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Glory · Exodus & Covenant
Pharaoh's stubbornness was real: plague after plague, the text says he hardened his own heart. Yet God announced before Moses ever stood in court that He would harden it too, turning Egypt's defiance into the stage where His power and name would be known. Paul faces the objection head-on in Romans 9, and the warning reaches us, because a heart that keeps refusing to hear can lose the ability to hear.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/why-did-god-harden-pharaohs-heart · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Exodus 7:1-13
As you read: The staff becomes a serpent, the magicians copy it, and Pharaoh's heart is hardened exactly as Yahweh said it would be.
1Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
2You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
3I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
4But Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay my hand on Egypt, and bring out my armies, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
5The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
6Moses and Aaron did so. As Yahweh commanded them, so they did.
7Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
9“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Perform a miracle!’ then you shall tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a serpent.’”
10Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
11Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing with their enchantments.
12For they each cast down their rods, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
13Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them; as Yahweh had spoken.
Exodus 9:27-35
As you read: Hail falls, Pharaoh admits sin and begs for prayer, then sins again the moment the storm stops.
27Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
28Pray to Yahweh; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”
29Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.
30But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear Yahweh God.”
31The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.
32But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up.
33Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to Yahweh; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.
34When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
35The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go, just as Yahweh had spoken through Moses.
Romans 9:14-24
As you read: If God hardens whom He hardens, is He unjust? Paul answers from God's mercy, the potter's clay, and His astonishing patience.
14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
15For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
19You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?”
20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
22What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
24us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
Track the verbs across the plagues and a pattern emerges. After the frogs and the flies, 'he hardened his heart': Pharaoh saw relief coming, changed his mind, and refused. Beginning with the sixth plague, Yahweh appears as the subject, 'Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh,' and His hardening carries the story to the sea. Yet even after that, hail melts Pharaoh back into self-hardening once more (9:34). Scripture hides neither line: Pharaoh willed the stubbornness, and God's judicial hardening answered long-informed refusal.
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.”Exodus 8:15
“Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he didn’t let the people go.”Exodus 8:32
“When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”Exodus 9:34
“Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken to Moses.”Exodus 9:12
“But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go.”Exodus 10:20
“Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel; for the children of Israel went out with a high hand.”Exodus 14:8
This was no surprise twist in the plot. Before Moses returned to Egypt, God said, 'I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go,' and He repeated it at the start of the signs. The purpose was stated too: the Egyptians would know that Yahweh is God, and His name would be declared throughout all the earth. Egypt's king, who claimed to be divine, became the exhibit in God's case against every false god.
“Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.”Exodus 4:21
“I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay my hand on Egypt, and bring out my armies, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.”Exodus 7:3-4
“The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.””Exodus 7:5
“but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;”Exodus 9:16
Under hail and thunder, Pharaoh said, 'I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.' It sounds like brokenness. Then the storm stopped, and 'he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart.' Notice the tell: 'this time.' He confessed to escape pain, not to change. Words without surrender leave a heart worse than before, and that is precisely the soil in which judicial hardening grows.
“Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”Exodus 9:27
“Pray to Yahweh; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.””Exodus 9:28
“When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”Exodus 9:34
“Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.”Exodus 10:3
Someone will ask whether God is unfair. Paul answers with God's own word to Moses: 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' Mercy, by definition, is never owed; neither is withheld judgment deserved less. Then the startling sentence: 'he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.' Even His hardening serves patience, for God endured 'with much patience vessels of wrath' while preparing vessels of mercy for glory.
“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.”Romans 9:14-16
“For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.””Romans 9:17
“So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.”Romans 9:18
“What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,”Romans 9:22-23
Hebrews takes Pharaoh's story and turns it toward the church: 'Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts.' The danger is not that God randomly crushes someone, but that hearing and refusing, again and again, calcifies into inability to hear. Sin's deceitfulness hardens gradually, one dismissed conviction at a time. The remedy Hebrews gives is communal and daily: exhort one another today, while it is still called today.
“while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.””Hebrews 3:15
“but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”Hebrews 3:13