DID GOD MISTREAT PHARAOH?
November 7, 1965
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Romans 9: 14 - 18 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
As we have been studying the 9th Chapter of Romans, we have been studying that the Jew has been set aside after having a marvelous past. Having all the profit in the world, being the only nation in days gone by that has had God. That has had a relationship to God, and now they have been set aside for a season and God is dealing the Jew and Gentile, and the purpose of God is changed. We have told you that God has two main purposes in the Bible.
1/ God through Paul is showing the Jew that He has these two purposes, and that both of them will come to a fulfillment. God has said that the Jewish nation would be set aside, but the day is coming when the purpose of the nation Israel will come to pass. This is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews could not understand why this program has been set aside, and why Paul is dealing with Gentiles at this time, and God is showing that He is just in setting aside the Jew and bringing in another program.
2/ As we start the 14th verse, Paul says, What shall we say then, is there unrighteousness with God? In other words, is God unrighteous in that He is doing what He is doing? Of course not. When God set the nation Israel aside, He did it because they deserved to be set aside. Let us just notice something about the working of God and His purpose, for we read in this verse, God hardeneth whom He will.
Let us go back to Romans 1: 21 - 24 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Here we have the Gentiles of the time of the tower of Babel, and it says in the 24th verse, Wherefore God also gave them up. But remember, before He gave them up, it was because the nation gave up God themselves.
Notice, in the 21st verse Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image…
Verse 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Then the 26th verse For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
For this cause He did this—God gave them up to vile affections. Notice, God did it because He had a reason.
Then go to verse 28 And even they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
It was because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
3/ Romans 9: 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Paul quotes Moses, when he says very clearly, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Remember, these words have a context, and this context cannot be ignored. It is found in Exodus 33: 18, 19 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
But in the opening section of Exodus 22 we find that Israel had become idolaters. They were worshipping a golden calf, and the Lord called them a stiff-necked people, against whom His wrath waxed hot, and so He says in Exodus 32: 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
But Moses does not let Him alone, he intercedes.
Exodus 32: 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
And we find that God had mercy on them because of the intercession of Moses. It wasn’t a matter that He just had mercy on them and not on others, He had mercy because Moses brought up His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then interceded for the people.
Psalm 106: 23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
Moses stood in the breach and because of this, God had mercy. So you see, the Scripture does not teach what many people want it to teach.
4/ Let us understand something right at this point.
Hosea 14: 9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
Every believer in Jesus Christ has to say the ways of the Lord are right. If you are saved, your life is in God’s hands, and what God does for you is right. You can actually say that of everything that has happened—the ways of the Lord are right. But you might say, there is something in my life, and I wished it had never happened. Or there is something in my life now, and I can’t see that God had a purpose in allowing it to into my life. We don’t know all about our own life. You don’t know what God had to counteract in letting that come into your life. Perhaps He stopped something far worse. But whatever it is, the ways of the Lord are right, and the just will welcome them.
5/ Now let us see something about the mercy of God.
Micah 7: 18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
God loves to be merciful. This is God’s purpose to be merciful—He delights in mercy. Let us understand another thing.
Isaiah 28: 21 For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
When God works in judgement, it is strange to God. He only does it because He has to do it. When God acts in wrath, it is a strange work, for God is love. God never did want to punish. God never did have any delight in punishing. God said in one place, I have no joy in him that dieth. God wants to deal only in love and mercy. But man will not permit Him, so God has to do a strange thing, and that is judge.
6/ Then Paul in Romans 4: 17 talks about Pharaoh. (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Many folks have proclaimed that God certainly has not—did not do right by Pharaoh, for He hardened Pharaoh heart, He judged Pharaoh, and He wasn’t fair with Pharaoh. Let us remember God delighteth in mercy, God is the God of love, and when He does judge, it is a strange work. God did not go into Egypt to judge Pharaoh. That wasn’t God purpose at all. There was something He had to do in order to deliver His people. God went into Egypt with a merciful purpose. He heard the cry of His people, and He was merciful to them. God said to Moses when He appeared in the burning bush, I have come to deliver my people. He didn’t come to destroy Pharaoh. Notice this very carefully.
Exodus 3: 4 - 8 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
And God said I am come to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of the land into a good land, and large, into a land flowing with milk and honey. He doesn’t say a word about judging the Egyptians, just delivering His people from the Egyptians out of the land of the Egyptians.
7/ God did not have any intention of destroying Pharaoh, but if Pharaoh stands in the way of God’s mercy to His people then Pharaoh will have to bear the Judgement. God doesn’t visit anyone with judgement, just because He loves to judge. He doesn’t love to judge, He loves to have mercy. But God is not going to permit anyone to block His merciful purpose.
8/ People say, see what the Lord God did to Pharaoh. They are wrong—it is the other way around. See what Pharaoh did to God. He tried to hinder the purpose of God.
Exodus 5: 1, 2 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
Notice the answer of Pharaoh. Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I know not the Lord. He said, I don’t know who He is. Why should I obey Him? And he said, Neither will I let Israel go. So God said, All right, I will have to send the plagues. Then the first plague which was so severe, God said to Pharaoh, Let my people go. Pharaoh said, No, and God sent more plagues. Pharaoh was being judged, not because God loved to judge, but because God had come to Egypt to have mercy on His people, and Pharaoh was standing in the way of God’s mercy. Again, Pharaoh got exactly what he deserved. Just as we brought out earlier—when God gave up on the Gentiles they deserved it. When God brought judgement upon Pharaoh, it was because Pharaoh deserved it.
9/ Now let’s go on to Romans 9: 18 Therefore, hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will hardeneth.
He will only harden those who deserve to be hardened. But then Paul goes on to say, Why does He yet find fault, for who hast resisted His will. We don’t have the right to talk to the Lord that way—some will say, “Why does God find fault?” God has the right to do what He wants to do. If you won’t obey Him, He has the right to judge you. Even though His judgement is strange work. But you have no right to sit in judgement of God. You might say, If God, who is a God of love cannot Judge—how can God send anyone to hell if He is a God of love? He is also a God of righteousness. God can get along without us. He doesn’t need our wisdom. He gave us the wisdom we have, and most of our wisdom is spoiled by sin. Don’t you see, that God is absolutely supreme, and if we begin to talk back to God, we find ourselves in a very precarious situation. Let us just go back to the book of Job. In the book of Job there are two things for us to see.
#1 The devil had a lesson to learn and God taught a lesson through Job. The devil said to God, that man, Job, if you will let me touch him, will curse Thee to Thy face, and he found out that Job didn’t curse God. He took everything that Satan had to give him, and he said, blessed be the Name of the Lord. The devil learned a lesson. But Job also learned a lesson. Job was as self-righteous as he could be, and at the end of the book of Job he comes to the point where he sees himself, a filthy, dirty sinner.
10/ Remember, Job was a self-righteous man. In the 29th chapter, Job 29: 11 - 17 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
He was bragging every moment. He said, when the ear heard me, it blessed me. When the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. He said I delivered the poor, the fatherless and he that hath none to help him. He said, I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame. I was father to the poor. Yes, Job was certainly self-righteous. Let’s go over to the 38th chapter of Job.
Here we have, Job 38: 1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Then God stops him and says to Job out of the whirlwind, Who is this that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.
Well, Job, where were you when God created the earth? Job, did you help the Lord? And by the way, did you help the Lord? And God did do a pretty good job of it without you, didn’t He? He didn’t need your help, did He? For we read in Genesis, that God when He created said everything was good. If He asked Job how to do it, it wouldn’t have been so good. If He asked you or me, it wouldn’t have been any better. So God said to Job, Job, where were you when I created the earth? Who is going to answer that?
11/ Let’s go on to Job 38: 12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and called the dayspring to know his place?
In other words, did you help make the sun come up on that first morning? Did you do that? No, God was responsible for that. It wouldn’t have happened in the right way, if he had anything to do with it, or any other man. But God, who is infinitely Good, does what He wants to do, and everything He wants to do, is good. The ways of the Lord are right. This is the thought of my message this morning. If God sets aside Israel, if God brings in the Gentile, it is right, because God does everything that is right. And we cannot sit in judgment of God. But rather believe.
12/ Take the matter of salvation. You may not like the idea that you have to believe Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, or else you are lost and on your way to an eternity without Christ, but you better not bargain with God.
God in His sovereignty has seen fit to make salvation in Jesus Christ and you and I must believe it. God is in command and not we ourselves.
AMEN
Ref: 11/7/1965 / 305 - DID GOD MISTREAT PHARAOH? / 12/24/2020
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