From: sheila-mcginty@geotec.net
Date: Tue Sep 16 2003 - 12:01:03 EDT
I said: "The intent was not to give the Israelites the opportunity to escape
but rather to show the Israelites and the world the true power of God."
Burgy asked: What verses can you cite to support this claim?
The Bible says:
Acts 13:17
The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper
during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country,
Joshua 4:24
He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of
the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.
Job 36:22
God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
Psalm 77:14
You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the
peoples.
Romans 9:22
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with
great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction?
God hardened Pharoah's heart because He knew that Pharoah was wicked and would
not be changed.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
. . . and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They
perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason
God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so
that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted
in wickedness.
If Pharoah was unwilling to allow the Israelites three days to worship, he
certainly wouldn't let them free them from slavery. I stand by the original
statement that God was not trying to "trick" anyone but was revealing His power
and might to the Israelites and the world so that He would be glorified. He
did not tell a "little lie." God is Truth and cannot lie.
Sheila
Quoting John W Burgeson <jwburgeson@juno.com>:
> I had written: "...it is pretty clear that while no instance of God
> "telling a lie" is generally accepted in scripture, at least some
> instances of him expressly telling someone else to tell a partial truth
> with the intent to mislead exist. I refer to what God told Moses to
> tell
> Pharaoh. He told Moses to tell Pharaoh only that the tribe wished to go
> out to the desert "to worship," with the clear implication that Pharaoh
> would not grasp the fact that the tribe was planning a total escape
>
> '
>
> Sheila answered: "God did not tell a partial lie to the Pharaoh of
> Egypt
> in order for the Israelites to escape."
>
> True. I did not say that.
>
> "God did tell Moses to ask the Pharaoh for three days off so they could
> worship their God knowing that Pharaoh would never grant the time."
>
> Here is the rub. The clear intent was for the tribe to escape, not
> merely
> to take 3 days off.
>
> "Pharaoh's heart was hardened by God."
>
> Only after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart, of course.
>
> "The intent was not to give the Israelites the opportunity to escape
> but
> rather to show the Israelites and the world the true power of God."
>
> What verses can you cite to support this claim?
>
> " Almighty God does not need to trick people, including pharoahs, so
> that
> people can escape."
>
> The question, of course, is not "does He NEED to," for obviously He
> does
> not need to. The question is did He instruct Moses to do so? It seems
> hard to argue that he did not.
>
> It is commendable, of course, to attribute to God those qualities which
> seem to one to be morally correct. My suggestion was simply to point
> out
> that just because I may think something morally correct does not make
> it
> so. God's ways are infinitely beyond ours, and that statement must
> apply
> to ethics and morality as much as anything.
>
> Burgy
>
> www.burgy.50megs.com
>
>
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Sheila McGinty Wilson
sheila-mcginty@geotec.net
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