Exodus 10-1 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs before him. We actually previously posted this devotional text with comments, but I am redoing it thanks to Brother Shane Hintz pointing out that I mistakenly presented the Pharaoh of Exodus 1 when Moses was born, as though he were the same as the Pharaoh that Moses dealt with at the age of 80. I was a bit rushed and in a hurry to get that devotional recorded, edited, and uploaded. It's not an excuse, but an explanation. And I made that very glaring error in my words. We're removing that edition of the devotional because I just don't want to confuse people. But I also don't want to act like I don't make mistakes. I am not the infallible Pope Gregory the Great or whatever. But it's important to understand, first of all, the text that we're discussing. Pharaoh, alive at the time of the birth of Moses, had murder in his heart. Exodus 1, 15 through 16 describes this as Pharaoh speaks to the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and he said, when ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But this pharaoh is clearly deceased by the time Moses has called on God to confront the ruling pharaoh at the time of the Exodus. Exodus 2.23 plainly says, "...and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died." And by the way, I knew this. I've taught through Exodus twice before, and I taught these things correctly on both occasions, and I'll come back to that in a moment. But don't miss the important point. Taking Scripture as a whole, and knowing that Pharaoh had already hardened his heart and was filled with the satanic spirit of murder, We then read in Exodus 4.21, And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. But I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. The point is, Jesus doesn't take a heart that is soft toward God and His Word and harden it. Jesus doesn't take the heart of someone open to the truth of God's Word or the heart of someone intent on loving God and loving others and then just decides to harden that heart so he can destroy that person. The Pharaoh had hardened his own heart and continued to do so following the example of the previous Pharaoh. And according to Exodus 8.32, we see that, and it also speaks of Pharaoh's heart being hardened in Exodus 7.22, referring to his own choice to rebel and not hearken to Moses and Aaron. When Jesus hardens a man's heart, it is always in the context of a man having a hard heart toward the Lord to begin with. Then Jesus further hardens that heart in order to accomplish his own will and purposes. When the Lord has to use someone like Judas to accomplish his will, he has never once used anyone who was not full of the devil to begin with. And as far as my error in the previous edition of this devotional, I apologize, but I remind you that this is exactly why Luke was led by the Holy Spirit to give honorable mention to the Bereans in Acts 17 11, saying these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. We have close to 3000 hours of Bible study on the internet as of the time of this recording. It's available at no charge for all to listen to, but I'm sure that if you listen long enough, you're going to hear a misstatement from time to time from this preacher and others we've hosted. And one of the most important things for you to learn is that men are fallible. Every preacher is fallible, let alone the blatant false teachers that are out there these days. So, I ask that you pray for those of us with the intention of obeying Peter's admonition in 1 Peter 4, 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Because it's not about preachers and churches. It's all about Jesus.