Pharaoh

Every Sunday school child knows the story of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. It contains all the elements that make a good flannelgraph or picture-book story—or even a Hollywood movie. It’s one of the most powerful and dramatic stories in the Bible. But it’s much more than a children’s story. It’s central in the Bible’s storyline, and it’s rich with deep theology and plays a vital role in our understanding of several important doctrines.

In this post I’d like to look at the relevance of the Exodus story for our understanding of God’s sovereignty, particularly as it relates to his work of hardening the hearts of sinners.

Table of Contents

• Was Pharaoh’s Hardening Merely Punishment for His Self-Hardening?
  • 1. Exodus 3:19 governs the narrative and presents Pharaoh as acting first and God as responding to his rebellion.
  • 2. The flow of the narrative places Pharaoh’s self-hardening before God’s further hardening.
  • 3. God’s justice demands that his hardening be in response to human hardening.
• Seven Reasons God’s Will Was Ultimate in Pharaoh’s Hardening
  • 1. The instances of Pharaoh’s self-hardening are stated fulfillments of God’s promise to harden Pharaoh’s heart.
    • Promise
    • Fulfillment
  • 2. Exodus 9:33–10:2 demonstrates that the three expressions of hardening are not mutually exclusive.
  • 3. Exodus 11:9 attaches God’s purpose and Pharaoh’s hardening in a way that requires God to be the ultimate cause.
  • 4. Exodus 9:16 roots Pharaoh’s hardening in God’s eternal plan to pursue his own glory.
    • God’s Identity
    • God’s Signs and Wonders
    • God’s Glory
  • 5. Paul interprets God’s hardening of Pharaoh as ultimately rooted in God’s free and sovereign will.
  • 6. The other examples of divine hardening support this view.
    • Hardening
    • Alternate Expressions
  • 7. This interpretation better fits the tenor of the many passages on God’s comprehensive sovereignty.

Was Pharaoh’s Hardening Merely Punishment for His Self-Hardening?

Some interpreters argue that God’s hardening was solely a response to Pharaoh’s prior free self-hardening. According to this view, the ultimate reason God hardened Pharaoh’s heart was that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart. God’s hardening was reactive and judicial. Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart. God responded with further hardening. If Pharaoh had chosen otherwise—and he could have—then God wouldn’t have hardened his heart.

This view seems to have some basis in the text. Layton Talbert makes a good argument for it in Not by Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God, 86–94.

Those who defend it often use some form of these three arguments:

1. Exodus 3:19 governs the narrative and presents Pharaoh as acting first and God as acting in response.
2. The general flow of the narrative presents Pharaoh’s self-hardening mainly at the beginning and God’s hardening mainly at the end.
3. God’s justice requires that his hardening be responsive to Pharaoh’s self-hardening.

Let’s look briefly at each.

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