Why did the Biblical God "harden" the Heart of Pharaoh?

OK, just a question for all Biblical scholars and experts.

In Exodus 9:12 God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
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Pharaoh became even more stubborn, illiberal, intolerant and oppressive after that.

But, wouldn't a good and peaceful God have softened the heart of Pharaoh?

a reply to: halfoldman

Exactly!!

Wouldn't a good just God want the best for his creation?

The OT god is a god of war and destruction.... and death... Jealous, envious... Wrathful...

Noting worthy of the title God...

Or is it that the mere presence and Idea of a greater God than Pharaoh caused his heart to harden.

That by the very appearance of I AM, in that action of sending a representative caused the direct hardness.

Free will is at play, and people often mistake the effect as the cause.

a reply to: halfoldman

That was Calvin's interpretation of the passage -- that God actively hardened Pharaoh's heart, as if denying him free will, but that had not been the traditional interpretation. A broader look at the passage shows that Pharaoh's heart was hardened due to God's actions. In other words, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart in a sense.

It is similar to the idea of breaking someone else's heart. It's not that the person who rejects a lover actively breaks someone's heart. The jilted lover feels hardened, hurt, etc., due to the act of being rejected. The jilted lover is still free to control how they react to the situation.

The verse says clearly that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

The point of much historical "resistance" thinking has been to "harden" (or cause an over-reaction) of oppression that would drive the masses into rebellion.
Terrorism has often been associated with such ideas.

Of course, that's not the context here, since God himself brings the plagues on the Egyptians.

Perhaps God hardens the hearts of some He already considers unworthy?

Or perhaps He uses some as pawns in His plans, and they will get extra rewards in the afterlife for having their hearts hardened, despite their free will.
In that sense, the Pharaoh might get an extra crown in heaven.

a reply to: halfoldman

Sounds like he was already out to teach him a lesson

Exodus 4:21
The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Exodus 7:4
he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.

a reply to: Char-Lee

Lets not forget the final plague he inflicted upon the innocent...

First born children... all dead

yup... a real winner that OT God is

a reply to: Char-Lee
Or maybe the lesson is that we're arbitrary actors in God's universal chess game?

God can do whatever He wishes.

Eat, drink and be merry, for that is our temporary surety of life.

Ecclesiastes 8:15
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a reply to: halfoldman

People become rooted and the four walls and the community that they have known all of there lives would be something they whom where born into slavery would not want to be parted from, so they would have continued to suffer and live as slaves only to disappear as a distinct people after a few more generation's with there constant marriages and relationships with other slaves of the egyptians as well as being traded far and wide so God was left with a choice, either make the people whose ancestor he had made a personal promise to as a heavenly father or break his oath and let his word be meaningless.
This was just the start and eventually the pharoe let them go but God made it that they could not go back when the going got tough and they were under a death sentance if they returned to egypt, they then had to wander for more then one generation in the harsh desert as homeless free people until the generation whom remembered being slaves fondly had been worn out and proud free strong travel hardened sons were born ready to be moulded into the God of army's instrument to purge the land he had promised them, They had to do this or he would still be baby sitting them to this day and let's be fair he had a universe to run and is still creating, also they are not the only children he cares about.
What is of the earth returns to the earth so all body's even there's are dust but what is of god must go back to god and that is the very breath of life or the soul, a soul may be so corrupt he does not want it or even not be of him as the parable of the man whom sowed his field with wheat only for his enemy (the anti god or devil) to come and steal the field (world) in the night (while he was doing other things and running celestial affairs) and sow his own creatured among God's creatures by corrupting and possessing the children of God, these are the tares which will be burned with unquenchable fire for they came to kill god's children and steal there inheritence like cukoo's laid in the nest (but unlike a dumb bird God is of course not dumb and will not mistake the cukoo's for his children, neither will he show them mercy for they were created with the sole purpose of corrupting his work and stealing the good thing's he had made for his children).
Believe what you will but God is real, no one can give you faith but you can find it if you look for it, if you are meant too.

the juxtapositional biblical god.....it has haunted man since pen was put to paper.

The OT and NT seem to be two different gods in every aspect. I have never understood why they didn't set that straight at Nicea.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
the juxtapositional biblical god.....it has haunted man since pen was put to paper.

The OT and NT seem to be two different gods in every aspect. I have never understood why they didn't set that straight at Nicea.

Probably because Nicaea wasn't about setting biblical cannon... it was about the Arian controversy mostly...

Reconciling Arius...

You're thinking of Laodicea

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

That is true, the seed change seemed to come about at the time of the babylonian exile where the Hebrew's were exposed to the babylonian concept of a universal omnipresent god and before he was very much omniscient but not omnipresent and they had to worship him at the tabernacle or the temple,.
From that point in time onward a kinder god seem's to have manifested in the interpretation of they whom wrote the bible and let's remember it was there understanding of what they thought or witnessed happening that we read and then try to understand from a totally different cultural basis, a basis which nevertheless is very much rooted in the moral's and ethic's they prototyped.

originally posted by: Akragon

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
the juxtapositional biblical god.....it has haunted man since pen was put to paper.

The OT and NT seem to be two different gods in every aspect. I have never understood why they didn't set that straight at Nicea.

Probably because Nicaea wasn't about setting biblical cannon... it was about the Arian controversy mostly...

Reconciling Arius...

You're thinking of Laodicea

^^what he said.

Just think: why would they think that the disconnect wouldn't be an issue? All manner of minor details were attended to, striking one version of a story for another (Genesis tales as a fine example).

I understand how a culture can become accustomed to being told what to think by their leaders. But it is mind numbing to consider the scale.....

a reply to: halfoldman

It was more along the lines of the OT God allowing Pharaoh's heart to be hardened. The key word is allowing. But in general, you are right (when looking at the grander scheme of things).

The reason that his heart was hardened was to preserve his free will. If your whole world was turned into frogs blood and vermin you would likely do whatever the tall dude with the staff asks. In order to make the choice fairenough his heart had to be hardened

I used to have a very serious question about the plague of blood. I wondered whose bl ood was it? I mean every blood belongs to someone or something. It bothered me for a very long timeto until I came up with a possible solution. The Egyptians had been dumping Israelites babies into the Nile for nearly a century. If all this blood was saved near the riverbed and released at the proper time it would explain the phenomenon. Maybe.

a reply to: dashen

Sometimes the nile flow's red from iron oxide rich clay's near the upper nile but both the egyptians and the isrealite's would have recognized this so that leaves that answer before someone else props it up as a probable fail and just maybe blood was blood (for those whom believe such as some of us that is a fact but for others well?).

a reply to: LABTECH767
I've heard them all. "Red tide" caused by dinoflagellates, iron sulfides from volcanic activity
Red #40. Mass hysteria,... i suspect a culture so familiar with blood would recognize blood

a reply to: dashen

Ancient cultures took great liberty with metaphors.

I suspect the river was reddish in color more than flowing blood.

a reply to: halfoldman

You can't get all the people offering up all their goods and therefore gather plunder freely without the events that happened.

Why are you asking the question instead of just reading what's there?