Exodus 11:10

[Nita]

This same issue, regarding the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, just came up on another thread on this forum titled “Free Will”. I’m just going to copy and paste the post I made there.

God’s “hardening pharaoh’s heart” means God either withdrew any grace that would have aided pharaoh to make the right decision, or that He did not bestow any assisting graces to help him in making these choices.
But God did not take away his free will – or his natural intelligence.

As you know by reading the story in Exodus, 10 times powerful miraculous signs were given to Pharaoh. Just normal intelligence should have been enough to lead him to make better decisions than he did. Even his advisers recommended to him that he let the Hebrews go. Pharaoh’s personal sinfulness (greed??, stubborness?? rejecting normal intelligence??) was of his own doing. You’ll notice if you read the episode of the plagues in chapters 4 thru 14, it speaks not only of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, but also of Pharaoh hardening his own heart. For example:
Exodus 9:34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 9:35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken through Moses.
Here is the footnote from the Haydock Bible footnotes on Ex 4:21 haydock1859.tripod.com/ :
Ver. 21. I shall harden, &c. Not by being the efficient cause of his sin; but by withdrawing from him, for his just punishment, the dew of grace, that might have softened his heart; and so suffering him to grow harder and harder. (Challoner) — Non impertiendo misericordiam. (St. Augustine, ep. 194, ad Sixt.) Thus God permitted the false miracles of the magicians, and did not suffer the scourges to continue long, so that the tyrant soon relapsed and forgot his promises. (Origen, Philos. xx; Theod. in Rom. ix. 16.) (Calmet)

 

[andrewagill]

Secondly, we are going to be judged according to what we do/think/say in life. If we are unable to freely choose our actions, then there should be no culpability on our part. Punishment for something. overwhich we have no control whatsoever, would be unjust. God IS just.

Fair enough.

What do you suppose the judgment of God on Pharaoh was? I’m not asking you to stand in judgement of Pharaoh, but do you think there’s a decent chance God looked favorably on him?

 

[PJM]

=wina Yesterday I read Ex 11: 10:
“Thus, although Moses and Aaron performed these various wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, the Lord made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelities leave his land.”

When I meditated/thought it, it made me confused as the Lord is merciful, why He made Pharaoh obstinate, so He could punish him?

Any advise?
Thanks

***Excellent question, and the answer is YES! That is precisely why God did this. But what is the rest of the story?

A man I greatly admire [may he rest in peace], Archbishop Fulton Sheen, poses the question in the following manner.

Take a candle and a lump of wet clay, place them outdoors in bright sunlight and the same sun, shinning on the same spot with two different elements [wet clay and a candle] and the results are polar opposite. The clay is hardened and the candle is melted.

His Excellency [Catholic term for an Archbishop] uses this example to point out the effects on humanity of God and God’s grace.*

Now it is essential that we understand that God being “all good” = all “just and fair” has to and certainly does *OFFER/*I] every human being sufficient grace to get to heaven. The Key word is OFFER. It’s a gift which can and is often refused.

Because humanity is blessed with a mind, intellect and freewill, we can and do choose to accept or REJECT these graces. The more often we reject God’s help [grace] the more obstinate in sin we become. So like the clay we become hardened, when we SHOULD like the candle be melted [formed into the very image of Christ.]

What we see in Exo.11:10 is God’s Moral Justice played out as a consequence of ***Pharroah’s previous sins. ***How many times did God warn him? And every time he rejected God when the curse was lifted. God is patient, but not stupid! One may think they are fooling God, but really are fooling themselves.

I hope this aids your understanding.

Love and prayers,
Pat**

 

[Benadam]

Reading the text of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (be aware that I cannot read Hebrew, and am going from an interlinear), here’s how it appears:

It’s unclear who hardens Pharaoh’s heart in 7:13, 7:22, 8:15 and 9:35.

In 8:11*, 8:28*, and 9:34* Pharaoh hardens his own heart.

In 9:7*, it seems to imply that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

In 9:12, 10:1*, 10:20, 10:27 and 11:10, it is unequivocally the Lord who hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

7:13 was after Aaron’ staff turned into a snake. 7:22, 8:11, 8:15, 8:28, 9:7 and 9:12 are after the first through sixth plagues, respectively. 9:34, 9:35 and 10:1 are after the seventh plague. This is interesting, as it shows a sort of change from Pharaoh hardening his own heart to the Lord hardening it in the span of three verses. 10:20 and 10:27 were after the eighth and ninth plagues, respectively. 11:10 was right before the tenth plague.

Another interesting thing to note is that for some of these verses, Pharaoh’s heart is steadfast, while other verses (the ones with asterisks) describe it as being heavy. These latter verses are usually (though not always–see verse 10:1) ones where Pharaoh hardens his own heart.

Andrew, I want to thank you for this contribution to the discussion. You apparently have a talent for thorough analysis and I found the information provided by it very interesting.

 

[Swami71]

Yesterday I read Ex 11: 10:
“Thus, although Moses and Aaron performed these various wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, the Lord made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelities leave his land.”

When I meditated/thought it, it made me confused as the Lord is merciful, why He made Pharaoh obstinate, so He could punish him?

Any advise?
Thanks

I would say the answer to this comes from two sources.

1. Hebrews 3:7-12 Therefore, as the holy Spirit says: “Oh, that today you would hear his voice, ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion in the day of testing in the desert, where your ancestors tested and tried me and saw my works for forty years. Because of this I was provoked with that generation and I said, “They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways.” As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest.”’”
   Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.

and

1. Romans 1:24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.

In both of these it shows that the attitude of the person or state of their being impenitant is the why their hearts are hardened. In the first, like Pharaoh, the Isrealites hardened their hearts. And in the second, God gives them over - hardens their hearts.
So in both it is God and the sinner hardening the sinner’s heart. But God being guiltless because it is the desire of the sinner to harden their heart and not God who witholds mercy.

In a simple warning, God warns us to hear his voice and harden not our hearts in all areas … and his voice is heard most clearly by his Church … (the pillar and foundation of truth.) I Timothy 3:15

 

[holy_moly]

Thanks Andrew, to be honest when I read old testament, it’s quite difficult for me as I read some things happened which are against the Lord’s mercy etc (in my own thought, because I’m not good in it, just hopefully that my faith can grow through God’s grace) that’s why I prefer to read the New Testament. But of course I would read and learnt old testament too.

Just remember, that in the OT there are many different types of wrings & purposes behind them (history, law, poetry, prophecy etc). It is not intended as a guide for human behavior