Exodus: Pharaoh’s Hardened Heart
That’s Not Fair
When looking at the story of Exodus and seeing how big of an impact the life of Moses plays in this story, it’s hard to overlook just how much Pharaoh impacted Moses’ life, even before he was ever born. Pharaoh as we know was the one who put a law into place that should have guaranteed Moses never survived his childhood. He was also the one who tried to kill Moses after he killed an Egyptian for torturing a Hebrew slave. And even when Moses escapes and flees from Egypt, Pharaoh is certainly against him when Moses returns to tell the king to let the Hebrews be free. Regardless of how against God’s plan Pharaoh is, there is no denying that he plays a critical part in this story. However, there is one particular part of Pharaoh’s story that many people question because of how it portrays our Lord. Not only does it impact the way we view God in the Old Testament, but it impacts the way we view God in salvation and throughout the rest of His character as well. This part of the story that is so divisive is what we learn about the providence of God when it comes to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
This controversy is found in Exodus 7:2-3 where it says, “As for you, you shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” The controversy as I’m sure you understand by now is about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Seems unfair right off the bat doesn’t it? No one sums this up better than John Piper when he says, “Now here is the mystery, people who are hardened against God are really guilty. They have real fault. They are really blameworthy. They really deserve to be judged. If you demand an explanation for how this can be, there are pointers in the Bible. But they will not satisfy the natural, fallen, human mind.” To reiterate Piper, we will be looking at these pointers in the Bible that our Lord has to offer as to why He hardens hearts, but again, these answers will not satisfy our fallen human hearts. With this momentous take in mind, let’s dive into the word.
God’s Providence
Before we say anything about why God hardens hearts, we’re going to take the opposite approach and ask why God would even bother saving anyone. The answer to this question will help us understand the latter. Ephesians 2:1-5 helps us answer this question. It says, “And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ.” The reason I share this verse is becasue it is vital to note that the reason any of us are saved today in Christ is solely because God saved us. We were dead in our sin…but God. If God didn’t save us by making us alive again in Christ, we wouldn’t be saved. So while it’s easy to say on the one hand, ‘God saved me’, it’s obviously much more difficult to say ‘God didn’t save others’, on the other even though both are true. The hardship for us to get over in our minds is answering the why. If God is the only one who can save people, why doesn’t He just save everyone? This is the great mystery that Piper spoke of earlier. The great mystery of understanding how God is sovereign over all and yet those who go to Hell are completely justified in this because of their sin. It is a great mystery indeed because you are essentially trying to figure out where God’s sovereignty ends and where our free will begins while simultaneously believing that God is sovereign over all. Now of course we can’t understand God completely(otherwise He wouldn’t be God) and only what we do know about Him is what He chooses to reveal in His word. And for one reason or another, this is one aspect He left unanswered for our human minds.
The Great Mystery
So what pointers do we have in scripture that attempt to answer this massive situation? The best-seen answer for this comes from Paul himself in the book of Romans. While we’re only going to look at a few verses from Romans 9, I would encourage you to read this entire chapter to get a better understanding here on this issue. For now, though we’re going to look at what Paul says in Romans 9:22-23 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with great patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon objects of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,” Paul’s answer here as to why God would create people who are Hell-bound is essential because God can use the fallen to lead others to Christ. As harsh as it seems, Paul concludes that the eternally lost may in fact be created by God in order for His glory to be seen by others in the destruction of these vessels. Again, just like Piper said, this answer does not satisfy our human mind, but it is the answer we are given nonetheless. You may think it is unfair that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but it’s also unfair that a sinner like you could ever be saved in the first place. The great mystery here is for God to know and for us to have faith that He knows what He’s doing even when we don’t understand. I know this concept was a lot for one post but I want to leave you again with this reminder, if we could understand everything about God, He wouldn’t be God. One day when we make it to heaven because of the gospel of Christ, we can hopefully have this great mystery make sense to us, but for now, we are to have faith like Job did when all Hell was breaking loose and realize that God is holy and far above our understanding. I hope and pray this week that this post will not leave you confused and frustrated, but rather determined and hopeful to study God’s Word and seek Him through prayer.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Piper, J. (2023, December 19). The Hardening of Pharaoh and the hope of the world. Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-hardening-of-pharaoh-and-the-hope-of-the-world
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