Romans chapter 9 verses 17 and 18, the hardening of Pharaoh, verse 17." For the Scripture said to Pharaoh, even for this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I might demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
For this very purpose, I have raised you up." Origen points out that God did not say," Even for this very purpose, I have created you." Rather, He said," For this very purpose, I have raised you up." In other words, God permitted Pharaoh to obtain the throne of Egypt when he could have prevented it. God allowed this to happen because he saw how he could benefit others through the hard-heartedness of Pharaoh. In fact, due to Pharaoh's attitude and dishonesty, tens of thousands of Egyptians came to know the true God.
Furthermore, through the ages, millions of people have learned about God because of the drama enacted between God and Pharaoh. As God told Pharaoh, he tolerated him so my name might be declared throughout all the earth. This was not because God was seeking self-exaltation, but because He cared about the salvation of those who would hear about Him through these events. Chrysostom explains," Pharaoh did not use God's long-suffering to repent.
Rather, he made himself an object deserving of wrath." Yet by the punishment God inflicted upon Pharaoh, God was able to use him for the correction of others, making them better. In this way, God also demonstrated His power. To be sure, God prefers not to be forced to demonstrate His power in this manner. Instead, He prefers to make His power known through His benefits and kindnesses.
Irenaeus writes," God knows the number of those who will not believe since He foreknows all things." Accordingly, He has given men of Pharaoh's character over to unbelief, and he has turned his face away from them. He thereby leaves them in the darkness they have chosen for themselves. So what is baffling about his abandoning Pharaoh and those who were with him to their unbelief? For those men would never have believed anyway.
Clement of Alexandria adds," Each one of us sins with his own free will and thereby chooses punishment." So the blame lies with the one who chooses evil. God is without blame. Verse 18." Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills. He hardens whom He wills." God knew in advance that His merciful actions toward Pharaoh would cause Pharaoh to respond obstinately. It is in that sense that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Theodoret comments," God was not the author of Pharaoh's wickedness.
Rather, he exercised long-suffering towards him, as God is always inclined to do." However, Pharaoh viewed this long-suffering as weakness on God's part. As a result, Pharaoh increased his own intransigence. In response," He who governs all things, in his wisdom, justly inflicted punishment on Pharaoh." In short, God used Pharaoh's very wickedness to prepare a preventive medicine for the rest of the people. So ultimately, Pharaoh's hard, unbelieving heart was a product of his own wickedness.
God's actions were neutral. Other rulers would have repented under the same circumstances. For example, the King of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes, merely on hearing the preaching of Jonah. In fact, the king of Nineveh did not even witness any miracles the way Pharaoh did, Matthew 12:41. Encountering the Gnostics' doctrine of predestination, Origen wrote a lengthy explanation of how God's neutral actions can soften some people and harden others. Let us begin with the words that were spoken to Pharaoh.
He is said to have been hardened by God in order that He would not let the people go. And considering this case, we will examine the language of the apostle, where he says," Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills." For the heretics chiefly rely on these passages, asserting that salvation is not in our own power. In reply to them, we can show that by the very same act, God has pity upon one individual, but hardens another.
In such cases, God is not purposing or desiring to harden anyone. Rather, the blame is on the hearts of those who treat God's kindness and forbearance with contempt and disrespect. They are hardened by the very fact that God delays the punishment of their sins. But God delays punishment to display His goodness and patience. The result is that many others make use of His goodness and patience to repent and reform their lives. Such people obtain compassion.
However, to show more clearly what we mean, let us take the illustration employed by the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Hebrews, where he says," The earth that drinks in the rain which often comes upon it and produces crops useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and briars, it is rejected and is near to being cursed. Its end is to be burned. Hebrews chapter 6 verses 7 and 8.
Now from these words of Paul that we have quoted, we can clearly see that God descending rain on the earth is a single uniform act toward all the land. When the rain comes, a plot of ground that has been carefully cultivated brings forth good crops. Yet another plot that has been neglected and uncared for only produces thorns and thistles. It is due to the beneficial action of the rain that the Earth produces both kinds of plants. Yet the difference in the result is not the fault of the rain.
Rather, the blame for the bad outcome weeds rests on the ones responsible for cultivating the ground. They could have turned up the ground by frequent plowing, but they did not. They might have broken up the dirt clods by repeated harrowing, but they did not. They might have eradicated all useless and noxious weeds, but they did not. Through labor and toil, they could have cleared and prepared the field for the coming showers, but they did not.
Accordingly, those signs and miracles done by God can be likened to the rain furnished by Him from above, and the purposes and desires of man can be likened to the cultivated and uncultivated soil. The two types of soil possess the same physical characteristics, but they are not in the same state of cultivation. Likewise, when a person's will is untrained, fierce, and barbarous, it may be hardened by God's miracles and wonders. It may grow more savage and thorny than ever.
On the other hand, another person's will may become more pliant. It may yield itself up to obedience with the whole mind. To give another illustration, heat softens wax. Yet the same heat dries up and hardens mud. The operation performed through the instrumentality of Moses worked in the very same way. On the one hand, it hardened Pharaoh because of his own wickedness. Yet it softened the mixed Egyptian multitude who departed with the Hebrews. Application to the Jews and Gentiles.
Although what Paul writes can be applied to our individual lives as explained above, we must not forget that Paul's main point is to vindicate God against the unjust charges of the Jews. Paul is demonstrating that God has not been unfair. In fact, the Jews of the first century bear a considerable resemblance to the Pharaoh of Moses' Day. Jesus said about them," For this reason, I speak to them in parables, for seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear." Neither do they understand.
And in them, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, who said," Hearing, you will hear and will not understand, and seeing you will see but will not perceive. For this people's heart has become hard, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and be converted, and I would heal them." Matthew chapter 13 verses 13 through 15.
God had hardened the hearts of those Jews because they had hardened their own hearts. They were just like Pharaoh. Those hardened Jews also persecuted God's people, just like Pharaoh did. History had repeated itself, but in an unexpected way. Yet each individual Jew was responsible for his own hardening. Thousands of other Jews came to faith in Christ.