Digging in Deeper: Exodus 14:17-18

“As for me, I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh, all his army, and his chariots and horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Just when we thought we were finally through with the whole struggling over the idea of God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart to continue to oppose Him, apparently in order to justify His actions against Egypt on behalf of Israel, we find ourselves facing it yet again. But this time, instead of hardening the heart of just one king and a few of his officials, He’s doing it to an entire army. And the results of this hardening will be their pursuit of the Israelites into the dry seabed of the Red Sea where they are all going to die, and He is going to receive glory because of it. What?!? Let’s talk about how to deal with this.

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A Hellish Problem

In this third part of our Reasons to Believe series, we spent yesterday morning wrestling with one of the more challenging doctrines of orthodox Christianity: The doctrine of Hell.  In popular imagining for centuries, the idea of Hell has been one of fiery agony stretching on into eternity.  In the modern mind, shaped as it is by tolerance and pluralism, this idea presents a huge impediment to the faith.  We are left with two choices: Reshape the doctrine to fit modern mores, or try to understand it better to see if it doesn’t present us with a stumbling block at all, but rather a reason to believe.  In what follows we aimed for the latter.  Thanks for reading and listening.

 

A Hellish Problem

Well, this morning as we continue our series, Reasons to Believe, we are taking on a challenge.  We’ve already confronted head-on the objections that truth can’t really be known and that the Bible is untrustworthy in terms of revealing anything about God to us.  This morning we are going to take on a challenge that is much more emotional than either of these previous two.  For many folks it is epitomized in the sermons of men of old, kind of like this one: Read the rest…