DID GOD “HARDEN” THE HEART OF PHARAOH? II What Actually Happened

In the previous post, we expounded on how it isn't God that hardens men's heart; how He never did that to anyone in history and will never do!
And that Pharaoh's isn't an exceptional case!
Forgotten John 3:16?

For God so loved some of the world except pharaoh?
God so loved Israel nation alone?
God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten son that WHOSOEVER… (no exception) believes…

But did Pharaoh believed?
No!!
(In the midst of troubles, pharaoh knows how to run to Moses, but at any respite, the true state of his heart - unbelief, shows. And regrettably we have such people amongst us too. Hmm..)

So was God to be blamed for his perishing?
No!!

Many want to know why pharaoh and the Egyptians perished in the sea but no Israelite was lost. You think God is a racist? It's not because God was against anything called Egypt. God is God of ALL who loves ALL and rich to ALL that call
[Is he] the God of the Jews only? [is he] not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Rom 3:29

If In the same Egypt today, we have Christians, and Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever, our unchanging God, then it must be that generation of Egyptians that's having problems.


Pharaoh and his army perished because of UNBELIEF.
Yes! Just Unbelief!
He never for once tremble to finally concede the Lordship of Jehovah and be saved. He constantly take the word of God by Moses for granted.

Hebrews 11 says
it all
It was FAITH that made the Israelites ABLE to cross the Red Sea as if on dry land; when the Egyptians tried to do it, the water swallowed them up. (Hebrews 11:29 GNB)

If any Israelite had not walked in that faith of the spoken word, such would also have perished because the destruction does not know the blood of an Israelite to be different from that of an Egyptian. The same was the case of the Passover destruction. "he that destroyeth the firstborn" cannot taste one blood and discover it tastes different from another. He destroyed all that did not BY FAITH keep the Passover (Hebrews 11:28)


In all of God's dealings with men, there had been only one problem, and it is hardening of heart. God cannot help this. So bad that Proverbs says

He, that being often reproved HARDENETH [his] neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Pro 29:1

Was pharaoh ever reproved? Yes! In fact,"OFTEN REPROVED".

So he says
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, HARDEN not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness (Hebrews 3:7-8 KJV)

James explains what happened to Pharaoh this way
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man (James 1:13 KJV)
Let no man say when he is hardened "I am hardened of God" for God cannot be hardened to destruction neither hardeneth he any man

And he goes further to say
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of HIS OWN LUST, and enticed. (James 1:14 KJV)

That is, it's one's LUST that brings about what leads him to sin… did pharaoh ever lusted?

Yes!!

After he had allowed the Israelites to go, a thought came to him, he imagined what great wealth he will realize by attacking them, and knowing the Israelites never prepared for any such attack, they will be helpless: it will be an easy ride. He COVETED their riches. His mind was on the spoil. How do I know?

Moses said it!

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide THE SPOIL; MY LUST shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. (Exodus 15:9 KJV)

The Hebrew word used for "destroy" in that verse is a word that means to "occupy by driving out previous tenants", to "repossess" to "seize", to "rob", to "impoverish". It was all about his LUST for their wealth. Remember, "every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own LUST, and enticed."
Seest thou a man too greedy of gains, destruction awaits him.

"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:15 KJV)

He was hardened by his lust, the deceitfulness of sin. Oh sin is deceitful! (Pro 28:26; Isa 44:20; Oba 1:3; Rom 7:11; Eph 4:22; Jam 1:14). It appears catchy and safe, but don't ever go for it! It is deceit. You tell a man to receive Jesus, but he being deceived by his riches, wealth, accomplishments, social and academic status, feels there is no need for that. God never authors evil and let no man say when he sees evil, "the Lord has done this"

DID GOD “HARDEN” THE HEART OF PHARAOH?

Like I do say to people, you cannot know God by studying any book whatsoever: whether bible or whatever. God is not in books: God is in Jesus. This explains why you may go to bible schools and never really know Jesus. I did not say studying bible or theology is bad, but unfortunately God is a spirit and spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

All things have been entrusted and delivered to Me by My Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son except the Father, and no one fully KNOWS AND ACCURATELY UNDERSTANDS THE FATHER EXCEPT THE SON and anyone to whom the Son deliberately wills to make Him known.  (Matthew 11:27)

This means one cannot know the Father (God) except he has met with the knowledge of the son (Jesus).

John 14:7-9  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.  (8)  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.  (9)  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father?

Putting together the words:
Statement 1: Nobody knows God but Jesus.
So, you don't know God!
Statement 2: if you can know Jesus, you need not itch to know the God anymore because "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father".

The two statements put together means therefore that, no knowledge of God as claimed by us until we met Jesus is true. "no man knows the Father". Note: NO MAN! NO MAN!

So if the disciples had been claiming they know God before they met Jesus; maybe some of them have been scribes and Pharisees with big bibles preaching and teaching the people in the cathedrals about God from the Holy Scriptures; they should be shocked to hear this from Jesus that "no man knows the Father except the Son". Then it means what they actually have known is inaccurate, untrue.

Philip really wished he just met God one on one like many of us have desired too today. "introduce us to God! One of these nights call us together and tell the Father to come down and let 's just see His face". But Jesus quenched that holy thirst, because in Christ Jesus the thirst for God is quenched (John 4:14, 6:35). "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father". That is, there is no knowledge of the Father outside Jesus. Be complacent when you meet Jesus: He is full representation of the Father. Be satisfied with His revelation of the Father.

No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known]. (John 1:18 AMP)
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like. (John 1:18)
His Son is the reflection of God's glory and THE EXACT LIKENESS OF GOD'S BEING (Hebrews 1:3 GW)
God's Son has all the brightness of God's own glory and is LIKE HIM IN EVERY WAY. (Hebrews 1:3 CEV)
He is THE SOLE EXPRESSION OF THE GLORY OF GOD [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's] nature (Hebrews 1:3 AMP)

Ever since I discovered this, I seek no other revelation of God outside Him, not from a prophet, not from a Moses, not from a David, and (sorry to say) not even from a Paul but by looking at Jesus. Only Jesus reveals the Father. His character and that of God are the same. He is not gentler than the Father. He is not slower to anger than the Father. He that hath seen him hath seen the Father.

If in the past, because you have not met with a person, you have had many descriptions, read many books, watched many fictitious movies, hear many reports about the person; now when you have the exact copy, do you still go back to the many books of description of the person? Jesus is the exact likeness of the Father; a sufficing knowledge of God.

Now this clears the ground about which to believe when two scriptural portions seem contradictory (though no contradictions in scriptures but interpretations differ and authors'  revelations excel another). All that existed before Jesus, Jesus claimed "no man hath seen the Father", therefore except you will not believe Jesus' word is true, none of those men ever saw God. Whatever they had must be visions, dreams, voices etc of God which is nothing compared to the "exact likeness of the Father".

Moses truly wrote:
And I (GOD), behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. Exo 14:17 

As though, God had wicked plans, as though God's heart can devise mischief, as though God killed Pharaoh innocently. But we know that the thoughts of God are thoughts of peace and NEVER evil (Jer 29:11). He will NEVER be a part to that.

These six [things] doth the LORD HATE: yea, seven [are] an ABOMINATION unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An HEART THAT DEVISETH WICKED IMAGINATIONS, feet that be swift in running to mischief… (Proverbs 6:16-18 KJV)

The Lord hates these things, so how will He ever try them?

If Jesus is the "exact likeness of the Father" and Jesus and the Father are one, if Jesus does as He see His Father doing and Jesus never hardens and will never harden, then it means the Father will never do so.
Joh 5:19 The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Still doubting this? Why did Moses wrote so?
Ok, have you heard these words from Jesus before?
You have heard in the law [of moses] that so and so… but I [Jesus] say… (see Matthew 5)

Or words like,
Moses wrote that because so and so… but in the beginning it was not so…?

Hmm… I'm not teaching to cast doubts on any portion of the bible because ALL SCRIPTURES is given by the inspiration of God not the devil (2Tim 3:16-17), so believe the scriptures; but you must UNDERSTAND that none of the holy men of God ever saw God and so could only write by prophecy. Now we understand that the Giver of prophecy to be perfect, the gift perfect, but the medium imperfect, the language imperfect, the translation and other human factors which are always imperfect may have distorted the message from its original intent. But thank God we have the Lord himself now;\: Jesus who is not to speak as "thus saith the Lord" but himself the Lord; not as a messenger altering message but the message himself: the Word of God pure, clear and direct.

Lastly let me show you this, that the authors of a book may sometimes make errors in presenting a single account/incidence
2Sam 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

The above verse says, it was God who moved David to sin; and the same God was angry that David sinned. Hmm… Does that conform to what we see in Jesus?

Now the same account but different author
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.  (1 Chronicles 21:1 KJV)
The author of chronicles helped us to see that truly, it was Satan who did this and not God. Established!

You must be blushing by now. Wow!

Similarly, see the story Moses wrote that it was God that hardened the heart of pharaoh by another account, in this same bible

Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, AS THE EGYPTIANS AND PHARAOH HARDENED THEIR HEARTS? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? (1 Samuel 6:6 KJV)

Got that?
Even the philistines knew that all God did was that He "wrought wonderfully among them" in healing them many of the times of the plagues brought by "he that destroyeth" but they obstinately hardened their hearts.

God doesn't harden men's heart. Men do by themselves because of one thing: it's called the "deceitfulness of sin".
"But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be HARDENED through the DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. (Hebrews 3:13 KJV)

that the works of God might be made manifest

The Works of God
John 9:1-4
(1)  And as [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from [his] birth.
(2)  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
(3)  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
(4) I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
This seems to look like Jesus is saying
“God made him blind, so Jesus can have some miracles to perform on earth that people might believe him”
Or that
“This is not the kind of problem caused by sin, it is a SPECIAL kind of problem that God put there so He can be showing Himself, otherwise people won’t serve Him.”
But that’s far from the message!
Please notice what Jesus did not say. He didn’t say
“He was CREATED blind”, or “He was made blind”
So Jesus cannot be talking about God as the reason for that situation. But the fact Jesus admitted was that “he was blind, but… the works of God shall be manifest”. It therefore means that hitherto, the works of God has not been manifest in his life.

Jesus simply said, ‘Hey! what you people are about to see now is “the work of God”’,
“I must work the works of him that sent me”, and we saw what?
…a healing
Therefore, his blindness is not “the work of God” is the simple message: his healing is the work of God.
It is only one person Jesus told us does nothing but is come to steal, to kill, and to destroy – the thief (John 10:10) and God is not a thief.
Therefore, don’t make a false doctrine out of this: that God maketh sick and then healeth. Don’t say “God has made me sick so He can heal me again that I can know that He is powerful”.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: James 1:13
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
(1 John 1:5)
Peace to you.

How "sovereign" is God’s sovereignty?

To be sovereign means to have the supreme power or to be superior to all others.

Although this definition is simple and very plain enough, people would also attach some other attributes to it for God and take it to another evil extreme.

God’s Sovereignty simply means all authorities submit to Him; He is above all, and subject to none!