NOTES for Исх 10:1-29
Many years after this account was written, the apostle Paul (Rom 9:17-23) would pose to his readers a question that may also trouble those who today read about the punishment of Egypt. The Lord Himself “hardens the heart” of Pharaoh and then Himself punishes him and his people for disobedience. “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” Paul's imaginary interlocutor asks. “But who are you, a man, to answer back to God?” the apostle replies with a question of his own. For him God's absolute authority over everything that happens on earth is perfectly obvious, but so are God's justice and mercy. He does not resolve the issue by affirming human free will or independence from God, yet he also recognizes the legitimacy of the question, “Why?” The mystery of evil is hardly accessible to our understanding; “evil cannot be explained, it must be fought,” as one wise man said. But there is another mystery in the world as well: the mystery of God. It is greater and stronger than the mystery of evil. And that is precisely why we have hope.