Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?

Question: “Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?”

Answer: Exodus 7:3-4 says, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my people the Israelites.”It seems unjust for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart and then to punish Pharaoh and Egypt for what Pharaoh decided when his heart was hardened. Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart just so He could judge Egypt more severely with additional plagues?

First, Pharaoh was not an innocent or godly man. He was a brutal dictator overseeing the terrible abuse and oppression of the Israelites, who likely numbered over 1.5 million people at that time. The Egyptian pharaohs had enslaved the Israelites for 400 years. A previous pharaoh—possibly even the pharaoh in question—ordered that male Israelite babies be killed at birth(Exodus 1:16) (ESV)
16  “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” . The pharaoh God hardened was an evil man, and the nation he ruled agreed with, or at least did not oppose, his evil actions.

Second, on least a couple occasions, Pharaoh hardened his own heart against letting the Israelites go: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart” (Exodus 8:15). “But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exodus 8:32). It seems that God and Pharaoh were both active in one way or another in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. As the plagues continued, God gave Pharaoh increasingly severe warnings of the final judgment to come. Pharaoh chose to bring further judgment on himself and his nation by hardening his own heart against God’s commands.

It could be that, as a result of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart even further, allowing for the last few plagues and bringing God’s full glory into view (Exodus 9:12; 10:20, 27). Pharaoh and Egypt had brought these judgments on themselves with 400 years of slavery and mass murder. Since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and Pharaoh and Egypt had horribly sinned against God, it would have been just if God had completely annihilated Egypt. Therefore, God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart was not unjust, and His bringing additional plagues against Egypt was not unjust. The plagues, as terrible as they were, actually demonstrate God’s mercy in not completely destroying Egypt, which would have been a perfectly just penalty.

Romans 9:17-18 declares, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” From a human perspective, it seems wrong for God to harden a person and then punish the person He has hardened. Biblically speaking, however, we have all sinned against God (Romans 3:23), and the just penalty for that sin is death (Romans 6:23). Therefore, God’s hardening and punishing a person is not unjust; it is actually merciful in comparison to what the person deserves.  https://www.gotquestions.org/God-harden-Pharaoh-heart.html

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Romans 9:14-23 (ESV) 
14  What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 
15  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 
16  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 
17  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 
18  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 
19  You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 
20  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 
21  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 
22  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 
23  in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

Romans 9 is perhaps the most difficult chapter in the Bible to read, accurately understand, and fully accept, because what Romans 9 teaches flies in the face of our human inclination to be independent, self-determining, and proud. Romans 9 indicates that it is God, not us—not me—who is in control. In fact, it shows that God is in such total control that He can and does sovereignly elect to show mercy to some people while hardening the hearts of others. And it shows that He is just in doing so. And it shows that I am in no position to challenge Him on the matter (Romans 9:20-21). And it shows that I am also still fully responsible for all of my actions and accountable for all of my choices.

Am I then saying that God Himself actually arranged for Pharaoh to sin?

Job was attacked by Satan.

Yes, in much the same sense that He arranged for Joseph’s brothers to sell Joseph into slavery (Genesis 50:20), Satan to attack Job (Job 1:12), Jews and and Romans to crucify Jesus (Acts 2:23), and sin to exist in the first place.

Well, if that’s true, how can we explain what seems like a contradiction—that God wills sinwhich is, by definition, against His will.

Theologians have often handled this paradox by concluding that there are two wills in God, sometimes referred to as God’s sovereign will and His revealed (perceptive) will, or His will of command and His will of decree. And also by understanding that in God’s view and plan, it is good that there is evil in this world. Note—that is not to say that evil is itself good; only that evil serves a worthy end and is therefore an important and integral part of God’s good purposes.

But isn’t God compassionate toward all men—even sinners? And if so, how could He harden Pharaoh’s heart while simultaneously loving him and feeling compassion for him?

Dr. John Piper addresses this as follows:

“There is a genuine inclination in God’s heart to spare those who have committed treason against his kingdom. But his motivation is complex, and not every true element in it rises to the level of effective choice. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real… Yet not all of these longings govern God’s actions. He is governed by the depth of his wisdom expressed through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive (Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 2:9). There are holy and justreasons for why the affections of God’s heart have the nature and intensity and proportion that they do.”

Author: Daryl E. Witmer of AIIA Institute.

Text Copyright © 2007, AIIA Institute, All Rights Reserved—except as noted on attached “Usage and Copyright” page that grants ChristianAnswers.Net users generous rights for putting this page to work in their homes, personal witnessing, churches and schools.

“4:21 I will harden his heart. The Lord’s personal and direct involvement in the affairs of men so that His purposes might be done is revealed as God informed Moses what would take place. Pharaoh was also warned that his own refusal would bring judgment on him (v.23). Previously Moses had been told that God was certain of Pharaoh’s refusal (3:19). This interplay between God’s hardening and Pharaoh’s hardening his heart must be kept in balance. Ten times (4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1,20,27; 11:10; 14:4,8,17) the historical record notes specifically that God hardened the king’s heart, and ten times (7:13,14,22; 8:15,19,32; 9:7,34,35; 13:15) the record indicates the king hardened his own heart. The Apostle Paul used this hardening as an example of God’s inscrutable will and absolute power to intervene as He chooses, yet obviously never without loss of personal responsibility for actions taken. The theological conundrum posed by such interplay of God’s acting and Pharaoh’s acting can only be resolved by accepting the record as it stands and by taking refuge in the omniscience and omnipotence of the God who planned and brought about His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and in so doing also judged Pharaoh’s sinfulness. ..” The MacArthur Study Bible, 1997, Word Publishing, John MacArthur, pg. 99

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