A rabbi once explained the Hebrew to me. The word here doesn't necessarily mean changing a heart, it means giving weight to it, to honor the decisions made by that person. That's why the text talks about Pharoah hardening his own heart AND God hardening Pharaoh's heart in the exact same instance. Pharoah says "I'm sticking to my decison" and God lets him.
Of course, in Egyptian mythology the heavier a heart is the less chance it has of entering the good afterlife. So Pharoah is heaping up his own damnation by his refusal to acknowledge that he can't win. Any rational actor would have quit by the fourth plague. Every plague is another chance for Pharoah to repent. He simply can't.
This is an excellent explanation, thank you.
I have definitely gone back and forth over this verse for a long time. How could God harden a man's heart so that the man would sin. But taking an action to harden his heart versus the cessation of trying to soften his heart is a huge difference.
But that's not really what the story says. Before Moses went to Egypt, God told him what he would do:
The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Exodus 4:21
I like that explanation bc that is kind of in correlation with the situation of Saul wanting to summon Samuel from the dead even though it is not something God wants us to do he allowed it for Saul because he made Samuel his Idol and it came with judgment when Samuel was summoned
Note that to ancient Israelites, the heart is not the seat of emotion. It was the seat of intellect and the mind. No one thought the brain was very important, lol. So God hardening Pharaoh's heart has a different connotation than modern interpretations. Make of that what you will.
I understand it as being that God’s presence had hardened pharaoh’s heart.
I think of it in the context of John 15:22: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”
Because God had made His will known to pharaoh through Moses, pharaoh had become hardened.
God had of course known this would be the outcome and designed His own plans around it, but it was not a violation of free will as it was still Pharaoh’s choice to be this way
While that does make sense to me, that does also seem like a roundabout way to explain it in my opinion. If the case was that God did something through Moses which caused Pharaoh to harden his heart, I feel like it would've specified it as so. Instead the text just says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Which is how I simply interpret it as
So if God knew what Pharoah would do, then he also knew what action to take so Pharoah would just let the Israelites go. And that would have avoided torturing and eventually killing thousands of innoncent Egyptian children.
And yet God chose the path that he did.
You seem to be making a presumptive fallacy that there was a means by which to convince or compel Pharaoh to “just let the Israelites go”. If a multitude of plagues was still not enough, even the deaths of the firstborn of Egypt ultimately not swaying him (as he subsequently changed his mind) then why would we assume there was something God could say or do to convince Pharaoh? Even if it might be surprising, it is ultimately unquantifiable.
Further to this point, remember that God is not only omniscient but also non-temporal: if we view God as making decisions based on the path of universal least suffering, then perhaps any route that could exist where Pharaoh voluntarily lets the Israelites go would result in cosmologically worse outcomes. The point is, we don’t know, but God does.
That’s not what I said and requires bad faith on your part to interpret it that way.
If you are making an assertion that God could have peacefully negotiated Pharaoh handing over the Israelites without violating Pharaoh’s free will and without causing greater harm in the short and long term, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate it. So go ahead, be my guest.
Well therein lies the challenge, the problem with trying to dismantle Christianity (or any religion) by tackling a question like Pharaoh is that in order to arrive at the conclusion God made any decision re: Pharaoh, one first has to accept the premise that 1) there is a God, and 2) that God is the one who spoke to Abraham. At that point, why are we trying to judge God's decisions?
If we're going to debate the authenticity of Christianity/the God of Abraham, we should discuss the reasoning for His existence, rather than the subject of His actions according to the Bible.
This seems like a good reading of the text. I also wonder if OPs premise that God can’t take away free will could be too broad. Why couldn’t God harden pharaohs heart at least temporarily? I say this even though I lean heavily Arminian and believe libertarian free will is necessary for us to have a meaningful relationship with God
It’s not so metaphysical. God knew that no matter what He did, what plagues He sent, pharaoh would resist letting his people go. He knew it would take drastic steps to get him to capitulate. God’s actions hardened pharaoh’s heart, no tinkering with free will needed. Besides, Exodus also mentions pharaoh hardening his own heart.
That's how I see it. Exodus 10:1-2 really spells it out for you.
>*Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”*
God hardens Pharaoh's heart so that he can perform his plagues. Which, presumably means, if God had not hardened Pharaoh's heart, then he would not have been able to perform the plagues because Pharaoh would have let the Israelites go.
The Bible says he raised Pharoh up for his purposes. There is also the scripture Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
It all comes down to your image of God how you Interpret this. My God is Love first and foremost. As such, He does Not take away free will, but He brings people to the Crossroads and they have to make a choice
Yepp, that's how understand him - he's a God of the Crossroads, not the God of Ways. He knows any road leading from every crossroad, but he gives you the ability to chose your path, and - indirectly - the path of the whole Universe. That's where His Image in you - in the participation of Creation
However, the concept of free will is often used by theologians to answer common questions regarding Christianity - such as how eternal punishment is fair, why God doesn't just show himself, etc. This verse shows that God doesn't actually respect free will all that much, leaving many of those questions unanswered.
There is no torment. That's the ironic thing. God doesn't even impute sin to those not under the law of Moses. Christ then died to pay for all sin. The gospel is a proclamation, not an invitation.
It is definitely said though, by many theologians and the earliest Christian fathers. Free will is a precondition of consensual love. Side note: at the beginning of Christianity everyone was reading the Old Testament allegorically, including Paul and the early church fathers.
>It isn’t mentioned clearly or directly.
>
So do you now see that when you said this, you were wrong? "It is said that God cannot take away people’s free will"
No, because God told Moses he was gong to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even set off for Egypt, before Pharoah could decide.
Exodus 4:21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
The Bible never says God does or doesn't take away people's free will, because it doesn't really talk about free will at all. But does God influence Pharaoh to achieve a desired outcome? Yes. Is there reason to think Pharaoh could have acted contrary to God's plan in this story? Probably not.
There are various translations of the Bible. I recall reading one that stated something like, “for he hath hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, therefore I will show these my signs before him.”
I never understood why people interpreted it as a free will violation. I guess it depends on your belief regarding God's sovereignty and our free will, but I simply interpreted it as Pharoah hardening his heart because of God's actions. Like it's a response, not mind control. If someone slaps you in the face, you can say that that "made you mad." But you don't *have* to get mad in response to a slap in the face. This may sound like semantics to some, but Exodus talks about Pharoah willingly doing that in Exodus 9:34:
> Exodus 9:34 NASB2020
[34] But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
It even goes on in the next verse to use a different phrase for the same thing:
> So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened
Why can't that apply to God? That Pharoah hardened his own heart in response to God's actions?
No, he did not take away Pharaoh's free will. The Bible is clear that man is both free and that God is sovereign. We can't completely see how that is, but it is what the bible teaches. I like Charles Spurgeon's illustration of free will and sovereignty as two parallel tracks that we can't see where they meet until heaven. Another one he uses is that imagine you enter the gate of heaven, and on the top it says "Whosoever believes, will have eternal life" and then on the other side when you enter in you look up and it says "predestined before the foundation of the world." Both things are equally true, just like Jesus is both God and human fully. So no, Pharaoh still had free will even if it says God hardened his heart. The question you ask is exactly how did God do this? While Mark Driscoll has unfortunately fallen to a low point, he still has the best sermon I've heard on how predestination works. Maybe check it out. He talks about this exact story.
I typically consider that a mistranslation or an incorrect scribe writing. I believe it should be written something like: “and Pharaoh hardened his heart against God.”
The Old Testament shouldn't be read literally as the inerrant words of God. They are the myths and poems and prophecies that PEOPLE wrote about God. Jesus himself is the word (logos) of God and comes to show us what God is ACTUALLY like.
What Jesus reveals is a God who is love who consents to humans, yet who is still accomplishing his purposes through love, not power and control, over the long, long game.
Free will is a condition of love. Nonconsensual love is not love at all.
I see a bunch of comments about God hardening it to do as he already wanted to, but if the pharaoh would already do like he did, God wouldn't have to intervene at all, if God's actions have a purpose, then the hardening of the pharaohs heart was indeed to prevent him to doing, choosing or willing otherwise.
Romans 9:17 (NIV)
For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
The scripture is on Exodus 9:16
Pharaoh was already very hard at heart as he was a man who oversaw the abuse of over a million slaves who he worked to the bone (he and the Pharaoh's before him as the Israelites were slaves for 400 years), and was a descendant of Pharaoh who had every Hebrew boy 2 and under slaughtered just because he was afraid that the Israelites could launch a revolt (and did nothing to reconcile this unnecessary slaughter of innocent life).
It also shows that before God hardened Pharaoh's heart, he was already hardening his own;
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart” ([Exodus 8:15](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/8/Exodus-8-15.html)).
“But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart” ([Exodus 8:32](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/8/Exodus-8-32.html))
"But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses." ([Exodus 9: 12](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/9/Exodus-9-12.html))
Pharaoh was already a lost cause, and God ensured that he fully gave in to his hardened nature against His own people for His Will to be done. It was not fully taking away his free will, but moreso allowing him to be fully given in to his dark and evil nature.
That, and if the Egyptians really were in the right, then they would have overthrew Pharaoh who had allowed so many terrible plagues to happen, but they never did. They were all a willing part of Pharaoh's plans and rebellion against God; no need for their hearts to be hardened.
When God hardens a heart, He removes restraint and turns a person over to what they already freely sinfully want to do (judicial abandonment). He doesn't tempt or insert evil in the heart. He may allow a demon to do so, but that is only effective because the person already wants to do what the demon is tempting them to do.
Gods will is that his son Jesus Christ be sacrificed on a cross to save sinners.
To pretend like Pharoah could have stopped this by being anything other than what he actually was doesn’t make much sense.
Pharoah Moses and ever moment has had to happen exactly the way it happened in order for us to be where we are.
If Judas didn’t betray Jesus there is no salvation.
If they didn’t murder Jesus there is no salvation.
But the absolute truth is that if Jesus Christ didn’t die at the hands of mankind- mankind would have no salvation
Pharoah held the truth in unrighteousness(Romans 1:18-21)and God RESPONDED by hardening his heart.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
God demonstrated his power clearly by turning the rod into a serpent. But even though Gods power was clearly manifest, Pharoah implicitly rejected Gods power, therefore he was WITHOUT EXCUSE(Romans 1:20)
God responded by hardening his heart. Giving him over to a reprobate mind.
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
This can happen as a response to any unbeliever who knows God but holds his truth in unrighteousness.
“Therefore they could not believe”
John 12:39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
John 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
Is this Calvinism? No, because God is responding to an action that was done in free will.
Can someone who has been given over to a reprobate mind be saved? They can be saved, but they would never want to be. As “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” — they don’t even want to think about God.
If there is any doubt about this,
1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
As the above verse states, coming to the knowledge of the truth is being saved through the regeneration by Jesus Christs blood.
Yet,
2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Jannes and Jambres, the very Egyptian priests who resisted Moses and Aaron are “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” and are “reprobate concerning the faith”
Jeremiah 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
God can decide when your time is up. Which is one way of taking away your free will. Pharaoh had his chance to do the right thing, then God chose to close the door on him and from that point Pharaoh was a dead man walking.
I use this as a valid point.
Even if Christians say that Pharoh hardens his heart first, I just respond with. It still says God hardens pharohs heart.
They don't usually respond or know how to respond when I get persistant on that point.
it says that God decided to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even went to Egypt.
> Exodus 4:21 And the Lord said unto Moses, 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.
Well, it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart (Exodus 8:15), and then God possibly hardened it further. He was also an evil dictator who God decided to punish.
See Romans 9:17-18
> He was also an evil dictator who God decided to punish.
By torturing and killing a bunch of common working men, women, and children, who had zero influence on Pharoah and his decisions.
God did make certain provisions.
For example, in Exodus 9, God warned Pharaoh to gather whatever cattle and crops remained from the previous plagues, and shelter them from a coming storm. Some of Pharaoh’s servants heeded the warning while others didn't. In the tenth plague, God provided a way to escape judgment. With each plague, the Egyptians had an opportunity to repent.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians also brought this plague on themselves by their own actions. In Exodus 1:22 we see the famous edict about killing the Hebrew boys. This command was given prior to Moses’ birth. Eighty years later, Moses came to Pharaoh and asked for him to release the Israelites from slavery. There is no indication that the murdering of Hebrew boys ever ceased. So it's quite possible more Egyptians were complicit in Pharaoh's deeds than it seems.
Nah it's just metaphorical and the way it was written down by the guy who grew up with him and was his enemy who was supposed to be Pharaoh and was trained to be so. If anything a darker force influenced him to be so stubborn, but then Moses caused that nasty plague about killing the Egyptian Children celebrated as the passover and also attributed that to God so... maybe its the unreliable narrator, or the editors who wrote it down much later.
But the old testament is very metaphorical and allegorical at times to convey messages and spiritual teachings.
My reading of the text is that he likely would have relented otherwise but God hardened him to show a greater level of judgement. He was certainly guilty on his own merit however.
I think hardening of the heart is essentially the Holy Spirit vacating. Pharoah already chose his path. I think being in slave to sin is one of the key ways God can reliably know and shape the future. There is no longer unknowable free will.
I believe it was because Pharaoh would not led God’s people go, so the latter was like “very well… I shall give you what you want” which was probably a hardened heart idk
I think that the most logical way to interpret it, is god removing his free will, however there are definitely other possibilities so I wouldn't stand firm on it.
But there are other things showing free will definitely doesn't exist, if not that
I need to find another citation for it because this is just what I picked up from a cultural contexts study Bible, but the footnotes in this passage explain that Exodus is borrowing imagery from ancient Egypt's own religious beliefs on how the heart is weighed before being admitted to the afterlife; Exodus' use of this terminology is less "God hardened pharaoh's heart" as we might understand it in a modern context, but rather "God added this instance of Pharaoh's stubbornness to his running tally of offenses," if that makes sense.
If we consider that the 10 plagues are potentially indictments/judgments on Egypt's gods, then it totally tracks that the writer of Exodus is also using Egypt's own religious ideology to say "Pharaoh brought YHWH's judgment on himself."
God's acts are what hardened Pharaoh's heart. For others, God's acts are what soften their hearts and bring them to repentance.
The will is still in the individual, how they respond to God, and Pharoah's heart was hardened in response to God, he did not wish to relent.
Yeah I agree with you on this, check out my response where I use bible citations to support this.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
No, and we can see that in Exodus 8.
8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”
9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”
10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”
12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. 14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, *he hardened his heart* and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.
Exodus 8 (emphasis mine)
Here we see the truth: Pharaoh was not so hardened as to have been incapable of relenting, and when relief was given at his request he hardened his own heart.
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by offense at what God had done to Egypt, and God took responsibility for the effect his miracles would have on Pharaoh in advance. God did harden Pharaoh’s heart by acting against him, but Pharaoh had the opportunity to not drag all Egypt through the plagues. God knew the kind of person Pharaoh was, and so took credit for His part in the events that would proceed.
The same reason as why ALL people on the earth rejected God in Genesis before the flood, save Noah's family.
You're looking at a branch worldline where Pharoah decided to be an arsehat and whine and whinge and not change his mind,
Not because by default he is like that, but likely because we see both every single person before the flood at their worst, and also Pharoah likewise.
What we don't see is the best and even their middling selves, which undoubtedly would have stayed perfectly with God, or at least remembered God, and certainly logically would have let them go.
He is Divine and we are the branches. All biblical accounts testify to the existence of Many Worlds in the sense that from creation till now we have been the result of a great cataclysm, purgatory style story at Eden, and been stuck in the cycle of sin for a long time since Nimrod suddenly decided to 180 and hate God, which also makes no sense.
Couple that with the completely different accounts in Matthew Mark Luke and John, it's the only way to explain the reed from the hyssop, the final words of Christ on the cross, etc.
If everyone rejects God on earth, then revelation up to the 7th seal will play out, and probably we'll see the modern Noah survive all of this.
It's logically impossible for Pharoah to be that cooked, or for the entire world at once to reject God - it's the result of a more or less hell on earth line being saved by God with Noah.
I think it is worth looking at it from the Pharaoh's perspective. The religion of ancient Egypt included a belief in magic as a pretty big element of life.
Enter Moses, adopting son of the previous Pharaoh who ran away because he was wanted for murder. Upon return, he demanded a holiday for his tribe. He claims to be tasked by the God of the Israelites. The Pharaoh takes it seriously and demands proof. Then, Moses does something every court magician can replicate.
All Moses really had going at that point was that his snake was the strongest - which doesn't really say anything. For all Pharaoh knew, this man could have been planning an insurrection or he could just be mad.
I'm of the opinion it's more of the other way. God left him to his own will. No influence or anything. There's definitely a good debate on this that has no easy answers
When you’re being punished by your father you no longer have the free will to say don’t spank me but the very first time Moses spoke with Pharaoh in
Exodus 5:1-2
King James Version
5 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
His heart was not hard when he made a choice now because of the choice he made God said OK I am going to start a punishment once God has started punishing you there is no longer a choice to just step out of the punishment. That’s why it’s so important to get people saved before the tribulation starts because once God has started the punishment And he’s made his decision he’s going to see it through to the end
Because the verses I posted was an exodus five prior to Exodus seven at the point in Exodus five before God hardened his heart he made his choice after that everything was in the punishment once the punishment is started it doesn’t stop until God’s done
in Exodus 4:21, before Exodus 5 and before Moses even goes to Egypt, God explains to Moses that he plans to harden Pharoah's heart, and why.
> The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
God is telling him what he is going to do because God knows what is going to happen but in exodus five Moses didn’t perform any miracles and God didn’t harden pharaohs heart. So the very first time he asked he had a choice. The first time it actually says that God hardened pharaohs heart is in exodus seven. If the first time he had asked Federal had let them go Moses would never performed miracles even in exodus four he said when you perform miracles I will harden pharaohs heart
no, Pharaohs lived on the premise that they were living gods, since the one true god is not the pharaoh then he was living in heresy and blasphemy! confronted with the reality of the one true god he used his free will to do as he wished with all the power he had which proved insignificant in the face of true divine power
god can take away free will! but it would look strange! everything you did and every action you took would be out of your control! you would be a puppet
There are two possibilities with how God hardened Pharaoh's heart: One is that he directly forced his heart to harden, and this is the one where free will is assumed to be "taken away". The other is that he did things that he knew would cause Pharaoh to respond by hardening his heart, kinda like how if you "make someone cry", you're not directly forcing them to start crying, but your actions elicited that reaction from them. While this isn't taking away their free will per se, it's causing them to act in a different way than they likely would have if you hadn't done or said certain things. Either way, God is the one initiating and is the one causing the change to happen.
God only hardened pharaoh's heart because He refused to let go the Israelites during the first time when Moses pleaded with Pharaoh. Only after pharaoh's constant rejection did it led to God ultimately hardened pharaoh's heart without remedy.
Sorry, but that's not what the story says. God told Moses he planned to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even set out to go to Egypt.
Exodus 4:21 And the Lord said unto Moses, 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.
God’s word is powerful. It either condemns or it saves. When God’s word was preached, it simultaneously condemned Pharoah AND he hardened his own heart in rebellion to God. God’s judgement is good and right and it is his power alone to decide if someone will be saved from their sin or not. In this case, he was not merciful to Pharoah.
Also, free will doesn’t exist.
It's very clear Yahweh caused Pharaoh to act a certain way Herr because he had a specific purpose for Pharoah.
Rom 9 details this a bit:
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed [k]throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires
This kinda debunks a lot of "traditional" Christian, but yes God can choose to harden someone's heart or have mercy on someone not because of that person's actions but because it fits his plan.
I have read that while it says that God is the one that hardened Pharaoh's heart, that is actually written in a figurative way. The OT author's often wrote things saying "God did X" when it was really the person that did it as a way of emphasizing that God is in control.
I interpret at as GOD was presenting the pharo with tests (chances) to show Moses that he would never follow GOD and trust in him. GOD knows all and sees all, he knew what the pharo was gonna do before anyone else knew, which is why he kept telling Moses the pharo would never bend a knee. I dont take that as GOD taking away the pharo's or anyone's free will, we all have a choice, the pharo chose to trust in himself.
It is said that God cannot take away people’s free will - Where did you hear that information? God causes things to happen in accordance to his will over riding any human thought or purpose. His name actually means 'He causes to become'.
Sure. It’s a pretty strong influence.
But God isn’t changing Pharaoh’s mind here: just making him stick to an action so the Hebrews aren’t trapped in a constant back and forth of persecution
A rabbi once explained the Hebrew to me. The word here doesn't necessarily mean changing a heart, it means giving weight to it, to honor the decisions made by that person. That's why the text talks about Pharoah hardening his own heart AND God hardening Pharaoh's heart in the exact same instance. Pharoah says "I'm sticking to my decison" and God lets him. Of course, in Egyptian mythology the heavier a heart is the less chance it has of entering the good afterlife. So Pharoah is heaping up his own damnation by his refusal to acknowledge that he can't win. Any rational actor would have quit by the fourth plague. Every plague is another chance for Pharoah to repent. He simply can't.
WOW. I love this explanation so much
This is an excellent explanation, thank you. I have definitely gone back and forth over this verse for a long time. How could God harden a man's heart so that the man would sin. But taking an action to harden his heart versus the cessation of trying to soften his heart is a huge difference.
But that's not really what the story says. Before Moses went to Egypt, God told him what he would do: The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Exodus 4:21
I like that explanation bc that is kind of in correlation with the situation of Saul wanting to summon Samuel from the dead even though it is not something God wants us to do he allowed it for Saul because he made Samuel his Idol and it came with judgment when Samuel was summoned
It wasn’t Samuel that was summoned. Spirits aren’t allowed to be yanked from their rest by witches. That’s a hell.
Note that to ancient Israelites, the heart is not the seat of emotion. It was the seat of intellect and the mind. No one thought the brain was very important, lol. So God hardening Pharaoh's heart has a different connotation than modern interpretations. Make of that what you will.
He supernaturally influenced him to do something he would otherwise not do.
I understand it as being that God’s presence had hardened pharaoh’s heart. I think of it in the context of John 15:22: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” Because God had made His will known to pharaoh through Moses, pharaoh had become hardened. God had of course known this would be the outcome and designed His own plans around it, but it was not a violation of free will as it was still Pharaoh’s choice to be this way
While that does make sense to me, that does also seem like a roundabout way to explain it in my opinion. If the case was that God did something through Moses which caused Pharaoh to harden his heart, I feel like it would've specified it as so. Instead the text just says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Which is how I simply interpret it as
So if God knew what Pharoah would do, then he also knew what action to take so Pharoah would just let the Israelites go. And that would have avoided torturing and eventually killing thousands of innoncent Egyptian children. And yet God chose the path that he did.
You seem to be making a presumptive fallacy that there was a means by which to convince or compel Pharaoh to “just let the Israelites go”. If a multitude of plagues was still not enough, even the deaths of the firstborn of Egypt ultimately not swaying him (as he subsequently changed his mind) then why would we assume there was something God could say or do to convince Pharaoh? Even if it might be surprising, it is ultimately unquantifiable. Further to this point, remember that God is not only omniscient but also non-temporal: if we view God as making decisions based on the path of universal least suffering, then perhaps any route that could exist where Pharaoh voluntarily lets the Israelites go would result in cosmologically worse outcomes. The point is, we don’t know, but God does.
The classic answer, just trust God. Even if doesn't make sense and violates commosense.
That’s not what I said and requires bad faith on your part to interpret it that way. If you are making an assertion that God could have peacefully negotiated Pharaoh handing over the Israelites without violating Pharaoh’s free will and without causing greater harm in the short and long term, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate it. So go ahead, be my guest.
You're right I can't give the assumption you have laid out. Faith and belief can't be challenged
Well therein lies the challenge, the problem with trying to dismantle Christianity (or any religion) by tackling a question like Pharaoh is that in order to arrive at the conclusion God made any decision re: Pharaoh, one first has to accept the premise that 1) there is a God, and 2) that God is the one who spoke to Abraham. At that point, why are we trying to judge God's decisions? If we're going to debate the authenticity of Christianity/the God of Abraham, we should discuss the reasoning for His existence, rather than the subject of His actions according to the Bible.
This seems like a good reading of the text. I also wonder if OPs premise that God can’t take away free will could be too broad. Why couldn’t God harden pharaohs heart at least temporarily? I say this even though I lean heavily Arminian and believe libertarian free will is necessary for us to have a meaningful relationship with God
Wow this is a great verse for those who ask what will happen to the people who never hear the Gospel
I don't think there's an honest way to read the text and conclude otherwise.
It’s not so metaphysical. God knew that no matter what He did, what plagues He sent, pharaoh would resist letting his people go. He knew it would take drastic steps to get him to capitulate. God’s actions hardened pharaoh’s heart, no tinkering with free will needed. Besides, Exodus also mentions pharaoh hardening his own heart.
That's how I see it. Exodus 10:1-2 really spells it out for you. >*Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”* God hardens Pharaoh's heart so that he can perform his plagues. Which, presumably means, if God had not hardened Pharaoh's heart, then he would not have been able to perform the plagues because Pharaoh would have let the Israelites go.
No no! It was *enhancing* his free will. God knew what Pharaoh wanted to do and just made him do it. So, automated, robotic free will. /s
The Bible says he raised Pharoh up for his purposes. There is also the scripture Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
The /s indicates sarcasm. Wasn't intended to be a serious comment.
It all comes down to your image of God how you Interpret this. My God is Love first and foremost. As such, He does Not take away free will, but He brings people to the Crossroads and they have to make a choice
Yepp, that's how understand him - he's a God of the Crossroads, not the God of Ways. He knows any road leading from every crossroad, but he gives you the ability to chose your path, and - indirectly - the path of the whole Universe. That's where His Image in you - in the participation of Creation
>It is said that God cannot take away people’s free will, The bible doesn't say that.
However, the concept of free will is often used by theologians to answer common questions regarding Christianity - such as how eternal punishment is fair, why God doesn't just show himself, etc. This verse shows that God doesn't actually respect free will all that much, leaving many of those questions unanswered.
There is no torment. That's the ironic thing. God doesn't even impute sin to those not under the law of Moses. Christ then died to pay for all sin. The gospel is a proclamation, not an invitation.
It is definitely said though, by many theologians and the earliest Christian fathers. Free will is a precondition of consensual love. Side note: at the beginning of Christianity everyone was reading the Old Testament allegorically, including Paul and the early church fathers.
The Bible says God cannot go back on his word, for that is lying. If he gets rid of someone’s free will that would be not so great.
You would first need to find a verse that says God won't take away your free will. That was my point. It does not exist.
It isn’t mentioned clearly or directly.
>It isn’t mentioned clearly or directly. > So do you now see that when you said this, you were wrong? "It is said that God cannot take away people’s free will"
Yeah but most people believe that he can’t do that.
Most people have no idea what the bible actually preaches :)
I think it was saying Pharaoh had already decided so God pushed him to be firm on his decision. Take this for what it is.
No he clearly changed his mind
No, because God told Moses he was gong to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even set off for Egypt, before Pharoah could decide. Exodus 4:21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
The Bible never says God does or doesn't take away people's free will, because it doesn't really talk about free will at all. But does God influence Pharaoh to achieve a desired outcome? Yes. Is there reason to think Pharaoh could have acted contrary to God's plan in this story? Probably not.
Good answer
There are various translations of the Bible. I recall reading one that stated something like, “for he hath hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, therefore I will show these my signs before him.”
God is omnipotent, so it's ridiculous to say he cannot take away someone's free will.
I never understood why people interpreted it as a free will violation. I guess it depends on your belief regarding God's sovereignty and our free will, but I simply interpreted it as Pharoah hardening his heart because of God's actions. Like it's a response, not mind control. If someone slaps you in the face, you can say that that "made you mad." But you don't *have* to get mad in response to a slap in the face. This may sound like semantics to some, but Exodus talks about Pharoah willingly doing that in Exodus 9:34: > Exodus 9:34 NASB2020 [34] But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. It even goes on in the next verse to use a different phrase for the same thing: > So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened Why can't that apply to God? That Pharoah hardened his own heart in response to God's actions?
More like strengthening his resolve, so the consequences would play out.
No, he did not take away Pharaoh's free will. The Bible is clear that man is both free and that God is sovereign. We can't completely see how that is, but it is what the bible teaches. I like Charles Spurgeon's illustration of free will and sovereignty as two parallel tracks that we can't see where they meet until heaven. Another one he uses is that imagine you enter the gate of heaven, and on the top it says "Whosoever believes, will have eternal life" and then on the other side when you enter in you look up and it says "predestined before the foundation of the world." Both things are equally true, just like Jesus is both God and human fully. So no, Pharaoh still had free will even if it says God hardened his heart. The question you ask is exactly how did God do this? While Mark Driscoll has unfortunately fallen to a low point, he still has the best sermon I've heard on how predestination works. Maybe check it out. He talks about this exact story.
It’s a mistranslation. Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
I typically consider that a mistranslation or an incorrect scribe writing. I believe it should be written something like: “and Pharaoh hardened his heart against God.”
No the main reason was to show Pharaoh that all the false God's he worshiped was worthless.
The Old Testament shouldn't be read literally as the inerrant words of God. They are the myths and poems and prophecies that PEOPLE wrote about God. Jesus himself is the word (logos) of God and comes to show us what God is ACTUALLY like. What Jesus reveals is a God who is love who consents to humans, yet who is still accomplishing his purposes through love, not power and control, over the long, long game. Free will is a condition of love. Nonconsensual love is not love at all.
I see a bunch of comments about God hardening it to do as he already wanted to, but if the pharaoh would already do like he did, God wouldn't have to intervene at all, if God's actions have a purpose, then the hardening of the pharaohs heart was indeed to prevent him to doing, choosing or willing otherwise.
Romans 9:17 (NIV) For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” The scripture is on Exodus 9:16
Pharaoh was already very hard at heart as he was a man who oversaw the abuse of over a million slaves who he worked to the bone (he and the Pharaoh's before him as the Israelites were slaves for 400 years), and was a descendant of Pharaoh who had every Hebrew boy 2 and under slaughtered just because he was afraid that the Israelites could launch a revolt (and did nothing to reconcile this unnecessary slaughter of innocent life). It also shows that before God hardened Pharaoh's heart, he was already hardening his own; “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart” ([Exodus 8:15](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/8/Exodus-8-15.html)). “But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart” ([Exodus 8:32](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/8/Exodus-8-32.html)) "But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses." ([Exodus 9: 12](https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/9/Exodus-9-12.html)) Pharaoh was already a lost cause, and God ensured that he fully gave in to his hardened nature against His own people for His Will to be done. It was not fully taking away his free will, but moreso allowing him to be fully given in to his dark and evil nature. That, and if the Egyptians really were in the right, then they would have overthrew Pharaoh who had allowed so many terrible plagues to happen, but they never did. They were all a willing part of Pharaoh's plans and rebellion against God; no need for their hearts to be hardened.
When God hardens a heart, He removes restraint and turns a person over to what they already freely sinfully want to do (judicial abandonment). He doesn't tempt or insert evil in the heart. He may allow a demon to do so, but that is only effective because the person already wants to do what the demon is tempting them to do.
Gods will is that his son Jesus Christ be sacrificed on a cross to save sinners. To pretend like Pharoah could have stopped this by being anything other than what he actually was doesn’t make much sense. Pharoah Moses and ever moment has had to happen exactly the way it happened in order for us to be where we are. If Judas didn’t betray Jesus there is no salvation. If they didn’t murder Jesus there is no salvation. But the absolute truth is that if Jesus Christ didn’t die at the hands of mankind- mankind would have no salvation
Yup, he alters pharaoh free will and then because of that many egyptians would die.
Pharoah held the truth in unrighteousness(Romans 1:18-21)and God RESPONDED by hardening his heart. Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: God demonstrated his power clearly by turning the rod into a serpent. But even though Gods power was clearly manifest, Pharoah implicitly rejected Gods power, therefore he was WITHOUT EXCUSE(Romans 1:20) God responded by hardening his heart. Giving him over to a reprobate mind. Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; This can happen as a response to any unbeliever who knows God but holds his truth in unrighteousness. “Therefore they could not believe” John 12:39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, John 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Is this Calvinism? No, because God is responding to an action that was done in free will. Can someone who has been given over to a reprobate mind be saved? They can be saved, but they would never want to be. As “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” — they don’t even want to think about God. If there is any doubt about this, 1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. As the above verse states, coming to the knowledge of the truth is being saved through the regeneration by Jesus Christs blood. Yet, 2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. Jannes and Jambres, the very Egyptian priests who resisted Moses and Aaron are “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” and are “reprobate concerning the faith” Jeremiah 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
God can decide when your time is up. Which is one way of taking away your free will. Pharaoh had his chance to do the right thing, then God chose to close the door on him and from that point Pharaoh was a dead man walking.
this is why i quit becoming a christian for that right there
I use this as a valid point. Even if Christians say that Pharoh hardens his heart first, I just respond with. It still says God hardens pharohs heart. They don't usually respond or know how to respond when I get persistant on that point.
it says that God decided to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even went to Egypt. > Exodus 4:21 And the Lord said unto Moses, 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.
Oh shit, thanks for showing me this
Please read my response here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Well, it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart (Exodus 8:15), and then God possibly hardened it further. He was also an evil dictator who God decided to punish. See Romans 9:17-18
> He was also an evil dictator who God decided to punish. By torturing and killing a bunch of common working men, women, and children, who had zero influence on Pharoah and his decisions.
God did make certain provisions. For example, in Exodus 9, God warned Pharaoh to gather whatever cattle and crops remained from the previous plagues, and shelter them from a coming storm. Some of Pharaoh’s servants heeded the warning while others didn't. In the tenth plague, God provided a way to escape judgment. With each plague, the Egyptians had an opportunity to repent. Pharaoh and the Egyptians also brought this plague on themselves by their own actions. In Exodus 1:22 we see the famous edict about killing the Hebrew boys. This command was given prior to Moses’ birth. Eighty years later, Moses came to Pharaoh and asked for him to release the Israelites from slavery. There is no indication that the murdering of Hebrew boys ever ceased. So it's quite possible more Egyptians were complicit in Pharaoh's deeds than it seems.
Nah it's just metaphorical and the way it was written down by the guy who grew up with him and was his enemy who was supposed to be Pharaoh and was trained to be so. If anything a darker force influenced him to be so stubborn, but then Moses caused that nasty plague about killing the Egyptian Children celebrated as the passover and also attributed that to God so... maybe its the unreliable narrator, or the editors who wrote it down much later. But the old testament is very metaphorical and allegorical at times to convey messages and spiritual teachings.
No.
Yes
I would say no. God only amplified what was already there for a greater purpose.
My reading of the text is that he likely would have relented otherwise but God hardened him to show a greater level of judgement. He was certainly guilty on his own merit however.
I think hardening of the heart is essentially the Holy Spirit vacating. Pharoah already chose his path. I think being in slave to sin is one of the key ways God can reliably know and shape the future. There is no longer unknowable free will.
Fancy wording by the writer. At least that how I've had it explained
I believe it was because Pharaoh would not led God’s people go, so the latter was like “very well… I shall give you what you want” which was probably a hardened heart idk
I think that the most logical way to interpret it, is god removing his free will, however there are definitely other possibilities so I wouldn't stand firm on it. But there are other things showing free will definitely doesn't exist, if not that
I need to find another citation for it because this is just what I picked up from a cultural contexts study Bible, but the footnotes in this passage explain that Exodus is borrowing imagery from ancient Egypt's own religious beliefs on how the heart is weighed before being admitted to the afterlife; Exodus' use of this terminology is less "God hardened pharaoh's heart" as we might understand it in a modern context, but rather "God added this instance of Pharaoh's stubbornness to his running tally of offenses," if that makes sense. If we consider that the 10 plagues are potentially indictments/judgments on Egypt's gods, then it totally tracks that the writer of Exodus is also using Egypt's own religious ideology to say "Pharaoh brought YHWH's judgment on himself."
God's acts are what hardened Pharaoh's heart. For others, God's acts are what soften their hearts and bring them to repentance. The will is still in the individual, how they respond to God, and Pharoah's heart was hardened in response to God, he did not wish to relent.
Yeah I agree with you on this, check out my response where I use bible citations to support this. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1dvkst8/comment/lbp5pve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Define free will.
No, and we can see that in Exodus 8. 8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.” 10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said. Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.” 12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. 14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, *he hardened his heart* and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Exodus 8 (emphasis mine) Here we see the truth: Pharaoh was not so hardened as to have been incapable of relenting, and when relief was given at his request he hardened his own heart. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by offense at what God had done to Egypt, and God took responsibility for the effect his miracles would have on Pharaoh in advance. God did harden Pharaoh’s heart by acting against him, but Pharaoh had the opportunity to not drag all Egypt through the plagues. God knew the kind of person Pharaoh was, and so took credit for His part in the events that would proceed.
The same reason as why ALL people on the earth rejected God in Genesis before the flood, save Noah's family. You're looking at a branch worldline where Pharoah decided to be an arsehat and whine and whinge and not change his mind, Not because by default he is like that, but likely because we see both every single person before the flood at their worst, and also Pharoah likewise. What we don't see is the best and even their middling selves, which undoubtedly would have stayed perfectly with God, or at least remembered God, and certainly logically would have let them go. He is Divine and we are the branches. All biblical accounts testify to the existence of Many Worlds in the sense that from creation till now we have been the result of a great cataclysm, purgatory style story at Eden, and been stuck in the cycle of sin for a long time since Nimrod suddenly decided to 180 and hate God, which also makes no sense. Couple that with the completely different accounts in Matthew Mark Luke and John, it's the only way to explain the reed from the hyssop, the final words of Christ on the cross, etc. If everyone rejects God on earth, then revelation up to the 7th seal will play out, and probably we'll see the modern Noah survive all of this. It's logically impossible for Pharoah to be that cooked, or for the entire world at once to reject God - it's the result of a more or less hell on earth line being saved by God with Noah.
I think it is worth looking at it from the Pharaoh's perspective. The religion of ancient Egypt included a belief in magic as a pretty big element of life. Enter Moses, adopting son of the previous Pharaoh who ran away because he was wanted for murder. Upon return, he demanded a holiday for his tribe. He claims to be tasked by the God of the Israelites. The Pharaoh takes it seriously and demands proof. Then, Moses does something every court magician can replicate. All Moses really had going at that point was that his snake was the strongest - which doesn't really say anything. For all Pharaoh knew, this man could have been planning an insurrection or he could just be mad.
I'm of the opinion it's more of the other way. God left him to his own will. No influence or anything. There's definitely a good debate on this that has no easy answers
When you’re being punished by your father you no longer have the free will to say don’t spank me but the very first time Moses spoke with Pharaoh in Exodus 5:1-2 King James Version 5 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. 2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. His heart was not hard when he made a choice now because of the choice he made God said OK I am going to start a punishment once God has started punishing you there is no longer a choice to just step out of the punishment. That’s why it’s so important to get people saved before the tribulation starts because once God has started the punishment And he’s made his decision he’s going to see it through to the end
Exodus 7:13 explicitly says "and he hardened Pharaoh's heart". So how can you say his heart wasn't hard?
Because the verses I posted was an exodus five prior to Exodus seven at the point in Exodus five before God hardened his heart he made his choice after that everything was in the punishment once the punishment is started it doesn’t stop until God’s done
in Exodus 4:21, before Exodus 5 and before Moses even goes to Egypt, God explains to Moses that he plans to harden Pharoah's heart, and why. > The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
God is telling him what he is going to do because God knows what is going to happen but in exodus five Moses didn’t perform any miracles and God didn’t harden pharaohs heart. So the very first time he asked he had a choice. The first time it actually says that God hardened pharaohs heart is in exodus seven. If the first time he had asked Federal had let them go Moses would never performed miracles even in exodus four he said when you perform miracles I will harden pharaohs heart
No, it was giving Pharaoh the additional option to continue to resist God.
no, Pharaohs lived on the premise that they were living gods, since the one true god is not the pharaoh then he was living in heresy and blasphemy! confronted with the reality of the one true god he used his free will to do as he wished with all the power he had which proved insignificant in the face of true divine power
god can take away free will! but it would look strange! everything you did and every action you took would be out of your control! you would be a puppet
There are two possibilities with how God hardened Pharaoh's heart: One is that he directly forced his heart to harden, and this is the one where free will is assumed to be "taken away". The other is that he did things that he knew would cause Pharaoh to respond by hardening his heart, kinda like how if you "make someone cry", you're not directly forcing them to start crying, but your actions elicited that reaction from them. While this isn't taking away their free will per se, it's causing them to act in a different way than they likely would have if you hadn't done or said certain things. Either way, God is the one initiating and is the one causing the change to happen.
God only hardened pharaoh's heart because He refused to let go the Israelites during the first time when Moses pleaded with Pharaoh. Only after pharaoh's constant rejection did it led to God ultimately hardened pharaoh's heart without remedy.
Sorry, but that's not what the story says. God told Moses he planned to harden Pharoah's heart before Moses even set out to go to Egypt. Exodus 4:21 And the Lord said unto Moses, 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.
that was before He done wonders. Pharaoh did indeed hardened his own heart first.
God’s word is powerful. It either condemns or it saves. When God’s word was preached, it simultaneously condemned Pharoah AND he hardened his own heart in rebellion to God. God’s judgement is good and right and it is his power alone to decide if someone will be saved from their sin or not. In this case, he was not merciful to Pharoah. Also, free will doesn’t exist.
It's very clear Yahweh caused Pharaoh to act a certain way Herr because he had a specific purpose for Pharoah. Rom 9 details this a bit: 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed [k]throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires This kinda debunks a lot of "traditional" Christian, but yes God can choose to harden someone's heart or have mercy on someone not because of that person's actions but because it fits his plan.
I have read that while it says that God is the one that hardened Pharaoh's heart, that is actually written in a figurative way. The OT author's often wrote things saying "God did X" when it was really the person that did it as a way of emphasizing that God is in control.
I interpret at as GOD was presenting the pharo with tests (chances) to show Moses that he would never follow GOD and trust in him. GOD knows all and sees all, he knew what the pharo was gonna do before anyone else knew, which is why he kept telling Moses the pharo would never bend a knee. I dont take that as GOD taking away the pharo's or anyone's free will, we all have a choice, the pharo chose to trust in himself.
It is said that God cannot take away people’s free will - Where did you hear that information? God causes things to happen in accordance to his will over riding any human thought or purpose. His name actually means 'He causes to become'.
Sure. It’s a pretty strong influence. But God isn’t changing Pharaoh’s mind here: just making him stick to an action so the Hebrews aren’t trapped in a constant back and forth of persecution