Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?
Question:
Is the reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart to find out who the people were who would follow him in his sin?
I think your question raises two issues which I need to address separately:
Response #1
No. Egypt was not afflicted because of Pharaoh; Rather, Egypt was afflicted because of Egypt. God raised up Pharaoh as a punishment against Egypt. All Egypt (including the Hebrews) were guilty of idolatry in worshipping Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. For this, God raises up Pharaoh as a judgment against Egypt (and the Hebrews) in order to bring all to repentance. So, the initial state of the narrative is that no one is following God, even the murderer Moses. The remnants of God’s holy community are the Hebrew midwives, Moses’ mother, and his Moses’ sister (Miriam). However, God works mightily to free His people Israel from the bondages of sin. After the 4th plague, Israel becomes reconstituted within the Hebrew people but soon other races join as well. God plays no favorites. Consequently, everyone got what they deserved in this narrative both in this life and the next. God didn’t cause anyone to sin, rather he afflicted people for the sins they had already committed. Some repented, both Hebrew and Egyptian, but most did not (as it is today).
Response #2
No. In Exodus, we read that Pharaoh would not repent but hardened his heart towards God and increased the persecution of the Hebrew people throughout the first 5 plagues (active sin). Beginning with the 6th plague, we read that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (passive judgment). In essence, the logic works like this: God punishes people justly, meaning that Pharaoh hardened his heart (active sin) so what he deserved was to have his heart hardened (passive judgment). In essence, the symmetry of the 10 plagues is that for every time Pharaoh hardens his heart in the first 5 plagues, God hardens it in the last 5 plagues. So, this raises the question: What does it mean to harden your heart? I meant to ask this question but ran out of time. What it means is to be unrepentant and to reject the Holy Spirit [see 1 Sam 6:4, Mark 3:29, Acts 7:51, Heb 3:15] which is the unforgivable sin. Unfortunately, we all do it, meaning that we know the truth of God and we know what is right, but we refuse to repent in our hearts and accept His Holy Spirit in every aspect of our lives. However, God is patient as we work our salvation in fear and trembling [Phil 2:12]. However, we should always remember this: What is the punishment for rejecting God? We are ourselves rejected! So, if today we hear His voice, let us not harden our hearts as Pharaoh and his servants did [Heb 4:7].
Is the reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart to find out who the people were who would follow him in his sin?
I think your question raises two issues which I need to address separately:
Response #1
No. Egypt was not afflicted because of Pharaoh; Rather, Egypt was afflicted because of Egypt. God raised up Pharaoh as a punishment against Egypt. All Egypt (including the Hebrews) were guilty of idolatry in worshipping Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. For this, God raises up Pharaoh as a judgment against Egypt (and the Hebrews) in order to bring all to repentance. So, the initial state of the narrative is that no one is following God, even the murderer Moses. The remnants of God’s holy community are the Hebrew midwives, Moses’ mother, and his Moses’ sister (Miriam). However, God works mightily to free His people Israel from the bondages of sin. After the 4th plague, Israel becomes reconstituted within the Hebrew people but soon other races join as well. God plays no favorites. Consequently, everyone got what they deserved in this narrative both in this life and the next. God didn’t cause anyone to sin, rather he afflicted people for the sins they had already committed. Some repented, both Hebrew and Egyptian, but most did not (as it is today).
Response #2
No. In Exodus, we read that Pharaoh would not repent but hardened his heart towards God and increased the persecution of the Hebrew people throughout the first 5 plagues (active sin). Beginning with the 6th plague, we read that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (passive judgment). In essence, the logic works like this: God punishes people justly, meaning that Pharaoh hardened his heart (active sin) so what he deserved was to have his heart hardened (passive judgment). In essence, the symmetry of the 10 plagues is that for every time Pharaoh hardens his heart in the first 5 plagues, God hardens it in the last 5 plagues. So, this raises the question: What does it mean to harden your heart? I meant to ask this question but ran out of time. What it means is to be unrepentant and to reject the Holy Spirit [see 1 Sam 6:4, Mark 3:29, Acts 7:51, Heb 3:15] which is the unforgivable sin. Unfortunately, we all do it, meaning that we know the truth of God and we know what is right, but we refuse to repent in our hearts and accept His Holy Spirit in every aspect of our lives. However, God is patient as we work our salvation in fear and trembling [Phil 2:12]. However, we should always remember this: What is the punishment for rejecting God? We are ourselves rejected! So, if today we hear His voice, let us not harden our hearts as Pharaoh and his servants did [Heb 4:7].
Marty;
I have been reading through some of your material online. I am impressed with your work.
Who do you consider to be the most influential writers on Biblical Theology in the last 25 years (even though you may disagree with their conclusions)
Thanks for any comment you care to make.
Bill Brown
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Bill,
Thanks for the comment. First of all, I have to apologize since I have been meaning to *fix* a statement in the above article, based on a lecture from Dr. Walter Kaiser (the former President of Gordon Conwell) who pointed out in the Hebrew text that Pharaoh hardens his heart 10 times (active sin) and God in response hardens Pharaoh's heart 10 times (passive judgment). So, Pharaoh is a 10 Test Typology which is a recurrent theme in Biblical Theology.
Having said that, Walter Kaiser, as most evangelicals would agree is one of the most influential scholars in Biblical Theology of the last 25 years. He was one of the first to recently resurrect the field of Biblical Ethics and demonstrate that Biblical Ethics is the handmaiden of Biblical Theology. By recent, I mean in the last 25 years. Dr. Kaiser has released some recent books lately, but in general, I would recommend reading most of his stuff.
Meredith Kline is also one of the most influential theologians, who has done a tremendous service to the Church with his work in Covenant Theology and its relationship to Creation, Redemptive History, and the coming Eschaton. I would recommend reading everything that he has written. Some of it is available on line in free PDF form. My only warning is that he writes on a graduate level (which is a bit frustrating).
Another impressive Biblical Theologian, although not as popular and well known as Kaiser and Kline, is Dr. Gordon Hugenberger. He is the pastor of the historic Boston Park Street Church (www.parkstreet.org). Gordon's adviser at Oxford was Gordan Wenham. I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Hugenberger's sermons when I lived in Boston. I would commend listening to any and all of his sermons that you can get your hands on. In general, most preachers have 2-3 sermons which they repeat every Sunday (although the text for study changes every Sunday the same sermon tends to get repreached). The better preachers have more like 7-8 sermons (ie - Tim Keller). With Gordon, it is a different sermon every Sunday. The reason for this is that there are hundreds of Biblical Themes in the Bible and Gordon preaches from these frameworks. So, his sermons tend to be a 7 course meal (as opposed to milk). Anyway, Park Street Church offers free downloads of them for the last 12 months.
Gordan Wenham's Genesis commentary is outstanding and should be on most bookshelves for those interested in the field of Biblical Theology. Duane Garrett's Rethinking Genesis is also a good read.
On the New Testament side, the most influential Biblical Theologians are NT Wright, FF Bruce, James Dunn, EP Sanders, Richard B. Hays, John Piper, etc. Unfortunately, New Testament scholarship has been become somewhat myopic around the Jesus Seminar and the New Perspective on Paul. So, I would suggest focusing more on Biblical Themes, rather than so-called New Testament Biblical Theology (that is just me).
To this end, I would probably recommend reading Zondervan's Counterpoints series on subjects that you find of interest. In general, I don't tend to completely agree with any of the contributors, but they are useful in flushing out all the issues.
I hope this helps. In Christ, Marty
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