Pharaoh is the title of Egypt’s king,
and in Scripture the name most often means the ruler who set himself against the Lord and against Moses.
The Lord said,
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,
and he will not let the people go.
Who is the Lord,
that I should obey His voice and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord,
and moreover I will not let Israel go.
For this very purpose I have raised you up,
that I might show My power in you,
and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
Pharaoh is a man, a throne, and a warning:
a hard heart can sit under plagues and still say no.
Pharaoh is not one man’s private name. It is the crown of Egypt. Abraham met a pharaoh. Joseph served one who dreamed and then set him over the land. A later king arose who did not know Joseph and drowned the boys. That house is the Pharaoh of the book of Exodus. He loaded Israel with bricks. He mocked the Name. He bargained, relented, and hardened again. Magicians copied a few signs and then said, This is the finger of God. Midnight came. Firstborn died. Israel went out. He chased them into the sea and the waters returned. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore and feared the Lord.
Paul takes that king into Romans: God has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills. The clay does not lecture the Potter. Other pharaohs still appear—Solomon’s father-in-law, Shishak who stripped the temple, Neco who met Josiah, the broken reed Isaiah called Egypt—but the Bible’s long memory of the word Pharaoh is the man who would not know the Lord. His heart is the sermon. Let My people go is the word he would not keep.
- Pharaoh is a title. The Exodus king is the one the prophets and apostles keep pointing at.
- Who is the Lord is the first theology of a hard heart.
- Hardening is both Pharaoh’s stubbornness and God’s judgment—Scripture says both.
- Raised up is not a compliment. It is a stage for the Name.
- Magicians can imitate a little. They cannot open the sea or raise the dead.
- A reed that looks like a staff will pierce the hand that leans on it.
- The same story that drowns a king brings a people out by blood and water.
- The Title – King of Egypt; more than one man in the Book.
- Joseph’s Pharaoh – Dreams, famine, a Hebrew second in the land.
- The Oppressor – Did not know Joseph; bricks without straw; boys in the Nile.
- The Hard Heart – I will not let them go; plague after plague.
- The Midnight – Firstborn; Let them go; then the chase.
- The Sea – Chariots and the glory of the Lord.
- The Lesson – Raised up so the Name is preached in all the earth.
- Exodus 5:2 – “But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.’”
- Exodus 4:21; 7:3-5 – “I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”… “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt.”
- Exodus 7:13-14 – Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
- Exodus 8:19 – The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.
- Exodus 9:16 – “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
- Exodus 12:29-32 – At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt… “Up, go out from among my people… and go, serve the Lord.”
- Exodus 14:17-18, 28-31 – I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians… The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord.
- Romans 9:17-18 – “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
- Genesis 41:39-41 – Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this… you shall be over my house.”
- Exodus 1:8-11 – Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph… they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.
- Psalm 136:15 – He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for His steadfast love endures forever.
- Isaiah 36:6 – Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.
- Ezekiel 29:3 – Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, “My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.”
- 1 Kings 11:1; 14:25-26 – Solomon’s alliance with Egypt; Shishak king of Egypt came up and took the treasures of the house of the Lord.
- Hebrews 11:27-29 – By faith Moses left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king… By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land.
- Revelation 15:3 – They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.
Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord.
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart. For this purpose I have raised you up, that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
This is the finger of God. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.
Up, go out from among My people. Then he chased them, and the sea returned.
He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
Do not lean on a broken reed. Do not ask Who is the Lord as if the plagues were weather.
Know the Name. Let the people go. A throne is clay. The Potter is not. Soften while it is still called today.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.