A reader seeks comment concerning those passages where God is spoken of as hardening the heart. Did Pharaoh, and do we truly have freewill in such circumstances?
When God had brought Moses from the deserts of Midian back to the land of Egypt he declared: “When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go” (Exod 4:21). Though Moses would shew miracles before Pharaoh, God would harden his heart. This hardly seems just, some contend. God hardens a man’s heart, then condemns and punishes him and his people for that very hardness of heart. If this injustice is the way of the God of the Bible, then we can rightly reject both the Bible and God.
But we know that God is always just: “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Psa 19:9). So we must look a little further to discern lessons concerning the nature of the human heart, seen at its worst in the implacable hardness of Pharaoh’s heart, and to learn as Paul declared “that the judgment of God is according to truth” against the man manifesting “hardness and (an) impenitent heart” (Rom 2:2–5).
Moses stood before Pharaoh and spoke God’s command: “Thus saith Yahweh God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is Yahweh, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not Yahweh, neither will I let Israel go” (Exod 5:1–2). Pharaoh responds with high-handed disdain; and we begin already to see the heart of the man.
Yahweh declared to Moses in more detail His purpose with Pharaoh in Exodus 7:2–5: “and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh …” God would bring out Israel and at the same time execute judgment upon Egypt, and stubborn, wilful, hard-hearted Pharaoh would be central to both purposes.
Though God declared in Exodus 7 that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, it is very relevant that from that time, right through all the first five plagues, on arguably seven occasions, the record indicates that “Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exod 7:13,14,22; 8:15,19,32; 9:7). When, through the rest of the plagues, the record declares that “Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart”, it is clear that Yahweh is merely through the circumstances of each plague stirring up that natural disposition already there in Pharaoh’s obstinate heart. Jesus taught that “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matt 12:35). What but “evil things” could come from the heart of Pharaoh, “an evil man”?
In Exodus 9:16 Yahweh declared: “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.” The Apostle Paul quotes this verse in Romans 9:17 and then adds in verse 18: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” God gave Pharaoh ample opportunity to respond positively to the trials brought upon him. Moses even interceded for him before God at least twice (Exod 9:27–35; 10:16–20) but the result was only that yet again when Pharaoh saw the plague withdrawn, “he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants” (Exod 9:34). We should note that expression: “he sinned yet more”. This is no academic exercise on the issue of freewill. To harden the heart in the face of such an open display of divine power is sin indeed.
The real issue is the state of a man’s heart before God. On this hung the destiny of Pharaoh, and on this hangs our destiny too. When Israel were in the wilderness, God declared through Moses: “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.” God seeks our whole heart, willingly given. To the inquiring scribe who sought to know which was the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…” (Matt 22:36–37). Pharaoh’s heart was like the hard ground “by the way side” in the parable of the sower, but ours must be the “good ground”, “they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
In Philippi, Paul encountered “a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God (and) heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14).
God was just to harden Pharaoh’s heart. He manipulated circumstances which simply reinforced a natural stubbornness which would brook submission to no man, nor even God himself. God was just to open Lydia’s heart. Here was “an honest and good heart”, ready to hear and willingly respond to divine principles. In neither case was the principle of freewill breached.
Pharaoh was not barred from a positive response to trial and a submission to God’s evident power; he could have exercised his freewill to submit, but he exercised it instead to resist. God knew he would, but Pharaoh’s personal responsibility was diminished not one whit by that knowledge.
Lydia could have rejected the gospel, and not responded to God’s invitation. But she had a disposition to hear, and God lovingly worked with that. See the terms used of her. She worshipped; she heard; she attended; she was baptised. God knew she would respond, but her personal responsibility to do so was not diminished.
God does not over-rule the principle of freewill. He did not do so with Pharaoh and will not do so with us. But he will try us as he did Pharaoh of old. Let us then in thankfulness for our calling, exercise ourselves in the things of God day by day, with good and honest hearts, and “having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience”.