Exodus 7:3

_AND I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH'S HEART, AND MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND MY WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT._ I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH'S HEART. This would be the result; but the divine message would be the occasion, not the cause of the king's impenitent obduracy. God did not assuredly harden the heart of the Egyptian monarch by any direct operation upon his mind. But the circumstances into which he was brought by the demands of Moses and Aaron, combined with his own constitutional temper and cherished character, would produce and render certain the bad effect described, without making that evil necessary in the sense of being unavoidable. The goodness and forbearance of God, so far as divine agency was concerned, were the only circumstances which, acting upon an imperious temper and a heart habitually evil, led to increasing and confirmed obduracy. But those circumstances would have been followed by a v...

3._And I will harden. _As the expression is somewhat harsh, many commentators, as I have before said, take pains to soften it. Hence it is that some take the words in connection, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart by multiplying my signs;” as if God were pointing out the external cause of his obstinacy. But Moses has already declared, and will hereafter repeat it, that the king’s mind was hardened by God in other ways besides His working miracles. As to the meaning of the words, I have no doubt that, by the first clause, God armed the heart of His servant with firmness, to resist boldly the perversity of the tyrant; and then reminds him that he has the remedy in his hand. Thus, then, I think this passage must be translated, “I indeed will harden Pharaoh’s heart, but I will multiply my signs;” as though He had said, his hardness will be no obstacle to you, for the miracles will be sufficient...

1-7 God glorifies himself. He makes people know that he is Jehovah. Israel is made to know it by the performance of his promises to them, and the Egyptians by the pouring out of his wrath upon them. Moses, as the ambassador of Jehovah, speaking in his name, laid commands upon Pharaoh, denounced threatenings against him, and called for judgments upon him. Pharaoh, proud and great as he was, could not resist. Moses stood not in awe of Pharaoh, but made him tremble. This seems to be meant in the words, Thou shalt be a god unto Pharaoh. At length Moses is delivered from his fears. He makes no more objections, but, being strengthened in faith, goes about his work with courage, and proceeds in it with perseverance....

Verse Exodus 7:3. _I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH'S HEART_] I will permit his stubbornness and obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-existent God. Exodus 4:21, Exodus 4:21....

WONDERS - A word used only of portents performed to prove a divine interposition; they were the credentials of God’s messengers....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 7:1 Once more God made allowance for the weakness and self-distrust of Moses, severely tried as he had been by his former failure to persuade Pharaoh (Exodus 5:1) and his recent rejection by the people of Israel (Exodus 6:9). He made allowance, and raised his courage and his spirits by fresh promises, and by a call upon him for immediate action. The process of deliverance, God assured him, was just about to begin. Miracles would be wrought until Pharaoh's stubbornness was overcome. He was himself to begin the series at once by casting his rod upon the ground, that it might become a serpent (Exodus 7:9). Fr

AND I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH'S HEART,.... Exodus 4:21 AND MULTIPLY MY SIGNS AND MY WONDERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT; work one miracle and wonderful sign after another, until they are all wrought intended to be wrought; and which he had given Moses power to do, and until the end should be answered and obtained, the letting go of the children of Israel....

CHAPTER S 6:28-7:13 THE RENEWED COMMISSION AND BEFORE PHARAOH AGAIN _ 1. Renewed commission and renewed hesitation (Exodus 6:28)_ 2. Jehovah's instructions (Exodus 7:1) 3. Before Pharaoh and the sign of the rod (Exodus 7:10) Once more Moses received his commission, and again he hesitated on account of his poor speech. After all the gracious words Jehovah had spoken he pleads again his weakness. It shows what the unbelieving heart is. Twice Jehovah said that Moses should be a god. A god to Aaron (4:16) and a god to Pharaoh (7:1). He received divine authority and power over Pharaoh, while he was to his spokesman Aaron a god, because the word he uttered to him to communicate to Pharaoh was the word of

HARDEN. See note on Exodus 4:2....

DISCOURSE: 70 GOD HARDENING PHARAOH’S HEART Exodus 7:3. _I will harden Pharaoh’s heart._ AS there are in the works of creation many things which exceed the narrow limits of human understanding, so are there many things incomprehensible to us both in the works of providence and of grace. It is not however necessary that, because we cannot fully comprehend these mysteries, we should never fix our attention at all upon them: as far as they are revealed, the consideration of them is highly proper: only, where we are so liable to err, our steps must be proportionably cautious, and our inquiries be conducted with the greater humility. In particular, the deepest reverence becomes us, while we contemplate the subject before us. We ought not, on the one hand, to indulge a proud and captious spirit that shall banish the subject altogether, nor, on the other hand, to make our assertions up