Is God playwright, and director

[whbae]

The more I read about Israelites' life style down the generation in the Old Testament, I get a strong impression that God is the playwright and the director of the drama unfolding in our universe. Any thought?

Won

[Kevin H]

God does everything except force the will. God seeing where the person is choosing uses the choices to fulfill his plan like Pharaoh and Pilate.

[whbae]

If God is the finisher, then you do not have any choice on the matter. Whatever you do does not matter as God is the finisher!

[whbae]

According to the Bible God did not give Pharaoh a choice. God hardend Pharaoh's heart to fulfill God's plan.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

According to the Bible God did not give Pharaoh a choice. God hardend Pharaoh's heart to fulfill God's plan.

"But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said."Exodus 8:15 NASB

God cares!

[whbae]

Exodus 9:12 And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not lissten to them,......

[Gerr]

ESV | ýEx 8:32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

So which is correct? Did God harden pharaoh's heart? or did pharaoh harden his own heart?

[whbae]

Exd. 7:3 But I(God) will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

[Gerr]

Exd. 7:3 But I(God) will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

So Ex 8:32 is not valid? Are they mutually exclusive or are they both correct?

[8thdaypriest]

HOW does God "harden" the heart.

We all know how it is when someone is trying to convince us of something, and we don't want to change our mind. The stronger the nagging, the more often repeated the pleading - the more we stiffen our resolve to resist.

I think this is HOW the hardening happens. The Spirit of the LORD comes pleading, pleading, pleading. He sends prophets, and evidence. The person (like Pharoah) can respond positively or can respond by hardening his mind against the message.

The Spirit is the same. The pleading is the same.

The individual's response is to either accept, or harden against.

Exodus 7:3 God said to Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh's heart.” God was pleading with Pharaoh, thru Moses. God’s Spirit convicted Pharaoh of the truth. Satan worked against God, telling Pharaoh lies thru His magicians. Satan appealed to Pharaoh’s selfishness, and lust for power. The harder Pharaoh resisted the Spirit of God, the “harder” his heart (mind) became. Yet God takes the responsibility. Why? Because the Spirit of God was the stimulus. (Pharaoh’s resistence, inspired of Satan, was the response.) Exodus 8:15, 8:32, and 9:34 all place the responsibility with Pharaoh who hardened his own heart when he refused, again and again, to obey the Lord. Samuel later said to the people of Israel, "Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? (1Samuel 6:6). (See Isaiah 6:9-10 and John 12:39-40. Also Psa. 95:8, Heb. 3:8, Heb. 3:15). Are we to believe that the LORD hardened the hearts of His own people? NO! They were hardened in the same manner as was Pharoah's.

NOTE: Our hearts can become so hardened, that God’s Spirit can have no effect - and we are lost. THAT is the unpardonable sin. Jesus said, "I know my sheep." "My sheep hear my voice." Those who refuse to "hear His voice" have hardened their hearts against Him. These will be lost.

There is a study at my website titled "The Wrath of God - A Different View" which looks at many examples of this "hardening" effect. Also - the LORD takes responsibility whenever something destructive happens. He always says "I will destroy you" (Isa. 10:5-6). But if you follow the text - it's always someone or something else - like the Babylonians, or the Assyrians, or "the destroyer" - Satan (Rev. 9:1).

In the story of Job, the LORD said to Satan, “you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause.” Yet we know from the story that Satan actually did the destroying work.

God's "wrath" is what happens when HE sadly, with breaking heart, removes His protection and allows the forces of destruction their sway.

Even Christ the Lamb, suffered "the wrath of God." The Father removed His protection.

God gives life and His power sustains life. Those who would separate themselves from HIM, think that they sustain themselves - or the forces of nature, but they are ignorant. They do not recognize or acknowledge the source of all continued life.

Psalm 9:15-16 “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which He executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Job 18:7,8; Psalm 5:10).

Jeremiah 21:5,10 “‘I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. For I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good,' says the Lord. 'It shall be given into the hand of the King of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.'”

NOTE: There are 500 similar texts in which God takes responsibility for what happens to those people who forfeit His protection and become victims of Satan or of evil men under Satan's control. Ultimately God is responsible. He has given free will to His created beings. He knew this would someday result in suffering when Lucifer and then man rebelled against Him. And God has paid the ultimate price, in the incarnation and death of His only begotten Son.

You and I are too close to the pain right now. But someday, when sin is no more, when we have lived for a thousand years with eternity before us in the earth made new, I believe we will agree that it was worth the pain. Because without free will, there can be no love.

Deuteronomy 32:29-30 “Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them?”

God does not withdraw His protection just to punish men. Satan has claimed this earth as his kingdom because of the sin of Adam and Eve. He has stolen the dominion. He has said in effect, “These human beings have chosen me as their ruler. You God, have no right to protect them from me, their chosen lord.” This is why Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). This is why Satan is portrayed as accusing Joshua the high priest (who represented Israel) in the vision of Zechariah 3:1. He is claiming the right to destroy these people because of their sin (“filthy garments”).

Question: Did God cause the thorns to grow or did he predict that it would result from sin? (Genesis 3:17-18). Jesus said “an enemy has done this,” of the one who sowed the tares (Matthew 13:28).

Question: Did God ordain the subjugation of woman or did he simply predict that such would be the result of sin? (Genesis 3:16). Instead of provider and protector, man became her master.

Job 22:15-17 “They said to God ‘Depart from us!’ What can the Almighty do?”

(Speaking of those who lived in the time of Noah's flood)

www.prophecyviewpoint.com

Blessings,

[LifeHiscost]

Originally Posted By: whbae

Exd. 7:3 But I(God) will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

So Ex 8:32 is not valid? Are they mutually exclusive or are they both correct?

Bold mine LHC

Bingo! And when we figure out how both comments are true and consistent with each other, as the Holy Spirit guides us in God's Truth, we will have plumbed and understood the greater depths of God's love for saint and sinner alike.

God cares!

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

Instead of provider and protector, man became her master.

Not to be so in the life of the born again disciple of Christ.

"Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own"1 Corinthians 6:18 AMP

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.Genesis 2:22-24 NASB

"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."Ephesians 5:28-30 KJV

God cares!