But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.

From the very beginning God told Moses that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened. As you read through the account in Exodus you see that phrase over and over. In just a quick search I found 19 times in the first 14 chapters of Exodus that it is said of Pharaoh. Ten of those times it specifically says that God was the one that hardened his heart. I have always wrestled with this, why would God continue to harden Pharaoh's heart, essentially keeping him from repentance (there a couple of instances that Pharaoh does say that he is the one who has sinned and in one of those agrees to let the people go but changes his course and refuses once the plague is removed). 

I think there are a few things here as to why God did this (I don't have the time or the space here to go into to a full theological explanation so we will keep it short). The first goes back to what we talked about a few days ago. God wanted to engrain in the mind and the hearts of His people that He was THIER God. He went to war with the gods of the Egyptians (Pharaoh was also seen as a god in Egypt) and came out victorious, leaving no doubt in the Hebrews that the was truly the supreme Lord of all. I am sure during their time of slavery that some of the Hebrews had began to wonder if God had forgotten about them. God used the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to remind his people that: 

I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. (Exodus 6:6–8 ESV)

The second thing that God used Pharaohs hard heart for was to bring judgement on Egypt. The Egyptians had enslaved the people of God. The treatment of the Hebrew people by the Egyptians was clearly not good as God says to Moses that He heard the cries of His people. The plagues inflicted massive economic and personal damage on all of Egypt. 

While it can still be hard to understand why God would harden Pharaoh's heart to the point of the tenth plague. We must understand that God is God, we are not and will never fully be able to understand His ways. We also must keep in perspective that God is sovereign and has a purpose for everything He does. 

-JD