Exodus 10

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may do these miraculous signs of Mine among them, and so that you may tell your son and grandson how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”  Exodus 10:1-2 (HCSB)

There has been an ages-long debate over the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Some hold to a strict belief that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, while others say Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Those who say God hardened Pharaoh’s heart usually carry the inference that He kept Pharaoh from believing. It is as if Pharaoh’s heart could not have been softened, even if he wanted to repent. I find that hard to believe because the Bible says that God does not delight in punishing the wicked. Rather, He delights when they turn from their wickedness and trust Him. (Ezekiel 33:11)

I believe God gave Pharaoh the same chance He gave anyone else in Egypt, but He knew Pharaoh would not believe. God knew the same plagues that would make many repent would make many others hate Him even more. In a sense, the Lord DID harden Pharaoh’s heart because the plagues came from God. That being said, it was completely Pharaoh’s decision about how he would respond. God simply knew. Perhaps the best testimony to this interpretation of “hardening” is found in the final verses of Exodus, chapter 9.

“When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials. So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord said through Moses.”  Exodus 9: 34-35 (HCSB)

Similarly, the Lord did not make the Israelites believe any more than He made Pharaoh not believe. Each man had a choice. (Joshua 24:15) Each person has a choice today because God is the same: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The question is: How do you respond to God’s presence in your life? Do you accept Him or live in denial? Do you submit or rebel? You have a choice to either believe or not, so have you chosen to rebel against His Lordship and thus inherit His judgment, or have you chosen to surrender to Him and enter His deliverance? As long as there is life in your lungs, you have the option to turn to Him through faithful belief and trust in Jesus.

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My anger, ‘They will not enter My rest.’ Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.”  Hebrews 3:7-13 (HCSB)