Pharaoh and the Grace of God?

Image via WikipediaOver the past weeks we have been looking at how grace was bestowed upon people in the Old Testament.  One question that often comes up is, "if God is gracious and merciful, how did that apply to someone such as Pharaoh?  In several places where God is talking about Pharaoh it is recorded as,  'But I will harden Pharaoh's heart..'?"

From our previous study a few weeks ago we saw two perspectives of words such as gracious and graceful.   As an observer I perceive or receive their gracefulness or graciousness.  Not all may realize this as they may not come in contact with the person but the other perspective was from the one that was gracious or graceful.  Their nature or talent is what makes them gracious or graceful even though not all will experience or even if they experience even agree.  The first point is that even though the nature of God is grace it is up to the person to accept or reject that grace.

The second point is found in Ex 3:19-20 where the writer records God as saying, "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.  (20)  So I  will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go." (NASB)   Pharaoh was regarded as a god, not only were the children of Israel going to have to deal with him but all of the support structure which was built on that concept that Pharaoh was a god.   It was not going to be a walk in the park for another group to claim that their God was superior to all that the Egyptians had revered. 

Archeology has not revealed who was Pharaoh or when the children of Israel were led out of Egypt.   I believe that continued discoveries will reveal concrete evidence to the date of the exodus.   One set of discoveries has continued to spark my interest as a possible clue to the event.   Akhenaten has always been a curiosity since he for some reason attempted to change the religious structure of Egypt from polytheism to monotheism (or at least henotheism).     As archeologist have discovered more information about him and his family, I think he may have been a witness to the Exodus of the Hebrews.

Amenhotep III, the father of Akhenaten, is where the story seems to focus.  Normally, the eldest son of the Pharoah, crown prince Thutmose, would succeed the father after his death.   The sarcophagus of his pet cat suggest the crown prince was a man of authority but apparently he died late in his father's reign.  Perhaps not unusual for a son to die before his reign as king except for a notation about enemies of Egypt on the temple of Soleb which Amenhotep III constructed.  One of those enemies is listed as shasu YHW which would literally mean those who move on foot and follow Yahweh.  So we have a pharaoh whose eldest son dies list followers of Yahweh as enemies.

If Amenhotep III is the Pharaoh of the Exodus then perhaps what his younger son did after his death is not so strange after all.  Akhenaten would have seen the miracles and power of Yahweh in relation to the Egyptian gods and perhaps that is why he attempted to change the religious direction of Exodus.

A person changing what they believe is one thing but moving a nation can be a very difficult task.  Akhenaten was met with resistance from the priesthood as well as his family.  The famous boy king known as king Tut became Pharaoh after his death and he quickly began to undo the changes of his father.  So unpopular was King Tut's father that future Pharaoh's attempted to erase all history about Akhenaten.  Is it a surprise then that we see little evidence of an Exodus by the children of Israel.

Exodus 3:19-20 probably involves more than just the hardness of the kings heart since history demonstrates that it is not just the king that opposed change.  The word that the writer uses in verse 19 for king can refer to the whole royal (Gen 49:20) establishment.  In the case of Akhenaten, son of the king of the Exodus, his attempted change the religion of nation was also met with a harden its heart.

Click on the link to download this weeks presentation about Grace and the Old Testament:

http://blog21st.walkinginhispath.com/ftp/Grace_Week_8-9_Falling_From.pdf