God Forced Me To Do It ?

Or Why Pharaoh's Hard Heart Has Nothing to Do With Determinism

There’s this verse that’s very interesting :

Acts 7.22 :

Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action

The Torah and Foundations

It’s generally held, at least by the historic tradition, that Moses wrote the first five books of the bible. When we conceptualize, or imagine, or try to process what the writing process looked like - we end up needing to process a few things.

First off, this wasn’t “live tweeting”. Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch as he experienced it ( at least what he was actually a live for ). It was not til sometime after the events took place that Moses sat down and scribed out the Torah. Very Key.

Next thing is : nothing in the bible is strict History. That is, there is always more going on. What we tend to have is a theologized view of history, which isn’t to undercut the reality of some of the events, but to say that the authors are interpreting these events from a particular perspective. They see the world, as best as they can, through God’s lens. That means, whatever Moses wrote is a bit of a polemic - an attack against something. Let me explain that so we’re on the same page :

To interpret history from a God centered perspective is to also reject interpretations that do not place God at the center. More on all this in a moment.

Third, Moses ain’t some literary chump. He cut his chops in all the wisdom of the land of Egypt. He knew the books, knew the culture, studied the ins and outs of everything. And was apparently pretty stellar at the whole enterprise : powerful in speech and action.

All of this means we need to pay very special attention to everything he is writing in the Exodus narrative.

So let’s do that.

Exodus, Pharaoh, Mythology, and Just About Everything Else

Even though they lived some 3,000 years ago, people then were generally pretty similar to people now. They had bodies, minds, emotions, culture, idioms, dreams, aspirations, religious views - everything.

Understanding that “everything” is key to understanding them - we have our cultural moments and icons and philosophies - and so did they. That milieu, a nerdy way of saying social environment or context, reveals foundational aspects of what makes up a particular culture.

Let’s look and some ancient Egyptian ideas :

There was the Book of the Dead.

Intense name, to be sure, but was mostly written and used by priests; it outlined the cultic rituals and ceremonies to be preformed if someone was to bite the dust. If you died, the priests knew exactly what the powers beyond the grave expected to be done in order to make sure everything was okay.

I’m sure you’ve heard this, but when some Pharaoh or any Royal died, the priests would first remove all their organs. Well, not quite all of them - the would leave the heart. The core of the person.

That heart would then be weighed.

You can picture one of those ancient scales, two platforms balanced equally, until you place some stuff on both sides. The platforms rise and fall depending on how much is placed on either side.

That is what the heart would be weighed on.

On the other side of the scale would be the Feather of Maat. Maat’s feather was a tool to discern the soul ( which, according the ancient Egyptians resided in the heart ). This whole ceremony went down in the Hall of Truth.

If the heart was lighter, or softer by their phraseology, the scale would be balanced and the dead Pharaoh would continue on their journey into the Afterlife. Destination Good Place.

If, however, the scale was not balanced, and the heart was heavier, or harder, than the feather, that meant the journey into the afterlife was done. Destination Not Good Place.

This ceremony is a moral one.

The heart, or soul of a person, is being judged in the Halls of Truth.

A light and soft heart was proof of a virtuous and good person. It meant that who they were and what they did was judged, not just by the gods, but by Truth itself, to be good.

If a heart was hard and heavy it revealed an evil soul. It meant that this person did not find favour with the gods, and more so, lived outside of the way of Truth.

Back to our Story…

Moses, as we have assumed, wrote the exodus narrative.

But his writing isn’t just history - it’s a theological assessment of everything that’s going on ( and an attack against the forces opposed to God ).

When we read throughout the book of Exodus that Pharaoh hardened his heart we tend to assume a more modern and western idea. This must be, we think, about human nature and volition and the freedom ( or lack thereof ) of the will.

And that’s where we would be dead wrong.

Moses is giving his assessment of Pharaoh’s actions.

Pharaoh, in treating the Israelites so poorly, hardened his heart. He made deliberate choices away from the Good life and away from the Truth.

The narrative continues - Yahweh hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

What is this all about ?

Yahweh, the God of gods, judges Pharaoh.

And he determines it to be hard.

Another moral appraisal.

Destination, Not Good Place.

The Wisdom of Egypt and How We Do Theology

Moses was a skilled writer - and in the middle of his narrative, throws in some massive ideological bombs that would have absolutely been understood by his contemporaries :

To stand against Yahweh is to stand against Goodness and Truth.

Therefore, to treat people as less than human, to oppress and enslave and abuse, meant Trouble ( with a capital T ).

As we process all this - we need to think of our hermeneutical method - how we study and understand the bible. It’s easy to read it with our own frameworks, our own viewpoints and idealogical systems. But to do that, as I hope you have seen in this short blog, is to miss the actual essence of the scriptures.

This passage has nothing to do with the will and free choice or determinism. It has everything to do with morality.

Anyways - this is all a bit off the cuff, and from memory - but let me know what you think below.

Any questions ?