Ex. 8 (esp. v13-15,18-19,31-32), Heart-Hardening (4)

We have noted that the LORD told Moses He would make him as “God” to Pharaoh.  Part of it was Pharaoh’s way of thinking that opened him up to this idea.  But what God did was to respond to Moses as if Moses was in charge.  Twice in this chapter we see Moses leave Pharaoh and plead with God to remove the plague and God immediately does according to Moses’ word.  Since God is unseen this would appear to Pharaoh as if Moses was calling the shots.  Pharaoh’s adversary is very real, very visible.  That makes it harder for a proud man to back down.  

Further we note that the succession of plagues also serves to harden the heart of the proud king of Egypt.  Each plague is removed at the “promise” of Pharaoh to let the people go.  But once the pain is gone then he changes his mind.  In the case of the lice and flies the removal of the plague removes the pain.  The plague on the livestock and the hail and locusts have some lingering effects, even after the plague is lifted.  But Pharaoh can live with these losses and would assume he would lose even more if he lets the slaves leave who are helping to make him wealthy.

It is quite instructive the way the Scriptures record the shape of Pharaoh’s heart after plagues 4-7.  All this is true, of course, though they do not all say the same thing.

·        8:32: Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also.  “Also” indicates Pharaoh has been involved in the process.  His pride is leading to increased intransigence.

·        9:7: the heart of Pharaoh became hard.  This almost sounds passive (the Hebrew imperfect tense has a variety of uses). 

·        9:12: the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh.  God continues to be involved in the process.  The plague of the boils was a very personal, painful experience.  It was intense.  You might think Pharaoh would reach his limit and let them go.  But it is not yet God’s time.

·        9:34: he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants.  In this case the burden is solidly on Pharaoh; it is his sin.  But note also that the hearts of his servants are also hard.  They do not want to lose the benefit of the slaves.  But even more, they do not want to see their gods as impotent in the face of the God of Israel.  It won’t be until the threat of the eighth plague (10:7) that the servants will tell Pharaoh he should let the people go.  You could say that this is God’s mercy to Pharaoh in the sense that He is giving the king a good reason to give up.  But when God’s mercy is offered to the proud and then rejected by the proud it increases the hardness. 

With each plague Pharaoh’s heard becomes harder.  To give in after four or six or eight plagues leads the proud heart to say, “if I give up now then people will think I lacked the wisdom to give up after one or two.”  It provides another reason to dig in and hold your ground.