In the book of Exodus, when God commanded Moses to go speak to Pharaoh, He said, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go." Exodus 4:21
If God wanted His People to be freed then why does He say that He will harden Pharoah's heart so that he does not let the people go?
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Well for everything there is a season, and God does everything in the time which He thinks is best for us. We have to be patient knowing that God knows what we desire before we even ask Him (Matthew 6:8), and that He always hears the voice of His beloved children, but He will answer our prayers and our cries in the right time and in His own way.
Hardening pharoah's heart showed pharoah, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews, the many wonders of God, and how there is no other God but our God, He is the one, true, living God. "All things work together for good to those who love God" Romans 8....
So even if we might think that hardening Pharoah's heart is a negative thing, think of all of the good that came out of it, in the end the Israelites did leave Egypt.
When the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, this does not mean God Himself caused Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened. This verse means that God left Pharaoh to do his own will. It says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart meaning he allowed Pharaoh to harden his own heart, without interference.
It’s like saying “my teacher failed me”….but that doesn’t mean your teacher caused you to fail…it means your teacher left you to do whatever you felt like doing in the course, and in the end, it caused her to give you a failing mark. Similarily, God left Pharaoh to do what he intended to do, He didn’t interfere with Pharaoh’s desire, and, as a result, it is said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (allowed Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened).
I hope I clarified things… ;) take care GB++
The hardening of the Pharaohs heart, was not some sort of force imposed upon Him by God, but rather the natural consequence of the pharaoh’s own unrighteousness, which results in the departure of God’s grace and presence.
John 12:40 says:
"He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn–and I would heal them.”
This follows the same pattern as mentioned above with regards to the exodus verse. God's grace leaving those who create a condition according to their own actions, in which the grace and presence of God is incompatible with. John 14:20 refers to the prideful Pharisees who "did not confess Christ because they loved the praise of men more." It was the pride of the Phraoah also, that lead to God's "hardening" his heart.
Pride is one sin that causes Gods grace to leave us, for as it is written: "God resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
ROMANS 9:14-18
"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."