The Pharaoh, Exodus, God, and the Meme that started an argument

[Bengalzona]

Generally in the theology, God did not cause Pharaoh to pursue the Israelites. He merely stopped intervening with Pharaoh and let Pharoah's existing impulse (pursuing the Israelites) return. It is sort of like God saying, "Okay. You wanna chase after them? Go ahead and see what happens.". This would be interpreted by the Israelites (namely Moses who is attributed as writing the Book of Exodus) as God 'making Pharaoh mad at them again', or 'hardening his heart', in their view. In the theology, God's intervention into Pharaoh's free will was in softening Pharaoh's heart in the first place so that he would release the Israelites. This intervention, pending the Pharoah's actions/reactions had the potential of being a good act for everyone involved (Pharaoh sees the first plague, releases the Israelites, they happily go their way, Pharaoh happily reigns for many years and is succeeded by his first-born son, etc.).

There are some Christians who disagree with this point of view and want to take the story at face-value as written (i.e. God manipulated Pharaoh like a puppet to prove a point). I can't really address that point with those people because I don't agree with it. It leads to some core disputes among Christians about God's sovereign will and His revealed will as well as the concept of predetermination/predestination, some real hot button topics in the religion.