Friday, June 30th 2006
Read: Exodus 7
Alright, we’re getting into the hardcore stuff here. We probably won’t deal with every question raised in this chapter, but this isn’t a Bible study. It is your Revolutionary bread and butter.
But let’s explore a couple of the controversial bits just to get you thinking (you can study and research more if you want on your own time). People get all excited about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. O.K., God did it. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But it’s not as if God is unfair.
But wait a second. Pharaoh has had a lifetime of revelation to submit to God. His own step-brother Moses seemed to have converted from sinfulness to a life of following God. And Pharaoh also could have repented and believed. Paul argued, in Romans 1: “The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse” (Message).
So, stop blaming God for Pharaoh’s hardened heart! It’s his fault! A few times it even says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (c.f. 8:15; 8:32; 9:34). He had access to what scholars call “prevenient grace.” This means that through the conviction of the Holy Spirit Pharaoh was allowed to respond to God (and therefore potentially allowing God to soften his hard heart). But there is no guarantee that prevenient grace runs through to the grave. For Pharaoh there was a time limit, a expiration date on the label. And he missed it.
How does that apply for us here? Well, you probably know some people who are rejecting God’s prevenient grace in their lives. And there are billions of people that you don’t know who are rejecting God’s prevenient grace in their lives. And that’s why there is such urgency in sharing the Gospel and for the Word to soften hearts worldwide. We have to mobilize as many warriors as possible and deploy where these billions are. We have to sow the seed of the Gospel with boldness. We have to water what has already been planted.
And for you, don’t presume on God’s grace in your own life. God is holy. He doesn’t mess around. He doesn’t promise to put up with your petty sins, your dodgy habits, your hidden scandals, your moral compromise, your pathetic conformity to the world, forever. There is an expiration date. Stop having sex until you get married. Stop it with the porn. Stop the stupid flirtations. Stop dressing in a way that tempts others to sin. Stop degrading people by the jokes you tell about them. Stop everything that is keeping you from being dangerous to demons.
Q: Is that last paragraph unfair? Why? What are you going to do to expand the limits of God’s grace?
Youth Department