How God Hardens: Some Words from Manton

Thomas Manton was an English Puritan pastor whose sermons are available as a multivolume set. In his sermons, you have something of an epitome of the Puritan method of preaching, but in its structure and in its style. As I was looking at Exodus this morning, I took a look at his sermon on Exodus 4:21, in which God says to Moses, “I will harden his [Pharaoh’s] heart.” In part of his sermon, Manton deals with the question of “How?,” the answer to which I think might be helpful for others. Here’s a summary of what he says (each point is developed more by him if you want to read it). Note that some are quotes while others are my own words.

We must answer “(1.) Negatively; (2.) Affirmatively.” In other words, we must say what God doesn’t do as well as what he does do.

“1. Negatively. In the explication of this matter we must avoid both extremes; some say too much of it, others too little.
[1.] We must not say too much, lest we leave a stain and blemish upon the divine glory.
(1.) God infuseth no hardness and sin as he infuseth grace…
(2.) God doth not excite the inward propension to sin; that is Satan’s work. He persuadeth it not; it hath neither command, nor approbation, nor influence, nor impulse from heaven. In all these ways we must look upon man’s sin…”

[2.] We must not say to little, such as those who say it happens by “bare prescience,” “idle permission,” nor “merely by desertion and suspension of grace.” “It was God’s will that Pharaoh should be hardened.

“2. Affirmatively.”

[1.] “By desertion, by taking away the restraints of grace.” This is followed by three clarifying points.

(1.) He owes no one

(2.) He knows how best to use evil for good

(3.) “There is an actual forfeiture. God is so far from being bound to continue grace, that he is bound in justice to withdraw what is given. When men stop their ears, God may shut them.”

[2.] “By … [handing over]. He delivereth them up to the power of Satan, who worketh upon the corrupt nature of man, and hardeneth it; he stirreth him up as the executioner of God’s curse”

[3.] Finally, there is an “active providence, which disposeth and propoundeth such objects as, meeting with a wicked heart, maketh it more hard.”

Of course, each of these points could be developed further than Manton does, but they give good guidelines for Christians as we wrestle with the question of God’s hardening of sinners. First, we must not say that he does it in the same way he does it to unbelievers. We often call this “asymmetry.” While God pours grace into our hearts, he does not pour sin into our hearts, nor does he move us to sin. While we’re at it, though, we don’t say he’s passive in the situation. Second, positively, we say that he ceases to graciously restrain and instead hands someone over to Satan and brings someone to a situation where they can indulge in the sins their hearts desire.

If you’d like to read him directly, this sermon is in volume 17, which can be purchased in hard copy here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/collected-workssets/volumes-16-17-mantons-works/ , or read online here: http://www.digitalpuritan.net/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources/Manton%2C%20Thomas/The%20Complete%20Works%20of%20Thomas%20Manton%20%28vol.17%29/%5BTM%5D%20Two%20sermons%20on%20Exodus%204.21.pdf

Pay Attention When Nobody’s Listening: A Help in Biblical Interpretation

One fascinating way by which you can be helped in your biblical interpretation is by paying attention to those times when nobody is listening. To explain what I mean, I’m going to give one demonstration of an apostolic hermeneutic and one further example. So, this article should be fairly brief.

First Peter 3

In 1 Peter 2:13–3:7, Peter provides a number of exhortations regarding Christian living in relation to others. As chapter 3 begins, he addresses wives and husbands, and to the wives he commands the inward beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit as they submit to their husbands. Then he makes a fascinating comment: “For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (3:5, ESV). He goes on to say that this is the sort of disposition her daughters should bear.

But where does Sarah call Abraham “lord?” In Genesis 18, when the three “men” (the Lord and two angels) come to Abraham. In that place, the Lord promises, again, the conception and birth of Isaac. Sarah, on the other hand, is in the tent listening in. We read, “So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?'” (18:12). Notice two particular items. First, it says that she laughed “to herself,” or “in herself.” This is an inward dialogue we are being given access to. What does she say in her heart? Of course, she says that she can’t believe that they will have children in their old age, but, and this is the point Peter wants us to see, she says, “my lord is old.” In her heart, where she thinks no one can hear her, she bears a disposition of honor to her husband. Peter tells Christian women to honor their husbands from and in their hearts as well.

Another Example

Just as one further example of where this sort of thing is made note of is Genesis 42. Joseph has already been through his great trial and has been the prime minister to Pharaoh for nine years at this point. His brothers then come to Egypt for food during the famine and don’t recognize Joseph, who accuses them of being spies. In vv. 21–23, we read, “Then they said to one another, ‘In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.’ And Reuben answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.’ They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.” While this isn’t exactly the same as Sarah being by herself, it is a situation in which someone (or “someones”) think someone else can’t hear (or, rather, understand). Moses wants us to see this as significant, and, minimally, the significance is that the turmoil of soul present among the brothers and the strife that has arisen is not simply to try to impress Joseph. They don’t even know it’s Joseph, nor do they know that he can understand them. They really think the things they are saying. They are really remorseful over and concerned for the state of their brother.

Keep Listening

Though these are but two examples, and we could take others, such as the various religious leaders in the Gospels who think evil of Christ in their hearts, my goal was simple. When we read, we ought to listen to the things that are said when nobody’s listening. There, we are helped both in interpretation and in our ability to make moral judgments and grow in our understanding of how to live the Christian life (e.g., 1 Pet 3). Keep listening.