A couple weeks ago, our squad leader brought up that he had a “read the Bible in 6 months” plan and if any of us wanted to join, he’d send it to us. I have never read the Bible in full, so I jumped in. I’ll be honest, starting out from the beginning is kind of hard.
Genesis is really interesting; until it moves to ‘this mans child had these children and he’s the son of this person etc.’ But I know that all scripture is useful and powerful, (“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16) so I press on.
Something God revealed to me (literally just now, in a big red van on the way to Serbia) is a repeated message in Exodus.
Moses is trying to get Pharoh to let the Israelites go, to escape and go out into the desert to worship God. God continually told Moses to ask pharaoh to let the people free, and if not, God would show a mighty work. Pharaoh would almost always say no, so then God would put the land in distress. Locusts, frogs, turning the Nile into blood, swarms of flies; after each plague was brought on the land, pharaoh would say something like this:
“Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”
Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord did what Moses asked. The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained.”
Exodus8:28, 30-31
However what surprised me was this verse:
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.”
Exodus10:20
It says the Lord was the one to harden pharaohs heart. Now, God is the all knowing, galaxy forming, never ending creator; He could have EASILY made Pharoh’s heart softened to Moses. But God chose not to…why?
In John, it speaks of a verse where there was a blind man the disciples passed on the road. They asked Jesus, why is He blind? Did he sin? Did his parents sin and this was a punishment put on him? Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:3
God is the king of miracles. The one who can make anything happen. Even so, he knows that us as humans often don’t have faith to believe in something we can’t see; that’s why believing in him and not seeing is true faith (“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.””
John20:29). But, sometimes He hardens hearts to where He has to show up and show off His miraculous ways, just so people can see and believe. And in the example of pharaoh, it definitely took us more than once.
Yesterday, some of our mini squad went to northern Romania to do ministry for the afternoon. We got into a busy area and started handing out pamphlets and books about Jesus and salvation. Many people would take it, but I definitely got a couple people who would just walk straight by and ignore me; or take the book, look at it, and give it back. God reminded me today that sometimes hearts are hardened for the reason that He wants to show up in a different way for them, He wants them to be His devout followers; and He has an individual way planned out for everyone.
No matter how many rejections or pass-offs we got from other people, we kept going. Because we know this truth that God works individually, and He is going to make a work in someone’s life, whether they take the pamphlet or not. He’s just good like that.
Worship song: Highlands (song of ascent) by Hillsong United
Verse: (other than mentioned) “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Hebrews11:1
