Exodus 11:9-10
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
We don't always understand why the people we pray for in regard to salvation are not saved immediately. We do not grasp the plan of God when we want a conflict resolved with someone and God seems to be sitting on His hands. The above couple of verses give us a glimpse into God's sovereign workings and how He responds to these requests and wishes. God is on a mission to show mankind who He is and what His power can do. God does perform miracles, but for the purpose of showing His glory and not for the purpose of showing our prayer power. God wants His miracles and power to draw us to worship Him. He has, does and will harden the hearts of someone so as to show His sovereign will and sovereign power. Note what Paul says about this passage in the book of Romans:
Romans 9:17-24
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
God, even in salvation, is exposing His glory to us. God is God and can do what He wants. God made Pharaoh and He made us. We are His clay. Like any creator, He can do with the pottery what He wants. Just as we are sovereign over what we create, God is sovereign over what He creates. We need to rejoice in this mystery and not recoil from it. We are often fearful of what God does in this arena of theology and find ourselves hiding from its truth. But, the truth is, God has harden Pharaoh's heart for the sole purpose of revealing Himself to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. So too, today, God may not answer our prayers in regard to others because He wants us to see His power, His wonder and His awe. God is going a work and we might have to go through all ten plagues before that work comes to fruition. We are to simply accept by faith that God is doing a great work and we can rejoice in the work and in the character of God, as we wait and watch.
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