I love that even the manner in which God teaches separates him from the scribes. Just like the love the God instructs us to have for others is different than non believers.
When I’ve considered the narrow way versus the wide path before, I’ve always thought that those who don’t profess the Lord take the narrow… and those who do take the narrow… but is it really a distiction that can categorize beliecers? Am I a believer who has taken the wide path?
I do think the narrow is the believers/ true followers of Christ. However, I think there are many that consider themselves a Christian who have never truly given Christ Lordship. They have not truly given themselves over to Him. There needs to be a submission of my will to Him allowing Him to dictate my life, thoughts, priorities, values, decisions, relationships… I become a steward of all that is His- my body, all I own, my gifts/ talents, my time, my family, my money… Few truly do this or even see the need to pursue growing in this.
King David sinned greatly, but he was a man after God’s own heart because of His repentance in seeking to be right with God no matter what as His top priority. I hope this is making sense.
Ex 10: 1-2 gives us the answer. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so “ that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Kara, as I understand this verse. It is the sin nature, residing within all of us, that is being hardened by the demand of the law to let God’s people go. A sign that says wet paint, don’t touch! causes us to desire to touch it!! In this way, the heart is given a choice and by nature it chooses to sin, to touch. As with each of us, when we stand before our Holy God and recognize that we are sinful and have hearts of stone and not hearts of flesh that can be turned only by God through Christ, our hearts are hardened also. This is when we realize our need for Christ. Pharaoh never did
I’ve been meditating on this as well and this is what I’ve learned.
The same sun that hardens the clay, melts the wax. The sun shines the same way on both but their nature responds to it differently. It wasn’t God that changed Pharaoh’s heart and made it hard, it was Pharaoh that responded to the ways of the Lord. God knew this would happen because God knows all, but we still have a choice how to react to the love of God.
Hey Sarah! I completely agree that when taken on its own, this concept of hardening Pharaoh’s heart is kind of difficult. The Hebrew does say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, pretty clearly in 9:12, but in 8:32, it’s pharaoh hardening his own heart. But, I also think that it needs to be interpreted with what we know of God and his character. There is the ultimate sovereignty of God, and his goodness and steadfast love and kindness, and his slowness to anger. And there is Pharaoh, who has free will as any human does, who is really trying to assert himself as the most powerful God of Egypt and any of the people/slaves that are a part of that kingdom. So what we’re seeing here is really a showdown between the true God and a fake. God is sovereign and the agent that changes hearts, but there is allowed free will to humans as that’s what maintains a relationship of love between God and his people rather than a relationship of compulsion. God’s sovereignty and human free will interact in a way that allows for both, but we kind of stand in the tension of not really knowing exactly where one begins and the other ends. Just the faith and knowledge that God is good, God is love, and God is all-powerful to make his plan of ultimate redemption come to pass. And as a result of the interplay of God’s sovereign will of hardening pharaoh’s heart and pharaoh hardening his own heart, more people know who God is and are convinced of his power. If there were some Egyptians who feared the word of the Lord as a result of this then already some were saved, not to mention the far reaching power this story and event has for today.
Thank you AJ, so much insight here! I have copied your post into my notes. The concept of the one true God pitting himself against the fake who tried to set himself up as a god, plus the fact that people past and present have seen God’s power and had the potential for salvation through this helped my understanding of this passage.
5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
-ellie
16But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
I love that even the manner in which God teaches separates him from the scribes. Just like the love the God instructs us to have for others is different than non believers.
7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “
When I’ve considered the narrow way versus the wide path before, I’ve always thought that those who don’t profess the Lord take the narrow… and those who do take the narrow… but is it really a distiction that can categorize beliecers? Am I a believer who has taken the wide path?
I do think the narrow is the believers/ true followers of Christ. However, I think there are many that consider themselves a Christian who have never truly given Christ Lordship. They have not truly given themselves over to Him. There needs to be a submission of my will to Him allowing Him to dictate my life, thoughts, priorities, values, decisions, relationships… I become a steward of all that is His- my body, all I own, my gifts/ talents, my time, my family, my money… Few truly do this or even see the need to pursue growing in this.
King David sinned greatly, but he was a man after God’s own heart because of His repentance in seeking to be right with God no matter what as His top priority. I hope this is making sense.
❤️
I’m really struggling with “and the Lord hardened the pharaohs heart.”
Ex 10: 1-2 gives us the answer. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so “ that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Kara, as I understand this verse. It is the sin nature, residing within all of us, that is being hardened by the demand of the law to let God’s people go. A sign that says wet paint, don’t touch! causes us to desire to touch it!! In this way, the heart is given a choice and by nature it chooses to sin, to touch. As with each of us, when we stand before our Holy God and recognize that we are sinful and have hearts of stone and not hearts of flesh that can be turned only by God through Christ, our hearts are hardened also. This is when we realize our need for Christ. Pharaoh never did
I’ve been meditating on this as well and this is what I’ve learned.
The same sun that hardens the clay, melts the wax. The sun shines the same way on both but their nature responds to it differently. It wasn’t God that changed Pharaoh’s heart and made it hard, it was Pharaoh that responded to the ways of the Lord. God knew this would happen because God knows all, but we still have a choice how to react to the love of God.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:14
Hey Sarah! I completely agree that when taken on its own, this concept of hardening Pharaoh’s heart is kind of difficult. The Hebrew does say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, pretty clearly in 9:12, but in 8:32, it’s pharaoh hardening his own heart. But, I also think that it needs to be interpreted with what we know of God and his character. There is the ultimate sovereignty of God, and his goodness and steadfast love and kindness, and his slowness to anger. And there is Pharaoh, who has free will as any human does, who is really trying to assert himself as the most powerful God of Egypt and any of the people/slaves that are a part of that kingdom. So what we’re seeing here is really a showdown between the true God and a fake. God is sovereign and the agent that changes hearts, but there is allowed free will to humans as that’s what maintains a relationship of love between God and his people rather than a relationship of compulsion. God’s sovereignty and human free will interact in a way that allows for both, but we kind of stand in the tension of not really knowing exactly where one begins and the other ends. Just the faith and knowledge that God is good, God is love, and God is all-powerful to make his plan of ultimate redemption come to pass. And as a result of the interplay of God’s sovereign will of hardening pharaoh’s heart and pharaoh hardening his own heart, more people know who God is and are convinced of his power. If there were some Egyptians who feared the word of the Lord as a result of this then already some were saved, not to mention the far reaching power this story and event has for today.
Thank you AJ, so much insight here! I have copied your post into my notes. The concept of the one true God pitting himself against the fake who tried to set himself up as a god, plus the fact that people past and present have seen God’s power and had the potential for salvation through this helped my understanding of this passage.
……Also I appreciate your comment of interpreting all of this with what we know of God’s character – His love, mercy, compassion etc.