Went down memory lane this morning with a viewing of Dreamworks' Prince of Egypt for the Junior Christian Fellowship.
What's delightful is how the movie was far better than the original experience.
Somehow I could feel the tension in Moses as he had to leave his palace in Egypt for a future as a wandering descendant of the very slaves he watched over.
I almost cried with Pharoah over the loss of his son and I knew full well the stubborness, the go-to-hell-ness in his eyes and heart towards what his mind couldn't deny was the will of God.
I sensed the freedom of the Hebrew slaves as they walked (although they really actually ran) out of Egypt.
And, of course, the song took it all away.
What the movie didn't highlight, though, was the divine hardening of Pharoah's heart i.e. after a time (after the plague of boils, Exo 9:12), God removed Pharoah's ability to say Yes to God's commands.
This is sobering. God judges us by canceling out our ability to make sound judgements, at least temporarily. Still, I believe God's hardening is less like a carving in stone and more like a parent slamming a stubbon child's door, effectively blocking his 'choices'.
This is my blood, shed for you.
But today is Good Friday. And sometimes I wonder if God hardened His own heart towards His Son. What must it have required for the most loving Father to not only 'slam the door' on the perfect Son, but to also plunge that knife in? Without a hardened, broken heart, could God have let the Cross happen? God saved us by cancelling out (for an agonising instant!) His love for His Son, in order that His love for the world could be made triumphantly manifest.
The Cross ripped through the Godhead for all eternity. It was no cheap substitution, no mere 'symbolic' victory but a thoroughly (and eternally) deathly event which dealt a fatal blow to anything unreal, impure, ungodly, untruthful - anything hinting of non-being.
There can be miracles, if you believe - in my blood, shed for you.
