Posted on 04/18/2011 6:52:38 PM PDT by presidio9
Most versions of the Passover story depict Pharaoh as an archetypal villain, an arrogant tyrant who gets his just desserts for challenging God and stubbornly refusing to let the Hebrew people leave Egypt. Indeed, there is no denying that the Pharaoh of the Exodus story is a murderous, slaveholding despot. But a close reading of the text—particularly the climactic episode in which Pharaoh "hardens his heart" and repeatedly refuses to let the Hebrew people go—reveals a more complex character, a more subtle interplay between the forces of good and evil, and raises many thorny questions about the nature of biblical justice and free will.
A quick refresher,
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Just sayin'
Our ways are not Gods ways. As far as fair goes, if something is fair to God, it’s fair to me. :)
Developing a hard heart is basic psychology. If you keep turning away from God, you will increasingly be unable to interact with him. He “hardens your heart” based on your own free will. Sort of like your arteries get clogged with fat if you keep eating too much of the wrong stuff and don’t exercise. God created the system, we are judged by our actions accordingly.
"If you really are the Son of God, should you not come down from that cross and save yourself?" Same thing. "Slate" is not of the Faith. God is not subject to human whims and rumination. He is Who He says He is, and does what He says He does.
HIS wats are not our ways .. I refuse to contemplate the question.
Yes, it was.
At the time there was no more powerful human being on Earth than the Pharaoh. The only constraint on him was God. God gives the freedom to act under our own free will, so Pharaoh’s heart is hardened only because God allows it. Thus the statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Moses was 80 or so when he returned to Egypt and started the whole plague business. Which means it is highly unlikely the Pharaoh of the baby-killing was the Pharaoh of the plagues.
It is also pretty obvious the baby-killing was a short-lived incident, or there would have been very few Israelites to lead out of Egypt 80 years later.
The reason God hardened Pharaoh's heart after the first one was to make a spectacle of the Egyptian gods. Each plague was an attack on a specific Egyptian deity. Pharaoh had a choice. He made it. And he paid the consequences of it.
That is the amazing thing about miracles. They amplify your position whether you are for or against. Look how the Pharisees and priests reacted about the resurrection of Lazarus. They knew it to be a miracle, yet it caused them to plot to having Lazarus killed.
What does “fair” have to do with it????
“Fair” is falling on your face and begging God for forgiveness. All else, on our part, is “unfair.”
Slate asking the same questions asked by Jewish sages a thousand or more years ago:
http://www.torah.org/advanced/abarbanel/5765/vaera.html
It gets so tiresome. But the lake of fire is going to have plenty of kindling.
"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth.
So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory"
Uh, Pharaoh had plenty of warning about what would happen. It was Pharaoh who ultimately chose to continue to persecute the Israelites, even after plague after plague.
The Bible also warns that God will not contend with man forever, and those who continue to refuse him will see themselves given over to their ungodly affections. God heartening the hearts of man is giving them exactly what they want:
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:28-32)
I have personally been asked very similar questions by individuals who were searching for some grounds by which to be justified in rejecting God and his offer of Salvation. My reply was:
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Bottom line; Pharoah, as a heathen, non-Hebrew, worshipper of the sun god Rah, or some such, was lost and destined for perdition anyway. God did no wrong in using him as a tool with which to work His will with His people, the Children of Israel. We can only see the exterior appearance of things. God looks on the heart; and he clearly saw what was in Pharoah’s heart. Methinks Ozero, in his attitude and snotty dealings toward Israel right now, may be headed for the same pit that Pharaoh landed in!
We alive in the flesh will have to wait until we return to the Maker to discover which side of the ‘gulf’ those that came before us decided to choose. Luke 16:19-31
Now reading the details of that Pharaoh, I can't help but wonder IF we are living a reenactment in the ‘one’ this nation in majority elected to rule over US.
Is this just an "Oh, shut up!" opportunity?
If God were fair, he wouldn't have created us with so many imperfections.
We should all be in heaven singing His praises.
But I don't pretend to know God's plan for us imperfect creatures.
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