Pharaoh's Hard Heart and God's Great Worth // Exodus // Jimmy Needham

You're listening to a message from Stonegate Church. For more information about Stonegate and additional audio resources, please visit Stonegate Church. Well, can I tell you a story of a stupid thing I did once? Yes. Great.

Okay. I've only done a couple, but here is one of them. Many moons ago, my parents bought themselves a matt that they didn't like. Immediately didn't like it, and they said, do you and Kelly want it? And I said, yes.

That was not the stupid thing. That was a great thing because we were newlyweds and we had no money and free mattresses are great. So we said yes. Here's the stupid thing. I came over to their house to pick it up in my open bed trailer, and me and my dad put it in the back and we got it in there real good, like, okay.

It felt snug as a bug in a rug. And we looked at each other at some point and we asked the question, do you think we need to strap it down?

The answer was obvious. It's snug. Okay. It's gonna be fine. I get in my truck and head back home.

I am on the highway in Houston in midday at 60 miles an hour, and I notice in my rear view mirror something weird. A little ballooning of this mattress. That's weird. It's weird, but it's snug. I remember.

I remember. And then I raised my eyes once more to the Mirro. And all I see now is mattress like this. But only for a moment because that mattress works a lot like a kite. I don't know if you know this.

And that wind just took it and flung it into oncoming traffic. Cars are bobbing and weaving. A truck is headed right for it. Hits it, runs it over, rips it in half. It's shredded all over the highway.

It was pandemonium. Now, thankfully, by God's grace, no one was hurt. But that story is a little bit like how this morning is going to feel to us.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's a matt on our highway today. We've been cruising along the Exodus 101. And we've been having ourselves a wonderful time, haven't we? It's been sights and sounds. The radio's up.

It's been amazing. It has fed our souls. And we are on our way to the land of the 10 plagues. That's what's coming up for us. But as we're driving, we notice something on the road.

And it's this big California king that's just spread over the lanes. And many people have Driven this way before and not dealt with this mattress. And they've really tore the cars up quite a bit. But not us, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to pull the car over today and we are going to deal with this mattress on the highway. What's the mattress, Jimmy?

What is it? What are we talking about? The mattress is this the hardening of Pharaoh's heart? Okay. It's not a very popular brand of mattress.

It's a little firm, but there it is in the road, and we have to deal with it. Now, maybe when you hear hardening affairs heart, you come this morning and you're ready. You're an expert in the field. You know the stuff you've asked and answered all the questions. You're just ready to send me an email for the stuff I get wrong here in the next few moments.

Maybe that's you. Or maybe when I say hardening fair is hard, you're like, yeah, what's the deal? I don't know. Is that even in this book, you just haven't thought critically about this issue yet? And that's okay.

It really is. Wherever you are this morning, that's okay. But we're gonna do this thing together. We are gonna deal with this together. And so let me just tell you how this is gonna work today.

We are gonna spend this sermon in kind of two parts. Part one is just us trying to what the issue is that the text presents us. Right? We'll call it getting to know the mattress. That's part one, right?

What is this thing that so many cars have hit over the centuries? And then part two, we're just going to. After we kind of figure out what it is, we're just going to ask some of the questions that come from that understanding. Okay? Now that I know that, here are the things that come up in my heart and mind that I would like some answers to.

We're going to see if the word can give us some those answers. That's all we're doing. What is it? And then answering some questions that follow. Okay?

And I'll say we say this periodically around here, but today, there's a lot of deep thinking involved today, gang. Okay? This is. This is gonna be some nerd town for some of us. Okay?

But I need you to hang with me because I'm hoping that on the other side of all this, that we're gonna do, a couple things are gonna happen. One, your view of the. The size and majesty of God is going to triple. That's what I'm hoping that at the end of this, we're going to go, oh, I thought he was, but he's. He's really big.

And I'm hoping that you'll see at the end of this, this isn't a bunch of theological nitpicking from some pastors and seminarians that this isn't just about like winning a theological argument, but that this actually connects to your everyday life, your actual hope and dependence on God is connected to them. So I'm hoping that you're going to see that with me by the end of it. So that's the journey we're on together. Can we. Can we do it together?

Yes. Okay, here we go. Off to the races. If you got your Bible, you have it open. We're going to be in Exodus pretty much the whole time, and we're going to hop around a little bit.

You'd probably be good to be around chapter seven and eight, somewhere around there. Okay, let's try to begin by understanding the issue, right? What are we talking about? In Exodus, between chapters four and 14, there are 19 statements about the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. 19 statements.

So it's no small thing. This isn't like a little random part of the story. It's a big part of the story. Pharaoh's heart gets hard in such a way that he won't let God's people go. In fact, if you're wondering why there are 10 plagues in the first place, it's because Pharaoh's heart is hard and he won't let people go.

That's why there are more than 1, 2, 3 plagues. There's 10 of them because of this. Now, these statements, these 19 statements here, what makes it unusual is they are said, they're given to us in all kinds of odd ways. They're put in all kinds of different terms. So for instance, sometimes when you're reading the text is going to say things like Pharaoh hardened his heart and wouldn't let God's people go.

Let me give you an example. Exodus 8, 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite or a break, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord said, right? So that's Pharaoh hardening his heart. But then sometimes about that's.

That happens three times, about six times in the text, it doesn't say Pharaoh did it. It just. It didn't specify. It says that his heart was hardene. It uses the passive voice.

So example 7, 13, still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. You see the difference? And he would not listen to them, as the Lord says. And then to complicate matters 10 times, it doesn't say either of those. It says something else.

It actually says that the hardening is done by God himself. So Exodus 10:20. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. So you with me, you can kind of immediately see some of the issues that are coming to the fore with this. You've got issues around free will, like, are we free?

Can we do what we want? That sort of thing. God's sovereignty, like, who's in charge of what in my life and my behaviors and all of that. That's what we're dealing with. Now, to uncomplicate this, lots of folks have come and said something like this about this issue.

They've gone, okay, well, because it tends to say God hardens pharaoh's heart kind of at the end of the 19 occurrences because of that, what's really going on is this Pharaoh, at the beginning of the plagues, he is freely hardening his own heart. He's hardening it. It's all him. And then as the plagues progress, God sees that and he goes, well, if you're gonna be that way, then I'm just going to pour cement all over that hard heart of yours, and we're just going to keep it like that. And so that's how.

That's how many folks explain it. And this is attractive for a couple reasons. It seems to preserve Pharaoh's free will, right? He started this thing. It was Pharaoh hardening his heart, and then God did something later, right?

So nobody's confused about who the bad guy is. Pharaoh started to harden his heart all by himself. And it gets God out of some bad press, right? It makes it to where God isn't somehow like bringing about something bad like the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, right? So it does all those things, and it's attractive to a lot.

This is how a lot of people understand this mattress. Yeah, I don't think the text will let us do that, though. Why? Because before Pharaoh does anything, before the plagues ever even happen, we get insight from God on what's going to. God pulls Moses aside and tells him exactly what's going to happen two times.

And listen to how he talks about the first is at the burning bush. I don't know if you know this, but that's when this issue gets platformed for the first time. It sounds like this in verse 21 of chapter 4. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go Back to Egypt. See that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power.

But I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go. Or chapter seven. Right before the plagues happen, we get this again. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.

Okay, so why, according to this, isn't Pharaoh going to listen to Moses during the plagues? What reason did God say? Because God is going to harden his heart. That's what he said. Twice.

Right. So those verses kind of work for us like a. Like a Rosetta stone to teach us how to translate all the other moments we're going to read about. Right? So when it says in the future that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, or Pharaoh hardened his heart, we can know because God told us what's really going on.

That behind Pharaoh hardening his heart is a God who's sovereignly bringing that about. That's what he told us. Okay, so it's not one Pharaoh and then the other God acting it is both together. Now are you starting to see why this is complicated? Why this trips us up?

Right. We're saying God and Pharaoh are somehow causing the same action.

If you're looking for the theological term to explain this, it's called the doctrine of concurrence. Concurrence.

It means this. I think we have it on the screen that God cooperates with his creation to cause them to act as they do. Meaning the choices you and I make are real. They're really your choices. And God mysteriously causes us to make them.

Simple. Right. I think we're done here. But in case there's a few stragglers who aren't tracking, let me provide an analogy for you that it's helped me at least get categories of. Like, how in the universe could this even make sense?

I'm borrowing this from Wayne Gruden, but it's been helpful for me, so let me platform this to you. Okay. Imagine for a moment the play Macbeth. Okay. Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Yes. So in the play, the character Macbeth kills King Duncan. That's act two. I know we're all up on our Macbeth, but just for clarity, he kills King Duncan in the play. Question.

Who killed King Duncan? Well, on the one hand, we can very confidently say Macbeth did. Right? He's the guy in the script who killed the king. That's what happened.

But in another way, we could also say William Shakespeare did. Right. Why? Because he wrote the play. It's his play.

It's his story. He's having it unfold in this way. Now, you would never accuse Shakespeare of murder. That would be weird, right? Because he didn't.

He's the playwright. He wrote this thing. Nor would you say Macbeth was forced to kill the king. That would also be weird. He wasn't forced.

In fact, in the script he even says, I have no spur, meaning nothing's kicking me along to do this, but only vaulting ambition. So Macbeth genuinely did it, but somehow Shakespeare was behind the doing. Do you see that? Now, in the same way, let's go here. Who hardened Pharaoh's heart?

Well, in one sense, Pharaoh did. Right. It was Pharaoh who genuinely did not want to let God's people go. But in another, equally true sense, we could say God did. Why?

Because it's his story. Because he's writing it. He's the playwright. And if all that hurts your head, then congratulations. You can see the mattress on the highway.

That's the thing. There it is right there. Okay, now that we see this, we can start asking some questions about it. Okay. And there's so many.

I'm not going to get to all of them. I'm not. Lots of you are going to be really disappointed. But I do have an email, so just hit me up. I would.

I'm not even going to give the fake email I always give as a joke. You can give me the real email. Jneedham Stonegate Church. Hit me up. But we're going to cover what I think are three of the louder ones that come out of this.

Okay. And the first one that I think comes up is it's a question of mechanics. It's a mechanical question. It's how does this work? Yeah, okay, I see the issue now.

It's like a both and thing. But, like, how does it work? Like, what are the mechanics that make this possible? Because it seems like you're saying God is fully in charge of all I do and I'm completely responsible for my actions. How?

Right. How? It sure feels like I'm the only one in charge of what I do. Ah, I did that right then. Right?

That wasn't. I thought I did that. That was weird.

So how does that work? Okay, here is the honest Christian answer to that question. Lean in. We don't know. We have no idea.

I couldn't tell you. The Bible never tells us. There are hundreds of verses in your Bible that show this happen, and there are zero verses in your Bible that tell how it happens. Zero. In other words, the Bible presents the Tension, but never explains the tension.

It's just there. It's just there. Which means, if that's true, it means that you and I. You know what this is? We are being invited by God to embrace a mystery.

That's what's happening, right? We're being invited to embrace a mystery. And here's the thing about mystery. Embracing mystery requires humility. Doesn't it like for you to get this, you've got to be humble man.

You've got to be able to go, I don't know. And I'm okay with that. And that's, that's hard for us. But if you're. So if you're here this morning, like, what does this sermon have to do anything in my life.

What is an application here? Here's at least one application for you and I on the other side of such deep stuff as this. Be humble and receive from God. Embrace from God the mystery he presents in the text. He could have not shown us, but he did.

It's all through the Bible. So he's inviting us to think about it, to say yes to it. He's just not showing us behind the curtain how it works. That's okay. Your invitation from him is to be humble.

You don't have to logic this thing out. It's not going to work. My engineer's in the room. It's not going to work. You can't carry the one on this.

It's too complex. So we're being invited to remember how small we are and how much wiser and smarter God is than us. And then to be able to just cover our mouth and God, I don't know, I'm just gonna wonder at my mind blowing God, that would be such a great application this morning. If you don't get anything else, just go, I'm gonna humbly receive what my God presents in the Word. I'm gonna, I'm gonna say yes to everything in this book, even when the mechanics of it don't make sense.

Is that fair that that would honor your, your father for you to do that. Okay, so that's question one. Now that's maybe an unsatisfying answer to the first question. I don't know. That's not a great answer.

But there are a couple other questions that come out of this that I think we can take a swing at answering. Okay, so there's a mechanical question. Now I think there's a moral question, isn't there? And the moral question is, is it fair? Right?

Is this, is this fair to Pharaoh? We Got any Pharaoh sympathizers out there? Like, poor guy, like, you kidding me? Like all he wanted to do was let God's people go and now he's got a hard heart. Where did this come from?

Right. I didn't want to do it this way. Do you see how this is a problem? Like did God prevent Pharaoh from freeing the slaves and then punish him for it? That.

Do you see the question that comes up out of this? Did he do that? Here is the Bible's answer to that. No. God did not keep Pharaoh from doing what he wanted to do.

Why? Because Pharaoh never wanted to do it in the first place. He never wanted to do that. Do you know what the truth is about hardening?

We don't get a hard heart. We start with a hard heart. We start with a hard heart. I'm going to. We're going to do some theologizing together.

Okay? Romans 5 is one of the most important chapters in your Bible because it explains the thing I just said. Romans 5 tells us in the New Testament. It tells us that when Adam is sinned in the garden in Genesis chapter three that his whole family tree sinned in his sin. So that everyone from Adam on is now guilty under the judgment of God.

Hard hearted as a curse that happened in the garden. I'll show it to you. Romans 5, 18 and 19. One trespass, that's Adam's sin led to condemnation for all men. That's us.

Yeah. By. By one man's disobedience. That's Adam. The many were made sinners.

That's us. This is a huge piece of Christian theology that I don't think you can navigate life as a Christian and not understand this. It's called the doctrine of original. Have you heard that term before? The origin story of your heart and my heart being so dark and us being under the wrath of God starts with Adam in the garden.

Right? So in other words, since Eden all of us have been hardened by God. All of us. It is the consequence for sin. This is why I don't have to teach my sons how to punch my other sons in the face.

They are already good at it. I'm taking notes. That's. I don't know. Not so I could punch them and it was fine.

They're good at it. They know. Okay. And this is what the Bible teaches about original sin. Listen to how Ephesians 2 talks about this.

You've heard these verses before and you were dead in the trespasses and sins which you once walked following the course of the World following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work. And the sons of disobedience. You hear it? Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. And were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Are you hearing the language now? By nature sinful, dead in trespasses, Sons of disobedience, like our heart is. Is hard. It started that way. Now, that doesn't mean everyone is born a monster.

Like the worst you could be. Some of y' all are sweethearts, okay? But at. At the deepest part of our heart, who we are, apart from Christ are me obsessed creatures. It is me on the throne, Me at the front of the line.

Not God, not you, me. And that impulse in every one of us is called a hard heart. Okay? So, okay, take that theology. Yeah.

Now, let's come back to Pharaoh. We're back with Pharaoh. Now, when we read God hardened Pharaoh's heart, what's it really mean then? It really means that God is giving Pharaoh over to the hardness he gave him from the beginning. See, that Pharaoh was not a good guy that God made bad.

He wasn't prevented from freeing the Hebrews like he wanted to. He never wanted to. And God hardening him was him giving Pharaoh over to what he already wanted to do because of the false, because of Adam. Does that make sense at least? It's heavy and heady.

But I want to make sure that's tracking with you. Okay? So do you know what this means for us? This doesn't just mean something for our brain. This means something for you.

One of the things it means is it means we're accountable. Like, no one will stand before God on judgment day and say, God made me do it. He twisted my arm. I was going to be such a puppy dog, but he hardened my heart. Nobody is going to ever talk like that.

On the Day of Judgment, we do what we want. Our choices are real. They're legitimate. They're ours. This is how the Bible constantly talks, right?

You can believe in big God theology, like what I'm talking about and see, still confess. Yeah. I'm responsible. You're responsible. We're culpable before God.

Both of those things live together in the Bible. So we do what we want, and God is always right and just in his judgments at the end. Okay.

Now, maybe you're good here. Maybe. Maybe that that's tracking with you and you feel good about that. But I. I do think that there's One more looming question that shows up, at least in my heart, when I bump into this big God theology, stuff like this, of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. There's another thing that shows up in me when I think about God's sovereignty.

And it's, it's, it's the theological question. So we had like, the mechanical, the moral. But there's a theological question here, and it's real simple, but it's, it's this. It's. Is, Is he good?

But is God good? Like, put yourself in Israel's shoes for a moment. We thought about, like, Pharaoh for a moment. Put yourself in Israel's shoes for a moment. If I'm Israel, this is my leading question.

Is God good? So God hardened Pharaoh's heart, which then prolonged me in slavery. Thanks a lot, God. Right? I mean, if you're Israel, you could see how you would get there.

I think this is a real question for us because think about yourself in your own life, like some of you are in prolonged seasons of hard pain, suffering, like evil's coming against you in some real ways. And it's the same question. Does God even want to good for me? Do you see how it's the same question? Is he good?

To answer this question, we're going to look at one more passage from Exodus. I think it's one of the most important paragraphs in the whole book. And so we're going to slow down over it for a second and just see if we can answer that question.

Context. We're going to be in Exodus 9, if you want to turn there. Starting in verse 13, context. Six plagues have happened. We got four to go.

We're coming up on the seventh plague. And the Lord says something to Moses about what to say to Pharaoh. Okay, and here's what unfolds. And we're going to look at these words together. Verse 13.

Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him. Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. Okay, pause. What do we know? So, on the one hand, here's what we definitely know.

God clearly really wants Pharaoh to let his people go. Because God's not a liar. He can't lie, right? And he just said, let my people go that they may serve me. That is a desire inside the heart of God.

We just read it right here. He does not want his people enslaved. But he says more. He's about to explain why the thing he wanted hasn't happened yet and isn't going to happen for a minute. Look at verse 14.

For this time, this seventh plague, I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth. AKA I could have freed my people a long time ago. You know that, right? Like I could have just smoked you and got them out, right?

But here it is. For this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

God did want Pharaoh to let his people go. But there was something God wanted even more than that that kept him from granting that immediately. And it's this. To display his power so that a nation of people would awaken from their identity idolatry and see for the first time who the true God is. Why did he delay their rescue?

For that? God hardened Pharaoh's heart to display his worth.

That's the most important sentence I'm going to say this morning. God hardened Pharaoh's heart to display his worth. God, listen, we'll do whatever it takes so we can enjoy the gift of seeing his glory in our lives. This is the most fundamental truth, maybe in the scriptures. God is about the display of his worth for the delight of our hearts.

What this whole thing's about.

So think about what this means for you. Like why does God allow that evil to keep pestering you in your life? Why does he allow it to continue in your life? Have you asked that question? Why doesn't he just wipe it out?

We know he can. It's not that he's wants to but is unable to. It's not that. Why? It's so that in his wisdom he can exploit that evil to bring about an even better outcome for you and your joy in the end.

That's why. That's why it's still there. That's why it's still there. Maybe God is delaying relief in your life right now so that in your pain he can show Himself strong to you and you can learn the joy of clinging to him in your weakness.

And if that's not a good to you, that's your prayer for this week. God, would you change my heart to see that is more precious than even relief?

Don't doubt your Father's goodness. He is using even the evil things to bring about the good things. And if you need proof positive that he does this kind of thing. Guys, we look to the cross, right? I'm gonna put it on the screen for you.

It's Acts, chapter four. One of the most mind blowing passages in your Bible says this. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. All these bad actors, all of these nefarious workers are working in concert to bring about your salvation. Like one reason that your salary sins can be forgiven is the hard hearts of evil people 2000 years ago.

What? What? Guys, God never does evil. He never does evil. But he does use the evil of Herods and pilots and pharaohs and crooked politicians and bad bosses and all the rest to bring about our good, even if we can't see it right now.

So what do you do with all this? You come humble to this news and you open up your hands and you embrace the mystery of God working all things, sovereignty sovereignly accomplishing all things, even the bad ones, for your everlasting joy in Christ. You. You open up your hands, you say, I receive that. I take that in.

I trust you in the middle of it, even in my heart, because I know you're working for my good.

Okay, let's pray.

Well, Father, we. We recognize that there's a mystery here. For us, we're not going to figure all this out. It would be strange if we could. For us to be able to understand with our finite brains the infinite complexities of our infinite God.

It's arrogant to think that we could or that we must.

So Lord, make it possible in our hearts. Help us to be able to be humble creatures right now and go, there's a mystery here. He showed me it. And though he doesn't tell me how it works, he says I can trust him in it. Would you help us, your flock right here, trust you in whatever season we're in, if we're in a hard season, would you help us to trust you that things aren't absent mindedly happening out there in the world or in our world, but that you are working all things for the good of your people?

Lord, we bless your name. You are glorious and awesome and big and. And we stand in awe of you. And as we sing these songs, we pray that our hearts would mean what our words are saying. So God, would you give us that grace in these next moments?

We pray In Jesus name, amen.