Jesus Is Borg The Truth Shall Set You Free.

With the release of the movie "The Prince of Egypt" the public is once again flooded with the biased version of the story of Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. The Pharoh is always painted as an evil man who enslaved the Hebrews and did everything in his power to keep them as his slaves. We often wonder what could make a man so stubborn that it took numerous plagues and the death of his own firstborn before he let the Hebrews go free. The Bible tells us what could make a man so stubborn; God's manipulation.

The Hebrews moved to Egypt because there was a famine in their lands and they were able to get food in Egypt. Over time, they began to become so numerous that the Egyptian king felt that they threatened his own people so he made them begin to work for him. To keep the Hebrews from multiplying so quickly, the king supposedly ordered that the Hebrew newborn males be killed. To protect her son, Moses, a hebrew woman put him in a basket and he was raised in the Pharoh's household as an Egyptian. One day, Moses saw an Egyptian hitting a Hebrew so he waited until the Egyptian was alone and he murdered him. The next day Moses saw a Hebrew hitting another Hebrew and he told them not to fight. The first Hebrew replied, "Who are you to tell us what to do? And what are you going to do about it, kill me like you did that Egyptian?" Moses realized that everyone would know that he murdered the Egyptian now, so he ran away to another land. The people of that land (Midian) accepted him as one of their own and he married one of their women and had children by her.

In time, God came to Moses and told him that he was going to be the one to free God's chosen people from the bondage that he had put them in under Pharoh. Moses didn't want the job and tried several ways to avoid the task. After convincing Moses that he couldn't get out of this, God told him that Pharoh would not want to let the Hebrews go. How did God know this? Simple. God intended to MAKE Pharoh's heart hard so that he wouldn't want to let the people go (Exodus 4:21, 7:3).

Pharoh lost his free will in the matter because God was going to control Pharoh's heart and mind. God said that he would repeatedly make it so that Pharoh didn't let the people go just so he could prove his power to the Egyptians and the Hebrews. God wanted a chance to show off his mighty strength but the only way to do it was to manipulate the mind of Pharoh and the Egyptians would be the ones to pay the price. Each time Pharoh wanted to get rid of the Hebrews, God would harden his heart and then send a plague to harm the Egyptians. There is no explanation of what the individual Egyptians may have done to deserve the suffering that God's "showing off" brought them. God merely says that he is hardening Pharoh's heart so that Moses can brag about what God did to the Egyptians (Exodus 10:1-2) Here is an accounting of the suffering which God caused through his interference with his "puppet" Pharoh's heart.

Pharoh ignores Moses' magic shape-shifting-staff because God hardened his heart -Exodus 7:13-14

The waters in the river turn to blood and the fish die, poisoning the drinking water of the Egyptians because of God's heart hardening - Exodus 7:22

Plagues of frogs cover the land because of God's manipulations of Pharoh's heart - Exodus 8:15

Plagues of lice afflict both man and beast because of God controlling Pharoh's heart - Exodus 8:19

Swarms of flies and the disease they carry cover the land because God won't let Pharoh think for himself (Pharoh repeatedly shows that he is willing to let the Hebrews go but God turns around and hardens his heart - See Exodus 8:28) - Exodus 8:32

Disease kills all of the Egyptians' cattle, horses, asses, camels, oxen and sheep while sparing the Hebrew livestock because God wasn't finished showing off - Exodus 9:6-7

The Egyptians break out with festering boils, blisters and pustules and can't even stand, yet God hardens Pharoh's heart once more - Exodus 9:12

God ups the anty and starts killing the Egyptians with pestilence and burning hail which burns up the crops and destroys the Egyptians' food supplies. Pharoh shows his true heart by surrendering to Moses' demands (Exodus 9:27-28) but God won't let him off that easy and hardens his heart once more - Exodus 9:35

God sends locusts to eat what remains of the crops and Pharoh again surrenders (Exodus 10:10-11) only to have God do his thinking for him once more and harden his heart - Exodus 10:20

God covers the land with darkness for three days then hardens Pharoh's heart some more - Exodus 10:27

God's grand finale of injustice, he kills the firstborn of all the Egyptian humans and animals (Exodus 11:5) so that the world will know that God discrimates with extreme prejudice based on race and/or national origin (Exodus 11:7) and again, God hardens Pharoh's heart - Exodus 11:9-10

The Hebrews steal the property of the Egyptians, the Bible conveniently calls it "borrowing" - Exodus 12:35-36

While the Hebrews are leaving Egypt, God decides to harden Pharoh's heart one last time just to let the Egyptians know that "I am the Lord." (Exodus 14:4) This results in the deaths of all the horsemen and horses of Pharoh's army (Exodus 14:28) - Exodus 14:17-18

The Bible tells us that the Hebrews sang a victory song which sums up the loving, tender mercies of the God of the Bible...

"The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. - Exodus 15:3