The story so far: Israelites slaves in Egypt.  Moses raised up to by God’s deliverer.  The Lord’s command to Pharaoh: “Let my people go.  If you do not…”

Three more plagues:-

Swarms of flies, 8:20-32

Diseased livestock, 9:1-7

Boils and sores, 9:8-12

• Increasing intensity; they are no longer merely nuisances; they cause actual damage.
• Discriminating: Egyptians affected; Israelites protected (8:22f; 9:4).
• Pharaoh isolated; his magicians slink away, defeated, 9:11. His resolve shows a few signs of weakening – asks for prayer, 8:28; offers concessions, v25, 28.  But remains stubbornly resolute.

But who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?  8:32 etc – Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  9:12 etc – the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

How do we explain these two ways of putting things?

• A sceptical approach might conclude that they are hopelessly contradictory. (In which case we can stop regarding the Bible as the inspired word of God)
• A scholarly approach might argue for multiple sources. (But this solves nothing: why would two writers say such different things, and why would any later editor(s) not do something to iron them out?)
• A believing approach urges us to look closely, to see what God might be saying to us in his word. After all, it is he who has given us minds to think, hearts to trust, and wills to obey.

So let’s look at each of these statements on its own merits.

Pharaoh hardened his own heart, 8:32

He is neither a puppet nor a robot.  No-one is forcing him to be so stubborn.  He has a real choice in the matter.  Otherwise, if would make no sense for the Lord to reason with him as in 8:21 – “If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you…”

But Pharaoh refuses to be reasoned with; he persists in disobeying God’s command.  And, in the end, he seals his own fate.  Like skin that has become calloused through constant resistance to pressure, he becomes more and more insensitive.  Like a swimmer being swept faster and faster towards a waterfall, he reaches a point of no return.

‘Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.’

Those who will not eventually find that they can not.  That’s what Pharaoh found, and he must take full responsibility.  He hardened his own heart.

The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, 9:12

There is much about this that is inscrutible.  I stand in awe of Rom 9:18 – ‘God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.’

But note: there is a pattern to Pharaoh’s hardening of heart: it is in connection with the earlier plagues that we are told that he hardened his own heart; only in the later stages (from the 6^th plague onwards) are we told that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Pharaoh insists, “I want my own way.”  And finally comes the point when the Lord replies, “Very well, then, have your own way.”  See Rom 1:24, 28 – ‘God gave them over.’

In this sense, Pharaoh’s hardening is a preview of final judgement.  C.S. Lewis: ‘In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: “What are you asking God to do?” To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But he has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what he does.’

So…

(a) Let us embrace both explanations of hard-heartedness

Neither human responsibility, nor divine sovereignty, on their own, tells the full story.  How do I reconcile them?  I don’t!  We cannot see how these two lines converge.  But they do, at the throne of God.

(b) Let us trust that God can use even the actions of the hard-hearted for good

Ex 9:16 – “…that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Gen 50:20 – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”

Acts 2:23 – “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by mailing him to the cross.”

(c) Let us be warned that God’s own people can become hard-hearted

Psa 95:7-11 (“Do not harden your hearts”), applied to Jewish Christians, Heb 3:7-4:11 (‘see to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God’).

(d) Let us rejoice that God is expert in heart transplantation

He says to those whose hearts are hard as stone – Eze 36:26 – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

John 3 – ‘born again/from above.’

2 Cor 5:17 – ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!’

And finally

Strive to get and keep a tender heart; strive as if everything depended on you.  Pray that God would give you a tender heart; pray as if everything depended on him.