THE HARDENING of PHARAOHS HEART

Brian Huggett

The concern over a seeming conflict in the Scriptures between man’s free will and the sovereign will of God has been something every serious student of Scripture has had to face.  Some just say "...We cannot understand God’s ways..." and look no further.  These are not serious students. Others believe God has no control over his creatures and the will of man is not subject to him.  This, if it were true, must necessarily have God rule his creation on an ad hoc basis.  Still others say the sovereignty of God overrules man’s volition and we are no more than puppets on his string, with some being predestined to everlasting life and all others being predestined to hell.   

The passage that says God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” is a true statement, God did harden Pharaoh’s heart and he also condemned Pharaoh for that hardness.  In Scripture God’s decree makes all things certain, including the sins of men, yet throughout the scriptures it is stated that the penalty of sin is death, also at God’s decree.  What is the explanation to this seeming unfairness of God, or are we to be left uneasy in our hearts.

Knowing God to be absolute love and absolutely just, it cannot be that he causes his creatures to sin and then arbitrarily and wantonly condemns them to hell, for God is not willing that any should perish (2Peter 3:9); and if this is true then the opposite must also be true, God must be willing that all men be saved.  Does God who is desirous of the salvation for mankind, harden a man’s heart to condemnation or is the hardness of a man’s heart due to man’s own perverse nature?  God wills that all men should be saved, yet are all men saved?  God wills all believers to love the brethren yet do all believers obey his will?  Perhaps we have another unsolvable question to put in the too hard basket and need to wait until eternity for the answer.  But let us try. 

God is all knowing, he is omniscient.  He knows all things of eternity past and of eternity future.  He knows all things to do with his creation, past present and future and he has always known the distribution of each and every atom in his creation with all conceivable alternatives thereto, right to the end of time.  This includes the decisions of creatures and all of their conceivable alternatives.  If you can place any limitation on knowledge you have not understood omniscience, you have not begun to understand God.  From his omniscience of things actual, as well as things possible, God has chosen those things that would actually come to pass and decreed that they would happen.  From God’s omniscience, the actual could have been adjusted and a suitable and lawful alternative inserted for any moment in time, but once his decree was given the events of history became immutable, unalterable and God’s plan for his creation became fixed. 

God’s decree is a result of and is formed from his omniscience.  God’s decree does not necessarily reflect his desire, for it includes the free will of man and the sin that results from that free will.  God’s omniscience saw the arrogance and self will of man and by reason of his own eternal and perfect purposes decreed that it would happen.  He was never willing that men should sin and die but knew beforehand that they would. 

It is because of God’s omniscience, that he foreknew those who would believe in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, how he could elect and predestine them to eternal life even before they were born, how he could at the Cross judge every sin that was ever committed before most of those sins would be committed.

Man’s will is free to make decisions for or against God during this life on earth.  At physical death he cannot say he will cease to exist or say where he will spend eternity.  That is God’s prerogative; that is God’s will.  Those who say they did not ask to be born are acknowledging God’s existence but wilfully turn their backs on him.  “...knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”  Romans 1:21-22 

God is perfect love and he is also holy – perfectly just and perfectly righteous.  From this justice and righteousness comes perfect law, which law controls the universe especially the world of rational creatures.  Because God exists and is as he is, law exists, for it is part of God’s nature.  Because God is all in all, his law is all in all and there is nothing that is not subject to it.  Man, even in his rejection and unbelief is subject to God’s laws and we can prove that easily by this simple illustration.

A chandelier, of a thousand candles and half a tonne of lead crystal, is hanging fifteen feet above the ballroom floor.  The metal ring from which it is suspended has broken and is slowly straightening.  If one of the foolish says, "I will defy the law of gravity", and stands immediately under that chandelier, he will be killed or badly injured.  Why?  God has decreed his law of gravity to be effective in all situations and if man by his foolish presumption defies it, he will suffer the inevitable consequences.  

The natural laws, or so-called scientific laws pertaining to the material universe, are not the only laws that govern it.  We have spiritual and moral law that is just as immutable, just as fixed as the law of gravity etc.  They apply to rational and moral creatures and can be understood even though they may not be believed by the unregenerate and/or ungodly.

        "...The wages of sin is death..." is a spiritual law just as is the rest of that same passage, "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord..". 

Perfect justice must condemn sin, it cannot do otherwise or else it would not be perfect justice.  A sinner who offers to God his imperfect thoughts or deeds is unacceptable to God, and being unacceptable to God is eternal death.  God would have to lower his perfect standards to accept those imperfect thoughts and deeds and this is not possible.  A sinner can be acceptable to God but only by obeying the "law of the Spirit of life" in Christ Jesus.

Perfect love and perfect justice were fulfilled, "in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" and because “Christ died for our sins”.  Through his sacrifice we see “God was in Jesus Christ reconciling man to himself...”  and by these simple statements the law of the Spirit of life is seen in Christ Jesus and is applicable to all mankind, for "no man can come to the Father but by Him.”

As with the law of gravity, men who refuse to believe and adhere to God’s spiritual laws must suffer the inevitable consequences.  Perfect justice and righteousness, attributes of God himself, combine to produce an eternal and all pervading law that demands adherence from creation.  By means of law God can be said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  The inevitable result of rejecting God’s law is rebellion.

God did harden Pharaoh’s heart and God does hold Pharaoh responsible for his unbelief and rejection.