Opportunities to Get What You Want

In the lead-up to the crossing of the Red Sea, YHWH tells Moses to lead the Hebrews along an erratic escape route from Egypt, specifically for the purpose of presenting an opportunity for Pharaoh to change his mind about letting the people of Israel go. There is a sense in which God uses the movements of his people to draw Pharaoh towards folly. Now, because we confess that God is not the author of sin (WCF 3.1), how God engages with Pharaoh cannot be understood as sinfully deceptive. But one might ask how that can be possible. There are other examples in Scripture that relate to this idea and fill it out for us. In this reflection, we’ll consider two to help us appreciate how God is not sinfully deceptive as he involves himself with this creation.

When Isaiah receives his call to ministry in Isaiah 6, we hear that Isaiah’s call will consist of preaching to a deaf audience. Alec Motyer comments, Isaiah’s message (9) and his task (10) constitute, at first sight, the oddest commission ever given to a prophet: to tell people not to understand and to effect heart-hardening and spiritual blindness! There is, however, no way to evade the plain meaning of the verses.”[1] E. J. Young adds, “Probably there is a certain amount of irony. ‘Hear,’ we may envision the prophet crying, ‘but of course you will not hear.’”[2] This tragically ironic commission is given to Isaiah when he is ushered into the presence of YHWH in a vision. In the context of the heavenly council, Isaiah is given divine revelation that tells the people that they will not listen to divine revelation. If Isaiah’s commission is a closed system, then there is only judgment, only condemnation. But as Craig Evans notes, when the whole of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry is taken into consideration, the theme of judgment, as Isa 6:9-10 is certainly to be understood, is “purificatory” rather than exclusive condemnatory.[3] Because God tells the people that their hearts are hard, they have everything they need from God to repent and believe. There is nothing deceptive in Isaiah’s commission.

A related example is given in 1 Kings 22. As the king of Judah requires the king of Israel to find a true prophet of the Lord to inquire of before going into battle, we are introduced to the prophet Micaiah. After some ironic and sarcastic exchanges, Micaiah gets serious with the king of Israel, Ahab, and says (1 Kgs 22:19-23 ESV),

Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, 'I will entice him.' 22 And the LORD said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, 'I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' 23 Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you.

Now, this word from Micaiah has parallels with Isaiah’s call. Micaiah is transported in a vision to YHWH’s throne room, he is given divine revelation about judgment, and Micaiah declares this divine revelation before Ahab, the object of judgment in this case. Because Micaiah discloses the events of the divine council, Ahab has everything he needs from God to repent and believe. Though a lying spirit has been sent into his prophets, Micaiah has peeled back the veil and explicitly told Ahab that this has happened. A choice is laid before Ahab, and he ultimately makes a choice for death, even though he had all the information he needed to choose life.

Returning to Pharaoh, Moses has spoken the word of the Lord to him numerous times; Pharaoh has seen the work of the God of the Hebrews firsthand in the death of his firstborn. When their erratic escape route is made known to him, he already has everything he needs to humble himself. In the end, though, God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was giving him an opportunity to get what he wants, which becomes his undoing. This is not a matter of sinful deception, but an occasion for a hard-hearted adversary to make a choice between life or death. Praise God that his Spirit has given us eyes to see the choice and to choose life in Jesus Christ.

[1] J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 78.

[2] Edward J. Young, The book of Isaiah, vol. 1 of NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 255.

[3] Craig A. Evans, To See and Not Perceive: Isaiah 6. 9-10 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation (London: Bloomsbury, 2009), 40.