Quote:
“It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are called on to believe what to many people is impossible. Instead of rejoicing in this glorious "impossible" which gives meaning and dignity to our lives, we try to domesticate God, to make his might actions comprehensible to our finite minds.” ― Madeleine L'Engle
Psalm 65
Exodus 9:13-35
Acts 27:39-44
Plagues and shipwreck and prisoners, oh my! The plagues narrative has long bothered me. Pharaoh's hardened heart wouldn't allow him to see what was right in front of him. He was willing to allow the Hebrews to go when the plagues were happening, but quickly reneges on his promise as the threat leaves. This is not, however, what bothers me about the narrative. I feel for Pharaoh. I think that part of the reason I do is because it makes me recognize my own hardness of heart, whether it is an attitude toward something or a person, or whether it is just my stubbornness of wanting things to go the way I had planned them.
Paul says of Pharaoh in Romans 9:
What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!For he says to Moses,
‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’
So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.
This is tough for me to swallow; it causes me to fear and wonder "So how can I be confident that I will be shown mercy? Martin Luther's struggle - at least at first - was that he was never confident in his salvation, and never confident he had done enough or been good enough for his salvation. It is truly not earned; but is it also able to be refused?
If you have been reading this blog for any lenth of time, you all will know my emphatic answer is NO! but, this said, I don't think this should preclude us from asking the question. Our fear of the answers should not stop the questions. We see the answer to our questions a little later in Exodus: by chapter 33, the Israelites have made the golden calf, have turned away, and have whined all across the Sinai. God has threatened to kill all the Israelites and start over because, frankly, they aren't behaving very well. But he doesn't. I don't know how this works or how this looks, exactly, but I know this much to be true: God has been working through people with hardened hearts since the beginning of time, and will continue doing so until the end. However hardened our hearts may be or may become, the heart of God is big enough to hold - a broken creation, a broken situation, a broken person - and reconcile it to Godself.
“It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are called on to believe what to many people is impossible. Instead of rejoicing in this glorious "impossible" which gives meaning and dignity to our lives, we try to domesticate God, to make his might actions comprehensible to our finite minds.” ― Madeleine L'Engle
Psalm 65
Exodus 9:13-35
Acts 27:39-44
Plagues and shipwreck and prisoners, oh my! The plagues narrative has long bothered me. Pharaoh's hardened heart wouldn't allow him to see what was right in front of him. He was willing to allow the Hebrews to go when the plagues were happening, but quickly reneges on his promise as the threat leaves. This is not, however, what bothers me about the narrative. I feel for Pharaoh. I think that part of the reason I do is because it makes me recognize my own hardness of heart, whether it is an attitude toward something or a person, or whether it is just my stubbornness of wanting things to go the way I had planned them.
Paul says of Pharaoh in Romans 9:
What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!For he says to Moses,
‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’
So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.
This is tough for me to swallow; it causes me to fear and wonder "So how can I be confident that I will be shown mercy? Martin Luther's struggle - at least at first - was that he was never confident in his salvation, and never confident he had done enough or been good enough for his salvation. It is truly not earned; but is it also able to be refused?
If you have been reading this blog for any lenth of time, you all will know my emphatic answer is NO! but, this said, I don't think this should preclude us from asking the question. Our fear of the answers should not stop the questions. We see the answer to our questions a little later in Exodus: by chapter 33, the Israelites have made the golden calf, have turned away, and have whined all across the Sinai. God has threatened to kill all the Israelites and start over because, frankly, they aren't behaving very well. But he doesn't. I don't know how this works or how this looks, exactly, but I know this much to be true: God has been working through people with hardened hearts since the beginning of time, and will continue doing so until the end. However hardened our hearts may be or may become, the heart of God is big enough to hold - a broken creation, a broken situation, a broken person - and reconcile it to Godself.
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