Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

That’s a very good question the LORD puts to Pharaoh via Moses. In other words, “What will it take for you to exercise your gift of free will to comply with God’s will?” Is that not a valid question for us all? Anyone who reads these chapters carefully and fails to recognize the absolute insanity of deliberate SIN (hardness of heart toward God) is thereby proving their own insane bondage to SIN (a hard heart). Is that thesis too strong? Only you can decide.

I often point out to people I converse with in the course of my work that, “If God is as Big and Sovereign as the Bible describes Him to be, He would have no trouble whatsoever putting on a spectacular show that would convince all humanity of His Power, Truth, and Glory. But He has clearly chosen NOT to do things that way. Instead, He has chosen to reveal Himself to only one kind of person—THOSE WHO PERSONALLY SEEK HIM AT HEART LEVEL.”

Pharaoh is a picture of a human heart bound by SIN (a hard heart toward God). It was not as though he was an ignorant heathen with no evidence to work with. “…he hardened his heart…” (8:15). “But Pharaoh’s heart was hard…” (8:19). “…Pharaoh hardened his heart…” (8:32). The plans of the LORD were bigger than Pharaoh’s resistance and He actually made use of Pharaoh’s choice in the matter—“The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (10:20, 27). In the wake of such glaring and dramatic evidence of God’s judgment, why was there not a spontaneous combustion of national repentance and turning to the LORD in all Egypt as Jonah prompted at Nineveh? Maybe there was more than we know.

If A HARDENED HEART TOWARD GOD can be equated with SIN, and A HEART AFTER GOD is truly a GIFT FROM GOD to those who honestly and diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6), then Romans 6:23 puts things in fresh, profound, and concise perspective—“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”