Rom. 9:14-18,30-33, Heart-Hardening

For a few days we would like to address the issue of God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.  We would like to demonstrate that as God hardened the heart of the King of Egypt, the King of Egypt did exactly what he willed to do.  The wickedness of his heart was revealed in the events that played out in the Exodus.

We begin in Romans 9.  There can be no question that God harden Pharaoh’s heart.  There is no way to adjust one’s theology to deny that fact without denying Scripture.  Rom. 9:17 quotes what was said to Pharaoh (Ex. 9:16).  And Paul places these words in between his strong statements of God’s sovereign involvement.  He quotes God’s words to Moses in Ex. 33:19 where God is specifically describing His character to Moses.  I will have mercy … compassion on whomever I will…! 

Paul also asks the logical question in 9:19: Why does He still find fault?  For who has resisted His will?  But I want to note a couple of things.  First, Paul does not give an explanative answer to that question; he simply answers with a question, who are you to reply against God?  He follow that up with a “what if” (v22-24).

 The second thing I want to note from Romans 9 is the ease with which Paul moves from this discussion of God hardening whom He wills (v18) to his explanation as to what is happening among the Gentiles and Jews (v30-33).  Gentiles are coming to Christ but Jews for the most part are not.  The Jews are rejecting Christ.  And if you ask “why,” which Paul does of course in v32, you do not get the answer “because God willed to harden their hearts.”  Now again, do not misunderstand me.  I know the Isaiah passages about God’s blinding the eyes of Israel lest they see and repent.  But my point is that Paul does not use those here.  Instead he says that the reason for Israel’s rejection is unbelief, their unbelief.  THEY stumbled at that stumbling stone, the One prophesied in Psalm 118:22-24 and especially Isa. 8:14 and 28:16.

God blinded Israel.  But God is not blamed for Israel’s rejection.  Israel acted by their own choice.  They stumbled is not passive; it is in Greek aorist (decisive action in the past), active (action taken fully by the subject) and indicative: a description of the facts).  Whatever God did and however God did it, He did not coerce Israel.  Israel did her will as God did His will.

Often people use the term sovereign to refer to God’s character and actions that are inexplicable.  God does what He wants and is under no obligation to explain Himself. It is true that God is unknowable as the Infinite One is unknowable to the finite creatures.  But I do not believe that is the case here.  It seems that God gives us an understanding of this in the account in Exodus.  And the explanation will avoid both the dangerous Open Theism that describes God as learning-as-He-goes as well as the danger of Hyper Calvinism whereby God gets the blame for my sin.  Whether we succeed or not in your eyes, the focus on God’s work in Exodus will be beneficial (2 Tim. 3:16-17).