Exodus 4:21 | Pastor Burns' Study Notes
And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. — Exodus 4:21
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God tells Moses to perform all the wonders before Pharaoh and warns that Pharaoh’s heart will be hardened so that he will not let the people go.
This hardening should not be understood as God forcing a good man to become evil. Pharaoh’s hardening is judicial and confirmatory. Pharaoh will repeatedly reject God’s revelation, and God will confirm him in that rebellion.
The pattern later in Exodus shows Pharaoh hardening his own heart before the text speaks explicitly of God hardening it. This is consistent with the principle of judicial hardening also found in Romans 1 and Proverbs 29:1.
The purpose of this hardening is not contradiction in God, but revelation of His power and name, as stated later in Exodus 9:16 and reflected in Romans 9:17-18.