I Will Harden Pharoah's Heart

Dear Class,

As we move on to the beginning of the 10 plagues in Exodus in the daily bible reading, let's us dwell on this "heart hardening" process.

First mentioned in Ex 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.

Mentioned another 18 times in the plague incident. (Ex 7:3,13,14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 12, 34, 35; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17)

Some of them similar in expression to Ex 4:21 (verses in bold)
Which may cause people to wonder: does God control our thoughts? Was Pharoah and his servants victimised?

First of all let us understand the concept of "God wills"
As we have read in Job, God is in control of everything. Satan had to be authorised by God to strike disaster upon Job.
In James 4:15, we are reminded that only when God wills, can things take place.
If we apply this concept to the Pharoah, we see that "God wills" for his and his servants' hearts to be hardened. Or God authorised the possibility of their hearts being hardened.

Secondly, did Pharoah have a choice? YES! 10 times over! Even after the death of the firstborn, he did not repent of his actions, resulting in the demise of his army.
How do we know that? Look at Ex 9:27, 34; 10:16. He sinned. And what was the process leading to sin? Read Jam 1:13-15.

Thirdly, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Eze 33:11) But that all will come to repentance (Eze 33:11; Mat 9:13; 2Pe 3:9)
God is gracious to both good and evil! (Mat 5:45) God is no respecter of persons (Rom 2:11). Everyone has an equal opportunity.

Thus, God authorised the possibility of Pharoah and his servants to turn a blind eye to the facts. God gave him 10 chances, but he CHOSE to blow each one of them.

To give a loose analogy: The government ALLOWS drivers to exceed the speed limit. In what way you say? Well, the fact that cars are made to go above the speed limit. If the government would not ALLOW, it could render all cars to not go above 90kmh and use a jamming signal to prevent cars from exceeding specific speed limits. The fact that it is not. Would we say that the government CAUSED us to speed because it allows our cars to go above 90kmh? Obviously not! We speed because we CHOOSE to. And when caught or when an accident happens as result of the bad choice, we pay the consequence.

This reminds us of what I mentioned in class about God's plan and the free will of man.
What if Pharoah had did the right thing by letting the Israelites go? Bearing in mind Ex 7:5, etc. The purpose was to show the supremacy of God to the Egyptians.
In that case of course the people would have been convinced without suffering the plagues! Or perhaps in order to still have the "wow" effect (for the sake of neighbouring countries, c.f. Jos 2:9), it could have been a non-invasive or even productive form (remember the 7 plenteous years in Joseph's time?).
God's plan will be fulfilled regardless! BUT man has to bear the consequences. Just as Judas did.

The application here is this: God DOES NOT control our free will. Although God allows us to be tested. (c.f. Job, Jesus, etc) We need to make the right choices and not fall into the trap of sin, not allow our hearts to be hardened (Heb 3:13)
How do we know the right choices? Study the Word of God! And make sure in dwells in our very fibers of being such that it becomes 2nd nature. (c.f. Col 3:16)

May you have a blessed day ahead.

in Him
Paul