Podcast Introduction Today our reading is Exodus 9-12. I’m calling the episode “The Hardened Heart.” Comments on Exodus 9-12 Was it unfair for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why should Pharaoh be held accountable if God caused his heart to be hardened? First, let’s remember what Romans 6:23 says: For the wages of sin is death. Pharaoh was an evil man. He was what we would call today a dictator. He had horribly mistreated the Israelites. As an example, do you remember how Moses came to be raised in Pharaoh’s household? The Pharaoh had ordered every male Hebrew baby that was born, to be killed. But Moses’ mother, in order to save him, put him in a basket and set him adrift on the Nile river, where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him in. In Exodus 1:16, we are told that  For over 400 years, the Israelites had been slaves of the Pharaohs in Egypt. This Pharaoh was in a long line of those who mistreated God’s chosen people. And it could be reasonably assumed that the Egyptian population followed their leaders’ lead. They probably thought of the Israelite people as “less than”, as people who could and should be mistreated. Also, remember that we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart in Exodus 8:15 (15But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.) and Exodus 8:32 (32But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.).  So with Pharaoh hardening his own heart, he perhaps brought on himself the further hardening by God. Have you ever heard of a parent catching a teenager smoking a cigarette, and then as punishment, the parent making the teen smoke more cigarettes until they get sick? The goal of the parent was not to make the child sick. The goal was to correct his behavior in such a way the they never want to even touch another cigarette. It was the teen who brought it on himself, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps there was an element of this in God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. And getting back to Romans 6:23. The Pharaohs and Egypt had a 400 year history of sinning against God by the way they treated the Israelites. The wages of sin is death. God would have been just, even if He had completely wiped them from the face of the Earth. But He didn’t. He showed them mercy by allowing them to continue to exist.  Something to think about.  Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Mitch Fox and Ivo Raeber on Unsplash Today’s Bible Translation Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch.