[3] But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, [4] Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. [5] The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
Exodus 7:3-5
This is one of the theological controversies of the ages in my opinion and one that if not understood properly, can have profoundly negative consequences on our view of the character of God, in particular regarding His sovereignty over human affairs or our freedom of the will. If we are just pawns in a big cosmic chess game with the Almighty, what possible hope do we have, especially if you view this passage to teach that Pharaoh’s heart was directly hardened supernaturally? This view has been a dominating force in reformed theology with the perceived epic mic drop of Romans 9:20 (paraphrasing), “Who are you oh man, to talk back to God?” If God has rights over humanity, as a potter with his clay, then there really is no reasonable objection that any of us could offer up, as in the same way we have control over where objects in our house that belong to us are placed, if we belong to Him, then theoretically He can place wherever He wants and do with us as He wills, but I question the mental state of a person who holds this view. Humans are not objects, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and seems to desire all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
If however you believe that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart demonstrates God's absolute sovereignty over people’s wills, then what becomes of free will and human choice? There is no other option then, as it quickly leads to the cinclusion that God determines who goes to heaven and who goes to hell independently of human choice. Immediately my moral intuition resists this idea, as it seems to imply injustice on God's part and a contradiction of His perfect character as well as His sorrow over the fate of the unrepentant wicked.
On this particular point, I find myself agreeing with John Wesley, at least in my visceral reaction to the idea of God seemingly double speaking, one hand out preaching, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden”, while secretly supernaturally hardening the hearts of the majority He says those words to so they will resist His call as if He were secretly saying,
“Come to me, but I know you can't, for I have hardened your heart. You are a pawn in my hand to accomplish my purposes and while I don't take pleasure in your death, you must be hardened for the purpose of my glory. The ends justify the means…”
Whatever that Scripture proves, it never proved this; whatever its true meaning be. This cannot be its true meaning. Do you ask, “What is its true meaning then?” If I say, ” I know not,” you have gained nothing; for there are many scriptures the true sense whereof neither you nor I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know, better it were to say it had no sense, than to say it had such a sense as this. It cannot mean, whatever it mean besides, that the God of truth is a liar. Let it mean what it will, it cannot mean that the Judge of all the world is unjust. No scripture can mean that God is not love, or that his mercy is not over all his works; that is, whatever it prove beside, no scripture can prove predestination.
John Wesley, except from his sermon, Free Grace
Human intuition however, corrupted by sin (Jeremiah 17:9), should not be the metric by which we should judge the scriptures, but the scriptures should be the metric by which we should judge our human intuitions. If God is sovereign in the sense that the reformed preach, then let God be true and every man a liar, but let us be careful here and take heed to the caution the apostle Peter gave us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when interpreting Paul.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
3 Peter 3:15-17
With that, let's begin by looking into the dynamics of God and Pharaohs relationship, going verse by verse through the entirety of Exodus chapter 7, to accurately understand what is going on. My commentary will be in bold.
[1] And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.
The Lord is setting up the stage, a battle between the gods of Egypt and Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. Pharaoh will stand as the representative of the Egyptian gods and Moses will represent the Great I Am. Aaron, due to Moses reluctance to be confident that God would give him the ability to speak (Exodus 4:10-16). The mercy and grace of God is even seen here that in spite of Moses lack of faith, He overlooks His weakness and grants his request despite His anger.
[2] You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.
The plan is set in motion, Moses and Aaron are to confront Pharaoh again after his refusal to let the Hebrews go, increasing the difficulty of their work by not providing them with straw. It seems a hopeless situation, but we know God is trustworthy and that He has a plan. It's simply our job to trust in His goodness and majesty as we trust Him with childlike obedience.
[3] But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Here begins the controversy, God Almighty Himself takes the responsibility of hardening Pharaoh’s heart, no one else’s. I have two initial thoughts on what this may mean from the very onset…
Theory 1: God will supernaturally intervene and override Pharaohs will so that he will refuse to listen.
Theory 2: God will orchestrate the circumstances taking into account His omniscience, taking Pharaohs natural response to events and working it out to the possible world He sees developing from the situation.
1 is self explanatory, so I'd like to expand on number 2 briefly.
“And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.
Matthew 11:23
God indicates that He not only has knowledge of what will happen, but what would have happened given different circumstances.
9 When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” 10 David said, “Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Lord, God of Israel, tell your servant.”
And the Lord said, “He will.”
12 Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?”
And the Lord said, “They will.”
1 Samuel 23:9-12
So it seems clear to me that since God has knowledge of counterfactuals, then He essentially is free in His omniscience to bring about any possible world He would like to through directly intervening at critical points to produce whatever result He would like.
He would know how the world would be if you were never born, died at birth, lived to be 100, were the president of the United States or immigrated to Britain, because of a person you met whom you fell in love with.
God then, would not necessarily be ordaining your decisions, but rather the circumstances He places us in so we make the free decisions He knows we will make, leading to the outcome He wants.
17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Romans 9:17-18
[4] Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
“Pharaoh will not listen to you.” This marks the start of an interesting question. If theory 1 is true why would God need to resort to acts of judgment to lead His people out? If it's all just a matter of divine softening or hardening of the heart it seems a bit excessive to add judgment on top of everything, especially if God is the direct cause of Pharaoh’s disobedience. Now Romans 9:17 gives some insight into the reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart, “that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” but if the hardening implies some sort of divine meticulous determinism, why not just change people heart to proclaim Your name that way? Why acts of judgment? If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and if He can simply make people no longer wicked, He could save Himself the wrath and judgment (the very thing He hates to carry out) and then boom. Problem solved! If we take this line of thought to its logical end however, we end up with some serious difficulties in the nature of God. A God who has the capacity to soften everyone's heart so they will turn to Him to avoid the judgment He hates to inflict who in fact logically would do that very thing, instead hardens so that He has to do the very thing He hates when He doesn't have to!
A God that double speaks? Certainly not, so clearly theory 1 is out the door, but what if 2? God does admit to hardening Pharaoh's heart, so perhaps it's our understanding of what it means for God to harden a heart that needs to be challenged…
Exodus 7:3-5
This is one of the theological controversies of the ages in my opinion and one that if not understood properly, can have profoundly negative consequences on one's view of the character of God, in particular regarding His sovereignty over human affairs or our freedom of the will. If we are just pawns in a big cosmic chess game with the Almighty, what possible hope do we have, especially if you view this passage to teach that Pharaoh’s heart was directly hardened supernaturally?
This view has been a dominating force in reformed theology with the perceived epic mic drop of Romans 9:20 (paraphrasing), “Who are you oh man, to talk back to God?” If God has rights over human, as a potter with his clay, then there really is no reasonable objection that any of us could offer up, as in the same way we have control over where objects in our house that belong to us are placed, if we belong theoretically He can place wherever He wants and do with us as He wills, but I question the mental state of a person who holds this view. Humans are not objects, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and seems to desire all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
If however you believe that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart demonstrates God's absolute sovereignty over people’s wills, then what becomes of free will and human choice? There is no other option then, that God determines who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Immediately my moral intuition resists this idea, as it seems to imply injustice on God's part and a contradiction of His perfect character as well as His sorrow over the fear of the unrepentant wicked. On this particular point, I find myself agreeing with John Wesley, at least in my visceral reaction to the idea of God seemingly double speaking, one hand out preaching, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden”, while secretly supernaturally hardening the hearts of the majority He says those words to so they will resist His call as if He were secretly saying,
“Come to me, but I know you can't, because I have hardened your heart. You are a pawn in my hand to accomplish my purposes and while I don't take pleasure in your death, you must be hardened for the purpose of my glory. The ends justify the means…”
Whatever that Scripture proves, it never proved this; whatever its true meaning be. This cannot be its true meaning. Do you ask, “What is its true meaning then?” If I say, ” I know not,” you have gained nothing; for there are many scriptures the true sense whereof neither you nor I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know, better it were to say it had no sense, than to say it had such a sense as this. It cannot mean, whatever it mean besides, that the God of truth is a liar. Let it mean what it will, it cannot mean that the Judge of all the world is unjust. No scripture can mean that God is not love, or that his mercy is not over all his works; that is, whatever it prove beside, no scripture can prove predestination.
John Wesley, except from his sermon, Free Grace
Human intuition however, corrupted by sin (Jeremiah 17:9), should not be the metric by which we should judge the scriptures, but the scriptures should be the metric by which we should judge our human intuitions. If God is sovereign in the sense that the reformed preach, then let God be true and every man a liar, but let us be careful here and take heed to the caution the apostle Peter gave us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when interpreting Paul.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
3 Peter 3:15-17
With that, let's begin by looking into the dynamics of God and Pharaohs relationship, going verse by verse through the entirety of Exodus chapter 7, to accurately understand what is going on. My commentary will be in bold.
[1] And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.
The Lord is setting up the stage, a battle between the gods of Egypt and Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. Pharaoh will stand as the representative of the Egyptian gods and Moses will represent the Great I Am. Aaron, due to Moses reluctance to be confident that God would give him the ability to speak (Exodus 4:10-16). The mercy and grace of God is even seen here that in spite of Moses lack of faith, He overlooks His weakness and grants his request despite His anger.
[2] You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.
The plan is set in motion, Moses and Aaron are to confront Pharaoh again after his refusal to let the Hebrews go, increasing the difficulty of their work by not providing them with straw. It seems a hopeless situation, but we know God is trustworthy and that He has a plan. It's simply our job to trust in His goodness and majesty as we trust Him with childlike obedience.
[3] But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Here begins the controversy, God Almighty Himself takes the responsibility of hardening Pharaoh’s heart, no one else’s. I have two initial thoughts on what this may mean from the very onset…
Theory 1: God will supernaturally intervene and override Pharaohs will so that he will refuse to listen.
Theory 2: God will orchestrate the circumstances taking into account His omniscience, taking Pharaohs natural response to events and working it out to the possible world He sees developing from the situation.
1 is self explanatory, so I'd like to expand on number 2 briefly.
“And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.
Matthew 11:23
God indicates that He not only has knowledge of what will happen, but what would have happened given different circumstances.
9 When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” 10 David said, “Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Lord, God of Israel, tell your servant.”
And the Lord said, “He will.”
12 Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?”
And the Lord said, “They will.”
1 Samuel 23:9-12
So it seems clear to me that since God has knowledge of counterfactuals, then He essentially is free in His omniscience to bring about any possible world He would like to through directly intervening at critical points to produce whatever result He would like.
He would know how the world would be if you were never born, died at birth, lived to be 100, were the president of the United States or immigrated to Britain, because of a person you met whom you fell in love with.
God then, would not necessarily be ordaining your decisions, but rather the circumstances He places us in so we make the free decisions He knows we will make, leading to the outcome He wants.
17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Romans 9:17-18
[4] Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
“Pharaoh will not listen to you.” This marks the start of an interesting question. If theory 1 is true why would God need to resort to acts of judgment to lead His people out? If it's all just a matter of divine softening or hardening of the heart it seems a bit excessive to add judgment on top of everything, especially if God is the direct cause of Pharaoh’s disobedience. Now Romans 9:17 gives some insight into the reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart, “that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” but if the hardening implies some sort of divine meticulous determinism, why not just change people heart to proclaim Your name that way? Why acts of judgment? If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and if He can simply make people no longer wicked, He could save Himself the wrath and judgment (the very thing He hates to carry out) and then boom. Problem solved! If we take this line of thought to its logical end however, we end up with some serious difficulties in the nature of God. A God who has the capacity to soften everyone's heart so they will turn to Him to avoid the judgment He hates to inflict who in fact logically would do that very thing, instead hardens so that He has to do the very thing He hates when He doesn't have to!
A God that double speaks? Certainly not, so clearly theory 1 is out the door, but what if 2? God does admit to hardening Pharaoh's heart, so perhaps it's our understanding of what it means for God to harden a heart that needs to be challenged… (continued discussion)...
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