Question:
How could Pharaoh let Israel go if God hindered him by hardening his heart and making him stubborn?
Answer:
But Pharaoh did let Israel go. Now if he could do it at last, he certainly could have done it at first. Only by withdrawing His Spirit does God harden anyone’s heart, and He does not remove His Spirit until men reject Him. God desired that Pharaoh, like Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, should be converted. The Lord brought that King to the throne so that His power might be manifest and the glory of His name spread abroad. And if the King had yielded to God, this would have been the case. God would have used Egypt mightily, even as He did Babylon and Persia. Every request that Moses made of the King was reasonable (see Exodus 4:23; 5:1; 8:1, etc.), and the plagues brought upon Egypt were to show Pharaoh and his people that the gods which they trusted were nothing (see Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:4). Note also that it was not till all hope was gone that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” by withdrawing His Spirit. In Exodus 4:21, the Lord declares there will come a time that He will harden the King’s heart, but this only occurs once all hope is passed (Exodus 9:12). Previous to that (Exodus 7:13, 22), “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened;” (Exodus 8:15, 32), “Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also;” (Exodus 8:19), “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened;” (Exodus 9:7), “the heart of Pharaoh was hardened (stubborn, unyielding).” (See ASV, RV, NIV, etc.). But when even the magicians could not stand before Moses, and the King was still stubborn against the Spirit of God, God withdrew His Spirit, left the King to himself, and thus fulfilled what He had said (see Exodus 9:12).
