MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 10:1
THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH’S HEART
Moses and Aaron are once more commanded to visit Pharaoh, even though they are told that he will not yield to their entreaty. This is the method of Heaven to render rebellious sinners unexcusable. The ministers of God are not readily to abandon a wicked soul. It is here said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. How?
I. By a manifestation of rich mercy that ought to have melted the heart of the King. God had indeed manifested great mercy and forbearance towards Pharaoh; He had spared his life. through a long series of plagues, and through continued sin. The King had no claim to such mercy. Yet it was given in abundant measure. And when mercy is abused by the sinner it has a hardening effect upon his moral nature. No man can reject the love of the great Father, the cross of Jesus Christ, and the warnings of the pulpit, without becoming more and more obdurate in heart. This is a natural law of man’s spiritual life. The soul of man is so constituted that the rejected mercies of truth leave it less sensitive to them. This is the experience of men. How many who have sinned through a long life, and who have resisted many gospel appeals, now feel they are less sensitive to Divine influences than ever they were. This is the ordination of God, and hence when He is said to harden the heart of man, it is by mercy that ought to have produced repentance, and not by any arbitrary decree.
II. By a manifestation of great power that ought to have subdued the heart of the King. The Divine Being not merely brought His mercy to bear upon the heart of Pharaoh, but also His power. Some men are more sensitive to power than they are to the appeals of mercy. They are not likely to be touched into tears by compassion; but they are awed by the exhibition of power. They are men of inferior moral temperament. They are influenced by the lower motives. They are wrought upon by fear. Pharaoh was evidently a man of this kind. A plague was more likely to subdue him than a word of tender pity, than a message of love. Hence, God tried this method, but it was only productive of a temporary repentance. Frequently is the soul of man brought to feel the power of God, in affliction and in pain. But the power of God ever recognises the free agency of man, and when it does not conquer, it hardens the sinner.
III. By a manifestation of severe justice that ought to have rebuked the heart of the king. God had shown Pharaoh that Heaven was just in its demands, and that it would come to the relief of the oppressed. This ought to have awakened a feeling of equity within his own heart, which should have ended in the freedom of Israel. All the plagues exhibited the justice of the Divine rulership, and rebuked the cruelty of the proud king. They were calculated to humble him. God does sometimes give sinners terrible visions of His justice, which are designed to lead them to rectitude of life. When men resist the manifestations of Divine justice, they are correspondingly hardened in soul to the rightful claims of heaven.
IV. By sending his servants to influence the heart of the king to the right. God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to influence him to the freedom of Israel. They were sent continuously. Moses was a good worker. Aaron was a good speaker. They wrought miracles. But wicked men will not yield their unbelief, their sin, to the best Christian talent, to the most faithful Christian service; but by rejecting the servants of God they become hard in heart. Hence, God did not harden the heart of Pharaoh by a sovereign decree, by omnipotence, so that the king could not obey His command, but by ministries appropriate to salvation, which were calculated to induce obedience, and the constant neglect of which was the efficient cause of this sad moral result. There was no alternative but the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. God could not withdraw his demand for the freedom of Israel. It was not consistent with the ordinary methods of the Divine government to remove the king by death; nor would this have answered the purpose, for probably his successor would have been equally rebellious. Hence there was none other course open than the hardening of Pharaoh, which was the outcome of his own rebellion, and which would prove to be his eternal ruin. LESSONS:
1. That man has the ability to resist the saving ministries of heaven.
2. That when man resists the saving ministries of heaven he becomes hard in heart.
3. That hardness of heart is itself a natural judgment from God.
4. That hardness of heart will finally work its own ruin.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 10:1. God sends His minister to hardened souls:—
1. Often.
2. Mercifully.
3. Uselessly.
4. Significantly.
5. Disastrously.
The means which God sends to save wicked men aggravates their sin, and hardens their spirits.
Hardened sinners:
1. In companies.
2. Patterns of judgment.
3. Tokens of indignation.
4. The cause of plagues.
5. The curse of the world.
6. Still followed by the minister of God.