Church of Christ Studies

The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart

"Day by day," my friends, "in every way," indeed, ought we, as a people, to be grateful for the wonderful blessings that God in his providence continually showers upon us. We are the recipients of so many favors and so many blessings that come from God, and I trust that there may ever breathe forth a spirit of gratitude unto "Him from whom all blessings flow" as we are thus permitted to assemble together from time to time in this sweet association and unite in hymning praises and studying that which, I trust, may prove always helpful and beneficial.

 

In the first part of the Bible there are some interesting stories told, and I want your attention this morning, by way of introducing the thought for the evening, to be centered upon the story of one prominent character, the king of Egypt during the time that God's people were in subjection and bondage. I refer, of course, to Pharaoh, who lived about fifteen hundred years before Christ, the ruler of one of the greatest nations of the then civilized world. He held under his dominion, first of all, a body of people numbering just about seventy-five, and kept them in his custody and under his control until they multiplied to the wonderful number of something like three million souls, at which time, in the providence of the Lord, Be saw fit to call them out under the leadership of Moses that he might, with them and of them, establish a national system of religion and a theocratic form of government pursuant to his chief purpose and the objective previously had in mind.

 

I know that there are many things connected with Pharaoh and his relationship to them that are possibly hard to understand as to all the reasons that are connected with the same, but that particular phase of it to which this talk is to be given is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Connected with that there is a doctrine that is considered exceedingly mysterious, absolutely indefinable; and yet it is possible of understanding by the human family.

 

Forgetting all other things for the time being, I want you to think about Pharaoh-the hardening of his heart and the results that came to pass. But, first of all, what is meant in the Bible by the hardening of Pharaoh's or any other man's heart? What constitutes the hardening of a man's heart? I think that I would speak the sentiment of you all when I suggest that such a state would result in a man's becoming stubborn and rebellious sad not inclined to yield to Heaven's demands and invitations. Stubbornness, rebellion, willful opposition, are but synonyms of the term "hardening" as I conceive it to be here used.

 

Now, the Bible has a great deal to say on the subject; and so I raise the question for consideration as to how came Pharaoh's heart to be hardened, and, therefore, his wonderful obstinacy and his great hesitancy in granting the request ordered by God through Moses and Aaron.

 

The book of God declares in Ex. 7:3, 13 that God Almighty hardened Pharaoh's heart, and I must accept that is a fact in the case thus far; and hence when anybody suggests that God hardens the hearts of men, students of the Bible cannot deny that, for the proof is not wanting nor the example lacking.

 

Well, the Bible also says that the magicians that attended the court of Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh's heart; so I have at least two factors in it—the Bible specifically says that God did it, and then the Bible in the same connection (Ex. 8:15) suggests that the magicians did it. But that is not all. Right in those same chapters the Bible just as definitely and specifically says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and so you have a multiplicity of causes that result in the same thing. Now, the ultimate result is that Pharaoh's heart is hardened in that he becomes stubborn and rebellious and in opposition to the demands of the Lord.

 

How came his condition to be such? Well, God had a hand in it. There is not any use denying that. Those magicians were a party thereto. Then, equally important, the record says that Pharaoh himself hardened his own heart. Now, if I were to be so one-sided this morning as to run off after the idea purely that it is all God's work, I think you know I would reach a conclusion that would be foreign to the truth and dangerous. If I were to leave Jehovah out of it and say that man hardens his own heart, and he alone, I would do equal violence to the example herein given; but when I combine the effort and suggest to you that God and the magicians and Pharaoh all had a part in bringing about that state of stubbornness and rebellion, I but speak the sentiment as was expressed by Moses in the book of Exodus.

 

Well, that brings us to the next point. I wonder if it is possible for you and me to find out just what God did the result of which was the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. What did the magicians do that tended toward the same condition, and what did Pharaoh do? The actions of all three brought about the same results.

 

Now, rapidly I want to suggest to you what each of them did. First of all, God's part in it. What did Jehovah do in connection with Pharaoh that would harden his heart? Just this: He made a demand of Pharaoh that was against his political and financial interest and against his pride as the king of a great country. Now, Jehovah did that in these words, when he bade Aaron say: "Pharaoh, let God's people go out across the Red Sea a three-days' journey unto the desert, that they may serve and worship God." Now, it is not good politics for a king to let slip from under his control something like three million souls. It wouldn't add to a man's financial standing to let three million slaves escape, who were fed upon the commonest things of the land, and whose very life, service, and labor went to fill the already overflowing coffers of the great Egyptian king. To let them go would be a bad financial deal; and then, as a king, it doesn't look well to have your subjects march out from under control; but the Lord asked that, and hence that is one thing that God did, which I trust you will remember. He made a simple demand upon Pharaoh, which demand was admittedly against Pharaoh's political and financial interest and against his pride as a king. Now, what else did God do? When Pharaoh would become thus rebellious and stubborn, God sent plagues upon him to bring about a recognition of a supreme hand; and then as Pharaoh would relent and seemingly repent, God would withdraw and remove the plagues.

 

Now, there is not anybody in this audience, I think, who can tell anything else that God did the effect and the result of which was the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Jehovah did just two things—first, the demand to let the people go; next, the removing of the plagues as Pharaoh would relent for the time being. That is what God did about it, and the Bible said that in so doing he hardened Pharaoh's heart.

 

Now, what did the magicians do? When the Lord Almighty would bring a plague upon them, one of which was the frogs, for instance, after that miracle was done by Moses, the Bible says the magicians did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened because he considered that it was not God back of the frogs when he saw that his magicians could do it also. When the water was turned to blood by Moses or by God through Moses, the magicians undertook the same and likewise did so with their enchantment; but when Moses took of' the dust of the ground, threw it round about, and it became a great swarm of lice over all the people, the magicians did not do that, and the reason is a fine one, I think. The Bible says they could not, and I think they ought to be excused from any further participation. So note now: What did the magicians do? As far as they could, by their enchantments or sleight-of-hand performances, they followed and imitated Moses, and the effect was that it hardened Pharaoh's heart.

 

Well, what did Pharaoh do that brought about that same result and had an important part therein? Well, I think it can be summed up in a very few terms, and I shall try to do that in the very fewest possible words. Pharaoh studied self-interest rather than duty. Be looked to his own interest and his own prominence and his own advantage and progress rather than what duty would demand and what justice would suggest. Now, that is one thing he did. A second thing, he yielded to the promptings of pride and of prestige and of superior power. Combining all of these elements, I think, friends, you have the truth as expressed in the Bible regarding the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

 

With one accord we ought to be able to eliminate all miracles and mysticism and things that cannot be understood, and just simply put it upon the basis of human fears and relationships into which it is possible for every one of us to enter and be surrounded.

 

Pharaoh knew nothing about the God of heaven. Unto him there was a great missionary work to be done by the God of the universe, and hence Pharaoh raised question after question as to who is this that hath spoken unto Moses and made such requests. He threw the matter off lightly and ridiculed it, and suggested that the people are idle, and that is why they think of such things as getting out from under his control. He tried to pass the thing by as though it were a trivial matter; but God kept impressing the thing upon him and insisting upon the demand, notwithstanding the suggestions that Pharaoh by and by made, until at last there was nothing to be done but to accept God's declaration for it or else be swept off the face of the earth. Now, had he but arrived at the proper conclusion, the effect of all of God's dealings and of all the things connected therewith ought to have been exactly the opposite of that which it was.

 

I submit to you, friends, to-day, that under the gospel reign and under the Christian dispensation the same principles prevail, and shall as long as human nature remains the same. All down the line the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God has upon many, many souls exactly the same effect as did the Lord's demand to Pharaoh back in the days gone by. God made a demand upon him. That demand was in behalf of humanity, for the benefit of those Israelites. God makes a demand upon you and me to-day for our good, for the blessings of the world, for the benefit of humanity, and ultimately for his own matchless glory.

 

Now, that demand is contrary to our physical desires; it is contrary to our animal nature; it is contrary to the appetites and the pleasures in which we love to revel and to engage. Yet that is God's demand, and it is just as ironclad and just as strong and just as urgent and insistent as was the demand upon Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go.

 

I want to ask to-day: What shall be my attitude, what shall be yours, toward God's demands? Are you going to let it come to pass that your heart became hardened rather than softened by God's wonderful appeal and God's demand that you forsake the passions and the lusts of the flesh? You ought to make the sacrifice if any there be, take up your cross, having denied yourself, and follow after the Christ. That is God's demand.

 

Now, my attitude toward it will depend upon whether or not my heart shall be hardened or softened and attuned unto him. Hear it: If I study what the world calls a "good time;" if I study the gratification of my own lusts and the satisfaction of my own animal desires; if I am determined to live upon the common sphere of the brutes and of the beasts of the field, the results will be identical with that of Pharaoh. My heart will be hardened, and it could be truly said that God did it. 0, not by the performance of a miracle, not by something superhuman, but by making a request that is contrary to my desires, that is against my worldly ambitions, that is in opposition to my animal nature; and if I do not yield, I am to be hardened day by day, as I postpone, stubbornly refusing the gospel of the Son of God. Hence, Paul said (Heb. 3:13) : "Exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Here, friends, the very thing that we call "sin" has the effect upon us to harden our nature, to blunt our perceptive powers, and to stultify our consciences until it is possible for you and me, as human beings upon the earth, to hear the gospel, sit under the glad sound thereof, and refuse it, reject it, until by and by our consciences will be seared over as with a red-hot iron, until the penetrating appeals of God's Son will not be effective, and hence we have reached that point in the downward path of human possibilities where it is impossible for us to be saved.

 

I am certain that Paul had that in mind when thus he spoke in 1 Tim. 4:2 of certain characters having their consciences seared over. Did you ever see a branded ox or branded mule, where the red-hot iron burns into the very flesh and immediately underneath the nerve is billed and there is a scab and a sore that is left? You may touch that and prick it any way you may want to; but it is dead, and there is no flinching that comes therefrom. Why? There has been a red-hot iron applied, and underneath that the feeling has been destroyed.

 

Paul, what are you talking about? "I am talking about the time to come, of which the Spirit speaks expressly, when some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to insidious spirits and doctrines of devils, having their consciences seared as with a hot iron, so that all the sensitiveness and feeling of the nervous system thereunder has been destroyed, until to that man the gospel may be preached time and again and it becomes ineffective, because he has hardened his heart, stiffened his neck, become stubborn and rebellious, and hence the power of God to save is ineffective unto him."

 

The gospel, as Paul said to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 2:16), is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. If you and I, brethren, are determined to live our own way and be governed and guided by the dictates and passions of the flesh, the gospel of the Son of God will be a means of condemnation, of death, unto us. But if, instead of studying my own side of the question purely and laboring and living under the false conception of life that seemingly moat of the human family have, I will but forsake that and turn unto God, the gospel story of the cross has its softening effect, melting all hardness, removing all stubbornness, driving out the spirit of rebellion by the love of Christ and God's wonderful mercy, and the result is that by and by I am led to the full acceptance of the glad terms thereof.

 

There are a number of things that tend to harden and also to soften. For instance, I just think of it that heat is an element that will soften wax, and at the same time it will harden clay; and that is exactly the effect of the gospel.

 

To those of you, ladies and gentlemen, who have listened patiently and studied thoroughly as I have been trying to talk to you from time to time—perhaps you have been studying the Bible, also reading and reflecting upon the sermons that appear in the public press—I would ask this question: What effect is it going to have upon your lives? If you but merely appreciate them as a mental product, if you but merely enjoy them and do not translate them or transcribe them into your own life, the result is that you may be, perhaps, worse than if you had never heard them. Opportunities, joys, and privileges come to us with the invitation to use them and not abuse them. Every one that comes is characterized by the declaration, "Use me or lose me;" and so with all the opportunities along the pathway of life that you and I may have. Every soul this morning in this presence who rejects the gospel call once becomes harder to reach next time. You may go through the entire series possibly convicted of the righteousness of the cause presented; but if you are studying business interests, worldly affairs, things material rather than things that are sacred, holy, and high, the result will be that your hearts will become hardened, and the chances might come to pass that you will reach that point where the gospel has lost its power upon you and you are doomed to destruction and damnation at the last great day. So, then, brethren, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as it is written. it is within my power and yours this morning to determine what shall be the effect of God's demand upon us. By its rejection the effect is the hardening of my perceptive powers and my conscience. If I but yield, it will have a melting effect and ultimate conversion of a soul to God. I want to ask again, my friends: Will you respond this morning to God's call when he demands that you submit unto his authority and obey him, be translated out of darkness into the light? Take upon yourself the armor of the Lord, raise aloft his splendid banner, and march under his unsullied flag, I beg you. If you refuse to do so, you are acting the part of old Pharaoh; and the result becomes day by day the hardening of your heart, of all those elements that go to make up the heart of which the Bible speaks.

 

Opportunities, joys, and privileges come to us with the invitation to use them and not abuse them. Every one that comes is characterized by the declaration, "Use me or lose me;" and so with all the opportunities along the pathway of life that you and I may have. Every soul this morning in this presence who rejects the gospel call once becomes harder to reach next time. You may go through the entire series possibly convicted of the righteousness of the cause presented; but if you are studying business interests, worldly affairs, things material rather than things that are sacred, holy, and high, the result will be that your hearts will become hardened, and the chances might come to pass that you will reach that point where the gospel has lost its power upon you and you are doomed to destruction and damnation at the last great day.

 

So, then, brethren, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as it is written. it is within my power and yours this morning to determine what shall be the effect of God's demand upon us. By its rejection the effect is the hardening of my perceptive powers and my conscience. If I but yield, it will have a melting effect and ultimate conversion of a soul to God.

 

I want to ask again, my friends: Will you respond this morning to God's call when he demands that you submit unto his authority and obey him, be translated out of darkness into the light? Take upon yourself the armor of the Lord, raise aloft his splendid banner, and march under his unsullied flag, I beg you. If you refuse to do so, you are acting the part of old Pharaoh; and the result becomes day by day the hardening of your heart, of all those elements that go to make up the heart of which the Bible speaks.