Is God unfair?

In the first 15 chapters of Exodus we read the accounts of the time when the people of Israel lived in Egypt. In several verses is said that God would harden the heart of Pharaoh. This certainly is a difficulty for any reader who may think of God as a tyrant, who did not love Pharaoh and simply pre-destined him to be an obstinate person.

I would like to offer a short reflection looking beyond the a priori judgement. The Bible says God is love, and as such free will is necessary to enable true love to exist. God allows us to do anything we want, though this may be against His desires for us. The Bible also says that God is almighty, and He certainly could have the power to do anything, including hardening the heart of Pharaoh. A third characteristic of God I Would like to highlight is His omniscience, He knows it all. That includes knowledge of all events and of our choices, and the results of our choices. 

The question is weather God really directly hardened the hear of Pharaoh. Did God make Pharaoh act as a robot, did He pre-programmed Pharaoh to act stubbornly. If this was the case, God would violate His loving dimension. For Pharaoh would be constrained and his free will to act, therefore hindered to truly be able to loving God. God would compromise His All loving dimension.

So an alternative explanation would be that God would allow events to occur that would lead the Pharaoh to freely choose hardening his heart. This is aligned with God's character. It does not compromise the love of God. It shows that God's knows what will occur. And it demonstrates that we can freely do choices.

An analysis of Exodus 14 can be as example:

Exodus 14:4 (HCSB) 4 I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh." So the Israelites did this.

Exodus 14:5 (HCSB) 5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said: "What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us."

Verse 4 says God is who will harden Pharaoh's heart, but verse 5 says that the hardening was direct results of the news received from the officials. It was right then when Pharaoh chose to harden his heart. He could just have just let them go without chasing them. He chose freely.