God’s Hand and the Pharaoh’s Heart
Today’s message is more of a theological summary message. A key theme in the Exodus is God’s relationship to Pharaoh’s heart. And this raises questions for us about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. So my goal is to walk through the passages on Pharaoh’s hardening and make one major point about God’s sovereignty and then to explore in more detail the way that hearts become hard. First, let’s hear all of the passages on this subject.
The Hardening Passages
On the mountain with God
Exodus 4:21: And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Before the first plague
Exodus 7:3: But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.
After the staff turns into a serpent
Exodus 7:13: Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Before the Nile is turned to blood
Exodus 7:14: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.
After the Nile is turned to blood
Exodus 7:22: But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
After Moses gets rid of the frogs
Exodus 8:15: But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
After the gnats
Exodus 8:19: Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
After the flies
Exodus 8:32: But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
After the Egyptian livestock die
Exodus 9:7: And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
After the boils
Exodus 9:12: But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
After the rain and hail
Exodus 9:34-35: But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.
Exodus 10:1–2: Then the LORD said to 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.”
After the locusts
Exodus 10:20: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
After the darkness
Exodus 10:27: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
As a summary after the first nine plagues
Exodus 11:10: Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
After the exodus
Exodus 14:4: And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD."
Exodus 14:8: And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
When God splits the Red Sea for his people
Exodus 14:17–18: And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
Who Hardens Pharaoh?
But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants (Pharaoh did it). 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened (ambiguous), and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses. 10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants (God did it), that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 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.”
Now a very basic observation: in those passages there are three ways that Pharaoh’s hardening is portrayed. Three times, Pharaoh hardens his own heart. Ten times, God is said to harden Pharaoh’s heart. Six times the text leaves it ambiguous: “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.”
Some Christians are very uncomfortable with the notion that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. They think, “If God hardened him, then he’s not free. And if he’s not free, then he can’t be held responsible for his actions.” And so they want to say something like this: “Early on, Pharaoh hardens his own heart or his heart is hardened in this ambiguous way. It’s only after he’s dug in and made his decision to resist God that God gives him over to his rebellion and confirms him in his hardening.” So they really want to accent that first Pharaoh hardened his own heart (and God didn’t really have anything to do with that part), and then later God simply confirmed the Pharaoh’s prior decision.
But there’s some challenges to that approach to the passage. First, the first reference to hardening is in 4:21, when God promises, “I will harden [strengthen] his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Second, when the moment of confrontation arrives in 7;3, God says it again, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply signs and wonders, Pharaoh will not listen to you.” Third, the ambiguous examples in chapters 7, 8, and 9 (“Pharaoh’s heart was hardened”) all support the action by saying, “as the Lord had said.” But what had the Lord said? That he would harden Pharaoh’s heart. So, God says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,” and then sure enough, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, as the Lord had said.” In fact, even the examples where Pharaoh hardens his own heart (8:15, 32) refer back to what the Lord had said. So Pharaoh hardens his heart as the Lord had said, namely, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”
Instead of trying to avoid the force of God’s promise to harden, we ought to see that the Bible presents God as absolutely sovereign over Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh is absolutely responsible for his heart and his actions. The Bible doesn’t see any tension between those two truths. In fact, listen carefully to three verses in 9:34-10:1:
Pharaoh hardening his heart. Pharaoh’s heart being hardened (ambiguous). And God hardening his heart. All three describe the same event. God hardening and Pharaoh hardening are not at odds; they are complementary.
One analogy that has helped me to understand how this works is this. God is an author. The world is his story. We are his characters. This helps me to get a glimpse—not a total grasp, but a glimpse—of how God can be completely, totally, and exhaustively sovereign over everything (including the human heart), and human beings can be truly free and responsible for their choices and their actions can be meaningful and significant. It allows us to see layers in our understanding of causality.
Why was it always winter and never Christmas in Narnia? Because the White Witch enslaved the land.
Why was it always winter and never Christmas in Narnia? Because that’s the way Lewis wrote the story.
Why does Aslan have to die? Because Edmund was a traitor.
Why does Aslan have to die? Because Lewis wrote the story that way.
Who killed the White Witch? Aslan did.
Who killed the White Witch? C.S. Lewis did.
Every aspect of the story—from plot to characters to background details—is under the sovereign control of the Author. Yahweh is the Causer of All Things, the Author of everything. And the actions of the characters, including Pharaoh and his self-hardening, are necessary for the resolution of the plot. God is the author and so is sovereign over every last bit of it. At the same time, as characters in his story, we have real integrity and agency, and thus from the inside, our choices are decisive. God’s actions and our actions are really distinct; you can’t blame God for our sin, and yet they are so overlapping and intertwined that the same action (like Pharaoh’s hardening) can be truly ascribed to both of us.
Let me press this home to us. The Bible regularly stretches like this. It pulls us in uncomfortable directions. God’s sovereignty pulling one way. Man’s responsibility pulling us the other way. God hardening pulling us one way. Pharaoh self-hardening pulling the other way. And my exhortation to you is this: Don’t allow one truth in the Bible to cancel another truth in the Bible. Don’t allow God’s sovereignty to crush human freedom and responsibility. Don’t allow human freedom to mute God’s sovereignty. Let the whole Bible speak so that God reshapes and remolds our minds and our hearts so that we can take all of him in.
How Hearts Harden
This is the most extended and detailed description of God’s interaction with the human heart in Scripture. In it, God demonstrates the truth of Proverbs 21:1. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” And we could leave it at the general level and simply affirm and celebrate the truth that God is sovereign over the human heart. But Exodus actually gives us some particulars about how God works with Pharaoh’s heart. All of it is under the banner of God’s promise in Exodus 4:21, but there is an important progression in the passage, and we can learn from these particulars about our own hearts.
Three different words are underneath the word “harden.” One means “to stiffen” (as in “stiff-necked). It shows up only once in 7:3 at the outset of the plagues, before Moses goes into Pharaoh, and may be a kind of summary description of what is about to happen. The second is “to strengthen.” It shows up 12 times, sometimes in the ambiguous sense, and sometimes God actively doing it. It seems to indicate a strengthening in whatever direction you’re already going. The third word means “to make heavy” or “to deaden.” Both Pharaoh and God are said to deaden Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh’s heart is described as heavy in 7:14, and then beginning in 8:15, Pharaoh makes his heart heavy, or he deadens his heart. Now the idea here is that a heavy organ is not functioning right. If your eyes are heavy, you can’t see well. If your tongue is heavy, you can’t speak well (that’s what Moses says to God in Exodus 4:10). If your heart is heavy, it won’t do what it’s supposed to do. And what is the heart fundamentally supposed to do? It’s supposed to respond to God with faith and worship and obedience.
So how do these unfold? God promises that he will strengthen and stiffen Pharaoh’s heart. During the initial plagues, we’re told that Pharaoh’s heart was strengthened. Pharaoh is a wicked tyrant, a rebel, a grave sinner. Thus, initially all that happens is that God simply strengthens Pharaoh in the direction he’s already going. He doesn’t have to turn Pharaoh’s heart; he just has to let the water take the course that’s before it. This seems to be suggested in 7:14, which literally says, “Pharaoh’s heart was heavy/dead.” It’s a rock, stone. Then as we move past the second plague (frogs), we’re told that Pharaoh deadened his heart (8:15). He dug in. He doubled down. And for the first six plagues, we jump back and forth between Pharaoh deadening his own heart, and God strengthening Pharaoh’s heart [to do what it’s already doing].
Then in chapter 10, as the eighth plague approaches, we’re told for the first time that God deadened Pharaoh’s heart. And from then on, there’s no ambiguity. 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8, 14:17—in each of these examples, God is strengthening Pharaoh’s heart in the direction that God had deadened Pharaoh’s heart. Why is this significant? Well, just before plague 7 (the first in the final cycle of three plagues), God tells Pharaoh:
“For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself (literally, “on your heart”), and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.” (Exodus 9:14)
In other words, at this point, we’ve crossed a line. The plagues have escalated to the point that, even if Pharaoh doesn’t love and honor God, for the sake of his own preservation, he might relent. But God desires to bring the full weight of his judgment on the Egyptians, so he deadens Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh won’t turn, even out of self-preservation. In fact, after the seventh plague, Pharaoh’s servants urge him to do that. “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go. Don’t you get that Egypt is ruined?” (10:7). Pharaoh tries to negotiate with Moses, and Moses insists on full obedience, and so Pharaoh, because his heart has now been fully deadened, says, “No!” (10:11) and drives Moses and Aaron from his presence.
So to summarize, at the beginning, Pharaoh is a sinner. He’s a rebel. And the inconveniences of the plagues don’t lead him to change course, because both he and God strengthen his heart to do what it’s already wanting to do. But as time goes on, and as Pharaoh is strengthened in his rebellion, and as he deadens his own heart, eventually he crosses a line so that God brings the full weight of his judgment down on Pharaoh; the plagues come on Pharaoh’s heart so that God himself actively deadens Pharaoh’s heart so that he is completely blinded to the situation and persists in the insanity of disobedience, which ultimately leads to his utter ruin at the Red Sea.
So what does this have to do with us?
By nature, we are all sinners like Pharaoh. Paul tells us that all of us at one time were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). We were by nature children of wrath. We were darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance in us, due to the hardness of our hearts” (4:17-18). For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (Titus 3:3). And God could have just left us there. He could have strengthened our sinful direction, allowing us to deaden our stony hearts.
But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. He took out our heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. By grace, he saves us, changing our hearts so that they no longer walk in the futility and insanity of Pharaoh-like hardness. This is the miracle of the new birth, and it’s the only reason that we’re all not destined to be drowned in the Red Sea.
But does this mean that hardness of heart is no longer a danger to us as Christians? Listen to Hebrews 3:12–15:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
The danger of hardening our hearts is still real. But it will look differently for professing Christians than for an outright and defiant unbeliever like Pharaoh. In Screwtape Letters, Lewis describes the way that this hardening happens for normal folks like us, but his description is particularly helpful in light of the progression of Pharaoh’s hardening.
Screwtape says that it all begins by drifting, by being pulled along by the wider social environment, by being conformed to the pattern of the world. At this point, we are simply passively responding to our environment, floating down the cultural river like a jellyfish. In this first stage, the language we use for our “sins” becomes blurred.
But then, these choices begin to “harden into a habit” by steady repetition. At this point, we begin to excuse our choices and reactions because “that’s my personality,” or “I was reacting to something around me that made me do it.” From drifting along passively to habitual choice. We begin to be drawn to arguments that create space for our drifting and disobedience. Or sometimes it’s even more subtle; we’re drawn to arguments that create space for other people to disobey. Now we wouldn’t say that; we think we’re just honestly exploring other perspectives. But our hearts, as they drift, can deceive us, as we use the complexity of life to override the simplicity of basic obedience.
Once the habit is in place, the next step is for our conformity to the social environment to become a creed, a conviction. We justify our drifting, our sin, our rebellion with theories and lofty ideas, with excuses and rationalizations. We begin to own those plausible arguments for ourselves. We embrace philosophies or interpretations that let others and us off the hook. The stories we tell about ourselves reinforce the direction of our drift. In other words, as in the case of Pharaoh, we strengthen our hearts to drift.
Listen to Screwtape describe the next step: “Thus gradually there comes to exist at the centre of the creature a hard, tight, settled core of resolution to go on being what it is, and even to resist moods that might tend to alter it.”
The heart has become hardened, like a stone. This is a real, deliberate (though often not fully self-conscious) rejection of God and his ways. In other words, we begin to deaden our hearts, so that they are heavy, numb, and dull to God.
Throughout this process, circumstances and events might unnerve us and press us to repent. Something happens to disrupt our peace, to unsettle our drifting, to shake our trajectory. Maybe it’s something small and surprising, like a staff turning into a serpent. Maybe it’s more of a nuisance like frogs, gnats, and flies. Or maybe things begin to go really wrong, as we’re afflicted with boils, hail, locusts, and darkness. In that moment, what do we do? Do we double down? Do we strengthen our hearts in their current direction? Do we deaden our hearts?
Or maybe it’s not circumstances. Maybe we begin to avoid other Christians, to neglect gathering with believers, lest they call us back to obedience. Lest their obedience remind us of how far we’ve drifted. We mock people who believe and obey as we used to. Or we pity them for still being shackled by those chains that we’ve shed. Or we might even grow angry at their obedience because it is a reminder of our own obligations. We might drive them away from us because we don’t want to face God. In other words, we might strengthen our hearts on the rebellious way.
And then, it’s not just the people of God. We come to resist the direct word of God. We hear the Lord’s voice and harden our hearts. We hear, “Thou shalt not…” and that hard core of resistance and rebellion rises up in defiance. We’re deadened, we’re numbed, we’re hardened. And we say “No” to God. And the hardening builds and builds until we are living in outright defiance of God, or we walk away from the faith altogether.
But there is good news in the midst of this. The good news from Exodus is that God rules and reigns over and in this hardening. He is sovereign over our hearts. Our hearts are streams of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns them wherever he will. He can break into our efforts to strengthen our resistance and deaden our hearts. He can humble us and turn us around, not against our will, but by transforming our hearts so we have a new will. And then, he can strengthen our hearts for faith and obedience. We can exhort one another:
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD! (Psalm 27:14)
And we can pray, “God, strengthen our hearts to trust you. Deliver us from hardness and deadness; make us soft and alive to your word and your instruction. Fan into flame the flickering candles of obedience. Strengthen our hearts to follow you, O Lord.”
The Table
Our God loves to show mercy. Even his hardening serves his mercy. He hardens Pharaoh in order to overcome Pharaoh and show forth his mighty power to and for his people. He makes Pharaoh’s heart heavy so that he can reveal to his people the weight of his glory. Which brings us to this Table. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he set forth all of the hardships and tribulations that his disciples would face. And then he looked them in the eye and said, “In this world, you will have trouble. Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” This Table reminds us that the wrath of Pharaoh and the malice of the devil cannot stand against our God. Jesus has overcome. And even more than that, not even our hardness of heart can stand against our God. God is greater than our hearts, and Jesus has overcome.