Moses, Pharaoh and the Exodus Fairytale

by RULES & REGULATIONS 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  Exodus 7

  New King James Version

  
  

  Moses Before Pharaoh

  7 So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. 3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My [a]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 out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

  13 And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said.

  14 So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may [d]serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear!

  
  

  Why doesn't the Lord just 'soften his heart' so he frees the slaves or lets them go? The Lord plays with Pharaohs attitude to make more people suffer, just to punish the Egyptians for the Pharaoh's bad attitude.

  Why does the Lord need to prove that I AM THE LORD to mortal men? Why does the Lord react with anger knowing what the final outcome will be? What choice did the Pharaoh have after the Lord hardens his heart and refuses to budge?

  
  
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  truth_b_known

  What choice did the Pharaoh have after the Lord hardens his heart and refuses to budge?

  To soften or harden the Pharaoh's heart would both be a violation of freewill.

  There is no record outside the Old Testament that the 12 plagues happened. No remains of an Egyptian army have ever been found at the bottom of the Red Sea. There is no Egyptian records of Moses or the events as portrayed in the Bible.
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  contramundum

  Even as a child this concerned me. Why would a loving God interfere and deliberately harden Pharaoh's heart just to prove a point?

  If he had let things take their course, so much suffering may have been prevented

  Doesn't James 1:13 say 'with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he try anyone'?

  I could see so many inconsistencies in what was being taught, sadly it took decades before I finally figured out the nonsense.

  CM
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  fulltimestudent

  Whatever the bible says about god is without value. It's just another human's view of the topic.
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  Overrated

  Most of everything in the bible is exaggerated made up bullshit by goat herders.
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  Beth Sarim

  ''No remains of an Egyptian army have ever been found at the bottom of the Red Sea.''

  That's what I've always wondered about. The lack of archaelogical evidence to support the Exodus.
  
  
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  waton

  instead of having the jws go out and embarrass themselves and ruin the deity's reputation too, the father could just have build the jw telescope, and one look would have sunk pharaoh's ambition.

  I always wondered why the wilderness was not fertile with all the peg holes filled by 2000 000 + people squatting for 40 years, a holy people, holy shit.
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  Sea Breeze

  Great topic!

  We see the same concept in the NT.

  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind - Romans 1: 28

  God's modus operandi is to eventually give people what they desire most. For some, this means total freedom from himself, the Source of life. This is called a reprobate mind in the NT which is complete abandonment to sin and death - where repentance is not possible.
  
  This is what happened to Pharaoh. He had already hardened his heart many times against the nation of Israel. Israel had made bricks and gathered their own straw at Pharaoh's command. (Exodus 5:8-11) Pharaoh had set taskmasters over Israel. (Exodus 1:11). The Israelites were slaves in the land, at the hand of this Pharaoh. He was a very evil, wicked man who had already hardened his own heart. (Exodus 8:15)

  In addition, it also says that Pharaoh's magicians hardened his heart (.Exodus 8:19),

  So, God had a part in it; his own magicians had a part, and Pharaoh himself had a part. Like in a marriage (or a divorce) two wills become one.
  
  In this instance, the will of man and the will of God become one, and both got what they wanted.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rESYeIRKYMk&t=125s&ab_channel=PatternsOfEvidence
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  smiddy3

  The Israelite's were slaves in Egypt ,how come they began the Exodus with personal belongings ,livestock ,tent`s and equipment ,etc,etc ?
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  Jeffro

  Why should the conveniently anonymous pharaoh believe anything Moses says? According to Exodus 5:1, 3, Moses lied from the outset.