The Hard Way Every Time

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 11, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Exodus 7:14--8:15.

            We’re in the second week of our sermon series “Holy Moses”, looking at the life of Moses.  Last week we covered Moses seeing the burning bush, being called by God and, very reluctantly, agreeing to go with his brother Aaron to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to set the people of Israel free.  This week, we see them there, talking to Pharaoh.

            Pharaoh won’t set the people of Israel free, so God sets a series of plagues on Egypt.  We read the first two, the plague of blood and the plague of frogs.  There were ten in all, ending up with the Passover, which we’ll talk about next week.  We did not read all ten today because it simply would’ve taken too much time.

            In fact, we probably could’ve just read the first one, but I always get kind of a kick out of the plague of frogs.  I mean, think about this.  God acts through Moses and Aaron and this army of frogs comes up out of the Nile River.  That’s what you call a group of frogs, by the way--an army of frogs.  There are frogs everywhere.

            So I picture Pharaoh going to his court magicians.  He says, “The God of the Israelites has brought all these frogs on us.  Everywhere I look, there are frogs.  I get up in the morning, there are frogs on the bed.  I look in my closet, there are frogs on my clothes.  I go to eat breakfast, there are frogs on the table.  Not just frog legs--that might be okay.  I’m talking real live frogs.  Frogs are everywhere.  Here a frog, there a frog, everywhere a frogfrog.  You guys are supposed to be magicians.  I want you to show this God of the Israelites who’s boss!”

            And they say, “Don’t worry, Pharaoh.  We’ll take care of it.”  And what do they do?  They produce more frogs!  Now Pharaoh has twice as many frogs as he had before!  And Pharaoh says, “Guys, you want to help me?  Stop helping me!”

            But of course, that’s not the point of the reading.  The thing is that God puts all these plagues on Egypt.  At first, Pharaoh’s magicians can duplicate them, for all the good that does, but eventually they cannot.  At that point, even the magicians realize this is the real, honest-to-goodness God that is doing these things.  And then, we start having this cycle.  God puts a plague on Egypt, all kinds of damage is done, and Pharaoh goes to Moses and says okay, you win, I’ll let Israel go if you’ll just get God to call off this plague.  And God stops the plague, but Pharaoh goes back on his word.  We’re told that “his heart became hard” and he won’t let the people go.

            This happens over and over, for several plagues.  I wonder how Moses reacted to it all.  Did he get tired of it, having to go back to Pharaoh over and over again, hearing the same promise from Pharaoh?  Was he hopeful that this time Pharaoh would keep his word?  Was he skeptical, figuring this was just another lie?

            But what’s more interesting to me in this story, really, is Pharaoh.  I read this, and wonder, just how hard is Pharaoh’s heart, anyway?  How stupid and stubborn can he be?  Can he not see what’s happening here?  Why does he not just let the people of Israel go?  Yeah, it’ll hurt to not have the labor, but it’s better than having the whole country in ruins.  Why does he not get it?  What is wrong with this guy that he cannot see what’s going on?  

            Well, there are probably a few things wrong with him.  And to an extent, they’re the same things that are wrong with us sometimes, too.  Our hearts can get hard, too.  Let’s look at a few of the things that were going on with Pharaoh and see if they sound familiar.

            One of the reasons Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to change the system.  The system of getting slave labor from Israel has worked well for a long time.  At least, it had worked well for Pharaoh and his family and friends.  It did not work so well for the people of Israel, but Pharaoh really did not care much about that.  For him, that old system had been working just fine.  The problem, of course, that what had worked before was not working now.  The situation had changed, and it was obvious that Egypt was going to have to change with it.  

But even though it was obvious to everyone else, even to the magicians, Pharaoh could not see it.  He could not see the need to change because he did not want to change.  He kept telling himself that the old system had worked before, and it could work again.  He convinced himself that everything would be okay if things would just get back to the way they’d been.  The problem with that, of course, was that things were not going to get back to the way they’d been.  God was not going to allow that.  And Pharaoh should’ve been able to see that.  But he did not see it, because he did not want to see it.

Does that sound familiar?  Have you ever been in a situation where what had worked in the past was no longer working, but you did not want to admit it?  I suspect most of us have.  We like the tried and true.  We’re loyal to what’s worked for us in the past.  We’re used to it.  We’re comfortable with it.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily.  But when the situation changes, when what worked in the past does not work now, we need to be able to recognize that.  Sometimes, God is trying to send us a message that we need to make some changes.  We need to soften our hearts and be open to changing.

            Another reason Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to admit he was wrong.  He had scoffed at Moses.  He did not think Moses’ God could do anything to hurt him.  After all, he was the Pharaoh.  He was great and powerful.  Eventually, it became clear that Moses’ God was more powerful than Pharaoh.  That is, it was clear to everyone but Pharaoh.  Again, Pharaoh did not see it because he did not want to see it.  He refused to admit that he, the great Pharaoh, could be wrong.

            Does that one sound familiar?  I’ll bet it does.  It can be really hard for us to admit we’re wrong.  It can be especially hard to admit we’re wrong if we’ve made a big show of saying that we were right.  Even when it’s obvious that we’re wrong, it can still be really hard for us to admit it.  But we need to.  We need to be willing to soften our hearts and admit our mistakes.  If we don’t, we’ll keep making mistakes, just like Pharaoh did.

            That’s one of the reasons we need to confess our sins to God.  It’s not so God will know what we’ve done--God already knows.  It’s to soften our hearts.  It’s to get us to acknowledge our sins and our mistakes so we’ll know we need to change.

            Another reason Pharaoh’s heart was hard is that he did not want to admit that he’d lost control of the situation.  Again, he was the great and powerful Pharaoh.  He controlled everything.  And now, all of a sudden, he had no control over anything.  God was in control, not Pharaoh.  And it scared him.  So, he went into denial.  He tried to pretend he was still in control, even though it was obvious to everyone that he was not.

            Have you ever done that?  Have you ever lost control of a situation and tried desperately to get that control back?  I suspect most of us have.  It’s scary to feel like were not in control.  It’s scary to feel like we don’t know what’s going to happen next and we have no way to determine what’s going to happen.  It’s scary to feel like we have to surrender to someone else’s will.  It’s even hard to surrender to God’s will.  We know we’re supposed to do that, but it’s hard.  We’d rather have God surrender to our will.  At least, there are a lot of times I would.  But it won’t work that way.  We need to be willing to soften our hearts and acknowledge that God is in control and we’re not.  That’s the only way things will work.

            And there’s one other thing to notice.  Pharaoh was willing to give in to what God wanted when things were going badly.  But when the crisis was over, when things were going well, Pharaoh forgot all about what he’d said before.  He was willing to acknowledge God’s greatness when he needed God’s help.  But he ignored God when he thought he no longer needed God.  His heart softened when he was in trouble, but it hardened again when the trouble was past.

            We tend to do that, too.  How many times have we been in trouble and cried out to God for help?  And then, when the problem was over, how many times have we forgotten God and gone about our business again?  A lot of times, we don’t even remember to say thank you.  At least, I don’t.  When things are going well, it’s easy for our hearts to get hard.  We need to remember God in the good times and in the bad times.  We need to keep our hearts soft.

            I’m not saying that the bad things that have happened to us have been caused by God.  But sometimes, God is trying to get our attention.  When that happens, we need to soften our hearts and see where God is leading us.  We need to be willing to change, to admit when we’re wrong, to surrender to God’s will, and to keep doing that regardless of whether things are going badly or things are going well.

            Pharaoh paid the price for hardening his heart.  If we harden our hearts, we’ll have to pay the price, too.  So let’s soften our hearts.  Let’s follow God.  It won’t always be easy.  But in the long run, following God will take us where we need to go.