You asked about how God can be "just" when in Exodus in the Bible, God "hardened Pharaoh's heart." (Exodus 4-9). One response to this is that God hardened Pharaoh's heart and "made him sin" in order to accomplish a larger, more important purpose: to glorify Himself in the end. This seems very selfish, but in my humble opinion, if God did not glorify Himself, he would not be the highest being in the universe and not worthy of our worship. But besides that point, I would say that--and this is not my idea, but a thought that i have gathered from Biblical scholars i have read on this issue--God did not directly harden Pharaoh's heart, but that Pharaoh was already against God by his own will and because of his own opinions of God. One scholar put it this way: “God in His omniscience foreknew exactly how Pharaoh would respond, and He used it to accomplish His purposes. God ordained the means of Pharaoh's free but stubborn action…” (http://bit.ly/9xztSn)
So i would conclude by saying that God is just; he made us in his image and is the ultimate judge, so it is hard for us to fully understand his purposes and why He does what He does. But, the best explanation i have seen is this logical argument above. And this makes sense because we have seen people in our world who are turned off by God and would make a similar decision if they were in Pharaoh's shoes. As would most of us...including myself.
Feel free, anyone, to respond :-)
This was actually my question and I would like to thank you so much for directing me to this article which has given me insight into how God might be just even when it seems otherwise. It is very interesting, but I must admit that I am still struggling to fully understand this paragraph:
ReplyDelete"Romans 9 indicates that it is God, not us—not me—who is in control. In fact, it shows that God is in such total control that He can and does sovereignly elect to show mercy to some people while hardening the hearts of others. And it shows that He is just in doing so. And it shows that I am in no position to challenge Him on the matter (Romans 9:20-21). And it shows that I am also still fully responsible for all of my actions and accountable for all of my choices."
Mainly, because while being counter-intuitive, it also seems contradictory. I feel like it's saying that I have and don't have free will at the same time, but maybe I'm just confusing the meaning. However, I realize that I am not a wise person and the will of a divine being will never be in the list of things I understand. This will probably be an ongoing struggle for me, but I hope to eventually come to peace with it. Thank you once again for giving me some perspective on this issue :)
I would agree with you on 2 things for sure: 1) i too am struggling, and have struggled a long time, with this issue, and 2) i will also never understand God and what it all means.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing i would say is this...
I do not necessarily know what you mean by free will--or what your definition of free will is--but i would take free will to mean this: God gives us a choice to love him or ourselves. We can choose to do what we want, but in the end, he always knows what we will choose.
And one thing that i feel like is a giant stumbling block in my faith in the Bible is the very fact that it seems that God "hardens the hearts of others" by choosing others to be his and others not to be. This seems unjust. But a) i am not someone who can deem what God does as just or unjust because i do not and will not ever understand God and why he does what he does and b) once again, i would say that here, he shows mercy on some people by revealing himself to them in a more strong approach and hardens the hearts of others, maybe not directly, but by NOT revealing himself to them in an overt way and therefore indirectly hardening their hearts because the person may not see the truth about God.
But i believe i will forever be uncertain :-(
God is a justice God. I believe that it wasn't God who hardened Pharaoh's heart, but I think that Pharaoh's heart was already hardened, due to his hurtful, upsetting ways. I don't fully understand everything that is said in the Bible, but I know God would never allow anything terrible to happen to me. I put my full faith in Him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a difficult question. In my beliefs I believe God to be just in everything he does. The article does make it sound like we both have free will but at the same time don't. I think what it means is that God gave us all free will even though he knew in advance that which of us would be good and bad. So God hardened Pharo's heart by giving him his free will even though he knew that Pharo would be a bad person.
ReplyDelete