God hardened his heart - but so did Pharaoh

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 What Did the Lord Mean When He Said Moses Would Become "God to Pharaoh"? | Meridian Magazine

For the 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.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden." (Romans 9:17–18).

We see in verse 18 that the reverse side of God’s mercy is His “hardening” of people in sin. This verse can be rather shocking. At first glance, it seems to say that God hardens the hearts of some people and then punishes them for the sins that flow out of their hardened hearts.

Such an idea is repugnant to everything the Bible teaches about God’s character and righteousness. God is not capable of committing an unjust act. There is no “darker side” of God’s personality.

Active Versus Passive Hardening

To understand this, we have to distinguish between active hardening and passive hardening. What we have in this verse is an example of God’s punitive judgment against a wicked man. Pharaoh was already wicked. Pharaoh already had an evil heart, out of which came evil continually. Pharaoh delighted in doing evil. If Pharaoh ever did anything good at all, it was as a result of the constraining and restraining work of God’s common grace.

One of the ways God punishes evil is to allow men to do what they really want, which is to become even more evil. As Paul puts it in Romans 1:24, 26, and 28, God “gave them over” to the evil they want to do. God does this by withdrawing His restraint, which has the result of allowing men’s hearts to harden against Him. Thus, God does not cause men to sin, nor does He make them bad. Rather, He simply lets them harden themselves, as a punishment for their wickedness.

God’s restraint on the wickedness of non-believers is what makes it possible for us to live in some semblance of peace and lawful order in our nation. Pray for the conversion of its leaders, and pray that God will continue, by His common grace, to keep your leaders from becoming hardhearted against the truth.


Author: Tabletalk Magazine, August 1989: 

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