Did God Really Harden Pharaoh’s Heart

In this blog I will be examining a passage of scripture that many Christians have wrestled with and frequently found no solution to. Those who claim to have found a solution to this difficult passage oftentimes could not be supported by scripture. The passage is found in Romans Chapter 9 which speaks about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. And here is what it says;  

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.⁹ You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” ²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”

After reading this, you come away with an uneasy feeling that God seems to have violated Pharaoh’s freewill. The text sounds like it’s saying God arbitrarily decides who he will have mercy on and who He will condemn. That sounds cruel and unloving. Yet the bible also tells us that God is love. But there is certainly nothing loving about randomly choosing some people for destruction and others to be saved. That immediately tells me to investigate more around this passage because I know the bible cannot contradict itself. I believe God is love and no action of His can be unloving because He defines love. He is the essence or substance of love.

Image of an Egyptian Pharaoh

The Character Of God

God could not have violated Pharaoh’s choice because of the nature of His character.  Because God is LOVE, He can only do what is loving. Notice what the scripture says in Deuteronomy 30 v 19, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. If God was impetuous, vindictive and grudge bearing there is no way he would have said those words to the disobedient Israelites. Notice that after granting the choice between two options He goes on to hint at what the correct course of action should be. That is a loving action.

Does God really harden people’s hearts who deserve it?

Yes He does.  And this is referred to by bible scholars as Judicial Hardening.

But isn’t that unfair? Before we answer that, let’s ask the question is anyone innocent in the eyes of God? No not even one. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3 v 23.

So, no, God is not being unfair because Pharaoh like everyone else, sinned against God long before God hardened his heart. The famous British theologian CS Lewis said there are two kinds of people in this world. those who say to God, thy will be done and those to whom God says Thy will be done. Which one do you think Pharaoh was?

Who is being addressed by Paul in Romans 9?

Both Moses and Paul understood Egyptian culture (Moses of course was raised in that culture). So, the use of the phrase 'hardening of Pharaoh's heart' goes beyond our general understanding of that phrase. Yes, indeed context is key whenever we try to resolve these complex passages of scripture. Thus, we ought to ask who is being addressed in Romans chapter 9. The Jews are. And Paul seeks to correct the rather prideful attitude of the Jews at the time that they had a leg up on salvation with God. They believed Gentiles could not be preferred over the chosen race, the Jews. Hence they thought Jewish ethnicity was sufficient for salvation. Paul is attempting to show in Romans 9 that God is sovereign in electing whomever He wants saved, regardless of their ethnic background.

First Examine Pharaoh’s Heart Before God Hardened It

Was Pharaoh a kind, patient, reasonable and loving man prior to God hardening his heart? No, he wasn’t. Look at the scripture:  

Exodus 1 v 10  ^“ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land”. The growing population of the Israelites bothered the Pharaoh. Here he hatches a plan with one of his generals to deal harshly with the Israelites because he feared that one day they might lead an uprising against the Egyptians.

Exodus 1 v 22; So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is ^[born you shall cast into the river”. Clearly, Pharaoh was a cruel, ruthless and hardened man before God hardened his heart.

Picture of Israelites as Slaves in Egypt. Archaeology and images carved on rocks have confirmed the biblical account found in Exodus.

Examine Exodus 4 v 21. This is the first mention of God intending to harden Pharaoh’s heart.    

In Exodus 7 v 3, 13, 14 and Exodus 8 v 15; 9 v 7 and 34 Pharaoh voluntarily continues to harden his own heart. The bible says God intends to harden Pharaoh’s heart but hasn’t done so yet.  Then finally in Exodus 10 v 1 the Lord says to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him.

At about the sixth time of trying to get Pharaoh to do the right thing God then ‘complied’ with what Pharaoh had been doing all along, harden his own heart willfully.

God removed all restraints, left him to his own devices. The Hebrew words used for hardening mean the following in English; strengthen or stiffen or solidify something in its current position.

Does this mean God is double minded?

No, it doesn't mean that God has both good and evil in Him.  Neither does it mean that He is two faced or hypocritical. It simply reflects the fact that God's patience is not limitless. God does not force you to do anything. But if you stay stubborn long enough, he removes the restraints (conscience) that he gifted you with to allow you to experience the full consequences of rejecting his path. When the bible says God "gave them over to vile passions" or 'abandoned them to their shameful desires' in Romans 1, those phrases mean the same thing as God hardening their hearts.

After institutionalizing genocide of male children and enslaving the rest of the Israelites, Pharaoh was given ten chances to repent by God (remember the ten plagues) which he didn’t take advantage of. This is outside of him neglecting to study the history of the Israelites, (as most kings did) and how they came in, acknowledged the reforms instituted by Joseph in Genesis and treated the children of Israel with some respect etc.

Paul in Romans and his understanding of Egyptian culture

I do not think anyone needs further convincing that Pharaoh hardened his heart first. God only confirmed (hardened) it after giving him sufficient time to do the right thing. Now let’s look at Egyptian culture. The Egyptians believed that when pharaohs died, they would enter the afterlife with their possessions hence they buried them with lots of their material things. However, the heart of a pharaoh would be weighed against a feather in a scale. If the heart outweighed the feather, that pharaoh failed the test, and he would not be admitted into the afterlife because his heart was 'hard' and therefore heavy. That is the context in which Moses uses the phrase. If God removes his restraints (conscience) from any person He is hardening that person's heart not as an act of violating their freewill but because in his omniscience, He knows you are not going to change - so He says to you - Your will be done.

God's character and His nature are such that He would never tamper with anyone's freewill, but He does eventually surrender to your will if you keep resisting His will. And by so doing He further hardens an already hardened heart.  His actions would be immoral and evil if He found a good person, hardens their heart and then judges them. But that is not the case here. Pharaoh was cruel from the beginning; The 10 plagues did not change him. So out of Love God gave him over to what he desired all through his life.