Preparing for a Future Valentine

"And the Lord said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let my people go." -Exodus 4:21 I never really understood this part of the Exodus story. Seriously, it is something that I baffled over time and time again throughout my studies of the Bible. It was not one of those things that I glossed over because it didn't make immediate sense, and I was being lazy at that point. Rather it was one of those things I came back to time and time again, and just had to chalk it up to "God knew what He was doing, I guess. And after all, the Israelite people did eventually get free."  But I couldn't see why God had hardened his heart. Couldn't He have done the opposite? I mean, He could have allowed Pharaoh to say yes, and then all of those plagues wouldn't have happened. The first-born Egyptians would not have died, an