Hi Pastor John,
I’m reading through Exodus and wondering why God continued to hardened Pharaohs heart up until the very end? Michelle and I are really enjoying and learning a lot in your Old Testament course. Thank you!
Best, Kevin
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Good question, Kevin. And the answer is even better! God hardened Pharaoh’s heart for the same reason He softened ours: that’s what He wanted to do.
Paul spoke of this at length in Romans 9:
- What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
- For He said to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”
- So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God, who shows mercy.
- For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “This is the very reason I raised you up, so that in you, I might demonstrate my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
- So then, to whom He will, He shows mercy, and whom He will, He hardens.
Paul continues with that subject, and you would enjoy reading the rest of what he said in Romans 9, but the above is his point. So, if God has given us a desire to know Him, we are very, very blessed, for if we love God, it is only because He first loved us (1Jn. 4:19). It really is as Jesus told his disciples: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (Jn. 15:16). We would have never chosen Jesus; he had to choose us and put it in our hearts to come to him. Darren Prater’s song, “I Put It in Your Heart”, expresses this truth so beautifully. Look it up some time.
Thanks for the question. It is an important one. Let’s “rejoice always” in our hope and “walk worthy of the calling” we have received from God.
Pastor John