The hardening of Pharaoh's heart

Exodus 9-12

Exodus 9-12 is one of the foundational passages of the history of the tribe of Israel. The conclusion of their Egyptian captivity and the institution of the Passover are watershed moments. But there is something deeply unsettling about the way Pharaoh figures into the story. At the conclusion of the seventh plague, Pharaoh sends for Moses and admits his wrongdoing and begs him to ask God to call off the hail. Yet "When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart" (Exodus 9:27, 34). In this instance it appears that Pharaoh sinned under his own power, as it were; that is, by his own choosing.

Before the next plague strikes, however, God tells Moses, "'Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord'” (Exodus 10: 1-2). Here the situation is somewhat different. It seems that God has stacked the deck against Pharaoh; He has predetermined that Pharaoh will not grant Moses's request.

This seems somehow unfair. One could object that God is supernaturally preventing Pharaoh from being able to repent so that He has an excuse to hurt the people of Egypt (indeed, God says this is exactly what He is doing [Exodus 10: 1-2]). But to stop here would be to miss the point entirely. God is not punishing the Egyptians for the sake of inflicting pain. He is doing this because performing these signs brings Him glory. God's faithfulness is so great that not even the mighty Pharaoh, not even a multi-century enslavement, can prevent Him from redeeming His people. For the rest of time, people will be telling of God's magnificent power and His enduring mercy.

What about the abrogation of Pharaoh's free will? God establishes in the book of Job that human beings possess free will (for further consideration, I encourage you to read my piece on that subject here), but here He seems to suspend that will. I can think of two possible explanations for this phenomenon. One is the classic C.S. Lewis explanation, "There are two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done'" (THE GREAT DIVORCE). Lewis was speaking about the mechanism by which people ended up in Hell, but the illustration applies equally well here; God foresees the future in which Pharaoh exercises his free will to continue ignoring Moses's entreaties, and He simply accelerates the process in the present. In this case, there really has been no infringement of will.

The other explanation is that God does indeed temporarily revoke Pharaoh's free will. But what of it? God has created the natural world and all the laws that govern it. It is certainly His right to suspend or alter those laws any time He chooses. Furthermore, we have already seen that God's purpose here is to glorify Himself. Supernatural intervention in the natural world for the purpose of bringing glory to God is common throughout the Old and New Testaments. If God wishes to glorify Himself, who are we to request that He refrain from doing so?