One of the ways God made man unique in creation was to give him moral freedom; God made man a free moral agent. As a result, you can make certain self-determining decisions and actions. Under sin, you had no freedom to be righteous if you chose because sin had enslaved you, but now in Christ you are free to obey God if you choose.
Regardless of your spiritual condition, however, you are free to decide what you will believe. God gave you that ability and he honors it. Yet there are some places in the Bible that speak of God hardening people's hearts, or taking other actions that appear to violate men's free will. Let us examine some of these incidents to see what actually happened. We will see that God did in fact harden their hearts, but only after they had already made up their own minds and because God had a specific reason for doing so.
Let us begin with Israel's exodus from Egypt. It is a familiar story, so let us go straight to the issue of Pharaoh's ability to decide whether to release the Israelites.
When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he said, "But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a might hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go" (Ex 3:19-20).
God knew beforehand what Pharaoh's decision would be and God would use Pharaoh's refusal to display his power to both the Egyptians and Israelites. The Jews would talk about the experience for thousands of years as proof of God's existence and his love for them. The miracles and the exodus would mark a crucial moment in the history of the Jewish people and be an important symbol of the Christians' deliverance from sin. Pharaoh's decision was that important and God knew what the decision would be.
Pharaoh was free to decide, yet God said "I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go" (Ex 4:21). At what point would God harden Pharaoh's heart? The Bible shows us.
The first time Moses presented God's message to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's response revealed his attitude. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go" (Ex 5:2). Instead of releasing the Israelites, Pharaoh increased their workload by requiring them to gather their own materials while maintaining their production quota (vs 4-19). That was Pharaoh's choice and the Bible does not say that God forced the decision on him. The Pharaohs believed they were the descendants of God and had God-given authority to rule, so why should this Pharaoh listen to someone else who claimed to speak for God? There was no reason he should, from his perspective.
Before Moses' second confrontation with Pharaoh, God again told him, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you" (7:3-4).
In Pharaoh's court, Moses threw his staff down and it became a snake, but the Egyptian magicians performed the same signs. "Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said" (7:13). We will see later where God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but this verse simply says Pharaoh's heart "became hard." Because this verse does not specifically credit God, we can conclude that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Because his magicians could perform the same miracle, Pharaoh decided that Moses had no special authority.
We see the same response after Moses turned the water into blood. The "Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said" (7:22). Pharaoh hardened himself against Moses' demands.
After the plague of frogs, Pharaoh apparently softened. "Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord'" (8:8). So Moses prayed and the plague stopped. "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said" (8:15). Pharaoh clearly hardened his own heart.
After the fourth plague, "Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go" (8:32). After the fifth plague, "his heart was unyielding" (9:7). After the seventh plague, "He and his officials hardened their hearts" (9:34). Yet two verses later, God said, "I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials" (10:1). From that point on, the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart (10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:4).
When a person's heart becomes hardened, his thinking and attitudes are firmly set. For a man to harden his heart does not mean he changes his mind; instead he defends or reinforces his position so he will not change. Pharaoh was free to decide for himself. After his decision was clear, he refused to change his decision and eventually God made it impossible for him to do so. As we said earlier, God had an important reason for doing this, because it set the stage for a miraculous exodus.
The New Testament gives us another very clear description of God responding to people's choices. In the Book of Romans we read, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them" (Rom 1:18-19). God has revealed knowledge about himself to mankind, but men have chosen to suppress the knowledge, to discredit it, deny it, and remove it from public view. They knew the truth about God, but they chose not to honor him (1:21). How did God respond? He "gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another" (Rom 1:24). He allowed them to fulfill their impure sexual desires.
That was only the beginning, however. Although they knew the truth, they "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator" (1:25). They chose to believe a lie rather than the truth. How did God respond? He "gave them over to shameful lusts" (1:26), and they abandoned the natural heterosexual desires and became inflamed with homosexual lust.
"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done" (1:28). There is something ominous about the word "furthermore" in this sequence. Not only did mankind choose to suppress the clear truth about God, they chose to believe a lie and then discarded the truth. How did God respond? He gave them over to depraved minds and they became filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity (vs 29-31).
Did God turn them over to sexual impurity, homosexuality and depravity? Yes, and he did so in response to their choices. They were free to decide what they would believe and God honored their choices.
The Bible contains many statements about divine election, and people have argued that God is unfair in choosing to bless some and condemn those he did not choose. The Book of Romans also addresses this issue.
In Romans Chapter Nine, Paul discusses God's sovereign choices and includes examples such as Pharaoh, whom we considered earlier. He writes, "Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (9:18). The issue is not one of an arbitrary deity, however, but of God honoring men's choices. On whom does God have mercy? Anyone who will honor him. Who does God harden? Those who reject him.
You decide what you will believe and you can choose not to believe what God says. The choice is yours.
This article is part of a book chapter which addresses the following topics: