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Exodus 4c:

Reading #166  Hardening Pharaoh’s heart

This week we can come back to Pharaoh and his hard heart.

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Exodus 4:

21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand [the same ones that worked with the Hebrews, creation and healing, vv30-31]: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go .  .  .”

Exodus 7:

2 “You shall speak all that I command you: and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. 

3 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt”.

4 “But Pharaoh shall not hearken to you, that I may lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring forth My armies and My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments”.

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When the Son of God speaks of His “armies” He explains that as well as the host of humans in Egypt there was an innumerable company of angels who were working the nation.  See Daniel 10:12-13 for an example.

In regard to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart we have the New Testament words:

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Romans 9:

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness [wrongdoing] with God? God forbid.  15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”.  [It’s all “yea” (good) and no “nay” (bad) with Him, 2 Corinthians 1:20]. 

16 So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.  [It’s not based on our desire or their works, but God’s gift.  We can’t see straight and should leave it with Him.]

17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you [for good], and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth”.  18 Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and [but, the Spirit adds] whom He will He hardens.  [Note that the same power does both as in verse 21.]

19 You will say then to me, “Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

[You’re saying to me, “Has anyone ever resisted God deliberately? Surely no man or woman in their right senses would choose to openly fight with God”.  And this is true, very few do that (but some do).  Most just let His grace run out, as in a leaking vessel.  Hebrews 2:1-3 margin.]

20 “No but, O man, who are you that replies against God?  Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, ‘Why hav

22 “WHAT IF [these words me you made me thus?’ [This is blaming God as though there was no choice.]  21 Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour [for a good purpose such as a water bottle], and another to dishonour? [for a humble purpose such as a waste water pipe.]”  ean, “let’s suppose”] God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared to glory, 24 even us, whom He has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? .  .  .”  [Do you want to believe that?] 

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Here Paul is writing and saying, “WHAT IF .  .  .”  so it is not as cut and dried as it may seem.  We all know what that phrase means in computer-speak. And “endured” doesn’t sound as though He wants this, more like He puts up with rejection for a long time from the “vessels of wrath”.  Here the Spirit, through Paul, is proposing that maybe the Son of God raised up the Jewish nation so they could fail and He pass on to the Christians.  He wants us to think prayerfully about this.  It was a thought held by most of the Jews but from the opposite angle.  They thought that no one but members of their church would be saved and that every one else was lost when they themselves were rejecting Him!

Because of this Jesus cried over the Jews and lamented that they would not let Him save them!

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Matthew 23:

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not [let Me]! 38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 

When Paul wrote about Pharaoh he was referring to the same Son of God who went about the cities and villages healing all that needed help (Matthew 9:35), and responding to all that would believe in Him (Mark 9:23-24).  There was not a soul that would accept assistance that He refused (Matthew 11:28; John 6:37).  He fed the people when they were hungry (Matthew 14:15-21).  He raised the dead when they asked Him (Luke 8:41-55).  He opened the eyes of their blind (Matthew 20:30-34).  He did everything that He could to make the people happy (Mark 7:37).  And these were the people who were to crucify Him!

At the same time that He was doing this kind of work, He was preaching to the people that the kingdom of heaven was with them (Luke 4:43), was among them (Luke 17:20-21), was at hand (Matthew 4:17).  For that is what the kingdom is about!  Past, present and future.

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Matthew 4:

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee [in the north], teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.  24 And His fame went throughout all Syria [outside of Israel]: and they brought to Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. 

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This was done by the Person who says:

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Malachi 3:

6  “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed”. 

and of whom it is said:-

Hebrews 13:8:

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever”.

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So let’s look again at the story of Pharaoh.  A little further on it is written:

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Exodus 8:

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite [between the plagues], HE HARDENED HIS HEART, and hearkened not to them; as the LORD had said.  .  .  . 

19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not to them [Moses and Aaron]; as the LORD had said.  .  .  .  32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.  .  .  .

Exodus 9:

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.  .  .  .  12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not to them; as the LORD had spoken to Moses. 

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And so on . . .

Sure, the Son of God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  But HOW did He do it?  This was NOT a fight between a professional heavyweight champion and a lightweight off the street!!  The Son of God showed His protective power BETWEEN the plagues while Satan showed his destructive power during them.  The contest is NOT, “Who is the great?”  That is not the question – the contest is “Who will have the greatest influence in human hearts?” Remember, God only wants to give mercy!  v15.  And Pharaoh chose!  Just as the Pharisees refused all of Jesus’ efforts to save them and perished miserably in the destruction of Jerusalem, so Pharaoh exercised his right to reject, and his son died.  In the same way Judas used his right of freedom to betray Jesus and commit suicide despite all of Christ’s efforts to prevent it.  Acts 1:16-19.

If Jesus had NOT told Pharaoh that He was going to show His power then the king need not have chosen – there would not have been a contest between the God and the gods.  There would only have been “natural” disasters, if any.  So the Son of God blames Himself.  It was His attempt to save Pharaoh that caused him to harden his heart, and Satan to react as he did.  

It seems strange to us that men and women will be wilfully obstinate, even to death, as was Pharaoh the king of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; but so it is.  See Daniel 4:1-37 where Neb tells us what it’s like.  We can thank God that we have Neb’s own words on this subject for he went through it and his mind took refuge in temporary insanity, but he was saved in the end.  So that experiment was worthwhile for Jesus. 

Let all be warned by the messages sent from heaven in these Scriptures that when any man or woman shall exalt his or her own ways and his or her own judgment as supreme, he/she will put themselves under Satan's jurisdiction and will be led blindfold by him until their spirit and their methods will conform to those of the archdeceiver, for, “by beholding we become changed”.  (Who hardened Satan’s heart?  Isaiah 14:12-14.) 

Little by little, until their whole mind is under the influence of Satan’s spell he or she will refuse all of God’s attempts at salvation.  The serpent keeps its eye fixed upon them, to charm them, until they have no power to go from the snare. 

In other places we are told about hardening OUR hearts:-

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Deuteronomy 15:

7 If there be among you a poor man of one of your brothers and sisters within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother: 8 but you shall open your hand wide to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wants. 

Psalm 95:

6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.  7 For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. 

Today if you will hear His voice, 8 harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 when your fathers tempted [tested] Me, proved Me, and saw My work [yet rejected Me!].  10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, “It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known [accepted] My ways .  .  .” 

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Here are some words from one of the books in my library.  I do not quote them as an authority but because the writer sets out the subject so much better than I can.

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“God knows all things, not by study and research as man learns the little he knows, but because he is God.  He inhabits eternity.  Isaiah 57:15.  We can not understand how this can be any more than we can understand eternity.  We must accept the fact and be not only content, but glad, that God is greater than we.  All time, past, present, and future, is the same to him.  It is always “now” with God. 

“The fact that God knew the evil that men would do, even before the foundation of the world, does not make him responsible for it, any more than the fact that a man can see by means of a telescope what a man is doing ten miles distant makes him responsible for that other one's actions.  God has from the beginning set before people warnings against sin, and has provided them with all the necessary means for avoiding it; but he can not interfere with man's right and freedom of choice without depriving him of his manhood and making him the same as a stick. 

“Freedom to do right implies freedom to do wrong. 

“If a man were made so that he could not do wrong, he would have no freedom at all, not even to do right.  He would be less than the brutes. 

“There is no virtue in forced obedience, nor would there be any virtue in doing that which is right if it were impossible to do wrong.  Moreover, there could be no pleasure or satisfaction in the professed friendship of two persons if one associated with the other just because he could not avoid it.  The joy of the LORD in the companionship of his people is that they of their own free-will choose him above all others.  And that which is the joy of the LORD is the joy of his people. 

“The very ones who rail against God [criticise Him forcefully] for not preventing the ills that he forsees since he is all-powerful, would be the very first to charge him with cruelty if he did arbitrarily interfere with their freedom and make them do that which they do not choose.  Such a course would make everybody unhappy and discontented.  The wisest thing for us to do is to stop trying to fathom the ways of the Almighty, and accept the fact that whatever he does is right.  “As for God, his way is perfect”.  Psalm 18:30”. 

Ellet J Waggoner  1855 – 1916,  E J Waggoner on Romans, published 1895, MARRIED TO THE WRONG MAN page 0142 paragraph 1.                    

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That’s my thoughts too.

We should always remember that the Son of God does not do things the way we do.  He is not a bully!  How does He handle this kind of situation?  He simply protects all those who allow Him.

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Isaiah 55:

6 Seek you the LORD while He may be found, call you upon Him while He is near: 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.  [“Wherefore I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men:”  Matthew 12:31.] 

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.  9  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts”. 

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Would you send your son as a helpless babe into an area run by your worst enemy who had sworn to kill him, and let him grow up to find his way back to you?

Bye, 

RonP

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