In Exodus 4:21, God says to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” If you’re anything like me, I know this raises a couple of questions.
The biggest one is some version of, “How is that fair?” If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, why would he punish Pharaoh for that, since God is the one who made his heart hard? Great question! But if you read the story carefully, you’ll see that God hardening Pharaoh’s heart was merely a calcification of a decision Pharaoh had already made.
The first time this story tells us Pharaoh’s heart was hardened was Exodus 8:13, after plague #5, and here’s what the text says: “But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not listen to him.” Interesting. Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh did.
It’s only after Pharaoh hardened his own heart multiple times that God ratified that decision, hardening it for good. In other words, God simply solidified him in a choice Pharaoh had already made. It’s like what Romans 1 says: “God gave [a sinful generation] over to its sinful desires.” These desires were already theirs; God just solidified them in that decision.
That’s a scary thought—that you can get to a point where God says, “You wanna reject me, again and again and again? As you wish!” It’s like C.S. Lewis says, hell is simply God answering our “prayers” for him to get out of the way and let us be in charge of our own lives. Tell God to get lost long enough, and one day, he will. But that won’t be the paradise you imagine.
That leads to a second question: “But I think God should have shown Pharaoh compassion and changed his heart. Why didn’t he?” And it’s true: God could have done that. But he didn’t, and Scripture says he chose not to because God sovereignly wanted to use Pharaoh’s rejection of him as a chance to display his glory. The Apostle Paul, in Romans 9, referencing this very story of Moses and Pharaoh, says, “So then God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” It’s not unfair because when God hardens someone, he’s simply solidifying you in a decision you have already made. There’s no way we can say God is unfair when he’s simply giving us what we asked for.
Pastor James Kennedy had a great illustration for this. He said,
Say you have five people planning to hold up a bank. They are friends of mine. Well, I found out about it, and I pleaded with them not to do it. I beg them. Finally, they push me out of the way and head out. I tackle the weakest-looking one and wrestle him to the ground. The others go ahead and rob the bank, in the process killing a guard and two civilians. They are then captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. But the one man who was not involved in the robbery—the one I tackled—goes free. Now I ask you this question: Whose fault was it that the other men were arrested and sentenced? Can they blame me for not stopping them? And this other man who is walking around free—can he say, ‘It was because my heart was so good and resisted the temptation that I am free?’ No, the only reason that he is free is because of me. I restrained him.
Kennedy continues, “So it is that those who go to hell have no one to blame but themselves. Those who go to heaven have no one to praise but Jesus Christ. Thus, we see that salvation is all of grace from its beginning to its end.”
All of our hearts are bent against God. We are, to a man, the robbers who want to do our own thing. And if God has arrested your heart and opened your eyes to see how foolish that is, to see and appreciate the mercy of Christ, to love Jesus, that’s mercy—pure, undeserved mercy. God didn’t owe it to you. He offered it as a gift.
To which you probably want to say, “But I think God should show mercy to everybody. If I were God, that’s what I would do.” Once again, Paul anticipates your question in Romans. Here’s his response:
But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath [Pharaoh, or those who reject him today] prepared for destruction? And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory?– Romans 9:20–22
We’ve already established that it’s not unfair what God did, because Pharaoh’s original choice was to reject him, and God just hardened him in that choice.
But Paul goes one step further: He explains what God is doing in salvation—and it’s one of the hardest, but most important truths in the Bible to understand. The ultimate end that God pursues in all things, including salvation, is his glory. His glory means the truth about who he actually is. That’s what he’s doing all of this rescue thing for. It’s why he set things up the way that he did. It’s why he caused obstacles and difficulties along the way. He’s showing that he’s the only God who can save and the only God who brings freedom.
The ultimate end that God pursues in all things, including salvation, is his glory.
Maybe you resent that because you think, “That sounds self-centered. I mean, we don’t like it when somebody else is self-centered like that, always directing the attention back to them.” But think of it like this: Imagine that on a cross-country flight, a man suddenly clutches his chest and starts to hyperventilate, and passes out. Everybody starts freaking out, trying to figure out what to do. A man identifies himself as an emergency room trauma surgeon, and he puts himself at the center of all the activity. Suddenly, he has the audacity to start directing people and demanding they do what he says and stay out of his way. In that moment, we all recognize that he’s not doing that out of arrogance; he’s doing that out of love.
The world without God at the center is chaos. It’s the plagues! So God demands he be at the center of our worship and our affections—not because he’s petty and selfish, but because he knows that’s how we’ll thrive. His demand to be at the center is not from arrogance, but love. The more God’s glory takes center stage, the better life goes for us.
It’s why God made it hard for Moses and put obstacles in his way. Because it was all about giving God glory, letting people get a clearer picture of who he actually is. It’s why your Christian life often feels hard, and you’re confused, because you are trying to obey him, and things just keep getting more difficult. It’s because his work in your life is not just about making things easier for you; it’s about helping you know him more and trust him more. It’s about God glorifying himself through you in your eyes and the eyes of others.
We simply cannot hold this truth firmly enough: The ultimate end of everything God is doing is to glorify himself!
-Why did God create us? For his glory (Isaiah 43:6–7).
-Why did God create the universe? For his glory (Psalm 19:1).
-Why did God rescue Israel from bondage in Egypt? For his namesake (Psalm 106:7–8).
-Why did God spare Israel again and again in the wilderness? For his namesake (Ezekiel 20:14).
-Why did God bring back his people from exile? For his namesake (Ezekiel 36:22).
-Why did God save you and me? To be the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11).
-What do we come together to do in worship? To ascribe to him the glory due his name (Psalm 96:7).
-What is our agenda in every second of our lives? To do everything to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
-What will we be doing for eternity? Worshiping God for his glory (Revelation 7:11).
Are you getting the point? God does it all for his glory. And the sooner you know that, the sooner you’ll grasp what life is all about, and it will start to make a little more sense to you.
It’s also where your joy is found. Ultimate joy is not found in a problem-free life. You think it is, but ultimate joy, real joy, is found in seeing and knowing God clearly. That’s the greatest joy in the universe, and it’s worth the paths of pain to get us there.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
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