Why did God harden the Pharoah's heart if everyone is given free will?

Answer 1

Good question! Most Christians have never actually READ most of the Bible, and therefore have NO clue that it says repeatedly that GOD is the one who hardened Pharaoh's heart, so he could torture and kill people.

Answer 2

This does not mean that God on purpose made Pharaoh sinful. For God to make it impossible for a man to obey Him, and then punish him for his disobedience, would be both unjust and contrary to the fundamental Jewish belief in Freedom of the Will. The phrase most often translated 'hardening of the heart' occurs nineteen times; ten times it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart; and nine times the hardening of Pharaoh's heart is ascribed to God. There thus seem to be two sides to this hardening. When the Divine command came to Pharoah, 'Set the slaves free,' and his reply was, 'I will not,'; each repetition of Pharaoh's persistent obstinacy made it less likely that he would eventually listen to the word of God. For such is the law of conscience: every time the voice of conscience is disobeyed, it becomes duller and feebler, and the heart grows harder. Man cannot remain 'neutral' in the presence of Duty or of any direct command of God. He either obeys the Divine command, and it becomes unto him a blessing; or he defies God, and such command then becomes unto him a curse. Thus, every successive refusal on the part of Moses froze up his better nature more and more, until it seemed as if God had hardened his heart. But this is only because Pharaoh had first hardened it himself, and continued to do so. The Omniscient God knew beforehand whether his obstinacy would lead Pharoah, and prepared Moses for initial failure by warning him that Pharaoh's heart would become 'hardened.' In the New Testament it speaks how because of evil the love of many will grow cold. Hardened heart are always initiated by the individual.

Answer 3

Though man has the free will, however its bondage to sin. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, had wholly lost all ability of will to do any spiritual good accompanying salvation.

Though man has free will to choose good or evil, man always chooses what God has predestined.

Judah Iscariot exercised his free will by betraying Jesus to the cross; nevertheless, Judah by his (free will) action fulfilled what God had predestined before the foundation of world; “Jesus the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of world.”

"Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens…..Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” Romans 9

Answer 4

The freewill/predestination tension has echoed down the centuries. Paul dances round it more than once in Romans, ending in chapter 9 emphasising that God decides, and that it's wrong to complain about that.
Despite having started by assigning responsibility to those who do not repond to God's clear message (Romans 1)

It's either a spiritual mystery, a *seeming* paradox true to God's understanding but unclear to humans, that needs to be accepted by faith,

Or evidence that the bible displays internal inconsistency and therefore is neither inerrant nor divinely inspired.

One or the other.

Answer 5

Because that in the end, he had the free will to choose. God knowing that Pharoh was a wicked king who was selfish and wanted to keep these workers (who at times hardened his own heart), was made to be an example by witch the Lord would show the world that Isreal was His people. God, of course, had nothing to prove. Isreal, however, did, and God proved it for them by the plagues that he justly brought to Egypt. God put Pharaoh where he was when he was for a reason. Read Romans 9. God bless.

Answer 6

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Romans 9:21

Answer 7

One good action leads to another likewise does one bad action lead to another. Its a reward or punishment.

So Pharaoh, the one is the time of Moses (upon him peace), punishment for disbelief was to make his heart hard.

This is from the stories of the Prophets by ibn kathir, a Muslim scholar. You can find this book on amazon.

Answer 8

Initially, Pharoah did.
When he made his choice, God gave him what he chose.
So it is with all of us.
If we stubbornly refuse to listen, to heed, God will blind us since that is what we have chosen.
But if we listen, and act on His word, God leads and guides.
God honors our choices.

Answer 9

It was not God, it was pharoah who chose to be hard hearthed. God allowed it.

Answer 10

He had a bunch of plagues that he wanted to show off