“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.”… But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. [Exodus 7:3-4,; 8:15 (ESV)]
The whole matter of Pharaoh’s hardened heart and how it got so stubborn is confusing and an issue that has been debated at length by Biblical scholars. Based on the verses in Exodus where God says He will make Pharaoh’s heart hard (as He did in 7:3), some say that God deliberately hardened Pharaoh’s heart to demonstrate His power and glory. But, wouldn’t that mean Pharaoh had no free will? If Pharaoh couldn’t submit to Moses’ demands, the plagues hardly seem justified. How could a just God inflict such cruel punishment on all of Egypt when He was the one who made Pharaoh so inflexible?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, citing the verses saying that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (as does 8:15), other commentaries say that Pharaoh freely chose to stubbornly deny Moses and watch his people suffer. Saying that the hard heart was all Pharaoh’s doing, however, seems to contradict other verses and Scripture doesn’t contradict Scripture! The middle of the road explanation admits that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart but adds that Pharaoh already was so arrogant and headstrong that God didn’t change the outcome by further hardening it. The Oxford Jewish Study Bible notes that God “does not stiffen Pharaoh’s heart initially, but only after Pharaoh has done so himself many times.”
After reading several commentaries on Hebrew grammar, I found yet another explanation. Although God-breathed, Scripture was penned by men who used the words, idioms, and metaphors of the day. In ancient Hebrew, verbs could be both causative and permissive. Along with expressing direct action, active verbs also could express permission. This means that God saying He would harden Pharaoh’s heart could mean (1) that He caused the ruler’s heart to harden or (2) He permitted Pharaoh’s heart to harden. Another example of this verb use would be when Jeremiah tells God, “You have utterly deceived this people.” [Jeremiah 4:10] Jeremiah isn’t accusing God of being a liar; he’s saying that God allowed the people to be deceived (two very different things).
Instead of looking to commentaries, I finally looked to Scripture for my answer about Pharaoh’s hardened heart. In James, we find that, while God may test people, He does not tempt them. Temptation comes from Satan and we give into temptation when we’re seduced by our own desires. Pharaoh’s heart was hard because he was an evil, stubborn, and arrogant man—and that wasn’t God’s doing!
In a way, whether causative or permissive, both interpretations of the verb’s use are correct. We could say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because He provided the circumstances that backed Pharaoh into a corner. By sending Moses and Aaron to make their demands and providing the miracles confirming their divine origin, God set the stage for Pharaoh to reveal his hard heart. That God brought about the situation and events that caused Pharaoh to show his true colors, however, does not mean that God was the source of Pharaoh’s hardened heart—that was Pharaoh’s (and Satan’s) doing. Although God allowed it, He did not make Pharaoh that way and the responsibility for those plagues falls squarely on the arrogant man’s shoulders. Let us remember, the responsibility for our sins falls squarely on ours, as well.
It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. … Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus men find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God. [Ellen G. White]
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. [James 1:13-15 (ESV)]
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The Book of Exodus tells of the many times Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh with the Lord’s message that he should let the Israelites leave Egypt. Unwilling to see his slave labor depart, Pharaoh demanded a miracle to prove that the Israelites’ God sent them. Aaron threw down his staff and it became a serpent but Egypt’s magicians managed to do the same thing. Even though Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs, Pharaoh was unimpressed.
When my grandchildren were little, our guest bedroom was their playroom. Whenever they played house or school, the dolls and stuffed animals were the “children” in their imaginary world. For the most part, the dolls were well-behaved and helped in the play kitchen, sat attentively in their chairs, and were nice to the other children. But, sometimes, those pretend children misbehaved and needed to be put in “time-out.” In their world of make-believe, why did my grands choose to have children who sometimes disobeyed? I suspect they enjoyed the opportunity to do the disciplining instead of always being the one getting disciplined! Then again, without benefit of theological discussion, perhaps they simply understood the concept of free will and gave their dolls the ability to choose.
As the Israelites journeyed toward Canaan, they turned south to the plains of Moab. Fearful of so many Israelites in Moab and Midian, King Balak of Moab sent the elders of Moab and Midian to hire Balaam, a sorcerer and prophet, to curse the Israelites. Although Balaam tried to do just that, the Lord intervened by speaking through the mouth of a donkey, opening the prophet’s eyes to see an angel of the Lord, and being told he could speak only the message the Lord put in his mouth. Rather than cursing the Israelites, Balaam ended up blessing them and cursing Moab! Needless to say, the prophet did not receive the rich reward promised him. Although God prevented Balaam from cursing Israel, the unscrupulous prophet found another way to get his reward from Balak—he got Israel to bring a curse upon themselves!
While I expected bear sightings when we lived in the mountains of Colorado, I never expected a bear to find its way into our Florida community and scavenge in a neighbor’s trash bin on her driveway! While bears generally prefer natural foods like berries and nuts, as civilization encroaches on their habitat, those foods are becoming less abundant. Driven by their need to eat, bears will go where they can find any food. With a sense of smell that is seven times greater than a bloodhound’s, it’s estimated they can smell a food source from as far away as 20 miles. Opportunistic creatures, they take advantage of whatever is easily available, whether bird seed, pet food, barbecue grills, or garbage.
The Levites (descendants of Jacob’s son Levi) were set aside for religious service. While all priests were Levites, not all Levites were priests. The most sacred tasks, like offering the sacrifices and conducting ceremonies, were reserved for the priests (kohanim) who were descendants of Aaron; the rest of the Levites supported the priests in their duties.
Devotions of the Heart 