And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. (Exodus 4:21)
Today's Morsel: Have you read the Bible and become confused about God's comment to Moses that He would harden Pharaoh heart? Some people seem to think that God was causing Pharaoh's heart to be hardened. This is one of those oxymorons. What God was saying to Moses was that Pharaoh will reject my word and not do what I'm asking him to do, and this will cause his heart to become hardened. When people will not listen to what God is telling them to do, they will harden themselves against what they have been asked to do. People who do not want to listen to the Word of God and change their lives, will become atheistic. Their hearts are hardened, and they will be as Pharaoh and say, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him?" Anytime you go against the Word of God, it will harden your heart. This is why the Lord tells us "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns" (Jeremiah 4:3). When our hearts are hardened, the Word cannot be sown in it. The heart must first be broken up. When our hearts of hardened through pride, materialism, and worldliness, we reject what the man of God is telling us, and so God has to take a more drastic measure toward us before we will listen. This is why the ten plagues came the way that they did. God will get our attention one way or the other. As He says through the prophet Isaiah, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it"(Isaiah 1:18-20). "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest"(Psalms 95:6-11). The Psalmist said, "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." In other words, when God speaks to you, listen and obey because the consequence for rebellion is always death. Both natural and spiritual.
Sing: I'll say yes, Lord, yes, to you will and to your way. I'll say yes, Lord, yes, I will trust you and obey. When your Spirit speaks to me, with my whole heart I'll agree, and my answer will be yes, Lord, yes!
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