GOD SETS HIS MIND ON ISRAEL, GOD SETS HIS HEART ON FREEDOM

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Michael says that,

 

“Studying Scripture was always intended. by God as a learning experience.”

 

This week, we look at Scripture concerning the actions of two very different men – the Pharaoh, God’s enemy,  and Moses, God’s chosen deliverer of the Israelites. What paradigm could we be using to even speak of such different men in the same breath? It is this: each rebelled against God at strategic moments in history. The story of each is Biblically controversial and, many times, without understanding.

 

Michael and I have our own read on the meaning of each. The first involves God speaking of how He will affect the heart of the Pharaoh when Moses attempts to persuade him to release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt:

 

“But I will HARDEN HIS HEART so that he will not let the people go.”

(emphasis added)

(Exodus 4:21) NIV

 

The verse in the Torah is slightly different:

 

“…but I will STRENGTHEN HIS HEART, and he will not send out the people.”

(emphasis added)

 

Wait a minute, God is sending Moses and Aaron to convince the Pharaoh to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and, yet, God is firming the resolve of Pharaoh to resist them? Is this possible? This is not a question that lends itself to a yes or no answer.

 

Michael states as to what is written by Moses, the author of the Book of Exodus, in using the words “harden” and “strengthen:”

 

“These things are metaphysical. This will come to somebody’s mind and they will write it.”

 

Michael and I are seizing on the idea of the metaphysical in that what God was doing with Pharaoh’s heart, deals with a subtle truth, a metaphysical fact. That is, the HEART of Pharaoh was the point that was central. AND his heart was already settled AGAINST releasing the Israelites.

 

When Michael says that God intended our studying Scripture as a learning experience, he was setting forth that, to get to its actual meaning, we have to dig deep.

 

How is this accomplished here? It is understood by looking at the word HEART and, specifically, the heart of Pharaoh.

 

First, let’s think about the word HEART. One’s state of heart is the very essence of his or her feelings on a given subject. We speak of the “heart of the matter.” The heart is the most reliable indicator of one’s beliefs.

 

And Pharaoh’s heart? God knew its wretched state was in opposition to Him and His plan to free His people. Pharaoh was 100% opposed to listening to Moses and Aaron before they even crossed the border into Egypt. Had it been 99% opposed, then God would not have further hardened or strengthened it. He would have appealed to that 1%. He would have endlessly worked with, cajoled and softened, not hardened, that ray of hope.

 

God is the God of infinite chances. He is, however, also the God of infinite insight. It was with this insight that He saw through the Pharaoh, right to his intractable and ice cold heart. Seeing it, God hardened and strengthened this heart already completely given over to enslaving God’s people.

 

To print out the bottom line, this God of amazing love in the Old Testament, does not hesitate to act when He observes outrageous rebellion that would attempt to defeat His decision to successfully accomplish His will, in this case to free the Israelites. This is not just true of Pharaoh, the outright enemy of this mission. It equally applies to Moses, God’s emissary. Yes, EVEN MOSES!

 

Thus, the following surprising and sobering passage of Scripture;

 

“At a lodging place on the way (to Egypt), THE LORD MET MOSES AND WAS ABOUT TO KILL HIM.”

(emphasis added)

(Exodus 4:24) NIV

 

WHAT IS THIS! Moses was on the road to Egypt to rescue his People from slavery. When he got there, his credibility with the Israelites would be paramount. They needed to know that Moses, a stranger to them, was one of them, in every way, and that God, Himself, had approved of this man and had  sent him. Only then, would they trust Moses, an essential factor in their escape.

 

So, we ask, why would God intend to kill him? After all the years God had saved Moses and prepared him for this great mission? ONE REASON: Moses had neglected to have his son circumcised, the one thing that marked the identity of an Israelite, the very sign of the Abrahamic Covenant with God. How important was this? The following verses reveal its great significance:

 

“Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you MUST keep my covenant, YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU…This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep. EVERY MALE AMONG YOU SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED…IT WILL BE THE SIGN OF THE COVENANT between you and me. FOR THE GENERATIONS TO COME..,, INCLUDING THOSE BORN IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD OR BOUGHT WITH YOUR MONEY FROM A FOREIGNER. —  THOSE WHO ARE NOT YOUR OFFSPRING.”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 17:9-12) NIV

 

The requirement of circumcision went FAR beyond one’s sons! Even servants from foreign countries, who were purchased, had to be circumcised. If a male baby was simply born under your roof, they had to be circumcised.

 

And the penalty for breaking this singular sign of the Abrahamic Covenant with God?

 

“Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, WILL BE CUT OFF FROM HIS PEOPLE; HE HAS BROKEN MY COVENANT.”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 17:14) NIV

 

And did that covenant ever end, such as in the time of Moses? Absolutely not!

 

“My covenant in your flesh is to be an EVERLASTING covenant.”

(emphasis added)

Genesis 17:13) NIV

 

Returning to the fact that God knew Moses’ own SON was not circumcised – this was unthinkable! Moses, representing God to a People, all of whom were circumcised, and Moses, who would have to be completely credible and above reproach in order to convince them to let him lead them – showing up in Egypt with an UNCIRCUMCISED SON…This was, as we say, unthinkable! Certainly, this would doom his mission to rescue the Israelites. ALL OF THIS combined to create in God a desire to simply end Moses’ life. He had broken the central sign that he was an Israelite, much less a leader of the Israelites.

 

And yet, we know that Moses went to Egypt and became the deliverer of the Israelites enslaved there. What pulled back the hand of God to slay Moses? Moses was saved by his wife, Zipporah, who, somehow, saw how and knew why God was going to kill her husband. She grabbed a knife and circumcised their son instantly. As Michael says,

 

“How important was Zipporah to save her husband! She took it upon herself to carry out God’s covenant with Abraham.”

 

She was an amazing woman who acted quickly and courageously to extricate Moses from disaster, as well as God’s plan for Moses to be the deliverer of his People. ZIPPORAH, NOT MOSES, remembered God’s covenant with Abraham. As Michael says,

 

“Place these thoughts in your mind and they will give you power.”

 

What wisdom this is! REMEMBER COVENANT and heroes can be born. We will have power, as Michael said.

 

Only after Zipporah circumcised their son was Moses reunited with his brother, Aaron and sent to Egypt.

 

As Michael said, God intends us to learn from Scripture. This week, we focus on two very different men and one very key lesson: God deals with rebellion or with any other obstacle to His will being accomplished, in similar fashions –  without compromise.

 

Here, in Exodus, He means to see His will carried out in the form of delivering His People from Egyptian slavery. No Earthly power, the Pharaoh, and no Biblical icon, even Moses, will be allowed to stand in His way. God, the Almighty, has set His mind on Israel, has set His heart on freedom!