The free will-God’s will dichotomy never ceases to confuse me and after the Fall, the hardening of Pharoah’s heart is one of the most puzzling of such instances in the Bible.
I understand that Pharaoh’s resistance to Moses and Aaron’s request was a great opportunity for God to display His glory among the Egyptian people. Certainly, if Pharaoh had let the Israelites go right away, not only would the story by anti-climactic, but God’s glory would have been hidden from both the Egyptian and Hebrew people. Through all the plagues, the Egyptians grew in the fear of God and the Hebrews in their faith in God.
Still, the question remains: Did Pharaoh choose to harden his heart? Or did God choose for him? In 7:3, God reveals His plan to harden Pharaoh’s heart, but throughout the rest of the account of the plagues, sometimes it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Other times it says that it became hard. And yet other instances say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Regardless, God delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s hand, and the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a part of that. But how do free will and God’s will co-exist?
Tags: Aaron, Exodus, free will, God's will, Moses, pharaoh, the plagues
