Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?
By Carl O. Cooper
OK friends, here is a question for you. Please think carefully before you answer, just to be sure you consider all the possible answers.
Consider the people of Sodom; did God have a plan to destroy the city and all the people who lived there? Would that plan include the small babies and the old and feeble as well?
Well, the Bible said He did have a plan to kill all the people and what’s more, He carried it out in a violent way. Look at these verses;
Genesis 18:19-21 (NKJV)
17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
Now I can almost hear the voices of those reading this article. No! No! God does not kill people. God loves everyone and he would never take someone’s life, even bad people. God loves everyone too much to kill them. Even when they disobey His Word and sin, God will always love them. After all, don’t we all sin?
Of course we know that God takes no pleasure in killing people. Surely that includes children, especially. But we do know this;
Numbers 14:18 (NKJV)
18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
Yes, God is longsuffering and allows time for repentance and forgiveness. But He does not clear the guilty. And sometimes the innocent are caught up in the acts and behavior of the sinful. Sometimes the innocent suffer because of the sins of someone else. But if so, and some are killed with no accountability, they will not suffer punishment for their sins. But there comes a time when God is through with longsuffering and warning and their time for repentance has run out. In many cases in Bible history God had a plan for cleansing His world of wicked and disobedient people and He carried it out in very violent ways. The case in point was Sodom and Gomorrah. God had a plan to destroy these wicked people and He rained fire and brimstone on the cities until all the occupants were all killed. Now it would be very unlikely that every individual in these cities was a homosexual but everyone was destroyed. However, those who might not have been homosexual did not stop and restrain those who were and they seemingly approved of this ungodly behavior and became guilty of the sin themselves. They were also destroyed. And then there were the babies. What a tragedy, the children had to suffer the sins of their parents.
Sodom and Gomorrah was not the only time God took vengeance on a wicked people and destroyed them. There was the flood. How many people did God kill in the flood? Would you say millions? And, yes, some were children and innocent, and they perished with the guilty. But God cleansed the earth from sin with the water of the flood.
And there was the case of the rebellious children of Israel who made the golden calf on their way out of Egypt captivity.
Exodus 32:26-28 (NKJV)
26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side–come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ “28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
There are many, many cases just like these in the Bible. God is longsuffering but when people continue to disobey and their sin reaches a level where it becomes necessary, God will enact vengeance and justice and cleanse the earth of a sinful people or nation when He thinks it is necessary.
Look at this passage in the New Testament as well.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (KJV)
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Not only does God take vengeance on evil people, He also plans how He wants to carry out His vengeance and justice and He causes His plans to be properly carried out to His own satisfaction. When people reach a level of evil that only God can decide and know where that level is, God causes them to act and move in the proper way for His plans to be carried out. When these people reached that level in 2 Thessalonians, God sent them a strong delusion to believe a lie “That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Now someone tell me why it is so hard for people to say that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Look at this verse where God sends this message to Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
Exodus 9:15-16 (KJV)
15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
God had a plan. He intended to free the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery. And in the process He intended to show His power and proclaim His name throughout the earth.
God’s plan extended back to even before Pharaoh was born. God raised him up for the purpose of demonstrating His power and the greatness of His name throughout the earth.
God’s plan included the destruction of the entire Egyptian army. This could never have happened if Pharaoh had allowed the Israelites to escape and had not pursued them even into the Red Sea. But God continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart to the point that he took his army into the Red Sea with a mighty wall of water on each side of his army. And when God caused the chariot wheels to start coming off, the soldiers had a change of heart about God. At that point they suddenly repented of their disrespect for Jehovah God and would have stopped their pursuit, but it was too late. God’s plan could not be stopped at that point. All of them were killed by God. Once again, God cleansed His earth of an evil people who had refused to call Him God.
Exodus 14:24-25 (KJV)
24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
Yes, the Egyptians were ready to repent and they acknowledged the LORD as God. But it was too late. God’s plan was already in effect and there was no stopping the destruction until God’s plan was carried out and the entire army was destroyed. God demonstrated his might and power in a mighty way when He freed to Israelites from captivity in Egypt.
God raised up Pharaoh for a specific purpose and He hardened Pharaoh’s heart and caused him to act a certain way in order to carry out His great and mighty plan to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
God is Sovereign and He rules this world. He is the God that made us and He is the God that rules the universe and the world. Is there anyone among us who would dare question God’s actions and to call God unjust according to our own standards? Job tried that and quickly learned that he was not up to a level to where he could judge God. And neither are we.
Carl O. Cooper
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