September 20, 2007

• Discovering God’s Character
  
  
  
  Exodus 3-4 & onward: Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart

  It is important at this point to discuss the matter of God saying that
  He will harden Pharaoh’s heart since much has been said concerning this
  and many issues has been raised about God’s character in this. Since
  this series deals with God’s character, we will take some time to study
  this. Rather than read the plethora of books out there which talk about
  this and the necessary result of their opinions, we will be examining
  what God Himself says about the matter in the Word.

  One of the first things we must look at is the basic points of the
  overall plan that God tells Moses will happen in the Exodus. If we
  combine the facts in Exodus 3 and  4 … and onward, we will find the
  complete story of the Exodus..

  1.    The Elders of Israel will believe Moses.
  2.    The Elders of Israel will go with Moses as Moses speaks to Pharaoh.
  3.    Moses will say, “The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Please, let us go three days
         journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
  4.    God tells Moses that He knows that Pharaoh won’t permit this except if he is forced.
  5.    God tells Moses to perform the wonders that He gave Moses to do before Pharaoh.
  6.    God will harden Pharoah’s heart so that he will not let the people go.
  7.    At the end of this exercise, God tells Moses to say to Pharaoh something on the order of “Since you
         have refuse to let Israel, my firstborn, go, I will kill your firstborn.”
  8.    Israel will leave Egypt with the Egyptians giving them silver, gold, and clothing and this is how they
         will plunder Egypt.

  So there we have the evidence that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Now
  most people will look at that and blindly say that the Bible says this
  is so and take a firm stand on it. Yet like most other things in life,
  such a conclusion does not do justice to the “whole story”. Without
  understanding the “rest of the story”, we will misunderstand God’s
  character and perhaps in a radically poor way. Let’s look at the rest
  of the evidence.

  First, God knew that Israel would come under bondage and for how long
  (four hundred years/four generations) and that they would leave their
  oppressors taking great wealth from them.  Genesis 15:13-21. From the
  time span of four hundred years (four generations), we know that, there
  was more than two Pharaohs between the time Israel entered Egypt in the
  time of Joseph to the Exodus. There had to be at least enough Pharaohs
  to cover the 400 year timespan. We can readily identify three Pharaohs
  in the scripture and suspect a fourth. Here is a list of what we can
  readily deduce.

  1.    the Pharaoh who knew Joseph (the one who made Joseph 2nd in the kingdom)
         a.    Israel was fruitful and increased greatly (Ex 1:7)
  2.    the Pharoah that reigns after the one who met Jacob.
         a.    This one is not mentioned and is speculation based on the necessary years that Israel would
                remain in Egypt. Yet based on the wording of scripture such a Pharaoh would have been a
                reasonable conclusion.
         b.    This Pharaoh would most likely have been alive yet not yet Pharoah. He was aware of Joseph  
                and even have met him personally before Joseph died.
  3.    the Pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph (Ex 1:8, might be the next but maybe not)
        a.    This Pharaoh only had heard stories about Joseph but had no personal contact with him, therefore
               he did not know Joseph.
        b.    This Pharaoh worries about Israel’s growth concerning Egypt’s national security
        c.    This Pharaoh begins the severe enslavement and oppression. This is the Pharaoh that reigned
              during Moses’ birth. Ex 1:9-22
        d.    We are told of his death.  Ex 4:19 cp with Ex 2:15
  4.    the Pharaoh who reigned during the Exodus
        a.    This is the Pharaoh that Moses encountered and is the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

  If any more Pharaohs were to be inserted into this list to comply with
  historical records, they would most likely be inserted between #2 and
  #3.

  So the fact is that severe enslavement had occurred for at least two
  generations of Pharaohs even though more moderate enslavement preceded
  that.  Pharaoh #3 had already hardened his heart against Israel causing
  them to cry out to God in the first place. By the time Pharaoh #4 hits
  the scene and continues the previous oppression and indeed he worsens
  it in Exodus 5. In fact the very first words we read that come out of
  Pharaoh’s (#4) mouth is as follows:

  
  But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let
  Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel
  go.” Exodus 5:2 (NASB)

  This is just as God had said to Moses (and ultimately to Abraham).
  Pharaoh had already rejected God and had already had his life and
  energies invested in oppressing Israel. Now if we carefully observe
  that Pharaoh subsequently implements the “strawless bricks order” and
  some time elapses for the result of that and the events given later in
  Exodus 5 to occur (i.e. Ex 5:12-23), we know that Pharaoh had some time
  here to reconsider. Also, God repeated to Moses His intentions and
  Moses relates that to the sons of Israel but they could not hear him on
  account of their despondency and cruel bondage.  This sets up the
  events of the miracles to follow.  God now tells Moses to go to Pharaoh
  to demand Israel’s release.

  
  Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Go, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
  to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.”   Exodus 6:10-11 (NASB)

  This is a marked change from the entreaty of Exodus 5:3. On the
  “gameboard of life”, Pharaoh has made his play and now its God’s turn.
  God continues His message to Moses to deliver to Pharaoh…

  
  Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and
  your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I
  command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let
  the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s
  heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
  When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt
  and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of
  Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand
  on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” So Moses
  and Aaron did it; as the LORD commanded them, thus they did.  Exodus
  7:1-6 (NASB)

  The text tells us that God “will harden” Pharaoh’s heart. Note the
  “future tense” of the verb in the sentence. It says that God has not
  begun the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. It is at this point that God
  begins to do what He told Moses He would do earlier. This is confirmed
  for us…

  
  Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Exodus 7:13 (NASB)

  We even find later that God allowed Pharaoh to remain to resist Him in
  order to show His power and to proclaim His name through all the earth.
  We also learn that Pharaoh continued to exalt himself against God’s
  people by not letting them go.

  
  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and stand
  before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the
  Hebrews, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I
  will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so
  that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if
  by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with
  pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But,
  indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show
  you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.
  Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.”
  Exodus 9:13-17 (NASB)

  This is the context of the passage referred to by Romans 9:17-18.
  Pharaoh showed no mercy to Israel and therefore God judged him in the
  same manner that Pharaoh judged as right. So indeed, He has mercy on
  whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires. It is clear from these
  passages that even though Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, God clearly
  says what Pharaoh did were volitional acts on Pharaoh’s part. We can
  even clearly see that God was just in doing this.

  We even know that God did not continuously harden Pharaoh’s heart as we can see here…

  
  But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had
  ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
  Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go,
  just as the LORD had spoken through Moses. Exodus 9:34-35 (NASB)

  Now we can see the full sequence of what is going on. Pharaoh hardens
  his own heart. Then God acts in confirming Pharaoh’s hardened heart.
  It’s about as clear as it can be said anywhere.

  What can we gather about God’s character from this?  God did not do
  this hardening arbitrarily. Pharaoh had already rejected God and had
  forbid His people to go long before God hardened his heart.  Pharaoh
  was resolute about the matter and God confirmed him in that resolution
  and he became the object of everything we know about God performing
  judgment on those who rebel against God and His people. God only used
  Pharaoh’s own preconceived intentions and standards of conduct to His
  benefit. In other words, Pharaoh set himself up to be a negative
  example in God’s overall purposes and God obliged him and used that to
  glorify Himself.

  This brings us to an obvious conclusion if we are clever enough to
  catch it. God has two things going on here.

  1. He has a redemptive process
  (i.e. bringing all Israel out of Egypt) and …
  2. He has a plan and purpose
  to execute in order to bring that redemptive process to pass (i.e. His
  plan and
      purpose is to use Pharaoh’s own stubborn will in rejecting God
  and his refusal to have compassion on Israel to
      carry out the
  proclamation of His name both to Egypt and to the world.)

  There is a plan for redemption… and there is also a plan to cause that
  redemptive plan to succeed.  When we confuse the two, we can start
  saying things like God predestined Pharaoh to Hell. The scriptures are
  clear. Pharaoh was like many people we might meet. They ignore common
  decency and compassion. They are intent on oppressing God’s people and
  enslaving them for their own purposes. They simply don’t want to respond when all around them
  cries out for them to “consider their ways.”

  We have already seen that God has a promise to fulfill that He made to
  Abraham. His will is to bring blessing to all the families of the earth
  through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He also has a plan and purpose to
  carry out to achieve that end.  We can be willing recipients of that
  promise that was fulfilled through Jesus Christ in His death, burial,
  and resurrection that is brought to us completely through the abundant
  grace of God and His Spirit.  Yet there is the other matter to
  consider… the outworking of the other portions of His plan and purpose to achieve that end.
  God selected Pharaoh to be the person by which He would work against to
  perform His miracles because God already knew he would present Him the
  opportunity to do so.

  So considering this for our own benefit, just as it was with Pharaoh,
  there is the matter of hardening. We should be careful not to harden
  ourselves against His grace and find ourselves becoming yet another
  negative example in God’s plan to execute redemption for a people for
  His namesake. We should be careful to avoid rejecting the grace He has
  given us just as we are warned about in the book of Hebrews.

  As a closing note, we should pay attention to what happened here at a
  human level. What had started Egypt’s oppression of Israel in the first
  place was fear. With that fear came the desire to “control and
  manipulate”. Following this, control and manipulation led to a
  realization that their plan was not working, generating more fear. So
  control and manipulation became greater and greater until it resulted
  in the killing of children and unreasonable demands on Israel as a
  workforce at a minimum.  Pharaoh was caught up in the obsession of this
  downward spiral and could not see an opportunity to free himself and
  his nation of what was about to happen. He did not believe in the God
  who can free us from this and trusted in his own judgment of what was
  good and right for his nation. He even lost his firstborn son in the
  process. How many of us today fall into the same trap? The path of fear
  leads to one conclusion. The path of faith in the Lord God of Israel
  leads to the other… freedom. Mr.Vee

  • 3:14 pm
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