Exodus 4: Free Will Is Overrated

Today's Podcast

Background:

Moses fled from Egypt after killing a slave driver and started a family in Midian. Then God appeared to him in a burning bush and told him he needed to go back to Egypt and save the Israelites from slavery.

Moses Given Powerful Signs (v. 1-17)

Moses complains to God that people might not believe that God has talked to him. God responds that he will allow Moses to perform signs for them. He will be able to turn his staff into a snake, he can make his hand look leprous and back to healthy, and if that doesn't work he can pour some water from the Nile onto the ground and it will turn to blood.

source

Those do sound like some pretty cool tricks.

Moses continues to complain, saying that he is not an eloquent speaker, he begs God to send someone else. God gets a bit angry, and says that his brother Aaron can accompany him. God will help them know what to say.

Moses Returns to Egypt (v. 18-31)

Moses got permission from his father-in-law Jethro and then gathered up his wife and child and headed for Egypt. God instructs Moses to do the miracles for Pharaoh and threaten to kill Pharaoh's first born son unless he releases the Israelites. God will then harden Pharaoh's heart to prevent him from letting the Israelites go.

What is the point of this? God apparently just wants to punish the Pharaoh, why not just do it? Why the pretense? If you tell someone you will punish them unless they do x, but you prevent them from doing x, it's all on you. This story pretty much ruins any apologetic argument about free will as far as I'm concerned. 

From Guzik

Who really hardened Pharaoh's heart? We might say that it was both God and Pharaoh; but whenever God hardened Pharaoh's heart, He never did it against Pharaoh's will. 

Horse shit! If it was Pharaoh's will, he wouldn't have needed his heart to be hardened. God hardened his heart to make him do what he wanted to do anyway? Ridiculous! By the way, I looked up a few other bible commentaries, and they didn't even try to explain this away. I guess they either thought it was indefensible or uninteresting.

God met them on the way to Egypt and sought to put him to death, Zipporah quickly cut off her sons foreskin and touched it to Moses feet and declared he was a bridegroom of blood. God then didn't kill him.

First, I put him in bold because I don't know who it is referring to. Is it Moses or his son? In either case, why did this satisfy God? Why would God send them on this quest and then immediately want to kill someone in the party? Is this more evidence of polytheistic roots of the bible? Perhaps it was supposed to be a different God who was trying to kill him.

Apparently God was trying to kill Moses for not circumcising his son. Zipporah set it straight by doing it on the spot. Fine.

Moses and Aaron went to the wilderness and discussed what God had told Moses. Then they did went to the elders of the Israelites and spoke the words which God commanded and performed the signs. The people believed and worshiped God.

This just feel slightly out of order to me. Moses packed up his family and started travelling. Then he met with Aaron and discussed the plan. Then they were just suddenly in Egypt. Maybe this isn't a big deal, but it's weird. 

Verses of note:

--Anger--

Exodus 4:14 God gets angry with Moses

"Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses..."

--Free Will--

Exodus 4:21 God hardens Pharaoh's heart to prevent him from complying with God's orders

"And the LORD said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.'"

James 1

Listen to the podcast below (or right click this link for the mp3 file) 

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As usual, when I start a new book I like to check out the wikipedia page. I looks like this is a letter written by James, although I didn't see anything about who he was writing it for. It says that "[James] consists largely of moral exhortations and precepts of a traditional and eclectic nature." so perhaps it is intended as a letter for a general audience. Hopefully this means there will be plenty of material that will be of interest for me if it focuses on morals. Apparently our earliest copies are from mid to late 3rd century, although it is attributed to James the Just who died in 62 or 69. I'm not really sure how that works out, I guess the early copies were lost?

Greeting (v. 1)

Apparently I was right, James is writing "To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion", I guess it is just written for all.

Testing of Your Faith (v. 2-18)

You should be happy when you face trials, when you stand up to tests of your faith you become more steadfast, and letting this steadfastness have its full effect makes you perfect and complete.

This idea I find interesting, because I find grains of truth in it, but it's all mixed up with stuff I don't like, and the conclusion is pushed way too far. We'll start with the idea that you should be happy to face trials. I was arguing recently that we should accept challenges to our ideas because it is a chance for growth. We can find out if we are wrong and improve our positions, or we can be more confident in our previous position if our ideas hold up and have one more piece of evidence that are are indeed correct. This sounds like I am saying the same thing, we become more steadfast, but what I'm talking about isn't the same as what is written here. I'm talking about becoming more steadfast by employing error correction. Without the option to change your opinion if you are proven wrong this whole thing is worthless. The verse is about faith, it is about standing up to a challenge and never moving an inch. This is a very bad thing, this is the basis that people use to deny evolution or climate change given the ridiculous amount of evidence that we have at this point. Furthermore, I mention that we improve through these trials, which is similar to what is written here, except it says you become perfect. There is really no ideal, there's no end to the pursuit of knowledge. There is no room to improve yourself if you think you are already perfect. This is similar to something good, but it is poison, it is the evil twin of a good message.

If you lack wisdom, ask God and he will give it to you. But you must ask in faith without doubt. If you doubt you should expect to get nothing from the Lord, as you are double-minded and unstable.

So basically, if you ask God for wisdom and you don't get it, then it is your fault. Also, when it says that doubts are not allowed, it is basically saying that skepticism is bad.

Don't blame God when you are tempted, for God cannot be tempted by evil and God tempts no one. You are tempted by your own desires, which grow into sin and then death.

Reading this, I just knew it had to be bullshit. I generally try not to read SAB while doing my blog, but this time it seemed like a perfect time to use it. With it's help, I discovered that God can indeed be tempted, and God does indeed tempt people. 

Everything good comes from God.

Well that's a nice blanket statement. I love that God gets credit for everything good and washes his hands of everything bad. If he created everything and set up the rules for everything, shouldn't he have to take credit for the good and the bad?

I didn't really have time to do my normal inspection of christian commentaries today, but I did glance really quick through Guzik's (if anyone is wondering why I use his so much, they are generally pretty good, and the format is excellent for scanning for specific items) and he seems to have accepted the things I have complained about hook line and sinker.

Hearing and Doing the Word (v. 19-26)

You should be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

Now that's good stuff! We should not only listen to the words other people say, but really hear it. Being slow to speak suggests we should truly listen and understand, instead of waiting for the other person to stop talking so we can start talking. And of course being slow to anger is great as well. Patience is a great virtue, and that is really what we are talking about here.


For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

1:19 Be a good listener and be slow to anger

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;"

Bad:

1:6 Skepticism is bad

"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."

1:13,17 God takes credit for good and distances himself from bad

"Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one."

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."