Title: Overcoming the Hardness of the Heart
Overcoming the lack of content (Exodus 6:28-7:25)
The Bible has many lessons about the heart. The characteristic of God's abandonment was expressed as a hardened heart. On the contrary, God has given grace and blessings to those who have a beautiful heart. So, what we have to protect is to protect the heart, the source of everything.
1. God's command (6:28-7:7)
(1) Moses' weakness in looking only at himself (6:28-30).
(2) Look at what God is doing (7:1-2).
When Moses looked at him, he seemed very humble. However, God tells Moses that he can see exactly what will happen when God is with him (verse 1). Moses is going to make Pharaoh a god. He also said that he would appoint his brother Aaron as a prophet to speak on behalf of Moses, who cannot speak well (verse 2). Where does the authority to be like God come from? It is the word of God.
⑶ Pharaoh's heart will be hardened (7:3-7).
In verse 3, it seems that God is hardening Pharaoh's heart. But God only gave up the hardened heart, not hardened it. Romans 1:28 says, “And since they did not want to have God in their hearts, God gave them over to a lost spirit, to do what is not fitting.” God neglects the hardened heart of man. But God's plan to save the people goes ahead. That's a big disaster. The more King Pharaoh's heart grows stronger, the greater God's chastisement will be (verse 4). How do we know if our hearts are hardened or not? A heart that can discern what God is doing is a soft heart, otherwise, a heart that does not know or believe what God is doing has no choice but to be hardened (verse 5). So, I hope you will try to get to know God. That will soften your heart. The heart of Jesus was the most gentle and humble in heart. Why? Because they know the will of God well.
2. Miracles and calamities (7:8-22)
God gave Moses two signs to Pharaoh, who had hardened his heart. The miracle of turning the staff into snakes and the disaster of turning water into blood. A miracle means that no one was harmed or suffered, but a disaster means things that are directly damaged.
(1) Miracles: The staff becomes a serpent (7:8-12).
Moses first went to Pharaoh to preach the word of God confidently, “Let my people go.” But Moses, who was rejected, had him experience a miracle this time. It was the miracle that Moses turned his staff into snakes (verses 8-9). The commandment of Moses to throw his staff is significant. The staff was all that Moses himself identified. When we give up, God gives. You must give up what is mine to gain what is God's. There is a very clear difference between the first time Moses met Pharaoh and the second time he met him. The first thing Moses said was to Pharaoh the king. However, the second act was to prophesy the word of God and perform miracles at the same time. God is not just telling Moses and Aaron, but now he is telling them to act. Moses and Aaron did as God commanded, and the staff became serpents. God's power was revealed. Then the wise men of Egypt and the magicians also threw their staffs, and their staffs were also turned into snakes (verses 11 and 12).
The two staffs symbolize God and the devil. It represents true and false. The fact that Moses' rod swallowed up the magician's rod symbolizes God's victory over the devil and the truth outweighs lies. As for the magicians' staff, each man's staff became a serpent.
(2) Disaster: Water becomes blood (7:13-21).
As King Pharaoh's heart was still hardened, a full-scale calamity is now coming upon all of Egypt (13:14). When Moses went to Pharaoh and struck the Nile with his staff, the water of the Nile was turned into blood. Why did you turn it into blood? First, it was a warning against the sin of idolatry. The offering of a sacrifice in the Nile was probably a national event (7:15). On a festival in Egypt, Moses met Pharaoh. Moses said to Pharaoh on his way to the great national ceremonial site of the Nile River (7:16). Will you serve the Nile and Pharaoh? Will you serve Jehovah?
Second, the disaster was aimed at making God known (7:17). Moses and Aaron struck the river with the staff of their hands, as God commanded. Sewage turned into blood. And the fish in the river died and the water began to smell bad, and the Egyptians could not drink the water (verses 20, 21). The Egyptians paid for this because they had dyed the Nile with the blood of innocent children of the Hebrews. But the blood shed by our Lord has the power to save mankind. It is the ability to save from disaster. The disaster that came to all Egypt made it impossible to drink water, but the first miracle that Jesus accomplished when he came to this earth was to turn water into wine, so he drank water into wine. In the first miracle of Moses, the representative of the law, water became blood and calamity came across Egypt, but our Jesus saved mankind from disaster by pouring out his own blood.
3. The heart is a meeting place with God (7:23-25).
(1) Those who have pride in their hearts will not listen to God (7:22)
We must be humble in order to renew our minds each time we worship. You must remember that you are a sinner before God and always humble yourself, so that you can be free from the pain of the Word of God.
(2) Pharaoh who does not think about disasters (7:23-25).
Pharaoh said he was not even interested in the Nile's turning into blood. Because the people of Egypt ran out of water to drink, a riot broke out to get water (verse 24). If anyone turns away from God, his heart becomes hardened. When you are close to God, your heart becomes soft.
⑶ Overcoming the pulse (Ezekiel 36:26-28, Proverbs 4:23).
① We must prophesy the word of God (Ezekiel 36:26-28).
Ezekiel had a vision of dry bones. The dry bones joined together and became a human being. At this time, God said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, prophesy to the bones.” Ezekiel shouts to the dry bones, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Enter, you living creatures." When it was delivered in the spirit of prophecy, the dry bones were filled with vitality and became a very large army. Ezekiel replaced God's words, but dry bones rose up and became an army with those words. This is the reason why witnessing the Word has the power. Because the authority of God is proclaimed in the Word.
② Also, when we pray, we have the power to pray prophecy. It refers to praying in faith by quoting the Word of God. Therefore, above all else, it is important to keep our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). Keeping the heart of the grace that the Lord gives is something that our members must keep for the rest of their lives.
Ministry: Lord, rule the hearts of each of us!