“But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die.” “Just as you say,” Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.”” (Ex 10:27-29NIV)
As the bible account of the deliverance of the nation of Israel from their Egyptian overlords shows, Moses, by the command of God, met with Pharaoh several times, asking him to let the Israelites go. But the man wouldn’t just listen. Yes, there were times that he begged Moses to plead with God on his behalf and on behalf of his people, so that He may remove His heavy hand of punishment from them. And Moses did, thinking that doing so would make the man repent of his stubbornness. Yet this man failed to keep his word each of those times.
Finally, as we see in our opening bible text, there came a time that he ordered Moses never to show up before him again. Otherwise, he would die. And Moses never went back to him again. Why? It was because the time for his destruction had come. And he was certainly destroyed.
What is the point of this, then? It is that it is God’s mercy that makes Him send people to warn us, correct us or rebuke us, whenever we are missing it. But He will not forever be sending them to warn or dissuade us from walking in the path of error, disgrace, failure or destruction, if we will not heed His word. At some point, He will stop those He is using to set us right from coming to us. And when He does so, when He gives us over to have our way, we should know that our disgrace or destruction is right at the door.
We have another similar example in the story of King Saul. He was the first anointed king of Israel and was loved by the Lord. But he had this wrong attitude towards spiritual authority and divine instructions, which Samuel, the prophet, had once openly rebuked him about. And did he take this man of God’s word of rebuke seriously? Evidently, he did not. So, when he failed to totally destroy the Amalekites and all that they had, as God had instructed him to do, Samuel came to him with a severe word of judgment from God. And that was the last time Samuel came to him. He never came to him again. Even when an evil spirit began to torment and hurt him, this man of God did not show up before him to pray for him or to counsel him. He just left him to himself. (Cf. 1Sam 13&15)
Therefore, this king went from bad to worse. He went on to become miserable, irresponsible, envious, dangerous and murderous. And towards the end of his life, he found himself looking for a witch to counsel him, even though he was the one that had driven all the witches in the land out of it when he became king. Why? It was because God had nothing to say to him again, even though he longed to hear from Him. So, he perished in battle as though he were not anointed at all. (Cf. 1Sam 28&31)
In like manner, if we keep refusing godly and wise counsel that God is bringing to us through His people that He has planted in our lives, a time may come when He will have nothing more to say to us. Where that is the case, we are not likely to see again all those wonderful people He has been using to say to us thing that will lead us to salvation or elevation. And that will be because He has stopped them from coming to us. Then, like Saul, we too may end up seeking counsel or help from witches, wizards or some foolish individuals, whose counsel will ultimately send us to our destruction.
So, if you are one of those who often meet sound counsel with stubbornness, pride or resentment, you need to watch yourself and repent when you still can. Otherwise, a time may come when you will never again see good, honest, wise and righteous counsellors in your life again. And perhaps you are already there. Perhaps all those good people that God used to send to set you right have already been withdrawn by Him. It is not too late for you to humble yourself before Him and ask for His mercy, since you still have life in you. And He will show you mercy, if you do so. But if you insist on walking in your path of error, then, know that nothing but destruction is all you can expect, when all has been said and done.
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