I hope you’ve had a great start to the New Year! It’s hard to believe it’s already 2016. Obviously, I’ve been thinking a lot about Exodus lately and specifically, thinking about what it means to have a “hardened” heart? Have you ever known someone who was a sincere, committed Christian and then, somehow, fell away and abandoned the faith. If you live long enough, you’ll surely come to know someone who falls into that category. When I know someone like that, I’m usually left wondering, “What happened?” “What kind of turn did your story take that led you to leave the church? Abandon the faith? Reject the Bible? Turn away from God?” Experience says that it normally involves significant sin or heart-breaking loss. Biblical Theology has answers for both of those situations, but when people are in the midst of the crisis, they don’t often want to hear those answers.

One person who definitely doesn’t want to hear those answers is Pharoah. And because of that he’s going to suffer through both significant sin and heart-breaking loss. We’re back in Egypt, reading Exodus 10:1–29 on “The Hardening of the Lord.” Pharoah has a hard heart and is making some pretty bad decisions. Now we’ve been told several times in Exodus that Pharoah hardened his own heart. We’ve also been told several times that the Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart. So which is it? Actually, it’s both. But that leads to the deeper questions of Why and How? And those are the questions we’ll be dealing with this Sunday. And what does all of this have to do with Jesus? Because it always has something to do with Jesus, doesn’t it? Come this Sunday and find out for yourself. See you then! Dr. Dave