1.22.25 ~ Heads or Tails?

Good morning!

I woke up at 1:30 this morning praying for my dear friends in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida who just got their 1st snow in a long, long, long, time; for some the first of their lifetime. Then, I proceeded to pray for all the people around the world that are experiencing bizarre situations in life (spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally and financially), followed by our country and the coming 'golden age' coming soon to a theater near you and the importance of every person in Messiah to be on their 'A' game as America becomes great again (Dan. 2:38). Then, I felt impressed to do a 'commercial break' in the middle of our 'family and relational abuse study' in order to harden/chazak your heart. Huh? Hope you'll understand in another ten minutes. Please read the following thoughts carefully and applicably :-)

P.S. We are leaving Roatan, Honduras today to head off to another island for the remainder of the trip in a few hours. My international phone hasn't been functioning like it normally does (hence, you're not getting the daily updates in pictures...personally, I'd rather you be here than there :-). However, as expected, it's been an amazing trip of study, prayer, sharing, fellowship and hardening/chazak of our hearts for the people of Honduras and us aliens or is that 'A. Lee-uns" LOL!

Back to our regularly scheduled program :-)

Have you ever considered what type of God you serve? That's a very strange question, but it's a sincere one! I was visiting with Pastor and his honey bunny, yesterday, and we were discussing the idea that God 'hardened/chazak' the heart of Pharaoh (Ex. 4:21; 7:13,22; 8:19; 9:2,12,35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 12:33; 14:4, 8, 17)...that's a whole lot of hardening!

At first blush it looks like Pharaoh was a victim of God's decree. However, when we learn that the word harden/chazak means to 'encourage and strengthen' then we breathe a sigh of relief and recognize that God isn't one to force anyone into repentance, but encourages them to come to their own conclusion.

The Lord/YHVH, the relational, merciful and covenantal name of God, encouraged/chazak Pharaoh, through the signs that were given to acknowledge the one True God. But to no avail, he didn't. It wasn't until much later in the story where Pharaoh hardened/kavad his own heart (Ex. 8:5,32) that the merciful Lord reciprocated by hardening/kavad his heart (Ex. 10:1); only to be followed by more chazaking...Amazing!

The true character of God is revealed to us in this story. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, is one that desires mercy over judgement. But, on the flip side of that coin, if we play 'russian roulette' with His mercy and encouragement too long, there comes a point of no return; because it will affect the Lord's honor/kavad.

God's desire is for the whole world to know Him (2 Pet. 3:9; Matt. 18:14)! He manifests His greatness over the gods of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders. He used the hardness/kavad of Pharaoh's heart to bring Him glory and honor/kavad (Ex. 14:4,17,18).

Pharaoh mistook the patience and encouragement of the Lord to build His resolve as being a great god worthy of honor/kavad himself. Eventually, his self-honor/kavad, demonstrated through ignoring his advisors (Ex.10:7), that his heart was beyond surgical repair.

The honor/kavad of God is a two sided-coin. Heads He wins, tails you potentially win. He will be honored through the obedient as well as the disobedient...until they become obedient :-) I'm not a rocket scientist, but I choose heads!

As we journey together, in our daily walks with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:7; Deut. 12:9; Rom. 8:24,25; Gal. 2:20; Heb. 10:38-11:1,27; etc.) our journey, if we stop to look, is full of revelation. He's constantly breaking down our 'confirmation biases' and He's unveiling new dimensions of His love and plans for us.

As we've already seen, in this week's Torah portion, God hardened/chazak , literally "encouraged and strengthened" Pharaoh's heart to make a decision on his own that there is only one God. Today, God let's Pharaoh's impenitent heart go its own direction. It was Pharaoh who hardened/kavad his heart, while taking advantage of God's chazaking.

Why would God do it this way? In order to show His signs and wonders so that you will tell it to your children and your grandchildren how I played with Egypt and then you, God's people, will know that I am God (Ex. 10:1-2). Gone is

the idea that Egypt shall know this (Ex. 8:10)

Why did the agenda shift? Why is the Almighty giving up, as it were, upon plan A— educating Egypt? And the answer seems to be, Pharaoh himself has given up on that. At the end of the seventh plague, Pharaoh had finally recognized the truth. For the first time, he had understood that God was the righteous one, while he and his people were the wicked ones (Ex. 9:27). But his heart refused to bow. Now it's time for plan B.

Moses and Aaron come into Pharaoh for the 8th plague. They ask, 'how long will you withhold yourself?' Who talks like that to the King of Egypt? The most powerful sovereign of the world? You think Pharaoh is going to give in when you talk like that? Then again, that's the whole point. Plan B is: God is going to play off of Pharaoh's ego, because it was Pharaoh's ego that has created this whole problem. Why did Pharaoh begin to give in after the seventh plague? Enquiring minds want to know...He realized he was the creature and God was the Creator and a creature needs to follow the dictates of his Creator. Unfortunately, that was only a temporary mindset. Pharaoh couldn't handle that position of submission completely.

Maybe a better question is: 'why don't I submit completely? If you're like me,  and I'm sure you are, too often, in too many areas of life, we have the same mindset as Pharaoh. God keeps chazaking and I keep kavading. Ugh!

In the Egyptian view, Pharaoh himself was a deity within the pantheon of gods. For a deity within the pantheon of gods to realize that he is just a creature in service of his Creator, that's a real step down. Pharaoh realized it! And what doesn't allow him to continue to hold to It? It is his sense of self. His sense of self is leading him to deny surrender to the ways of the Lord? Then his sense of self will be his downfall! He is not going to have a chance to give in anymore, because his sense of self is not going to let him. His sense of self, his ego, is fighting against him (Matt. 16:24-27).

God says, through Moses, "how long are you going to withhold yourself from being crushed before me?" Obviously, a long, long time. He can't give in then. And now listen to the next thing Moses and Aaron say, 'if you continue to withhold yourself like this, tomorrow I am going to bring locusts. Locusts will eat up every single shred, every last crop. What's the GNP of Egypt based upon? What do they live off of? It's an agrarian society. Locusts are the economic atom bomb. But Pharaoh doesn't back down. That's what a self-inflicted, hard heart will do. Moses and Aaron exit 'stage left' and then the servants of Pharaoh get in on the act.

They echo Moses' words exactly, 'until how long are you going to withhold yourself from being subjugated? A little bit more politely they say, how long is this guy Moses going to be a thorn in our side? Can't we just let these people go? Don't you know that we've lost? We can never compete against this power that is up against us. Political control over Pharaoh's servants is beginning to slip out of Pharaoh's grasp. His own servants are up against him. And they beg for him to let them go worship God (Ex. 10:7).

The next event is really interesting. and they brought/vayushav Moses and Aaron back into Pharaoh. The real question is: "Who brought them back in"? The servants who are trying to broker a deal. Pharaoh responds, ok boys you can go serve God on that mountain, but who's going to go with you? What is Pharaoh doing now?

In Pharaoh's eyes, ego looked like a point of strength for him. It was the last point of strength he could hold on to. What in the end will keep Pharaoh from recognizing God? He takes refuge in his own ego. It's his last fortified castle when everything else has fallen in his theological framework. But refuge in your own ego is never a strength.

When your ego keeps you from recognizing a truth that you would otherwise see, that's not a strength at all. It's a weakness and it will be turned against you and bite you in the hiney! It will become your Achilles heel and that's what it becomes for Pharaoh. Ultimately, he is destroyed, but he is destroyed through something as simple as his own inability to give in. Something that too many can identify with!

Have a wonderful 4th day of the week! Shabbat is coming. Thanks for reading to the end. I hope we will all put ourselves in Pharaoh's shoes in the areas of life God is chazaking us!

Shalom!