Page 14 - Living Light Autumn 23

Monday September 11 - Hard heart or brave heart? “I will harden [Pharaoh’s] heart so that he will not let the people go.” Exodus 4:21
“So”, said my language teacher, “if t’otle means ‘heart’ and t’un means ‘hard’, what does t’otle t’un mean?” “Hard-hearted”, I replied. “No”, he responded triumphantly, “in this language it means ‘courageous’!”
Years later when I translated verses like today’s, I made sure not to do so literally and make Pharaoh seem brave rather than hard-hearted! In chapter after chapter of Exodus he was hard, stubborn, iron-willed, and determined to defy God’s plan and not let Moses lead Israel out of his country, where they’d lived 400 years. In terms of ‘macho’ thinking he was easily Moses’ superior; in God’s purposes he was second-rate.
Yet our verse tells us that it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Yes, but other verses say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart or that it became hard (e.g. 7:13, 8:15). We must remember that God is sovereign over people and events, while at the same time our consciences, made in God’s image, remind us that we are morally responsible for our own actions (Romans 2:15). Pharaoh, as the story will make clear, remained cruel and unbending, and God dealt with him sovereignly and accordingly. As Abraham exclaimed centuries before, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).
We can all be hard-hearted, as Jesus’ words in Mark 10:5 remind us. Let’s ask God to soften and temper our hearts. And also make them like the phrase in that other language – brave and courageous. Moses became so!
Father, I desire a soft heart, I desire a bold heart. Please hear my prayer. Amen.
Tuesday September 12 - A people and a family “Israel is my first-born son...” Exodus 4:22
I remember the joy of friends, long married, when their son was born. I experienced joy when my own grandson finally arrived. Both were first-born and no siblings followed.
When God called Israel “my first-born son”, he confirmed that its people were precious and privileged – and also that he had a long memory. For he had not forgotten his covenant – his agreement with Abraham centuries before – to build a people and bring them back to the land promised as an inheritance to his descendants, even after 400 years in Egypt (Genesis 15:13-18).
Israel’s true identity indeed extended all that way back into history. They were the people chosen by God, special as a first-born son in a world where such a person inherited significant rights and privileges. The nation as a whole was his first-born, and individual Israelites were also God’s sons and daughters – treasured and set apart to worship, serve and represent him (Deuteronomy 14:1-2).
Many years later, God would send and make known to us a unique Son, his own, the Lord Jesus, whose life, death and resurrection would confirm exactly that (Hebrews 1:2- 3). God calls us to believe in him and receive him, and if you do, you too are a son or daughter of God (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26), with all the privileges of a focused identity, a treasured relationship with a loving Father God, and a family to delight in!
Loving Father, thank you for your Son Jesus and for ourselves as your family. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
12
PRAYER FOR TODAY