WHO HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART?

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.     Last week we began a 3-part mini-series entitled:  “Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?”

 

B.      In that study,

1.       We learned that every aspect of one’s life springs from the heart (Prov. 4:23).

 

For as he thinketh in his heart so is he…

 

2.       We found that the heart has both a positive side and a negative side.

a.       Man’s heart does so many things for him.  It thinks, reasons, enables man to will, has the ability to plan, is the seat of our emotions, and it the storehouse of our faith.

b.      Even though the heart can do wonderful things, it can also be a curse to man (Jer. 17:9).

 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:  who can know it?

 

3.       One of the problems that can impact the heart is that it can become hardened.

 

C.     This brings us to the subject of our lesson:  “Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?”

1.       Eighteen times in Exodus, Pharaoh’s hard heart is mentioned.

2.       The breakdown:

a.       Five times it is noted that his heart was hardened with no explanation given (Exo. 7:14, 22; 8:19; 9:35).

b.      Three verses reveal that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exo. 8:15, 32; 9:34).

c.       The other ten verses tell us that God hardened the evil ruler’s heart (Exo. 4:21; 7:3, 13; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8).

 

D.     This is the heart of this lesson.  Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?  Was it just himself and God?  Or, were there other factors involved as well?  Let’s look at all of the things that caused the heard of Pharaoh to be hardened.

 

I.                    PEDAGOGY

 

A.     Pedagogy involves the teaching and instruction a person receives.

 

B.      Pharaoh, like Moses, would have been “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22).  The difference is that Pharaoh did not have a mother like Zipporah influencing him while he was being nursed (See Exo. 2:7-9).

 

C.     Training is intended to mold and develop both the mind and one’s behavior. 

1.       Training received early influences a person for the rest of his life.

2.       Proverbs 22:6

 

Train up a child in the way he should go:  and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

 

D.     Pharaoh’s training did not involve the God of Israel or any law of God.  His training involved the idols of Egypt and the ways of Egyptian culture. 

 

E.      NOTE:  One’s education is not something that is easily yielded to the demands of others.

 

II.                 POWER

 

A.     Power can cause a heart to be hardened.

 

B.      Power can be simply defined as “authority.”

 

C.     We have all heard the expression:  “Power can go to a person’s head.”

1.       Power can cause one to believe he is self-sufficient.

2.       Power can cause a person to believe that he is indestructible.

3.       Power can cause a person to believe that he is a god.

 

D.     Many rulers have exalted themselves above the rank of a human being:  Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and the Caesars.  Pharaoh did this as well.

1.       Pharaoh was not going to allow anyone to take away his authority.

2.       Remember Exodus 5:2.

 

Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? 

 

E.      Jesus knew what power can do to people.  Therefore, He warned His disciples against it (Matt. 20:25-28).

 

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and that that are great exercise authority over them.  But it shall not be so among you:  but whoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:  even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

 

F.      A question to contemplate at this time is:  “Who is it that gives men authority?”  The answer is:  “God” (Rom. 13:1).

 

Let every soul be subject unto the higher power.   For there is no power but of God:  the powers that be are ordained of God.

 

III.              PERFORMANCE

 

A.     In a lifetime, people can accomplish amazing things.

1.       They can develop and maintain powerful armies.

2.       They can amass tremendous fortunes.

3.       They can build unbelievable homes, palaces, places of entertainment, and gardens.

4.       They can obtain untold human wisdom.

5.       They can overthrow and bring into submission a multitude of enemies.

6.       They can expand their kingdoms to untold lengths.

 

B.      Their talents and abilities are so great they are deceived by them. 

1.       These individuals forget that it is God who blessed them with their abilities (Matt. 25:14-15). 

2.       They believe no one can defeat them.

3.       They mock those who come against them.  They beg others to oppose them.

4.       They have what we might call “The Goliath complex.”

a.       Goliath challenged the armies of Israel, saying:  “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together” (1 Sam. 17:10).

b.      The challenge was made twice a day for forty days ( Sam. 17:16).

c.       When David appeared on the battlefield the Bible tells us that Goliath “despised him” (1 Sam. 17:42).

5.       Wasn’t this the way Pharaoh looked upon Moses and the God of Israel?

a.       Jehovah had allowed His people to be in bondage for years.

b.      Pharaoh would quickly put down any attempt of this God to try to free his slaves.

 

IV.              PICKS

 

A.     Every day we are faced with hundreds and hundreds of choices in life.

1.       Some of them are very inconsequential (i.e., the color of a person’s clothes).

2.       Some, on the other hand, are unbelievably important.

 

B.      Pharaoh was allowed to make a choice over ten times about letting Israel go.

1.       Every time he chose poorly.

2.       Every time he brought another plague on the nation of Egypt.

3.       Every time his heart was hardened more and more. 

4.       Perhaps he thought that surely he would win the next confrontation.

 

C.     Choices are important. 

1.       A wrong choice about spiritual things can put another hard layer over one’s heart.

2.       In time, a person will cease to feel.

3.       The Jews had rejected the words of the prophets over and over again.  Their hard hearts caused them to reject the Christ.  Stephen rebuked them sharply for this when he preached in Jerusalem (Acts 7:51-52).

 

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost:  as your fathers did, so do ye.  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?  and they have slain them which shewed before the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

 

V.                 PRIDE

 

A.     The Bible warns us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom. 12:3).

 

B.      Pride forms in the heart when a person develops “an inordinate opinion of his dignity, important, merit, and superiority” (dictionary.com). 

 

C.     The things that we have discussed previously about the Pharaohs could easily create pride unless they guarded their hearts against arrogancy. 

 

D.     Pride becomes the metal that settles around a person’s heart and causes it to be hard.  The Bible warns us against it in many places.

1.       Proverbs 16:18

 

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

 

2.       James 4:6

 

…Wherefore God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

VI.              PROPONENTS

 

A.     A proponent is a person who comes with a proposition, a proposal, or a cause.

 

B.      In the case of Pharaoh, there were four proponents that confronted him:  God, Moses, the Word of God, and the plagues.

 

C.     The proposition was simple:  “Let my people go.”

1.       It was a command from God.

2.       It was the message revealed by Moses.

3.       It was formulated in concise terminology.

4.       When the words were not heeded, they were established with a plague on Pharaoh and his land (Exo. 9:14).

 

For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

 

D.     NOTE:  Had none of these things ever come up before Pharaoh, his heart would not have become so hard.

1.       There would have no reason for him to become obstinate.

2.       There would have been nothing for him to refuse to do.

 

E.      It is here that God is definitely responsible for hardening Pharaoh’s heart. 

1.       His demand caused Pharaoh to have to make a choice.

2.       God also knew that His demand would not be heeded by the monarch.

3.       Remember Exodus 4:21.

 

“…When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand:  but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

 

VII.           PERSISTENCE

 

A.     One would think that the more times Pharaoh suffered a plague of God that Pharaoh would eventually soften his heart to God’s demands.

 

B.      Not so.  It took ten plagues before Pharaoh finally gave in.

1.       Each plague only hardened his resolve against God’s demands (Exo. 7:23).

 

And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

 

2.       Each plague only caused his heart to become more calloused to the demand of God. 

3.       We are awed that it took the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn to let Israel go.

4.       Even after this his heart continue to be hardened (Exo. 14:8).

 

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel.

 

C.     The result of Pharaoh’s hardened heart was the devastation of his kingdom and the destruction of his army (Exo. 14:28).

 

And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.     When we study the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, we read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and that God hardened his heart.

1.       These were the two main players in the Exodus.

2.       It was God against a god.  It was the Ruler of the Universe against the ruler of Egypt. 

a.       God made His demands of the powerful monarch, and they resulted in hardening Pharaoh’s heart.

b.      Pharaoh continually rejected God’s demands.  Thus, he, too, was responsible for hardening his heart.

 

B.      In what areas of your life are you rebelling against God.

How many times have you heard His Word and refused to obey?

Can you sense that your heart is getting harder and harder?

You can reach a point wherein you will no longer feel any pain.

 

C.     Three words of exhortation from Hebrews:

1.       Hebrews 3:12 presents us with a solemn warning.

 

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

 

2.       Hebrews 12:25

 

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh:  for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn from him that speaketh from heaven.

 

3.       Here was the writer’s hope for his readers (Heb. 10:39).

 

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

 

D.     Take heed!  Refuse not Him that speaketh!  Believe to the saving of your soul!