Year 7, Day 55: Exodus 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Have you ever read through the first 20 chapters of Exodus and wondered about the passages that say, “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart?” We haven’t had any of them thus far, but we are about to get a string of them in the next four or five chapters.  If you are like me, you’ve wondered how it is that Pharaoh can be blamed for his actions if it is God who is hardening his heart.

I almost always have this struggle when I read these chapters.  However, I think that there is a clue to this in the opening verses of today’s chapter.  God clearly says that He is about to do something to Pharaoh.  However, in the same breath he also says that it is with a strong hand that Pharaoh will send the Hebrew people out of Egypt.

Obviously, God wants His people to leave Egypt.  God also knows the hardness that dwells within the heart of Pharaoh.  God is willing to give Pharaoh any and every opportunity to see the hardness that dwells within him.  God isn’t going to force Pharaoh into anything, but God is certainly willing to shape Pharaoh’s world so that the hard and rebellious inner character deep within can come out to the surface.

God has done this all throughout the witness of the Old Testament thus far.  God placed Adam and Eve in the garden in the presence of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He didn’t force them to eat it, but he allowed Adam’s and Eve’s inner character to come forth.  God favored Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s, putting Cain in a position to feel anger.  God didn’t want Cain to kill his brother, but God put him in a position to allow that character to come forth.  The same can be said of Abraham and them many experiences (both good and bad) that he has.  The same can be said of Jacob with Esau, Laban, his wives, and his children.  The same can be said about Joseph and his ups and downs.

This really isn’t any different than what God does with us.  God places us in situations where we can show our inner character.  Sometimes, like Joseph in Potiphar’s house or Abraham coming from Ur, we get it right and the character that comes to the surface is a good one.  Other times, like Jacob with Laban or Joseph’s brothers in the story of Joseph and his coat, the character that bubbles forth is self-serving and repulsive.  Yet we are always in places in which we can see the person who lives within.  We can always look, celebrate the positive, and seek to change the negative within ourselves.

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