Exodus 8,9
The Exodus account is a classic struggle between man and God. There is something about our hearts that does not want to let God be God. Because of pride, our hearts are convinced that we know the best way to live life and find happiness. The last thing our hearts want to do is to surrender control to God. Our hearts no more want to find God than Cam Newton wants to find Broncos DeMarcus Ware on Super Bowl Sunday. Pharaoh's heart is a picture of every one of our hearts. A great insight is found in some notes from the Daily Bible, "Pharaoh will try to avoid God through procrastination, compromise, and insincere repentance. With each attempt at resisting God, Pharaoh's heart gets harder, until he is unmoved by even the threat of death to his people."
A hardened heart is defined as a cold, insensitive, unfeeling, and unyielding heart. God has given us the freedom to make choices with our hearts. If we're honest, we all have to say that there are certain areas in our lives where we have a hard heart towards God.
You can see the danger of a hard heart in Pharaoh's choices. Even when he sees the "finger of God" in his life, he shuts off his heart to remain in control. This is a very dangerous place to be. Six times in these chapters it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Let me share with you a modern day story that shows the danger of a hardened heart. I had a pastoral friend who was greatly used by God. He led many people to the Lord. He was a vibrant preacher, fantastic worship leader and a strong believer in the gifts of the Spirit. Yet one day when I was at the gym, he came up to me and said he was divorcing his wife. When I asked him why, he said God wanted him happy and his wife didn't bring him happiness anymore. I asked him to show me a verse in the Bible that speaks about our happiness being more important than our holiness. He cut the conversation off. I warned my brother that his heart had become hard and he wasn't thinking clearly anymore. He didn't care; he was convinced that happiness was the highest goal in life. Subsequently, he has divorced his wife and has left the ministry.
If this can happen to my friend, it can happen to anyone of us. So the warning from Pharaoh's life is this, "above all else, guard your heart, for everything we do flows from it."
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