Ex 11:10, And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. 
	With this morning’s reading, we need to carefully consider an aspect of our lives evidenced in our human nature, which can have devastating effects on us and on our relationship with God. There is an inherent stubbornness, born of sin, in which we can find ourselves utterly refusing to acknowledge the mighty work of God, even when we are shown His miraculous hand in operation. 
	One of the key facts that we must realize is that the hardening of the heart has a cumulative effect. Each time an individual hardens his or her heart, it reinforces that activity and makes it more difficult for that heart to soften. It is as if a layering effect were in place. Each successive time of hardness adds another encapsulation of stiffness and an attitude of rigidity and inflexibility in that heart to refuse to honor God and His way. 
This hardness of heart can be evidenced in any number of manners as our old nature forges itself into the rigidity of stubborn denial and deeply rooted inflexibility. This can be seen in the abject refusal to do what the Lord requires, whether that is to acknowledge His very existence or to accept the Lordship and salvation of His Only Begotten Son. It can also be evident in believers when we refuse to love others or to forgive those who have wronged us in some manner. It can be expressed in our refusal to open our hearts unto those in need or to willingly walk the path that God has ordained for our lives. 
	Initially, let us see that which is inherent in those who utterly refuse to acknowledge God and His ways. Throughout the reading of Exodus, we are shown the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, even as his entire realm was being destroyed by his obstinate refusal to do that which the Lord God commanded. Plague after plague after plague shattered the economy and the people of Egypt. Yet, with each plague, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened further to deny God the release of the children of Israel. 
God knew the heart of Pharaoh, even as God gave instruction to Moses to go and tell him to let the people go. Ex 3:19+20, "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. So I will stretch out My hand, and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go. It was very evident that the plan of God was centered in the means by which God would miraculously, through the plagues, culminating in the Passover of the Israelites by the Angel of death, bring freedom to His Chosen People. 
God used the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart as the means by which He showed forth His power and His saving grace and His rule over all the elements of His creation, be it nature or humanities’ abject refusal to honor Him. A very careful reading of the entire account of the episode relating the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart will show exactly the fact with which we started this morning’s deliberation. In the first five plagues, we see that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. He became more and more stubbornly set against that which God commanded. In the very beginning, there seemed to be a softer response and almost willingness to let the people go. Pharaoh would say that the people could go, then changed his mind. 
But with each successive plague, that hardness of heart became more and more resolute, until at the sixth plague and onward, we read that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The Lord knew exactly how this Pharaoh would respond and make evident the fact that he had no regard for God. Pharaoh’s only consideration of the Israelites was that they would be his slaves and build his cities and meet his needs. This Pharaoh, hard of heart, displayed the very course of continual refusal to accede to God and thereby set himself up for the destruction that soon overwhelmed him. 
Even when he let the people go, he changed his mind and pursued them into the Red Sea. In this final, desperate act, he lost his entire army as the walls of water crashed down upon his horses and chariots and men. 
God’s power and majesty and grace and mercy was seen in the deliverance of His people from their slavery. This was magnified because Pharaoh utterly refused to give God reverence and recognition and obedience. Such is the way of the deceitfulness of man’s heart. 
Looking back in our reading, The Lord made this known after the flood in which the earth was washed from all the abomination that preceded Noah. As we read in Gen 8:20+21, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. …for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth… God, Who created man, knew of the working of the heart that was not set upon Him. He sees into the every motive and thought of mankind, and, as such, He rules and overrules according to His plan and His purposes to produce that which will bring glory to His name.
As we are so told by the Prophet Jeremiah in Jer 17:9+10, "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds. 
This is what was in place as the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart was fully known to God. While we are told that God hardened Pharoah’s heart, it was the direct result of the manner in which God knew the every detail of how Pharaoh would respond and deny God and all that was honoring to God. God used the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart to show forth His glory and His Name as is recounted from generation to generation even to this day throughout the world. 
God’s dealings with those who harden their hearts is detailed over and over again in scripture. It is always in the course in which God’s glory and purposes are furthered despite the obstinacy and the vile intrigue of mankind to attempt to deny God all that He is due! 
	As but one further example, consider the manner in which the Israelites conquered the nations of the Promised Land. Deut 2:30-33, "But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today. And the Lord said to me, 'See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to occupy, that you may possess his land.' "Then Sihon with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. And the Lord our God delivered him over to us; and we defeated him with his sons and all his people. 
    	This is another episode which shows how God used the hardness of a pagan ruler’s heart to bring forth God’s manifested glory and purpose. Sihon’s obstinate refusal to allow the Children of Israel to pass through his land facilitated the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land. As detailed by God to Moses in Deut 2:24+25, 'Arise, set out, and pass through the valley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and contend with him in battle. 'This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.' The Lord knew the heart of Sihon and that his abject refusal to allow the safe passage of Israel through his lands would begin the eventual overthrow of those nations who were squatting on the Land promised to Abraham and his descendants. 
This evidenced the hand of God operating through the specific knowledge that this king would not submit to that which God ordained. We will read, early in Deuteronomy, that those kings, who did permit the passage of the Children of Israel through their lands, were spared from the eventual destruction and inhabitation that faced Sihon and his nation.
The Prophet, in the Book of Lamentations, Lam 3:58-66, cries out to the Lord with regard to those who practice evil. As we read this passage, note how the prophet knows that the Lord will deal with them. Please turn to it in your Bibles. Lam 3:58-66. O Lord, Thou didst plead my soul's cause; Thou hast redeemed my life. O Lord, Thou hast seen my oppression; Judge my case. Thou hast seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me. The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long. Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song. Thou wilt recompense them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands. Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, Thy curse will be on them. Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord! 
Jeremiah understood how those who practice scheming and oppression and vengeful activity will reap from the course of their actions. The more they commit sin, the harder their hearts will become until their everyway is cursed with anger and frustration and destruction. While they may seem to benefit from their ill-treatment of others, especially the Redeemed of the Lord, the truth will be evidenced at the expense of their very souls. The hardness of their hearts will become a heaping of the whole righteous and holy activity of God that will pummel them to the very core of their vile existence. 
This is reiterated by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians. Gal 6:7+8. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. Those whose hearts are hardened unto the paths and the activity of the Lord will reap from that hardness in full measure. The course of their lives will be a continual and frustrating dealing with the insensitivity and the futility of how they are treated and perceived by others. Just as they sow distrust and animosity and vile intent, so will they reap and live with that same despicable and contemptible pattern of thought and actions from others. There will be no peace or joy or satisfaction in their lives. They will know only distrust and animosity and the plague of paranoia which will drive them into the dust of futility and aggravation and disappointment and utter decay.  
    	Our final passage for this morning is recorded in Dan 8:23-25 where the view is given of the ultimate descriptive effect in which the hardness of heart toward God will be evidenced. Dan 8:23-25, "And in the latter period of their rule, When the transgressors have run their course, A king will arise Insolent and skilled in intrigue. "And his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. "And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; And he will magnify himself in his heart, And he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken without human agency. 
	This king will encompass the very core of that hardness of heart toward God that infests the very being of every unregenerate person. …Insolent and skilled in intrigue…And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will…he will magnify himself in his heart… This view of the king who exalts himself above all others, including God, in the revelation of what is to come, shows just how vile hardness of heart is before the throne of God. Many will be destroyed, even …mighty men and the holy people. "And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence… 
	However, as much as he will seem to succeed, as much as he will destroy and overthrow on this earth, we are given the promised reality that …he will be broken without human agency. God will destroy this insolent one regardless of his power of deception with seeming prosperity and shrewdness. In spite of his every attempt to oppose the Prince of princes, this self-exalted king, hardened in heart against the every agency of God, will be overwhelmed and brought down by the power of God Himself. No one and nothing can stand against the plan and the purpose and the will of God as He utterly shatters every heart of stone that is hurled at Him.   
We can readily see that God rules and overrules and uses the obstinacy of those who disregard Him or deny that He even exists to accomplish everything that is God’s ordained will. While this adds to our knowledge and acceptance of the Omnipotence and Omniscience of God, we need to now turn our attention to the fact that those who know God can also hardened our hearts before Him. This can have very devastating effects in our lives. This we will consider next time, Lord willing. So be it!
And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is John 13:34+35. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Amen.