The ten plagues have arrived. Seven of them have struck and three have yet to come. Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh in order to liberate the Israelites. God purposes stiffens Pharaoh's heart. God turns the Nile to blood, sends frogs, vermin, wild beasts, livestock illness, boils, and hail to reak havoc on the land of Egypt. Why does God purposely stiffen Pharaoh heart?
Does God want the Israelites to stay? Does God want Egypt to fall? The Torah says God want to proove to Egypt there is only one God. If we are saying God controls free-will, why did the centuries of oppression follow the Exodus? One of my sixth grade teachers said that most of us are visual learners. Is oppression our lesson?
To me this portion goes beyond the ten plagues. All the portions carry the actual story of the Torah along, but all of them have messages that only the heart can find. To me a God shows a stiffened heart does no one good. The first God control pharaoh's choice. After that, Pharaoh was being ignorant that the God, the one and only had come over Egypt.
A good leader needs to have an iron fist and a gentle heart. Abraham Lincoln fought for what he believed in and had the heart to free the African American slaves. Raamses II fought for what he believed in, but had no heart to free the slaves. Not only did these horrible things happen to him, but his land, people and future were castrophically altered. His dynasty ended, which in Ancient Egypt was horrible for a pharaoh. They say Egypt fell to Alexander the Great, but I wonder if every fall in history is because God has found a stubborn heart.
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