How God Did (and Didn't) Harden Pharaoh's Heart
Few passages in the Bible get pressed into a theological system faster than Romans 9, and few statements in that chapter create more controversy than what Paul says about Pharaoh.
“[14] What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. [15] For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. [16] So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. [17] For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. [18] Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” - Romans 9:14-18
Romans 9:18 plainly says that God hardened Pharaoh, and we should not explain those words away. But neither should we make them say more than Scripture does. The question is not simply whether God hardened Pharaoh. He did. The more important question is how God hardened Pharaoh. When we follow Paul's argument back into Exodus, we find something quite different from the idea conveyed in many Calvinist circles, that God caused Pharaoh's unbelief, made him unable to respond from the beginning, and then judged him for the unbelief He irresistibly produced.
God’s Mercy is Not Unrighteous
Paul begins with the objection that may arise from carnal man concerning God's choosing to fulfill His promises through Isaac and Jacob rather than through all of Abraham's descendants: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid" (Rom 9:14). The context is God's faithfulness concerning Israel. Paul has already explained that physical descent from Abraham did not guarantee participation in every promise. The promised seed came through Isaac, and God's prophetic purpose continued through Jacob and the nation that came from him. His point is, "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect" (Rom 9:6). God's word had not failed.
Carnal reasoning sees God showing mercy to some and asks whether He is unfair. The answer is "God forbid." Mercy cannot be demanded because mercy is the withholding of deserved judgment and treating an offender better than they deserve. All men are sinners, and "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). God would be perfectly righteous to give sinners exactly what their sin deserves: death and hell. When He shows mercy, nobody has been wronged.
That is the setting behind Paul's quotation, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" (Rom 9:15). Israel had just committed idolatry with the golden calf. God would have been righteous to destroy that rebellious nation, yet He showed mercy (Exo 32:7-14, 32:30-35). In that context He told Moses, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy" (Exo 33:19). The statement is not about arbitrarily assigning individuals to heaven or hell before they were born. It is about God's freedom to show mercy to guilty people who do not deserve it.
This also explains, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Rom 9:16). Man cannot place God into his debt. Wanting God's blessing does not obligate Him to give it, and religious effort cannot earn it. Mercy originates with God, the offended party, not with man, the offender. Today God has determined that His mercy is received by grace through faith alone in Christ, not by works (Eph 2:4-9).
Why God Raised Up Pharaoh
The passage continues, "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth" (Rom 9:17). Notice the purpose actually given. Pharaoh was raised up so that God's power would be displayed and God's name would be declared throughout the earth. Paul is quoting God's own statement in Exodus 9:16. The verse does not say that God raised Pharaoh up for the purpose of damning him. Pharaoh's position became the backdrop against which God demonstrated His power and magnified His name in delivering Israel.
And it worked. After the crossing of the Red Sea, the nations heard what God had done. Rahab told the spies that Jericho had heard how God dried up the sea and said, "the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath" (Josh 2:10-11). The Gibeonites had heard as well (Josh 9:9). The entire world can know it through the Bible! Pharaoh resisted God's command, but he could not stop God's purpose. In His wisdom, God used even Pharaoh's rebellion to demonstrate His power and magnify His name.
How Pharaoh's Heart Was Hardened
The most important point in the account is that Pharaoh's hardening was a reaction, not a starting condition. Before Moses returned to Egypt, God knew what Pharaoh would do and said, "But I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go" (Exo 4:21). God was not surprised by Pharaoh's response. Yet when Moses finally stood before him and spoke God’s command, Pharaoh immediately revealed the attitude already in him: "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?" (Exo 5:2). His response was pride, rebellion, and refusal to submit to God's command.
From there the pattern is unmistakable. God sends His word through Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh rejects it. God demonstrates His power. Pharaoh resists it. God sends judgment. Pharaoh temporarily relents. When the judgment is removed, Pharaoh hardens again. After the plague of frogs, "when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart" (Exo 8:15). Later, "Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also" (Exo 8:32). After the hail, Scripture says that "he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart" (Exo 9:34). His hardening is directly connected with his own sin.
Yet Scripture also says, "And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exo 9:12). All of these statements are true. Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Our definition of hardening must allow all three statements to stand.
God hardened Pharaoh by confronting him, not by creating his rebellion. God sent Moses, gave the command, performed the wonders, brought the judgments, and repeatedly placed His truth and power before Pharaoh. In His perfect foreknowledge and omniscience, God knew exactly how that proud ruler would respond. He did not need to place wickedness into Pharaoh's heart, create his pride, or make it impossible for him to believe from eternity past. Pharaoh supplied the rebellion. God supplied the revelation and power, all while knowing how Pharaoh would respond.
Sunlight hardens clay and softens wax, and the difference lies in the material, not in the sun. In the same way, God's truth and power confronted Pharaoh, and Pharaoh responded according to the pride already present in his heart. Understanding both God's perfect foreknowledge and Pharaoh's willing rejection helps us see how all of the Biblical statements can be true at the same time: Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
Pharaoh had plenty of evidence. His problem was not that God hid Himself. His problem was that he would not humble himself before what God had revealed. Scripture repeatedly connects hardening with a person’s pride and sin. Daniel describes Nebuchadnezzar as one whose "heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride" (Dan 5:20). Hebrews showcases the importance of exhortation, “lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13).
Where This Differs From Reformed Theology
This is where the passage differs from the traditional Reformed reading of Romans 9. In Reformed theology, God's saving choice is understood to rest entirely in His sovereign decree before the world began, not upon anything in the individual, including foreseen faith. Those whom God arbitrarily elects are effectually brought to faith, while those passed over remain in their fallen condition and are judicially hardened. While Reformed theologians generally deny that God is the author of sin, this system of thinking ultimately leads to that conclusion.
The Exodus account does not require us to conclude that God forced Pharaoh's unbelief and made any other response impossible. Pharaoh is presented as morally responsible throughout the encounter. He hears God's command and refuses it. He experiences God's power and resists it. He receives relief from judgment and hardens himself again. This fits Paul's declaration in the passage as well, "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid" (Rom 9:14). If God forced a man to sin, made any other response impossible, and then condemned him for the sin He compelled, it wouldn’t align with the testimony of Scripture about God’s character or His will.
The Bible never locates the cause of a man's condemnation anywhere but in the man. Man is unrighteous and without excuse (Rom 1:20-32). The rejection comes from man, and the judicial response comes from God. God's stated will today is the opposite of an arbitrary exclusion from salvation. He "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1Ti 2:4). God wants all to be saved and did not prematurely disallow anyone: "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?" (Eze 18:23), and He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2Pe 3:9).
God's Purpose Still Stands
What is remarkable in Pharaoh's story is that God's purpose was accomplished despite Pharaoh's unbelief. This is true sovereignty, not the Calvinist definition of it, which excludes man’s free will. God does not need to destroy human responsibility in order to accomplish His purpose. Pharaoh willingly rebelled, and God still delivered Israel. Pharaoh resisted, and God's name was still declared. Pharaoh pursued Israel into the sea, and God turned that final act of rebellion into one of the greatest demonstrations of His power in Israel's history.
God says of His word, "it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please" (Isa 55:11). Man's unbelief cannot overthrow God's purpose. God perfectly knows the hearts of men and is able to use even rebellion without becoming the author of that rebellion. Pharaoh could reject God, but he could not defeat Him.
Today God’s mercy is preached freely to all. Paul later writes in Romans, "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all" (Rom 11:32). We are all sinners and undeserving, yet God, who is rich in mercy, has provided salvation freely by grace through faith in Christ (Eph 2:1-9). No amount of personal willing earns it. No amount of running deserves it. No religion can purchase it. Christ already did the work, and God now offers salvation freely by grace through faith alone in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for our sins (1Co 15:1-4).
Don't Harden Your Heart
While people wrestle with the interpretation of Pharaoh's hardening, his story is also a warning about what happens when a heart repeatedly hears God's word and refuses to yield to it. Hardening often begins simply. Through neglect of God's word and prayer, we become apathetic to truth and allow the lies of the world, the traditions of men, and our sinful flesh to guide our thinking. Sin deceives and hardens us (Heb 3:13). When God's word says something we do not like, we resist it. When a passage corrects something we have believed for years, we explain it away. When truth exposes our pride, we defend ourselves instead of allowing Scripture to correct us.
“…To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart…” - Psalm 95:7-8
Trust in His grace and submit to His word TODAY. Don’t wait; it’ll only make you more calloused to the truth.
None of us has arrived in our Christian walk. None of us has a monopoly on truth. God is true (Rom 3:4). None of us is immune from pride. Every word of God is pure, while our own understanding remains capable of error, and we shouldn’t lean on our own understanding (Pro 30:5, 3:5-7).
Familiarity with Scripture does not guarantee humility before Scripture. Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies (1Co 8:1). A person can study the Bible for fifty years and still become more interested in defending what he already believes than learning and believing what God actually said.
So approach God's word expecting and allowing it to correct you. Let it challenge your traditions, expose your assumptions, and tear down doctrines that cannot survive the words on the page. Start with the perspective that God is the source of truth, and you are not. Let His words renew your mind according to God's truth rightly divided (2Ti 2:15). The word of God "effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1Th 2:13), so believe it and allow it to work in you.
Pharaoh heard the word of the Lord and asked, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?" We may never say those words out loud, but we must be careful never to allow that spirit in us. When God's written word contradicts us, may we be the ones who change. Let His grace, goodness, and truth chip away at the calloused corners of our hearts until they are soft, teachable, and tender once again. Hear His word. Believe His word. Let His word change you. Don't harden your heart.
