Romans Chapter 9 Vs. 18

 

God's Sovereign Choice

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Rom 9:18

Therefore hath he... This is the fourth time Paul concludes that God has been fair in His dealings.

God was righteous in choosing:

1. Isaac over Ishmael (Rom. 9:7-8; Gen. 17:1-27)

2. Jacob over Esau (Rom. 9:9-13; Gen. 25:1-34)

3. The righteous over the sinners in Israel (Rom. 9:14-16; Exo. 32:32-33; 33:19)

4. Israel over Pharaoh and the Egyptians (Rom. 9:17-18; Exo. 7:1-14:31)

Paul next applies all these instances to God’s present dealings with Jews and Gentiles. He concludes that, since it was the only just and righteous thing to do in the above four cases, it is only just and righteous of God to cut off Israel and choose the Gentiles to carry on His program (Rom. 9:19-11:36).

hardeneth... God hardens on the same grounds of showing mercy. If men will accept mercy He will give it to them. If they will not, thus hardening themselves He is only just and righteous in judging them. People are privileged to humble themselves and seek mercy or exalt themselves and refuse mercy. Mercy is the result of a right attitude, and hardening is the result of stubbornness or the wrong attitude toward God. It is like the clay and the wax in the sun. The same sunshine hardens one and softens the other. The responsibility is with the materials, not with the sun. People are more responsible than these materials, for they have wills to make proper choices. The only sense in which God hardened Pharaoh was in giving him the occasion to harden his own heart or obey. Such is the choice all people have to make daily (2Cor. 2:15-17).

Have you even read that God hardened someone’s heart and wondered why our God would do that to someone? Let’s examine this a little closer.

The Greek word for hardens literally means to make something hard, but is often used figuratively to refer to making stubborn or obstinate. Ten times Exodus refers to God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and other times to Pharaoh’s hardening his own heart.

This does not mean that God actively created unbelief or some other evil in Pharaoh’s heart, but rather that He withdrew all the divine influences that ordinarily acted as a restraint to sin and allowed Pharaoh’s wicked heart to pursue its sin unabated.

Exo. 4:21″ And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”

We also see this very same thing in Joshua:

Jos. 11:20 “For 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.”

We are not to question God’s motives. In both of these instances, this taught us that God is even in control of Satan and all his evil forces. God can cause them to destroy themselves especially by creating fear in their hearts by allowing them to believe a delusion. Remember the story of Gideon?

Because of God’s choice, Pharaoh then hardened his own heart (Exo. 7:13-14, 7:22; 8:15, 8:19, 8:32; 9:7, 9:34-35). All this shows that God chooses and works sovereignly, but not arbitrarily. Yet Pharaoh was responsible for his actions.