From Pharaoh to Iran: How Evil Ultimately Destroys Itself (Shmot) - Tehila Gimpel | Land of Israel

So, we have started the new stories of Exodus learning about redemption from Egypt. And there's this idea that is sprinkled throughout all of these portions about the Exodus. And it's repeated a lot of times. When something's repeated a lot, we know it's very important, but it's also perplexing. It's this idea of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Already in the very beginning of Moshe, Moses's mission, it's promised that there's going to be, yes, I'm sending you on this mission. You're going to redeem the people, but there's going to be this issue of Pharaoh's hard heart that we're going to have to face. Already in chapter 4, in the very beginning, it says it again in chapter 7, but in chapter 4, I'm not going to bring all the examples, just look at a few of the examples. The Lord said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, you're going to see all the signs I've placed in your hands, perform them before power, but I'm going to strengthen his heart, and he will not send out the people." And later, we see throughout all of the plagues, it's this cycle where Pharaoh is getting beaten down with the plagues, the Egyptians are getting beaten down with the plagues, but then he says, "Oh, save me. Save me." And then his heart is harden heart is hardened. So, there are a lot of questions about this heart issue. First of all, why is it so important? Wouldn't it be enough to say, "Okay, he had a very stubborn heart. We got it." In almost every plague, we have to hear this again and again. Why is it so important? We know the Exodus is not a story. It's a story for all times. It's not a story of something that happened. It's not just history. It's also prophecy. And so, it's going to be repeated in patterns in our lives, in the history. And you know, as we're seeking redemption in our own challenges and as history is unfolding, all of the patterns of the story of Exodus are going to be seen. Why is this such an important issue? Another question that this raises is if Hashem hardens Pharaoh's heart, does that mean that he wanted to be good and then Hashem changed his heart to be bad? Isn't that very difficult philosophically? Like how can you be punished if you're just like a robot that Hashem programmed to sin at at his bidding? And what about chuva? Like couldn't he do chuva? So there are all sorts of answers. Some people say maybe well at first he had free will but he was so evil so his punishment was to lose his free will. But it's not really a satisfying answer. It's a very strange thing. I mean he's a genocidal tyrant. Does he really need to be made any worse than he is? So I want to suggest and this is a reading based on the study of the teachings of Ram Maidan that the idea of this hardening of the heart isn't necessarily magical in the way we tend to imagine. I kind of always imagine like electrodes you know like in his mind or in his heart. I want to suggest that actually the unfolding of the plagues and the redemption process themselves are designed to invite Pharaoh to harden his own heart, to remain steadfast, to allow him to stay stubborn. Because if God came out with the big guns on the first day, firstborns all dead, that would be checkmate, right? What would have happened? He wouldn't have had strength to actually be himself. bring all of his true self forth. So the way that Hashem sets up the story is to allow this opportunity for this very dramatic exodus. It's going to sanctify Hashem's name and be a profound lesson to the nations and to the world. So for those of us who are parents, this language is actually kind of I think makes sense. Um you know like if I say I'm working on my child, I'm making my child uh less stubborn. or I'm working on making my child less stubborn or I'm working on helping my child to be less selfish. That doesn't mean I'm like doing some sort of genetic modification on them to make them that way. We all understand that I'm not forcing them. It means that I might be setting them into opportunities to work on those things. If I see that my child is not is being selfish, I might buy them a pet so they can work on being compassionate. If you see them being meek, you might put them in a dance class so they can, you know, have an opportunity to shine. When we say friends, of course it's never us, but friends with very bratty children who are poorly behaved. We say they're making their kids into monsters. We don't mean that they're programming them in the software. We mean that [snorts] they're setting up reality in such a way that the kids can be rude and unpleasant and they're not having any consequences in learning how to not have that bad behavior. So that bad behavior is becoming entrenched and strengthened. That's what we mean. But when we read the verses, sometimes it seems just like a magic, you know, a magic wand, a spell that falls over Pharaoh. But I think actually if we read the story, we can see it all falling into place. There are a lot of examples. I just want to look at a couple. Let's look at chapter 7. We have the blood. The blood comes, the Nile turns into blood. This should be very scary. But then what happens? The sorcerers are able to copy it. Says the fish were dead and the Nile was putrid. The Egyptians couldn't drink. There was blood and the necromancers, the these sorcerers of Egypt did likewise with their secret rights and Pharaoh's heart was steadfast and he did not heed them. Meaning God knew ahead of time which signs could be replicated. This was not Hashem's mistake in starting out with a plague that the sorcerers could do. He started with something less stunning to leave Pharaoh that possibility to harden his heart to still doubt Hashem. Hashem isn't taking away his freedom. He's leaving him just enough room for a little bit of doubt that he can actually be himself. Look again in Exodus 8. We see the frogs. The Lord did according to Moses's words and the frogs died from all the houses in the courtyards because Pharaoh said, "Please get rid of these frogs." [snorts] And the frogs are gathering into heaps and it's stinking. And then what happens? Pharaoh saw that there was relief and he hardened his heart. He did not hearken to them as the Lord had spoken. Look how interesting this verse is. The verse is really precise about what is causing his heart to be hard. It's when he saw that there was relief, right? What does that mean? What's crazy is why even give the relief to begin with? Like if you were Moses, would you just trust Pharaoh and get rid of the frogs? Wouldn't you? I mean, Moshe is at least as intelligent as all of us. And we all know that you don't pay cash for a promise in credit, right? We'll say sign here, here, and here, Pharaoh. We don't just get rid of the frogs. We say, "We want this in writing. We want guarantees. You want to let them go, you let them go, and then we'll get rid of the frogs." It's not magic that his heart is hardened, heart is hardened. It's that when he sees this, what he perceives as weakness, what Moshe is presenting as trust here. Look at God's mercy. We're getting rid of the frogs. He perceives that as weakness. I can just do whatever I want and there's no response. There's no leverage. That's what actually hardens him. This is a natural response to what's going on to the way Hashem is setting up the story. Look [snorts] happens again and again. Look in chapter nine with the hail. Pharaoh is like so sick of this hail. He summons Moshe and Aaron and says to them, "I've sinned. The Lord is the righteous one and my people and I are the guilty ones. Please entreat the Lord. Let it be enough, right? I'll let you go. Okay. And then what do we think Moshe will do? Okay. I mean, it's already so deep into the plagues. For sure. This time he's going to ask for a guarantee, right? This time he's going to ask like sign here on the dotted line. What does Moshe do? He went out of the city, spread out his hands to the Lord. The thunder and hail ceased, and the rain did not come down. And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and thunder had ceased. So, he continued to sin and strengthened his heart. He and his servants. Once again, we see that the strengthening of the heart is the direct outcome of kindness, trust, mercy that are given to him of being able to see that maybe maybe I can just keep on getting away with this. And we see it again in 10 where there's the locust. He you know, Pharaoh asks him, "Please, this time I mean it. This time I'm going to let them go again." The Lord reversed the wind, picked up the locust. Not one locust remained and the Lord strengthened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the children of Israel go. Here it says that Hashem is strengthening his heart. But it's melded right there into the story where Hashem is being merciful. It doesn't say that Hashem just struck him with a hard heart. It's telling you the story. It's telling you how. So what do we see here? Everything in the Exodus story is a lesson that will repeat itself throughout time. What we see is that whenever there is mercy, whenever there is softness and trust and meekness towards someone who doesn't deserve it, it does not teach them trust and kindness and mercy. It only strengthens them and entrenches them. But Hashem has a plan. And now look at Exodus 14. It doesn't only happen in the plagues. It happens again at the sea. And Pharaoh will uh uh when when they're standing in the sea, Moshe gets a prophecy. And Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel, they are trapped in the land. The desert is closed upon them and I will harden his heart and he will pursue them and I will be glorified through Pharaoh and through his entire force. There's a plan here and the Egyptians will know I am the Lord. So again at the sea, Hashem is giving us a peak, a sneak peek into Pharaoh's inner workings. If we didn't get that sneak peek, maybe we just think Pharaoh is really just Pharaoh is being Pharaoh and he really wants his slaves back. But we get to hear his inner dialogue. what only God knows. What does Pharaoh say? He says they're weak. They have no way out. He sees that they're by the sea. They're trapped by the land and the sea. What triggers him is not just his own desire for his own benefit, but again, this one little glimmer of hope that maybe the Jews are weak enough to be defeated. Why is it set up this way? I think that when you look at the way that Hashem has Aron and Moshe behave, it's a setup not for it's a setup for Pharaoh to not be crushed under the weight of the plagues because we always think of it as Hashem is making him strengthening his heart so that he resists being good. But I think actually these plagues are so powerful that he his true personality and self would be crushed under the weight of the plagues. normally and he wouldn't be able to maintain a strong heart. Hashem wasn't taking away his freedom but actually allowing him to stay strong and not be crushed so that his real desires could come out. If Hashem would have brought out everything, he'd be crushed. He would just like do he would repent not because he really wants to but because he couldn't withstand the way that things went incrementally and slowly with little backings, little weaknesses, little mercy. It allowed him to show his true colors and then have the spectacle that would be this tremendous miracle that would sanctify Hashem's name in the eyes not only of that generation but all the generations to come and to be a pattern for all future redemptions. And that pattern is repeated throughout everywhere in Jewish history. You see right later in the Bible whenever it says a hardened heart you see it's exactly this pattern. We go to the land of Emoria and they won't and the king Sikhon won't let us go in. It says his heart was hard heart was hardened. Why? Because that story is coming right on the heels of us asking Ammon and Moab to come through their land and them refusing to let us pass. But we didn't harm them because Hashem had a covenant to give the children of Asa their inheritance. that made him hold that little glimmer of hope that maybe we're just weak enough to defeat made him hold on to his evil ways, not realizing that this was part of Hashem's plan. And then when he sees this weakens, this weak, what he perceives as weakness, it hardens. And we see the same in Jericho after Jericho. We know from Rahab that everyone was terrified. But then in in Joshua 11, the Canaanites, it says that they harden their hearts. Why was no one willing to surrender? Because it's coming right on the heels of the defeat in the eye. As soon as they smell a little weakness, they don't realize that that's a unique relationship that Hashem has with Israel because of internal issues that are going on. They think, well, if the is if the Israelites were defeated in the eye, maybe we could be defeated. As soon as they smell weakness, they see an opportunity. Same thing when the Philistines take the ark. They say they actually said to one another in the first Samuel, why are you hardening your hearts like Pharaoh? It was right after the defeat. We know that that was a defeat because they were being punished for the corruption of the sons of Ali in the tabernacle. But the Philistines perceived it as an opportunity to show their true colors. And we see it in our history now. When do our enemies attack us? When we show weakness in spirit, the pattern of Moshe is the pattern of modern Jewish history. We'll give you land for peace. The term land for peace. What does that even mean? It doesn't even say peace for land, like first be peaceful and then we'll give you the land. As if that's okay. No, no, no. Land for peace. We'll give you land and you promise us peace. Are you nuts? Let's disengage from Gaza. We'll give you Gaza and then let's see if you make a peaceful country. October 7th was on the year on the heels of years and decades of not responding to kasams. Let's give more humanitarian aid. It's even okay to a rocket here or there. We'll give humanitarian aid. The enemies of Israel smell that softness, that mercy, and become emboldened. And when you speak in a language of trust and of kindness and humanity to someone who has not earned trust and kindness and humanity, it is always a recipe for disaster. And it's true between individuals. It's true in every single one of our lives. And it's true between nations. And I can just imagine the Jews in Egypt looking at Moshe being like, "What? Seriously? Hashem said, "This is the person who's going to redeem us. This is the weak leadership. He sent us seven plagues in. He's still trusting Pharaoh. Even as the readers, you want to pull out your hair and be like, "Really, Moshe? Did you really have to set that pattern into time to be like what our the Israeli government is going to do again and again in the face of genocidal maniacs? That has to be the pattern that you're putting in time and you can get a little bit down. But then, right before you get disheartened, what we see in the Torah is that even that weakness was part of Hashem's plan. We can just get down and be sad that our leadership showed weakness in Oslo and the disengagement and weak response to terror attacks. But then we remember that just like in the first redemption, that's what's going to be in the final redemption. It's a setup, an opportunity for the enemies to show their true colors and earn the destruction that they truly deserve. And so too, in our times and in these very days, there are opportunities for everyone to show their true colors. If Hashem just came out and made a salvation that was so complete and so perfect out of nowhere, everyone would be on our side. Everyone would be supporting Israel. Everyone would repent. There's no sifting process. Hashem leaves just enough room for doubt, just enough imperfection so that Pharaoh could say, "They're landlocked. They have the ocean on one side and all of us on the other." Just so that Iran could look and say, "Look, we have them surrounded by kamas. All of our proxies, Hamas, Syria, the Houthis, and us, we have them surrounded. They have just enough audacity left because of the mercy that the Jews showed their enemies. Just enough audacity to think that they actually have a chance to destroy Israel. They show their true selves, the scope of their evil intentions. And in doing so, they invite the destruction that inevitably comes to those who plot against Hashem, his people, and the Torah. >> Shalom. My name is Jeremy Gimpel. We started an online seminar teaching life-changing biblical wisdom revealed from the original Hebrew and straight from the mountains of Judea. With global instability on the rise, more and more people are turning to God, realizing now they don't exactly know where to look for guidance. The Bible says the guidance will come from the land of Israel. What started as an online seminar has grown into a global fellowship with hundreds of members from over 30 countries. We are participating in fulfilling prophecy as we learn the Bible through the eyes of prophecy with a focus on what it's telling about us in our lives today. What you will discover is that the wisdom transmitted thousands of years ago is speaking directly to us in our time right now. Instead of learning the Bible as a religion, it's the Torah of Israel, the living guidance of God. So, please join us for our next online gathering and get access to the full library of teachings that the Land of Israel Fellowship is offering. I don't know how you found this video or what compelled you to click on that link, but I don't believe in coincidence and I would encourage you to take the next step on your journey toward the land of Israel. I hope to see you at the land of Israel fellowship. Shalom. [music]