Exodus tells us ten times that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and then ten more times that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Which was it? Ultimately, the answer lies somewhere within the mystery of God's providence and mankind's free will. A metaphor that can help us understand is the effect of the sun upon different materials. Exposed to its warmth, wax becomes pliable and can be molded and shaped into something of use or beauty. Leave clay in the sun, however, and it soon becomes too hard to use. In one sense, the sun is responsible for the clay's hardened state. But to say Pharaoh's heart hardened when exposed to God's commands says more about the nature of his heart than it does about God.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead tells us the Egyptians believed that on death, one's heart was weighed in a balance against a feather representing truth and righteousness. Any heart weighed down by sin was too “heavy” (the literal translation of one of the words used here for “hardened”) to remain on the scale and be admitted to the afterlife. Ultimately, this story is not about whether God or man is responsible for heavy hearts; it is about the way different hearts respond to his will and what then results.
