Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Nothing is Easy for a Hard Heart
The human capacity to persist in self-destructive behavior is nothing short of amazing. Many times people do things that don’t make sense because they are not thinking or paying attention. Take shoes for instance. Here is a guy who gets a pair of shoes that don’t fit, but he likes them and wants to wear them. So, day after day he wears a hole right through the back of his heel or continues to put band aids on blisters instead of realizing that he is walking in the wrong shoes. He persists in behavior that hurts his feet. So many of us are walking in a way that is self-destructive and we don’t see it. That is being hard-headed and hard-hearted.
Pharaoh was a man who knew what it was to walk in the wrong path. In Exodus 8, God had begun to send plagues on Egypt because of Pharaoh’s hardness of heart. Exodus 8:15 says, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.” A hard heart yields a hard life. Life can already be hard, but we make it worse when we have a hard head and hard heart.
Pharaoh reminds us that nothing comes easily to a hard heart. All the trials, tribulation, and sorrow that Pharaoh experienced with his nation were completely avoidable if he had only had a heart to hear God. Pharaoh was a man who was bent toward a hard heart, and God let him have his way. Both understanding and mercy come to those with a heart to receive them. Pharaoh was not beyond mercy except that he had a hard heart.
In Exodus 8:10 Moses asked Pharaoh when Pharaoh wanted Moses to entreat God to call off the plague. Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” And Moses said, “Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.” Here is a man who delayed mercy and denied obedience.
In verse 15 it says, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart.” When God gave a little bit of mercy, Pharaoh hardened his heart yet again. He rejected the mercy that was available because of his hard heart.
Today, don’t walk on in shoes that are hurting you. Don’t persist in behavior that is self-destructive. A hard heart yields a hard life. Nothing comes easily to a hard heart, but everything that God intends for you is available if you have a heart to receive it.