In our Daily Bible reading, we came to the story of how God told Moses to get the people of Israel prepared to leave the land of bondage that they were in. But of course the king of Egypt didn’t want to lose his slaves that were building his great edifices, so each time Moses went to him and said, “The Lord says to let My people go to worship Me”, that the king refused to even contemplate the matter. That is when God sent the ten plagues one after the other until in desperation he finally almost pushed them out of his land when the eldest son in every Egyptian family mysteriously died  at the same time.     The interesting thing in this story, is that at first the king “hardened” his heart, but then after  the first few times of refusing to let them go, we read that it was God who  hardened the king’s heart. How could this be, we might wonder. Why would God do this and still send the plagues on the land?

      If a person persistently refuses to hear God’s message, then one day He will take them at their word, and they will lose all desire to follow Him. The following story illustrates this point perfectly…..      Many years ago, a cousin of ours showed some interest in the Gospel message, and we took him to a lot of the church services where the Gospel was plainly preached. He was clearly touched but never came to the point of actually making a commitment to become a Christian. So he dropped off going with us, and we lost touch with him.    A year or so later, he called to see my father-in-law, and must have been talking about health problems. Then he said “You know Uncle, I had a vivid dream the other night. I dreamed I was in a wide open space, and I knew that God was up there somewhere behind the clouds. Then I saw a great big blind come down between me and where God was, and I just know that I couldn’t come to Him now, even if I wanted to!”

    Shortly after this conversation, he took ill and passed away still in that frame of mind. What a lesson for each of us to learn! God says….”My Spirit will not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3) , and although He has great patience, it eventually wears thin and ceases….He takes us at our word.  We have to be careful we don’t pass this point of no return!