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R edeem er Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart, Part Five

Exodus 7:8-10:29

Introduction
On Friday, there was a debate between two local pastors on the subject of
election and predestination and the related issue of human responsibility, sometimes
called free will. The event was advertised on Christian radio with this tag line: “Does
God choose us or do we choose him? Come this Friday…”

Does God choose us or do we choose him? This question is fascinating to me.

And yet my fascination is not with the issue itself, but with the form of the question; for it
is set forth in terms of a dichotomy. Does God choose us or do we choose him? The
way the question is framed assumes that there is no third alternative. In other words, it
is either that God chooses us for salvation or it’s that we choose him. The question
allows for no other possibility.

And it is precisely at this point that the question represents a serious error. The
error is egregious because the Bible makes clear that although God is absolutely
sovereign over our choices, we are completely responsible for those choices. The Bible
sets forth a both/and relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility,
not an either/or relationship. Thus the very form of the question guarantees that both
participants will be wrong. Unless one or both of the participants modify the question,
their exercise will be futile. And the Christians in attendance will have failed to receive
any real edification from the exchange.

Now, perhaps the question I heard on the radio isn’t the question the participants
were asked to consider. Perhaps it is simply an oversimplification on the part of the
advertisers for the sake of generating interest from the listening audience.
Nevertheless, the very fact that the question has been used in an effort to get out the
word about the debate suggests that most people understand the issue in a very stark
and, I daresay, unbiblical way.

From our study of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 7:8-10:29, we

have seen both truths vividly illustrated.

Man’s Complete Responsibility

There can be no doubt that Pharaoh acted of his own volition, according to his
own desire. His will was free to do the evil he desired. At least five (5) pieces of
evidence from our narrative make this clear (for some additional examples, I refer you to
part four):

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1. Pharaoh refuses to let the people go cf. 7:14; 10:3. The passage from Chapter
10 is especially significant in that the Lord himself appeals to Pharaoh on the
basis of Pharaoh’s prideful stubbornness to concede to let the people go: Moses
and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God
of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?
Let My people go, that they may serve Me.’”

2. Three times the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is attributed to his own agency cf.
8:15; 8:32; 9:34. I love what Calvin says in this regard: “Pharaoh…was not so
much deceived by the [willful deception] of [the magicians], as stupefied by his
own malice and perversity….[L]et us remark that…the tyrant was not absolved
from crime, for that his hardness of heart was voluntary.”1

3. Hardness of heart is a sin for which God makes men accountable. If our hearts
are hard, we are blameworthy. Three terms are used to describe Pharaoh’s
hard-heartedness that together expresses “a state of arrogant moral degeneracy,
unresponsive to reason and incapable of compassion.”2 To be hard-hearted is to
be obstinate, arrogant, stiff-necked, and perverse. As a result, Pharaoh’s
culpability is beyond question.

4. Throughout the narrative, God holds Pharaoh responsible for refusing to let the
people go. The reason why the plagues come upon Egypt is owing to Pharaoh’s
unwillingness to listen to the Lord. This is very important to note because God
never play-acts; to do so would be to operate contrary to his nature. So we may
rightly understand that if Pharaoh had truly repented, God would have relented.
This is what allows Jesus to say in Matthew 11 that “if the miracles had occurred
in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in [Chorazin], they would have repented long
ago in sackcloth and ashes” and that “if the miracles had occurred in Sodom
which occurred in [Capernaum], it would have remained to this day” (Matt 11:21,
23).

This explains why we see genuine conditionals and genuine refusals throughout
the plague narrative cf. 8:2; 9:2; 10:4.

5. And the last we hear about Pharaoh’s hardness of heart before the plague
against the firstborn, we read that Pharaoh refuses to bend his own will in
submission to Yahweh. Look at 10:27: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he was not willing to let them go.

From the evidence of the narrative we are forced to conclude that Pharaoh’s fate
was in his own hands. God gave him plenty of chances to avert judgment, but Pharaoh
was not interested. He was not willing to let the people go. Pharaoh never once
acted against his will. He did exactly what he wanted to do, which is why his nation
suffered so much devastation. His servants were right to question Pharaoh in 10:7:

1
John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996 reprint), 2.1.180.
2
Nahum M Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication
Society, 1991), 23.

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How long will this man [Moses] be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may
serve the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?

This is something with which most Christians are comfortable. I think it’s fair to
say that ninety-nine percent of evangelicals have no problem with the idea that our
refusal to honor God with obedience results in dire consequences for which none but
ourselves can be blamed. The more difficult thing to accept is the notion that God is
absolutely sovereign, that he has ordained the choices that we make, that he is in
control of everything, good and evil. Yet this difficulty notwithstanding, the Exodus
narrative we are examining is equally as forceful with respect to the Lord’s absolute
sovereignty.

God’s Absolute Sovereignty

Turn to 9:15-16.
15
"For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with
pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. 16But, indeed, for this
reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to
proclaim My name through all the earth.”

Notice that the Lord tells Pharaoh in verse 16 that the Lord has allowed Pharaoh
to remain. The NASB’s translation choice coupled with the immediate context may give
you the impression that all that is meant by this is that God had not yet destroyed him,
as if God is saying, “The only reason you are alive right now is because I decided to
keep you alive. I could have decimated you and your nation anytime I wanted.” While
this is certainly true, it doesn’t capture the significance of God’s declaration.

Underneath the phrase I have allowed you to remain is the Hebrew verb that
means to establish, to put in place. The NIV and ESV capture more precisely the sense
of the word: “I have raised you up.”

In addition to the Hebrew wording, when the Apostle Paul quotes this passage in
the New Testament, he doesn’t use the Septuagint; instead, he translates from the
Hebrew himself. In so doing, he renders the word with the Greek word that means
“raised you up.” Listen: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘FOR THIS VERY
PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT
MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH’” (Rom
9:17).

So more than the Lord saying simply that he has kept Pharaoh alive, the Lord is
saying that he is the one who has established Egypt’s throne. The Lord is telling
Pharaoh that the only reason he holds office at this time in Egypt’s history is because
God has placed him there for his own purposes. If I may borrow the words of Daniel:
“The Most High is ruler over all the realm of mankind and bestows [sovereignty] on
whomever he wishes” (Dan 4:32).

The Lord’s establishment of the Egyptian throne is profound in its implications.

For to say that God gives sovereignty to all those who possess it is to say that he

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bestows rule upon not only those who rule for good, but those who rule for ill. He
bestows sovereignty on righteous and wicked men.

Not only that, but in the case of this Pharaoh’s exercise of authority, the Israelites
have been made to suffer. Added to their 400 years of slave labor (think of 1604-
2004!)—which had also been the result of evil Egyptian administrations ordained by
God—added to this suffering, is the intensification of such suffering with the requirement
of having to make bricks without having straw gathered for them. The Hebrews’ quota
would not be lessened, while their workload would have increased exponentially.

God is thus sovereign over Israel’s suffering; God is sovereign over the evil
which has plagued his people for four centuries. If the Lord had chosen a benevolent
king to rule in Egypt, then his people would not be suffering. Yet God says that he is
responsible for this Pharaoh’s ascendancy.

In addition to the establishment of Pharaoh’s rule, we also observe in our

narrative that the ultimate reason for Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness is God’s own activity.
Turn back to 4:21 & 7:3.
21
The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt see that you perform
before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his
heart so that he will not let the people go....3But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may
multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”

Then when we come upon the first account of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness the
plague narrative, we find that Pharaoh’s heart was hard in accord with God’s promise,
as God had said cf. 7:13.

As the narrative develops from this point forward, the author sometimes ascribes
Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness to Pharaoh, sometimes to no one, and sometimes to the
Lord cf. 7:14; 9:12, 34. Yet on the majority of the occasions, he includes the phrase,
“as the Lord had said” or “as the Lord had spoken to Moses,” recalling for the readers
God’s initial promise to harden Pharaoh’s heart in chapters 4 & 7.

Thus we are to understand God’s hardening work not as something merely

reactive, but as something proactive. Pharaoh’s heart was hard and Pharaoh hardened
his heart as the Lord had said.

This, like the establishment of Pharaoh’s reign, is also profound in its

implications. The reason for its profundity is that it is Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness that
has resulted in his failure to submit to God’s demand to let the people go. Thus God
stands behind Pharaoh’s disobedience as well as behind his despotic rule. And unless
we are prepared to say that disobedience to God is not a sin, we are left with the
conclusion that God is sovereign over Pharaoh’s evil. “The king’s heart is like channels
of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov 21:1).

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In the plague narrative it is clear that God is absolutely sovereign and that man is
completely responsible for his actions. From the narrator’s perspective, the issue is not
either/or, it is both/and. And this is consistently how the Bible addresses the subject.

Whether it is Joseph and his brothers (What you intended for evil, God intended
for good [Gen 50:20]), or it is Paul’s call to the Philippians to work out their salvation
with fear and trembling because it is God who is at work in them both to will and to work
for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13), the divine sovereignty and human responsibility are
asserted throughout Scripture with equal force and ultimacy

And because the Bible asserts these truths, we must begin with the assumption
that though they are each difficult to understand with respect to the other, they are
nevertheless compatible. So if your understanding of God’s sovereignty over all things
results in rejecting human responsibility, you have failed to keep the truths in tension.
And if your understanding of human responsibility works to make God contingent, then
again, you have failed adequately to account for the clear testimony of Scripture.

True Theology Is Practical Theology

With all that’s been said, the whole issue of God’s sovereignty and man’s
responsibility can very easily seem to be a kind of brain-teaser. I think you know what I
mean. When I was in about fourth grade, my teacher would send home challenging
problems or puzzles to complete when my basic lessons were completed. Sometimes
they were mathematical, sometimes verbal. Once we were asked to find an eight-letter
word containing only one vowel. Well, we thought about it (my dad joined me!), and we
came up with the word, “strength”—S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H. This was my brain-teaser: a little
intellectual exercise to get the juices flowing.

For many Christians, God’s absolute sovereignty and its related issues often
become simply a brain-teaser, as if God wanted to give us a challenging theological
concept for the sole purpose of mental gymnastics. We may think that the sovereignty
of God is just something really interesting—we like to think about it, muse on it, and
even listen to debates. All the while the teaching seems to have no impact on our daily
lives. Yet this is certainly not what God intended in preserving this truth for us in the
pages of his word.

The intent of God in preserving his truth in Scripture is for the transformation of
our souls, for the transformation of our lives. “All Scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that
the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). We
do not learn doctrine to become doctrinaire. We learn God’s word that we may walk in
a manner worthy of the gospel, that we may have right thoughts about God so that we
may have right behaviors in the face of God.

True Christian doctrine thus both appeals to the mind and to the heart. While it is
true that we will be challenged intellectually when we hear the word of God, when it’s
deeper truths are mined for their mysterious glory, it is not any less true that we also
need to be challenged emotionally, practically, and experimentally in the things of
Christian religion. If we do not make diligent efforts to see how the teaching of God’s

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word affects or ought to affect us in the stuff of real life, and from there actively to apply
what we’ve learned to our concrete situations, we have not really learned anything. In
reality, we have made a mockery of Christianity, turning it into another competing
philosophy of life upon which we may muse, nothing more.

All of what we have said in this regard can be helpfully reduced to this axiom:
true Christian theology is practical and true Christian practice is theological. If our
theology isn’t practical it isn’t Christian, and if our practice isn’t rooted in theology it isn’t
Christian either. Oh, it may have the semblance of Christianity, but it will be only that,
all of the form with none of the power. In a church like ours, a church that rightly insists
on the importance of doctrine, we need to be careful that we don’t find ourselves in the
category of men Paul describes in 2 Timothy 3:7: men who are “always learning and
never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

The apostle’s comment is of supreme importance. You can be learning a whole

host of Christian truths, and yet have no true knowledge of the truth you have learned.
Do not confuse the knowledge of theological concepts with the knowledge of God.
Though it is absolutely necessary to have such concepts, it is not true that the bare
knowledge of such concepts is equivalent to knowing God. The concept, the truth, the
proposition ought to lead us to God, but it is not in itself God.

So what I propose to do with you this morning is to give you some of the practical
implications that follow from the absolute sovereignty of God. I have chosen to reflect
with you on the implications of the absolute sovereignty of God rather than on the
implications of human responsibility because the implications of our responsibility to
God are frankly easier to accept. It is much more difficult to see how the knowledge of
God’s absolute sovereignty affects the choices we make, the thoughts we think, the
attitudes we adopt, and the worship we offer. And since it is clearly taught in Scripture it
matters. It makes a difference in our lives.

A Major Implication of God’s Absolute Sovereignty

At the most fundamental level, God’s absolute sovereignty, the fact that he has
ordained everything that comes to pass, means that there is no such thing as a
purposeless event. Everything happens for a reason. In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul
says that the Lord “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11). God does
what he does in order to accomplish his own ends.

On a case by case basis, it is not always apparent precisely why something

happens, particularly if that thing which happens is deeply grievous: the murder of a
child, the assassination of a president, attempted genocide. But what we do know is
that somehow all the things which happen, good and evil, happen for the expressed
purpose of bringing glory to God.

Look again at chapter 9 and read verses 14-16: For this time I will send all My
plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that
there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and
struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off

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from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order
to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.

In verse 14 God expresses why he will intensify his judgments against the land of
Egypt, so that Pharaoh may know that there is no one like Yahweh in all the earth.
The Lord wants his enemy to know beyond any doubt that he is unequalled in the earth,
having at his disposal every created thing that he has made for the accomplishment of
his purpose.

Then, in verse 16, the Lord explains why he has continued to keep Pharaoh in
office: in order to show him the Lord’s power and in order to proclaim the Lord’s name
through all the earth. This is a variation on what is said in verse 14, functioning to
emphasize God’s intention in brining about such calamity to Egypt, and why he has not
yet delivered his own people out from under Egyptian oppression.

What this means is that Pharaoh holds office in order that God may be glorified
and exalted, making his name famous as the unparalleled God of wonders. The phrase
in order to proclaim my name may be more loosely rendered “so that my fame might
become known throughout all the earth.”3 This is God’s chief interest, the manifestation
of the greatness of his own name throughout the entire world.

Now skip down to 10:1-2 and read: Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to
Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may
perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of
your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how
I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” Here
we learn that God is interested in the same thing—the knowledge of him, the exaltation
of his greatness. This time, however, he has an additional audience in mind. The Lord
wants future generations of Israelites to know that the he is God.

God’s redemptive purposes are not to be confined to the present generation. No,
his interest is in the eternally perpetual singing of his great renown. He is chiefly
interested in hearing the sound of his majesty heard in all the earth.

Thus we may say that the Lord’s interest in the proclamation of his fame is both
intensive and extensive. His interest is intensive in that it is meant to bring a particular
king to his knees (though unwillingly—in the sense of reluctance) confessing the
greatness of the God of all creation. And his interest is extensive in that it is meant to
be proclaimed forever and ever.

This, then, is what preoccupies our Lord. It is what he values above all things.
The Lord says that he could have made short work of Pharaoh, he could have wiped
him off the face of the earth, he could have liberated his people out from under cruel
oppression in the blink of the eye, but he didn’t. And the reason he gives in chapters 9
& 10 is that to do so would have compromised the full measure of fame he wanted for
his own name.

3
Cornelis Houtman, Exodus (Kampen, Netherlands: Kok Publishing House, 1996), 2.87.

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That God is chiefly interested in his great renown is something that is not only
expressed here in Exodus with respect to the events surrounding Israel’s liberation from
Egypt, but it is something that we see repeated over and over again throughout the
Scripture. The entire Bible teaches that God does all that he does, that he ordains all
that comes to pass, for the purpose of glorifying himself.4

And because God is good, because he is not evil, we are left with the conclusion
that God’s pursuit of his own glory, even though it may result in suffering, is better than
the alternative. While we can offer up tentative explanations for how it can be that God
would be glorified through human suffering, we cannot offer anything that we might call
completely intellectually satisfying. We must rest in the compatible truths that God
ordains everything that comes to pass for the magnification of his own glory, that he
does not take pleasure in human suffering, and that he is ultimately merciful, kind, and
eminently loving.

With all that we’ve said about the incompleteness of our knowledge, we can say
something with certainty: God has a reason for everything that happens. And although
the particular reason for a particular event may be hidden from our eyes, that reason
may be subsumed under the general category of the magnification of God’s glory.

And this is why the Apostle Paul is able to say what he does in Romans 8:28:
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” If God were not sovereign over
all things, then the apostles would have no room to make such claims. God cannot be
causing all things to work together for our good if some of those things (viz. the evil
things) are out of his control.

At this point I have to say that I have never met a single Christian, nor do I
imagine ever meeting a single believer, who did not love Romans 8:28. Yet for as many
Christians that espouse love for such teaching, a large majority of them would not be
willing to say that God is absolutely sovereign, that he hardens whom he desires for the
accomplishment of his own purposes.

The reason for this apparent disconnect is that when it comes to the absolute
sovereignty of God, people practice better than they preach.

Implicit Belief in God’s Absolute Sovereignty

I know that it is more often the case that we preach better than we practice, yet,
when it comes to this whole issue of God’s sovereignty, the reason why we love it in
passages like Romans 8:28, is because deep down we do in fact believe that God is
absolutely sovereign. We may say that we don’t believe that Scripture teaches it, but
the way we live our lives, the ways in which we engage with God betrays that we tacitly,
implicitly believe the very doctrine we deny. Listen to J I Packer:

4
For a survey of the biblical material on this subject see John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters, OR:
Multnomah, 1986, 1996), 255-266.

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There is a long-standing controversy in the Church as to whether God is

really Lord in relation to human conduct and saving faith or not….[Yet] [t]he
situation is not what it seems to be. For it is not true that some Christians believe
in divine sovereignty while others hold an opposite view. What is true is that all
Christians believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do,
and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it.5

Whether we care to admit it or not, God is the sovereign of the universe. The
fact that we do implicitly accept this teaching is clear from the ways we behave. I can’t
resist quoting from Packer again—what he says is great:

The irony of the situation…is that when we ask how the two sides pray, it
becomes apparent that those who profess to deny God’s sovereignty really
believe in it just as strongly as those who affirm it.
How, then, do you pray? Do you ask God for your daily bread? Do you
pray for the conversion of others? If the answer is ‘no’, I can only say that I do
not think you are yet born again. But if the answer is ‘yes’—well, that proves
that, whatever side you may have taken in debates on this question in the past,
in your heart you believe in the sovereignty of God no less firmly than anyone
else. On our feet we may have arguments about it, but on our knees we are all
agreed.6

Packer’s point (and a right one) is that we have this tacit belief, this implicit belief
in the sovereignty of God that informs the way we live our Christian lives. If we did not
implicitly accept the sovereignty of God, we would not pray for people’s salvation or our
daily bread. Yet there is more that we do that betrays our knowledge of God’s
sovereignty. We have already suggested that in order for you to accept the teaching of
Romans 8:28, you must tacitly embrace God’s absolute sovereignty. Here are some
more evidences of our implicit acceptance of the doctrine:

If we hope in Christ’s return, we betray that we believe in God’s absolute

sovereignty; for God has determined the day and the hour of the Second Coming
and Consummation.

If we thank God that Jesus died for us, we betray that we believe in God’s
absolute sovereignty, for as the early Christians prayed, “[I]n this city there were
gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do
whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27-28).

If we believe that our trials are for the testing of our faith, we betray that we
believe in God’s absolute sovereignty.

These are just a few examples of the more obvious manifestations of our tacit
belief in God’s sovereignty. But we could actually go further and say that everything
that we believe about God is predicated upon an assumption of his sovereignty. Don’t
5
J I Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1961),
16.
6
Ibid., 17.

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misunderstand me here; I’m not saying that every verse of the Bible teaches that God is
absolutely sovereign—that would be absurd. But what I am saying is that our
knowledge of anything, even ourselves, depends upon our knowledge of God. While it
is true that we successfully suppress this truth in our unrighteousness, we can never
erase our underlying consciousness of God, our underlying dependence upon him for
the breath we take, the blinking of our eyes, and the thoughts we think.

So if God is absolutely sovereign then we bring that knowledge of God into

everything we say, think, and do. So from one perspective I could list every doctrine of
the Christian faith and say that our belief in it depends on our implicit acceptance of the
doctrine of God’s sovereignty. I am not singling out sovereignty—I could say the same
thing about any true predication of God. If God is indeed holy, then whether I care to
admit or not that he is holy, my suppressed belief in his holiness will betray itself
somehow in the way I live my life. If God is indeed just, then whether I care to admit or
not that he is just, my suppressed belief in his justice will betray itself somehow in the
way I live my life. And we could go on.

The reason I make this point about our tacit belief in God’s sovereignty is not to
say that it is something particularly admirable, but to set it forth in terms of a contrast
between our explicit belief in God’s sovereignty. If God is absolutely sovereign, the
ideal situation would not be to suppress that truth simply because it makes us feel
uncomfortable; rather, what God wants is for us to embrace everything that is true about
himself that we may live lives that please him and offer up praise for his glorious
greatness.

When are willing to recognize, to accept and submit to the Bible’s teaching on the
absolute sovereignty of God, when we explicitly confess that God is indeed in control of
all things, good and evil, it will affect the way we live our daily lives. If our implicit belief
affects the way we live, our explicit belief will impact it even more.

Explicit Belief in God’s Absolute Sovereignty

Allow me to set forth for you five direct benefits of explicitly acknowledging God’s
absolute sovereignty.

1. It aids us in humility

The absolute sovereignty of God, perhaps more than any other teaching from
Scripture reminds us that the universe is God-centered and not man-centered.
Existence does not hang or fall on the choices of men. There is a sovereign,
omnipotent, and benign Creator behind every event who is causing all things to work for
the advancement of his own glory. Our choices fit into God’s plan, not vice versa.

And when we openly acknowledge that nothing happens apart from the will of
God, we will see all our good plans for what they are—contingent upon the divine will.
This is what prompts James to rebuke his audience in the fourth chapter of his letter:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such
a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet

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you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that
appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If
the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your
arrogance; all such boasting is evil (Jas 4:13-16).

2. It gives us courage

Life is uncertain. Bad things happen. Whether we realize it or not our lives are
threatened every day. There is a lot to fear. Think of all the innumerable illnesses and
diseases.

Do you travel? They say that flying is the safest way to travel—but is it always?
We don’t have wings. If something goes dreadfully wrong up there, we will plunge to
our doom. Get into a boat, and it’s much the same—it may capsize and you drown.
Even horseback riding is not without serious risk. If Christopher Reeve had had his
accident 100 years ago, he wouldn’t have survived.

Walk through city streets and you are subject to many, many dangers.

The remotest woods are no safer—dangerous wild animals could maul you to
death. And don’t think that you are safe in your homes from an animal attack.
Domesticated killers like pit bulls, Dobermans, and Rottweilers may live nearby and
suddenly end your life.

Don’t forget the dangers of recreation: boats, jet skis, four-wheelers, motorcycles,
can ski slopes all play a part in our demise.

If you work with heavy machinery, an accident could end your life.

Your roof could collapse with you and your family inside. You could be poisoned
by Carbon Monoxide. You could slip on a wet bathroom tile and break your neck.

Even worse, you could be murdered or even become the victim of a terrorist
attack.

I don’t say any of these things lightly. Just talk to my friend Jennifer Sands, the
girl next door, who lost her husband to the 9/11 disaster.

Perhaps all that I’ve said seems very unlikely to happen to you; after all, how
many people die per year from being mauled by a neighbor’s pet? And perhaps the
relative unlikelihood has resulted in you not worrying much about any one of them
happening to you. But perhaps the real reason why most people tend not to worry
about dying in the ways I’ve described is that they don’t really think about it. They don’t
think about how easy it is to die and how dangerous it is to live life in this world. You
see, I’m convinced that people who struggle with all sorts of fears are really more in
touch with reality than those who ignore them. People who are very fearful understand
how fragile life is.

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Now add to that the unbiblical notion that God leaves these matters up to
impersonal chance, to what one theologian has called “the heedless blows of fortune,”7
it makes our situation all the more grave. For then things which happen are absolutely
random, absolutely capricious, having no rhyme or reason. We would have all the more
reason to fear if God were not absolutely sovereign.

Listen to Jesus:
28
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but
rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two
sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart
from your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So do
not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows (Matt 10:28-31).

What is Jesus saying? Well, he’s certainly not saying that the Father “takes care
of the big things” and then leaves the small details to so-called chance. As one writer
has said, “Every major event of history consists of a mosaic of details.”8 So to say that
God doesn’t bother with the details is to destroy the integrity of anything that happens
under the sun. The shifting of one detail could change the outcome of wars, of various
accidents that take place, etc.

Jesus is arguing from the lesser to the greater: if our heavenly father is in control
of the life and death of sparrows, if he has numbered every hair on our heads, certainly
we can trust him to take care of us, who are more valuable than many sparrows. In
other words, we don’t need to fear sudden disaster or the onslaught of the wicked when
it comes, for the Lord is in control of everything that happens, even the death of a
sparrow.

Of course, the flip-side of this is that if God is not sovereign, we ought to be

afraid. But because God is absolutely sovereign we can be confident that nothing will
happen to us outside of his good, benevolent purpose for us. Nothing can occur in our
lives, for good or for ill, except that which God has ordained to happen. We are
invincible until God sees fit to take us home.

As we have already learned, this does not mitigate our responsibility; it does not
mean that we have the right to be reckless. But what it does mean is that we need not
fear anyone or anything, because behind a frowning providence, he hides his smiling
face. As Calvin says,

[The godly man’s] solace…is to know that his Heavenly Father so holds
all things in his power, so rules by his authority and will, so governs by his
wisdom, that nothing can befall except he determine it. Moreover, it comforts him
to know that he has been received into God’s safekeeping and entrusted to the

7
Ibid., 1.17.10.
8
Jerry Bridges, “Does Divine Sovereignty Make a Difference in Everyday Life?” in Thomas R
Schreiner and Bruce A Ware (eds), Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election,
Foreknowledge, and Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995, 2000), 299.

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care of his angels, and that neither water, nor fire, nor iron can harm him, except
in so far as it pleases God as governor to give them occasion.9

3. It provides a foundation for forgiveness

The best example of this is Joseph, who after having been sold into slavery by
his brothers in an impulsive fit of jealous rage, is able to comfort his brothers who were
cowering for fear of Joseph’s just retribution: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many
people alive” (Gen 50:20).

Have you ever wondered how it is possible for people to forgive men that have,
for instance, murdered their children, raped a spouse, and the like? Here’s part of the
explanation. If it happened, God meant it for good, even if I can’t see the good right
now, or even in this life. And so I do not hold this against you in my heart.

4. It gives us patience in adversity

Just as Joseph is the classic example of God’s sovereignty fueling forgiveness,
so Job is the classic example of God’s sovereignty establishing patience in adversity.
James reminds his readers of Job’s patience under trial: “As an example, brethren, of
suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count
those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen
the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful”
(Jas 5:10-11).

And what fueled Job’s patient endurance was not the promise of a divine
restoration, for that was only the Lord’s compassion and mercy. Job’s endurance was
fueled by God’s sovereignty: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall
return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away….Shall we indeed accept
good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 1:21; 2:10).
Here is what the explicit belief in God’s absolute sovereignty will give you: great
patience in adversity. It enables us to say that the difficulties we are facing are not the
product of chance; they are divinely ordered by the Lord for our benefit, for our
refinement, all because he loves us. In this connection, another writer is worth quoting:
The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering
human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no
accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty
hand of our sovereign God….All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch His
children unless He permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the
personal history of every member of His redeemed family.10

5. It drives us to worship

9
Ibid., 1.17.11.
10
Quoted in ibid., 301.

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It has been said that true theology is always doxology; that is, it always leads us
to worship. This is, no doubt, true. This is exactly what happened with Job: He said,
“‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD
gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD’” (Job 1:21).

And the Apostle Paul, after surveying the divine mystery of God’s electing
purposes and the wonders of redemption says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and
unfathomable His ways!” (Rom 11:33). Divine sovereignty drives us to worship.
Conclusion
Dear brethren, there is so much more to say. Yes, an explicit affirmation of
God’s absolute sovereignty aids us in humility; yes, it gives us courage; yes, it provides
a foundation for forgiveness; and yes, it gives us patience in adversity; and yes, it drives
us to worship. And it benefits us much, much more. I invite you to tease out the
implications of an absolutely sovereign God. But I also warn you not to fall into the pit
where God’s sovereignty turns man’s responsibility into a sham, or into the other pit that
makes God contingent upon the choices and deeds of men.

Affirm the truth. Affirm that somehow God’s sovereignty is so extensive that it
includes the genuine agency of his moral creatures. Though they always do what he
wants; they also always do what they want. Amazing!

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
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