Why did God said to Moses Iwill harden pharao's heart?

Answer 1

God wanted to show that he could vanquish the most powerful man in the world (according to The Bible).

"As to thy question, "That Abdul-Baha hath said to some of the believers that evil never exists, nay rather, it is a non-existent thing:" This is but truth, inasmuch as the greatest evil is (man's) going astray and being veiled from Truth. Error is lack of guidance; darkness is absence of light; ignorance is lack of knowledge; falsehood is lack of truthfulness; blindness is lack of sight; and deafness is lack of hearing. Therefore, error, blindness, deafness and ignorance are non-existent things. If we say that according to the text of the Bible, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" that he might not believe in Moses, this signifies that, verily, He did not soften his heart. And when we wish to say that God hath not guided a certain one of His servants, this would be interpreted (by people) that God led him astray. The darkness spoken of in the Bible as being created by God, signifieth that, verily, God hath not caused light to shine; inasmuch as where there is no light, there will be darkness; when there is no sight, there will be blindness; when there is no life, there will be death; when there is no riches, there will be poverty; and when there is no knowledge, there will be ignorance.

Consequently, it is proven by indisputable argument and clear explanation that, verily, evils are non-existent, but people have not understood the meaning of the verses of the Bible."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v3, p. 608)

Answer 2

Found in Exodus 4:21, the reason the Pharaoh's heart was hardened was actually to keep Pharaoh from letting the Israelites go free. Apparently, God wanted to make sure everyone knew the work being done was from Him.

Answer 3

I believe that God hardened Pharaoh's heart to demonstrate to the Hebrews that, no matter the severity of Pharaoh's actions, God was on the Hebrews' side and would not desert his chosen people.

Answer 4

A careful study of the plagues reveals that God hardened Pharaoh's heart only towards the end, in a few of the latter plagues. Meaning: since Pharaoh had already chosen to harden his own heart repeatedly, God later punished him by hardening his heart some more (see Rashi commentary, Exodus 7:3). And we need not overly concern ourselves with the Egyptians, all of whom were content with the Israelites' suffering in slavery (Rashi, Ex.11:5 and 12:29).

Answer 5

On the contrary. Read the verses carefully (Exodus ch. 7 to 12) and you'll see that God hardened Pharaoh's heart on only three occasions (Exodus 9:12, and 10:20 and 27), and only after five Plagues had passed in which Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That itself explains the reason. After a person misuses his free-will repeatedly, he sometimes sees it diminished (like a person who has ruined his health through bad habits and is warned to henceforth stay away from alcohol, or sweets, etc).

See also:

Evidence of the Exodus

Reliability of the Hebrew Bible

Answer 6

To us, it seems senselessly cruel cruel that God repeatedly hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 7:8-13, 9:12, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8) and responded by bringing hardship upon the ordinary Egyptian people. For the explanation we have to take a broader view of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Nearly all historians (and biblical scholars) say there never was an Exodus from Egypt as described in the Bible: if there was no Exodus, the story of the ten plagues is not really true.

Long after the Hebrew people had forgotten their humble Canaanite origins, they needed a story that explained where they came from. They wanted a story of glorious conquest in the Promised Land and of their spiritual victory against the greatest power in their region - Egypt. The legendary story of Moses and the Exodus was the outcome of this longing, and they could cheer as each new catastrophe confronted the Pharaoh.

Answer 7

So that he would not let the Jews leave Egypt, and he wanted all the plagues to be completed.