God the judge

I haven't written anything in ages!Well, you're all wondering what I'm going to write about. Or maybe not, as it's in the title. I was pondering God in the shower today and was thinking about God's role in the plagues of Egypt.

"But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses." Exodus 9:12(ESV)

 Notice that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. I don't understand Hebrew yet, but this translation is the same in the NIV:

"But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses." (NIV)

I have wondered about this previously and thought that the first few times where Pharaoh hardened his own heart could have 'justified' God's hardening of his heart. But that argument is tenuous at best. However, if we look a bit earlier in Exodus we may get a clearer picture.

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’” Exodus 6:6-8

Here we can clearly see that the plagues God is bringing on Egypt are a judgement. God is also a judge and he punished Egypt for their sin through these plagues. This judge side of God is something that I (and I think many of us) forget amidst his amazing grace. Perhaps this is why it jars us so much to read the Old Testament sometimes. We get this view of God that's not too far from the Unitarian heresy and try to ignore the eternal judgement of those who don't believe... But back to Egypt. My point I was making was that the 12 plagues were judgement on Egypt for sin. If God had not hardened Pharaoh's heart then perhaps the judgement would not have been complete. Of course we also need the passover as a prophecy of Jesus' coming and his sacrifice (and there's probably a reason for the others as well which I can't be bothered finding out right now).

Well that's all for now.
God bless you all.