What Happened to Pharaoh’s Heart?

I love the Bible because it does not argue in theological categories. When it comes to God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, it is black and white. The truth is, the Bible makes it clear that man is free and has the ability to choose. At the same time, the Bible is unmistakably clear God is sovereign. If he were not, he would not be “God.”

In this wrestling match, somebody’s freedom has to be contingent on another. Do you want to be the one to say that God’s freedom is contingent upon yours? I don’t think so.

One example of how this plays out is in the life of Pharaoh during the plagues in Egypt. The first mention of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened is in Exodus 4:21. There it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart before Pharaoh did it to himself.

It is sinful and wrong for Pharaoh to harden his heart against God. Furthermore, it would wrong for him (if it were even possible) to harden another human’s heart. Yet, here is God, doing what would be sinful for Pharaoh to do on his own. In fact, Exodus says Pharaoh’s heart was hardened 18 times. Nine of those times, it was Yahweh’s doing (4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8). Six times it is simply stated as a fact that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, not attributing the hardening to anyone in particular (7:13, 14, 22; 8:19; 9:7, 35). Only three times is Pharaoh credited with hardening his own heart (8:15, 32; 9:34).

This episode clearly shows that God is free in the absolute sense, and Pharaoh is free because he, in fact, did what he wanted to do. In his Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards argues we should think of freedom this way: we are free because we do what we want. In the final analysis, we do what is sinful. Before salvation sin is all we really want to do anyway.

So it is clear that Pharaoh’s freedom was contingent upon the freedom of another, namely God. Lest we shout, “Not fair!” we must remember that God is not a man and we cannot project what we think is appropriate for man upon the all-wise, all-loving, omnipotent, and omniscient Creator God. For his ways are inscrutable (Rom. 11:33). As Edward writes, God is far above “the influence of law or command, promises or threatening, rewards or punishments, counsels or warnings.”[1]

This shouldn’t leave us feeling hopeless or like programmed robots or predetermined cyborgs. It should cause us to cast ourselves upon the grace of God in the cross of Christ, acknowledging our complete lack of ability to do any good. Only then will we really be free to do what God commands, for it was for freedom that Christ set us free to actually pursue holiness (Gal. 5:1).

The one who hardens hearts is also the one who softens hearts so that we might live a soft-heart kind of life. Therefore, let us pray pray as St. Augustine prayed: “Command us to do as you will, O Lord, and will us to do what you command.”

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[1] Jonathan Edwards, “Concerning the Notion of Liberty, and of Moral Agency,” Freedom of the Will, (accessed February 29, 2012), paragraph 9.

How Can We Be Sure Moses Wrote the Pentateuch?

John Calvin:

I am aware of what is muttered in corners by certain miscreants, when they would display their acuteness in assailing divine truth. They ask, how do we know that Moses and the prophets wrote the books which now bear their names? Nay, they even dare to question whether there ever was a Moses. Were any one to question whether there ever was a Plato, or an Aristotle, or a Cicero, would not the rod or the whip be deemed the fit chastisement of such folly? The law of Moses has been wonderfully preserved, more by divine providence than by human care; and though, owing to the negligence of the priests, it lay for a short time buried,–from the time when it was found by good King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8; 2 Chron. 34:15),–it has continued in the hands of men, and been transmitted in unbroken succession from generation to generation. Nor, indeed, when Josiah brought it forth, was it as a book unknown or new, but one which had always been matter of notoriety, and was then in full remembrance. The original writing had been deposited in the temple, and a copy taken from it had been deposited in the royal archives (Deut. 17:18, 19); the only thing which had occurred was, that the priests had ceased to publish the law itself in due form, and the people also had neglected the wonted reading of it. I may add, that scarcely an age passed during which its authority was not confirmed and renewed. Were the books of Moses unknown to those who had the Psalms of David in their hands? To sum up the whole in one word, it is certain beyond dispute, that these writings passed down, if I may so express it, from hand to hand, being transmitted in an unbroken series from the fathers, who either with their own ears heard them spoken, or learned them from those who had, while the remembrance of them was fresh.

- Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.8.9

Jesus: True and Better

Meditating on Massive Realities

The other day, at work during a training class, I was drifting off into theology land, as I often do, and I was hit with the reality that God is. He exists. I couldn’t come up with other words. I was bumbling in my head. I was thinking, God is and always has been. He’s…there…here. That is massive.

Then I was struck with the reality that I exist. I breathe and talk and walk and think. I am actually alive.  That is a massive reality.  Add onto that another layer of heavy, cosmic bricks: God created me and knows me. How about one layer more: God reigns over the universe, including my small world, and controls it all with wisdom and ease.

That’s enough to make you think for eternity. These are massive realities, and as I sat in a small training class with sixteen other people, I was worshiping in my heart. And now, as I type, I think of God’s words to Moses in Exodus 3 when Moses asked, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God answered Moses like this: “I AM WHO I AM…Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (3:13-14).

“I AM” (God’s name, “Yahweh” in Hebrew) communicates a self-dependent, unchanging existence. It communicates sovereignty and freedom. That is massive.  But God does not merely exist; he is a God who reveals himself. He initiated with the people of Israel, to give himself to them and to save them. And he reveals himself to you and me through his word — the story he has written since creation. What a great God!

Because of this, I need to ask myself (and you need to ask yourself) a few questions: Is the God I worship the self-dependent, unchanging, sovereign, and free One? Or do I worship a god that is dependent, changeable, powerless, and bound? Do I worship the creator God, or something that has been created?

These massive realities are of infinite importance, and our eternity hangs on what we do with them.

Jesus: The Greater David

Jesus isn’t just the greater Moses. He is also the greater David. In Psalm 78, the psalmist is reflecting on Israel’s rebellion against God after they were saved from slavery in Egypt. God was so gracious to his people despite their unfaithfulness. “Yet,” the psalmist wrote, “they sinned still more against him” (vv. 17, 40, 56).

Later in the Psalm, the writer tells us that he chose a shepherd from the tribe of Judah to lead his people back to God. This shepherd is David. The psalmist tells us:

He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand (vv. 70-72).

You might be thinking, “David had an upright heart?! What about that whole Bathsheba and Uriah thing? That wasn’t so upright!” And you would be right. Of course David had his moral failures. He was human. And that’s the point: as great as David was as shepherd-king of Israel, he still fell short of the perfection that God’s people needed.

That’s where Jesus comes in. In John 10, he said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11).  In saying this, Jesus claims to be the long awaited heir of David who would lead God’s people perfectly. He would be the ultimate shepherd-king who would never have a moral failure or a bad thought toward his flock.

When we read the Old Testament, we cannot look for examples in men like David and Moses. We need to see them as imperfect men who could never fully be what God’s people needed.  They should not inspire us to be better people. They should leave us longing to be saved by the greater Man who did and said all that God wanted with complete perfection.

Jesus: The Greater Moses

The most beautiful thing to me about reading the Old Testament is seeing Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment God’s covenant with his people Israel.  This morning as I read Numbers 11, this couldn’t have been more clear.

The people of Israel are complaining that they do not have any meat to eat. They want to go back to Egypt again. It’s so bad, they are weeping. So Moses turns to the LORD and says,

“Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?”

Moses, in his own way, complains to God that he is prophet over these people. Moses thinks he is a victim. But Jesus, the Greater Moses, joyfully welcomed this “burden” of loving God’s people.

In Luke 13:34, Jesus cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”  And in Matthew 11:28-29, he said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus says, “I will carry you like a nurse carries a nursing child. I will love you, even when you are unlovable. I will care for you. I will have compassion on you. I will give you mercy.”  He has done perfectly what Moses could not do — and at times did not want to do. O what a Savior he is!

The Lord’s Glory Through His Spoken Word

When you ask the Lord to see his glory, as Moses did in Exodus 33, what are you expecting?  Moses asked and probably got an answer he didn’t expect.  “Please show me your glory,” he said.  God replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’…But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (vv. 19a-20).  A few verses later, God says to Moses that he will only see his back, but that he cannot see his face.

Moses probably wanted to see God’s full splendor, majesty, and brillance.  He probably wanted a sign.  He wanted something amazing to happen.  What he got was a flicker of lighting, as if seen in the corner of his eye, but it was all Moses could handle.  Any more and Moses would have been consumed.

In chapter 34, God finally shows Moses his glory.  Verse 6 says, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

God showed Moses his glory by speaking.  He simply “passed by.”  Moses got a glimpse of God’s back, and it was splendid.  From this we have at least two implications.  When we ask to see God’s glory:

• God will speak. For us, this happens through his written word, which he spoke to men who wrote it down.  God authored a book, and his glorious self is revealed in the pages of that book called the Bible.
• God will speak his name.  God said in 34:19, “I will proclaim before you my name.”  Then in 35:6 he says, “Yahweh, Yahweh!” and continues on to reveal to us what that means.  He describes his identity, his essence, and his attributes.  God is a forgiver, a lover, and a gracious Father, but that he is also a just God who punishes those who are unrepentant of sin.

To see God’s glory, go to the pages of Scripture.  He has revealed himself there.  Read his words and soak them up “taste and see that God is good!”  God will speak and he will speak his name.  He will point you to Jesus, the true reflection of God, because he is God himself.  Jesus is the one who shows that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” because he lived it, purchased it, and sealed it with his blood on the cross.