{"id":665,"date":"2011-02-07T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fbclafayette.org\/?p=665"},"modified":"2011-12-12T09:28:29","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T14:28:29","slug":"clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/","title":{"rendered":"Clash of the Titans (Digging Deeper into Exodus)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-676\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px;\" title=\"Checkmate\" src=\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133753\/Checkmate.jpg\" alt=\"Chess-white king beats black king\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Two \u201ctitans\u201d going head to head.\u00a0 Sounds like the stuff of movies doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 In this case, however, I am speaking about God and Pharaoh in Exodus.\u00a0 God won against Pharaoh.\u00a0 Was there ever any doubt?\u00a0 Maybe the outcome was only doubted by Pharaoh himself.\u00a0 He thought of himself as a titanic deity, able to control all of Egypt.\u00a0 <strong><em>But He ended up unable to even control his own heart<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 God hardened His heart.\u00a0\u00a0 The \u201chardening of the heart\u201d plot line through the first part of Exodus is a grand clash of the titans showdown.<\/p>\n<p>Most people struggle with the concept of God \u201chardening&#8221; a heart.\u00a0 It is a difficult theological issue.\u00a0 But Exodus and Romans 9:16-23 declares that it happened and happens.\u00a0 This blog entry is not about trying to give a defense of that theological reality.\u00a0 It&#8217;s about the bigger picture of the purpose behind that theme running through the first part of Exodus.<\/p>\n<p>Before we move on to the plot line, \u00a0there is one thing that needs to be noted.\u00a0 The Hebrew term for \u201cglory\/honor\u201d is the same Hebrew term used throughout the first part of Exodus for the idea of \u201cmaking heavy\u201d \u2014as in, make a \u201cheart heavy\/hard\u201d or as in, make the Israelites&#8217; load \u201cheavy,\u201d or as in \u201cGod is heavy\/glorious!\u201d\u00a0 In the Exodus story, Pharaoh\u2019s heart becomes \u201cweighty\u201d or \u201cheavy\u201d against the one true God.\u00a0 But in the end there is only one Deity who is truly \u201cheavy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s look at the end of the story before we see how the story unfolds.\u00a0 Exodus 14:17 states that in the end, Yahweh is left standing gloriously while Pharaoh is defeated, his army annihilated, and the Egyptians plundered.\u00a0<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Exodus 14:17 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAs for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and <strong>I will be honored\/glorified<\/strong> (i.e. \u201cmade heavy\u201d) through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the end God alone is the \u201cHEAVY,\u201d \u201cHONORED,\u201d \u00a0\u201cGLORIOUS\u201d one.\u00a0 But below is how the story started and unfolded blow by blow with the play on the word \u201cheavy.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Pharaoh starts the conflict by making the labor of the Israelites \u201cheavy\u201d (Ex 5:9)<\/li>\n<li> Pharaoh\u2019s heart becomes \u201cheavy\u201d toward the Israelite\u2019s freedom (Ex 7:14)<\/li>\n<li> Yahweh makes the swarms \u201cheavy\u201d toward Pharaoh (Ex 8:24)<\/li>\n<li> Pharaoh makes his heart \u201cheavy\u201d again (Ex 8:32)<\/li>\n<li> Yahweh makes the pestilence \u201cheavy\u201d (Ex 9:3)<\/li>\n<li> Pharaoh makes his heart \u201cheavy\u201d again (Ex 9:7)<\/li>\n<li> Yahweh makes the hail \u201cheavy\u201d (Ex 9:18,24)<\/li>\n<li> Pharaoh makes his heart \u201cheavy\u201d again (Ex 9:34)<\/li>\n<li> Finally, Yahweh says, \u201cI will make his heart heavy\u201d (Ex 10:1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This last declaration by Yahweh moves Him beyond being only the Lord over nature to also being the Lord over Pharaoh himself.\u00a0 \u00a0Yahweh is the one who can even <strong><em>control the heart of the strongest man and so-call god, the king<\/em><\/strong> (cf. Prov 21:1).\u00a0 Notice that Yahweh did this only after Pharaoh himself hardened his own heart several times.<\/p>\n<p>Yahweh makes it so that Pharaoh, punch drunk on resistance, cannot turn back now.\u00a0 Yahweh sets in motion the events that will lead to Himself being exalted as the only Deity recorded forever in the history of redemption (Ex 15:11).\u00a0\u00a0 The nameless Pharaoh is remembered forever as the one who presumed to be god himself, going against the true God.\u00a0 Pharaoh lost.<\/p>\n<p>Here is my question for you.\u00a0 How do you make yourself out to be a god against the one and only true God?\u00a0 Do you anticipate a different result than Pharaoh?<\/p>\n<p>Also, you are welcomed to ask any questions on Exodus 1-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two \u201ctitans\u201d going head to head.\u00a0 Sounds like the stuff of movies doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 In this case, however, I am speaking about God and Pharaoh in Exodus.\u00a0 God won against Pharaoh.\u00a0 Was there ever any doubt?\u00a0 Maybe the outcome was only doubted by Pharaoh himself.\u00a0 He thought of himself as a titanic deity, able to&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4177,4181,4178,4179,4176,4180,4182],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Clash of the Titans (Digging Deeper into Exodus) - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clash of the Titans (Digging Deeper into Exodus) - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two \u201ctitans\u201d going head to head.\u00a0 Sounds like the stuff of movies doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 In this case, however, I am speaking about God and Pharaoh in Exodus.\u00a0 God won against Pharaoh.\u00a0 Was there ever any doubt?\u00a0 Maybe the outcome was only doubted by Pharaoh himself.\u00a0 He thought of himself as a titanic deity, able to... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-07T13:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-12T14:28:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/files\/2011\/02\/Checkmate.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\",\"name\":\"Clash of the Titans (Digging Deeper into Exodus) - Faith Church Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-07T13:00:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-12T14:28:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/clash-of-the-titans-digging-deeper-into-exodus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Clash of the Titans (Digging Deeper into Exodus)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Church Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\",\"name\":\"Brent Aucoin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Brent Aucoin\"},\"description\":\"Pastor Brent Aucoin serves as the Pastor of Seminary and Counseling Ministries at Faith Church. 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