QT 19 Mar 10

Ex 12:36 (NIV) The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

NOTE: I plan to write an article sometime related to aspects of this verse. The article will also indirectly deal with the "hardening of heart" that Pharaoh experienced. Regarding God's "hardening of Pharaoh's heart," it should be noted that the first hardening of Pharaoh's heart was from Pharaoh himself when he refused to obey God. His decision to disobey God, and for that matter--anyone's decision to disobey God, has consequences and one of those consequences is that our heart becomes hardened to God. I suppose once we've started the process, it is hard to tell who is doing the hardening since it is God's judgment for disobedience -- if you disobey, God makes it harder to obey and to experience the blessing of obedience.

But I digress; the other issue is to what extent does God interfere with free will? Free will is absolutely critical to being made in the image of God, because it is only with free will that a person can love another. The bible says that God is love (at least one definition), and so being made in his image requires the ability to love. Without free will, you can't have love -- a robot cannot truly love another person -- you must choose to love. And for that matter, you can't worship either, a robot cannot worship; a person requires free will to love and to worship.

But God can "influence" persons without directly affecting their free will. In this case, he made the "Egyptians favorable disposed toward" the Israelites. It doesn't say how he did that. I'm sure there was a certain sense of awe as the plagues attacked the Egyptians and left the Israelites alone. That could have also turned to bitterness and envy, but it can easily go the other way. Much like when people give a rich person preferential treatment (which is wrong by the way). While they might envy the rich, the think that by being friends they will get something in return.

Anyway, the bottom line is that while free will is an essential aspect of God's creation (and incidentally, the real reason for evil in the world), and critical for loving, God can influence people without taking away their ability to choose freely.