The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.This is one of those verses that really bothers me, and challenges how I perceive God. In modern Christianity, it's taken as a given that salvation is available to any who will receive it. Not all will accept, but all can. It is up to the person to decide freely if he will accept Christ or not.
However, here is a point in time where God specifically says he is causing someone to deny God. It seems that he is dooming Pharaoh to eternal hell because He wants to. That there is no hope for this person, because God has taken that free will away from him. It says later that He is doing this to allow the Israelites to leave, but what would have happened if God hadn't blocked Pharaoh? If Pharaoh had been allowed to make the choice himself, would he have allowed them to leave when asked, or at least to leave before all ten of the plagues had occurred? Would Pharaoh's son still be alive if God had allowed him that choice?
Some people say that to follow God is to be nothing but living machines, without any free will. They're wrong, but here is an example where it seems that God is making a person into that machine we're accused of being, though this time to his doom instead of salvation. That image deeply troubles me.
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