A Mind Like Pharaoh

Posted on September 1, 2012 Updated on September 1, 2012

In a conversation with a friend the other day we were discussing the topic of saying one thing and doing another.. It’s like telling someone you are on a diet yet you eat half a chocolate cake.  Actions and Words just don’t match up.  My wheels started turning and I started to think of the story of Pharaoh.

You know the one!  Pharaoh was holding the Israelites (God’s folks) in slavery making them building bricks with no straw. He was a hard and mean leader.  Yet there was no doubt that he had to have some good leadership skills.  I mean, he was after all Pharaoh, had his army in order; even after all the plagues they didn’t kill him, they fought for him.

(Which to be honest is a little baffling to me, but that’s probably why I was born in this century and not back then. I  am sure somehow I would have tried to find a way to be the female version of Moses way before Moses came along.)

I started thinking how God used the plagues to get Pharaoh’s attention to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh played hardball with God before eventually it got him and his army swallowed up by the Red Sea.  Pharaoh’s actions obviously didn’t just affect him but all those under him. Pharaoh’s stubbornness cost him the life of his own son.  It wasn’t his ability to lead that was in question (he wasn’t a leader I would want to follow but people did) but his ability to hear God and allow his heart to be turned towards what God was doing.

As leaders and followers of Christ it is so easy to go about what we are doing, hear the voice of God, get stirred up and then go back to what it was that we were doing. We get a prophetic word, God speaks, we get the answer we were looking for yet we walk out the door, down the street and at the first sign of something being out of control go right back to where we were at.

We circle the mountain time and time again looking for a mountain top experience while having a mind like Pharaoh. Pharaoh never lacked the opportunity to change but God got tired of playing games. He finally said enough is enough.

Let us not be like Pharaoh and be double minded saying one thing yet doing another. Let us not have our ego stroked, ears tickled and heart hard as God is trying to get our attention. What is God trying to say to you? Me? What is our response? Who’s army are  you marching in? Do your actions follow that of Pharaoh?

If you find yourself in that place where you are going back and forth, double minded, saying one thing and doing another, ask God today to help you take a stand for what is right. Start today! Repent for playing games with God. We serve a merciful God who loves us and wants the best for us. Let us not cheapen his grace by playing spiritually emotional games.