The road to ruin.
"And in very deed for this cause," etc. (Exodus 9:16). The character and conduct of Pharaoh as a probationer under the moral government of the Ever Living God is worthy of special and separate consideration. That he was such a probationer should not be simply assumed, but made clearly manifest. All the great light of natural religion shone upon his path (Romans 1:19-25), like stars in heaven upon the path of every soul. Then there is the inward witness that speaks of the soul, of God, of duty, of immortality (Romans 2:14, Romans 2:15). Within the confines of his empire existed a nation of no less than two millions, to whom had already been confided a part, at least, of the "oracles of God." They were the recipients of such revelations as God had already vouchsafed. Their beliefs ought not to have been unknown to him. Two missionaries, direct from God, Moses and Aaron, were his teachers. They Came with full credentials. Providential judgments, not untempered with mercy (for warning after warning came), spake with trumpet tongue. Some of his own people, convinced, probably penitent, pleaded for the right. And yet this soul went from bad to worse. We indicate the stages on the road to ruin. It is only necessary to premise that though the stages are broadly manifest enough, they, in so complicated a character, occasionally overlap, and are blended with each other.
I. UNBELIEF. Pharaoh's of the blankest kind (Exodus 9:2). [Read correctly, "Who is Jehovah"?] The man a God unto himself, as all infidels practically are. The representative of the Sun-God. Note the independent stand he takes all through this controversy, as against Jehovah. [On this see Kurtz, Hist. of Old Cov. 2:292.]
II. SUPERSTITION. So does the pendulum ever swing back from the extremes of belief or non-belief. No soul can rest in that infidelity which virtually deifies self. Hence Pharaoh played off against the representatives of Jehovah, the representatives of the polytheism of Egypt—the magicians. SO in modern times. There are the credulities of atheism. Men who will not believe in the sublime truths of revelation fall to intellectual drivelling. Notable instance, Comte's "Religion of Humanity." After all, this is a witness that man cannot live without religion. [In this connection note the connection between magic and idolatry, and of that, possibly, with demons, Kurtz, 2:246-259.]
III. ALARM. In Pharaoh's case this was especially manifest after the second (Exodus 8:8), fourth (Exodus 8:25), seventh (Exodus 9:27), and eighth (Exodus 10:16) visitations.
IV. CONFESSION. After the seventh (Exodus 9:27). No wonder, for God had said before this judgment, "I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart." Coming calamity was to be of a deeper and more searching kind. The man seems to have had an access of real and honest feeling. Sees the sin of the people as well as his own. Confesses. But the confession was not followed up.
V. PROMISE—VIOLATION. After second (Exodus 8:8-15), fourth (Exodus 8:28-32), and seventh (Exodus 9:28-35) plagues. A very common thing with sinners under Divine discipline—promises of amendment—but the sweep onward of the bias toward iniquity is like that of a mighty river, and carries the most earnest vows into the gulf of oblivion.
VI. DISPOSITION TO COMPROMISE. See Exodus 8:25-28, Exodus 10:8-11, Exodus 10:24. Such penitence as Pharaoh had was one of conditions and compromise. Israel's festival must be "in the land;" then not "far away; "then only the men should go; then all might go, but the cattle must stay behind. So "We will give up sin, but only part of it. We will yield ninety-nine points, not the hundredth. We will give up what we do not care for so much, but keep What we peculiarly like. We will keep all the commandments, but not give up our money.** We will gain the credit and reputation of religion, but shun the pain and denial of it." (see on "Pharaoh," in Munro's "Sermons on Characters of the Old Testament," vol. 1. ser. 15.)
VII. INDIFFERENCE. Stolidity in matters of such high import as religion is a very dangerous condition. Pharaoh assumed after fifth and sixth visitations an attitude of hardened indifference (Exodus 9:7-12).
VIII. HARDNESS OF HEART. Except in the objective announcement made to Moses at the first, there is no statement that God hardened Pharaoh's heart till after the sixth plague (Exodus 9:12). Up to that time Pharaoh hardened his own heart, or the fact simply is stated, that his heart was hardened. In this matter man acts first sinfully, then God judicially.
IX. RESISTANCE TO APPEAL OF OTHERS. See Exodus 9:20, and Exodus 10:7.
X. RUIN.—R.
HOMILIES BY HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG