Why did God harden Pharaoh's heart?

[Sexton Blake]

There are some claims that Pharaoh hardened his own heart but:

 

And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. Exodus 4:21

And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. Exodus 7:3

And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. Exodus 7:13

And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses. Exodus 9:12

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him. Exodus 10:1

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. Exodus 10:20

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Exodus 10:27

And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Exodus 11:10

And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. Exodus 14:4

And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel. Exodus 14:8

I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour. Exodus 14:18

 

The point here is that Pharaoh had seen the many plagues of Egypt sent by God and that his own magicians were helpless against them. He must surely have realised that God could destroy him and his armies any time he wanted to. So he would want to get rid of the troublesome Israelites as quick as possible and so get rid of their all powerful God too.

 

And yet we are expected to believe that the Pharaoh himself decided to disobey the God against who he knew that he was helpless; a god who he has proof that he is a real GOD.

 

Exodus 9:34.  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart,

 

So now God has an excuse to kill a lot of babies and kids (the firstborn), to show how great he is.

 

Finally it seems that the Pharaoh has no one left worth torturing or killing so God let him let them go.

 

The Israelites leave but God has one more mass murder planned.

 

Against a real God, he has Pharaoh send his soldiers after the Israelites, so he can drown them all in the Red Sea.

 

Fortunately this is a God of Love. Imagine how bad it would have been if he had been a God of Hate?

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

Maybe it's because the bible is a lying sack of shit.

[Sexton Blake]

566 contradictions in the bible:

 

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/number.html

 

means that anyone with an agenda can make it mean whatever they want it to, which means the bible cannot be trusted.

[mwc]

     Take the story fairly literally and you'll see the pharaoh in this story gets lied to from the outset.  There are other issues as well.  So let's ignore the hardening of the heart issue for a second.

 

     We'll just start at the beginning (I'm using the SAB source same as OP).  I'll just bold the verses.

 

4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

 

     God gives his reasons here.  He wants to bring out his people from Egypt (and show off so the Egyptians know who he is and how great he is).  Second thing first, this clearly does not work.  Egypt, until the xianity, never gives two shits about this god.  So huge failure.  Then the first thing is the intent is to clearly bring everyone out of Egypt.  I'm not quoting it here but I think we all recall how Moses couldn't speak for shit so he brought in Aaron and then god basically talks through them so everything he says is just god whispering in his ear (like a Cyrano de Bergerac sort of thing).

 

     Apparently, as a bit of an aside, Moses can just see the pharaoh whenever he feels like it and it's not until the very end that pharaoh tells him to just stay away.  Seems like pharaoh would kick Moses down to the persona-non-grata list a lot sooner.

 

     Okay, so in another place (more than one but we don't need to see them all) pharaoh asks why they're leaving and Moses (which is really god whispering all his lines as we recall) essentially says "Let my people go so they can serve me."  Pretty vague.  But it really doesn't sound like you'd be leaving forever because the pharaoh counters with:

 

8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.

 

     And Moses accepts.  He ends the plague.  Of course there's the hardening of the heart so things continue but the idea here is they're not negotiating in good faith.  One side, from the outset, is wanting to have the permanent release of everyone and everything and the other side is unaware of this and agrees to have them leave and return.  This is made more problematic when the first side actually agrees to terms.  The whole point is pharaoh continues to ask them who and what will go for this sacrifice and Moses (god) continues to tell him everyone and everything must go because of sacrifices and feasts (which doesn't add up) instead of just saying they're leaving for good.  Here's another verse just to highlight the point.  It implies a temporary condition.

 

27 We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

 

     Further, they say the following to pharaoh:

 

25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

 

     Okay, so the offer is to just do the sacrifices here at home but apparently the Egyptians would just be appalled and kill them.  This is just not an option.  There's no way to stop these angry Egyptians.

 

2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.

3 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.

 

35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:

36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

 

     So here god makes the Egyptians like the Hebrews.  This is something that is overlooked in the story.  Not only does god harden the heart of the pharaoh (and his servants) but here, right as the Hebrews leave, the Egyptian people are given favor so that they can take all the Egyptians valuables.  "Lent" here is pretty loose since I don't recall the "And the Israelites repaid all they borrowed when they left Egypt" story.  God manipulated the minds of every Egyptian in this story.  Pharaoh is just the main one we focus on.

 

     Now, we come to the end but there's one final thing.  The Hebrews need to get to their promised land but there is a problem.

 

17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

 

     The Philistines are in the way and the people might return to Egypt when war breaks out with them.  But why?  Can't god just make Philistines like Hebrews too?  Can't the Philistines just be made to roll out the red carpet and let them pass through unharmed?  The Hebrews don't even need to "borrow" all their stuff.  They just need to pass-through.  Are Philistines immune to this unlike the Egyptians?  But barring that it seems god should be able to take care of them.

 

3 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

 

     The Hebrews are reassured the Egyptians will get killed off by god.  We all know what happens here.  But the Philistines?  The people would have had to go to war?  What's the deal?

 

     Anyhow, god has hidden intentions from the very start.  Pharaoh believes these people are just going to go three days into the desert to do their wacky sacrifices that can't be done where they are because it would be so offensive it would get them all stoned to death.  When, in fact, the whole idea is to rob the Egyptians of their valuables and leave forever leaving a massive body count so as to somehow make sure the Egyptians all really dig this god.  And while this god could just make people like the Hebrews and probably just make things go nicely all around with the Egyptians and Philistines it instead chooses the most destructive path.

 

          mwc