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Living out our Christianity can be an interesting challenge. We are called to be obedient to the Lord. We are call to be thoughtful and wise. We are called to be good stewards of what we are given. At the same time, the call upon our lives and our families is not always practical, not always sensible, not always agreeable to all.

 

Even on the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, there was a conflict between practicality and beauty, between stewardship and symbolism. The story is pretty familiar to those who have been in church. A woman, carrying an expensive container of perfume, broke it and poured its contents over Jesus. The woman, in taking this action, made an extravagant gesture of worship toward the Savior. At the same time, that woman poured out what would be worth thousands of dollars. In some ways, it might be like dropping a year’s wages on a single act of worship.

 

Notice, from the passage, the different responses of Jesus and his disciples.  

 

Matthew 26:8-10  – 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.

 

The disciples have a response, that, I believe, would mirror our own most often. They saw what the woman gave, and they declared it to be too much. They especially thought it to be wasteful when they thought of all the other good things that could have been done with that money. They saw that the woman’s gesture was a one-time thing, something that could not be repeated and could not last. And it simply did not make any practical sense.

 

But, the Savior rebukes his disciples for their narrow thinking. The woman did something beautiful. Her gesture would prepare his body for its burial. Her story would be told and retold and retold throughout the ages. In so many ways, what the woman did would become the picture of devotion to Jesus, pouring out one’s treasures for the glory of the Savior.

 

Here we sit, nearly 21 centuries later, and we still struggle with the very conflict that the disciples had. When are we to be practical? When are we to throw caution to the wind, obey the word of God, and follow the Savior to places where it does not make sense? When do we give with no thought for the future? When must we be wise stewards who provide for the years to come?

 

Take this concept beyond the idea of monetary giving. What is the practical level of commitment that can be expected of any one family to the cause of Christ? How many of us, if we actually shape our lives toward the glory and honor of Christ, are thought of, even by fellow Christians, as wasting our opportunities? Is it a waste for a family to give up a larger house for the sake of the cause of Christ? Is it a waste for a family to schedule their time so that mom, dad, or children lack opportunities because of their commitment to worship? Is it a waste for a dad not to take a promotion in his company because he does not want to move to a new town and away from the solid church where he serves? Is it a waste for a mom to give up a career in order to serve the Lord by home schooling her kids? Is it a waste for the kids to give up athletics because they conflict with the family’s commitments to worship services and mission trips? Or, do such sacrifices look like the woman pouring out her perfume on the Savior?

 

Here is the lovely thing, I cannot tell you what perfume to pour out. But, neither should you tell me which I should not. I know that, if I have the opportunity, I would rather be like the woman giving her all to the glory of the Savior than like the disciples counting where the money could have gone. Do you give and love and serve freely? Do you risk greatly? Or, are you like the disciples who ask, “Why all this waste?”

One modern human failing is the belief that we have something to give to God. I know, that sentence sounds really terrible, but think it over. Do you and I have anything good to offer to the Lord? Can we improve his day? Have we the power to withhold goodness from the Creator? Can we make him miserable if we attack him?

 

`Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the Lord does not care about us. Neither am I saying that God is not honored as we obey him. But we do not make him bigger, stronger, or more glorious. We do not have the power to manipulate his mood the way that we can for others. Neither do we have, in ourselves, a level of personal goodness that we can offer him a gift to impress him.

 

Ponder the words of God to the people of Israel in one of the commands just after the delivery of the Ten Commandments.

 

Exodus 20:25 – If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

As the nation of Israel camped near Mt. Sinai, they were not to shape altars for the Lord. Later, the Lord would show the people exactly what kind of altar to build, and he would empower skilled craftsmen to build it. But, originally, the Lord has something important to say to the people about what they must do. They were to build altars of earth or stone. And, notice, if they built a stone altar, they were to stack it by hand. They could not shape it with tools. And, if they did use a tool on it, God said they profaned it.

 

That concept of profaning the altar is what grabbed my attention and reminded me that, in myself, I do not have something to give to God to impress him. Because, you see, shaping the altar with a tool would be exactly the kind of thing I would think to do. If I were building a stone altar for the Lord, it would cross my mind to put a little of myself into it. I could shape this thing. I could make it better. I could make it nice for God. I’ll bring a little pizzazz to it.

 

But God is quite frank with the people. If they try to shape the altar, if they try to put a little of themselves in its design, they do not make it better. Instead, they profane it. They take stones that the Lord shaped through creation, they touch them, and they turn them common, ordinary. If the people used their tools, shaping worship in their way, they took the holiness away and left only that which made things ordinary and unacceptable to the Lord.

 

What is the application? God is holy. He defines what worship is acceptable to him. We are sinful. We have nothing to bring to the table on our own. We do not impress God. God does not look at us and ask us to come up with new, creative, personally fashioned methods of worshipping him that he did not think of. We do not have the power to improve on the commands and ways of the Lord. And, when we touch those commands, reshaping them to our creativity, we profane them.

 

I do not believe that this forbids human artistic expression or creativity. We write songs that express truth about God. Some write poetry to declare the glories of God. Pastors preach sermons, communication that we creatively shape, to help the body of Christ to know the Lord and obey his commands. So, I do not think creativity is forbidden any more than I think it was wrong for God to later have artisans shape stones for the temple or to craft the bronze altar of sacrifice.

 

Instead, what I see is that God, before he allows creativity in any form, first showed us that our creativity does not improve on him or his ways. We cannot reshape God or his worship for ourselves. We cannot impress God with the skills we bring to the table. He is greater than us. He is a better artist than us. He is a greater poet than us. He is a greater builder than us. He is holy while we are sinners. We cannot improve him in any way.

 

So, our right response is humble obedience. Sure, we continue to sing his praises. We will continue to write new songs and speak the word of God in truth. But, we should never make the mistake of thinking that God needs us or is impressed by us. He is gracious to us to allow us to worship him. He is merciful to us to include us in his plans to build his kingdom for his glory. May we humbly obey, and love every minute of the joy of the glory of God. And, may we never think we have really helped out the one who is infinitely more glorious than we could ever imagine.

One of the greatest blessings that I have in my life in the ministry that I am in is the sweetness of serving along with a team of elders. Our church, unlike any I have ever served in, recognizes that God has called the body to be spiritually led by a team of men who all work together to accomplish the task of ministry. The elders in our church are not my underlings or servants, they are my partners and friends. Our elders are godly men who bring different gifts and perspectives to the table.

 

Sadly, in so many churches, the model of ministry is that of a single pastor wielding all the authority and owning the work. The model is more that of an American corporate CEO and his company. Perhaps there are assistants on staff. Perhaps there are deacons who act as a board to either help or check the pastor. But in so many cases, the pastor plays the role of the solo leader.

 

Moses, as he led the nation of Israel through the wilderness, made the mistake of trying to be the solo leader. Moses acted as though every decision needed to be his. He burdened himself and the nation by owning responsibility for all the things that the people did.

 

But, one day, Moses’ father-in-law came to him, saw what he was doing, and offered him both rebuke and advice. Now, this is not a picture of the New Testament church. But it is a great example of the principle of how elders ought to work, or at least how they ought to start to work.

 

Exodus 18:13-23 – 13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

 

Jethro saw something that many churches do not see in their structure. To fail to surround a pastor with other leaders who can take responsibility for ministry is not wise. It will wear a pastor out. It will prevent a people from growth. It will not honor the Lord.

 

Moses had a major role to still play. He, as a prophet, had the responsibility to communicate the word of God to the people. Remember, the Scriptures had not been written yet, so Moses carried direct revelation to the people. In fact, this is also why Moses should have decided the hard cases, because he had a direct line to God that was not there for every other person in the nation.

 

How is what Jethro told Moses like and unlike elders in the modern church? Jethro saw that no moderately large group of people in a spiritual context is wise to be led by only one man. It is a task that is beyond us. Notice that Jethro brought the leadership down to groups of tens. There was a hierarchy in the nation, there had to be, but no person would have been responsible to individually oversee any more than ten people in Jethro’s plan of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. One can assume that this would have been properly expanded so that people were called to serve and oversee a manageable group.

 

I would also argue that Jethro’s plan is unlike elders in the modern church in the role that Moses played. Moses served the role of Old Testament prophet. He spoke to God for the people and spoke direct words from God back to the people. Praise God, we are not in such a world. In a solid church structure, the elders, all of the elders, have access to the completed word of God and can communicate it to the people. In the church, the burden of teaching should not fall on the shoulders of one man as if he, like Moses, is the only one with access to God’s words.

 

Of course, I am not saying that, among a group of elders, there may not be one or two who teach more often. It may be that a church particularly pays one of the elders to be the primary preacher. But it is not healthy for a church to see only that elder in the pulpit while all the others play what appear to be secondary roles. This is why I love the fact that, in our church, other elders regularly preach and I sit in the congregation, hearing the word of God and being challenged and encouraged like the rest of God’s people. It would paint a poor picture for our congregation if they never saw me sit under the authoritative teaching of the word of God done by one of our elders. 

 

Also, I would suggest that the New Testament congregation has a role to play in their own leadership in a way that simply could not work in the political situation of the nation of Israel. The only congregational business meetings Israel had led to disaster. But, in the New Testament, there appears to be a call for the congregation to take part in affirming the leadership of elders. We see this clearly in how Paul writes regarding church discipline in 1 and 2 Corinthians. The congregation in the New Testament church also had the requirement to rebuke elders in sin, though such a thing was only to be done under very controlled circumstances and with the greatest seriousness.  

 

Of course, this passage is not the primary argument for biblical eldership. But, as I said, this passage is a great example of the basics of why elders are proper and needed. If your church has only one teacher, only one wielder of authority, your church may well not be doing things in a wise and loving way for the congregation or for the pastor. If your church only sees someone else in the pulpit when your pastor is on vacation, you may well not be functioning in a healthy way. In the New Testament, writers constantly write about the “elders” in the local church and not about the individual pastor. God knew what he was doing, and he showed us in various ways why it is so very good for us to have a plurality of elders to lead the congregation by the word of God and for the glory of God.

One of our most common logical reasoning mistakes is the fallacy of the false dilemma. Whether it is in the 24-hour news cycle or in our living rooms, we often fail to reason rightly by demanding that someone do either this or that, believe either this or that. But, sometimes, if we are not careful, we will miss the fact that people need to do or believe both things, that they are not mutually exclusive.

 

An example that comes to my mind is the person who decides that, because their heart is not in it today, they will not attend worship service. They will assume that God wants them to get their heart right before they go to church. They will know that God does not want them to be hypocritical when they attend worship. So, they decide, either God wants me to deal with my heart or to go to church. And they fail to consider that there is a better option.

 

When the Lord Jesus was putting the Jewish religious teachers of his day in their place, he showed us that God is not always about the either/or choices.

 

Matthew 23:23 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

 

Jesus says that the religious folks of his day are hypocrites. They were willing to give God a tenth of everything they own. They would tithe from their spice rack, which would have been a bigger deal to them than it sounds like for us. Spices were valuable. But, the religious folks ignored what Jesus said are the weightier parts of God’s law. They treated people badly, with injustice and cruelty, which violates the heart of all the laws of God relating to others, to love our neighbor as ourselves.

 

A person from the either/or false dilemma school of thought would say to the scribes and Pharisees that they need to stop tithing their spices and start loving others. Jesus does not do so. Jesus tells them that they did what they should have done with their tithes. But, they should have added love of neighbor to their lives if they really wanted to please God. Failure in one area did not give the religious teachers the right to disobey in another.

 

Now, go back to my illustration of the person who isn’t going to church today because his heart is not right. He is a fool. Why add to the guilt of a dark heart the disobedience of separating himself from the commanded gathering of God’s people. And, make no mistake, God’s people are supposed to gather and not give that up (cf. Heb 10:24-25). The solution for this man is not to hide until his heart is better. The man should do what he knows is biblically right, go and gather with God’s people, and he should ask the people of god to help him battle against the darkness of his heart. The man should both go to church and fight his sinful heart, not either one or the other and definitely not neither.

 

What about the false battle that some wage between living under grace or living lives of obedience? Some Christians pretend that grace almost excludes a call to righteousness and obedience. Others assume that a battle to obey the commands of God must make them less gracious toward themselves or others. What would God say? There is no false choice to be made here. God commands both of us. We obey his word. We live under his grace. There is no conflict.

 

Where else in your life do you put yourself into the either/or mentality when it is not merited? Where do you say to God that you will either obey him here or there? Where might the Savior say to you to keep up the right behavior in one area while adding to it proper and weightier behavior in another?

How do you think of your Christian leaders? How do you think of your Christian friends? When you hear from your pastor, your teachers, or those with whom you are in fellowship, what happens to the burden on your spiritual shoulders? Is your load lightened? Or, does your burden get heavier as you listen and interact? How about when people talk with you? Do you lighten loads or load down others?

 

One of the criticisms that the Lord Jesus raised against the Pharisees and teachers of the law had to do with how they made life far harder, far more difficult, more heavy, for the people. The teachers of Jesus’ day had no problem loading people down with commands, rules, and expectations that were well beyond the Scriptures. And, I am sure that they also used the Scriptures as a solid weight from time-to-time.

 

But Jesus was not impressed with the way that the teachers squashed people in their lives. Jesus said in Matthew 23:4, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” Something about the religious guys of Jesus’ day burdened people, even sometimes with the truth, but in a way that only crushed and never healed.

 

I wonder for myself and for others if such a thing ought to be said of us. I surely hope not. We want to be faithful to Scripture. We will be a people of truth and of Scripture in our local church. But, I wonder if there is a way that, if we are not careful, we will take even that commitment and make it more burden than blessing, more weight than wonder, more grinding than gracious. How can we be sure to be people of truth without being people of crushing regulations and expectations?

 

There is a difference we must grasp between ways of communicating the ways of the Lord. We call people to righteousness. We call people to sanctification. But we must be sure that our calls, that the steps we demand people follow, that the burdens we ask people to bear are biblical. And, we also must be a people who, when a hard burden is on a fellow believer’s shoulders, we are the first to get under that load with them and help them lift it.

 

Imagine, for example, some possible problems. A believer is wrestling with a sin they need to let go. Maybe they are treasuring a dream for their future at a level that it has become a heart idol. Of course we must help them to see that treasuring the Lord is the call and that heart idols must not be in our lives. But, is that all we do? Do we tell them how wrong they are, prove our point, say a prayer over them, and then walk away? What a burden we have placed on their shoulders without helping them move it. Could we not help more? Do we call them the next day? Do we show them love in other areas? Do we help them to know that we are their friends, whether or not they defeat their sin this instant?  We can do better. Yes, the burden is one of truth in this instance, but our relationship can help lift it.

 

Or perhaps we have something we want a person to believe. Perhaps there is a doctrinal area in which we disagree. How do we approach them? Do we come in, guns blazing, and tear them to shreds? How burdensome this is without any attempt to help them. If your goal is winning an argument and not in healing and growing a believer, I wonder how pleased the Lord really is with your debating skill.

 

And, from time-to-time, the burdens we tie up on people’s shoulders are not even biblical. Sometimes we weigh people down with our preferences and expectations. Sometimes we will pour onto others, not a biblical call to discipleship, but our own personal way of growth that we demand they follow too. This is a burden that, if we are wise, we will lift off their shoulders for them by helping others to see that they must meet the Lord’s expectations, not ours.

 

Consider, Christians, what God says to us in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” How often do we feel the call to correct? How seldom do we attempt to correct in a spirit of gentleness? We must do both. We must call for changes in our fellow believers. But our calls must be biblical and gentle. Our calls must be met with our lives connecting to theirs to walk the hard road with them. We should not be known as people who pop into others’ lives, drop a bomb of truth on their heads, and walk away never to help. May we learn to love with life, to love with friendship, to love in fellowship, to love for the long haul, to love with truth, and to love with genuine, gentle grace.

How many times have you heard that God judges the heart, not the actions, of a person? Is that statement true? “God judges the heart” is one of those statements that has truth in it, but which is easily misused, misunderstood, and misapplied. That statement is a true statement to a point, but can easily become a platitude that people apply where it does not belong.

 

Where is it true? Throughout the Scriptures, God has said strong things to those who have performed right religious deeds with cold and cruel hearts. Consider that, in Amos 5:21-24, God told the people that he hated their religious ceremonies, because they performed those duties with hearts that were full of evil. So, in that case, God looks at the heart more than the actions.

 

But, does it go the other way? When somebody has a zeal for God, but is wrong about the facts, does God look at the heart more? Are those who say they want to serve God, but who are wrong about how to know God, OK before God?

 

Look at what Paul wrote about his Jewish kinsmen in Romans 10 to see something about heart and knowledge.

 

  Romans 10:1-3 – 1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

 

Paul writes of the Jews of his day that they had, indeed, a zeal for God. There were people among the Jews who really wanted to do right things with God. Was that zeal enough?

 

No, the zeal for God in the hearts of Paul’s people was not enough to bring them salvation. In verse 1, Paul said that his heart’s desire for them is that they would be “saved.” To desire their salvation implies that they are currently unsaved, lost, in grave danger. Thus, we can only logically conclude that, though God looks at the heart, God does not give a pass to a person whose heart is passionate but who does not know him. The people were trying to establish a righteousness of their own. Establishing righteousness is good. But, to attempt to establish righteousness not in the way of God is not enough to make a person right with God.

 

May this text remind us, then, that God is our ultimate judge and master. Yes, he sees into our hearts. He is never fooled by our outward religious practices as if those can mask a darkened, godless heart. At the same time, God is also holy, and his standard is firm. He is not going to allow zeal to make him violate his way of righteousness. People are not OK with God just because they are passionate about God, or what they think to be divine. No, God has made a way of salvation, one way, the way of Christ. When Jesus declared that no person comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6), he meant it.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is always better to do right than to do wrong. It is better to obey God, even when your heart is cold, than to have a cold heart and add to that coldness more disobedience. And, we love all who live in this world who desire to please God, and we love those who do not desire to please God. We want to see people come to life in Christ, to be forgiven by God, and to be saved. But we must grasp that being a sweet hearted person is not the way of salvation. To be right with God is to come to him in his way, with a genuine heart that trusts in Christ and finds mercy by grace alone through faith alone.

The Christian practice of apologetics means  making a defense for the faith—the Greek apologia means to defend, not to say you are sorry. Christians who focus on apologetics are focused on using Scripture, philosophy, science, and other evidences to help skeptics to see that the claims of the faith are rational, genuine, and trustworthy. So, the person who defends the accuracy of biblical translation, the person who argues for the existence of God from the principle of first causes, and the person who uses archeological findings to show that the walls of Jericho really fell all are using apologetics.

 

If you ask different Christians, you will find different levels of interest in apologetics. Some folks will spend a lot of time and energy brushing up on their arguments, and they do so for good reasons. Others believe that God has already given all people knowledge of his existence (cf. Rom. 1:18-20), and thus they will not go far down the road of arguing for God based on nonbiblical foundations, and they do so for good reasons. Some believe that apologetics are tools to use to help people come to faith in Christ. Others believe that apologetics can pull down obstacles to faith, but that this kind of argument cannot change a heart.

 

My goal in this post is neither to affirm nor disavow apologetics as a whole, but to remind us , from an odd Scriptural angle, that the unbelieving world is far less logical about things of God than we often assume in apologetics. We need to realize that those who are antichristian are not always willing to actually think clearly about the evidence and arguments before them.

 

Take, for instance, the Egyptians. Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler, experienced multiple miracles in his presence and around his land that laid waste to his kingdom. He saw water turned to blood, pests swarm and depart based on the commands and prayers of Moses, storms wreck the crops and livestock, darkness cover the land of the Egyptians but not the Hebrews, and even the death of firstborn all over the country. Each time, Pharaoh claimed to believe in the power of the Lord and he claimed that he would release the Hebrew slaves. But, after he looked back over his situation, he hardened his heart, changed his mind, and went back on his word.

 

After the Passover, the Egyptians sent the Hebrews out of their land. However, Pharaoh changed his mind one more time, leading his chariots out to recapture the valuable workers. Thus came the confrontation on the shores of the Red Sea.

 

Now, what I want us to consider is the logic, the rationality, of the anti-God Egyptians in the face of evidence. Let’s not argue about what the plagues should have done to persuade the Egyptians. Let’s not argue about the walls of water that parted to allow the Israelites to cross over on dry land. Let’s not even point out that the Egyptian soldiers recognized they were in deep trouble as their chariot wheels began to clog and swerve as they tried to cross the Red Sea. Instead, lets focus on one thing that happened before anybody had to drown.

 

Exodus 14:19-20 – 19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

 

Besides the plagues, besides the other evidences to come, this odd little story stands out to me. The Egyptians arrived in time to get to the Hebrews before the sea parted and the land was dry. The Egyptians should have been able to take care of business, except for one thing: God stood in between the Egyptians and the Hebrews. The pillar of cloud—also a pillar of burning fire at night—came down out of the sky and blocked the path of the Egyptians so that they could not get to the Hebrews.

 

Now, what would a logical leader do when faced with this event? Would not a thinking person be convinced by a supernatural cloud that stood in the gap and refused to let his army get to the Hebrews? Would not a thoughtful leader say to himself, “Maybe I’d better turn around, cut my losses, and go back home?” One would think so. But Pharaoh pressed on, drove his army into the sea, and the army that chased Israel died.  God proved himself mighty and glorious.

 

Now return to the concept of apologetics for a moment. What impact did logic and rational thinking have on the skeptics at the Red Sea? What help was repeated proof and visible confirmation to those who hated God and his people? The answer is that such things, perfectly powerful evidence, did not convince the Egyptians.

 

We live in a world of folks, some of whom are going to come to faith in Christ and some of whom are not going to come to faith in Christ. And I would suggest that it is wise and good for Christians to have solid answers in areas like philosophy, science, history, archeology, and all the rest. We want to think through the skeptics’ questions and know that the Scripture has answers. We want to offer a defense for the faith, especially for those who are honestly confused. But, and this is important, we also must recognize that, regardless of the seeming honesty of the skeptic, we will often find that a person who does not desire to submit to God will not be convinced by evidence, not even miraculous evidence. It is only the power of God working through the word of God and Spirit of God that can bring a spiritually dead heart to life and draw a skeptic to Christ. So, let us focus on solid thinking for sure. But, let us even more focus on Scripture, prayer, and honesty, as we learn that only the Lord can help a person to believe the truth that is blazing like a pillar of fire before their eyes.

If you have studied the book of Exodus, you have most likely noticed the parallel language that is present at the end of the plagues. God warns Pharaoh through Moses, demands the release of the people of Israel, and threatens a plague if Pharaoh will not comply. Pharaoh refuses to do what God says, the plague comes, and something in the land is wrecked. Then Pharaoh asks for help and promises some sort of freedom to Israel. Moses prays to God and the Lord stops the plague. Then, in each instance, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he goes back on his word, and he does not let Israel go.

 

One of the questions often asked by readers of Exodus is, “Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?” In some passages, we read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. But, in other passages, we see God quite clearly declare that he, the Lord, hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Which is it?

 

Exodus 9:34 – 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.

 

Exodus 10:1-2 – 1 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, 2 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.”

 

First, let us be wise here and remember that it is not likely that the Lord inspired this passage to bring us to a point of debate over first or second causes, of synergism or monergism. This passage is there to show us some very clear and obvious truths. God is over all. God moves through the hearts of kings and rulers. God works events to display his own glory.  

 

But, we also need to grasp that some grand truths are present in the holy and inspired word of God. Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Yes. Did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Yes. So, who is to blame for Pharaoh’s sin? The answer there is Pharaoh. God never forced Pharaoh to do anything that Pharaoh, in his sinfully hard heart, did not wish to do. But, then, did God participate in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart? Yes, he did—he says he did. Did God sin? Nope, God can’t do that.

 

But wait, we don’t like this. We don’t fully understand it. We demand an explanation. But, who do we think we are? Who are we to demand that the Lord clarify for us his ways so that we can sit in judgment as to whether or not we like his methods? God does not tell us exactly how the balance of God hardening and Pharaoh hardening worked. While you and I may try to sketch out how we think it worked, the Scripture has no interest in revealing that to us. Thus, neither does God. He has is ways, they are above and beyond ours, and we do not have the right to demand to know them.

 

God does explain something to us in this passage. At the beginning of chapter 10, God tells us why he has hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He did so, “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.” So, God says he hardened Pharaoh’s heart so he could show his power in the plagues, so he could show his glory, so we could know he is the Lord. God did what God did in order to display his power, his justice, his might, his glory.

 

Notice what God did not say to us. He did not tell us, “I only strengthened his already hard heart. Don’t worry, I didn’t have anything to do with actually making him worse, that wouldn’t be fair.” God did not give us any reason in this passage at all to tell us how the whole hardening process or the pattern happened.

 

And so often, right here, we want to reshape the story. We are afraid, if somebody hears this, they will not like God. We are afraid that somebody will not approve of God working in this way. We think that maybe Jesus would not act like this. But, in all this we are very much wrong.

 

God is perfect. God is not judged by an external standard of righteousness, something outside him that measures him. We are measured by the righteousness of the Lord. We have no right at all to even consider sitting in judgment over the choices, actions, and motivations of the Lord. He is the one who is sovereign, not us.

 

What supreme arrogance it would be for me to say to God, “I’m not sure that you treated Pharaoh rightly by hardening his heart. I think you should have allowed him to do what he wanted with no interference. But it looks like you messed with him here. I’m not sure I approve.” Then, were I to continue with, “And, I really do not know that it is OK for you to display your power and justice by crushing the Egyptians the way that you did. You are not allowed to act like that. You are supposed not to let any people hurt.”

 

Were I to say such things, what would have happened? In my own little arrogant imagination, I would be putting myself on the judge’s bench and God in the place of the accused who must defend himself. I would be making myself the prosecution, bringing evidence against the actions of the Lord all the while I would also be the jury, deciding if I approved of God’s explanation to me. This, dear friends, is never the proper position for humans against the Lord.

 

When Job accused God, the Lord never answered to Job or explained his rationale. Instead, God pointed out to Job, through about four chapters of questions, that Job is far too small and far too limited to possibly grasp the workings of the Lord. And when Job realized what he had done, he declared his repentance because he saw that he had foolishly stepped out of line (cf. Job 42:1-6).

 

Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh did. God did. Did God ever do wrong? No, not at all. Do we have the right to decide whether we like what God did? Not really, because we are sinful and limited creations attempting to question the glorious, holy, perfect Creator.

 

Does this apply to other topics? Does this passage and explanation apply to something like sovereign election in salvation? I think it does, but that is for another post and for you to consider as you study the Scriptures for yourself. I know this, God’s ways in salvation are just as much his as are his ways in handling Moses or Pharaoh. If the word of God says that my only way to come to the Lord is through him drawing me to him (John 6:44), giving me the ability by his power (John 6:65), bringing to life my dead heart (Ephesians 2:1-ff), and granting me faith as a gift (Ephesians 2:8), I certainly have no reason to question him and complain at his methods. I have no more right to judge the ways of God in salvation than I have to judge the ways of God in the Exodus. God is good. I am limited. The Lord’s word is perfect and true. May I love the Lord and surrender to his perfection without ever placing myself in the position to try to be the judge again.

 

Let me add, in case this all looks too harsh, that God has displayed himself to us as so wonderfully kind and gracious too. The same God who did this with Pharaoh is the God who let little children come to him even when the disciples wanted to push them away. The God who squashed the Egyptians to display his glory also displayed his glory by healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and—most gloriously of all—giving his own life to pay the price for the sins of all his people. God is not mean. No, his ways are not ours. His holiness is beyond us. But we must not allow one picture to be our only image. The Lord is right, always right, in his justice and in his mercy, in his love and in his wrath.

If you study the Gospel According to Matthew, you will find a great many references to the Old Testament. In those references, you will often see Matthew say something like, “This took place to fulfill that which was spoken by the prophets.” Regularly, Matthew sees things that Jesus did or that happened around Jesus, and he saw that those events perfectly matched the Old Testament predictions of the coming Messiah.

 

It is always fascinating to see a prophecy fulfilled. When Joseph moved down to Egypt and then back to the land of Israel, to Nazareth, prophecy about Jesus was fulfilled. It seems highly unlikely, however, that Joseph thought much about the fact that he was fulfilling prophecy with the family’s change of address. He ran to Egypt because the angel said so and because there was a large Jewish community living in places like the city of Alexandria. Joseph picked Nazareth as a home town because of the dangerous political situation in Judea. 

 

So, when things happen, and then we look up and see that it was predicted long beforehand, we think to ourselves, “Wow.” It is just amazing that people, walking through their normal lives, did things that God had said would happen hundreds of years before hand.

 

But, what about when people do things on purpose to fulfill prophecy? I ask this because Jesus, at least once, made a very calculated move to intentionally fulfill a prophecy. What does that say about prophecy and about Jesus?

 

Matthew 21:1-5- 1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

 

When Jesus sent disciples to pick up the little donkey, he was doing so very much with the intent to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Matthew points out to us that those words from the Old Testament prophet told Jerusalem to rejoice, because the promised King from God was coming to them, and there was a way to recognize him. The one God was sending to be the Savior would be humble, and would ride on a colt, a donkey’s foal, into Jerusalem.

 

Think about how much Jesus must have done to arrange this scene. While Matthew does not tell us this for sure, and so there is speculation here, it seems likely that Jesus had prearranged the use of this animal. Jesus told the disciples where to go to pick up the donkey. He told them what to say to the animal’s owners. Either this is a miracle of Jesus, using supernatural knowledge to know where to find a little donkey and what to say to its owners to get them to let him borrow it, or Jesus had talked with those owners and arranged the whole thing.

 

Then comes my question: Does the intentionality of Jesus in any way taint the fulfillment of prophecy? I would argue that it does not. Zechariah still perfectly predicted what the Messiah would do. Why would it be wrong for the Messiah to do it on purpose? In fact, I would argue that the intentionality of Jesus here actually serves to help us understand exactly what Jesus knew to be true of himself. If Jesus worked to fulfill a prophecy from several centuries before his birth, he definitely intended to identify himself as the King, the fulfillment of the prophecy. Jesus was saying in the loudest public voice possible that he indeed is the promised Messiah, the King sent by God.

 

Much Like C. S. Lewis challenged us regarding Jesus’ deity, we have only a few choices as to what to believe about Jesus in the fulfillment of this prophecy. He could be wrong about himself, thinking he is Messiah when he is actually not. That would make him an insane person, by the way. Or he could be tricking people on purpose, telling a lie about himself. That would make him evil. Or, the truth is, Jesus really is exactly the person God has been promising and promising and promising from the Garden of Eden on.

 

Any proper study of Jesus’ life, his teachings, his character, and his resurrection can lead us to only one conclusion about him. Jesus is God in flesh and the promised Messiah. Our only proper response, then, is to bow to him, receive him as our King and Master, and follow him with our lives.

In different phases of church history, different doctrinal phrases and concepts become more or less central. Consider how you have heard people talk about the word “inerrancy.” Sometimes that word is all over the place. Other times, it is a part of our doctrinal foundation, even if we are not talking or writing about it. The same can be said for trinity, homoousious, election, or just about any concept.

 

One word that I have not heard much about in recent days is “imputation.” The theological concept of imputation includes the idea of God granting to those he has saved the righteousness of Christ. Imputed righteousness allows us to be people who are still imperfect, still struggling against sin in this fallen world, but who are simultaneously seen by God as bearing the perfection of Jesus. The perfect record of Christ’s righteousness is credited–imputed—to our accounts. Thus, God can look at us, correct us for our sin, sanctify us step-by-step, call us to repentance, and at the same time he looks at us and sees that we are fully forgiven and granted the perfection of Jesus and thus are his children, welcomed into his presence, and ready to be rewarded by him for the perfect obedience of the Savior. 

 

 

Imputation is a beautiful, soul-comforting doctrine. It helps us to be able to confidently seek the Lord and approach him as his adopted children even while we know we must repent of sin. Imputation allows us to rest in the grace of Jesus instead of trying to work enough merit into our lives to earn God’s favor.

 

In my daily reading this morning, I saw the significance of imputation in an odd place. I found myself reading through Psalm 18, and I found that I could not imagine praying what David prayed. How could I say those words? Then I recognized that, on my own, I could not. But, with the imputed righteousness of Christ, I most certainly must. Read the psalm, And see how uncomfortable it makes you feel. 

 

Psalm 18:20-24

 

20 The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.

21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all his rules were before me,

and his statutes I did not put away from me.

23 I was blameless before him,

and I kept myself from my guilt.

24 So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

 

Can you imagine writing a song in which you declare that the Lord has rewarded you according to the cleanness of your hands? Can you imagine singing about God favoring you because of your righteousness? If you have no struggles here, I would guess that your picture of your own perfection is a little clouded. We are sinners. None of us is righteous enough before the Lord on our own to claim that God owes us goodness because of our own goodness.

 

But, bring in imputation. When God looks at my record, he sees the record of Christ. When God looks at my test scores, he sees the perfect answer sheet filled out by Christ. When God looks at my life-evaluation, he reads the life-evaluation of Jesus. Then, yes, I can say that God will reward me based on my righteousness, the righteousness imputed to my account in Christ.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

What joy must we find in imputation! How awesome it is to think that God is not looking at me, mad at me, disappointed in me, but instead sees the righteousness of Christ. This is a good doctrine, and one we must not lose.

 

Now, let’s have the disclaimers. First, David knew that he was not perfect. Contextually, I also do not think David was seeing imputation. What David was dealing with specifically was the fact that he, as a leader, had not wronged those who were attacking him and trying to kill him. Because David had been faithful to the Lord and not a villain, he could say that God rewarded him with battle victory because of his righteousness.

 

Second, may we never allow the doctrine of imputation to lead us to a quietism that no longer strives against sin. Never has Christianity, biblical Christianity, been a willingness to continue in sin simply because grace has been applied. Those who know Jesus and grasp imputation will, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, battle against the evil still indwelling in our lives. Like a land owner who finds squatters on our claim, we battle against sin until our claim is free of those who do not belong there. We fight sin until it is gone. We participate in sanctification until our lives match the picture of imputation that God has already given us. So, please, do not allow yourself or anyone else to continue in sin out of a lazy acceptance of imputed righteousness; God never called us to live like that.

 

But, with disclaimers aside, may we all learn to love the truth that God has imputed to our accounts the righteousness of Jesus. We can trust in the resurrection of Jesus as our future resurrection too, because God already sees us with the perfect life of Jesus credited to our own records. We can trust that God will care for us, because he cares for his perfect Son.