I’m currently reading my way through the Pentateuch and have noticed something which puzzles me. In a couple of places God has commanded Moses to do something but then hardened someone else’s heart against complying with Moses. God harden’s Pharoah’s heart against letting the Israelites leave (Exodus 7:3), and then later, when Moses petitions King Sihon for passage for the Israelites through the king’s land, God “hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant” (Deuteronomy 2:30). Firstly it seems in any case like a strange thing for God to do, and secondly I wonder how culpable these people can be if God Himself has induced this hardness of heart in them.
How should I understand this?
