Pharaoh’s Big Problem

Posted on September 12, 2013

Recently, I heard someone questioning whether Pharaoh had free will since the scripture says “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”.

Let’s talk about the background:
The Egyptians had all these different gods but some of the major ones were the god of frogs, the god of locust, the sun god, etc. With each plague, our God (YHVH) was showing his power (and sort of even mocking) each of the Egyptian gods. Imagine if you worshipped frogs and then all of the sudden, they are in your beds and ovens and you’re stepping on them and they have become the bane of your existence.

Pharaoh himself believed that he was a god: the sun god. We see YHWH unleash a plague of darkness onto Egypt, and thus rendering Pharaoh’s ‘power’ useless: Our God proved his mighty power over Pharaoh.

Regarding Pharaohs hardened heart:
Before the plagues began, God tells Moses why He is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart; “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt… And the Egyptians shall know that I am YHWH when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them…” (Exodus 7:3, 7:5)

God is “…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). This has always been true, even in the Old Testament. Remember, Nineveh was going to be the next Sodom and Gomorrah but God didn’t want to destroy them because there were “120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left…” (Jonah 4:11).

Consider this: do you think anyone in Egypt turned from their Egyptian religion to the one true God of the Hebrews because they saw His power and might displayed over and over? Even Pharaoh asked Moses to pray to YHWH to remove the anguish of the land. Our God proved his existence and power over any of the Egyptian gods and I think that people in Egypt may have feared/revered YHWH. But, if Pharaoh had let the Hebrews go after the first plague then the people of Egypt would not have had the opportunity to make a decision about YHWH.

Now, did this mean that Pharaoh had no choice in the matter and hence overriding Pharaoh’s free will? Of course not: Pharaoh had a choice to harden his heart and God knew that he would do it: Pharaoh’s attitude toward God hardened is his own heart. The Power of the plagues would make Pharaoh plead for mercy and then make him mad that YHWH had answered his plea. For example; if a person of another religion started performing miracles would you change your faith? I wouldn’t: instead, I would find my heart hardened before considering that another god had anything to do with the miracles performed (perhaps rendered a coincidence in my mind). So, God’s own power intrinsically made Pharaoh’s heart hard.

1 Samuel 6:6 says, “Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts…” It is clear that Samuel believed that the Egyptians and Pharaoh had a choice to harden their own hearts and did so willingly.

Also, I’d like to point out that even if I’m wrong (which is a possibility) and God actively hardened Pharaoh’s heart (and thus stripping him of his free will), it would not have been wrong for Him to do so: because He is God.