Behind the scenes, His purpose.

Exodus 9 :12
"But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,"

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(a more complete sampling of these passages is included below my notes.)

Sheffield seen from Heeley

Two things you need to know about how God sometimes works.

• In the short term he may ask you to do something and then he might work 'against you' while you try to do what he said.
• God may be doing something 'odd' in someone else's heart; You have no idea how he works.

God asks Moses to talk to Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh to let his people go.

Then God makes sure Pharaoh says no a lot!

For a while this makes Moses very unpopular with God's people and with Pharaoh. I'm sure the Egyptians weren't very impressed either.

From our perspective God sets Moses up to fail. Sure in the end it works out for the most part but along the way Moses has a lot to deal with. If you were given a job by God how long will you accept what looks and feels like failure.

Many modern day followers of God give up on a lot of things pretty quickly.

Pharaoh's heart was hardened. I find this incredible. And God gives a reason too.

" so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth."
" But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

God being seeing as God is the highest goal and greatest reason for all that God does. It is all for the glory of God. From my and your limited point of view we can not always see how God could get glory out of the situation. But God can. It's all part of God's plan. We should not be so quick to judge. We don't have all the information.

Moses and Pharaoh are both quite unlikely characters to accomplish God's purposes and bring him glory.

Maybe you are too. But the story of the Exodus is epic in God's plan. This incident is repeated over and over. These events are key to understanding what God is doing through Jesus. Jesus himself retells the story the night before he is crucified as did every faithful Jews at every passover celebration for over a thousand years and a couple thousand since Jesus.

I suppose I just think we need to be reminded that God doesn't always ask us to do things he's going to make easy. I can imagine God's people praying, 'Lord  please soften Pharaoh's heart so he let's us go.' All the while God is hardening his heart.

• Are you sure you know what God is doing? 
• What brings him glory? 
• Do you really know how you'd be best partnering with him?
• Do what you're told!
• Leave the results up to God. 
• Don't give up. 
• Don't think you know what's going on. 
• Have faith that God does.

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Exodus 9:12-21, 27-28, 34-35 ESV

But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the Lord , the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."" Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord , for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

EXO 10:1-2 ESV

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord ."

God tried to kill you!

Genesis 45:4-9, 24 ESV

So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 

So it was not you who sent me here, but God. 

He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.

Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, "Do not quarrel on the way."

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Joseph has not had an easy life. But even though he could be full of bitterness and desire revenge against his brothers, he reassures them. There is no question that Joseph's brothers did a despicable thing throwing him into the well and selling him into slavery. And then lying to their father about Joseph's death really was evil. The brothers could have looked for Joseph since they saw the pain it caused their father. Truly Joseph and his brothers were like enemies. But Joseph became a powerful ruler of Egypt for nine years. And he held his brother in prison for one year. During that time his father could have died. Joseph for more than eight or nine years did not seem to have urgency about seeing his father. And that does not include the many more years in the house of Potiphar or in jail. Surely Joseph could have got word to his family that he was still alive.

As I've said the brothers don't go looking for Joseph and he doesn't try to contact them. So I'm not sure what Joseph was trying to do with the elaborate plan to put the money back in the grain sacks. I don't think we can assume that holding his brother in prison for a year wasn't Joseph planning revenge. But seeing his brother may have changed his mind. Now he wants to see his brother and his father. Could it be that during the meal, while Joseph sees his younger brother, God reveals to him the whole picture. It could be that Joseph knew all this all along and it was necessary that God establish Joseph as a crucial person of  importance in Egypt as the famine rolls along for the second year. I don't know how or when Joseph came to it but ultimately he hits upon the idea that God was in his brother's betrayal. In fact God used all his hardship to save him and his family. 

Could it be that like Joseph, God is the one saving you by making family members your enemies?

Could it be that you were given that promotion and the boss's wife came on to you only to put you in jail? Could it be God's plan that you have suffered slander? Could that sex-crazed liar be God's way of getting you closer to a position of salvation?

Did you ever think that being forgotten by the people you have helped is God's way of making sure you are in the right place at the right time?

Could this crisis facing the world right now God's way of saving his people?

Could it be that god tried to kill you via your brothers just to save all of you?

As the flood of emotion breaks loose with this odd family reunion, Joseph declares the purposes of God are found in the most hurtful of life situations. In the disappointments, in the betrayals and moments of being forgotten, God is working out his plan to save!

In my life I look back to these moments and I fail to see God! I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. And I'm not even sure Joseph always saw it. But here and now he does see it. He has compassion on his brothers. He loads them down with a windfall of gifts to convince his father that he is still alive! 

Put yourself in Jacob's shoes. Sooner or later you'd think he's going to know the whole real story, and who is going to blamed for the many years of deep grief. In the end he has no one to point the finger more than God.

Yet it was for his salvation. This was all God's plan. God was rescuing his people. But far more than the famine (which also came from God's hand) could it be that we can see even further? Can we see God is working out the plan to save mankind from the one thing that is of their own making? All this has been worked out by God to save you from sin! To save you and to save me from our own sin. The one thing we get a choice in, the one thing we can control is our love and recognition of God and we fail at this miserably, even when we know better. So God is going to use our sin to ultimately save us. Our murderous intentions will kill the one innocent man who will die in our place. And as Jesus dies he will say Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Joseph's brothers have won the lotto! They are getting to move to the best land in the richest country in the world. They are loaded with royal gifts. They are riding in style. They have a royal invitation from the very people who wouldn't before sit and eat with them. They have a royal pardon for treason, treachery, and the murderous intentions they've harbored these many years. During this time of famine they have a harvest of goods unbelievable even in the best of times. And why? Because the one they intended to harm, the one they condemned to death, the one they mocked and maligned has forgiven them and blessed them beyond their wildest dreams.

We don't take to salvation very readily. We look the gift horse of grace in the mouth and we still find a way to argue with our brothers. So the man who has suffered to save us, has to still tell us to not quarrel along the way.