Month: January 2022

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The Stony Heart or the Hardened Heart

A stony heart

Exodus 8 to 10 What does God mean when he says Pharaoh’s heart became hard? A hardened heart has to see, experience, and test God before believing. Yet even with that many an unbeliever says I can’t believe or need to see more and more. I can’t is really I won’t. Pharaoh is the ultimate picture because he sees the evidence, but it is not enough; he is stubborn. [Ex 8:19] Pharaoh hardens his heart because God isn’t doing it his way. He wants God to take away the test, and even when God does, his heart becomes harder and harder or more and more stubborn. He adds more and more excuses as to why he cannot or will not believe. Up until his herds were impacted, the grace of God was evident but after that God stepped in to harden his heart. Pharaoh’s pride kept him from believing.

God’s grace is ready, but if you refuse, then this truth is before you: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” [John 12:40]

Like Pharaoh, many will not believe because of the hardness or stubbornness of heart. Nevertheless, God is ready to receive and forgive. Will you believe?

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Do You Know God?

You have the questions

Exodus 5-7 Today, as in the time of Pharaoh, we meet people that have the same questions or reasons why they don’t need to believe in a God they cannot see. They ask; (1) Who is the Lord; (2) Why should I obey Him, and; (3) I don’t know Him. These are true words from an unbeliever, yet God has revealed Himself as Creator of heaven and earth.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” [Rom 1:20]

For centuries people have responded just as unbelievers do today. They ask these same questions, yet when God reveals Himself, they have to choose; bow the knee or do as Pharaoh, harden their hearts.

If you are asking these questions, read along with us. God is a promise keeper who will answer all of your questions so you may know He is God. You will yearn to obey Him. And you will come to know Him as your Creator and Savior.

You may have questions but God has the answers because HE is the Answer Man.

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Obeying God.

God blesses obedience and fear of Him only

Exodus 1-4 A new king is on the scene, one that does not remember Joseph and all that he did to preserve Egypt and its citizens. Instead, this new king lives by the tool of the adversary; fear. He feared losing his kingdom to a group of shepherds who had multiplied exceedingly. So with the adversary’s lie in his mind, he crafts an evil plan to destroy the male babies. But, God in His way has His hand and His tools of courage to preserve his next leader, Moses. Our adversary is still at work but today it is called abortion. Do we believe God can and will use a child born from what many call an “unplanned pregnancy” or do we believe like the Pharaoh of old who was fearful of men overtaking his position and kingdom? This is no different than today’s lie; you will lose your job and your position so take the life of that child so you can rise in your profession. 

God has His way of preserving His children just as He cleverly saved Moses and many other male babies. The courage of two midwives received the blessing of God; “because they feared God” more than man. [Ex. 1:21] God gave Moses’ mother Jochebed the courage to preserve her son and refuse Pharaoh’s law to kill male babies.

Who do you fear? Man or God?

Here is the truth: “We must obey God rather than men.” [Acts 5:29]

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What is in a name?

Your name

Gen 47-50 Jacob reviews his life with Joseph and tells Joseph that his mother has died and is buried in Bethlehem, not the cave of his grandfather Isaac. Even though he is reunited with his father, he is bereft of his mother. Yet, having that closure helped him to end the many questions he might have had regarding Rachel. 

As Jacob nears the end of his life, Joseph brings his two sons Ephraim (God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction) and Manasseh (Certainly God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house) to Jacob for his blessing. Their names reveal the depth of Joseph’s emotional pain.

Jacob extracts a promise from Joseph. Please do not bury me in Egypt but return me to Canaan and bury me with Isaac, Leah, and Rebekah. Joseph later would ask that his own bones not be buried in Egypt but in Canaan which was later fulfilled. “Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, [Josh 24:32]

 When we name our children do we stop to think how that name will reveal our hearts?

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God’s Ways are not our ways.

God's Ways are not ours

Gen. 43-46 and Num. 32:23 How often is it that we sin and we think that God does not see? But, as Moses stated in Numbers to the Israelites: “you can be sure your sin will find you out.”  [Num. 32:23] Translated it means that God will use whatever he has in his arsenal to reveal where we have sinned or another has sinned against us.  And so God releases a plague of monumental proportions in a deadly famine to open the doors to connect the sons of Jacob with Joseph so that they come to confession and repentance. 

Joseph told his brothers when he revealed himself to them: “God sent me before you to preserve life. [Gen 45:5] and again to reassure them: “it was not you who sent me here, but God;” [Gen 45:8] The brothers needed this cleansing just as we do when we sin or another sins against us.  God will move mountains so that we do just that. All those years in prison have shaped Joseph so he is ready to forgive the travesty that has occurred. Sometimes even in our innocence, we must walk the valley of despond so we are ready to meet our adversaries and seek reconciliation.

 Are you harboring resentment regarding a sin that has been foisted upon you even though you were/are innocent? Take a lesson from Joseph and allow God to use this so you are ready to meet your “enemy” with grace.

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Which brother are you?

Joseph and Judah

Gen 37-39 Jacob plays favorites which results in the sons hating their brother. How often do we do the same when we play favorites? The contrast between Joseph and Judah is prominent. Joseph is obedient to his father, but Judah flees home and seeks peace away from the sadness of Jacob when his mourning goes on for days. [Gen 37:34] In turn, Judah’s new wife dies and leaves him without a legacy. His unrighteousness is revealed when he unknowingly seeks sexual satisfaction with a “prostitute” who turns out to be his daughter-in-law Tamar. God will bless Tamar with twins, and they will be in the line of Christ. Tamar longs to be in the line of the family of God. What did she see that caused her to want that?

Now Joseph is sold by his brothers, who hated and envied him. He is bought as a slave and is falsely imprisoned, which is God’s training program to raise him to be that sheaf he saw in his dream. Does he remember all of this?

We see one unrighteous son and one righteous son in these three chapters. We see the fruit of hatred and envy. We see Joseph, who, like Daniel, refuses to defile himself. [Dan 1:8] His words should scream at us: “So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?” [Gen 39:9] as a testimony of who we should be before the world and God.

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Are you like Jacob?

Are you a Jacob?

Genesis 32 Feigned Love

There is a little bit of Jacob in all of us. Think for example that you are invited to someone’s home or some fellowship outside but we are not honest about why we do not want to join others. We feign illness or busyness or you fill in the blank. That is where we find Jacob. He is scared to death to meet Esau and especially so when he hears that he is coming with 400 men. Clearly, Esau has made more friends than Jacob! He has an entire entourage and has made it known to them that he was being reconciled to his long-lost brother.  But Jacob only is fearful and not really looking forward to this reunion. How like Jacob we are!

When Jacob hears about the 400 men he is clearly thinking that this is the end of his life and his family’s life. Crowds are fearful and his memories are still there of his deception. In his heart, he knows he was wrong but he is still not willing to confess to Esau his wrongful behavior and so he fudges in his explanations.

Again, we see how the unrighteous often behave better than we as the righteous do. This is a wake-up call for all who call themselves believers. Are you willing to be righteous before others? 

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When in a Quandary, seek God in Prayer!

When in a quandary seek God

Genesis 24 God hears the prayers of His servants

Not too many years ago in our country, it was common to place ads in publications offering oneself as a bride seeking a husband. In Genesis 24, we find the reverse. Abraham sends his trustworthy servant in search of a bride for his son, who is about forty years old at this time. Abraham secured his promise to “not acquire a wife for his son from the daughters of the Canaanites.” [Gen 24:3]  If God promised the land of Canaan to him and his descendants, we wonder why he was so adamant about this stipulation. All we need to do is look back at the issue of Sodom and Gomorrah to see the reason why. Later we will see that God agreed with his decision because the sin of the Amorites/Canaanites was a stench in his nostrils.

Abraham had discipled this servant well as we see he sought the face of God in prayer for wisdom and discernment upon arriving at his destination. Do we seek the face of God when we are in a situation where we do not know where to turn or whom to trust as he did? God honored that prayer in bringing Rebekah to offer him a drink and to water the camels; no small feat for ten camels would need twenty-five gallons of water apiece!

The servant prayed much like Solomon: “But respond favorably to your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer the desperate prayer your servant is presenting to you today.” [1Ki 8:28]

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Abimelech and Abraham

Trust God

Genesis 20 Sometimes God allows the unrighteous to act more righteously than us to show us how truly unrighteous we are. For example, we find Abraham in a strange land due to his not seeking God’s direction. In his mind, he thinks, “Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.” [Gen 20:11] Proverbs 29:25 speaks to that: “The fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high.” 

Only when Abimelech confronts Abraham does he “fess up.” God has his way of making his will known and encounters Abimelech in a dream. Abimelech fearing God’s pronouncement of death hears and obeys Him and then confronts Abraham with this question: “what prompted you to do such a thing?” [Gen 20:10] Has an unbeliever ever confronted you with such a question? 

The Holy Spirit has placed this story here to give us an example of what not trusting God reveals. Unrighteous Abimelech fears God more than Abraham who seeks to obey only to protect himself; not Sarah. We can learn much from this simple episode.

Pay attention to the unbelievers around you when you are confronted with their accusations. God has allowed that to reveal who we truly are. When God says to trust Him, He means it! God blessed Abraham graciously not because of what he did, but because God is a covenant keeper.

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Partial or Complete Obedience?

Trusting God

Genesis 12 to 15 We do not know what lies ahead for 2022, but we can trust God that He is a promise keeper.  As we begin this year, we can take a page out of Abram’s life to learn to trust God “each step of the way.”

God told Abram to leave and go to a land He would show him, and Abram obeyed.  He “went forth as the Lord had spoken to him.” [Gen 12:4] Yet, Abram did not leave his relatives or his father’s household as God had said.  How often does God say leave, but we cling to what is familiar and comfortable?  That was Abram’s first test, and he failed, and that is us as well.  Next, God sent a very severe famine into the land.  Would Abram believe that if God gave him the land, He would also provide?  Instead of trusting God, Abram went down to Egypt, not to visit but to sojourn.  Then, Abram lied about Sarai because he feared for his own life; “when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.” [Gen 12:12] Truly “the fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high.” [Prov 29:25]

Abram is a man called by God, and he obeyed partially.  Partial obedience is disobedience.  Like us, we fail to trust in the God of provision and protection when a test comes.  This year choose to believe that “what God had promised, He [is] able also to perform.” [Rom 4:21]

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