REMARKS ON EXODUS 10.1 (TROTT) 1841

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Brother Beebe: my views through the Signs, on Exodus 10.1, have been requested. The text is this, the Lord said unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and, the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs before them.

To a particular point, I presume, on which my views are desired, is that of the Lord's hardening the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants. The difficulty of this passage, though esteemed quite a difficult one, does not consist of any obscurity of language, for the declaration is plain that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, But it, I apprehend, in a great measure, arises from the opposition of our hearts to bowing with becoming reverence to the absolute sovereignty of God. There is a rebellious perverseness in our nature which prevents our feeling, at least but seldom, anything like that holy submission, that stillness of soul which should pervade us in view of the sovereign right of God to do what he will with his own; and of the fact that we are the thing formed and that God formed us; that to him belongs to right absolutely, to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. 

The apostle in Romans 9 places the arrogance of man in replying against God upon the sole ground of God's sovereign right as the maker of all things to dispose his mercy as he please; and on this ground alone the awful presumption of men is manifest in arranging him at the bar of human reason, and finding fault with those dispensations which we can never scan, never see the end from the beginning. But God in being manifested as the creator is made known to be as wise as he is absolute, as good as he is powerful, as gracious as he is high, and as merciful as he is just; a consideration of God's being such, and a sense of what we are as creatures, and more especially as fallen creatures, constitutes an abundant reason why we should lay our hand upon our mouth and be still knowing that he is God, how much soever the acts of his government are above our comprehension.

 

Another difficulty to acknowledging the sovereign right of God to deal thus with Pharaoh and others consists in our utter incapability to understand how God accomplishes his own independent and determinate counsel, in, with, and by man, without infringing upon that freedom of voluntary action which is necessary to him as an accountable creature. Yet God does so control man and all his acts, whilst men at the same time his acting out their own inclinations and is therefore justly accountable for their acts. Such is evidently the case in reference to the Pharaoh. God explicitly declares beforehand what should be, and that he so controlled Pharaoh or hardened his heart as to bring it about. He says, exodus 3.19-20; “and I am sure the king of Egypt will not let you go, no not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand upon Egypt.” In chapter 4.21 he tells Moses: “But I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my sins and my wonders in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you.” 

Again, God sends Moses with this message to him, chapter 9.14-16; “for I will at this time send all my plagues upon your heart, and upon your servants, and upon your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now, I will stretch out my hand that I may smite you, and your people with pestilence, and you shall be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.” 

On the other hand, it is equally evident that God in all this dealt with the Pharaoh as a rational and accountable creature, and though it was of God his heart was hardened, it was only that he was led on, and permitted to persist in his rebellious determination to resist the demand of God for the release of Israel, until God should have inflicted upon him and his people all those plagues which he had determined injustice to visit them for their oppression of his people. Hence in the very connection of the last quotation, exodus 9.17, Moses is directed to address the Pharaoh thus, “as yet you exalt yourself against my people that you will not let them go?” Pharaoh acknowledges once and again that it was his own wicked act and did not let Israel go. Exodus 9.17, says, “I have sinned this time; The lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked.” In chapter 10.16, he says to Moses: “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.” 

And He is said to have hardened his own heart, as in Exodus 8:15: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said.” Again the same in verse 32; and in verse 29, Moses reasons with him as its being his own act. He says, “But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore and not letting the people go.” Thus we see that while God makes use of the Pharaoh, works in him, and with him, to accomplish his own sovereign purpose, raised him up to show in him his power and to declare his name throughout all the earth, Pharaoh, in refusing to let Israel go, acts with that self-determination which fully proved it to have been his own voluntary act; that he acted as a free agent, according to the sense in which some used a term, and which the term properly imports, that is one who acts voluntarily or from choice. An independent agent or doer cannot exist short of the independent God. 

Thus all rational creatures while they act completely under the government and control of God, being made to accomplish his purpose even in their wicked opposition to him, act voluntarily, consulting and acting out the inclination of their own hearts. Neither is it necessary that God should infuse, in any way, any hardness or rebellion of heart to his government, into men in order to induce them to act wickedly or contrary to the demands of his law; this hardness already exists there as the consequence of man's original apostasy. Hence I do not understand that in hardening the Pharaoh's heart, God added anything to the native enmity or wickedness of his heart, but only that, in that (to us) incomprehensible way already spoken of, he so directed and brought into action his native enmity, as thereby to accomplish his own sovereign purpose, while in all this opposition to letting Israel go, Farrell was completely acting out himself. Most probably, god exerted this control over the Pharaoh to bring out his wickedness, in a providential way, that is, by placing him and his exalted station, or in scripture language raising him up, and surrounding him with his magicians, and other circumstances, such as leading him to engage in his ambitious projects for which he was employing Israel in his brickyards, he was led thus resolutely to resist the release of God's people. Thus it would appear that in some instances the magicians imitating the miracles of Moses was the occasion of Pharaoh's heart being hardened, see Exodus 7.12,13-22. And God undoubtedly knew that the magicians would imitate those miracles before he directed Moses to perform them.

 

I have already intimated that God designed by thus hardening the heart of the Pharaoh and his servants to bring his judgments upon them for their cruel and murderous oppression of Israel, see Exodus 3.19-22; 5.5-6; 7.3-6. But in addition to this, and to make himself known to Israel, he purposed to show in Pharaoh his power and that his name might be declared in all the earth, Exodus 9.19. By this, I understand that his name is declared as exercising the same power in all the earth and over all flesh that he showed in Pharaoh. Thus Paul viewed it when he quoted Exodus 9.16, to support his position, that God has mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will, he hardens, Romans 9.16-18.

 

What then is the conclusion of this matter? It is nothing less than this, that God raised Pharaoh up for the very purpose of showing in him that power which he exercises in, and over men, in all the earth, making even their depravity and wickedness subservient to his predetermined purpose, and causing in spite of all the enmity and rebellion of men and devils, his counsel to stand, and often making men, by giving them up to their own wicked propensities, to become the punishers of their own crimes. Thus, as has been noticed, the Egyptians were punished for their oppression of Israel. Thus the nations of Canaan, in their iniquity being full, “it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses,” Joshua 11.20. Thus also the apostle says of those who are involved in the corruptions and punishment of that wicked, the man of sin; “for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that they might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” 2nd Thessalonians 2.11-12. And further that God not only controls the actions but also the volitions of men, that is, as I understand it, by providentially placing them in such circumstances, leaving them exposed to the operation of such temptations, as will operate upon their depravity and dispose them to those acts which god has purposed.

 

It is sometimes said that God's predestinating decree concerning wicked actions is a decree of permission, and I have myself so said. And I still believe it is the truth, so far as it distinguishes the predestination of God, from the notion that such predestination is a constraint upon man to act without his having a choice in the case. Contrary to this notion of direct compulsion, God, as we have seen, dealt with the Pharaoh as a rational being, sending messages and threats to him, and directing Moses to show signs to him, to lead him, if he had any disposition to do it, to obey the just demand of God that he should let Israel go. But if the idea of permission is carried to the extent to imply an uncertainty whether the individual will choose to perform the act predestinated, or not, it is not correct, according as God showed in Pharaoh, his power and name. 

So far from there being any uncertainty as to Pharaoh's willingness to resist the demand of God Moses, God said to Moses beforehand, “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand,” exodus 3.19. So God says concerning Assyria or the king thereof, “I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil.” And yet he says, “When the Lord has performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria.” And why? Because, though the king of Assyria performed God's charge or what God had purpose concerning Jerusalem, yet it was not from the principle of obedience to God that he acted, but from his own bloodthirsty, and vicious desires to cut off nations not a few. See Isaiah 10.5-16. 

Thus God does according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand, or say unto him, what do West thou? And with the unerring and sovereign hand is he moving on every prophecy to its perfect fulfillment, however much it may involve the wickedness of men and the rise and fall of nations; And yet nations and people in doing the very things which God by the prophets had said they would do, our drawing upon themselves the just judgment of God for so doing, that is, for acting out the wicked inclinations of their own hearts; As for instance in persecuting the Church of Christ.

Whether my remarks on this passage will meet the wishes of the Inquirer or not, I cannot say. Perhaps he may have wished the force of the text explained away. But there is, to this day, too much of this explaining away of scripture, it is time for us to come to the plain declarations of scripture, and let them stand as originally written, as the declarations of God. With my kind respects to the Inquirer,

 

Yours,

S. Trott

Centerville, Fairfax County, Virginia, July 13, 1841