Why did God harden the pharaohs heart if free will is supposed to be an important concept?
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Why did God harden the pharaohs heart if free will is supposed to be an important concept?
Why did God harden Pharaoh's heart?
Some translations of the bible make it seem that God caused Pharaoh’s heart to harden; therefore he had no choice but to refuse to let Israel go. If that were true then God would be guilty of taking away Pharaoh’s free will or his freedom of choice. That is something God would never do to anyone. Here’s how a more modern translation renders one of those verses:
“As for me, I will allow Pharaoh’s heart to become obstinate, and I will multiply my signs and my miracles in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 7:3 NWT
You can tell that this is a rendering that is closer to the original meaning by examining other verses from different bible translations. This verse is from the American Standard Version:
“Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?” 1 Samuel 6:6
That verse indicates that Pharaoh was responsible for his own heart condition. That same bible version says “God hardened his heart.” at Exodus 7:3 Here’s yet another verse from a different translation that is worthy of consideration:
“And the scholars said to the Pharaoh “It is the finger of God”; but the Pharaoh was headstrong and would not listen to them, as Jehovah had predicted.” Exodus 8:18 Byington Translation
It is clear that God did not cause Pharaoh's heart to harden; but he did allow it and he fortold that would be the case.
>but he did allow it
That still means the Pharaoh didn't have free will. If it takes God to allow you to do something then you didn't have free will in the first place.
lol the line explicitly states that it was in gods power to strip him of his free will and make the choice for him, but god explicitly did not do that, because the pharoah acting according to his own free will was important
Allowing someone to do something assumes that it wasn't allowed before you allowed them
Allowing something is a change
I’d like to offer an interpretation from a different perspective that might help make sense of the book of Exodus, which as you may now know is an unbalanced book. If you don’t know, the first part of the book is the story of Moses taking the people of Israel out of Egypt by the grace of God. The last part is about how to properly construct the tabernacle…
In the scene with the burning bush God says to Moses, “I am that I am.” St. Thomas Aquinis, the patron saint of higher learning, said that this can be taken to mean that God is existence itself. Existence with all of its natural laws, causes and effects. Existence with its history and its future. Existence within the present that we all call home.
In that case, God, or the infinite factors that play a role in what existence is, hardened pharaohs heart. Thus He did so while also not betraying free will.
God is omnipresent, he's aware of literally everything that will ever happen. He just chose not to change it. That's free will.
Free Will? Never heard of him.
God is an butthole. Nothing else even makes a slight bit of sense. He exists but he is not nice. He’s like a toddler squishing ants.
He owns the ant farm stupid
I would say abusing animals you own is still immoral but perhaps Abrahamoids disagree
abuse implies the actions are unjust
As opposed to the just cases of torturing your subjects
Yes
That's substance abuse, OP in
is referring to abuse of others
No, it implies they aren't edifying. For instance you can abuse alcohol. Are you saying God can grow as a person?
Old Testicle God explicitly only considers israelites real humans
The Egyptians oppressed his people for 400 years just because they were envious and intimidated by them, despite being saved from famine Joseph's interpretation of God's dream. God allowed it to happen because he wanted to humble them down before he made them a great nation. So that they knew what it's like to be at the bottom, so that they would not oppress the poor once they were at the top. A lot of God's laws are about being kind and generous to the poor and not oppressing them but doing them justice instead. And helping everyone who is in need. God puts a LOT of emphasis in helping the poor and the needy as an obligation.
But once they were humbled down he wanted to stomp on the buttholes who oppressed them for 400 years. And so he did.
>The Egyptians oppressed his people for 400 years
Maybe the creator of the universe and prime mover could have done something about that. I guess the Egyptians had iron chariots though.
>he wanted to humble them down before he made them a great nation.
they got genocided by romans so it wasn't that great.
Killing all the first born of egypt was a dick move tbh. It sounds like pure incel fanfiction.
Read before writing.
They God genocided after they forgot about God and served other gods for hundreds of years and persecuted and kileld every prophet sent to warn them.
In Deuteronomy there is a very stern warning about all the horrors that God would do to them if they betrayed him. God gave them so many blessings and gifts and saved them from so many enemies much more powerful than them for them to forget about him. God's patient lasted centuries.
To preserve the pharaoh's free will. The plagues of Egypt that took place were obviously supernatural, thus they could affect the pharaoh's free will.
>I'm preserving your free will by taking away your free will
The blind don't believe in God.
"i'M iN tOtAl CoNtRoL..."
Their funeral.
He didn't
Pharaoh chose to harden his heart first, God just took that choice to the utter most
based God
Free will theodicy is not biblical and the most making the argument do not actually believe it. They just need something to say
I’d like to offer an interpretation from a different perspective that might help make sense of the book of Exodus, which as you may now know is an unbalanced book. If you don’t know, the first part of the book is the story of Moses taking the people of Israel out of Egypt by the grace of God. The last part is about how to properly construct the tabernacle…
In the scene with the burning bush God says to Moses, “I am that I am.” St. Thomas Aquinis, the patron saint of higher learning, said that this can be taken to mean that God is existence itself. Existence with all of its natural laws, causes and effects. Existence with its history and its future. Existence within the present that we all call home.
In that case, God, or the infinite factors that play a role in what existence is, hardened pharaohs heart. Thus He did so while also not betraying free will.