The one thing God left out of every created being, angelic and human, was and is the ability to handle pride.
Number one on God's list of things He hates in His created beings is pride (Proverbs 6.17).
Pharaoh was a man of great pride and it was this fact, in combination with the facts listed above, that yielded the truth that "God hardened Pharaoh's heart."
Here's a thought: Pride is something only God is capable of. It is a self-proclaimed attribute of God ("I am that I am!"). When an angel (Satan) or human (Pharaoh and others) becomes proud, they are, in essence, operating a God-only-characteristic in their own lives that, by its very 'proud' nature, reduces their estimation of God thus having their hearts hardened to God by the 'God characteristic' they are themselves exercising. Their hearts are then, in fact, hardened by God.
This gives great clarity to the longstanding 'problems' of God creating Satan and hardening Pharaoh's heart. Both Satan and Pharaoh committed the same mistake - they allowed themselves to think more highly of themselves that they ought! They operated in pride and that very pride is what made them think they were equal to or better than God (it hardened their hearts).
Pride is a garment only God can wear. It may in fact be the core of God's being! For anyone else to 'put on' that garment of pride is to declare himself God and that self-declaration of deity is what hardens his heart. Again, God (the very thought of being superior to all others) hardened Pharaoh's heart just as it did Satan's.
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