Pharaoh's Heart - Diamond Or Zirconium

How can a person have free will if God hardens his heart and thereby controls his actions? This is a question that men have been debating through the ages. Was it Pharaoh's freely made choices that brought destruction to the armies of the most powerful nation on earth, or did God make him do it?

God does have a plan for each person's life, and He does let him or her make his or her own choices. He also has a plan for the world... and that is something that no man or woman can change. What is written will come to pass. What people rarely think about is the fact that, while God is making His plans, He already knows the choices people will make. What makes people think that He does not strategically place everyone in the world, using the knowledge of the choices each person will make, in order to fulfil His great plan. God did not make Pharaoh sin, but He did allow him to sin in order to fulfil His purpose.
Psalms 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
Adonai knows every decision that every person will make in every situation that he or she might ever be in. Did God know that Judas would choose to betray him for 30 pieces of silver? Of course, and yet Yeshua chose him to be one of his closest disciples because it was necessary to have a betrayer in order that the Son of Man would fulfil his purpose in coming to Earth. Judas could have chosen not to do it, but Yeshua already knew that he would do it, and used that to fulfil His plan.
Pharaoh (as a man, and as a ruler) was wicked and cruel; he drove the slaves hard, and would not tolerate any question or challenge of his authority. As all of the Egyptian Pharaohs, he was considered (by his people as well as himself) to be a god. This served his ego very well. It makes perfect sense that God would choose a cruel and wicked ego-maniac to be in the position of Pharaoh at the time when he wanted to make His power known throughout the world. He knew the choices that Pharaoh would make when being told by another god to release the slaves. It was stated five times that Pharaoh's heart was hardened (Exodus 7:13, 14, 22, 8:19, and 9:7). It is written two additional times that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15, and 8:32) before Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart in Exodus 9:12. Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart five more times (Exodus 10:1, 20, 27, 11:10, and 14:8), and then it is written that Pharaoh's heart was hardened two more times (Exodus 9:35, and 14:5). Pharaoh hardened his own heart one more time in Exodus 9:34.
The question we need to ask ourselves is "How did God harden Pharaoh's heart?" Had Pharaoh learned his lesson? Was Pharaoh ready to free the slaves, and let the Hebrews go (for good)? Did God stepped in and make Pharaoh's mouth say "NO?"; of course not. It is far more likely that Pharaoh was so emotionally afflicted by being beaten down, and publicly bruised, by a god of the slaves, that (just like a child that has been beat-up on the playground for the first time) he was temporarily thinking it would be better to just have the Hebrews take their god and "GO AWAY!" but this would not have lasted.
Yahweh, instead of directly hardening the heart of Pharaoh, more likely shielded Pharaoh from the emotional trauma that was softening his heart at that time. Having the temporary pain removed allowed Pharaoh's heart to return to it's natural hardened state. This could be seen as "hardening his heart" when it is actually "protecting his heart from something that would have only temporarily softened it."
People may ask "Why would God want to prolong the suffering of the Hebrews? Surely God would want them to go free as soon as possible." They may also argue that it would be unfair to punish the people of Egypt with all these plagues if it was God's plan to have a man like Pharaoh in power. I would expect these same people to ask "How can God justify destroying Pharaoh at the end of it all if God made him that way to begin with?" In answer to this, I would respond "What does Romans 9 tell us?"
Romans 9
14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power to you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses. 19 You will say to me then, "Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" 20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; 23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-
I have heard it said that, "God does not create evil and suffering for his children. The devil does that." This would be a comforting thought; unfortunately that is not what the scripture tells us.
Lamentations 3
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
Isaiah 45
7 I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.
The simple fact is that Adonai's plan was formed before the foundations of the Earth. He created beings and gave us free will out of his agape love for us. We are free to make our own decisions, however, God is all-knowing and "His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." Pharaoh's greatest problem was that he was arrogant and saw himself as a god when he should have trembled in fear at foot of the Living God. God knew this weakness and used it to show His wonders to the world and bring glory to His chosen people.
Proverbs 16
4 The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. 5 All those who are arrogant are an abomination to the Lord; be assured, they will not go unpunished. 6 By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one avoids evil. 7 When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them. 8 Better is a little with righteousness than large income with injustice. 9 The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.
Pharaoh's final downfall was, in the end, his hardened heart. A lifetime of arrogance and ego, of cruelty and domination, of self exaltation and wickedness brought him to his final doom. God used Pharaoh to show His wrath and wonders to the world.
If Pharaoh had chased the Hebrews to the edge of the sea and stopped in awe and amazement at God's miracles when he saw the divided ocean, God would have let him live. If Pharaoh had fallen prostrate before the Lord of Hosts, and begged for God to forgive him, the Lord God would have had mercy on him.
At the end of the book of Jeremiah, when Nebuchadnezzar put out Zedekiah's eyes instead of killing him, out of respect for the God of Jerusalem because he heard the prophecies of Jeremiah; Adonai allowed the king of Babylon to continue his rule (until later on when he was not so respectful to the God of Israel, but that's another story). God did show mercy and leniency to foreign leaders as long as they respected and obeyed Him, even when the did not worship Him. But Pharaoh's heart was hard. The only thing he saw when he reached the sea was his insolent slaves running away after all they had done to him. Pharaoh charged in after them and God passed judgement on Pharaoh's heart, as well as the heart of Moses.
Proverbs 15
3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. 8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. 9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves the one who pursues righteousness.
We should all take wisdom from this tale. Even though we are born with a wicked nature and a sinful flesh, we don't have to give in to it. We have the choice and are given the ability to choose the right path.
James 4
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
I am not trying to say that it will be easy. The choice, however, is yours as to whether you will be used for good in God's perfect plan, or if you will be used for evil. Just because God knows which decision you will make, and has used that knowledge to place you in his grand design, does not make it any easier a path to walk. Just as it did not make Pharaoh any less responsible for the hardened condition of his heart.
1 Peter 5
8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.
When we read the passages like Exodus 9:12, and 10:20, and we see that "the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh", it is quite easy to come to erroneous conclusions if we aren't careful. The truth is, the Lord was not making Pharaoh do evil, the Lord was "allowing" him to do evil. That's an important distinction that changes the whole context in which God is viewed. Pharaoh (as does all of mankind) had a heart that was, as the prophet Jeremiah put it, desperately wicked.
Jeremiah 17
9 The heart is devious above all else; it is desperately wicked- who can understand it?
That is what normally proceeds from the heart of man since the fall of Adam. Hard and obstinate is the normal condition of the heart.
Matthew 15
19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
Adonai did not directly harden Pharaoh's heart; He did not need to. He simply had to hold back some of the pain that would have temporarily overwhelmed Pharaoh's head; He allowed Pharaoh's heart to return to the naturally hardened state that Pharaoh had conditioned it to be in.
Sources:
The quoted verses, taken from the Bible, are done so from the New Revised Standard Version.
The opinions and conclusions contained in this paper are my own. They are derived from the study of the scriptures quoted in this paper; as well as many others that are not directly related to the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, but gave me a deeper understanding of the nature of Adonai.