How many chances do you give a stubborn heart? Two? Three? Four? How about ten? Or even more?
One way of reading the Exodus narrative is God giving Pharaoh chance and after chance after undeserved chance to soften his stubborn heart. Yes, some translations of some of the explanations say that, “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” (Exodus 9:12) Such language paints the picture that, all along, it was Yahweh’s desire to give Egypt a proper beat down before liberating his people from slavery.
But that’s not the whole story.
Sometimes the explanation is that “his heart was unyielding.” (Exodus 9:7) Or also, “he and his officials hardened their hearts.” (Exodus 9:34) There is no uniform explanation for Pharaoh’s stubbornness. Even in within one chapter there are multiple explanations. Pharaoh maintained his human agency all along. At any point he could have made a different decision to let Yahweh’s people go.
Stubborness has consequences, whether severe or mild. That’s one of life’s great lessons. Anyone who has made it through the teenage years has (hopefully!) learned this lesson. Hopefully without the onset of any boils or frogs or fiery hail.
Set aside the nation-wide plagues for a moment and consider this as the bottom line: Pharaoh would not let go; yet God continued to give him opportunities to do so.
We humans are stubborn creatures. Letting go is hard. We foolishly tighten our grip on things that would be best for us to release. And so we reap the consequences. Yet God—like the good father of a slow-to-mature teenager—is apparently quite happy to give us chance after ridiculous chance.
See Exodus 9:1-7, as well as other verses mentioned above.