kilroy@mimsy.umd.edu (Dust In The Wind) (07/26/90)
In Exodus, there are 18 accounts of the pharaoh's heart being hardened; nine times he does it himself, and nine times the Lord does it for him. The Bible presents the pharaoh's actions as sinful, but given that he was merely a puppet in God's hands, this seems a bit unfair. The result of this passage is that God caused the pharaoh to engage in `sinful behaviour'; God was responsible for the `evil' that pharaoh did. (This is not entirely conformant to orthodox Christian teaching on the subject of good & evil.) One could refer to Romans 1:24ff, and say that God just gave the pharaoh over to the sinful desires already expressed -- but the first occurrence is in Exodus 4:21, before pharoah has had the chance to harden his heart on his own. Is it `loving' to punish people for `sinful behaviour' that they had no choice in committing? Exodus 4:22-23 specifically states that the reason God will kill the pharaoh's firstborn son is that pharaoh would not let the Israelites leave -- but the pharaoh never had a choice. kilroy@cs.umd.edu Darren F. Provine ...uunet!mimsy!kilroy "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" -- Amos 3:6
baker-r@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Robert Baker) (08/12/90)
>In Exodus, there are 18 accounts of the pharaoh's heart being hardened; >nine times he does it himself, and nine times the Lord does it for him. >The Bible presents the pharaoh's actions as sinful, but given that he was >merely a puppet in God's hands, this seems a bit unfair. The result of >this passage is that God caused the pharaoh to engage in `sinful >behaviour'; >God was responsible for the `evil' that pharaoh did. In Exodus 10:1,2 we see God's explanation for "hardening" Pharoah's heart 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. Your question was one of my 1st biggies... but I wasn't the best at keeping my research materials crossref'd. ;-( What I remember is reading that the hebrew word used in our Bibles is translated 'hardened' only in refrence to Pharaoh. The other places the word is translated "strengthen." I think there is a similar argument in the book God's Strategy in Human History ------------------------------- which also answered a lot of other questions I didn't even know I had. Warning: the book may be drier than most care read before bedtime :-) >One could refer to Romans 1:24ff, and say that God just gave the pharaoh >over to the sinful desires already expressed -- but the first occurrence >is in Exodus 4:21, before pharoah has had the chance to harden his heart >on his own. If God does has the attribute of knowing all... past, present and future I think he should be able to know what the Pharaoh's response would be in any given timeline. God may have taken advantage of Pharoah's attitude to get another one of his points across us... with an exclamation point! ( those 7 or so plagues were pretty impressive ). off the top of his head or the tips of his fingers Robert"not Bob" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- disclammer: these are my opinions to date my pc says the date is 01/01/1980 I didn't start work for 'em until 1985 so there shouldn't be any problems, right? --------------------------------------------------------------------------