Walkte: Not a double predestination

God’s hardening of Pharaoh to damnation illustrates his justice and wrath against a murderer and a cruel taskmaster, not a double predestination. In fact, Pharaoh himself confesses that he and his people are wicked and that I AM is righteous (Exod. 9:27). Though he concedes he has sinned (9:30), he does not fear I AM, and after the ninth plague, he explodes and throws “God” (i.e. Moses) out of his sight (10:28), setting the stage for the climactic tenth plague. Through hardening Pharaoh’s heart, the Moral Governor of the universe shows that he rules creation and history and deals with the creation according to his moral pleasure, determining how long he will extend his grace and varying the degrees and kinds of judgments he inflicts. Amazingly, God hardens Pharaoh’s wicked heart by escalating his signs and wonders (Exod. 4:21; 7:3, 13, 14, 22; 8:19 [15], 32 [28]; 9:7, 12, 34, 35; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8). Signs and wonders that melt a tender heart (see 2 Kings 22:19; cf. Job 23:16) harden even more an already hard heart (Isa. 6:9–10). As an old saying puts it, “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay.”

Christopher J. H. Wright summarizes the purpose of the plagues and the liberation to follow this way:

so that you may know there is no one like me in all the earth …
that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth …
so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s (Exod. 9:14, 16, 29) (C. J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 37.)

Waltke, B. K., & Yu, C. (2007). An Old Testament theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach (p. 380). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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