Question: "Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?"

Question: "Why did God harden Pharaoh’s
heart?"
Answer: Exodus 7:3-4 says, “But I will harden
Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my
miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt he will
not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on
Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will
bring out my people the Israelites.” It seems
unjust for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart and
then to punish Pharaoh and Egypt for what
Pharaoh decided when his heart was hardened.
Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart just so
He could judge Egypt more severely with
additional plagues?
First, Pharaoh was not an innocent or godly
man. He was a brutal dictator overseeing the
terrible abuse and oppression of the Israelites,
who likely numbered over 1.5 million people at
that time. The Egyptian pharaohs had enslaved
the Israelites for 400 years. A previous pharaoh
—possibly even the pharaoh in question—
ordered that male Israelite babies be killed at
birth ( Exodus 1:16 ). The pharaoh God hardened
was an evil man, and the nation he ruled agreed
with, or at least did not oppose, his evil actions.
Second, before the first few plagues, Pharaoh
hardened his own heart against letting the
Israelites go. “Pharaoh's heart became
hard” ( Exodus 7:13 , 22 ; 8:19 ). “But when
Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened
his heart” ( Exodus 8:15 ). “But this time also
Pharaoh hardened his heart” ( Exodus 8:32 ).
Pharaoh could have spared Egypt of all the
plagues if he had not hardened his own heart.
God was giving Pharaoh increasingly severe
warnings of the judgment that was to come.
Pharaoh chose to bring judgment on himself and
on his nation by hardening his own heart
against God’s commands.
As a result of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness, God
hardened Pharaoh’s heart even further, allowing
for the last few plagues ( Exodus 9:12 ; 10:20 ,
27). Pharaoh and Egypt had brought these
judgments on themselves with 400 years of
slavery and mass murder. Since the wages of
sin is death ( Romans 6:23 ), and Pharaoh and
Egypt had horribly sinned against God, it would
have been just if God had completely annihilated
Egypt. Therefore, God’s hardening Pharaoh’s
heart was not unjust, and His bringing additional
plagues against Egypt was not unjust. The
plagues, as terrible as they were, actually
demonstrate God’s mercy in not completely
destroying Egypt, which would have been a
perfectly just penalty.
Romans 9:17-18 declares, “For the Scripture
says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very
purpose, that I might display my power in you
and that my name might be proclaimed in all
the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom
He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom
He wants to harden.” From a human
perspective, it seems wrong for God to harden a
person and then punish the person He has
hardened. Biblically speaking, however, we have
all sinned against God ( Romans 3:23 ), and the
just penalty for that sin is death ( Romans 6:23 ).
Therefore, God’s hardening and punishing a
person is not unjust; it is actually merciful in
comparison to what the person deserves.