The Pharaoh's Heart Condition

"But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said." Exodus 8:15

Have you ever crossed your eyes or made another kind of silly face and had your mother tell you that you had better quit because your face might freeze that way? 

Jell-O conforms to the mold into which it is poured after it has gelled. Concrete hardens into the shape of the form into which it is poured. It bothers many people that the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but God allowed it to harden into the mold, the form, into which Pharaoh himself had chosen. In Romans 1 the Bible talks about people who ignore God and continually do evil deeds, and it says, "Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts...." Romans 1:24 God allowed them to be set in the way they had lived. Our faces won't freeze in the silly ways we make them look, but our hearts will eventually harden according to the choices we make. 

After each plague Pharaoh told Moses If God would lift the plague, he would let the Israelites go worship in the wilderness. Yet after each plague was over, Pharaoh changed his mind until the last and most painful plague of all. 

I wonder if any of us have cried out to God to rescue us from one situation or another and have made promises to God about what we would or wouldn't do if He would just help us, yet after God has rescued us, we have forgotten or ignored our promises until the next time we are in a jam and crying out to God to rescue us again. One reason God allows our problems and troubles is to tenderize our hearts and to draw us closer to Him. We have a choice. We can allow God to change us so that we become more Christ like, or we can rebel against God's hand and harden our hearts toward Him. But one day we will face God's judgment, and our lives will be set according to how we have chosen to live. 

Father, make my heart tender toward You and obedient to Your word. Amen.