Reformed Apologist
Articles Who Hardened Pharaohs Heart?

Who Hardened Pharaohs Heart?

Was it Pharaoh himself, was it God, or was it both?

2026-03-09 by Steve Forkin

The common view concerning the free will of man today is called Libertarian free will, not to be confused with the political philosophy called Libertarianism..

thumbnail
pharaoh God hardening

Who Hardened the heart of Pharaoh during the Exodus, was it Pharaoh himself, was it God or was it both?

In a recent sermon, the preacher referenced the story of the Exodus and mentioned the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh in the process. Importantly, the preacher emphasized that, whilst it is true that God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart, God only did this because Pharaoh first, hardened his own heart against God himself. It was as if the preacher was aiming to get God “off the hook”. A just God couldn’t possibly have hardened the heart of Pharaoh first, it just had to be the other way.

Could God justly harden the hearts of man, without them first hardening themselves?

This is what one might call a “presupposition”, it’s kind of like “pre-knowledge” that we as humans – to differing degrees, naturally – assume to be true, and therefore any text of scripture is, or indeed has to be, interpreted with the assumption of the truth of this presupposition.

Now, let me be as honest as I can, we all have these “presuppositions”, we can’t help it, it is what is to be human after all. We are not animals who act based on their instincts, and don’t ever ask why, it’s just what animals are “hard-wired” to do. We all intuitively know, that this is not so for us.

The real question is this, are we willing to let the text of scripture form and in fact reform our presuppositions, if and when the text of scripture challenges them? Are we willing to ask the hard questions that texts of scripture beg us to ask?

The passage in question in this article is the first 15 chapters of the book of Exodus. It’s the story of the culmination of 400 years of the family of Jacob, that has meanwhile grown from 70 people who originally fled to Israel during famine, to millions. The original Pharaoh, who blessed Jacob has long been forgotten.

Egypt is now ruled by a harsh and ruthless leader, who has subjected the Israelites to chattel slavery, and now they are crying out to God to be delivered.

God sends Moses, the details are all in the story. I will simply highlight all the verses here that present the terms “harden”, “hardening”, “hardenened” with both Pharaoh and God as subject. Please read the whole story to get all the context.

This sets the stage:

This brief summary shows that the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh & his servants is mentioned 13 times in this brief passage. Above all else, we should not miss this emphasis. The second thing an astute reader will recognise that in ten of the hardening instances, God is the subject of the hardening and Pharaoh in only three!

Finally, and importantly Moses is told – before he even arrives for his first interview with Pharaoh that God will harden the heart of Pharaoh. In light of the evidence so far, can we really uphold the presupposition that God, only hardened the heart of Pharaoh, after Pharaoh first hardened himself, or said in another way, God only hardened the heart of Pharaoh, because Pharaoh first hardened himself?

Now, it’s technically possible that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh due to – a piece of the story missing from the retelling by Moses – i.e. the Holy Spirit turned up in the Royal Palace and pleaded with Pharaoh in a dream, to soften his heart for a prophet is coming, sent by God Almighty, and only then after Pharaoh rejected the prompting of the Holy Spirit, did God sadly decide to harden his heart, followed by the story we read in Exodus.

The way many modern preachers re-tell this account, one could believe my “fictitious” invention was in fact the full story.

That’s just not how we are meant to read the text of scripture. We must let it speak, in all it’s sometimes uncomfortable consequences for our own human flesh and pride. The story tells us clearly and unequivocally that God is the prime mover in all the displays of his majestic power, including his just judgment on Pharaoh and his servants, namely the hardening of their hearts.

And just so that we humans are left without excuse, the story also emphasises human responsibility, namely that Pharaoh and his servants were the willing actors in their own hardening. In other words, God was not the grand puppet master forcing them against their wills, no, they willingly and freely went along, hardening themselves!

I want to point out two verses that to me summarise, why God hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants. I think these two verses, emphasise what the whole story is about. God’s glory and his glorious mercy for a small group of people, whom he has chosen. Let’s be really clear, God did not chose Pharaoh or indeed anyone else in Egypt, he chose to save Israel.

We see this purposefully expressed by the prophet Amos: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth…” - (Amos 3:2) Clearly, the term “known” can’t just be simply “knowledge of existence” since God knows all people that way, it’s a special knowledge, akin to the special knowledge of a husband and wife coming together in marriage, and indeed this is how the New Testament writers describe the church – and it being set apart or chosen.

This is uncomfortable, indeed unpalatable for the modern mind, hell bent on “forced equality & equity”.

The two purpose verses that answer the grand “why” question:

All of this was to display God’s majestic power to his own people, whom he was drawing out of slavery to call them unto himself. This is also a beautiful foretelling of how salvation happens throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament.

There we are told that man – in a state of unbelief – is dead in his sins, a slave to sin, and much like the Israelites, actually unwilling to be saved, until God first and as the prime mover, acts with his power to change minds and call his people unto himself!

Perhaps one final thought, from one of the magisterial reformers (Peter Martyr, Vermigli):

“This [referrring to the softening of the heart & turning it towards God in salvation] is that change which the Holy Ghost works in us. Hereby we are mollified when we be hard and stubborn. The same father said that when God hardens, it is nothing else but that he will not mollify, because unless it be done by him that we be mollified, we will continue still in our hardness.” (Of Free Will, by Peter Martyr Vermigli)

I shall leave you to ponder over – perhaps the most thought provoking verse in the whole Exodus narrative – namely God’s acting with purpose to demonstrate his own glory. We see this re-appear in the raising of a singular figure in the accounts of Jesus death, burial and resurrection, raised for that purpose to ensure that Christ was delivered over to death.

What is left for us to do, is to bow to his Sovereign will, there is freedom to be found there!

For further discussion - join the comments on Substack: