22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
This Scripture has caused many a conflict. What does it mean? Does God prepare people for destruction and others for mercy? If so, is this changeable or something God has determined?
One of the keys is to know that the word “prepared” is different in Greek, yet translated the same way in English.
The first word for “prepared” κατηρτισμένα (katērtismena) is a passive word that is descriptive. It is the state of being ready for destruction. The fate has been determined.
Whereas the second word is the more traditional word for “prepared” προητοίμασεν (proētoimasen). This is something that has been prepared beforehand for something to come.
In this context, God is withholding judgment to the object that has been slated for destruction. He could destroy right away and be just in doing so, because he is Just. But he withholds that judgment temporarily so that he can highlight his mercy to the recipients of mercy.
In this case, he did so powerfully through the release of the Israelite slaves in Egypt. God gave Pharaoh many opportunities to humble himself and let his people go. He could have let them go. But in his pride, he hardened his heart. Multiple times. Each plague highlighted God’s power and seriousness, but Pharaoh refused to bend.
In many ways, this shows how much God’s judgment on Pharaoh is deserved. It wasn’t just 7x hard but 10x hard with each plague. God could have not shown judgment to Pharaoh if he only would have listened to God. We will see this centuries later that when God told Cyrus to release the Jews to go back to Jerusalem, Cyrus listened and no judgment was brought. But here, Pharaoh hardened his heart.
God was not surprised. He know how hard Pharaoh’s heart had become. And that each request to let the Israelites go would be met with an even harder heart.
At first, the Israelites suffered the same plagues as the Egyptians. But then there was a separation and the Israelites were spared from the plagues. This was showing God’s separation.
And eventually, God won. The Israelites were released. And it showed the power and might and glory of God to get his people where he wanted them to be. No ruler or man can stand against God and ultimately win.
So in this, God used Pharaoh, whose hard heart had been slated for judgment, to show the great mercy of God to his people. He used his hardness of heart to actually release the people.
Could Pharaoh have had a chance to repent? Yes. But he did not.
That leaves a question for us. How stuck are we in our pride to not repent before God and do what he says? Are we hardening our hearts before God or softening them?
Even as Christians, we must be careful because pride is very sneaky and sin is something we can easily justify.