foolish attempts to remove God from our lives, bowing down to our own idols, that we stand facing some of the most critical days of our lives.... dangerous days.

The American family is struggling for survival, millions of innocent unborns are murdered daily via the self-centered ideology of 'freedom of choice', Anti-God legislation and rules dictated by humanistic forces are finding their way into our society, and as I have been reading through Exodus, I can't help but wonder who (or what) has hardened our hearts. Has God had a hand in this as in the days of Pharaoh, or have we just hardened our own hearts in defiance and arrogant independence from Him? In either case, we are in for a rough time ahead ... I don't know about the blood, fleas, locusts, frogs, and other plagues that God brought upon Egypt, but He does not seem to lack for imagination, and there are so many ways He can get our attention. 9/11 has been all but forgotten by a good many Americans, and yet it was a day that changed our lives forever ... so what WILL it take for this nation to stop treading the path of self-destruction and turn to God in true repentance?

Why did God continually harden Pharaoh's heart when it seemed contrary to His purpose? From the way Exodus reads, it actually wasn't. The human heart is proud and easily swayed. Human arrogance and tendency to exalt self against God boast themselves not only in Pharaoh's day, but in ours. My example of 9/11 points out just how fickle we really are ... and how easily we forget. Coast to coast, our nation wept and prayed right after that fateful day. Within 6 months, however, our leadership was back to bickering like a bunch of school kids and anti-Christian sentiment was once again rearing its ugly head. Did God know Pharaoh's heart would be so quick to forget ... or that we would?

We are in a precarious situation with our current President, who, for the most part, supports policies that are in direct contradiction with the Bible. He seems to be dangerously close to stepping over, if he has not already, the line. I do not know his heart ... only God does. I can only hope he is not as arrogant as he presents himself to be and that he does not dare to allow himself to be convinced by all his adoring fans that he is something he is not ... he is not our Savior ... he is an elected official. He is not the Messiah ... he is a mortal man. Without God, he can do nothing. God says He will share His glory with NO other. The mindless deifying of this man by millions has been, at least to me, even more alarming than any arrogance he may portray. If these people are knowingly (or even unwittingly) elevating a mere man to God-like status, then we are dealing with mass idolatry ... something that God can hardly bless ... and we really need His blessing now.

I wonder ... the hardening of America's heart ... is it of God, just as he hardened Pharaoh's hearts ... does He deem it necessary for us to suffer through numerous plagues before we bow before Him, or are we guilty of hardening our own hearts? We are warned of the dangers of hardening our hearts in the Bible .... once in the book of Psalms (95:8) and three times in the book of Hebrews (chapters 3 & 4). It also tells us to exhorts each other daily, lest we are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Whether it is God's doing or our own, what will it take for God to show Himself God ... not only of this nation, but of the world. He WILL show Himself as God. The Bible says "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess ... that Jesus is Lord, to the Glory of God, the Father".