Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?

[msprettykawaii]

Dear God, please dont hardened my husband's heart. Make our reconciliation a testimony for your glory

[carolineh]

I just started my journey as a Christian and I’m currently reading the bible. I love these videos for whenever I get confused in my readings. Thank you so much!

[ColeConCon]

“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done, ' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'”
― C.S. Lewis

[hannahronglo]

Thank you for this .. I needed this. ❤️

[jessicahildebrand]

I've read this and questioned each time, for i did not understand. Thank you for helping us understand. The Bible is hard to understand sometimes but I am learning.

[makaylalayla]

Thank you for creating these videos, they’ve been so helpful in answering the questions that come up as I’m reading.

[messianicreformer]

A picture the Lord gave me relates to that old quote: the sun shines on the clay and butter, making one hard and one soft. Here it is: There are two soils. The Sun of Righteous shines on both soils with the intent to soften both. On both a seed is cast. One soil rejects the seed. The other soils receives the seed within a crack or cut (circumcision). Then the sun shines on the first soil. With no rain, the already hard soil gets harder and harder until all the water has left. This soil looks like those deserts starving for water with hexagon shaped cracks. Any rain just immediately dries up under such unshaded sun. The 2nd soil has just enough water in which the seed to root. The new leaves give shade to the soil. The roots break up the soil even more. Eventually a new tree grows and drops leaves which decays as organic matter, further softening the soil. The tree invites birds of the air to come who further fertilize and soften the ground below. The tree drops fruit and seeds within to continue to increase the next generation of soil softening. The moral: God does nothing wrong when hearts are hardened. All He does is good - send the sun, the rain and seed. The soil that rejects the voice of the word of God grows hard. As it is written, "when you hear my voice, harden not your hearts"!

[steffenromarheim]

Very well explained except I read at the start pf Exodus chapther 7 that God told Moses he would harden his heart BEFORE the plagues ever occured. However I agree that Pharoh's pride, ignorance and stubborness affected him and made shaped his heart harded.

I believe that God could do this to glorify himself without being unjust, and that by hardening his heart he simply gave Pharoh an approval of the stubborness he hilself choose.

[sheamiller]

Such a good study. Keep up the good work! God Bless.

[TrentonJackson-plle]

Please pray that my heart grows softer to God’s grace

[eskews__me]

I always read "The LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart" like: The actions of God (the plagues) caused Pharaoh to hate God more. Just like if someone does something to anger me, it's my choice to get angry, but they acted in such a way to provide the opportunity.

[wizolufa]

“And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭4:21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

There’s only one way to interpret that text.

[wehart]

This is like being in a psych ward with schizophrenic patients taking about their imaginary friends.. weird.

[MariusVanWoerden]

See how paul explains this in 18 Romans 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom He WANTS TO HAVE MERCY, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.…

”Now, what are the evidences in this text that the words “He hardens whomever he wills, ” in Romans 9:18 means that God freely and unconditionally and without a previous act of this person decides who will be hardened and who will not?

1. That’s what the words most naturally mean. “He hardens whomever he wills, ” says that his will and not our will is decisive in hardening. To be sure, our will rebels and is hard against God. But the natural meaning of these words is that God’s will is decisive beneath and behind our willing without nullifying the importance of our will.

2. The exact parallel with mercy shows that the act of God in hardening is as unconditional as the act of God in having mercy. Verse 18 says, “He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” So if we believe that God’s showing mercy is unconditional, the most natural way to take the parallel is that the hardening is unconditional.

3. This is in fact exactly what Paul infers from God’s words in verse 15, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” Paul draws out of this in verse 16, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” If that is what “I have mercy on whom I have mercy” means, then it is probably what “I harden whom I harden” means, namely, “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who hardens.”

4. The parallel with Jacob and Esau shows that mercy and hardening are unconditional. Paul said in verses 11 and 13, “Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad . . . As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” In other words, the context demands that Paul address not just the love and mercy part of God’s sovereignty but also the hate and hardening part of God’s sovereignty. The parallel with Jacob and Esau in verse 13 shows that the hardening and the mercy are unconditional.

5. The objection and Paul’s answer to it in verse 19 show that Paul did not deal with God’s sovereignty the way most people deal with it today. Paul raises the objection: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’” Now at this point most people today say, God finds fault because his hardening is a response to our prior self-hardening. For example, one popular, and usually good commentary says,

NEITHER HERE NOR ANYWHERE ELSE IS GOD SAID TO HARDEN ANYONE WHO HAD NOT FIRST HARDENED HIMSELF. THAT PHARAOH HARDENED HIS HEART AGAINST GOD AND REFUSED TO HUMBLE HIMSELF IS MADE PLAIN IN THE STORY. SO GOD’S HARDENING OF HIM WAS A JUDICIAL ACT, ABANDONING HIM TO HIS OWN STUBBORNNESS. (JOHN STOTT, ROMANS: GOD’S GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD [INTERVARSITY PRESS, 1994], 269, QUOTING LEON MORRIS)

“Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” Let me say this calmly and firmly: that is exactly the opposite of what Romans 9:18 teaches. And the fifth reason that I say so is this: Paul could have so easily removed the objection of verse 19 that way, and he did not! The objector hears Paul say, “God hardens whomever he wills, ” and he responds, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” How easily Paul could have answered the objection with all the answers of modern man! And he didn’t. Because they are the wrong answer. They turn his teaching right on its head. He said, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” Indeed he said more — but in a direction exactly the opposite of what people today (or then) expect.

6. Verse 21 shows that Paul sees mercy and hardening as unconditional because he speaks of the objects of mercy and hardening as coming from the same lump of clay: “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump [there’s the crucial phrase!] one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?” The stress is that it was not the nature of the clay that determined what God would do with it. It was the free and wise and sovereign will of the potter. He has mercy on whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills — from the same lump of clay.

7. We read in Romans 11:7: “What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.” In other words, the decisive issue in who is hardened and who is not is election, not some prior willing or running on our part, but God who elects. “The elect obtained it, the rest were hardened” (Romans 11:7). “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” (Romans 9:13). “He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Romans 9:18).

[kool-ala]

Let this be a reminder that, seek and you will find! We all had this question

[linamij]

Thank you for this video is well explained.

[WopWopWopWopW]

This still didn’t answer the question and theory. So God controlled pharaoh free will so HE could use him as an example.

[racheldaniels]

Awesome 👍. God bless you abundantly Pastor.

[GaryDisciple]

I believe the Beatitudes teach directly what kind of heart a Christian has to have.
It's very different from Pharaoh or someone in the world.
'Blessed are the poor in spirit.'
A person who is broken, desperate & they realize they're nothing at all without God.
Immediately the next verse, 'Blessed are those who mourn.'
I believe it connects to the first verse & means those who mourn/grieve over their sin! They are sorrowful & see how ugly their sin is. They pray they hate their sin.
They recognize the depth of their sin & deeply long for God to change them.
Peter in Luke 5:8 & 22:60-62 ; also the tax collector in Luke 18:13, 14 are great examples of this humility!
Disciples of Jesus are deeply bothered by their sin. If we are bothered, cut, convicted by our sins, we'll turn to God in repentance. We'll Pray for godly sorrow & repent!
We have to realize and recognize our spiritual poverty!

[O_tropos]

The dilemma with this explanation is that if God is the one that needs to soften my heart, for me to be able to love Him, would mean that everyone who does not love God is because their heart is not soften by God. Therefore they shouldnt be punished for something they mentally or phisically cant do, right?