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2462.—Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart.
Will you kindly explain the following:
“And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,” as in Ex. 9:12?
If our inquirer had read the notes on the Bible Band in the SIGNS of January 15 and 22, she would have found suggestions that would help her on the expression, “hardening Pharaoh’s heart.” Right in this connection we would like to advise all our Bible students, who are able, to secure a copy of the American Standard Revised Version, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York. It is the invariable experience that those who study it and read it are more and more attached to it. Its renderings are much more uniform and very often clearer. In the Lord’s dealings with Pharaoh we have first the prophecy in Ex. 4:21, “I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.” The prophecy is again given in chapter 7:3, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” The fulfilment of this is given in chapter 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 14:4. The Lord softens men’s hearts by sending His Holy Spirit; He hardens men’s hearts by the very opposite of this, withdrawing His Spirit. The Lord did not arbitrarily harden Pharaoh’s heart; really Pharaoh had shown himself to be stubborn, self-willed, and obstinate; so the Lord could do nothing else except to withdraw His Spirit from him, and thus, and thus only, the Lord hardened his heart. From the time the last prediction is given, in chapter 7:3, to chapter 9:12, we have the expression used over and over, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (7:13); “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn” (7:14); “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (7:22); “When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart” (8:15), etc. It was Pharaoh’s own resistance of the Spirit of God that hardened his heart, and when at last the Lord left him entirely, of course his case was hopeless.
If you will read from verse 29, you will see that the Lord is speaking of the last days and His second coming, and the signs that shall precede His second coming. Verses 32 and 33 enforce these teachings by a parable of the fig-tree, that when it puts forth leaves, we may know that summer is near; and so when all these various signs which Jesus mentioned are coming to pass, we may know that He is near. And then He affirms that by declaring that the generation which sees these things, in which these signs are preached, shall not pass till all things be accomplished; or in other words, till Christ comes. That generation is parallel with the great Threefold Message of Rev. 14:6-14. The Lord knew that when the time came that His coming was at hand that all the various signs which He had given in His word would be preached, not only those mentioned in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, but all the other various signs mentioned elsewhere, signs which culminate in this generation which go with the last great Threefold Message, and the generation which sees these things fulfilled and fulfilling would not pass until Christ came.
2464.—Eating Oysters.
Are oysters wholesome as a diet? Some doctors advocate their use. Are they good to eat?
When the Lord distinguished between clean and unclean creatures for food for His people, He laid down no arbitrary distinction; rather the distinctions made existed in the very nature of the beasts themselves. For instance, the swine is not to be regarded as unfit for food simply because the Lord said so, but the Lord said so because the swine in the very nature of the case is unfit for food. So it is in regard to everything else that is forbidden in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Among these are various kinds of shell-fish. Whatsoever had fins and scales in the water He permitted His people to use, but He tells us that of all the living creatures that are in the water that have not fins and scales “they shall be an abomination unto you; they shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcasses in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.” When the Lord calls it an “abomination” four times, it would seem that that ought to settle it for those who have faith in the bill of fare which He gave His people anciently. It is a noted fact that the oyster is a scavenger of the sea, and this has been demonstrated again and again, so that decided steps have been taken in some localities against the use of oysters from the mouths of great rivers or bays into which the sewage of cities is emptied. There have been not a few cases of fatal ptomaine poisoning from the use of oysters. There may have been many cases of poisoning which were not fatal, and which were so mild outwardly as not to be noted at all, laid, perhaps, to some fruit that was eaten in connection with the oysters. There are those who like them, and who will eat them; but God has given us so many things infinitely better that we do not know why people should want to use the bivalve scavenger of the sea.
Why did God tempt Abraham when Abraham was doing God’s will? Gen. 22:1.
Here again the Revised Version gives the better sense, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham.” Abraham’s faith must be tested. He did not meet the first test when the Lord made the promise that his seed should be a blessing to the world. Abraham said, “It must be thru Eliezer, my steward.” In the second test Abraham thought that it must be by some device of his, thru Hagar his bond-servant; so he failed again. The next test was met, and Isaac was born. And now the Lord proved him again; not that God might see whether his faith was genuine or not, but that even Abraham himself might be blessed in the proving. God does not tempt to evil; James tells us that very decidedly; but He does prove His children, and this was to prove Abraham, in order that his faith might be more precious, he himself made strong.
It seems to us that the text is very clear, “Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself.” A thing that dies of itself retains the blood within it, the germs of disease, and the poisons, and God would not have His people eat it. And yet there were people around them on every side who did eat of just such things as that. They felt that it was perfectly proper to eat of such things. God’s people did not injure them in any way in giving them such flesh; it was in nowise deceiving them. Or it could be sold to the foreigner in the same way. The foreigner saw nothing wrong in it, had no conscientious scruples against it; it was food, and therefore could be sold to them for food. But Israel themselves must not eat of it. The last clause of the verse, “Thou shalt not seethe the kid in his mother’s milk,” is, some authorities tell us, based on a common usage of boiling a kid in its mother’s milk when the crops were gathered in, and sprinkling with the milk the fruit-trees, fields, and gardens, as a charm to insure the crop of the coming year. Against this use of charms and superstition God warned His people; it is a prohibition of the practise of magic. There are other explanations, one of which classes the prohibition with Lev. 22:28 and Deut. 22:6, that the cow and her calf or a ewe and her lamb shall not be slaughtered the same day, nor should a bird be taken with the young in her nest; this were unnecessary cruelty.
2467.—Theosophy.
Will you please explain what Theosophy is?
The word “theosophy” comes from two words: Theos, God, and sophos, wise; meaning God-Wisdom. Theosophy, like other cults and religions outside of the Bible, makes these essentials inherent in man, man himself is possessed of this God-Wisdom. In the ultimate, Theosophy, like Christian Science, Buddhism, etc., is self-salvation, salvation within the man, by good works or inner contemplation, and thru successive incarnations, etc., etc. The only salvation that there is for poor, lost humanity is to be found in Christ Jesus; not a salvation that comes from within, but which comes from above within, and is given in response to faith.
Kindly explain Isa. 6:13. Can this tenth in any way refer to the tithe?
Of course a tenth is a tithe, that is what tithe means, a tenth; but this does not refer to a tithe which the Lord asks of men. The subject in question is the depopulation of the land on account of sin. Cities will be made waste, without houses, as without men, the land to become waste, forsaken generally, and yet if there should be even so much as a tenth left, even that would be destroyed. In other words the land would become utterly desolate.
2469.—The Dressing of the Hair.
We find no rule in 1 Corinthians 11 as to just how women should wear their hair now, at least the writer sees none there. Idolatrous women and foolish women and low women had their manner of dressing in those days, even as now. The heathen priestesses had their customs. The Lord told His handmaids how they should dress so as not to be confounded with those who were idolaters and were disorderly. The lesson which we may gain from it, and which we at the present time should heed, is that the dress of the Christian women, and men, too, should be simple, modest, commendable, befitting.
2470.—A. E. E.—The Wise Men.
The true term for the wise men in the original Greek is “Magi.” See Matt. 2:1, A.R.V. Why they are spoken of as three is simply traditional. Tradition has come down to us that they were three kings belonging to the ancient Magi. For this there is no Scripture or evidence whatsoever save the tradition. They evidently belong to the ancient Magi, or cult of magicians, the center of which was in Babylon and Persia. They learned of Christ’s coming perhaps by the prophecies of Balaam and Daniel.
2471.—B. B. No. 698.—Regarding Lev. 19:23, “Ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised.”
It refers to the first three years of fruit-bearing trees. Just the same as the nations who dwelt in the land were sinful and God destroyed them because of their evil sinfulness, even so the very fruit which the land first bore was to be counted by the people. You will notice all thru the books of Moses that it was the Lord’s endeavor to impress upon Israel the holiness of His worship and service.
2472.—The Sermon on the Mount.
Really, it would seem to us as tho our questioner could find but one answer to the query, “Was Christ’s Sermon on the Mount a Gospel sermon?” Jesus Christ preached nothing but the Gospel; God’s word brings nothing to us but the Gospel; all the promises and commands and blessings in it are of the Gospel.