The Sun that Melts Wax also Hardens Clay

By Hazel Holland

In spite of the fact that God sovereignly displayed His supreme power through the supernatural signs and wonders of the ten plagues that fell upon Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart. This display of God’s sovereign love for His people in Egyptian bondage hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Initially, Pharaoh was responsible for hardening his own heart as the plagues began to fall. Then as he refused to submit to God’s plan of freeing the Israelites from slavery, Pharaoh’s already proud and unbelieving heart was hardened by God.

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because he resisted divine revelation. He resisted the illuminating grace of God that was revealed in how God had compassion on a bunch of stiff-necked Israelites. He hated this truth about God’s sovereign grace being displayed on behalf of a nation of unrighteous slaves. So he suppressed the truth about God’s mercy in further unrighteousness by refusing to listen and fear God. Since Pharaoh considered himself to be a god, He bucked against the sovereignty of the true God that showed Himself to be greater than Pharaoh.

By arrogantly resisting God’s will to deliver the Israelites after 400 years of slavery, Pharaoh’s hardened heart was used by God in order to spread the good news of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt to the surrounding nations. Even though Pharaoh didn’t fear and have respect for the God of Israel because of the plagues that He brought upon Egypt, we later learn how the Philistines did (1 Samuel 4:8). In fact, perhaps that is why some of the Egyptians chose to leave Egypt when Israel did, because they feared and had respect for Israel’s God (Exodus 12:38).

It must be emphasized here that God was not determining the eternal destiny of Pharaoh when He chose to harden Pharaoh’s heart. Rather, God was using Pharaoh’s own desires to further God’s own purposes for delivering the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, thus furthering salvation history. In the same way that the sun that melts wax also hardens clay, so the same sovereign mercy of God displayed on behalf of a nation of Israelite slaves was received by some hearts, but resisted by others.

As believers, we also were once a “nation of unrighteous slaves” before God chose to display His sovereign grace on behalf of a lost world by sending His Son to become our Deliverer. In the same way that the sun that melts wax also hardens clay, so the same sovereign mercy of God displayed on behalf of all people on planet earth will be received by hearts that have been softened by the Spirit of God, but resisted by hearts that have become hardened to the Sovereign work of God though His Spirit.

Just as the sun melts wax, may our hearts continually melt with gratitude to God for His sovereign grace and mercy displayed towards each one of us in Jesus Christ. Let us continually remember that while we were dead in our sins Christ died for us in order to redeem us from sin’s slavery. If we do not resist the illuminating grace of God that has been poured out upon us by His Spirit, our hearts will remain soft and “melt within us” as we behold God’s sovereign love towards us revealed in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Link:  Election Determines History not Eternal Destiny