Exodus 14:4a And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. (God had given Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity to yield to His purposes, and each time the man refused, instead, only growing more determined to resist God's commands. Each time Pharaoh resisted God, he hardened his heart against God. Now the Lord is saying that He will allow Pharaoh to continue in the attitude he keeps choosing. The Lord knows Pharaoh's heart and knows what he intends to do, that he intends to change his mind once again and will pursue God's people who are encamped in a strategically very vulnerable site. At this point, the Lord simply allows Pharaoh to walk out his evil ways without further attempts to convince him to act differently and, in that regard, He has consented to Pharaoh's determination to harden his heart. Pharaoh is a picture of what happens to people who keep building resistance to God to such an intense degree and over such a long period. God has said He will not always contend with and strive with man. At some point in a sustained and unrelenting rebellion, the Lord removes any further challenges to turn to Him and allows the person's opposition and defiance to Him to bring on God's final and just judgment. Pharaoh's choices are a powerful reminder of the free will, the self-will that God has gifted to us. The good news is that our free will also allows us to choose to hear, to see, to yield to the Lord's call to us. We are able to choose to accept His ways.)
