According to the King James Translation of the book of Exodus, there are several instances where the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. While the Joseph Smith Translation explains that Pharaoh actually hardened his own heart, I found myself spending a few moments wondering why the Lord might have hardened Pharaoh's heart, assuming, hypothetically, that He did.
To understand why the Lord might have done what He didn't do, we have to consider the results of Pharaoh's hardened heart. Pharaoh continually refused to release the Israelites, with Egypt suffering plague after plague, until several innocent lives were lost, and Pharaoh ultimately relented. It could be that this period of time was meant to be instructive. It proved to anyone who was paying attention that God has considerable power. It shows that God is willing to bend heaven and earth for His people. And it shows that bad things happen to those who refuse to listen to the Lord. These are all important lessons for Moses and the Israelites to learn. They all needed to know what sort of God they were following before they all ran off into the wilderness. Of course, this instruction didn't seem to have much of an effect on the Israelites, but at least God had made it clear to everyone exactly whom they were dealing with.
But more interesting than the motivations behind God's hypothetical hardening of Pharaoh's heart are the effects that might have had on Pharaoh's soul. People are accountable for the decisions they make, but, since hardening Pharaoh's heart unfairly manipulated his decisions, I don't thinking we could hold Pharaoh responsible for not releasing he Israelites sooner, if God was hardening his heart so he wouldn't. But even if the Pharaoh's soul isn't at stake, his mortal well-being was. If God hardened Pharaoh's heart, He also subjected Pharaoh and his people to plagues that they hadn't necessarily brought upon themselves. But what else is new? Life is full of suffering, both deserved and undeserved. Everyone suffers plagues and curses that they didn't bring upon themselves, largely because, again, this suffering is meant to be instructive. Perhaps Pharaoh and the Egyptians,as well as the Israelites, were meant to be strengthened by these trials.
However, some were not strengthened. In fact, many died. But again, what else is new? All men are mortal. All men die eventually. The Lord knows what time is best for each person, and if it just so happened that it was best that all those firstborns die at that time in that way, I can imagine God pulling a few strings (heartstrings, specifically) to make that happen if it wouldn't have happened otherwise.
While I find it a bit unsettling that God could manipulate us if He chose to, I can imagine a few good reasons why God might have manipulated Pharaoh and a few good things that would have come from that manipulation. Still, as the more modern and inspired translation points out, no such manipulation took place. The Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and the Lord responded appropriately. God doesn't need to manipulate us, and even when He has very good, ethical reasons to step in and take some control, he doesn't. He lets us make our own decisions and our own mistakes, just as Pharaoh actually did. The Lord didn't hardened Pharaoh's heart, but I can see some reasons why He might have considered it.
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