Here’s a riddle: When Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people of Israel leave Egypt, and the ten plagues were raining down on him, did Pharaoh have a stubborn hard heart, or was Pharaoh just a puppet in the hand of the Lord, and it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? In other words, did God harden Pharaoh’s heart, or did Pharaoh harden his own heart?
I will harden his heart. Exodus 4:21
Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Exodus 7:13
"Pharaoh's heart is hardened. Exodus 7:14
Pharaoh's heart remained hardened. Exodus 7:22
Pharaoh . . . hardened his heart. Exodus 8:15
Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Exodus 8:19
Pharaoh hardened his heart. Exodus 8:32
The heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Exodus 9:7
The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Exodus 9:12
Pharaoh sinned yet again and hardened his heart. Exodus 9:34
The heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Exodus 9:35
Then the LORD said to Moses, "I have hardened his heart.” Exodus 10:1
But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart. Exodus 10:20
But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart. Exodus 10:27
The LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart. Exodus 11:10
I will harden Pharaoh's heart, . . . and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." Exodus 14:4
And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Exodus 14:8
I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians. Exodus 14:17
Four times God says “I will harden” of “I have hardened” Pharaoh’s heart. Five times the Bible says “the LORD hardened” Pharaoh’s heart. Three times it says, “Pharaoh hardened his heart.” And six times it simply says “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.”
So, which is it? Is Pharaoh in control of his own heart, or is God? As you may already know, the answer to the riddle is YES.
You say, “That’s not an answer!” And I say, “That’s not the right question!”
“Which is it?” is the wrong question, as if it is an either/or matter. In the matter of the heart, God has 100% control over a person, AND a person has 100% free will. The better question is, “How do those two truths fit together?” I mean, 100% plus 100% equals 200%, and that’s impossible!
Let’s add another factor into the equation: Satan is the ruler of the power of the air, and he can influence at least some hearts 100%, working his own will in a given situation. Don’t you think he was the one behind the 400 years of slavery and mistreatment, and the force prompting Pharaoh’s disdain and rejection? So, maybe Satan needs to factor into that 100% sovereignty thing. If so, the solution is now 300% of control of someone’s heart in any circumstance. By definition, nothing can add up to more than 100%, and that’s impossible. Right?
The only problem with that little exercise in logic is this: It contains the word “impossible.” With God all things are possible.
So it is with you and me. We are a complex combination of self-will and divine spark. Back when we thought that we were autonomous beings, we discovered that in truth our thoughts had been being ruled by the evil one. We were making our own decisions, according to what seemed right in our eyes at the moment, but we were really pawns in a much bigger game.
But maybe we’re still not quite asking the right question, and we’re still not quite the heart of the matter, either.
It’s like you were riding one of those kiddie rides at the amusement park. You know, the ones with a steering wheel that you can spin around all you want, unaware that you are doing nothing to affect where your car is going. Ultimately, you go exactly where you were predetermined to go, and you did not deviate one bit from that path, no matter where or how hard you thought you were turning. There was a much bigger force in play than you! In the same way, this event is bigger than Pharaoh and his heart. Pharaoh’s heart is not the center of this story, and neither is Pharaoh. Neither is Moses, as Moses learned painfully.
The center of the story is God’s firstborn son, Israel. It is a story about God’s love for a nation, not His hatred of an individual man, or even of a nation. Pharaoh is more of a pawn than a king in this game.
I’m saying, Pharaoh made daily choices that seemed right to him, possibly unaware of the Big Plan that God had for the people of Israel. He called the shots, he told people what to do, and it seemed to be a human struggle between two nations; one nation held as slaves in captivity, and the other both oppressing and fearing them. But every choice was amazingly controlled by The Man Upstairs.
God was using circumstances to change Pharaoh’s heart, like clay in the hand of the Potter, so that he would allow exactly ten plagues to be imposed, and then Israel would plunder Egypt and leave. That’s a pretty small window, and a lot of small corrections to the steering wheel along the way. Though Pharaoh has an unregenerate heart, it softens slowly. It is a mercy. It is a work of art. It is Israel’s deliverance.
But Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." Exodus 5:2.
I. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. Exodus 7:23
II. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD." Exodus 8:8
III. 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. Exodus 8:19
IV. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." . . . "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me." Exodus 8:25, 28
V. 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. Exodus 9:7
VI. But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses. Exodus 9:12
VII. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." . . . 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. Exodus 9:27-28, 34-35
VIII. Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, ". . . Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?" So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, "Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?" Moses said, "We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD." But he said to them, "The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking." And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Exodus 10:7-11
IX. Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me." So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD. And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. Exodus 10:16-20 . . . Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind." But Moses said, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there." But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die." Exodus 10:24-28
X. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!" Exodus 12:30-32
In the meantime, God was also working on the hearts of the Egyptians, just as He had told them He would do.
And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians." Exodus 3:21-22
Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry." And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. Exodus 11:2-3
The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead." So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. Exodus 12:33-36
I keep saying that our questions are too small. Asking about who controls Pharaoh’s heart, or even who controls the hearts of each Egyptian family, is a small and easy thing for God. He made our hearts; He can turn them like a river any way He chooses to. It was all to deliver the people of Israel from bondage, it turns out. But there is even yet a BIGGER story going on here:
I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Exodus 6:7 . . . 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. Exodus 9:16
It is a mercy. It is judgment. It is glory. It is power. It is all a work that only God can do, and for reasons that only God can know. And so we observe, and we marvel, and we choose to believe that in it all, He is who He says He is.
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 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." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Romans 9:14-18
YOUR ENCOUNTER
When you pray for someone who is not a believer, how do you pray? What do you ask God to do? Can the Lord change the heart of someone who is not seeking Him? Based on what He did to Pharaoh, what do you think is appropriate? If God can harden a heart, will He soften one?
Some people emphasize the sovereignty of God, believing that no one comes to faith unless the Lord draws them. Only those who are called are chosen, and only those who are chosen are saved. On the other end of the spectrum, some people believe in the free will of man, and that the Spirit enters someone only after they have already chosen to believe. Whosoever will may come, they emphasize.
Ironically, those who emphasize God’s sovereignty still preach as if their message could win a soul. And equally ironic is those who pray for the Holy Spirit to draw someone who would come by his own volition. In truth, both groups are right, but perhaps not complete. The signpost along the road says, “Whosoever will may come.” But after arriving, the back of that sign says, “Chosen from the foundation of the world.”
So, pray in accordance with God’s will for that person. It is, after all, God’s will that all will be saved. Pray for the Spirit to draw, for circumstances to lead, for others to step in with just the right word at the right time. Join with someone in praying, and then write your insights in your journal.