Read Exodus 10 at Bible Gateway.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as YHVH had said. Exo 8:15
But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go. Exo 8:32
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. Exo 9:34
The Hebrew grammar couldn’t be clearer: Pharaoh is the subject of the verb every single time. He is the doer of the action. In Exo 9:34, the text even adds an emphatic sense: he himself and his servents did it, just to remove any doubt. The Repetition solidifies that Pharaoh is acting within his established character.
Now YHVH said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am YHVH.” Exo 10:1-2
The grammar shifts, and YHVH Himself (same emphatic sense) becomes the subject of the verb. Wait a minute, does that mean that He took away Pharaoh’s free will? It means, Pharaoh freely and repeatedly made his own choice to harden his heart, and God chose to use that characteristic in Pharaoh to show forth His great glory.
Why This Matters: The Bible is full of these conundrums which seem to be opposites: man’s free will or God’s sovereignty (as in today’s chapter), faith or works, grace or Law, the Spirit or the Word. Man likes to set them against each other. But to God, who does not think like us, it is not one or the other, but both and. Man’s free will and God’s sovereignty, faith and works, grace and Law, the Spirit and the Word. They are two sides of the same beautiful coin. God is so great that He exercises perfect sovereignty as chapter 10 shows, while man still acts in perfect free will; so that His will is accomplished in the earth.
The Hebrew paragraphs in this chapter:
10:1-11 {s} Warning of the plague of locusts
10:12-20 {p} The plague of locusts
10:21-29 {p} The plague of darkness
If there are questions, these are good resources:
The Distressing Attributes of God – Answers in Genesis
Exodus 10:1-29 Chiastic Structure – Christine Miller
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