RESOLVED TO HAVE GOD AS MY CHAIRMAN OF LIFE

Dr. Jim Bohrer

RESOLVED • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Exodus 4:14–31

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THERE ARE 3 CHAIRS YOU CAN CHOOSE WITH GOD.

Exodus 4:21–23 NASB95

21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”

EXODUS

THE CHAIR OF CONFLICT WITH GOD’S WILL.

No heart for God.

THE CHAIR OF COMPROMISE WITH GOD.

A half-hearted attempt at God.

THE CHAIR OF COMMITMENT TO GOD’S PLAN.

A whole hearted love for God.

REMEMBER GOD WILL WIN IN THE END. The choice you have is to join Him know and be with Him in the future or rebel now. He will still accomplish His purpose but you will not be with Him in the future.

THERE ARE 3 RESPONSES YOU HAVE EACH TIME YOU ENCOUNTER GOD.

EXCURSUS ON HARDINING:

10 TIMES IT WILL BE SAID THAT PHARAOH HARDENED HIS OWN HEART. (, , ; , , ; 34, 35; 13:15)

10 TIMES THE BIBLE RECOUNTS THAT GOD HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART. (; ; ; , , ; ; , , )

PHARAOH WILL HARDEN HIS HEART 7 TIMES BEFORE GOD IS SAID TO HARDEN PHARAOH’S HEART.

GOD PREDICTS HE WILL JUDICIALLY HARDEN A SLAVE HOLDERS HEART SO THAT HE CAN DISPLAY HIS RIGHTEOUS POWER AND GRACE BY FULFILLING HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB.

Knowing the choices of and attitudes of a person like Pharaoh is not causal. You can know what will happen God foreseeing a person’s hardness and knowing that if He, the Lord, puts more pressure on an egotistical power mad slaveholder which is one of the words for hardness, strengthening stubbornness.

AW Tozer whose

“Here is my view: God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, "What doest thou?" Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.”

REMEMBER, PHARAOH DOES NOT MERELY THINK HIGHLY OF himself, but he sees himself as the incarnation of the Sun God Ra and identifies with snakes as his source of power. Just because a policeman sets up a sting operation will a willing drug dealer does not mean that the police are unjust or at fault. All they did, was to give opportunity to strengthen the resolve of the criminal to do what the criminal already intended to do.

Now if they had gone to some random person in the street and stuffed a bag of cocaine and forced the person to deal the drugs, I’d say you’d have a case where that was not just. But the picture here in Scripture I believe clearly points to someone who has ample opportunity to Repent Reevaluate and Recommit his life to the true God. But we will see that Pharaoh’s excuse that he doesn’t know God may have been true at first but after 10 plagues, he especially is without excuse.

The same heat that will harden clay in a kiln will melt butter. God did not use some kind and caring vessel. Pharoah’s

“Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed?

YOU CAN REPENT OF NOT PUTTING GOD’S PLAN FIRST.

YOU CAN RE-EVALUATE IF YOU HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING WITH COMPROMISE.

YOU CAN RECOMMIT TO GOD’S PATH FOR YOUR LIFE.

כבד

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.

Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not even one of the livestock of Israel dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them,

“Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed?

חזק

Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament חזק

J uses forms of → kbd to describe “intransigence”; E and P use ḥzq qal for willful intransigence and ḥzq pi. for hardening of the heart through God’s agency (F. Hesse, Das Verstockungsproblem im AT [1955], 18f.). In Exod the obj. is always → lēb “heart” (cf. also Ezek 2:4, with adj.). Phrases with pānîm “face” (Jer 5:3 pi.) and mēṣaḥ “forehead” (Ezek 3:7–9, adj.) also occur in Jer and Ezek. This intransigence can more likely be explained from a salvation history perspective, as a “process in the universal, eschatologically oriented judgment of God” (J. Moltmann, RGG 6:1385), than as a theological aporia (the OT could not charge delusion to demonic powers) or as a religiopsychological principle (cf. von Rad, Theol. 2:151–55; E. Jenni, TZ 15 [1959]: 337–39

The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

And the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go.

Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

“Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.

“As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 2085 קָשָׁה

2085 קָשָׁה (qāšâ) I, be hard, severe.

Derivatives

2085a קָשֶׁה (qāšeh) hard, cruel.

2085b קְ שִׁי (qĕ šî) stubbornness.

The root qāšâ apparently arose from an agricultural milieu. It emphasizes, first, the subjective effect exerted by an overly heavy yoke, which is hard to bear, and secondarily, the rebellious resistance of oxen to the yoke. For synonyms see kābēd (heavy, emphasizing the weight of the thing bearing down), ḥāzaq (strong, emphasizing the pressure exerted), ḥāmaś (violent, cruel), ʾakzār (fierce). Note, qāšaḥ with the same variant spelling in Arabic has similar meaning to qāšâ. Our root (with the derivatives here listed) occurs sixty-four times.

A number of passages use the metaphor of a yoke (ʿôl) which is hard (and, therefore, cruel and oppressive) to bear: the servitude in Egypt (Ex 1:14), Solomon’s rule (I Kgs 12:4, hyperbolically?), and the Babylonian exile (Isa 14:3). Christ’s yoke, however, is easy (Mt 11:29–30), although it too requires submission (Phil 4:3) and discipline (II Cor 6:15). Other situations emphasize only the idea “hard to bear” (Gen 35:16; Gen 42:7; Ps 60:3 [H 5]); cf. the meaning “difficult” (Deut 1:17; 15:18). The other side of the word (cruel and oppressive) develops the meaning fierce (Gen 49:7; Isa 27:8).

A frequent use of the word relates to the stubborn (stiff-necked) subjects of the Lord. Like rebellious oxen, calf-worshiping Israel quickly turned aside from the Lord’s service (Ex 32:9). The spirit of Israel remained (for the most part) stubborn, intractable., and non-responsive to the guiding of their God (Deut 10:16; Jud 2:19; II Kgs 17:14; Neh 9:16) and of his Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 7:51). Pharaoh stubbornly refused divine leading (Ex 13:15) in accordance with divine counsel (Ex 7:3). Hannah used this word to describe her impassiveness created by great vexation (I Sam 1:15).

“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

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