Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart

Welcome

Well, good morning Lifepoint! If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan and I serve here as the teaching pastor for the Worthington campus.

I’m really grateful you’re here with us today - if this is your first time here…

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Chaplaincy Update

If you’re just joining us, we are in week two of series called, “I Have Questions,” working our way through some parts of the bible that don’t always seem to make sense.

At the end of the day, there are things that show up in this book that are frankly, just hard to understand! Some of the questions we’re looking at in this series have been the greatest debates throughout church history.

I’ll tell you from the beginning, I’m not gonna be able to give you the final answer to these…actually it’s more likely that you walk away with even more questions. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Actually, I think one of the most amazing things about God’s Word is that it refuses to be confined to our understanding - that in a very real sense, we experience what the author of Hebrews says, the Word is living and active.

My hope is that in this series, we develop a more refined approach to the bible - both in how we read it and in how we apply it in our lives.

So if you have a bible with you, open up to the Old Testament book of Exodus. Exodus - we’ll be moving through chapters 7-11.

Let me pray, and then we’ll get started.

Prayer

The Question:

Alright, let’s go ahead and get started.

Of all the questions we’re working through in this series, this one is probably the one that has the potential to evoke the strongest response in us.

Let me give you just a little bit of background here.

The book of Exodus recounts the story of God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This is like the moment in the Old Testament - in fact, it becomes the primary story and archetype story the rest of bible is tells.

Israel has been in enslaved 400 years in Egypt, God raises up Moses who’s job is to go before the Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, and at this point in history, the leader of the single global super power and “negotiate” the release of the Israelites.

Look with me at v. 1 (Exodus 7:1-2)

Exodus 7:1–2 ESV

1 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.

But here’s where we get to question. Look carefully at what God says in v 3 (Exodus 7:3-4)…remember, Moses has his assignment…and this is what God says he will do as Moses is talking with Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:3–4 ESV

3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you…”

But that’s not all…not only does God say that He is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart…so that Pharaoh want obey…keep reading the rest of v. 4!

Exodus 7:4 ESV

4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.

And what follows is one of the most well known sections of the bible as God unleashes 10 plagues against Pharaoh and the Egyptians because Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go.

Here’s the problem…it’s not just a curiosity question…it’s so much more than that!

Because if we’re following this right, God is holding Pharaoh accountable for not doing the thing that GOD says he’s prevent Pharaoh from doing!

You see that?

God says, “Tell him to free my people. He’s not going listen, because I’m going to harden his heart. And I’m going judge him for not listening?

And when those are the details, what emerges is this pretty uncomfortable picture of God that feels off. It actually looks manipulative.

It would be like if I told my daughter, Evelyn, to vacuum her bedroom…and she knew she needed to do it or she’d get in trouble…but I also hid the vacuum so that she couldn’t do it in the first place!

The question is: is this what God does to people? Or how much is God able to influence our own beliefs and decisions? And if He does it at all what does that mean for something like free will?

You see what I mean? Your mind might already be racing down a whole bunch of different thoughts, rabbit trails, and counterfactuals!

So, what do we do with this?

Helpful Guide-Rails

Well, remember, I’m not promising to give you the definitive answer…but I do think there are some really helpful guide-rails we can hold on to when get to really challenging questions like this. There are several we could talk about…I’m going to give you two.

Humility as a Guide-Rail

Here’s the first one…

When we study God and God’s word, we have to remember this is first and foremost an exercise in humility. Why? Because by virtue of being God, there are things about Him that we just can’t fully understand. There are things from our vantage point that we can’t see or fully make sense of.

We know this true…because we see this play out on a much small scale all the time!

I’ll never forget when Courtney and I sat down to tell our kids we we’re moving to Columbus. And in talking to them, both their personalities were on full display. Malachi, my 5 year old at the time, immediately threw his hands in the air with a resounding, “Yes! New friends!!”

And at the very same moment, my 7 year old daughter burst in to tears, saying, “What?! Why?!”

And Courtney and I really struggled to know how to share all of what was behind this move…there were so many moving pieces and was incredibly complicated…how do you translate that in way that a 7 year old can understand…at the end of the day, you can’t…at least not all of it!

And if that’s true between parents and kids…how much more is true between us and God? And listen, I know that’s not a super satisfying answer…but it doesn’t make it less true.

The point is, when we encounter really challenging questions that make us question who God is and what He’s like…we have to remember that there are things we don’t fully see and don’t fully understand.

And I get that that can be a frustrating reality - but it doesn’t have to be…in fact, the idea that God may have much more going on than we can make sense of, when you really start to wrestle with that is actually meant to be a comforting to us! I love how Pastor and writer Henri Nouwen talks about this. He says,

Spiritual formation begins with the gradual and often painful discovery of God’s incomprehensibility in the face of life’s great mysteries and limitations. We might be competent in many subjects, but we cannot become an expert in the things of God. God is greater than our minds and cannot be caught within the boundaries of our finite concepts.

In fact, in the early church, Christians developed an entire category to talk about this - one that I think our modern era has very little patience for: they called it docta ignorantas, a “Sacred Unknowing” that’s sole intention was to prevent their thinking about God devolving into something predictable, tame, and controllable!

See in this way - and this is the first and essential guide-rail when we come across hard questions about God and the Bible - Theology is an exercise in humility. We do not and cannot know everything…and that is a good thing!

Here’s the second Guide-Rail that can be helpful in navigating these types of challenging questions.

Pay Attention to Fuller Context of Hard Passages

Context is key.

We want to pay close attention to the full context of any passage we’re trying to understand. And one of the things this guards against is picking and choosing different passages that fit the point we’re trying to make rather than letting God’s word speak for itself.

Actually, the vast majority of really tricky passages start to make a whole lot more sense when we look at the bigger picture. Doesn’t mean every tension goes away, but there is a lot more clarity!

And this is exactly what we see with question and passage we’re looking at this morning!

Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Exodus and the Book of Names

Let’s take a step back and let’s remember the larger context of what’s going on in the book of Exodus.

I’ve shared this with you before, but we actually call the book by the wrong name. Early in Christian history, the book was named after the big thing that happens in the book - the “Exit” of God’s people from slavery in Egypt. Completely understandable.

But the original Hebrew name for this book is actually the book of Names.

Why does that matter?

Well if you start to look closely at the first few chapters…one of the things you start to notice is that a lot of people are called out by name. You have Moses and his brother…you have a servants, midwives…people who don’t have too much to do with the plot of the story all getting names.

In Chapter 3, we have a one of the climactic moments in the bible - with Moses meeting God at the burning bush…and God reveals to Moses his name…Yahweh - considered the most holy name for God.

The book of names, right?

But who isn’t named?

Pharaoh.

Odd right? I mean at this point in history, he would have been the most powerful person on earth and the book of names…who’s giving out names left and right just calls him Pharaoh.

And what’s hanging out in the background of this story is this much larger drama between the Creator God - and powers of this world. And the larger question is, in that conflict, who is ultimately in control? This is what the book of Exodus - the book of names is all about! It is telling the story of God who is unfathomably powerful - more than we can possibly imagine!

And with all of this, Exodus 7:3 has bit more punch, doesn’t it? God simply says “I will harden his heart…and he will not listen.” In just a few words, Pharaoh, the most powerful person on earth is like clay to be formed in a potters hands.

But there’s even more going on than that because as you keep reading the story all the way through Exodus 11, you find some more details about how Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

In fact, between chapters 7 and 11, we’re told 13 times that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. Here’s where it get’s interesting …4 of those times, it sounds like this:

Exodus 8:15 ESV

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Now, it’s Pharaoh hardening his own heart!

And a pattern emerges with every one of the plagues that God brings against Pharaoh and Egypt, Pharaoh’s own response is to harden his heart…

And all of a sudden, what we begin to see is that it’s not so much that God is forcing a response out of Pharaoh…but that He knows the heart of Pharaoh so well, that Pharaoh hardening his own heart is the predictable response! God knows that given the choice between ONE THE ONE HAND: listening to Moses…setting the Israelites go into the Wilderness AND ON THE OTHER: rejecting what God is saying to him…keeping his slaves, God knows Pharaoh is going to freely choose keeping them every time!

And I know that might sound like I’m splitting hairs a bit here, but I think this is an important nuance in the conversation - because what we have here, rather than God just getting into Pharaoh’s heart and manipulating it to bring about His desired outcome - we actually have a picture of God who is engaging with us in far more subtle ways and honestly, far more gracious way.

In fact, over and over again, God is gracious with Pharaoh because he genuinely has the opportunity to turn and listen and respond to the Plagues with repentance…doing a 180 turn around…and the way the story unfolds in Exodus lets us know that it’s not so much that God is preventing Him from repentance, the emphasis is on the degree to which God knows Pharaoh’s heart before any of the plagues hit.

EXPAND

Throughout church history, one of the words Christians have used to describe God here in Exodus is sovereign.

It’s a word that really makes most sense in a society built around a Monarchy with King or Caesar - and in that setting you’d talk about the person at the top as the Sovereign.

And when we talk about God’s sovereignty, we’re really talking about three components that all work together.

His plan, His commitment, and His power.

In fact if you were to think about anyone in a authority position, they would need all three of those components - the need a plan - a vision for what they want to see happen…they need a commitment to that plan - meaning they’re not just going to forget it and move on at the first obstacle…and maybe most important…they need to have the ability or power to bring that plan about!

So in the same way, when we talk about God being sovereign, we means that He has a wholistic plan for what He is trying to do in this world - a plan that spans from beginning to end…from creation to restoration…a plan to set the world as we know, right…where there will be now more weeping, pain, death, injustice, a day when evil is absolutely no more. And from the high-level, the whole story of the Bible is the unfolding of His sovereign plan…this is the unfinished story the bible is telling!

But for God to be Sovereign also means that he has both the commitment to His plan - that He’s not on verge of giving up - or that there is something will distract or thwart him…No he will be faithful to His plan…to His promise…He will do what he says He will do.

And finally, for God to be sovereign means that he is more than just aspirational, He’s not just hoping for the best, but as the one who is all - knowing and all - powerful He has the ability - the power to make Good on His word!

And I say all this, because as the story of Exodus unfolds: all three of these components of God’s sovereignty are on full display - in fact they are the point of the story!

He told Moses his plan to deliver the Israelites…Pharaoh says no…but God continues to move forward…and yet He knows Pharaoh so well, that he can orchestrate the events in such way that guarantee Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

And when we put the pieces together like that, what we’re supposed to see about God is that His plan to draw his people out slavery…his plan to care for His people, to keep His promises to them, cannot and will not be thwarted by any one; not even those who represent the highest levels of human power and authority!

In other words, all throughout this story, front and center, God’s sovereignty is on full display!

This is a story meant to be incredibly comforting for us as God’s people as we look over the course of our own lives - that there is not one thing that will outstrip God’s plan for us - that as we pursue following Jesus - you can know that you know that you know He will show himself faithful. He will take care you!

And this is not care in the abstract - like this is a truth I have to come back to over and over again!

Some of you know this about me, but I am a worrier.

Illustration about worrying about our church - success - finances - all of it. God’s sovereignty means I can trust him! That He really is one who knows what we need before we even open up our mouths to ask!

And this nuance of God bringing their freedom about, not through manipulation our sheer overpowering of Pharaoh shows that God is both…at the same time…all powerful and good.

And we need to hold on to both of these theological truths…that God is both all powerful AND good.

Author and Philosopher C.S. Lewis is probably most famous for the allegory of the Christian life he wrote called, The Chronicles of Narnia.

It follows four kids who discover the land of Narnia - and the great lion, Aslan who, all throughout the series represents Jesus. And one of the characters, explaining to the kids what Aslan is like says this: “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.”

Terrible, there meaning awe-inspiring power.

Friends, I think this is the key for us when we come across these deeper questions about God’s Sovereignty - the extent of his Sovereignty…and the unquestionable picture of God that emerges in the scriptures is that He is all powerful, there is not one thing he can’t do…AND…he is Good.

And the extent to which we believe both of these things is the extent to which we will be able to trust Him as we navigate through the most complex and sometimes painful experiences of this life.

Some of you are walking through some very hard seasons right now - where the questions you’re asking are: God, why is this happening? How are you allowing me to experience this…and I will tell you, those are real questions…they are the right questions…and sure, it MAY be, just like we talked about, that there are elements at play here that you just can’t see…but that by itself is

Psalm 145:8–9 ESV

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

His Power and Goodness…

And, when you think of that way, what we is that these same to elements are at play at the centerpiece of the Christian story - in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.