The Biblical Book of Exodus states that God told Prophet Moses that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart from the start. (Exodus 4:21). After this prediction, God gives Pharaoh five opportunities to repent and humble himself. And five times Pharaoh hardened his heart as God knew Pharaoh would do. All together the phrases harden Pharaoh’s heart or hardened Pharaoh’s heart are referred to 19 times in Torah’s Book of Exodus. There must be a very important lesson in this.
Almost all humans face various tough tests in their lifetime, as the Qur’an states: “We shall certainly test (All of) you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops. But [Prophet Muhammad], give good news to those who are steadfast, those who say when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’ These will be given blessings and mercy from their Lord, and it is they who are rightly guided.” (2:155-157)
And everyone wants to be given blessings and mercy from their Lord when they repent of the evil things they have done in their lifetime. Except Pharaoh!
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart over and over so that he would have no opportunity at all to confess his sins, admit his guilt, make public reparations to his victims, and set an example for everyone in Egypt of honest atonement?
When Prophets Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh again and again, and gave Egypt’s Pharaoh an opportunity to let the oppressed Hebrews go; why did Pharaoh not do it and spare his people and himself a decade of plagues, sorrows and deaths.
As Exodus 3:18 states: “The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day [Hajj] journey into the wilderness, so that we may make an offering for the LORD our God.” A face saving way for Pharaoh to let them go.
And again:in Exodus 5:1-4 “Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says theLord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so they may holda festival for me in the wilderness.'”But Pharaoh said,”Who is theLord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know theLord, and moreover,I will not let Israel go.”Then they said, “TheGod of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to theLordour God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work?”
Pharaoh did not choose to spare his people and himself many years of plagues, sorrows and deaths for the same reasons that Hitler did not surrender or kill himself so others could surrender; when the German Army could not stop or defeat the Normandy invasion. Ego did it. Stubbiness did It. Power corrupts. Extremist Political and Religious leaders with hardened hearts deserve what they get.
Yet, nowhere else in any of the books of the Hebrew Bible is it stated that God hardened the heart of a very evil man so he could not repent and escape a just punishment. And Pharaoh was not just an evil man; Pharaoh and the Egyptian people believed that he was a son of God; and so had to be defeated in a way that the Jewish People would remember for thousands of years to come.
Also according to the Qur’an, when Musa (Moses) was sent by Allah he comes not primarily to warn or rebuke the Children of Israel (his own people) but the Qur’an states ten times that Prophet Moses was sent “to Pharaoh” ( 20:24, 51:38, 73:15 and 79:17), “to Pharaoh and his (nobility) chiefs” (al-mala) (7:103, 10:75, 11:97, 23:46, and 43:46) and “to Pharaoh and his people” (27:12).
Musa is sent to Pharaoh to warn him of the destruction that will fall on Egypt if he doesn’t stop setting himself up as a God, and doesn’t let the Children of Israel go free. Musa comes to rebuke Pharaoh and to rescue the Children of Israel.
Only when the Jewish People are free from Egyptian bondage will they receive the Torah from God, by the hand of Moses, without any mediation of an angel. “Those who believe (in the Quran), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians; any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. (2:62)
God also knew that of all God’s Prophets Moses would have the most difficult time leading the tens of thousands of recently freed Hebrew slaves. They were only mildly Hebrews but they were very deeply thinking and feeling ex-slaves.
God and Prophet Moses had to be very demanding and tough on them if the next generation of ex-slave Hebrews was to survive and enter the promised land.. This is why God and Prophet Moses had to speak directly to each other ‘face to face’ so often inside their tent of meeting.
“So they (the ex-slaves) quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the (ex-slave) people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” (Exodus 17:2-4)
Even months and years later Prophet Moses was still struggling with the Hebrew ex-slaves: “Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these (tens of thousands of) people on me?Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth?
“Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me, if I have found favor in your eyes, do not let me face my own ruin.” (Numbers 11:10-15)
One time the ex-slaves were so anxious and fearful that they even said:in panic: “All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! or in this wilderness!Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3)
This was the lowest level of despair and depression that the ex-slaves could sink down into; so that generation was doomed to die out and only their children would invade the promised land. “As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.But as for you, your (dead) bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.” (Numbers 14:31-33)
The Qur’an relates God’s ongoing concern for faithful Jews when Prophet Moses speaks to his people as follows: “O my people! Remember God’s favor upon you, for He appointed among you Prophets, and rulers, and He granted to you favors such as He had not granted to anyone else in the worlds” (5:20).
The principle that God can make a covenant with a whole people, and not just with those who are faithful believers, also helps me understand a powerful verse where the Qur’an narrates that at Sinai, before Allah gives the Torah to the Children of Israel, He makes a covenant with them.
Allah raises the mountain above the whole people saying, “Hold firmly to what We have given you (the Torah) and remember what is in it” (2:63). The whole nation’s fate stands under the shadow of mount Sinai, and this explains the miracle of all Israel agreeing to the covenant.
This may be the reason why Prophet Musa is the only prophet whose book comes not from an angel but directly from Allah. Individuals who hear a prophet may choose to believe or disbelieve, but in this case God Almighty makes “an offer that you can’t refuse,” so, as far as Judaism is concerned, everyone of the Children of Israel has to struggle for all generations to come, with living up to the covenant their ancestors chose to enter into.
Again Pharaoh was not just an evil man. Pharaoh and the Egyptian people had to be defeated in a very striking way that the Jewish People would remember for thousands of years to come. And Passover is still the most widely observed Jewish ceremony. “When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.” (Exodus 12:26-28)
God had already spoken this promise to Prophet Jacob: “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again” (Genesis 46:3-4).
This is the most important part of the covenant between God and Israel. God goes with us from the lows of Pharaoh and Hitler to the ups of Sinai and Israel Independence Day.