The author of the Pentateuch was Moses. Pentateuch means simply “five books”. In Greek, the Pentateuch (which Jews call the Torah) includes the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
We can understand how Moses wrote Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as he was living that history. But how did he know the history as recorded in Genesis? There is probably several answers to that:
Joseph was in the unique position of Second in Command to the Pharaoh. He more than likely commissioned a history of his family and their religion to be written. Much like a genealogist today. I’m sure Jacob was interviewed for this history before he died in Egypt. Egyptians were documentarians. They even wrote their histories on their coffins and the walls of their tombs. Joseph was wealthy and powerful and it would be no stretch of the imagination to think he documented his family, his God and his life story.
Moses was the adopted son of a Pharaoh’s daughter. He would have been well educated and had access to any Egyptian “library” that might hold the history of the Israelites. We know Moses suffered an identity crisis. He knew he was adopted from an Israelite family. A family who would be looked down on by the Egyptians and a family of slaves that were being brutalized by their Egyptian masters. On the other hand, he was raised in a highly privileged position with all the perks of wealth and luxury. He did not feel accepted by the Egyptians because he was just a Hebrew. But he did not feel accepted by the Israelites because he was raised in a luxurious and royal household. Where did he fit in? This bothered him greatly. He was looked on with suspicion no matter who he identified with. He felt a strong pull to his birth family and a great obligation to his adopted family. In the end, he went with his birth identity and I would think this was because he read all the history of the Israelites and their God that he could find. Just like us today wanting to get DNA tested and hop on Ancestry.com to find out more about where we come from.
And, certainly, God would have made sure that Moses had the history because God inspired Moses to write it down for posterity. God would supernaturally inspire and protect what would become His Written Word! Maybe, during those days where God was giving Moses the Laws on top of Mt. Sinai, He also supernaturally revealed the history of his people? That’s also certainly possible. Maybe Moses knew as much history as he could read and learned more from his parents and his father-in-law, Jethro, and then God added supernatural revelation on top of it. ??
Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said: Abram, you will live to an old age and die in peace. But I solemnly promise that your descendants will live as foreigners in a land that doesn’t belong to them. They will be forced into slavery and abused for four hundred years. But I will terribly punish the nation that enslaves them, and they will leave with many possessions.
Genesis 46:27 All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.
Genesis 47:1-2 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan. And behold, they are in the land of Goshen.
From the photo above, you can see that the Nile Delta (land of Goshen) was at the end of the Nile River. Notice it’s the largest green space in the satellite photo. It was well watered because the Nile deposits silt which makes the area fertile and diverts the waters of the Nile River into smaller rivers to the Mediterranean Sea. Those diverse rivers changed over time, making the area different today versus during Jacob and Joseph’s day.
Why would the Israelites leave Goshen to go back to Canaan?
Goshen Delta – The ready supply of their needs in Egypt, in the rich valley of the Nile (Numbers 11:5 In Egypt we could eat all the fish we wanted, and there were cucumbers, melons, onions, and garlic.), meant they wouldn’t have left if not for the slavery and ill treatment God allowed. They had to experience severe treatment to motivate them to leave Egypt.
God had allowed them to go to Egypt to provide for them but now He had to use a goad to get them to leave Egypt and go back to the Promised Land. That goad was their enslavement by the Egyptians.
According to Genesis 46:26, 66 people from the household of Jacob moved to Egypt. Taking into account that Joseph and his two sons were already in Egypt, that means there were 70 of the family now in Egypt. Over 400 years and these 70 would grow to well over 2,000,000 people!
Exodus 1:7-8 And the sons of Israel were fruitful, and increased very much, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty. And the land was filled with them. And there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Psalm 78:11-12, 43
11 They forgot all he had done,
even the mighty miracles
12 he did for their ancestors
near Zoan in Egypt…
43 God showed them all kinds
of wonderful miracles
near Zoan in Egypt.
Zoan was an ancient city built seven years after Hebron and existed before Abraham
Numbers 13:22a As they went through the Southern Desert, they came to the town of Hebron, which was seven years older than the Egyptian town of Zoan.
The “fields of Zoan” was a region containing a rich plain extending thirty miles toward the east of Zoan. This was probably where the Israelites gathered. At the time of the Exodus, this was a port city. It’s name means “migration” in Arabic. It is now inland. This great and important city was the capital of the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who ruled Egypt for more than 500 years. It was the frontier town of Goshen. It was the dwelling of Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus. It was called the city of Pi-Rameses because Ramses II rebuilt it using Hebrew slaves. Several times the city was built over and renamed: Tanis by the Greeks, Avaris, Pi-Ramses. Today it is a wasteland that holds the oldest ruins in the world.
We have set the scene for Moses to show back up in Egypt with his brother, Aaron, to lead the Israelites back to the Promised Land.
Exodus 4:21 And Jehovah said to Moses, When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all those wonders which I have put in your hand before Pharaoh; but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
Who was this Pharaoh who had such a hard heart? We don’t know for sure. Scholars are still wrangling on which man was the Pharaoh of The Exodus. Moses, who surely knew him, did not name him. He gave us many details and clues but no name.
What we know from the Bible about the Pharaoh of the Exodus:
- God calls him the “King of Egypt”
- His capital was Zoan/Rameses where he had a palace
- He oppressed the Israelites, was abusive, unreasonable
- Hardened heart from a lifetime of hardening his heart
- He had wise men, sorcerers and magicians
- He regularly walked out to “the water”, “bank of the Nile” every morning
- Because of some of the plagues, timing should be determinable. Such as the water turning to blood; the hail storm that “struck down everything in the field both people and animals, beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field”; the locusts “the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land everything that the hail left”; the darkness “thick darkness through the land of Egypt for three days”; death of the firstborn “During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians and there was loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead”. Unfortunately, Egyptians liked to document success and not failures.
- Pharaoh got all his officers, chariots, army and pursued the Israelites. He took 600 of his best chariots “and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt with officers in each one”.
- Pharaoh drowned in the sea along with his army and chariots.
Following quote is from – The Mysterious Hyksos by David Down and Dr. John Ashton on October 8, 2009, https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/ancient-egypt/the-mysterious-hyksos/
“From the information supplied in 1 Kings 6:1, the Exodus must have occurred about the year 1445 B.C. By the usually accepted dates, this would have been during the 18th Dynasty, and it just does not fit there. The 18th Dynasty was a period of affluence and power. It has been argued that the Egyptians were not likely to record their losses or disasters, and that is true, but this dynasty was very well documented. They left more inscriptions about their activities than any other dynasty before or after. The name and length of reign of every king is known.”
“Inscriptions in papyri and on temple walls record their military victories and governmental activities, and there is no trace of any setback during this dynasty. Moreover, the 18th Dynasty had no palace in the delta where the Israelites were mostly concentrated. Moses could hardly have been commuting back and forth from Goshen in the delta to Luxor, where most of the 18th Dynasty activity was, or even Memphis. Moreover, all the mummies of this period are carefully preserved in the Cairo Museum. At least one of them should be at the bottom of the Red Sea.”
“Nor is there any archaeological evidence for an invasion of Canaan by a new people at this time. Jericho’s walls did fall flat, and the city was thoroughly destroyed by fire, but not in the archaeological period usually attributed to the Exodus. However, if a revised chronology is accepted, the biblical events synchronize perfectly with the archaeological evidence.”
“If the ten plagues on Egypt actually occurred, the country must have been devastated. It would be indeed strange if there was not some record of it, and there is. In 1828, the Leiden Museum in Holland acquired a papyrus which came from Memphis. It was written by a scribe called Ipuwer and gives a graphic description of conditions in Egypt at the time of his writing.”
“Archaeologists are not agreed about the exact time the document was originally written. It seems to have been made in the 19th Dynasty, but it could be a copy of a document made originally about the end of the 12th Dynasty. A reading of it sounds very much like an echo of the biblical account.”
“’Nay, but the heart is violent. Plague stalks through the land and blood is everywhere. . . . Nay, but the river is blood. Does a man drink from it? As a human he rejects it. He thirsts for water. . . . Nay, but gates, columns and walls are consumed with fire. … Nay but men are few. He that lays his brother in the ground is everywhere. . . . Nay but the son of the high-born man is no longer to be recognized. . . . The stranger people from outside are come into Egypt. . . . Nay, but corn has perished everywhere. People are stripped of clothing, perfume, and oil. Everyone says “there is no more.” The storehouse is bare. . . . It has come to this. The king has been taken away by poor men.’ — Ipuwer Papyrus, Leiden Museum”
“Neferhotep had a son whose name was Wahneferhotep, but it is significant that he did not succeed his father on the throne. Neferhotep was succeeded by his brother, Sobkhotpe IV, “who occupied the throne which his brother had recently vacated.” The historians are unable to ascertain why this son did not succeed his father, Neferhotep. The death of the firstborn in the land of Egypt may be the explanation.”
“Anyway, the Hyksos moved in soon after. ‘We know, in any event, that within a very few years after the accession of this king (Sobkhotpe) the ancient town of Avaris, twelve miles south of Tanis, was in the hands of the Hyksos.’”
It could also have been Neferhotep I (Reign 11 years and 1–4 months, or 1747—1736 BC, or 1742–1733 BC, or 1741–1730 BC, or c. 1740 BC, or 1740–1729 BC, or 1721–1710 BC, or 1705–1694 BC (13th Dynasty)). Neferhotep I had at least two children, named Haankhef and Kemi with a woman called Senebsen. He also possibly had another son named Wahneferhotep. In spite of this, Neferhotep I named his brother Sihathor as coregent in the last months of his reign and when both Sihathor and Neferhotep I died around the same time, they were succeeded by another brother, Sobekhotep IV. As of 2017, the tomb of Neferhotep I has not been identified, although a strong case now exists for it to be in Abydos. He was apparently the last king before the slaves suddenly disappeared from Kahun. The everyday household items left in homes in Kahun indicate a hasty removal. Also they found boxes under the floors of the houses that contained skeletons of babies, maybe the murdered Hebrew male babies of Moses’ time. Were the slaves at Kahun the Israelites?
Moses certainly knew the Pharaoh and his name. But he does not reveal it in his writings. Why? The book of Exodus, was not written to exalt the Egyptian pharaoh who was considered a “divine god-king”.
Israel are still presumably labouring in the brick pits. Indeed, Israel fades into the background for much of Exodus 5-11, where the focus is on the encounters between three figures: God, Pharaoh and Moses.
Why didn’t God do one big swipe and be done with it? Why did He use increasingly severe plagues?
AS WARNINGS
Exodus 9: 13-35 (CEV) 13 The LORD told Moses to get up early the next morning and say to the king:
The LORD God of the Hebrews commands you to let his people go, so they can worship him! 14 If you don’t, he will send his worst plagues to strike you, your officials, and everyone else in your country. Then you will find out that no one can oppose the LORD. 15 In fact, he could already have sent a terrible disease and wiped you from the face of the earth. 16 But he has kept you alive, just to show you his power and to bring honor to himself everywhere in the world.
17 You are still determined not to let the LORD’s people go. 18 All right. At this time tomorrow, he will bring on Egypt the worst hailstorm in its history. 19 You had better give orders for every person and every animal in Egypt to take shelter. If they don’t, they will die.
20 Some of the king’s officials were frightened by what the LORD had said, and they hurried off to make sure their slaves and animals were safe. 21 But others paid no attention to his threats and left their slaves and animals out in the open.
22 Then the LORD told Moses, “Stretch your arm toward the sky, so that hailstones will fall on people, animals, and crops in the land of Egypt.” 23-24 Moses pointed his walking stick toward the sky, and hailstones started falling everywhere. Thunder roared, and lightning flashed back and forth, striking the ground. This was the worst storm in the history of Egypt. 25 People, animals, and crops were pounded by the hailstones, and bark was stripped from trees. 26 Only Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was safe from the storm.
27 The king sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “Now I have really sinned! My people and I are guilty, and the LORD is right. 28 We can’t stand any more of this thunder and hail. Please ask the LORD to make it stop. Your people can go—you don’t have to stay in Egypt any longer.”
29 Moses answered, “As soon as I leave the city, I will lift my arms in prayer. When the thunder and hail stop, you will know that the earth belongs to the LORD. 30 But I am certain that neither you nor your officials really fear the LORD God.”
31 Meanwhile, the flax and barley crops had been destroyed by the storm because they were ready to ripen. 32 But the wheat crops ripen later, and they were not damaged.
33 After Moses left the royal palace and the city, he lifted his arms in prayer to the LORD, and the thunder, hail, and drenching rain stopped. 34 When the king realized that the storm was over, he disobeyed once more. He and his officials were so stubborn 35 that he refused to let the Israelites go. This was exactly what the LORD had said would happen.
Why should he acknowledge a god of a group of slaves when Egypt had thousands of gods and he is semi-divine himself? Because Jehovah is a God who can do things that no Egyptian god could do. Their purpose is that Pharaoh will acknowledge this God. Each plague devastated a god that Egypt worshiped!
There are three triads of increasingly violent plagues before the final terrible plague on the firstborn:
* Blood, Frogs and Lice are minor and temporary plagues without heavy last effects. The Egyptian magicians could copy them.
* Swarm, Death of Livestock, Boils are heavy plagues that have ongoing effects. With the 3rd plague the Egyptian magicians and wise men could not replicate the plague.
* Hailstorm, Locusts, Darkness are heavy plagues that are unparalleled in history, unique and ones that Pharaoh cannot deny or ignore.
* Death of the firstborn
God could have wiped out the Egyptians in one plague while saving the Israelites. Verse 16, the way God chose to do it showed them his power and His Name will be proclaimed throughout the earth.
For Pharaoh, power is about dominating people by whatever brutal means necessary. God’s power is far greater than Pharaoh’s power, it is not a power based on brutal dominion. God can use His power to send plagues but but He also removes them completely when asked and preserves His people by exempting them from the plagues. God uses His power carefully as He gradually worsened the plagues due to Pharaoh’s hard heart.
He didn’t just wipe out Egypt. He was merciful and full of patience and longsuffering even towards the Egyptians who did not acknowledge Him as God.
While Pharaoh’s power and mastery lead to suffering and death, God’s power, and his mastery over His People, lead to life in fullness and blessing.
Pharaoh probably saw God’s power as limited until he finally had to bow down before God’s unlimited power.
God warned Pharaoh and his advisers.
God told them what to do to avoid the plagues. They chose to refuse to listen and obey. God was seeking Pharaoh’s release and response.
God didn’t harden a heart that hadn’t already been hardened by Pharaoh’s own choice. He was already opposed to God’s Will and God knew his heart already. Moses had a heart that was tender towards God. Moses was reluctant and raises objections when God calls him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. But God patiently worked throughout all of Moses’ life and through his objections because God knew Moses would give in, would be obedient, would turn his heart towards God and respond postively. But God already knew Pharaoh’s heart would never go there. He would never bow the knee to God, never turn his heart to God, never be obedient and responsive to God. BUT others were watching at the time, and throughout history, who would see how God worked.
This Exodus story brings God glory, not Pharaoh or Moses. Pharaoh was only swayed by overwhelming power not overwhelming love.
By his own choice, Pharaoh’s response to God was adversarial. By his own choice, Moses’ response to God was collaborative. He flowed with God and received the blessings of such.
On the 14th Abib (early in April) the Hebrews were gathered at Rameses. Israelites left Egypt in haste and in military marching ranks.
Exodus 12:29-40 And it happened at midnight Jehovah struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive that was in the prison; also all the first-born of cattle. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the sons of Israel! And go serve Jehovah, as you have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go. And bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians were urging the people, that they might send them out of the land in a hurry. For they said, We are all dead. 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the sons of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they asked articles of silver, and articles of gold, and clothing from the Egyptians. 36 And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they granted their request, and they plundered the Egyptians. 37 And the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the men being about six hundred thousand men on foot, apart from little ones. 38 And also a mixed multitude went up with them, and flocks, and herds, very much cattle. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not stay, neither had they prepared any food for a journey for themselves. 40 And the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Numbers 33:3 Israel left the Egyptian city of Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month. This was the day after the LORD had punished Egypt’s gods by killing the first-born sons in every Egyptian family. So while the Egyptians were burying the bodies, they watched the Israelites proudly leave their country.
Instead of the direct way to Canaan by Philistia on the south, God led Israel through the wilderness of the Red Sea, lest encountering the warlike Philistines (Exodus 13:17-18 After the king had finally let the people go, the LORD did not lead them through Philistine territory, though that was the shortest way. God had said, “If they are attacked, they may decide to return to Egypt.” So he led them around through the desert and toward the Red Sea. The Israelites left Egypt, prepared for battle.)
This in the generally accepted route of the Exodus.
Exodus 13:18-22 But God led the people around, by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the sons of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt. 19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For he had strictly sworn the sons of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones away from here with you. 20 And they moved from Succoth and camped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. 21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the right away, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Exodus 14:1-31 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to the sons of Israel that they turn and camp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon. You shall camp before it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, They are tangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in. 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he will follow them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, so that the Egyptians may know that I am Jehovah. And they did so. 5 And the king of Egypt was told that the people fled. And the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? 6 And he made his chariot ready, and took his people with him. 7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 8 And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he pursued the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel went out with a high hand. 9 But the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army. And they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon. 10 And Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel lifted up their eyes. And, behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were very afraid. And the sons of Israel cried out to Jehovah. 11 And they said to Moses, Have you taken us away to die in the wilderness because there were no graves in Egypt? Why have you dealt this way with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? 12 Did we not tell you this word in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, so that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. 13 And Moses said to the people, Do not fear. Stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah, which He will prepare for you this day. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them anymore. 14 Jehovah shall fight for you, and you shall be silent. 15 And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the sons of Israel, that they go forward. 16 But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. And the sons of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And behold! I am about to harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. And I will get honor for Me upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah when I have gotten honor for Me upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19 And the Angel of God, the one who went before the camp of Israel, moved. And he went to the rear of them. And the pillar of the cloud went from in front of their face and it stood behind them. 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloudy and dark night, but it lit up the night, so that the one did not come near the other all night. 21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And Jehovah caused the sea to recede by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the sons of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground. And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them to the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch it happened that Jehovah looked to the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels, and made them go heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians. 26 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. And the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against it. And Jehovah overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. 28 And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There did not remain so much as one of them. 29 But the sons of Israel walked upon dry land in the middle of the sea. And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 So Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. 31 And Israel saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and His servant Moses.
So what about Pharaoh’s hardened heart have we learned?
Pharaoh did not suddenly have a hard heart. As the song says, “It’s a slow fade, when you give yourself away”. From the time he was born, he had choices in his life where he could have gone the right way. But he continually chose the wrong way and each time his heart was hardened. Each time we choose to disobey God, to ignore His warnings, to willfully and knowingly sin… we are hardening our heart. God used the plagues to increase the pressure on Pharaoh and he still refused to acknowledge Jehovah as God! How hard his heart must have been to see such miracles and supernatural plagues and still refuse to bow the knee!?!?!?
God knew Pharaoh and knew how hard his heart was. God didn’t choose Pharaoh and randomly harden his heart so that he didn’t have a choice. NO! We all have the choice to seek the only true and living God or to reject Him. And the more we reject Him, the harder our heart becomes. God used an evil, hard-hearted Pharaoh to display His power and glory to the Israelites and the Egyptians, and all those other nations surrounding them that would hear the story. That’s why it says God hardened his heart. But Pharaoh had already hardened his own heart over decades of bad decisions. By the time Moses shows up on the scene, God was going to use Pharaoh to play out the entire scenario to His glory.
Unfortunately, we have recently had a terrible scandal come up in the Christian community. A man named Ravi Zacharias died last year of cancer. He had an international ministry in apologetics named RZIM. Before he died, back in 2017, he was accused by a lady of sexual impropriety and using undue pressure to cover it up. She was accused of lying in order to extract money from him. Since his death, the board members of RZIM asked for a thorough investigation and it has come out that he was a sexual predator probably for most of his life. How can a man know the Bible so well… know Christian doctrine so well… know Christian history so well… that he can be a famous apologist and yet live a life of such continual sin?
Let us hope he made things right with God before he died. But he did not ever make things right to the public before he died. God certainly gave him every chance to publicly repent and acknowledge, confess, his sins and ask for forgiveness and he didn’t do it. According to the investigation, he was still in contact with other women at least up to a couple of months before his death.
How does a man get to this place. He had the truth, he knew the truth, he studied the truth, he was well versed in truth but he lived a lie. That takes a hard heart. And how does any of us get such a hard heart? Like Pharaoh, and like Ravi Zacharias, it comes from a lifetime of bad choices, bad decisions and willful sinning.
Each time God reaches out to us, and we slap His Hand away and go on to do what we want to do, we have hardened our hearts a little. If we continue on ignoring and rejecting His tenderness, He will increase the pressure to get out attention. If we continue rejecting and refusing and ignoring, we are asking for God to apply more extreme pressure to turn us back to Him and away from the sin that so easily ensnares us. God, in His mercy, never gives up on His Children. If we are saved through Jesus Christ, but we are living a lifestyle of sin, God will continue to work on us and apply pressure to save us from the enslavement of sin. If we are NOT a Christian, then we run the risk of God giving us over to a reprobate mind. He will approach us over and over again, but if we continue to reject Him, there may come a time when He lets go. Now, only He knows what each of us will do in the long run. We don’t even know ourselves well enough to know if our heart can be turned at the last minute, much less anyone else. There have been deathbed conversions. But don’t take that chance! Don’t have a hardened heart.
Ephesians 4:17-20 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
Matthew 13:10-17 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Hebrews 3:7-8 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Proverbs 28:13-14 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. 14 Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Daniel 5:18-23 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 19 And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 21 He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. 22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven…
Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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