Monday, Sept. 16
Exodus 5:22 – 7:13 Read it here
One of the great debates over how we understand scripture is visible throughout the interactions between Moses and Pharaoh. In several cases, such as 7:3, we read that God will “harden Pharaoh’s heart.”
This raises a lot of questions and can become a stumbling block for some readers. If we take these words literally, Pharaoh had no free will in the matter; it was God who caused him to reject Moses’s plea to free the Israelites. But if that’s the case, it seems to us unfair that Pharaoh and the Egyptian people would suffer for a decision they had no say in.
The same question comes up elsewhere in scripture; it is often asked about Judas: did he really have a choice in betraying Jesus, or what he simply doing what had to be done in order for God’s plan to be realized?
From this we ask about guilt and responsibility. If the decision was really God’s decision, how can the humans involved be considered guilty of sin?
It can even lead us to question our understanding of “good” and “evil.” Is an action that leads to a good result ever really evil? Is an evil action ever justified by its good result?
And behind all this we get into questions about free will vs. predestination. Do we really make choices?
There are also questions of what we believe about the divine inspiration of scripture: did God choose the words that are on the page, or was God simply behind the events that are relayed to us (or, in a more extreme understanding, was God even involved in making scripture happen?).
I’m bringing these questions up not to encourage philosophical detours, but because they are likely to arise, and they shape our understanding of what the text means.
For myself, I do not think that a rigid understanding of predestination is consistent with scripture. Yes, there are passages that suggest it, but belief in strict predestination requires setting aside a lot of the biblical story.
But even without a strict understanding of predestination, we can question if God prompted Pharaoh to resist in order that God’s power might be shown more decisively.
That’s not really a question I have a satisfying answer for, and I’ve simply accepted that for now.
But fortunately, there is much we can learn from the story without coming to a conclusion on that point. Regardless of why the things that happened, happened the way they did, we know what occurred: Pharaoh did resist, and God used that resistance to build up faith in Moses and Aaron, and to let his people see signs of his immense power.
Leaving questions unanswered is always frustrating, but sometimes we need to learn what lessons we can for today and trust that we’ll gain more understanding and wisdom as we go along.