Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
One of the principles of biblical interpretation is to consider the first usage of a phrase, word or concept, so I'm going to look carefully at the 'hardened heart', which we encounter for the first time in Exodus. It's not exactly the first use of the word 'heart' that we encounter in Exodus (depending on the translation, lol), but it is far and away the most frequent so that is where we are starting; we'll cover the other uses of the word 'heart' next week.
Buckle up, we have a lot of verses to check out today; they all appear in Exodus 4 - 14.
The word for heart in all of these verses is leb (Strong's H 3820), and most commonly means 'inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding' (Blue Letter Bible)
However, there are several different Hebrew words translated as some form of the verb 'harden'/ adjective 'hard'. I'm not going to go that far into the weeds here; anyone who's really interested can dig into it. They all pretty much have the same implication...to be or to make dull, unresponsive, severe, difficult, stiff, stubborn, hard, obstinate.
There are four different types of references to Pharaoh's heart- heartedness. The first we encounter is a prophetic declaration that God will harden Pharaoh's heart at some point in the future, in order to maximize the impact of what he was going to do to free the captives (all references today from the NIV 84):
The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go." - Ex. 4:21
"You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it." - Ex. 7:2-5
"Pharoah will think , 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." So the Israelites [camped according to God's instructions]. -- Ex. 14:3-4
"Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen." -- Ex. 14:16-17 (not just Pharoah here but the whole pursuing army).
This has always been a problematic concept...that God would deliberately manipulate a person's mind/ will/ emotions so that they were not able to respond to the truth. It seemed a violation of the concept of free will.
But at this point this is prophecy. God is describing what will happen in the future, not what he was doing at that moment. The second application of the hard heart is actually a description of the state of Pharaoh's heart. IE, the way he was pretty much before anything happened. And this is set up in Ex. 5:2, when Moses and Aaron first appear before Pharaoh with the request to go a three days' journey into the desert to hold a festival and worship God.
Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go....Why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!"
Pharaoh starts the narrative with that attitude...an unyielding, unresponsive, rather self-centered heart. God had not done anything yet. This was why the Israelites had been crying out for relief. And of course, Pharaoh promptly made their lives more miserable because of their audacity to ask for a break from their labor in order to worship God (see what is recorded in the rest of chapter 5).
Pharaoh's heart was inclined to be hard. "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him?' he demanded. Well, he was fixin' to find out...
After Aaron's snake/staff devoured the snakes of the magicians: Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said. Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Pharaoh's heart is unyielding, he refuses to let the people go." -- Ex. 7:13-14.
When the first plague hit: But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. -- Ex. 7:22-23
After the third plague: The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said. -- Ex. 8:19
After the fifth plague: Pharaoh sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go. -- Ex. 9:7
But, not only was Pharaoh's heart inclined to be hard, we also find that he himself hardened his heart even above what it normally was. Of his own choice and agency.
After the 2nd plague: But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. -- Ex. 8:15
After the fourth plague: But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. -- Ex. 8:32
After the seventh plague: When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. So Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses. - Ex. 9 34-35
Whoa. Application is begging for attention; we'll get there in a minute.
The last set of references show the actual fulfillment of the prophecy...when God hardens Pharaoh's heart.
That is not mentioned as happening until after the sixth plague:
But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses. -- Ex. 9:12
After the 7th plague was ended - But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.- Ex. 10:20
After the 9th Plague, and Moses had rejected Pharaoh's offer of a compromise...that the people could go but they had to leave all their livestock behind: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. -- Ex. 10:27
In the last two verses of chapter 11, we see a summary of the outcome of all the plagues to that point, with the conclusion:
Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharoah, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go out of his country. -- Ex. 11:10
And, in the final pursuit of the Israelites, the one that pushed them across the Red Sea and out of range of any further retaliation:
The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. -- Ex. 14:8
So...what can we tentatively learn (subject to further investigation in later chapters, of course) about a hard/ unyielding heart here?
1) God knows a hard heart. He knows how someone with a hard heart with think and react.
2) God allows someone who has a hard heart... to keep it.
3) God can use a hard heart, but it is a tool. Not a personal relationship. And the purpose is generally not what the person with the hard heart would, um, appreciate. Once the heart has been hardened...God can and does harden it further for his purpose. Pharaoh had a hard heart to start with, and he hardened it yet more before we read that God further hardened his heart. Pharaoh had already made that choice, which leads to
4) Hardening one's heart is clearly identified as a sin (Ex. 9:34). Just today I saw a post on social media with a little description of the difference between doubt and unbelief. Unbelief was described as a refusal to believe even when given evidence. That's a choice, and the 'refusing to believe' part is...hardening one's heart. That is clearly evident here; Pharaoh refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, even when it meant his own people were suffering.
Can a truly hard heart be softened? That's something I am going to be watching for as we continue this journey. There are stories of folks who were skeptical unbelievers who came to Christ, but I think these folks all had a place in their hearts that was never calcified, that pursued truth even when all their actions seemed to indicate it was rejected (Think of the Apostle Paul for instance). I think, so long as that tender place remains, there is hope it can grow. But for someone who has utterly and completely rejected God and his truth...there really isn't a place for hope to take root. The path in the parable of the soils, if you will.
But you and I can't really see if a heart is HARD or just MOSTLY HARD. Because...if it's just MOSTLY HARD...then God sees and knows and will never override that bit that truly seeks him.
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