Our text is one that would rile your neighbors. And, it confuses some
Christians also. When some folk read this text the quick response is
something like, ‘Wait a minute! That’s not fair! God hardens Pharaoh and
then He judges him? And God does this is so that Egypt will know that He is
Yahweh? That seems pretty rotten – and selfish to boot. God is just using
Pharaoh like a plaything so that He will look good. What kind of God is this
anyway?’ You know that I’m not exaggerating. Read this passage to one of
your neighbors and see what he’ll say. I’m pretty sure that it will be
something like what I have just said, at least if he’s honest with you. And,
if truth be known, some of you are wondering a little about what God is
doing here. It does seem a bit odd, no? But whenever you find something in
Scripture that seems a bit off, that’s a sign that it has something more to
teach you. So, let’s see what’s going on here. Is God using – or abusing –
Pharaoh for selfish reasons? What does our text have to teach us about our
God and ourselves?
First, when your neighbor raises his objections, he has some assumptions.
Here’s one of them. ‘I – and all other people – have rights that even God
can’t transgress.’ That’s why your neighbor is standing up for Pharaoh. He
has rights that need to be protected. But is that a good assumption? Do we
have rights that trump even God? Let’s think about this. Who, after all, is
God? He is the Creator. That makes your neighbor - and every other person –
a creature, that is, something that has been created. Now, understand what
that means. Imagine that you have created something, a dress, a model plane,
a drawing. That creation is yours to do with whatever you care to. You can
display it or you can destroy it. It’s yours. If you decide to display it,
you can attach your name to it so that people would know that it was you
that created it. Or not. It is a basic fact of this world that we are
creatures, created by God. He can do with us whatever He wants. Your
neighbor, however, doesn’t recognize this. He has built his life on the
assumption that his life is his own to do with as he pleases. He has the
final say when he comes to the fork in the road. Right fork or left fork? It
’s all up to him. After all, the goal of his life is whatever he has
decided. But what is all of this but a great lie from the father of lies.
Now, what does this mean for Pharaoh? God sees Pharaoh – minding his own
business, being king of Egypt, doing the best that he can – and then He
decides to use Pharaoh by hardening his heart. And once He has done that, He
judges him so that His power as the true God might be revealed. Is that what
’s going on here? After all, God is Pharaoh’s Creator. He can do to him as
He pleases, can’t He? Well, He could, but He doesn’t. But it’s not because
Pharaoh has these rights. Rather, God doesn’t take an innocent person and
force him to do wrong and then condemn him for that. To judge someone as
guilty when he actually isn’t, would be contrary to God’s just character.
God doesn’t do that. And He didn’t do it to Pharaoh.
That’s all well and good, but we still have our text to deal with. So, what
is going on? God hardened Pharaoh’s heart – and He did it according to
justice. But how does He justify that? There is another assumption we have
to examine. This one has to do with the way that I described Pharaoh. I
said, ‘God sees Pharaoh – minding his own business, being king of Egypt,
doing the best that he can …’ Well, that’s actually not accurate. Pharaoh is
not innocent. What have we seen thus far in our studies in Exodus? Pharaoh
has enslaved and oppressed Israel. And then, when Moses shows up the first
time, he makes life worse for Israel. ‘No more straw!’ Pharaoh is not
innocent. He has chosen to sin. I’ve told you before that our lives are not
static but rather dynamic. We are moving either toward God and greater
holiness or away from Him and greater sinfulness. When it comes to people
who are not Christian they can only move away from God. So, their lives are
a slow spiral downward, away from the God who made them and loves them.
[This, by the way, is why the Spirit must act if anyone will be converted.]
As an expression of His kindness, God restrains unbelievers from the full
manifestation of their evil hearts. Without this restraint, people would be
devils incarnate. There are times, however, when God no longer restrains.
There are times when He allows them to spiral downward further and faster.
You can see this in a place like Psalm 81. ‘So I gave them over to their
stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.’ Another place is Romans 1.
‘Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…’
[Romans 1:24] God no longer restrained ‘the lusts of their hearts’. He
allowed them free rein. And so, they chased after the impurity that they
longed for. They followed the counsel of their stubborn hearts. They chased
after it and embraced it. Because they went further after their sin, they
moved further away from their Creator. And thus their hearts were hardened
against God that much more. And that’s what happened to Pharaoh. The leash
was removed and off he went. And that’s why sometimes we’ll read ‘God
hardened his heart’ and other times we’ll read, ‘Pharaoh hardened his heart.
’ God acted. But He didn’t force Pharaoh to become something that He wasn’t
and then judge him for it. He simply no longer restrained Pharaoh from
pursuing what his heart desired. And we see the results.
Now, why did God do this? What was the point? What does the text say? He did
it so that ‘Egypt may know that I am Yahweh’. Pharaoh’s hard heart became
the means by which God became known. Ironic, isn’t it? Pharaoh would not
yield. He despised this God of the Hebrews. He refused to budge, but rather
fought against Yahweh. Remember when he proudly said, ‘Who is Yahweh that I
should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh nor will I let
Israel go.’ But what happened? The unknown God of Israel became well known
throughout Egypt. The fame of Yahweh spread. He became known as the God who
was master of the situation, the God who has all power to crush His enemies,
the God who frees His people. The fame of Yahweh spread. And why? It spread
because of the hard heart of Pharaoh.
This is the way that our God works. We can see it in so many places in
Scripture. But the key place we see this is in the cross. What is going on?
What is Jesus doing there? His fame is being spread. Jesus becomes known as
the master of the situation. ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I
lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I
lay it down of my own accord…’ [John 10:17-18] He becomes known as the one
who has all power to crush His enemies who oppose Him. ‘He disarmed the
rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them
in it [the cross].’ [Colossians 2:15] Satan and his demons were completely
defeated at the cross. He becomes known as the God who frees His people.
‘For freedom Christ has set us free…’ [Galatians 5:1] But remember how this
happened. Jesus used the hard hearts of those arrayed against Him – high
priests and others – to accomplish His task. The restraint was removed. The
counsel of stubborn hearts was followed. As a result, the fame of Jesus has
spread not just to Egypt but to all the nations.
I have, once again, presented to you a picture of your God. There is much
here that you can meditate on and profit from. But let me just talk about
one thing. Why did Jesus – yes, I do mean Jesus – do what He did in Egypt?
Many would say that He did it to free His people from the slavery and
oppression of Pharaoh. That is true but it’s only part of the truth and not
the most important part. And remember that half the truth presented as the
whole truth becomes a lie. Why did Jesus do what He did in Egypt? He did it
so that Egypt would know, ‘I am Yahweh.’ He did it so that they would know
what kind of a God He is. The redemption of His people from their slavery
was simply a means to that end. Why did Jesus do what He did at the cross?
Again many would say that He did it to free His people from the slavery and
oppression of sin and Satan. And, again, that would be true but only part of
the truth and not the most important part. He did it so that the nations
would know, ‘I am Yahweh.’ The redemption of you, His people, from your
slavery was simply a means to that end.
Sad to say, but we live among people who are convinced that ‘My life is my
own to do with as I please.’ And as a result, there is the pervasive
assumption that they have rights that even God cannot transgress. But the
truth is something far different. Living in this kind of situation you need
to remind yourselves time and again that He is not here for you as much as
you are here for Him. You were created for His sake and not the other way
around. And more than that, you were not only created for His sake, but you
were also redeemed for His sake. You were rescued from your slavery so that
the wonder of who He is – the master of the situation, the God who has all
power to crush His enemies, the Savior who frees His people, and so much
more – might be revealed to the nations. But sometimes we forget this.
Sometimes we follow the foolish thinking of those around us. Sometimes, we
make plans for ourselves and our children forgetting that we are not here
for ourselves. We are here so that the grandeur of Jesus might be revealed
to the nations. Sometimes, we pray forgetting that the first priority in our
prayers is not our well-being. The first priority is that the wonders of
Jesus might be evidenced to and then experienced by all peoples. We have a
great purpose. Let us work to understand it better and better so that we
might live in such a way that Jesus would be made known in all His
magnificence.
