019 A Strengthened Heart

link to podcast

Questions

1. Why name it "passover"?
2. Why is firstborn so important?
   1. Jews put Tefillin on their arms as a means of "binding the law to their bodies"
   2. In the Teffilin (little black boxes) is a piece of parchment with 3 laws written on it
   3. Shema
   4. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength (interesting commentary on this from Tim Mackie by the way)
   5. Exodus 13:13 (ESV): 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. <– what the what?
3. Ultimately Yahweh says to Pharaoh "Give me my firstborn or I will take yours"
   1. Israel is not God's firstborn?
4. Why 10 plagues? Why did God take so much time to accomplish the Exodus?
5. When Moses gets to Pharaoh he asks for him to let God's people go just for 3 days... why 3 days?
6. Does God harden Pharaoh's heart or does he harden his own?
7. Why does Pharaoh seem so concerned with certain things...
   1. Plague 2 - Pharaoh asks for frogs to be gone "tomorrow"
   2. Livestock are plagued later - Pharaoh doesn't seem concerned about his own but asks if the Israelite livestock are still alive
   3. Pharaoh seems unconcerned with power, but very concerned with precision...
8. When Moses gives his speech to Pharaoh demanding that he let the Israelites go, Moses responds to Pharaoh's denial with "Well let us go for 3 days or else Yahweh well punish us - The Israelites", but it would make better sense for Moses to lean on Yahweh's power to Pharaoh as a threat (This only makes sense because the reality of our God is that this threat could be real.. it's not empty),
9. God hasn't been concerned with his own name up until this story of the Exodus, but now all of a sudden he really cares, and reiterates his name, I AM that I AM, to Moses multiple times
   1. God says he used to be known as "El Shaddai" [Genesis 17:1] when it came to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "El Shaddai" if you take the Hebrew consonants and make a sentence out of them translates to "The God who said to his world, enough". Rabbi Fohrman's point is that Yahweh's fundamental posture towards his creation is not one of power, but of self-control - knowing when to say "enough". This is the name God has been known by up until now.
   2. YHWH refers to timelessness

Polytheism vs Monotheism

1. An inherent problem with polytheism is that it demands indirect relationship whereas monotheism demands direct relationship
2. Pharaoh's world is full of a plurality of gods who compete with each other, they don't work together - if it rains then the rain god is exerting power over another god, etc.
   1. This explains why he is so concerned with precision above - he knows gods contend with one another, but can one god know that he will be in power tomorrow? -> this is Pharaoh's question to Moses
3. Moses uses Pharaoh's worldview as an appeal when asking to go to the wilderness - he first asks for permission to go have relationship with Yahweh and when Pharaoh says "no", Moses responds by framing Yahweh as one of Pharaoh's gods, saying Yahweh will be angry if his people do not go worship him.

Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart

There are 2 words used for this in the Exodus story - kavad - stubbornness, and hazak - strengthened