Pharaoh's Stubborn Heart: A Case Study in Rebellion - Saved for the Glory of God | Studies in the book of Exodus

It's often been said that humanity doesn't learn from itself

or from its history.

Over a hundred years ago, the Great War, now known as World War

I, was supposed to be the war that ended all wars.

The reasons behind it and the ferocity of its impact, along with

the number of people killed, should have taught humanity a lesson

in what the descent into war does to itself.

Yet following the war between 1939 and 1945, the Great War did

have to be renamed, because a second World War, largely based on

the same reasons as to why the First World War began, took an even

greater toll on humanity.

And still, over 80 years later, we see conflict after conflict

because humanity has the inability to learn from its past,

and ego and political ambition take over as the lead drivers for

continued conflict.

In fact, when you look at our history of war and conflict, you

can see some of the lessons that we should have learned from

them coming out in the story of Exodus.

Because the ten plagues of Egypt may not have been to the extent

of the world wars or any conflicts that we see around us today.

But the king of Egypt certainly was repeating what humanity

has failed to do in this past century.

He wasn't learning from what had gone before.

And today we come to the fifth and sixth plagues against the land

of Egypt.

And there is no stopping these plagues or the punishment that is

falling on the Egyptians.

Even though Pharaoh could easily have ended it all with one

decision.

That's all it would take, one decision.

That decision being, let God's people go.

But Pharaoh simply couldn't do it because he thought he was better

than God.

Pharaoh basically ignored the plagues.

And you'd wonder, how could he do that?

Well, he may have seen them physically, and he may have been

impacted by them.

Remember the frogs in his bed?

None of us would have liked that.

But you see, he ignores the plagues because he ignores the challenge

that it is to everything the Egyptians believe in, including himself.

And as we come to the final plague, the 10th plague, we will

see that even he cannot save himself.

And so the plagues that came were to the Nile, that source of

all water for Egypt, and all of the sources of water turning to

blood and becoming unusable.

That was the first plague.

Then the plague of frogs that fell on the land, demonstrating God's

authority over the God.

They worshiped for childbirth, and it was too much for all the people.

Then the third plague of gnats from the dust meant that there was

discomfort for all the people and animals.

We then moved into the second round of three plagues, beginning

with flies, that filled the houses of all the Egyptians.

But what was interesting in this second set of plagues of 1 to

3, and then 4, 5, and 6 is that this plague of flies didn't

fall in the land of Goshen, the land that had been given to the

children of Israel and where they lived and had settled for hundreds

of years.

And so now we see the plague on the livestock and the plague of

boils.

And yet Pharaoh does not change his mind towards the Israelites

and and their request that they can go to worship their God

in the wilderness.

And so, as we turn to chapter nine, we see that the request is

once again to go to Pharaoh.

Moses and Aaron are to go to ask that he let the people go to

worship God.

And verses two and three tell us of the consequences if Pharaoh

once again refuses.

We're told there that if you refuse to let them go and continue

to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague

on your livestock in the fields.

What will that include on your horses and donkeys and camels and

on your cattle and sheep and goats?

So this fifth plague that's going to descend on Egypt will completely

decimate their livestock, meaning that animals used for work,

for royal service, for war, and for food will be impacted.

And as he's done before, the Lord warns Pharaoh that he will distinguish

between his people and the Egyptians in his judgment through

this plague.

So we're plague plagues 1, 3 didn't mention about the separated

children of Israel.

Now plagues 4 and 5 do mention that they will not face this.

God is marking out who his people are, that he has the ability

and he has the power to send on those whom he wishes to send upon,

and he can protect those whom he wishes to protect.

And so once more, Moses is to demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites

and so that they may go and worship the Lord.

If he refuses, then this severe plague will completely devastate

the farming and the military industry of the Egyptians.

Their income will dry up, they'll go hungry.

They'll get nervous about their enemies wanting to come and

attack because they know of the weakness because of the death

of the livestock.

And so the plague will occur because, as verse three tells us,

the hand of the Lord will bring trouble on the livestock, making

clear that Israel's God, the Lord is sovereign king, not somewhere

over there, but sovereign king in the midst of Egypt.

Remember, this is a time where geographically, deities ruled.

There was no concept that a deity that was somewhere else could

have influence on where you were.

But God's demonstrating who he is, who we believe him to be, the

God over all.

And he's making this clear in Egypt.

And so this will be evident not only from the plague's severity,

but again from the fact that he will preserve the Israelites.

And as before, Moses is to announce that the strike will happen

the very next day.

And of course, as the Lord foretold and forewarned, the next

day the strike occurs.

Verse 6 tells us the extent of that plague.

And the next day, the Lord did it.

That's all we need to know.

He did it.

He did what he said he would do.

All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal

belonging to the Israelites died.

Now, this wasn't some sickness on the animals as a plague we might

think today that they would get better from or could be treated

for.

This was death falling on the livestock.

And it was a foreshadow of what was to come in the 10th plague,

of the death of the firstborn in all of Egypt.

And even though the words that are all used here, this tells us

that no type of animal escaped.

But as verse nine will go on to tell us, in the sixth plague,

there are still some animals alive that will be impacted by its

event.

So this blow in Egypt is widespread.

It's devastating.

They've worshipped so much of the Nile, they've worshipped frogs,

there's even sense that they worship some of these animals.

And so none of these things that they worship and look to for

the security is immune.

And Pharaoh himself confirms this in verse seven, because he sends

out a team of his officials to go and investigate.

Well, did this really happen?

He's able to see it around wherever his palace is.

But what about Goshen?

Well, let's just test and see if that's what really happened.

And so he sends his officials to see what is the extent of this

plague.

And they do discover that even though the animals of Egypt have

died, not one of the animals of Israel have been affected.

And so, for the second time in this group of plagues, the Israelites

are not impacted.

But this time, Pharaoh acknowledges it.

Surely now he'll see the powerful hand of the Lord and submit

to his request, knowing that the great Pharaoh can't stop whatever

the God of the Israelites chooses to do.

Surely now.

But no, sadly, even after confirming the sign himself, Pharaoh's

heart doubles down its stubborn rebellion.

The British commentator Ian Dogood says hardened hearts do not

seek truth, only self confirmation.

And isn't this the truth?

We need to pay attention to when our hearts are hardened for

any reason, we don't go after objective truth.

Rather we continue to look inwards and on our own self righteousness.

And this is exactly what Pharaoh did in respons to this plague.

He saw what happened and he confirmed the word of the Lord to

be true.

Yet he ignored its truth because he was only concerned about

being right.

And he was willing to sacrifice the livestock and animals

of Egypt to prove it.

If he only had opened his heart to the truth of God, then he

would have brought an end to the pain on the land.

But he didn't.

That's his heart.

He doubled down in its stubborn rebellion.

Now what about our hearts?

How are they doing?

And I'm not talking about how many beats per minute or the health

of your heart that a doctor might tell you about.

What about your spiritual heart?

What's it like?

Because we all have one.

We all have a heart that is naturally, inquisitively inclined

to God.

We have a heart that knows he is true.

Pharaoh knew he was true, but yet his heart was hardened.

So do our spiritual hearts have a callus on them?

That means that we're willing to sacrifice relationships because

we won't allow the truth to set us free.

Well, that's what Jesus warns us about in John 8, 31, 32 as he

speaks to the Jews who had believed in him.

Where he says to the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said,

if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then

you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Jesus here is talking about the truth of who he is.

And when we understand that he is our Savior and Lord and respond

in faithful worship of him, then this truth set sets us free.

And it sets us free from anger, it sets us free from regrets,

it sets us free from hurt and from guilt and from the punishment

of sin.

To ignore Jesus means we double down, just like Pharaoh, on

the hardness of our hearts.

And we look to our own anger, our own hurt and our own guilt to

keep us and satisfy ourselves, thereby making us self righteous.

But we'll also take upon ourselves the punishment that our

sin deserves.

Now this punishment isn't something to delight in because it

is a punishment that we cannot save ourselves from, nor can we argue

our way out of it.

Our hearts can be so hardened that we ignore the truth, a truth

that sets us free.

We close our ears to what we're to do because we're content

in our self righteousness.

I urge you this morning to pay attention to the wonderful offer

that the Lord Jesus gives, as he tells us in Matthew 11:28, Come

Matthew 11:28

to me, all you who are weary and burdened.

And what will he do?

He will give you rest.

He will show you what real life is.

Is.

He'll take away the hurt.

He'll take away the anger.

He'll take away the guilt.

And he will remove from you the punishment that we all deserve

from ourselves.

You see, we are to find rest for our weary souls in him, to know

complete forgiveness, but also to know complete joy in Him.

So do you want to know healing for the hurt?

Do you want to know the forgiveness from loved ones?

Do you want to know the freedom from guilt of hurt and pain

that you've caused others?

If so, then seek to have your hardened heart softened by Christ,

and he will truly set you free.

That's all Pharaoh had to do, submit to God.

But he didn't.

And what happened?

His spiritual heart.

Well, it doubled down.

A callous grew over it, and he fell into stubborn rebellion, like

so many in this world still do today.

And so now we come to the sixth plague, which is the final

one of the second set of these sets of three.

And so Pharaoh, as we saw with plague number three, gets no warning

about this one.

He's not told, change your ways or this will happen.

This simply comes as quick and divine punishment upon him.

And verses 8 and 9 give us the detail.

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot

from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence

of Pharaoh, it'll become fine dust, dust over the whole land of

Egypt.

And festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout

the land.

So for this sixth plague of punishment on Egypt, debilitating

sores now break out on people and whatever animals still remain.

And when the strike occurs, the text here emphasizes its impact

on the magicians, who are clearly powerless to do anything.

And so, in a punishment corresponding to the crime, the Lord

himself then hardens fire Pharaoh's already hardened heart,

giving him over to his willfully proud rebellion.

And so what we see demonstrated in this plague of soot

that becomes boils, we see the depths to which Pharaoh will go and

be content in himself as he tries to keep his position that he

believes he is the true Divine One.

And so, once again, he's not learning from the past, and he thinks

he is still in control of the situation, when the reality is he

is not.

And so, up to now, Aaron has been performing the actions leading

to judgment.

But from this Point onwards, Moses will be in the lead role.

And that tells us something about Moses, because remember, his

earlier fears have not been strong enough or eloquent enough

of words.

This has all been overcome.

And so Moses now comes to take that lead role before Pharaoh and,

and in this case, he and Aaron take the suit from the furnace and

then Moses throws it up in the air before Pharaoh.

And so this suit will become a dust, afflicting people and animals

with boils.

And these boils are a painful skin condition, and we're told something

like it in Second Kings, chapter 20 can be fatal.

2 Kings 20 · chapter mention

But appearing on the scene again, we haven't seen them in a

while, are the magicians.

They have been absent from a few plagues now because all they

could do, remember, was add to them.

They couldn't actually take them away, they couldn't lessen the

severity of these plagues.

And so we're now told of a different posture of these magicians.

In verse 11.

The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils

that were on them and on all of Egypt.

This is the final moment of embarrassment for these magicians.

Oh, they could turn water into blood.

They too could create more frogs.

They could do all of this.

But when it comes to standing before Moses with these boils on

them, they know they can do nothing to take these boils from

themselves.

And so, quite literally, they give up.

Everyone in Egypt, even the magicians, are afflicted by the boils.

And although they had told us, or shown to us earlier signs that

they could do something, well, they're so afflicted by this one

that they can't even stand in Moses presence.

And yes, we'll not hear from them again.

They and the gods that they represent have been utterly defeated

before the God of Israel.

And this is their exit from the story, demonstrating to us that

their powers from the devil are useless against the Lord God.

And as much of a victory as this may be that we know that Satan

will no longer have his men in the room, we also see the depth to

which sin will pull us down.

Verse 12 tells us this about Pharaoh.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not

listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.

To this point in the story, either Pharaoh has hardened his own

heart, or the text simply describes his heart as being hardened.

But now it's very clear to us in this passage that it is the Lord

who brings his judgment to bear by taking this heart hardened

in rebellion and making it harder still in other Words seconding,

as it were, Pharaoh's earlier decision to harden it against God's

people and against God.

As we saw in chapter four, the Lord sometimes judges us by giving

us over to our heart's evil desires.

And this is a severe warning against the danger of sin.

Sin coats our hearts like quick drying cement, making repentance

increasingly difficult and judgment increasingly certain.

As you look at this story, we could perhaps ask if there's any

hope for Pharaoh.

And the answer is both yes and no.

Yes, if he would simply submit to the Lord, he would know relief

from the plagues that were being sent on the land.

But the answer is also no, because he worshipped himself and

he worshipped his sin.

And this had led him down the path of no return.

I hope you're not casual about sin.

I hope you don't have a measuring scale in your mind where,

well, there's these really big sins, but these little ones will

not worry about those.

Nowhere in scripture are we told that there's a difference in

sin.

All sin is rebellion against God.

And the habitual sins that we fall into, those sins that we simply

cannot break away from, well, they're the ones that, like quick

drying cement, fall on our hearts where our hearts become harder

and harder, harder, less likely for forgiveness and most certain

for judgment.

So let me ask you again, how is your heart?

Is it coated in quick drying cement as sin has captured you?

Because you see, we might think we're so much in sin because

of business practices, because of personal habits, because simply

of just doing things that, just like Pharaoh, make us feel good

about ourselves, self righteousness.

And so as much as we ask the question of Pharaoh, is there any

hope for him?

We have to ask ourselves, is there any hope for us?

Well, the answer is an emphatic yes, there is hope.

We may be like Pharaoh in our response to God, our hearts indeed

may be hardened.

But God has provided a way for us to know that there is hope and

there is a future.

Because what future did Pharaoh see?

There was no end to these plagues.

Was this going to be continued throughout all his days?

Of course we know that there were only going to be 10.

But Pharaoh didn't.

So here was the world's superpower and he had absolutely

no hope whatsoever.

But not so for us.

Is there any hope for us?

Yes, there is.

Because just as much as the truth sets us free, as we saw in

the last plague, so we're told in Romans 5 and verse 8, but God

demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us, even though our default position in life

is sin, because we're born in it and we're shaped by it.

God provides a way of rescue and a way of hope for us.

This way is only through Christ who died taking on himself

the punishment of death that we deserve so that we can know the

only way of salvation.

This is what heals us from pain and from anger and from hurt.

Because we look to the Lord Jesus to satisfy us rather than our

own determination of always being right.

This was Pharaoh's problem and this was Pharaoh's downfall.

But it doesn't have to be yours.

Pharaoh didn't learn from his history, and generally speaking,

humanity doesn't learn from their history either.

But you can.

You can learn about the living Lord Jesus, who calls you today to

come to him for forgiveness so that you may everlasting joy and

eternal hope.

And so the ultimate question today is, do you want that?

My answer is I do.

I want that.

And I will continue to look to Jesus as the only one who can give

me this joy and this hope.

So when I fall into sin, I will seek his forgiveness.

When I'm foolish and say and do stupid things, I will trust in

him to restore me as I seek the forgiveness of those I have hurt.

And when I'm hurt by the actions of others, I will look to

Jesus to strengthen me to forgive and not wallow in self righteousness.

Will you do the same?

Because I believe what Paul writes in 1st Timothy chapter 2 and

verse 5.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

The man Christ Jesus.

I only stand here this morning before you because of Christ.

The only way we can know that cement cracked off our hardened hearts

is Christ.

The only way we can know the forgiveness of our hurts and anger

and foolishness is Christ.

And the only way that we can know reconciliation with God and

with each other is Christ.

Will you look to the mediator, the one who gave his life for you,

so that your heart doesn't continue to be hardened to an extent

where forgiveness is uncertain, but judgment more likely?

Will you look to the only one, the mediator, the man Christ Jesus,

to lift you out of the mire and the bog and the weariness of

your soul so that you can find rest in Him?

He is the only one before whom we have a perfect plea where we cry,

save us and he will rescue.

So the plagues of Egypt, some story to watch on a movie or to simply

read and think that's it.

Yet how much they challenge and penetrate the very heart and

soul causing us to look onto Jesus, each and every one of us,

so that each day we will be certain of that hope and that joy

that will see us through this life, take us into the next.

Do you want this?

I hope you do.

And the only answer is to come to Jesus.

Let's pray.

Our Father, God, for your word that happened, events that happened

so long ago, we thank you that they point us to the only one who

can rescue us.

May we not be like Pharaoh.

May we not have hardened hearts, hearts that are filled with

resentments, hurt and anger where we allow them to fester.

That's not what you want for your people.

You want us to know joy and you want us to know certainty of

a glorious home in heaven.

So, Father, help us to be more like Christ, to look to him alone,

to know him as our Savior.

And from these obscure plagues in Egypt that perhaps we've only

casually looked at before, may we know their true meaning, that

it is only you who can rescue us through the man, Jesus Christ,

our only mediator and our only hope.

So may we respond well by placing our trust and faith in him.

This day we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.