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The Unethical Pharaoh
ויאמר יהוה אל־משׁה בלכתך לשׁוב מצרימה ראה כל־המפתים אשׁר־שׂמתי בידך ועשׂיתם לפני פרעה ואני אחזק את־לבו ולא ישׁלח את־העם׃
Adonai said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people – Exodus 4:21
HaShem tells the reluctant prophet Moshe to challenge Pharaoh, asking him to allow the children of Israel to go worship their God for three days in the desert. Pharaoh absolutely refuses. The text of the Torah gives us some insight as to what is going on behind the scenes. We read in the text that HaShem commands Moshe saying:
Adonai said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs among them; and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son’s son, what things I have done to Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know that I am Adonai.” (Exodus 10:1–2)
These words seem to imply that Pharaoh did not stand a chance. HaShem himself hardened his heart. This begs the question that Paul rhetorically asks about what HaShem said to Moshe. Paul reasons:
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” (Romans 9:16–19)
To which he answers:
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:20–24)
To sum it all up, the text of the Torah tells us that HaShem wanted this situation and that he allowed it in order to establish his name or “reputation” on earth. He tells us that he has done it for our sake today. It is true that we shouldn’t question HaShem’s ways. Many disasters in history ended up having a redemptive silver lining. But this still leaves us with a dilemma: “Is our life based on predestination or self-determination?”
HaShem did not initiate Pharaoh’s resolve against the children of Israel. He only used what already existed in Pharaoh’s heart. The question is more of a problem when we read the text in English with the cultural mentality of twenty-first-century urban Westerners. The Hebrew and ancient context, however, gives us more details. Now that we have an idea as to why HaShem allowed this situation, let us see what motivates Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
For the first five plagues, we are not told that HaShem hardened Pharaoh’s heart. We are first told that HaShem would make Pharaoh’s heart “difficult” קשה)). A “difficult heart” is a heart that is oppositional, contrary; someone who refuses to cooperate and listen to others; a “my-mind-is-made-up-don’t-confuse-me-with-facts” kind of attitude.
In Exodus 7:13, we are told that “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (יחזק). What does it mean? What is a heart-hardened person? In our culture, we tend to associate the heart with feelings and emotions. A “hard-hearted” person would, therefore, be an insensitive person who doesn’t like puppies. In Hebrew, the heart represents the seat of the will and decision-making. It is someone who is arrogantly stubborn and doesn’t change their mind about things. No matter how much you challenge them, they are unmovable. This is common to human nature.
We are then told that Pharaoh’s heart was (כבד) “heavy.” In English, it means to be sad. In the case of Pharaoh, it refers to his pride being wounded. The pride of the haughtiest man in the world, who thought he was God, was wounded by the one who HaShem said was the meekest man in the world (Numbers 12:3). We are also told that Pharaoh “strengthened his heart” (יחזק). At first, in English, it may sound good, but what that means is that Pharaoh strengthened his already made-up assumptions or decisions. How do we do that? By rationalizing our opinion with disobedience against HaShem’s commandments.
All those things represent the antithesis of what we should be. When our heart has made unshakable decisions that we strengthened through rationalization to save our pride and so-called honor, we resemble Pharaoh. As we read these things, many of us may start looking more like Pharaoh. Many of us, in our stubborn, proud ways, may be more like Pharaoh than like Moshe. We do not have to be Pharaoh to be like Pharaoh. All we have to do is harden our hearts and resolve against the things that HaShem asks us to do. It was the devil’s sin from the beginning. Of all the sins in the book, pride rises to the top:
There are six things which Adonai hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16–19)
We can all remember times when we have hardened our hearts against HaShem’s will. Even today, he may call us to repent from behaviors or bad habits—grudges, “unfinished business” with others—but we don’t because... fill in the blank.
Moshe and Jeremiah analogized a stiff-necked, proud, and stubborn heart with an “uncircumcised heart.” In our new understanding that the “heart” in Hebrew is the “will,” let us apply Moshe and Jeremiah’s challenge to our lives today: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked” (Deuteronomy 10:16). “Circumcise yourselves to Adonai, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 4:4).
Stephen, the first Jewish Messianic martyr, challenged his hard-hearted religious opponents, saying, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do” (Acts 7:51). Finally, Moshe tells us that in the messianic age, “Adonai your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).
May the time come when our necks are no longer stiff, the time when our heart walks in step with HaShem. May that time come soon, HaShem, even in our days!
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