Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s providence is powerful . . .

It is so powerful that it even brings good out of evil; making bad men and fallen angels to serve God’s designs, while they intend no such thing: giving the greatest efficiency to causes apparently the most contemptible; and infallibly securing the very best ends . . .

All conspiracies and combinations against providence are vain . . .

He who rejects the mystery of providence must ever be in perplexity.

—William S. Plumer

What was our definition of governing providence again?

Governing Providence- God guides and governs all events, including the free acts of men and their external circumstances, and directs all things to their appointed ends for His glory.

How does God providentially govern human deeds and decisions without violating human will?

How is it that God guides and governs all events exactly as He wishes them to be, including the free acts of men?

What we will not attempt to do in this study: we will not provide a detailed explanation of the dynamics and mechanics of the divine operation of how God’s providence works to include the free will of men.

Why not?

God does not tell us!

That is why this study is called the mystery of providence!

So if it is a mystery then why study it at all?

“We must be willing to acknowledge all that the Bible clearly affirms but at the same time insist on no more than the Bible clearly affirms.”

There are numerous examples that unmistakably buttress the truth that God’s providence encompasses, but does not violate, “the free acts of men.”

Studying these examples will help us to clearly and passionately affirm all that the Bible affirms and at the same time insist on no more than the Bible clearly affirms.

So we study them!

Why do we call this the mystery of providence?

What are the key components of this mystery?

God rules and reigns over all things according to the counsel of His will, and yet man is still fully responsible and accountable for his choices and actions.

God exercises his providence and accomplishes His will through the free and voluntary choices and attitudes of men and women.

Is this true of only believers?

No this is true for unbelievers as well.

God uses the wicked to accomplish the counsel of his will.

Does that mean that God prompts evil men to sin?

It does mean that God, in his providence, uses their rebellion and their hostility against him and against his people to accomplish the counsel of his will.

Wow!

What Does the Bible Say?

Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?

Exodus 4-14

In Exodus 4-14 18 x’s there are explicit references to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and one reference to the hardening of the hearts of Pharaoh’s soldiers.

It would be a good exercise if you went through your bible and found all eighteen references and underlined them.

It is essential that we do not just not that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

What we want to ask and discover in our study to day is who hardened pharaoh’s heart?

Why does the Holy Spirit use repetition?

Can we assume that the repetition used by the Holy Spirit is not merely stylistic preference?

Is this repetition purposeful?

As we study these 18 occurrences can you identify and internalize a progression of development that is evident in Pharaoh’s life?

God warns that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart

Who is doing the hardening?

No one yet.

This is a warning by God of what he will do in the future.

I (God) will harden his (Pharaoh’s) heart.

On the way to the next reference, it is important to notice that Pharaoh’s own voluntary initial response to God’s demand through Moses.

What was Pharaoh’s voluntary initial inclination to what God was asking him to do for Israel?

Was this before or after any hardening of his heart?

So what was the free act of men in this instance?

What was Pharaoh’s independent inclination?

To rebuff God and reject Moses’ request!

Who is doing the hardening?

Still future- still warning, really reassuring Moses at this point in the story.

I (God) WILL harden Pharaoh’s heart.

Before God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart we will see Pharaoh himself repeatedly reconfirming his own innate inclination and hardness of heart.

Pharaoh hardens his own heart

What is the context of this statement?

staffs becoming serpents

Problematic:

The text literally reads “the HEART of Pharaoh hardened.”

There is no “He” in the Hebrew text.

Grammatically speaking, the Hebrew does not say that “he (God) hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (active voice), nor does it say that Pharaoh’s heart “was hardened” by some outside force or influence (passive voice), nor does it say that Pharaoh’s hear “hardened itself” (reflexive voice).

Rather, the Hebrew text is describing the condition of Pharaoh’s heart and its reaction to God’s demand.

We would say that Pharaoh’s heart “hardened” or “stiffened.”

Or it could be translated that Pharaoh’s hear “was hard” or “was stubborn.”

That is, his heart was unmoved by the miraculous display and unyielding to the accompanying demand.

Why must we be so careful to look at what the text actually says?

What are the theological ramifications here?

This is the first reference to the actual hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

If God was the one who hardened Pharaoh’s heart what objection might that raise?

And yet according to the text, the first one to harden Pharaoh’s heart was whom?

Not God, but Pharaoh.

In fact the first SEVEN consecutive references recounting the actual hardening of Pharaoh’s heart reveal that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart or that his heart hardened.

“the HEART of Pharaoh (is) hard” (7:14)

“the HEART of Pharaoh hardened” (7:22)

“PHARAOH hardened his heart” (8:15)

“the HEART of Pharaoh hardened” (8:19)

“PHARAOH hardened his heart” (8:32)

“the HEART of Pharaoh hardened” (9:7)

Yes God does, in time, add His judicial hardening to the process, but God was simply confirming Pharaoh in his hardness, in keeping with choice and inclinations that Pharaoh had himself already expressed— i.e. the free acts he himself initiated.

God finally hardens Pharaoh’s heart

Only after SEVEN references to Pharaoh hardening his own heart do we find God actively intervening for the first time.

Willful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness.

If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes.

Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side of hell.”

— Matthew Henry

What a solemn warning to us! Have I shut my eyes against any light from God’s Word?

Have you?

Pharaoh further hardens his heart

One reference to God hardening, then Pharaoh personally deepens the process!

God further hardens Pharaoh’s heart

How did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?

Through what mechanism?

The plagues

What did the plagues reveal in Pharaoh’s heart?

His own personal obstinacy and pride!

Then God continued sending plagues and making demands thereby confirming an irreparable hardness and rebellion in Pharaoh’s willful heart.

This will happen again!

Is It Fair?

What is the objection that Paul anticipates in the next verse?

What is Paul’s answer?