Reflections on Exodus
Exodus 7 – The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart.
I’ve often thought about about this story in Scripture. I have often wondered if it was truly God that was doing the hardening or if God already knew (being outside of time and space) that Pharaoh would indeed harden his heart in this circumstance.
Is it a case of God forcing his will on a person or God using what he knew to fulfill his purpose?
We also see this in the case of Judas in the New Testament. Did God cause Judas’ heart to become hardened so that he would betray Jesus to his captors or is it a case of God knowing the nature of Judas’ heart and placing him in the position where he might act and thereby fulfill the prophecy of Jesus?
I think in both of these cases we are dancing a fine line between a couple of issues that have been, historically, difficult to balance.
Our free will vs. God’s omniscience.
God says in his word that he wishes none to parish but wishes that all would come to him and gain eternal life, life in the kingdom of God. But we are also aware that God is omniscient. Which means that, because he exists outside of space and time, he can know everything. We are not omniscient. The best analogy that I can think of is that we are players in a movie and we exist in the story and on the film. God is not on the film. God is removed from the film and can view any frame that he wants, forward or backward. That is why he can know the outcome of any event and every choice a creature will make.
However, my thought is, if he allows someone with a given nature to be placed in a given position, knowing what the outcome will be, is that dangerously close to impinging on a person’s free will? Isn’t he using that person to advance his agenda? What about his wanting “none to perish”?
Did God cause Pharaoh and Judas to perish? Or, were their hearts already so hardened that they were bound to perish anyway?
As I read the two texts it does not seem, particularly in Judas’ case that there is anything obvious on the outside that would make you think that he was beyond salvation. We don’t have anything in the biblical text that makes out to be a Hitler or a Castro. But maybe that’s just it, it’s not the outside that is the determinant, but rather the inside.
And remember, all I said was that I had questions, I never said I had any answers. I guess that’s the way things go when you are discussing the whys and hows of God.
Until next time.
