“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.”
— Exodus 11:10
God is sovereign over all things, and yet he has—in his providence—given us free will.
These two truths are perhaps the most paradoxical we could possibly imagine, and yet they are true. This passage is one of those when these two truths seem to collide. There’s a bigger picture that we may miss though, if we don’t view this verse through the greater canon of Scripture.
In Romans 1, we read:
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Romans 1:22-23
How true this is, and especially of the Pharaoh. You can look to the scripture for evidence, or the walls of the great Egyptian pyramids themselves. The historic record is teeming with evidence proving this to be true. He worshipped created things, not least himself. What is God’s response?
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity”
Romans 1:24a
This might be hard, goodness it is only half way through January and we’re already hitting some of the more difficult verses in the Bible, but if we don’t face them now it is possible that we never will.
The truth is that for all of us who believe, we were once running full hilt away from God. What is harder, to have allowed us to keep going, to deliver us where wanted to go already? Or, to turn us around, so that we might repent before him?
In God’s providence, he allows and he invites. When we come across Scriptures like these, it should lead us to praise. How far gone were we when we relied on our own desires? How many leagues closer to are we to his eternal throne now?
As we pray today, thank him for saving you, or ask him to do so now.
Let’s pray.
Praying Through Scripture
Lord,
What wonders have you wrought in my soul alone,Not least that you saw the hardened stone which I called my heart,and you turned it to flesh in a moment, and now keep it beating with love for you.
May I never harden my heart towards you again,Like Pharaoh did towards you,Never give me up to my desires,but instead turn my desire towards you.
Let me never claim to be wise in my own eyesLest I become a fool, exchanging your immortal glory for a lie.Leave no stone unturned, no idolatry, whether for mortal man,For created things, or for creations of my own mind.
Don’t give me up to the impure lusts of my heart,but deliver me from evil, even that which springs from within.
Amen
* John 8
* Psalm 25
* Exodus 9-11
Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, Amon his son, Josiah his son. The sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.
— 1 Chronicles 3:11-15
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