The Hardening of Pharaoh

Exodus 7:1-24:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%207:1-24&version=NIV1984

            One of the more troubling lines in the whole Bible came up first in Exodus 4:21.  There the Lord declared to Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”  The line is repeated in today’s reading (7:3) with two attendant notes that “Pharaoh’s heart became hard.”  Now to be fair, in the next chapter (8:15), Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  But that doesn’t solve all of our difficulties.  Here’s how it seems to be:  the Lord threatens to harden Pharaoh (twice!), twice Pharaoh’s heart ‘becomes’ hard without reference to who does the hardening (so far God’s the only one who’s said He’ll do some hardening), finally Pharaoh hardens his own heart (though we’re set up to think that he does that only because of the Lord’s prompting).  See, it would be easy if we could say that Pharaoh hardened his heart first and that the Lord just left him to his own devices, but that doesn’t seem to be how it works early in Exodus.  It troubles us, I think, because it seems like the Lord is destining Pharaoh for damnation, and we don’t want to think that the Lord works like that.

            Paul brings up the hardening of Pharaoh in Romans 9, and our Lutheran Confessions use the example of Pharaoh in the article on election.  Let me just say that Romans 9 is a notoriously hard chapter—especially given the way we tend to read the Bible—in small bits and in English translation.  Sometime in 2014 we’ll get to Romans and you can hold my feet to the fire about Romans 9 then.  You can look at what the Lutheran confessors said here:  http://bookofconcord.org/sd-election.php (see paragraphs 84-85).

            Here’s my take on the phenomenon in Exodus at least.  It will be immensely helpful if we realize that Exodus is not talking about Pharaoh’s personal salvation.  Let me repeat that louder:  Exodus is not talking about Pharaoh’s personal salvation!  It will help, I think, if we use Psalm 2 as a reference point instead of personal salvation.

Psalm 2 (NIV; 1984)

2 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

        ² The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.

³ "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."

        ⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

⁵ Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

        ⁶ "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."

⁷ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

        ⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

⁹ You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

        ¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.

        ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

In Exodus, Pharaoh is the representative of the nation that is oppressing God’s holy people.  The Lord will cause Pharaoh to resist the Lord’s command to let His people go so that the resistance of the nations to the will of God is revealed in all its foolishness and futility.  Ultimately, the nations of the earth, in revolt against the Lord, will be brought to heel.  Pharaoh’s Egypt is the first of those nations to have that presented to them.  The result is that the God of Israel will be glorified by demonstrating His power over the nations and His superiority over all of their false gods (cf. Ex. 14:4).  If we understand Pharaoh against the background humanity’s rebellion against the Lord and the Lord’s determination to face down that rebellion, I think we’ll find this ‘hardening’ language a lot easier to get a handle on.