Harden Pharah

Why God makes Pharaoh’s heart harden? God gives people free will, so thereby people can choose their action by themselves. Nevertheless, God can inspire everyone to change his or her view like Abraham and Moses who are the people God call. In this manner, God not only chooses the Israelite to save them from Egypt, but also forgives them so that the Israelite becomes God’s nation although they very often wobble to follow Moses who is the agent of God in the wilderness. However, starting his working for redeeming the Israelite, God hardens Pharaoh’s mind not to release the Israelites on Moses’ leading while God leads the Israelite out of Egypt.

3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not listen to you, I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring my people the Israelites, company by company, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did
so; they did just as the LORD commanded them (Exodus 7:3-6, NRSV).

Marvin Sweeney, the author of TANAK, argues, “Pharaoh’s refusal would then ensure that the punishments against Egypt would be witnessed by Egypt (and Israel) so that all would know YHWH’s identity and power” `In this view, it is clear that God uses Pharaoh to demonstrate God’s identity and power.
During the process of the plagues God gives Egypt, Pharaoh’s mind becomes increasingly harder. To do this, God can show all the people in Egypt and the Israelite who he is and how much he is strong more than Pharaoh through the Passover with last 10th Plague. Jorge Pixley, the author of “Exodus” in Global Bible Commentary, asserts, “The performance of these signs and wonders, which have the triple purpose of 1) showing that YHWH, the God of the Hebrews, is a powerful God; 2) softening the heart of Pharaoh; and 3) terrorizing the population to demand the Hebrews’ expulsion from the land of
Egypt”

The Responsibility of Pharaoh’ Action If God completely makes Pharaoh harden to show his power and identity, who has responsibility to pharaoh’s evil action come from the hardened mind of Pharaoh? Does God use only Pharaoh’s evil hart he already has or Does Pharaoh choose his stand of the mind? Dennis T. Olson, the author of “Exodus” in Theological Bible Commentary, emphasizes that even though God hardens Pharaoh’s mind to release the Israelites, after starting plagues, Pharaoh willfully or indefinitely chooses his way to be hardened.

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said (Exodus 8:15).

So, it can see that God start to harden Pharaoh’s mind, but he continues his way by his will. However, it still remains the question in the narrative of God’s intervention why God makes Pharaoh the antagonist of God in the first. What if God gives Pharaoh good will at that moment? Is not there a possibility that God makes Pharaoh to become good assistant of God?

Bibliography

Olson, Dennis T. “Exodus.” In Theological Bible Commentary, edited by Gail R.
O’Day and David L. Petersen, 27-40. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
2009.

Pixley, Jorge. “Exodus.” In Global Bible Commentary, edited by Daniel Patte, J.
Severino Croatto, Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Teresa Okure, and Archie Chi Chung
Lee, 17-29. Nashville: Abingdon Pres, 2004.

Sweeney, Marvin A. TANAK: A Theological and Critical Introduction of the Jewish
Bible. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2012.