Summary: Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart in the book of Exodus? This article will explore how
- There is hope when we listen to God and unharden our hearts to his leading.
- When we keep hardening our hearts, it makes us increasingly unable to respond to God’s direction.
- Eventually, God will use the destruction of hardhearted people as an example of warning to other people. It is in this context and for this purpose that God continued to harden Pharaoh’s already-hardened heart. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to display God’s power over evil.
Sometimes the ending isn’t quite as set in stone as you think it will be.
It was New Year’s Day when I was meeting the family of the young woman I was dating. I was in the living room with the grandfather, uncles, and male cousins. In what felt like a safe move, I asked the youngest boy cousin what he got for Christmas. “I got a gift card,” he said. I asked him where to. “Cabella’s!” he said excitedly.
“Cool. So, what’s Cabella’s?”
He yelled (not said, he yelled), “You don’t know what Cabella’s is?!!”
The entire living room falls dead quiet. All at once, the grandfather, uncles, and cousins stop talking and they stare at me.
And just like that, I’m out. No future for me in this family of Iowa hunters.
Except, praise God, that wasn’t the end of the story. She married me anyway, and I have a great relationship with my in-laws, even though I’ve still never been to a Cabella’s.
What Changes an Ending?
At least I was enjoying the food at the minor league baseball game, because our team clearly wasn’t going to win. The ending was set—until the bottom of the ninth, when the Kernels scored a triple and I realized just how surprisingly exciting a baseball game can be after two hours of watching nothing happen.
In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the ending is set. We’re even shown the ending before it happens. Ebenezer Scrooge has spent multiple decades hardening into a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.” (You learn all of that even by watching the Muppets version, which I enthusiastically recommend.) Scrooge will die from old age and hardened heart. Tiny Tim will die from health complications and from poverty, his dad being employed by the stingy Scrooge. Except that isn’t how the story ultimately ends.
In the Bible, the Ninevites’ fate is foretold in a prophecy from God—as set in stone as the future gets. Jonah doesn’t preach as much as he forecasts, “Forty more days, and Ninevah will be overthrown.” A fated and fitting “the end” for that city of violence.
And yet, sometimes the ending isn’t quite as set in stone as we think it will be.
“Sometimes the ending isn’t quite as set in stone as we think it will be.”
What Hope Is There for Pharaoh?
In the book of Exodus, we see the ending written for Egypt before it unfolds. By the time we get to Exodus chapter 9, the Egyptians have had plague after plague, with the Nile turning to blood, an infestation of frogs, of lice, and then of gnats. In chapter 9, they’ll experience plagues of their livestock dying and their skin breaking out with boils. There will be four more plagues and then—the end. It’s obvious that Egypt will be a wasteland.
Is there any way we don’t get that ending for Egypt?
Yes. There’s a way. After visits from three ghosts, Scrooge’s hard heart softens, and his ending changes. After hearing Jonah’s prophecy, the Ninevites cry out to God in repentance, and the prophesied ending changes.
There’s hope if hearts unharden.
So, is there hope for Egypt? Let’s see if Plague #5 is any indicator:
“All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.” (Exodus 9:6b-7, NIV)
“Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.”
There’s hope if what? If hearts unharden. Yet after each plague, what keeps happening?
- “Pharaoh’s heart became hard . . .” (Exodus 7:13)
- “Pharoah’s heart became hard . . .” (Exodus 7:22)
- “Pharaoh hardened his heart . . .” (Exodus 8:15)
- “Pharoah’s heart was hard . . .” (Exodus 8:19)
- “Pharaoh hardened his heart . . .” (Exodus 8:32)
- “His heart was unyielding . . .” (Exodus 9:7)
That’s how endings get set in stone for good.
Exactly as Predicted
In the historical movie Gettysburg, Confederate General James Longstreet is venting right before Pickett’s Charge is about to unfold, which he fears will prove suicidal:
“You know what’s gonna happen? I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. Troops are now forming behind the line of trees. When they come out, they’ll be under enemy long-range artillery fire. Solid shot. Percussion. Every gun they have. Troops will come out under fire with more than a mile to walk. And still, within the open field, among the range of aimed muskets. They’ll be slowed by that fence out there, and the formation—what’s left of it—will begin to come apart. When they cross that road, they’ll be under short-range artillery. Canister fire. Thousands of little bits of shrapnel wiping the holes in the lines. If they get to the wall without breaking up, there won’t be many left. It’s a mathematical equation…
But maybe, just maybe, our own artillery will break up their defenses. There’s always that hope.”
But then Longstreet sighs, recalling the Union general they’re up against.
“That’s Hancock out there, and he ain’t gonna run. So it’s mathematical after all. If they get to that road, or beyond it, we’ll suffer over fifty percent casualties. But I don’t believe my boys will reach that wall.”[1]
Longstreet saw the ending before it happened. And, yes, sometimes the ending isn’t quite as set in stone as you think it will be. But in this case, General Lee wasn’t listening to wise warnings from generals like Longstreet. He didn’t listen, so the ending was set. And what Longstreet saw is exactly what happened.
Pharaoh doesn’t want to hear it. So, with heart unhardened, the ending would go on to play out exactly as predicted.
“With heart unhardened, the ending would go on to play out exactly as predicted.”
What Else Hardheartedness Leads To
Hard hearts are frightening. Let’s say I’m your doctor, and you come in and say something like, “I’ve been checking WebMD, and I think based on my symptoms, I’ve got a ‘hard heart.’ That’s not a big deal, is it? It doesn’t lead to other problems, right?”
I would have to sit you down and explain that I don’t have good news for you. I’d explain that, left untreated, hard heartedness leads to some really devastating conditions for the rest of the body. For example,
- “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.’” (Ezekiel 12:1-2, NIV)
- “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs [literally, stubborn shoulders] and covered their ears.” (Zechariah 7:11, NIV)
If you keep hardening your heart . . .
- “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused [literally, fat heart]; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10, NIV)
- “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28, NIV)
“They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.”
Worst of all, I would explain, is what will eventually happen to your neck:
- “They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked.” (Nehemiah 9:17a, NIV)
- “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen.” (Nehemiah 9:29, NIV)
- “Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.” (Jeremiah 17:23, NIV)
- “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1, NIV)
To summarize, perpetual hardheartedness leads to unseeing eyes, unhearing ears, stubborn shoulders, a mind that is unperceiving, misunderstanding, depraved, stiff, and an unbending neck. That’s another way of saying: the ending is set.
Pharaoh’s hardheartedness made him stiff-necked in at least two directions. First, he became unable to look up no matter how many times God called for his attention. Second, he became unable to look down and really see the suffering of the people under him.
As frightening as these outcomes are, it’s still not the scariest result of hardening our hearts.
“Pharaoh’s hardheartedness made him stiff-necked in at least two directions.”
The Worst Part of Hardheartedness
Up until Plague #6, who has been hardening Pharaoh’s heart? It looks like Pharaoh’s been doing it:
- “Pharaoh’s heart became hard . . .” (Exodus 7:13)
- “Pharoah’s heart became hard . . .” (Exodus 7:22)
- “Pharaoh hardened his heart . . .” (Exodus 8:15)
- “Pharoah’s heart was hard . . .” (Exodus 8:19)
- “Pharaoh hardened his heart . . .” (Exodus 8:32)
- “His heart was unyielding . . .” (Exodus 9:7)
But something horrifying happens after the plague of boils. The language shifts.
“Festering boils broke out on people and animals. The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.” (Exodus 9:10b-12, NIV)
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.”
When we keep hardening our hearts, it makes us increasingly unable to respond to God’s voice. Eventually, God will use the destruction of hardhearted people as an example of warning to other people. It is in this context and for this purpose that God continued to harden Pharaoh’s already-hardened heart.
Let’s Talk About Your Heart
How might this relate to you? God wants to use you to help people. He desires to use you as a good example of the kind of person who follows him and teaches others to follow him. However, let’s say you have a hard heart to God’s direction, and that hardheartedness makes you unwilling and eventually unable to respond to God’s direction. Let’s say your heart is hardened to the extent that you become stiff-necked in both directions—unable to look up to God or look down and see suffering people.
If that becomes your life’s path, God will still use you to help people—but not in the way you want. Your ending will become predictable: an ending of destruction. He will still use you as an example, but as one that starts with, “You don’t want your life to turn out like that . . .” You remain hardhearted long enough, and you will find yourself opposing and fighting God himself. And he might even display his glory to everybody else by bringing you down. He’s done it before.
God hardened Pharaoh’s already-hardened heart in order to display his power over evil:
“For 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.’” (Romans 9:17, NIV)
You been fighting God? Give up. You won’t win. Surrender. Otherwise, there’s no hope. There is hope only if hard hearts unharden.
“For 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.’”
Hope for Our Hearts
In the original Star Wars trilogy, the ending of the third movie, Return of the Jedi, seems as certain as it is chilling. The evil emperor has basically been electrocuting the life out of Luke Skywalker in the presence of Luke’s evil father, Darth Vader. And then the emperor pronounces the end: “Now, young Skywalker, you will die.” And yet seeing Luke getting tortured finally softens Darth Vader’s hard heart so much that he transforms from villain to hero in the trilogy’s final minutes. There’s hope if hard hearts unharden.
Don’t you want a heart that beats? A heart that beats with compassion when you see somebody suffering? A heart that pumps in step with God’s heart? A heart that truly loves God and loves people? Don’t you want the hope that comes from having a heart unhardened and a neck able to go up and down?
How?
To those of us with a heart of stone, our merciful God offers a heart of flesh (see Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26). Ask him to soften your heart. James 4:10 (NIV) says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Soften your heart by bowing your knee to him today.
Trust me. You don’t want your hard heart to set its ending in stone. You want Jesus to rewrite that ending.
[1] Ron Maxwell, director, Gettysburg (Culver City: TriStar Television, 1993.)
