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Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart? · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  And to the point that they would take the Ark of the Covenant into battle as
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  if it was a token of God's, you know, power.
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  We'll bring this box into battle, you know, and we'll beat you Philistines.
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  I really think the process of God hardening Pharaoh's heart was to make sure that this,
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  that whole Exodus experience would be understood by Israel that this is a miracle. This is God's doing.
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  Relish. Pleasing or zestful flavor. A quantity just sufficient to flavor,
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  to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Welcome back to another episode of Relish. I am Roa Miller. This is Pastor Don Patterson.
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  Yes, right. Yep. Got that right. Yep. Yep.
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  How are you doing today, Don? I'm doing all right that's good yes we're getting
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  far enough down in to june that yes i'm doing all right.
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  Summer's back.
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  Almost back in. Oh, man. Yeah. Time goes so quickly. Yeah.
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  Yeah. So you ready for these tough questions? Oh, I have one for you.
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  OK, let's do this one first.
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  Sounds good. What do you think it means to give thanks in all circumstances?
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  And that's thinking of Thessalonians 5.18, giving thanks in all circumstances. Yeah. Yeah.
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  I mean, it's just not taking things for granted, I think, of,
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  when something doesn't go right, obviously.
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  Like when I've had injuries, so like in injuries in sports, then it makes you,
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  thankful for being able to play that sport when you are healthy.
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  When you are healthy, yeah. Like.
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  Yeah, I guess I'm struggling how to say it here, but yeah, just not taking things
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  for granted and you don't, you don't truly,
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  miss something or you're not truly thankful for something until you're,
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  until you don't have it. Exactly. So.
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  Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So it's an awareness kind of thing. Yeah.
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  And you're so young. you'll have some other experiences. Yeah, I'm sure.
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  Alrighty. Um, how did the Roman rule allow the early church to expand so fast? Oh, okay.
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  Well, that almost goes back to this question. Give thanks for all things in all circumstances. Uh,
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  It's unique. It's interesting that the Christ experience, that's meaning his
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  coming to earth when he did, not 25 years earlier or 25 years later,
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  uniquely fits in that timeframe where Rome was actually...
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  And even though it was.
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  Made everybody subject to it, you really didn't have any rights unless you were
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  a Roman citizen, which Paul could boast of.
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  And that really worked in his advantage, you know. Got him out of a couple of
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  situations. And so it came at such a time they were building roads.
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  They made sure the commerce system was fluid. They had a commerce language.
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  They actually created ways that the gospel could move quickly over long periods. And it's amazing.
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  During that period of time, before Nero got in there and got crazy and things like that,
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  during that time that Christ lived and died and the apostles began,
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  the church began, and then in chapter eight, it dispersed.
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  Even that, I think, was preordained that in Acts chapter eight,
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  because of the persecution levied on Stephen, and what Paul then would do would
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  drive a lot of the Christians out of Jerusalem and they would take the gospel with them.
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  And they would take them on roads. I mean, there was a lot of ability to get
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  from one place to another just because of the road system.
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  If that's just the one thing you take from what the Romans brought to civilization
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  that helped drive the gospel, the roads. Yeah, you can now travel anywhere. Exactly.
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  Quickly, so. Exactly.
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  The second thing would be the language.
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  So our New Testament is written in Koine Greek which was a language that was
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  understood I mean even to this day is understood within the Greek dialects and uh.
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  Is understood, it's translated, it's easily to move into Latin or other, like a German. Yeah.
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  Those dialects that grew out of the Greek roots.
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  Okay. So that all happened because Rome conquered the Holy Land.
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  So here this terrible thing, and the thing that the Jews were mourning about,
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  but was actually a vessel that would help move the gospel out of the Holy Land
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  and into the whole rest of the world.
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  I mean, we have Thomas going as far as India.
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  Yeah. And how'd that happen? Because of the way Rome had influenced the world,
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  and how things were moving.
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  So did I answer the question? I believe so.
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  I'm sorry, there was a couple of rabbit trails I got on there.
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  But such a negative thing, such an oppressive system, actually became the means
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  by which the gospel got as far as it did so quickly.
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  Because within 100 years, it had gone through three continents,
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  touched three continents. And that's amazing. Yeah.
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  And they have this. That's God. That's God at work. Since it was all the Romans,
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  they have this protection from,
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  within the Roman Empire, that safety from the other nations. That's true.
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  It was brought and protected, and then Nero comes, and then things get a little
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  dicey at that point. Right.
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  Mm-hmm. Good question. What is the difference between the Sadducees,
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  Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots? Hmm.
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  Okay. Well, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were part of the Sanhedrin,
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  so they were like political parties, if you will. Okay.
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  The Pharisees were more conservative to the letter kind of folk,
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  and they believed in the resurrection.
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  That's why when you get to Acts chapter 3, no, Acts chapter 4,
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  it's the Sadducees that bring.
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  Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, not the Pharisees.
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  Pharisees agreed with them on the resurrection. But the Sadducees were not sad,
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  or sad, you see. Yeah. Sad, you see.
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  And so they did not bring that on. So they were a more progressive,
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  if you will, group, maybe more tied to Rome and just want to just keep everything cool.
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  They would be more, let's see, they would be more the kind that would say,
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  it's our religion, maybe not our faith.
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  And so it's a little bit more of that. Well, yeah, there'd be a tradition to
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  it. They just wouldn't...
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  Be quite so rigid in their understanding of the Old Testament, the Talmud. Yeah, yeah.
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  And so they'd be more fluid, you know, it's all right. This is all under the
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  Jewish umbrella. After Sanhedrin, yes.
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  And so then the Essenes actually were sort of a religious group,
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  separate, and they actually had established a community in Qumran that would.
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  They held scripture to very important, very high.
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  They actually were the ones that, knowing that there was persecution coming,
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  they sealed, especially the books of Isaiah and some other parchments in clay
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  jars and put them in caves.
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  We would discover them in the 1950s. they would be called the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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  And the Essings are the ones that kept that.
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  John the Baptist was actually out of the Essing community, had training in the
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  Essing community, and they were the ones that held baptism so high.
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  And that's how John the Baptist sort of got his background in baptizing people.
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  They, I mean, they baptized for sin all the time.
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  That was their mode. Yeah. Baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
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  And that's the message that John would carry from the wilderness,
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  in the wilderness. And that's where he would baptize Jesus.
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  Now the fourth group, zealots. Oh, the zealots. Okay.
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  They would also be outside the Sanhedrin for surely.
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  But they were carrying,
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  they were armed, they were armed,
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  what do you call them? Mercenaries, I guess you would. That would make sure
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  that at any point they could take a Roman down, they would.
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  Wow. If they wouldn't have to pay a price for it. And,
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  Barabbas would have been a zealot. And he had already murdered some Romans and,
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  they weren't really happy letting him go, but that's what the crowd wanted.
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  And yeah, so So they were murderous, cantankerous.
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  So when you take that in mind and remember that Simon was a zealot and was one
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  of the disciples, can you imagine how spicy conversations were around the campfire of an evening?
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  Because you had Simon the zealot there and you've got Matthew, the tax collector.
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  That doesn't go well. And here, Jesus had chosen these people to be around his inner core,
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  in the midst of this political environment. Right.
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  He would always be taken to task by the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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  But if you read the text carefully, you'll notice that when it comes to resurrection—,
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  It's the Sadducees that bring the question, okay, so this man dies and he leaves a widow.
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  And the widow marries the brother. And the widow marries the next brother.
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  That's the Sadducees guys that bring that question because they don't believe
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  in the resurrection. So they don't believe any of it. Right.
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  And so that, yeah, it's just interesting. When you know that in the background,
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  then you start reading these interactions between the Sadducees,
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  the Pharisees, and Jesus in a little different light. Yeah.
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  I think it'd be so interesting to go back in that time and,
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  try to understand the mind of the Sadducee, for example, who is on the earth
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  when Jesus was crucified, killed, put in a tomb.
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  Why doesn't he understand? He was up and is walking again. Yeah.
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  Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I really think that's why in chapter four,
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  they have such a hard time. Yeah.
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  But yeah, it's sad, you see, that none of them saw Jesus after he was raised
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  from the dead. We don't have any Sadducees seeing Jesus. Yeah.
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  That would, yeah. I probably would have taken care of that problem.
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  Yeah, we have Nicodemus, you know, and guys like that, but they're Pharisees.
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  They believe in resurrection. Mm-hmm.
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  Yeah. Good question. Provocative question. Yeah.
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  Back to the Old Testament. Kind of been jumping around, but...
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  It's all right. Why does the Lord harden Pharaoh's heart when Moses is going to set his people free?
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  I really think the process of God hardening Pharaoh's heart was to make sure,
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  that whole Exodus experience would be understood by Israel.
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  That this is a miracle. This is God's doing. They can't take any credit for it.
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  Yeah. And I think hardening Pharaoh's heart each time he does it.
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  And there's a couple of times he sir waivers, you know, and then he gets hard again.
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  I think it's to help us understand that God is in control.
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  God's got ultimate power, ultimate authority.
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  And by him, God, hardening Pharaoh's heart,
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  it became an example that God's going to do exactly what needs to be done to
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  make sure that this honor, this glory doesn't go to Moses,
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  and it doesn't go to Pharaoh, but it's all God.
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  I think that's why even to this day among the Jews, they talk about the Passover
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  and what God passed over that night, and then the exodus itself.
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  Because it wasn't Moses that did it. He was an instrument, and it's happening,
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  but he didn't do it. Yeah.
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  But then even later, like when they're in the wilderness and like Israel just
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  as a nation after that, and when they're struggling and like God keeps trying
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  to bring them back, like,
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  am I not the one that brought you out of Egypt?
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  He always references that. And that's like part of his identity too.
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  It is. And what's interesting is they keep forgetting. Yeah.
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  I mean, we're going to study, we just finished studying Samuel 3 and 4 and 5 and 7 and.
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  They're so fast to forget. It doesn't seem that many generations,
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  but all of a sudden they don't,
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  remember God anymore and what God had done in the Exodus. Now,
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  they're totally oblivious.
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  Yeah. And to the point that they would take the Ark of the Covenant into battle,
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  as if it was a token of God's power.
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  We'll bring this box into battle, you know, and we'll beat you Philistines. And evidently, huh. Oh.
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  They were believing in the box more than they believed in God.
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  I think God made the right call. I think he did. I think he made the right call.
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  And it becomes a lesson to us, doesn't it, in what we do today?
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  Because it's not about us. It's about God.
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  It's about what he's wanting to do through us and in us and in our communities
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  that we're a part of. It's not about us.
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  We become vessels, tools, if you will, through which God can manifest himself,
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  and make things happen. Yeah. I believe in miracles.
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  I'm not splitting any, I mean, I wouldn't even walk up to a swimming pool and
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  think I could split it. No.
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  Much less try to walk on it. No, I'm not going a walk on it either.
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  And because that's not who we are.
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  But if God chooses to manifest through us, hey, that's all right. Yeah.
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  Yeah. It's good. I just, I think the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was to make
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  the miracle so dynamic, people could not deny it.
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  Of course, they'd forget it. You know, that's past tense. Right.
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  Sort of like people treat the Bible today. Well, that's old stuff.
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  I mean, really. Right. A lot of people do treat the Bible like it's old stuff
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  instead of something that speaks into our lives, even in here and now. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
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  Alrighty. Well, I think we exhausted those questions.
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  I'm exhausted. Yeah.
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  Thank you guys for joining us. Let us know if we need to go a little deeper
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  into some of these questions. Yeah, and we're talking about how can we go deeper here in the future?
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  In our relish. And a little extra spice, maybe some jalapeno spice.
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  Yeah. Cool. Maybe share the video if you thought it was interesting.
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  Yeah. Or if it was somebody else who would think it was interesting. Mm-hmm.
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  Thank you, Don, as always. Thank you guys for joining us and we'll see you next
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  time. Thank you, Ron. Lord willing.
• 18:20
  Thank you for joining us for this podcast. Feel free to become part of this
• 18:23
  ministry by sharing it with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us and may God bless your day.