- Mar 13, 2004
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Why did God harden pharoah's heart? See for many years I thought God hardened his heart simply because He is sovereign and He can do whatever He wants, without question. But it bugged me. Then as I read through exodus today, He clearly answered why He did so in a few verses:
Exodus 7:3-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My [a]armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
See God wanted the egyptians saved, first and foremost. In egypt they deified the flies, the frogs etc. So when their gods came after them in judgement, killing them and causing havoc. They were open to realizing that perhaps that god was not the real God. When seeing that the flies were not affecting the isreali camp, but only the egyptians, they realized it was from God. So God was evangelizing the egyptians in a language they could understand, confounding their gods, and showing the way to worship the God of the israelis. The second reason was to show His power. Verse 4, by "great Judgements." See God could have simply opened pharoah's eyes, and allowed him to see how poorly he was treating the egyptians and to have compassion on them. but they would still not be saved. God was trying to save them. Sometimes you have to reveal the poor quality of their religion to do so.
Is God hardening pharoah's heart violate the free will of man? Thus creating a bible contradiction?
God speaks that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Romans 8:29. So God's hardening of pharoahs heart did not violate pharoah's free will at all due to this idea of foreknowledge. See God knew pharoah would not believe in the true God according to His foreknowledge of pharoahs future, but God also knew that pharoah may have had a change of heart regarding the hebrews, and let them Go. So God had to harden his heart, in order to show the egyptians high profile supernatural events,in the harshest most high profile way as possible, for maximum damage and to basically shoot down each of the egyptian god's one by one. Most of the supernatural events, satan and the egyptian mystery religions could duplicate, but a few they could not. And even when they did duplicate it, it was smaller in size and weaker. But that just shows that satan does offer his followers power. But it does not compare the the power of a single on fire christian walking in the spirit.
Exodus 7:3-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My [a]armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
See God wanted the egyptians saved, first and foremost. In egypt they deified the flies, the frogs etc. So when their gods came after them in judgement, killing them and causing havoc. They were open to realizing that perhaps that god was not the real God. When seeing that the flies were not affecting the isreali camp, but only the egyptians, they realized it was from God. So God was evangelizing the egyptians in a language they could understand, confounding their gods, and showing the way to worship the God of the israelis. The second reason was to show His power. Verse 4, by "great Judgements." See God could have simply opened pharoah's eyes, and allowed him to see how poorly he was treating the egyptians and to have compassion on them. but they would still not be saved. God was trying to save them. Sometimes you have to reveal the poor quality of their religion to do so.
Is God hardening pharoah's heart violate the free will of man? Thus creating a bible contradiction?
God speaks that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Romans 8:29. So God's hardening of pharoahs heart did not violate pharoah's free will at all due to this idea of foreknowledge. See God knew pharoah would not believe in the true God according to His foreknowledge of pharoahs future, but God also knew that pharoah may have had a change of heart regarding the hebrews, and let them Go. So God had to harden his heart, in order to show the egyptians high profile supernatural events,in the harshest most high profile way as possible, for maximum damage and to basically shoot down each of the egyptian god's one by one. Most of the supernatural events, satan and the egyptian mystery religions could duplicate, but a few they could not. And even when they did duplicate it, it was smaller in size and weaker. But that just shows that satan does offer his followers power. But it does not compare the the power of a single on fire christian walking in the spirit.