Clay or Wax?

Several of us at Bible study recently wrestled with the text from Exodus 4:21, and others verses, where God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. It seems to read that God did not want Pharaoh to cooperate and free the Hebrew children until God could either reveal his power to all, or punish the Egyptians. That just doesn’t fit very well with the portrait of God that Scripture paints for me…after all, aren’t the Egyptians children of God too? I recently read a commentary that offers another interpretation of the event that makes more sense to me. If you were to put a brick of clay and a brick of wax in direct sunlight on a hot summer day, what happens? Under the exact same conditions the clay will harden and the wax will soften. The difference is not the sunlight or the heat, but the response of the clay and wax. Perhaps these verses are God’s prophetic word rather than God’s will. Could it be that God knew Pharaoh’s character and that he would never cooperate with Moses? Maybe God was even saddened over Pharaoh’s decisions. That sounds more like the God who “desires everyone to be saved and to come into the knowledge of truth” (I Timothy 2:4). Isn’t that why we share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others, rather than writing them off, blaming God for their rejection?