Hardened Hearts

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.  (Exodus 11:9-10, NASB)

I’m interested in how God uses people to further His plan.  Some people He uses for good, and some for bad.  Yet we’re told that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28)  In the story of Moses, God uses the Egyptian king for His purposes.  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart many times, “so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

In the passage above, God had one more miracle left to perform before Pharaoh would let the Israelites depart from Egypt:  He would do the Passover miracle, killing the first born of all the Egyptians, both man and beast.  Up until now, Moses and his brother Aaron had shown Pharaoh Aaron’s rod turning into a serpent; the Nile River and other waters turning into blood; a plague of frogs over all the land; a plague of insects; all the cattle killed; a plague of boils on the Egyptians; hail that killed and destroyed crops; a plague of locusts; and darkness over all the land.  God performed all these miracles through Moses and Aaron to show there is no doubt that He is God! 

Why does God harden people’s hearts?  I’ve often wondered this.  The Bible tells us that God desires all men to be saved.  I think that to further His plan, God chooses people who, through their pride, have demonstrated they don’t want to be saved.  Or maybe God uses the situation as one more chance to save them.  God is a God of second, third, fourth, . . . chances!