The Grammar of Glory and Judgment Text: Exodus 11:9-10
Introduction: The Author's Prerogative
We come now to a passage that is a hard saying for the modern mind. It is a theological and spiritual continental divide. How you read these verses will reveal what you truly believe about God, about man, and about the nature of reality itself. Our generation, steeped as it is in the mythology of human autonomy, wants a God who is a celestial consultant, a divine butler who makes helpful suggestions but who would never dare to interfere with the glorious freedom of our will. We want a God who reacts, who hopes, who tries His best. But that is not the God of the Bible. That is not Yahweh.
The God of Scripture is the author of the story. He is not a character in the story, trying to figure out the plot along with the rest of us. He writes the plot. And in our text, we are given a glimpse into the author's notes, a divine summary of the action thus far. After nine devastating plagues, nine hammer blows against the gods of Egypt, we are told precisely why Pharaoh has remained so obstinate. It is not a mystery to God. It is not a source of frustration for Him. It is part of His eternal and unchangeable decree. This is difficult for us because we want to think of God and Pharaoh as two equal opponents in an arm-wrestling match. But that is to fundamentally misunderstand the Creator/creature distinction, which is the most basic distinction there is.
God is not the biggest whale in the ocean of being. He created the ocean. Pharaoh is not a rival power; he is a pot. And the potter has absolute rights over the clay. This text forces us to confront the hard edges of divine sovereignty. It is not here to make us comfortable; it is here to make us bow. It is here to show us that God's purposes in redemption and judgment are intertwined, and that both serve to display His multifaceted glory. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart was not an obstacle to God's plan of deliverance; it was the very instrument He used to magnify it.
So let us not come to this text with our democratic sensibilities and our list of demands for what a "fair" God ought to do. Let us come as creatures to our Creator, as sinners to our Judge, and as the redeemed to our Sovereign, and let us hear what He has to say about His own prerogatives.
The Text
Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My miraculous wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt."
Now Moses and Aaron did all these miraculous wonders before Pharaoh; yet Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
(Exodus 11:9-10 LSB)
The Divine Purpose in Defiance (v. 9)
We begin with God's explanation to Moses:
"Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My miraculous wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.'" (Exodus 11:9)
The first thing to notice is who is in charge. Yahweh is speaking to Moses. He is interpreting the events. He is not reacting to Pharaoh's stubbornness; He is explaining it. God is telling Moses ahead of time what is going to happen, and more importantly, why it is going to happen. "Pharaoh will not listen to you." This is not a guess. It is not a prediction based on psychological profiling. It is a declaration of what will be.
But the crucial word here is "so that." This is a purpose clause. Pharaoh's deafness is not the cause of God's wonders; it is the divinely ordained occasion for them. God is not trying to persuade Pharaoh and failing. Rather, God is orchestrating Pharaoh's defiance for a higher purpose: "so that My miraculous wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt." God's intention was not simply to get Israel out of Egypt. He could have done that with a snap of His fingers. His intention was to do it in such a way that His glory, His power, and His absolute supremacy over all the false gods of a pagan superpower would be put on display for all the world to see, for all time.
The plagues were a systematic dismantling of the Egyptian pantheon. The Nile god, the frog goddess, the sun god Ra, all of them were shown to be impotent nothings before the God of a slave people. Each plague was a sermon. Each wonder was a declaration of war. And for the message to be complete, for the wonders to be multiplied, Pharaoh's heart had to be a stone wall for the waves of God's power to crash against, again and again. A soft-hearted Pharaoh who let the people go after the first plague would have robbed God of the opportunity to display the full counsel of His judgment and power. God wanted more than just deliverance; He wanted a resounding, world-altering triumph.
This is a profound principle. God often uses the opposition of wicked men to accomplish His greatest works. The cross is the ultimate example. The Romans and the Jewish leaders, in their wickedness, did not thwart God's plan; they fulfilled it to the letter (Acts 4:27-28). In the same way, Pharaoh's prideful rebellion was harnessed by God to serve the cause of Israel's redemption and the magnification of His own name.
The Two Hardships (v. 10)
Verse 10 provides the summary and the theological bedrock for the entire conflict.
"Now Moses and Aaron did all these miraculous wonders before Pharaoh; yet Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land." (Exodus 11:10 LSB)
This verse sets two realities side by side. On the one hand, you have the faithful obedience of God's servants: "Moses and Aaron did all these miraculous wonders before Pharaoh." They did exactly what God told them to do. They pronounced the judgments, they stretched out the rod, they stood before the most powerful man on earth as the ambassadors of Heaven.
On the other hand, you have the result: "he did not let the sons of Israel go." And the reason for that result is stated with breathtaking clarity: "yet Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength." Let us not mince words here. Let us not try to explain this away with theological soft soap. The text says what it says. Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart. The verb is active. God is the subject. Pharaoh's heart is the object.
Now, throughout the plague narrative, we see three different statements. We see that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex. 8:15, 32). We see it stated passively that Pharaoh's heart was hardened (Ex. 7:13, 22). And we see, as here, that Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart (Ex. 9:12; 10:20, 27). How do we reconcile these? The modern instinct is to say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and God simply "allowed" it, or perhaps "confirmed" it. But this is to reconcile friends. The Bible presents no contradiction here. God's sovereign hardening and Pharaoh's culpable hardening are not two billiard balls trying to occupy the same space. They are two sides of the same coin.
Think of it this way. The same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay. The difference is not in the sun, but in the nature of the material it shines upon. God's glorious presence, revealed in these wonders, was the sun. To a heart of wax, a heart of faith, it would have brought melting and repentance. But to a heart of clay, a heart of proud rebellion like Pharaoh's, it brought only hardening. And God, in His sovereignty, not only knew Pharaoh was clay, but He ordained him to be this very vessel of wrath, prepared for destruction, in order to show His power (Romans 9:17-22).
Pharaoh was not an innocent bystander. He was a wicked, tyrannical, infanticidal ruler. God's hardening was a judicial act. God gave Pharaoh over to the sin that he himself loved. He strengthened him in his rebellion. Pharaoh freely chose to defy God at every turn, and he is fully responsible for that choice. And yet, behind and through his free and wicked choices, God was working His own sovereign and holy purpose. God's sovereignty does not cancel out human responsibility; it establishes it.
Conclusion: The Rock of Offense
So what does this mean for us? This narrative is not just about a stubborn king long ago. It is about the nature of God's saving and judging work in all of history. Pharaoh is the archetypal man of the flesh, the seed of the serpent, who will not bow the knee to God. And God's dealings with him set the pattern for how He deals with all who set themselves against Him.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a miraculous wonder placed before every person. It is the ultimate display of God's power and wisdom. To those whom God has chosen, to those whose hearts He softens by His Spirit, this message is the power of God unto salvation. It is light, it is life, it is a sweet aroma. It melts the wax.
But to those who, like Pharaoh, love their sin and their autonomy, the very same gospel is an offense. It is a stumbling block and a rock of offense (1 Peter 2:8). The preaching of the cross, the command to repent and believe, becomes the occasion for their hearts to be hardened. The light shines, and they hate the light, and this very hatred is a judicial hardening from God. They are given over to the rebellion they have chosen.
This is why our salvation is all of grace. No one can believe in Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him. No one's heart melts unless God the Spirit performs a miracle of regeneration, turning a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. You did not make your heart soft. You did not decide to be wax instead of clay. If you have believed, it is because God shone in your heart, the same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Therefore, we must not boast in our own will. We must not think that we were somehow smarter or better than Pharaoh. We must boast only in the Lord. And we must look at the display of God's sovereign judgment against Egypt and tremble with a holy fear. But we must also look at His sovereign deliverance of Israel and rejoice with an unshakeable confidence. For the same God who hardened Pharaoh for His glory is the God who saves us for His glory. He is the author, and He writes a good story. And the central plot line of that story is the triumph of His grace in the face of rebellion, a triumph secured at the cross, and a triumph that will one day fill the whole earth.