Hardening

"But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go." - Exodus 10.20

For a long time, I didn't understand this. God hardened Pharaoh's heart? It sounds like He just picked some random nation, lead Joseph to it, made it ownage, then blew it apart, just to make an example of. This issue came up last term in Apologetics during Frosh Cell, where I defended by saying that the thing that is manuplated is emotion: In anger, we could choose to take a walk or hit someone. One cannot say the person who choose to take a walk feels any less anger then the person who hits his friend. And so the "heart" was the emotions of the Pharaoh, and the fact he wouldn't let the Israelites go was his own choice. Perhaps God provoked him? But God didn't make the choice for him?

I wasn't too surprised to read that the hardening of hearts is closely associated with sin. In this commentary I was reading..."[in the NT] hardening [is protrayed in] a passive form, not as an act of the subjects themselves, but as a calamity which has come upon them as a terrible consequence of their sins"...sounds like the Law of Diminishing Returns. At some point, you become "hard" to the sins being committed...desentization.

However, it seems to me that this hardening is used in two different ways, yet similar in nature. OT has hardening -> action. NT has hardening influencing action. Had people gained more self-control over the years? I don't know.

What I do know though...something completely fine, innocent and pure...something simple like eating or reading...listening to music or chatting...thinking of people and planning out events...these roads are very narrow. Very narrow indeed...

Reference: Work of the Holy Spirit by Abraham Kuyper http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kuyper/holy_spirit.viii.ii.xvi.html