“Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them;
and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army,
that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.”
And they did so.

Exodus 14:4

The final hardening of Pharaoh’s heart differed from the earlier hardenings in the result it produced. Prior to the Israelites leaving Egypt, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened against releasing the people. After their departure, God hardened his heart to pursue the children of Israel all the way into the Red Sea. Basically, God’s final hardening of Pharaoh’s heart resulted in his destruction. Harsh as this was, we want to uncover how it was not unjust.

During the plagues, God was strengthening Pharaoh’s resolve to enable him to perform his desire, which was to not release the people. When God didn’t harden Pharaoh after the tenth plague, Pharaoh’s resolve faltered and he released the people. But that didn’t mean he had given up his desire to keep the Israelites in bondage.

Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” Exodus 14:5

This question reveals that Pharaoh and his people still wanted the Israelites to serve them. Pharaoh clearly didn’t view the act of keeping the people in bondage as evil, but saw it as producing a desired result. He still felt he had the right to keep the people enslaved if he wished, regardless of what God said. But we will see that his position was extreme wickedness.

From Pharaoh’s perspective, the nation of Israel were runaway slaves. The reality is that they were the favored people of the one true God. But Pharaoh denied their favor from God. Again, from Pharaoh’s perspective, the Hebrew God was an annoying supernatural being who was meddling in his affairs. But the reality is that YHWH was God over all. That meant Pharaoh had every responsibility to honor, reverence, and obey YHWH as the God. But he refused. 

His position against the Israelites was offensive to God. It would have been bad enough if he had been acting in ignorance, but Pharaoh had seen firsthand the unmatched power of the Hebrew God. All the plagues he had experienced pointed to the reality that the Hebrew God was the God over all. But he ignored the obvious fact that the plagues pointed to regarding God.

He added to this defiance an outrage against God. After the tenth plague, he released the people from being slaves to following God. At that point, they were no longer his slaves, but were under God’s care. However, when he experienced the inconveniences that came from letting his slaves go, he tried to steal the people from God back into his possession. He acted as though he thought God wasn’t leading them, but they were wandering in the wilderness on their own. 

For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’ Exodus 14:3

He ignored the obvious supernatural characteristic of the cloud that went in front of the people and pretended they were merely escaped slaves.

Suppose you saw a kind and generous king rescue a small herd of his animals from the care of an abusive individual. What would be your reaction if, as the king was gently leading his animals away, that abusive individual ambushed the king in an attempt to retake the animals so that he could continue the abuse? It would be the height of injustice. You might even cheer if the king pulled out his sword and exterminated the man for his wickedness. In the same way, it was right for God to put an end to the abusive Pharaoh’s wickedness. 

God could have brought Pharaoh to an end long before he reached the Red Sea. But God chose to make Pharaoh an object lesson to teach His people to revere Him. He used the method of hardening Pharaoh’s heart to accomplish His purpose.

When Pharaoh reached the shore of the Red Sea, he must have experienced two conflicting desires. The one would have been the desire of self-preservation carried out by avoiding dangerous situations. The other was his desire to recapture the Israelites. God hardened his heart by strengthening the latter desire, causing Pharaoh to disregard all caution and rush into the Red Sea towards certain destruction. Through Pharaoh’s destruction, God taught His people to revere Him. 

So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses. Exodus 14:30-31

God saw a need to convince Israel that He was their God whom they should revere. He knew that if Pharaoh was difficult to convince of His supremacy, then Israel would also be difficult to convince, since they came from the same lump of clay as Pharaoh (Romans 9:21).

Pharaoh showed by his actions that he had not repented and that he would not repent no matter what demonstration of power God showed him. Eventually, he would have died and faced his due judgment. But by hardening his heart, God brought him to his death earlier than expected. Although it is very sobering, it is not unjust for God to execute a man who refuses to repent before his Maker, and that is what God did to Pharaoh.

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Food for Thought

“Then I will harden [H2388] Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor [H3513] over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so. Exodus 14:4
“And I indeed will harden [H2388] the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor [H3513] over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen. “Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honor [H3513] for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” Exodus 14:17-18

Interestingly, one of the words (H3513 – heavy) used to describe Pharaoh’s hardened heart was used in this passage with a different meaning to describe the Lord’s honor. I think the thought behind this metaphoric application is that a larger object is generally a heavier object. Thus, a person who had great wealth was described as being ‘heavy’ in riches (Genesis 13:2, Abraham was ‘heavy’ in wealth). God was saying He would be ‘heavy’ in honor over Pharaoh. 

Here’s the bonus thought: when you give authority to a proud, stubborn man, he often becomes more stubborn. Did God make Pharaoh stubborn (harden him) by giving him the authority to dictate if Israel could leave? 

Consider the timing of when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt. He did it after Pharaoh said He could. He had initially elevated Pharaoh to the position of authority over the Israelites, and didn’t reverse that by overriding Pharaoh’s decrees. It seemed that Pharaoh had power over God since God didn’t take the Israelites until Pharaoh said He could.

By making Pharaoh ‘heavy’ (H3515), or great, did He thus make him ‘heavy’ (H3513), or stubborn? Is that how God hardened Pharaoh?

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