This is kind of a whole other (though related I believe based on the language shared in the texts concerning election) theological issue altogether other than just the Israel issue, but I say again, what does it mean in Exodus when it says "God hardened Pharoah's heart"?
Exodus 4: 21And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the xmiracles that I have put in your power. But xI will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Exodus 7: 2xYou shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3But xI will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I xmultiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.5The Egyptians xshall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
Exodus 9: 12xBut the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as xthe LORD had spoken to Moses.
Or how do you interpret what is said here in Romans 9 (I have been saying 7 I think, but I meant 9, sorry 😊)? And notice he actually brings the passages concerning God Himself hardening Pharaoh's heart into the discussion here:
Romans 9: 14What shall we say then? xIs there injustice on God's part? By no means!15For he says to Moses, x“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, x“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For xwho can resist his will?” 20But who are you, O man, xto answer back to God? xWill what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21xHas the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump xone vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience xvessels of wrath xprepared for destruction, 23in order to make known xthe riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he xhas prepared beforehand for glory— 24even us whom he xhas called, xnot from the Jews only but also from the Gentile's
And later in chapter 9 it shows that righteousness was not (ever) obtained by keeping the Law, but by faith, from Abraham, to the current predominate Gentile in-gathering among all the nations, to the end when Christ returns.
And Paul goes on in Romans 11 to explain when he discusses Israel's current state of "partial hardening" until Christ Sovereignly comes & saves all Isreal (which I believe will still be by a measure of faith, but God is the one who actually draws & enables/plants the seeds of faith to begin with - that's the whole point of Pharoah's, Romans 9, Romans 11, John 6 (36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37xAll that xthe Father gives me will come to me, and xwhoever comes to me I will never cast out......44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me xdraws him. And xI will raise him up on the last day.....65And he said, “This is why I told you xthat no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.....), etc., etc., etc.
And in Romans 11 it says this (how do you interpret this?): 11So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass xsalvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!......15For if their rejection means xthe reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?......17But if xsome of the branches were broken off, and you, xalthough a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you xstand fast through faith. So xdo not become proud, but xstand in awe. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, xprovided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise xyou too will be cut off. 23And xeven they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree......25xLest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: xa partial hardening has come upon Israel, xuntil the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, x“The Deliverer will come xfrom Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my xcovenant with them xwhen I take away their sins.” 28As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are xbeloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29For the gifts and xthe calling of God are irrevocable. 30Just as xyou were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32For God xhas consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
33Oh, the depth of the riches and xwisdom and knowledge of God! xHow unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For xwho has known the mind of the Lord, or xwho has been his counselor?” 35 “Or xwho has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36For xfrom him and through him and to him are all things. xTo him be glory forever. Amen.
It Mentions the partial (temporary) hardening of Israel, the future coming I gathering of Israel before Christ's return, & Sounds an awful lot like the language on election back in Romans 9.
And if you recoil against this, think of the Muslims coming to Christ because Jesus has appeared to them in dreams. Jesus Himself appearing to them in dreams. Did you get that? I didn't. But praise God, am I going to reject their salvation & cram my theology down their throat and say, "blessed is the one who hasn't seen, but still believed" so they must not really be saved according to my little paradigm as if I'm the keeper of God's doctrine/truth & not the Sovereign Lord Himself who declared & instituted them (& has the power to save whom He will save)?
Or one of my best friends/brothers in our fellowship here's wife's mom. She was a DEVOUT & participating Cambodian Buddhist. But Jesus Himself appeared to her in dreams (like 3 I believe that led to her eventual salvation after the last one). Is that fair? What about the crazy drug addict down in the ghetto area here who Jesus never appeared to? Why should she have the advantage of a personal visitation? Shouldn't we all be on equal footing? Or can we then accuse God of "showing favoritism/partiality"? Who is man like clay in the Master's hands that we should say to the potter that we don't approve of His work?
Fact is, the scriptures show (from the OT prophets to the NT) that God is going to do a widespread, wholesale, work among the Jews in the land of Israel FOR HIS NAME'S/WORD'S SAKE, & so I am anxious to see it if the Lord wild it be in my lifetime, humbled to see God work in this way, joyous for the Jews that will be swept back in to the root of Jesus to which we as wild olive shoots were grafted in, & praying to that ends. God is God, His Word is true, & His ways are perfect. And I trust in the Lord's goodness/character, take Him at His Word, & lean not on my own understanding/human reasoning.
I essentially need to know how you interpret all these scriptures if you don't just take them at face value, plain interpretation/understanding. If you start down some "symbolic" road of interpretation on all of them, it gets impossible to be thoroughly & completely consistent throughout the scriptures & you gotta play hermeneutical interpretive "twister gymnastics" to even make a good run at it. But people do. I personally think it all means exactly what it says. I believe like William Tyndale that "the common plowboy" can understand these scriptures as well as the clergy-men. These are actually pretty plainly spoken passages really IMHO. God Bless, Jeff
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