18. Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive." Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."
19. Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."
20. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21. The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
22. Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son,
23. and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "
24. At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} and was about to kill him.
25. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.
26. So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)
27. The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28. Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
29. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites,
30. and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people,
31. and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
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Harden (chazaq): means to be strong or grow strong.
I never knew the original meaning of "harden". In this way it doesn't seem so bad. To make one's heart strong! But of course this really means to have pride in himself.
Rather than God directly hardening or strengthening Pharaoh's heart, He does it by sending Pharaoh a lowly man. By doing so, God raises up Pharaoh's pride and thus eventually falling on his own pride.
This is a great example of how God uses the weak to meet the strong. But the ultimate purpose is to bring the weak and the strong closer to Him rather than away.
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