Worse Than the Philistines.
Skeptics have a great deal of trouble with the declaration that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and then destroyed him. They seem not to be able to understand that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and that all God did in the matter was to give him over to hardness of heart, because he would not yield to the influences he brought to bear upon him, withdrawing his Spirit, because he persistently rejected it. These modern skeptics, who are so slow of understanding, may be helped by their brethren, the Philistines of old, the idolatrous worshipers of old Dagon, if they will listen to what they say. When the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and his heavy judgments were falling upon them wherever the ark went, the priests of the Philistines, in urging that the ark be sent back again into its own land with a trespass-offering, used these words:— “Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he [God] had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?” 1 Sam. 6:6. The story of Pharaoh’s case was then fresh in all minds. They understood the circumstances, and how he dealt with them, and the degree of responsibility that attached to himself; and these Philistines knew that the responsible act was that of Pharaoh himself; that he hardened his own heart, the declaration that God hardened it being only an accommodated way of speaking to signify that God simply suffered him to carry out the determinations of his own will. Will modern skeptics be as candid?