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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Death is Swallowed Up in Victory

Exo 7:10  So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
Exo 7:11  Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
Exo 7:12  For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

All the plagues God did through Moses and Aaron in delivering Israel from Pharaoh were in part also directed against the gods that the Egyptians trusted in rather than bowing before the True and Living God.  The first miracle before Pharaoh in the verses above is no exception.  The serpent was considered a wise and magical creature in Egypt.  Wadjet, who was the goddess of Lower Egypt, is represented as a snake.  It was her symbol which is found on the crown of the Egyptian Pharaoh.  Once upon a time, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were separate countries.  Lower Egypt was eventually captured by Upper Egypt, and when that happened the Pharaoh assimilated the goddess of Lower Egypt into his own crown.  And so that symbol became a sign of Pharaoh’s sovereignty and power.  But additionally it is interesting that Apopis, who is an enemy of the gods in Egyptian mythology, is often pictured in the form of a snake, and it represents the forces of chaos arraigned against Egypt.  Clearly then, in the throwing down of this rod snake, God, the Lord of Israel, is challenging the gods of Egypt.  The Lord is challenging Pharaoh’s authority; he’s mocking his magic.

Swallowing was important to the Egyptians because they believed that to swallow something caused one to acquire all its powers.  This probably wasn’t lost on the magicians since in 8:19 when they could no longer duplicate the miracles they knew that the true God was at work, Exo 8:19  Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said

It is no mere coincidence that Satan is depicted as a snake and with a purpose God has Aaron’s rod turn into a snake because this whole account reminds us of the greater exodus when God’s appointed Messiah delivered the elect from the Prince and Power of the air and the death that comes with it.  Christ was depicted as a snake on the cross because he took the curse of sin on himself and became a curse for us.

The exodus is God’s greatest miracle in this book.  It pictures God’s greatest work in sending his Son to atone for sins.  From the time he came into the world Satan used his limited power to try and destroy him.  He sent his servants to try and kill him and tempt him and bring his mission to nothing.  But in each case God swallowed up their attempts and triumphed over them.  Satan’s biggest mistake was to put it into men’s hearts to crucify Jesus.  In doing that, death, our greatest enemy was what?  It was swallowed up in the victory of the resurrection!  1Co 15:54  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 1Co 15:55  "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"  God’s snake swallowed Satan’s snake.

Paul explains a little differently in Col 2:14  by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Col 2:15  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him

The day Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh and his magicians and their snake swallowed up their snake and put them to open shame would have been a sight to behold and even more to be outside the tomb when Jesus defeated death in his resurrection would be an amazing sight.  But the Exodus account ends with a bit of a warning, Exo 7:13  Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.  Pharaoh didn’t see or acknowledge the glory of God in the miracle and most today can’t see the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ where he swallowed up the works of sin and Satan.  They, like Pharaoh, harden their heart to their own destruction.  It is the grace of God alone that enables us to see what the lost cannot.  To God be all the glory for our salvation.

Friday, September 15, 2017

How to React to Hurricanes

Rev 8:8  The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

The Trumpet Judgments of Revelation 8-9 and the plagues brought on Egypt serve a similar purpose.  Not only do they affect many of the same areas like water, land and Sun but they are even called plagues in Revelation.  In both cases they warn of final judgment and call on sinners to repent. 

This gives us some insight into how we are to view natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and disease.  God sends these things to mankind as reminders that life is coming to an end and judgment awaits.  Under the trumpet judgments only a third of mankind die while later one under the bowl judgments all die.  The bowl judgments picture final judgment where the opportunity to repent is past.

The reason this is important is seen in the way modern man views disasters when they happen as in the recent hurricanes of Harvey and Irma.  In the past when people at least pretended to believe in God such occurrences would cause people to assume it was God’s judgment and they would wonder what they had done to bring such things on.  Today when most people are busy trying to suppress the knowledge of God they either blame it on “nature” or just as bad assume they know why God has sent such things. 

On one hand you have self-appointed prophets who tell us that falling into certain sins is why God sends these things.  The problem with simplifying it down to this is that such disasters fall on every other nation as well and has since the Flood.  Not to mention that such disasters fell on nations even before they legalized certain sins, etc.  So it might make for emotionally charged preaching but it comes up a little empty.  Such things can’t be known with any certainty and so it does little good to speculate.

On the other hand I heard some misguided souls saying that the recent hurricanes hit Texas and Florida because they voted for President Trump.  Few things reveal America’s inability to think through issues than such statements.  If this is true then what are we to make of hurricane Sandy tearing through NJ and NY?  Obviously God was punishing them for voting for Obama!  At least now we know what is going on when wild fires ravage California!

No, instead, Exodus offers us a hint as to how we are to view such events in our life.  Exo 7:4  Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. Exo 7:5  The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them."  Over and over again the Lord tells Moses that he is sending these judgments on the Egyptians so that they will know who the true God is and what kind of God he is with the end that they would worship and obey him. 

This is why such events are to be seen as warnings.  They remind us that we live in a fallen world and a fallen creation and the result is death and judgment.  It is to cause us to turn to the true God and make sure we are right with him and ready to stand before him someday.  Those who call themselves Christians and tell us that God doesn’t send disasters but that is a work of Satan have no idea what kind of God the God of the Bible is.  He is not a God to be trifled with.  While he is a God of love, his love is seen in that he sent his Son to provide salvation from his judgment on sinners.  Too often people take his love to only mean that he will let their sin slide in the Day of Judgment.  Warning judgments should be understood that when God sends judgment on your neighbor, it is too late for him but you have the opportunity to repent.  Such statements as we saw above are only America refusing to listen to God.

I was reading after Ligon Duncan and thought he made a great point when it came to how Pharaoh was viewing the Lord.  It is clear that he saw God as just another god who could be ignored.  He found out differently and I leave you with Ligon Duncan’s take on the God of the Bible: 

“There is a passage in the chronicles of Narnia, when Jill is approaching the only stream in Narnia, wanting a drink. And when she gets there, Aslan, the great lion, is guarding the river. And she is frightened by it. And she’s trying to find out whether she’s safe or not. And she says to Aslan, "Do you eat little girls?" And his response is, "Little girl, I’ve consumed kingdoms, and peoples and worlds." And she continues to try and negotiate with him to make sure it’s safe, and he won’t give her any comfort. And finally she says, "Well, I’ll have to go find another stream." And he says, "Little girl, there is no other stream." My friends, there is no other God. You’re not going to be able to go and find another god that’s safer, another god who’s more manageable, another god who is more domesticated. There is no other God. He is the sovereign God of heaven and earth; and the only thing that you can reckon with in the midst of trouble, is that He is good. He is sovereign; you may not understand what He’s doing, but He is good. And God intends for us to learn His sovereignty. What an awesome God to, as it were, trifle with Egypt as He is doing.”

Friday, September 8, 2017

Do We Have Hard Hearts?

Exo 7:3  But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Exo 8:15  But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exo 7:14  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.

The hardening of our sinful hearts has not always been easy for some to understand and accept.  Without doubt some of this involves the unseen work of God in which we are not privy to but enough is said to be able to draw some important conclusions.  Part of the difficulty is seen in the three verses quoted above.  All through the Exodus account we read sometimes that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh hardened his own heart and sometimes, as in the third verse, it merely states that his heart was hardened in some way. 

The purpose of this article is to make a point about what it means to have a hardened heart but let me briefly try to explain how I believe the above verses all fit together; how can God harden a heart and at the same time the sinner is said to harden his heart.

Since all men and women are born depraved, by default all of our hearts are hardened in our sin.  We call this the doctrine of Totally Depravity.  Notice Paul’s description of all humanity in Rom. 3:
Rom 3:10  as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11  no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Rom 3:12  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
Rom 3:13  "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."
Rom 3:14  "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
Rom 3:15  "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Rom 3:16  in their paths are ruin and misery,
Rom 3:17  and the way of peace they have not known."
Rom 3:18  "There is no fear of God before their eyes."…
Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Being totally depraved speaks to our inability to do any good work before God and to the animosity that exists between us and God, Rom 8:7  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Rom 8:8  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  But totally depravity doesn’t mean that we are as sinful as we could be.  The Spirit of God works in the world to restrain man’s sin in order that God’s purposes will be accomplished. 

And so man by nature has a hard heart and seeks to continue in his hardness and when confronted with the gospel further hardens his heart by refusing to submit to the righteousness of God.  So what does it mean when God hardens a heart that is already hard?  I think it can best be understood as he stops restraining the sinner from doing what he wants to do by nature but instead allows him to digress even further in his rebellion.  I have illustrated it by holding a book up in the air.  If I let go it will drop because that is all it can do because of the law of gravity.  So the Holy Spirit holds back all men from being as evil as they could but when it suits his purposes he “lets go” and allows them do what they want to do and this can be described as hardening their heart.  He no longer restrains them from their desire to sin.

Pharaoh by default had no desire to let Israel go because he wanted them to worship him. The Lord let him keep Israel until such time as the Lord wanted Israel to go and then he refrained Pharaoh from doing what he wanted to do.  Israel’s worship wasn’t as important as the misery of the death of his son.  But in the whole scenario Pharaoh was only thinking of Pharaoh.  So when God hardens a heart he merely lets it fall further into its hardness.

But the word for hard in the OT means heavy which is interesting for a couple of reasons. It is interesting that these Egyptians believe that the heart was the essence of man and the key to eternal life.  They believed that it would be weighed on the scales of justice.  If it was heavier than the feather of justice, he was damned.  Misdeeds added weight to it.  So even in the Egyptian theology a hard heart was an evil heart but they had no idea how bad things really were.  

It is also interesting that this word for hard or heavy has the same basic meaning as glory.  We know that the word glory has the idea of the weightiness or importance you put on something.  So when we glorify God we are acknowledging his importance or worthiness.  So if I can connect all of this I would say that a hard heart is a heart that has put the worthiness or glory on something other than God.  Sin is at its heart man seeing himself as more important than God.  He has transferred the weightiness or worthiness to himself and robbed God of what he is due which is for us to acknowledge that the Lord alone is worthy to be praised.  

Perhaps this will help us examine our own hearts to see if we have allowed sin to harden our hearts so that we have been dazzled in some way by this world so that the glory of God has been darkened in our minds and we therefore serve the flesh with what is due to our God and Savior because we have put the heaviness or importance on temporal things rather than the eternal.  Our lives betray our hearts that have put too much glory on this world and the awesomeness of God has been forgotten.