Exodus 7:13

[katy_kt]

“Yet I will make Pharaoh so obstinate that, despite the many signs and wonders that I will work in the land of Egypt”- Exodus 7:3

Could someone explain me the meaning of this verse and other verses similar to this. Verses such as Exodus 8:15 says that the Pharoah chose to remain obstinate.I know that God doesn’t make anyone do something wrong.

Thanks

 

[Della]

From Haydock’s Bible Commentary online:

I shall harden, &c.; not by being the efficient cause of his hardness of heart, but by permitting it; and by withdrawing grace from him, in punishment of his malice; which alone was the proper cause of his being hardened. (Challoner) — He took occasion even from the miracles to become more obdurate. (Haydock)

Which matches up with what Ex. 8:15 says.

 

[rjs1]

From Haydock’s Bible Commentary online:

Which matches up with what Ex. 8:15 says.

That sort of explians it. However, I suspect that we are trying to tie God down to our limitations again. Could it not be that God foreknew that Pharoh did not have the right motives in his heart, that even if he had let the Israelites go it would have been reluctantly and with no recognition of the One True God. Therefore God simply led Pharoh to follow the consequences of his wrong choices in spiritual matters.
I know it is difficult to match these verses with God allowing man free will, but I think that at the bottom it is true that the consequences suffered by Pharoh were the result of his own life choices.

 

[COPLAND_3]

Paul mentions this in Rom. 9:17. St. Thomas comments about the nature of the hardening of heart by saying,

The other thing is the withdrawal of grace, the result of which is that the mind is not enlightened by God to see aright, and man’s heart is not softened to live aright; and as regards this God is the cause of spiritual blindness and hardness of heart.

Then he goes on explaining,

Blindness and hardheartedness, as regards the withholding of grace, are punishments, and therefore, in this respect, they make man no worse. It is because he is already worsened by sin that he incurs them, even as other punishments.

I hope this helps.

 

[Della]

That sort of explians it. However, I suspect that we are trying to tie God down to our limitations again. Could it not be that God foreknew that Pharoh did not have the right motives in his heart, that even if he had let the Israelites go it would have been reluctantly and with no recognition of the One True God. Therefore God simply led Pharoh to follow the consequences of his wrong choices in spiritual matters.
I know it is difficult to match these verses with God allowing man free will, but I think that at the bottom it is true that the consequences suffered by Pharoh were the result of his own life choices.

The whole free will/Providence paradox can be mind bending, can’t it? But, we know that God acts out of perfect love, and in his perfect love he exalts one and not another, seems to directly convert one’s life (St. Paul) and not another’s (Pharaoh).

Of course, God sees the inner workings of the human heart in ways no human ever could, so he probably knew how St. Paul would react to being shown the truth and how Pharaoh would react to being shown the truth–that the first would say, “Lord do with me as you will” and the latter, “I will not do as you will no matter what,” if that makes any sense.

 

[Catholic_Dude]

Ex 9: 34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. 35 So Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

It is a mystery how free will and God’s Providence work together, but the Church (and Scripture) teaches they do. This passage shows us it was both Pharaoh and God hardening.

Also check out Hebrews 3:
7So, as the Holy Spirit says:

"Today, if you hear his voice,
8do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ "[Psalm 95]

12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[Psalm 95]

16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
This is talking to Christians and their need to persevere and not “harden their hearts” by sin and unbelief.