How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? (Exodus 10:3)

 “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” (Exodus 10:3)

In the latter stages of the plagues on Egypt, Moses asks the question, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” I believe that it is one of the critical questions of the Bible, and it is a question that was not only posed toward Pharaoh, but also must be asked of each one of us. We all have a tendency toward hardness of heart and toward stubbornness. 

But wait! Hadn’t Pharaoh already humbled his heart? In the previous plague, when hail had devastated the crops and servants and cattle who had been foolishly left in in the field were destroyed as well, hadn’t Pharaoh responded like this: “I have sinned this time; the LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones” (9:27). The words were right. But, when it comes to humbling ourselves before God, it is more than just a matter of right words. It is a matter of the heart - heart humility. And Pharaoh’s soon-after conduct revealed that, though his words were good, his heart hadn’t changed: “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants” (9:34). 

So humility before the Lord can prove to be a difficult thing, and it has proven to be a rare thing. There is noise about it. There is discussion about it. But there is relatively little of the actual doing of it - to be brought low before the Lord, and to realize deep down in our hearts that we cannot fool God; that there is an insurmountable distance between our lousy lowliness and His holy highness. And the question is, when has heart-humbling last happened to me, and when will it happen again, this humbling before the Lord. How long? When exactly?

In the midst of the locust devastation that follows Moses’ question, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?”, Pharaoh seemingly repents again: “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you” (10:16). Or does he? How many times does he repeat this act, without his heart being changed? And how many times have we done the very same thing, only to return to the same old pattern of living in which self is honored above the Lord? No, he hasn’t really repented. Once again, it is just words. And once again, we also have made the same kinds of promises. “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?”

For Pharaoh, the string runs out. After the locusts, there is darkness. After the darkness, there is death, the death of the firstborn. That’s the end. But it’s not. Pharaoh does indeed release the Israelite slaves, to go worship in the wilderness. But then he changes his mind, because his heart was never changed, and he chases after them. The people of Israel miraculously escape through the parted waters of the Red Sea, but God brings the waters back over the heads of Pharaoh and his army. What was that question? “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” The answer is, for Pharaoh, “Forever.” He will refuse God forever and ever, confirmed by His death and continuing throughout eternity. And I don’t want that to be you, and I don’t want it to be me.

The problem of a hard heart vs. a humble heart is a tough one, in that our hearts are the source of our wills, not the objects. We do not fully have our hearts in hand, to change them as we see fit. Our hearts are “the real you,” and re-creating your identity is more than just re-branding. It requires real humbling and real repentance. But that is only preparatory for the real work of the Spirit of God to re-shape our hearts according to God’s will and ways. It’s the deep work of God in our lives that Pharaoh desperately did not want to happen, and that we continue to resist so much of the time.  

Stubbornness must give way to surrender; 

    Independence abandoned for submission; 

        Mighty pride melted by the weakness of humility. 

May the Spirit of God accomplish this in us today.

Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11)

Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

Moses could be argued the first and greatest leader of Israel. He faced down Pharaoh. He led amid great opposition. He was the vehicle for many, many miracles. He was faithful to his charge.

But boy did he try and avoid the assignment at the beginning. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh” (3:9); “what shall I say to them?” (3:13); “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice,” (4:1); “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent,” (4:10); “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (4:13).

It was in the midst of this exchange that God asserted Himself right into the middle of the abilities and disabilities of mankind: “Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (4:11). What a wonderful, terrible description of the power and sovereignty of God. He is indeed the God to be feared.

As the psalmist says, “My times are in Your hand” (Psa 31:15). He has our lives and our health, our deaths and our diseases, in His hand. He does not work evil, but He can lay you low in a moment. He does it for purposes that He alone knows, to accomplish things that He alone understands. And, when we live our lives with this God (and, we all do, whether we admit it or not), we find ourselves to be helplessly over-matched.

This series of posts that has been going on for some time I call “Critical Questions in the Bible.” I’ve gone through my Bible and marked all the questions, and then have paged back through and written down a long list, subjectively, to be the questions especially worth pondering. There is no doubt that this question was chosen at least in part due to our family’s life-situation. It is distressing, and yet, it teaches me truths that I don’t think I wanted to know, but need to know.

Here are some applications: 1. Every ability that we have that brings usefulness or pleasure is a gift from God. Don’t take it for granted. 2. Every ability that we have that brings usefulness or pleasure is lent to us from God, and can be withdrawn at any time. Don’t worship it. 3. Every dis-ability teaches us to lean on God all the more, which we should have been doing in any case. 4. God shows special mercies to those who are marked by such dis-abilities. So should we. 5. We will find that loss in one area produces blessings in another, if we don’t grow bitter. Don’t grow bitter. 6. These disabilities - for those who are in Christ Jesus, they’re temporary. No such things are found in heaven.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? (Genesis 18:25)

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 

God is not speaking here. This is Abraham, using God’s role and attributes against Him, against what He has proposed to do, in destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

It’s not a wrong question, though it almost seems to be a tautology. You see, what is justice? Who decides what is just? It must be some high authority, like a supreme court or something. No, it must be even higher than that, since the supreme court disagrees with its own self, as does every human authority structure. Opinions change.

But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it. Because when we ask about the source of “true justice,” then it must be based in something that does not change. It is based in God Himself. And here He is called “the Judge of all the earth.” He doesn’t give an opinion about what is truly just. He determines the very nature of justice. And that nature of justice cannot change because the character of God cannot change.

It seems abhorrent to Abraham that the wicked cities of the plain should be destroyed if there were even ten righteous people living there (and, there weren’t even ten). But what seems abhorrent to a particular person does not make it unjust. What is unjust is that which is contrary to the character of God.

We are in the middle of a fifty year firestorm in our country regarding the “justice” of abortion. It seems abhorrent to many that infants’ lives are snuffed out as though they have little value. It seems abhorrent to others that women are caught in a situation which compromises areas of life for the sake of the care of an infant. It is as though there are two parties listening to two different gods and deciding on two different justices, the one of which cripplingly damages the other.

God knows what is just. He knows what is right. The Bible reveals God as the Giver of life, and we are bound to defend life, especially in its weakest, indefensible forms. This would certainly apply to infants in the womb. Yes, God cares about the economic concerns of a woman pressed hard by another mouth to feed. God cares that other, older children may not eat because this mother cannot work. But God is just. He is judge. His good gift, the gift of life, must be protected. We must stand for justice, and, we must care.

If You, O LORD, Shout Mark Iniquities, O Lord, Who Could Stand? (Psalm 130:3)

If You, O LORD, Shout Mark Iniquities, O Lord, Who Could Stand? 

Who is really good at marking iniquities? Recalling conversations from some of my friends, it might be their ex-spouse. Or maybe it’s those people at church; or the pastor. The neighbors. Your co- workers. Why, we are surrounded by experts!

What our verse implies is that God, who knows all, and never forgets, is not such an expert at “marking iniquities.” People seem to think He is. One man described his view of God as holding a big hammer over his head. But this verse suggests another possibility.

Now there are a couple things to note. One is the repeated reference in this phrase, “O LORD,” and “O Lord.” In modern translations, there is a distinction made using the same English letters for names of God. One is “Lord” (Hebrew, Adonai, meaning “sovereign”); and the other is “LORD” (Hebrew, Yahweh, the covenant name given to Israel, I Am that I Am). We have both names used side by side here and throughout Psalm 130. Therefore, we find that this surprising “deficiency” in God’s character applies specifically to those who are in covenant relationship to Him. In New Covenant terms, we would say that God does not mark iniquities with those whose sins are forgiven. Note Psalm 32:1-2 - “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”

The other note that we should make in this text is the ensuing phrase: “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” The “but,” as I have been pointing out in daily emails, is a disruption in the normal course of events, or, a disruption in what one might expect. We would expect to be held to account for our sins, “but” with You there is forgiveness.

It seems to me that we can go wrong with regard to this point in two different directions. First, for the one living by faith in the promises of God, we can fail to grasp the wonder and miracle of forgiveness. This is to fail to integrate faith in the promise with our acceptance with God in Christ. The other mistake is for those not in covenant fellowship with God to go around assuming that God forgives everybody for everything. This person, not made right with God through faith in Christ, has not learned what the phrase means when it says, “that You may be feared.”