God is Glorified in the Hardening of Sinners

Perhaps my Calvinism comes through strongly here. Today's Bible reading centered around the following passage for me: "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.'" (Exo 10:1-2)

So many times in Scripture we see God hardening Pharaoh as a means of showing forth His power. This is a thing that always used to bother me in the past. I would ask myself, "Didn't Pharaoh have a chance to be saved?" I would rely on passages such as Exodus 8:15 "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them..." and "But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants." (Ex 9:34) My theory was when God said He would harden Pharaoh's heart, what he really meant was that Pharaoh would be allowed to harden his own heart.

This does not take into account that God predicts that He will harden Pharoah's heart from the get-go " The LORD said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.'" (Ex 4:21) Also we have the word of the apostle in Romans 9 "For He says to Moses, 'I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.' So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.' So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." (Rom 9:15-18 - cf Ex 9:16)

I think what we have in this hardening is a twofold thing. First, we see God in His sovereignty; ruling all things (even the heart of the king - Proverbs 21:1) and ordaining all that is, was, and ever shall be (Ps 139:16). Second we see that man is ever responsible for his actions, thus - "Pharaoh...sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants." (Ex 9:34) This is why Paul says in Romans 9 "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?' On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles." (Rom 9:19-24)